Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo
This drama ended back in November, but I just watched it again and wanted to pour out my feelings. It has a rather complicated plot, so I've given the synopsis its own post.
Synopsis
25 year old Go Ha Jin is a modern day make up artist and seller. Her boyfriend cheats on her and then she gets chased down by a group of angry ahjummas. Her life has hit rock bottom when she ends up drinking by a lake in a park. A young boy ends up drowning and she jumps in to save him, but just when she's about to pull herself out of the water, she gets caught in an eclipse and drowns in the lake. She wakes up in 10th century Goryeo in the body of 16 year old Hae Soo, who presumably also drowned before Ha Jin entered her body.
Taking on the life of Hae Soo, our heroine lives with her sick sixth cousin, Lady Hae, as her nurse and Lady Hae's husband, eighth prince Wang Wook. Soo and Wook begin to develop feelings for one another, but both feel guilty towards Lady Hae. Meanwhile, 3rd prince Wang Yo and his mother queen Yoo scheme to kill crown prince Moo so that Yo can take the throne. 4th prince Wang So returns to royal capitol Songak for the exorcism rites. So plans to stay after being cast off at a young age for a scar on his face, which his mother, queen Yoo caused . Knowing that Moo will be threatened during the rites, astronomer Choi Ji Mong (who is from the future, like Soo) asks So to pretend to be Moo. For protecting Moo and thoroughly investigating the attacks on Moo, So is allowed to return to Songak.
Extremely ill, Lady Hae dies, but wishes Wook will be allowed to marry Soo. However, due to the Hae clan's need for a royal in law, the clan conspires a marriage between Soo and elderly King Tae Jo, the founder of Goryeo. At this point, Soo has won over the hearts of prince Wook, prince Eun, prince Jung, and prince So. They all try to prevent the marriage, but fail. Soo cuts her wrist so that she will create a scar and avoid the marriage. Unable to return to Wook's household, Soo becomes a court lady under head Damiwon court lady Oh. Court lady Oh is extremely watchful of Soo and frequently reprimands her for arrogance. However, the two become close. So is chosen to lead the rain ritual since Moo is absent, but is harassed by the public for his scarred face. Soo covers up his scar through her modern cosmetic knowledge and he is accepted by the public, bringing the rain to end the drought. So has become enamored by Soo and because he ended the drought, he is allowed to request Soo as his court lady. Soo is promoted to senior court lady, however, she cannot return So's feelings as she still has them for Wook and she still believes they will marry. In addition, she has seen premonitions that So will become a cruel and violent king and becomes scared of him.
Queen Yoo, Yo, and princess Yeon Hwa all conspire to kill Moo with poisoned tea and frame Soo for delivering the tea. Aware of their plan, So drinks the poison and struggles to walk away, hoping no one will find out. However Yeon Hwa pretends to also drink the poison in order to protect herself from accusation and draws attention to So. Soo is imprisoned and tortured for attempted regicide, though everyone knows she's innocent. So attempts to save her, but fails. Wook also intends to help her, but he discovers that his sister was behind the poisoning and is forced to give Soo up in order to protect his family. Court lady Oh, who was once king Tae Jo's lover, convinces him to convict her in place of Soo. She will die soon from stomach cancer and she cannot let Soo, who is like her daughter, die. Soo does a kneeling protest to save court lady Oh, but she's hung.
Forced to leave the palace, Soo becomes a laundry water maid. A year later, king Tae Jo is dying and Soo is brought back to the palace to take care of him because she was so close to court lady Oh. Soo knows that the king is about to die but she must hide this until Moo returns to become the new king. Wook confronts Soo on whether the king is dead and expresses that he's interested in the throne. After abandoning Soo during her kneeling protest and becoming greedy for the throne under the guise that it's all for Soo, she claims that he's changed and she lets him go. Wook works with Yo to plan a coup before Moo can return. However, Soo learns this and works with So, Baek Ah, and former Baekje princess Woo Hee to bring Moo back in time. Wook turns on Yo at the last minute, Ji Mong reveals Tae Jo's death, and Moo becomes the 2nd king of Goryeo. In a battle, So stabs his brother Yo and pushes him off a cliff accidentally, believing him to be dead.
2 years later, Soo has taken over court lady Oh's position due to her good relationship with king Moo. So is in love with Soo and after some time, she accepts him. Wook and 9th prince Won work together to kill Moo by asking Soo's former servant and now junior court lady, Chae Ryung, to add mercury to Moo's bath water. He goes insane, but promises to abdicate the thrown to So who has married his young daughter so that she won't be sent to Khitan as a hostage. Yo is revealed to have survived the fall from 2 years ago and takes over the thrown after killing Moo. He threatens to frame Soo for the mercury poisoning unless So does his bidding. Yo kills prince 10th prince Eun's family because they're supposedly planning to make Eun king. Eun escapes with his wife Soon Deok and hides in the Damiwon with Soo's help. When Soo learns that So has been sent to find and kill Eun, she doesn't trust him and doesn't tell him that she's hiding Eun. Eun and Soon Deok plan to secretly leave Goryeo through a secret cave passageway, but the passageway isn't a secret anymore and they're found and killed by Yo and his army.
Angered by Soo's lack of trust and sick of Soo's life being used as bait, So breaks up with Soo though he still loves her and leaves for 2 years. He carries on the act that he's no longer in love with her when he returns, but when Yo and Won test this by shooting an arrow at Soo, So protects her against the arrow. So and Soo make up and Ji Mong helps So devise a plan to become king. Yo has gone insane over the deaths of his brothers Moo and Eun and has a heart attack before he can abdicate the throne. So finds Yo's empty decree after a bloodless coup and becomes king. Soo decides that she will change history so that So will be remembered as a good king instead of a violent tyrant. Many people doubt So's right to be king, however. When his brother, 14th prince Jung expresses his distrust in So, So exiles Jung to his hometown. So and Soo wish to marry, but the powerful royal families are against this. All of his problems will magically go away if he marries Yeon Hwa, so he does.
So becomes cruel, seeking to take revenge on all those who made his life difficult in the past. He exiles his brothers to their hometowns against Soo's wishes. After finding concrete evidence that Soo's former servant and longtime friend Chae Ryung helped poison Moo with mercury, he orders to have her beaten to death. Soo is devastated by Chae Ryung's death, certain that Chae Ryung was always sincere with her. She's angered with So and makes plans with Jung to leave the palace. Jung had received permission from Yo to marry Soo when Yo was king, and now Jung is acting on that decree. So is deeply hurt to learn that Soo had once been prepared to marry Wook and expresses his wish to never see her again. Soo leaves the palace for good and marries Jung.
Soo and Jung live at his home as friends. She's discovered to be pregnant, the baby having been presumably conceived while she was in the palace with So being the father. Soo becomes ill and yearns for So. She gives birth to a daughter and is bedridden. Knowing that she will die soon, she writes letters to So expressing her love for him and asking him to visit her. However, due to a series of misunderstandings, Soo dies before So can see her and she makes a last wish that Jung keep her daughter from the palace. So is informed that Soo has died, and he realizes she still loved him and that she wanted to see him. He races to Jung's home, but it's too late.
Years later, So has had children with Yeon Hwa, but he doesn't trust or love them. He runs into a little girl who reminds him of Soo. She is accompanied by Jung who wishes to hide her from So out of fear. So realizes that the girl is in fact Soo's daughter and demands that Jung give him the child, but Jung informs So of Soo's dying wish. So lifts Jung's exile from the palace in hopes that he will visit with Soo's daughter every so often. Wook dies and astronomer Choi Ji Mong leaves the palace for good. So witnesses an eclipse before we cut to Ha Jin now in her own body in the present.
Go Ha Jin had been in a coma for a year and in the following year, she continuously has dreams about Goryeo and So, but she doesn't think they are anything more than vivid dreams. Working at a make up company again, Ji Mong approaches her in a new incarnation and this brings back some disconnected memories for Ha Jin. She feels unwell and leaves work, but stops to see an exhibit on Goryeo era paintings on her way out. The paintings depict Ha Jin's life in Goryeo as Hae Soo and all of her memories flood back. She realizes her time there was real and sees a painting of So as the 4th king of Goryeo, with the description that he was a good and wise king. She determines that she changed his legacy and breaks down crying over her sorrow for leaving him. Back in Goryeo, So determines that he will find Soo again because he realizes she is from another world. The last scene features Soo and So when they were happy together.
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