Alchemy of Souls 2: Light and Shadow – Episode 5 & 6 | starfromouterspace’s K-Drama Thoughts

*WARNING* SPOILERS FOR ALCHEMY OF SOULS PART 1 and 2!* All images belong to tvN and Netflix.

Preface

The Christmas episodes have arrived! I am (still) recovering from being ill so Christmas spirit was definitely down this time round, and consequently my focus when watching these episodes remained pretty low just like last weeks. So bear with as I rack my brain to try and come up with something meaningful to say about this week.

Week 3 | Episode 5 & 6
24th-25th December 2022

As I have said, my focus has waned, so everything is still a little hazy. But overall, episodes 5 and 6 turned out a stronger viewing than last weeks. Here are the main points I got from this week.

So-Yi and Yul

The biggest plot to happen this week is the predicament of So-Yi and Yul. Yul finds out that So-Yi has put a blood parasite in him to try and save his life. So-Yi is also distraught to find out that Yul has not been taking his medicine out of guilt. Yul essentially is taking the noble idiot trope to the extreme here and I have mixed feelings about it, as it is my least favourite K-Drama trope. However it highlights how grief and guilt affects people in different ways and it is sad to know that Yul has been suffering in so much pain, isolated at Seoho Fortress, intentionally doing this to himself out of guilt for what happened to Mu-Deok.

I like So-Yi and Yul as a duo however. Both have guilt and both are driven to do whatever it takes to right their wrongs. Both have protective streaks wider than the M1. I have said before that So-Yi is one of the most interesting characters on the show and she shows a large amount of maturity in understanding Yul’s predicament about Naksu extremely quickly which I thought was a lovely touch to mirror her understanding with her own unrequited predicament with Yul.

She is the only one it seems, to have noticed which says a lot about her love for him. After all, Yul’s best friends still haven’t twigged on so it is nice to see for once someone seeing past Yul’s calm exterior to his heart.

Yul this episode once again shows his struggle to achieve what he always thinks is the right path and it is heartbreaking to see the conclusion he comes to. His heart and moral compass is always in the right place, but the drastic measure he concludes with shows how much has been eaten up inside him (literally and figuratively) and how dark his regret is.

This all comes around as they become the first two characters to learn about Naksu/Bu-Yeon and the wider implications.

Which makes the end of episode 6 all the more frustrating – how convenient is it if the only two characters who know about this wind up dead?! This perhaps is not the biggest takeaway from this, but considering I am invested in getting to the part when the truth comes out into the open, with now only four episodes left, I am even more anxious about the implications!

That aside, ending episode 6 the way it has is bold and you have to wonder whether the show will have guts to actually kill off Yul. However we will have to wait until next week to find out his fate.

As for So-Yi, I think it is a shame if her story ends here just like this as I think she deserved better and I would have loved for her to come out the other side in a full character development. I keep my fingers crossed for things to be more than it seems.

Master Lee, the plot master

Master Lee remains ephemeral, only popping up to reveal a key plot point before retreating until the next episode. This week we find out two key bits of information.

1. The firebird is the key to summoning another ice stone

2. If Naksu/Bu-Yeon regains both her memories and powers, Bu-Yeons body will reject Naksu’s soul and therefore she will die

In regards to the first point, this is the underlying plot to season 2, and regrettably is not one that has me on the edge of my seat for now. Although the drought is explained and the firebird is introduced, the plotting by Jin Mu and the Queen remains annoying to me and frankly, at the moment I don’t particularly care – apart from the implications with Uk/Bu-Yeon which I will go into in the next section .

With the second part, to me it came out a bit left field! We established in the opening week that since Bu-Yeon’s body and Naksu’s soul fo not conflict that when one returns, the other will. But for Master Lee to throw out that when it does she will die is a bit !? I will suspend belief here for the sake of the plot but it does not escape me how convenient knowledgeable Master Lee is and how stuffed in his writing can be. All this does is make the resolution even more hazy and unpredictable with ONLY 2 WEEKS LEFT! I know this is something I have gone on quite a bit, but with so many loose ends, conditions and issues I can only now sit back and watch how it unfolds through my fingers…..

Jang Uk and Cho Yeong

Ah these two. This week we find our heroes at crossroads, trying to move forward without looking back. Their relationship progresses and we are now on the tenterhooks of watching Jang Uk come to terms with the person he might be falling in love with and Bu-Yeon discovering who she is. This week had many callbacks to Part 1 and it is understandable how confusing it is for the two and I only hope that the truth will be outed in time.

Jang Uk also faces another choice. The theme of episode 6 in particular is Naksu’s old mantra ‘it is better to die than to do nothing’. With the foundation now in place for Jin Mu’s scheme involving the fire birds, the drought and the summoning of the ice stone, we are now poised to see what Jang Uk will do.

As a hero with a moral interior despite his bluster, as he has shown with his ability to stand up when he needs to, it will be surprising if he chooses to do nothing.

But if Jang Uk and Cho Yeong are really the parallels of Seo Gyeong and Jin Seol-Ran, I can only theorise how this will end and many of those paths seem to end in tragedy…….

My other highlights and thoughts

The Crown Prince continues to confuse me a little. With Jin Mu being such an ineffective villain, the whole partnership between the two doesn’t seem as fraught with peril as Won seems to think it is – maybe that’s just me forgetting the finer details from Part 1
Do Joo and Park Jin are engaged!
Dang-Gu and Cho-Yeon have made the tiniest step in resolution, but it is still frustratingly small given the number of episodes left.
Lady Heo’s maid is one of the most annoying characters in this series
Poor Won. At least he has his turtle, right?

My unanswered questions - answered!

Were any of my unanswered questions answered?

How will Seo-Yul feel about Naksu? Given the peace he came to at the end of Part 1, I hope that we can see his character develop in other ways. A: Well, we find that out this week and he is not over her and is full of guilt to the point that he is willing to die killing her to right his wrongs. Whether that is the right choice, remains to be seen. First though, he has to live…..
Will they ever revisit Naksu’s tree… ? A: They did! In both mind, conversation and so nearly in person. The tree is very symbolic in Jang Uk’s and Mu-Deoks relationship and with it referenced a lot this week, hopefully things will start clicking together.
I wonder how Naksu will feel when she comes to knowing her energy is gone…. but she’ll have divine powers? A: Well, that’s if she doesn’t die first….. oh dear.
Were those priestess guards around Jinyowon always there…? A: I am just going to say yes to this.
What is happening to the wells? A: Jin Mu and the Queen (along with her cousin) have been putting firebirds into the wells to dry them up in preparation for a rite that Jin Mu is planning to summon the ice stone instead of solving the drought. They still require the firebird from Jinyowon however. How this plot will work out, remains to be seen.
How quickly will Bu-Yeon’s memory return? A: This is starting to move on more swiftly this week, but it remains to be seen when we will see a full recovery – given the information that Master Lee has now provided us with.

My unanswered questions

Will Seo-Yul live??

That is it for this week.

Final thoughts

I preferred this week to last weeks!

One thing that has bugged me is that this week it feels like I am missing out on meaning or not quite grasping the true intentions of the dialogue between characters. Is it the Netflix subtitles? Potentially. Maybe I am trying to read too much into every word. As with most fantasy, it still requires me to have a suspension of belief and to remember – things aren’t always deep. I am impatiently waiting to see how it unfolds and how it will conclude! Tick, tock. We’re running out of time.