Legend of the Blue Sea

Chapter 7

I love this episode. It wasn't until today that I came across an episode of Legend of the Blue Sea that I'd want to re-watch just for kicks, but this one is hysterical and moving all at once, with the funniest turn in the romance yet. It's an entire episode about jealousy, filled with double meanings and characters making fools out of themselves for love, just the way I like it.

Joseon. After being separated by the greedy mermaid-hunting Lord Yang, Dam-ryung searches high and low for Se-hwa, but finds only his friend's body at the bottom of the cliff where he fell.

Se-hwa waits for Dam-ryung to find her in the cave, and finally someone approaches with a torch... but it's Lord Yang's men, here to capture her.

Dam-ryung brings his friend back home, still alive, but the doctor says he might not be able to recover from this. Dam-ryung clutches his friend's hand, knowing that this happened because he was trying to help Se-hwa for him. His eyes harden in determination.

Lord Yang acts contrite over his people bursting into the mayor's compound and making a fuss the other day, as if he wasn't the one to send them. Dam-ryung remains detached and plays along, and asks about the rare tangerines that can only be found at Lord Yang's inn.

Happy to brag, Lord Yang says that they can't be found elsewhere because they're so expensive and he gets them directly from Tamra. That's exactly what Dam-ryung wanted to hear, and he informs Lord Yang that the shipping merchant who died on the beach had one of these tangerines on him.

An autopsy revealed that the merchant had been poisoned after all, and Dam-ryung deduces that his last meal was here at this inn, where Lord Yang served him tangerines and poisoned liquor. Lord Yang plays dumb, so Dam-ryung angrily calls his officers inside, and they present the poison found in Lord Yang's quarters.

Lord Yang and his gisaeng companion Hong-ran are both hauled out like criminals, and Dam-ryung raises his sword to Hong-ran's throat to ask where Se-hwa is. She pretends not to know what he's talking about, igniting his fury, so Dam-ryung simplifies the matter: either she remembers where Se-hwa is, or she dies right here.

That gets her talking, and Dam-ryung finds Se-hwa tied up and battered in Lord Yang's storeroom. Next to her is a large basket with countless pearls inside, one for every tear she's cried. Wow, that's an effectively heartbreaking visual.

Hong-ran tries to turn the crowd against Dam-ryung, as if he's been bewitched by a mermaid who only brings curses and death. Enraged, Dam-ryung takes the basket of pearls and throws it into the air at the crowd. Hong-ran cries for her pearls as everyone scrambles to pick them up.

Dam-ryung caresses Se-hwa's face and says, "I'm sorry that I came so late." She sheds more tears at the sound of his voice, though she doesn't have the strength to open her eyes.

He picks her up and carries her in his arms, and as they approach the water's edge, he says in a shaky voice, "You liked hearing about my dreams, right? In my dreams we're reborn, we meet again, and we're together. You come to see me from the ocean of a faraway land. I don't remember you, but in my heart I already love you."

She doesn't respond. Dam-ryung struggles to hold back his tears, saying, "Se-hwa, won't you listen to more of this story?"

Present day. Joon-jae asks Chung to confirm something for him at the bottom of the bunny slope where they've just crash-landed. He hesitates before asking her to repeat a phrase, and finally says, "I love you." The ski slope's snow machines take that as their romantic cue to let it snow, and Chung gets her immaculately timed first snowfall confession. Not understanding that this is the phrase Joon-jae wants her to say, she asks excitedly, "Are you mine? Do you surrender? Did you lose?"