I will say that over the course of this series I have felt fairly disconnected from Yul. His character arc to me has not gone under drastic evolution and his characterisation by Minhyun has been fairly one dimensional. However this does suit Yul in a way being the most stoic of the Four Seasons. 

At the end of last week, Yul’s life hung in the balance. But fear not! Episode 7 picked up where episode 6 left off and stomped on the accelerator. As swiftly as Jang Uk rescued Yul from the Cheonbugwan guards, Yul is resuscitated after some Jin family manouevering by Jang Uk, the firedbird that is ever present in the background and the help of Crown Prince Won and Bu-Yeon. The pace that this was done at was almost whiplash in comparison to the past few weeks and I couldn’t help but wonder whether the Hong sisters were about to throw a metaphorical grenade into the mix for our leads, descending the drama into madness 3 episodes from home. 

But no, this was a swift conclusion tied up in a bow that in the end lacked any real tension because Dramaland dictates that Yul wouldn’t die. If I suspend my disbelief at this rapid reversal and hijinks convenient plot, I give credit that this set up some things and gives way to a domino affect that leads to episode 8’s conclusion.

In other news we learn from the sequence that Prince Won knows who the turtle shaman is now, Jang Uk uses the Songrim secret room as his personal bank vault, Dang-Gu and Cho-Yeon are resolutely back together in the steamiest of ways (!?) and that the one casualty from all this is So-Yi who is holding Yul’s umbrella to the end. 

So-Yi deserved better, so RIP to one of the most interesting characters on the show.