The highly anticipated Arthdal Chronicles finally premiered this weekend with a solid introduction and incredible potential to tell an epic story. The hype was real, with the first episode achieving a 6.7% viewership rating — a massive feat for a cable show, even with the tides turning in their favor. It may be too soon to decide if the show deserved the hype, but this first episode makes a convincing case for the enthralling made-up world of Arth — the predecessor to what we know as Gojoseon. It's a world of fantasy but with familiar themes of conquest, motherhood, and survival. Without further ado, welcome to Arth.
(Disclaimer: One of the fun things about a made-up world is that literally everything is made up, so some names are liberally Romanized. If anyone wanted to learn how to Romanize, just use all the names from this show, and you'll be trained.)
EPISODE 1 RECAP
Inside a shelter, a mother sleeps with her baby and sweats profusely as she suffers through a nightmare. A nefarious blue snake slithers into the shelter and coils up, ready to strike the baby. Still stuck in her nightmare, the mother screams as the snake widens its mouth to attack. The blue-lipped baby's eyes glow purple as the snake strikes.
We pan through the mountains as a voice narrates in ancient language: "Humankind that descended from the trees held knives upon controlling fire, opened roads by creating wheels, and settled on land after planting seeds. This is an ancient time before a nation and king, before homo sapiens could dream, before nature's great pyramids were summitted. The grand lands of our ancient mothers — this place, Arth."
In the woods, a group of tribesman hunt a mysterious creature that seems to sweep these men of their feet and brutally butcher them. As this unbelievably fast monster kills these men, leaving them with sliced limbs, it becomes clear that these men are not hunting — they're being hunted.
After the slaughter, only one man remains, and he tries to start a smoke signal. But he freezes when he senses someone behind him. He quickly crawls away and looks back at this creature, who steps on the fire with his bare foot and tells him in an ancient tongue, "The land belongs to everyone." The human-like creature with blue blood, who we soon learn to be a Neanthal, and clawed fingers prepares to attack.
But then, the Neanthal hears birds behind him and escapes just before arrows spray down from above. The tribe's reinforcements shoot arrows toward the smoke, and unfortunately, the surviving tribesman gets hit. When the tribe arrives, they curse the Neanthal for slaughtering their men. We learn the name of the survivor, Mookwang, who points the tribe to where the creature ran.
The tribesmen run after the Neanthal who runs away barefoot. We hear the hunting leader, Moobaek, ask in voiceover, "Where did this all go wrong?" Moobaek recalls the origin of this conflict, and we visit this place.
At the summit of White Mountain, SANUNG (Kim Eui-sang), leader of the Saenyeok tribe, stands with his tribe counsel to meet with the Neanthals. Tribesman Moobaek recalls seeing these blue-lipped and blue-blooded Neatals for the first time, wearing skulls on their heads.
The Neanthal leader asks what the humans seek, and Sanung responds through his interpreter, ASA HON (cameo by Chu Ja-hyun) that he wishes to form an alliance. Neanthal Leader questions why they should work together, and MIHOL (Jo Sung-ha), captain of the pirates, responds that they can amass great wealth together.
Neanthal Leader claims that Mother Nature provides everything they need and asks what else they wish for. Moobaek uncovers the rock slab between the two potential allies, and Neanthal Leader recognizes the food: beans, barley, corn, mugwort, and garlic. He asks what this is.
