Our half-human hero has always been different than those around him, but now he finds himself in a situation beyond anything he's ever imagined. But our focus shifts to the antihero Tagon, who's spent most of his life trying to please his father and be allowed home. Just as it looks like he may get his wish, discontent among the Union leaders comes to a head, and Tagon finds his very life on the line.
EPISODE 4 RECAP
Eunseom and Doti make their way into Arthdal, astounded by all the noise and bustle. Doti is mesmerized by a statue in the middle of a square that's covered in what they call Hard Stones, the same kind of stone that took Eunseom four months to make a necklace out of.
An angry scream alerts Eunseom to the fact that Helper is eating again — this time he's demolishing a cart full of valuable medicinal herbs, hee. The vendor raises a hand to hit Helper, and suddenly Eunseom's eyes glow purple. Quick as a flash, he jumps on the vendor and slams him to the ground.
He looks around in surprise at the crowd that's gathered. Chaeeun shows up and pulls Eunseom away, telling him to leave Arthdal immediately. He says he will when he accomplishes his task, and grumbles that Arthdal is a weird place.
Eunseom is distracted when a man steps out of a nearby building. He follows the strange sounds to a room full of small children working machines, grinding Hard Stones into smooth shapes. The longer Eunseom stares, the worse it gets — the children are filthy and underfed, and every last one of them is in leg shackles.
The man returns and shoves Eunseom out. In a haunted voice, he asks Chaeeun who those children were. She explains that they're war captives, and that captives were likely used to built the lift at the Great Black Wall as well.
Eunseom is distraught that the huge lift and the Hard Stones in the statue were made by slaves, like the chickens he saw in cages at the market. He says he'd never seen anything so cruel, until he realized that it was slaves like his own people that made all these "great" things.
It renews his determination to save his people, and he tells Chaeeun his plan to take Sanung hostage to exchange for the Wahan captives. She leads him to a spot overlooking Arthdal and says that even if he gets in, he'll get lost.
Little Doti pipes up that Uncle Eunseom has a good sense of direction (awww, his smile), but Chaeeun says that you can't navigate inside corridors where you can't see the sun or stars. Eunseom just says she'll wait for Sanung to leave the city so Chaeeun argues that he's always heavily guarded, but Eunseom says he'll fight, and she gives up.
Back in the city, Chaeeun joins a meeting of the Bachi (merchants') Guild already in session, where the main topic of discussion is Tagon and his upcoming trial at the Sacred Court (for performing death rites without being a mystic). They think Tagon is a hero for all he's done for the people.
Asa Ron hears that the Bachi Guild is against Tagon being punished. He tells Asa Mot he can't figure out if Tagon is communicating with Sanung, or when and how, so he tells Asa Mot to prepare the sacred smoke so that he can ask the gods.
Taealha is also nervous with worry about what Tagon has planned once he returns to Arthdal. Tuak lays out the facts — Asa Ron thinks that Sanung is scheming against him, while Tagon actually plotted the whole thing, and Taealha only did as Tagon asked her. Taealha snaps at Tuak to stop yapping and asks if she's visited the tower yet, so she goes, complaining that Tagon has a kid when he's not even married to Taealha yet.
Sanung takes Danbyeok, his younger son, to pretend to pray for Tagon to a statue of Aramun Haesulla. Danbyeok confirms that Sanung has "prayed" enough that the people are talking about his devotion, ha. Sanung figures that Tagon will raise his sword against Asa Ron, which will get rid of both of them without dirtying his hands.
