The Ultimate Sacrifice
Woo-Tak and Jin-Mu watch as Bu-Yeon tries to find the ice stone on the lake. Bu-Yeon uses her senses to find it, but she is not successful.
Bu-Yeon is actually a descendant of both the Jin family and the fallen Choi family. These combinations essentially made her one of the best priestesses anyone had ever seen. This power to find the ice stone eventually led to Jin-Mu snatching the stone for himself and knocking Bu-Yeon into the water.
The girl was not lost. She washed up by the side of the river and cared for by a kindly elderly lady, who called her Mu-Deok after her late granddaughter. And of course this coincides nicely with our journey thus far, with most of our characters stuck inside the forcefield and the confirmation properly that Mu-Deok is actually Bu-Yeon.
Yul’s life is in danger and he needs a blood transfusion. However, the worm inside So-I’s blood could well be the key to salvation here. As we see later in the episode, So-I slices her wrist open and lets her blood drip into Yul’s wound, which seems to save his life. ..
The King is reading a book with the words of Master Seo inscribed within it. Songrim, the court poet, recites the words of love from the letter. ..
Down in the secret room, Jang-Uk and Mu-Deok share a passionate kiss while Woo-Tak sneak away to find the Queen, who’s currently residing in his sister’s burnt body, Shaman Choi. ..
The Queen pleads with Woo-Tak to let her die but he refuses, pointing out that the Queen’s Lantern of Life needs to remain glowing while the Queen is still active. “Stay alive just for a little bit.” He says, while also swearing revenge on Jang Gang for what’s befallen him in the past.
Interestingly, in the past Jang Gang asked Ho-Gyeong for help, opening the gates of Jinyowon for him to bring out the ice stone. She knows it has the power to bring back the souls of the dead, so she pleaded with him to use it and bring back her daughter. As a consequence, Jinyowon lost the ice stone.
Elsewhere, Jang Gang greets Maidservant Kim warmly. While they have their reunion, Jang Uk contemplates what form the ice stone has taken. He’s thinking about turning the fog into rain. He will need to use Tansu to make that happen but there’s a very real possibility he’ll lose all of his energy in the process. ..
Mu-Deok is completely against this, and orders him as his master not to. Given they risked their lives to reach this point, she’s not happy at how he’s going to sacrifice himself. The thing is, if he does nothing then that doesn’t help Yyl, who’s bleeding out and could lose his life. But for So-I though, who’s the key to saving Yul’s life.
Cho-yeon and Dang-Gu track down Woo-Tak in the dungeons and confront him. After besting him, they contemplate what to do with him. ..
Cho-Yeon and Park-Jin are discussing the possibility of bringing the queen’s soul to the Training Center. Park-Jin is confident that they can find a way to do this without disgracing the Jinyowon name, but Cho-Yeon is not so sure. She doesn’t want her friends to be embarrassed if they find out she has been working with the enemy.
Instead, they head to the center while all the mages are told to leave. With the king and the royal family in attendance (minus the Crown Prince but we’ll get to that) they bring forward Shaman Choi… who is of course the queen. The Shaman (inside the Queen’s body) squeezes the throne tightly and grits her teeth. When the Shaman’s burnt face is revealed, she drops to her knees and pleads with the king to see sense - that she’s the real queen. ..
Queen ousts herself after revealing ashes of dog are just ordinary ..
With the jig up, she takes out a sword and looks set to kill herself. The only solution is to eject her soul but in the wake of this, Woo-Tak’s stake in this – being Shaman Choi’s brother – is also revealed and it shatters Ho-Gyeong’s world. In exchange for keeping Woo-Tak alive, Park Jin wants her to give the queen’s body back.
Jin-mu turns on her brother, leaving Woo-Tak to sacrifice himself, telling his sister to use the remaining Soul Ejector to run away. ..
Jang-Uk sacrifices himself to the raindrop, despite the objections of Crown Prince and Shaman Choi. The blue blade of the sword lights up and he strikes the raindrop at a high speed, causing it to burst into flames.
Jang Gang’s body has been used to stop the power from spreading, but now he’s running wild as a result.
Jang Gang pleads with the others to let Jang-Uk say goodbye to his father. Jang Gang refuses and unfortunately he turns to dust before father and son can reunite.
Jang-Uk finds himself whisked away to a strange ethereal plane where he finds the ice stone. Holding it, the power conjures around him, creating the King’s Star. And with that, Jang-Uk is back in his body again, with rain hammering down around him. The barrier around Jeongninjak is gone, while the mages all believe the Crown Prince is the one who’s the new King’s Star.
Jang-Uk and Mu-Deok have both lost their power, but they seem to be holding each other’s hand. The threat of the ice stone and Jin-Mu’s plan seems to have faded, at least for now.
Yul and Mu-Deok have a touching moment when they hand over their old whistle as a goodbye. Yul is in pain during the night but Mu-Deok goes some way to try and help. He gives her an old whistle from their past, which is a really nice moment.
Meanwhile, Jang Gang hands over a sketch of Jang Gang to Jang-Uk and admits that he sacrificed his own life to save both Songrim and Jinyowon. It’s at this moment that Jang-Uk sees his picture and realizes he did actually meet his father after all. It’s a bittersweet reveal, and all that’s left of Jang Gang are his belongings, which are returned to the King.
The Queen, unfortunately, has not returned to her own body and is forced to dwell within the burnt body of Shaman Choi for now. As for Park Jin, he dwells over the dark history involving Jang Gang, including the flashback we saw earlier in the season involving the King switching and sleeping with Do-Hwa.
Jang-Uk has decided to keep this quiet and make sure Jang-Uk’s memory of Jang Gang is not tarnished.
The Crown Prince heads to Cheonbugwan to plead for help from Jin-Mu. He also offers to protect the Prince from the true King’s Star. Jin-Mu knows how to push buttons and he brings up how Jang-Uk will eventually outshine him and offers a chance to make sure that doesn’t happen. It remains to be seen if the Crown Prince is actually swayed. ..
On the eve of Dang-Gu and Cho-Yeon’s wedding celebrations, Jang-Uk also asks Mu-Deok to marry him. She smiles in reply as the episode ends.
The Episode Review
This show is returning in December for another season, so it’s fair to say that this story is not going to completely wrap up and close all the plot points. There are still a lot of questions left unanswered and there are a lot of potential revelations that could happen in the next few episodes. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Jang Gang makes a sacrifice and doesn’t have a proper reunion with his son So-i. This bittersweet moment is still standing in the background as we wait to see what the scriptwriters do with So-i going forward.
The extended episode of “K-Pop Star” had a lot to offer viewers, with action, drama and fantasy all mixed together. Jang-Uk’s readiness to sacrifice everything was a nice touch, as was the growing tie between Mu-Deok and Jang-Uk. Seeing Mu-Deok ready to sacrifice everything was also a nice touch.
The future of the relationship between Jin-Mu and Seo-Yeon is still up in the air. We’ll have to wait and see what happens! ..
