Second marriages, scheming women, and weird sorcerers all come to play in this week’s The Eternal Love recap. I have to admit that it was a bit hard to remain positive with so many annoying women trying to piss us off.
Dear Readers,
It has come to our attention that when we switched over to our new blog site some of The Eternal Love Season 1 Recaps were lost. Luckily, we had them backed up on another server so we are adding them for those of you still working your way through season 1.
Sincerely,
The Fangirls
A second wife
KMUSE: The Queen Dowager is overly involved in 8th Prince’s romantic business and forces a 2nd wife onto our poor prince. No surprise that it ends up being the childhood twit from the earlier episodes. To say that Modern Tan Er is pissed would be an understatement.
Unable to understand how 8th Prince can say he loves only her then turn around and marry another woman, Modern Tan Er storms out declaring that he will never be with her again while he has that woman here.
Drama Geek: I love that she flips out on him. Hey, she’s a modern girl after all, and I’d freak the heck out on my husband if he suddenly said he was going to marry another woman. Of course, if my husband was a prince who already had concubines then it might be different.
KMUSE: I always find it interesting when Asian cultural customs of 2nd wives, concubines, etc. come forth in dramas. It is definitely a topic that is a cultural disconnect with Western viewers. A number of times I have heard fangirls complain that a king/prince/Noble has multiple wives is huge. I personally have no problems since that is just how it was. I am listening to a podcast on the political history of China and just finished an episode where it noted that only two kings in all of Chinese history were monogamous. And even they had other concubines, they just didn’t frequent them. So 8th Prince being forced into a 2nd marriage is no shocker. I am just happy that he doesn’t give these other women any focus other than being political pawns.
Drama Geek: Ooooh, I want to listen to the podcast!!! It really was unreasonable of her to believe he wouldn’t have another wife, but it was great because it showed how deeply in love with him she has become.
Owner of the Soul Possessing Orb
KMUSE: Since sitting in one’s room and pining over her husband and another woman is depressing, Modern Tan Er decides to search for the carpenter sorcerer and a possible way home. If 8th Prince is going to desert her for another woman, she is not going to hang out and watch him being lovey-dovey.
Modern Tan Er’s first impression of the man is not great and she declares that he is just an Old Weirdo. Ha. There are a ton of metaphors being thrown around about Modern Tan Er’s reasons for being stuck in this world. What it all boils down to is that her predicament is all due to the Soul Possessing Orb. It is to be noted that Old Weirdo also mentions that Tan Er is the owner of said orb and that it will be returning to her at some point.
The Old Weirdo conversation ends with the maybe carpenter/sorcerer handing her the wandering spirit flute and a parchment containing a song. He informs Tan Er that she should learn how to play the song because it will be important.
Drama Geek: I knew the Soul Possessing Orb is what brought her there, and figured it was also her ticket home. Where did it end up again? Who knows. White-haired roadrunner is funny. He seems to find great value in Modern Tan Er and probably has is own ulterior motives. Only time will tell.
Closure
KMUSE: Practising her flute in the forest, who should come across our cranky (still pissed at her philandering husband) heroine but 1st Prince. Thinking to give Boring Tan Er time with her ex-beau, Modern Tan Er mutters a lie and the switch occurs.
I still feel sorry for 1st Prince who is obviously still infatuated with Tan Er. But Tan Er has no such feelings. She promptly puts the wanna be husband in his place, rejecting his offers to marry her now that he is the Crown Prince. Declaring that he is not the same man she fell in love with, changed by greed for the crown, Tan Er walks away. Leaving a devastated 1st Prince in her wake.
Drama Geek: The scenes with these two are sooooo flat. I have no emotional connection to either character or the couple but I’m glad she was finally firm with him and let him know she is 100% not interested in becoming his 2nd wife.
Side note: characters playing the flute in Chinese historical dramas crack me up! Mainly because they are not playing at all.
A wedding night
KMUSE: All of our, and Tan Er’s, fears were for naught. On the wedding night, instead of having sexy times with his latest wife, 8th Prince comes to Tan Er’s room and symbolically renews their wedding vows. Declaring that he will never love another no matter how many wives he is forced to marry.
Drama Geek: SWOON!!!!! He can’t stop the marriage (hey, princes were pretty powerless when it came to these things) but he could make it as painless as possible for his beloved. The way he comes to her on his wedding night was so romantic. He whispers loving promises in a super sexy voice and I’m a total goner for this guy. Seriously, the actor is in another drama coming in 2018 and I am already on board.
Bitter women should not involve themselves in politics
KMUSE: Since this is a positive recap we can’t really say a ton about episode 14. I am just throwing out a few sentences so our readers will be able to know what is going on.
Stupid 2nd Wife is vicious and an idiot. Not only does she have absolutely no political savvy, but she also sides with the enemy of her husband knowingly. Agreeing to anything that gets rid of Tan Er. Because of course, 8th Prince will fall into her arms if Tan Er is not around.
Older sister/wife of 1st Prince is so obsessed with getting rid of Tan Er (knowing her husband still has feelings for her) that she will happily use the stupid consort to get her way. Even better if 8th Prince is killed at the same time so she can blame 2nd consort for the assassinations.
Drama Geek: I think her involvement was half to get rid of Tan Er and half to secure that the 1st Prince becomes king.
Evil stepmom Qu is equally dumb for jumping into this whole assassination attempt without consulting her husband. At least her husband has some intelligence when it comes to political schemes.
The Dowager Queen is the only smart one of the bunch. She sits back, knowing these stupid jealous women will get rid of Tan Er and she won’t have to get her hands dirty. Of course, The Dowager doesn’t expect them to attempt to kill her favorite grandson along with Tan Er. A bit of a scheming misfire on her part.
Yet another assassination attempt
KMUSE: Once again Tan Er is in danger due to an assassination attempt (it really does happen a lot) and 8th Prince comes to the rescue. Tan Er is saved but 8th Prince takes an arrow to the chest and falls into an almost death coma. Once again all the doctors declare that there is nothing to do and that 8th Prince is at death’s door. Tan Er is distraught and demands that a search for the carpenter sorcerer commences. It stands to reason that if he brought her back from the dead he can save 8th Prince.
Drama Geek: If I didn’t like this couple so much it would get annoying that he keeps having to save her.
KMUSE: The Old Weirdo arrives but has no intention of saving 8th Prince. Instead, he is desperate to separate Tan Er from the combined soul spell he had previously done to save Tan Er. Realizing that she is somehow important to the sorcerer, Tan Er refuses to allow the separation of their souls. In fact, she declares that if 8th Prince is not saved she will promptly kill herself and follow him to the grave.
Drama Geek: So glad that she is again showing how “all in” she is with this relationship. She’s gotten to the point that she knows she won’t want to go on without her Cheng Cheng and it just makes me squeal.
Detective Tan Er
KMUSE: Using her deductive reasoning and Boring Tan Er’s political savvy, Modern Tan Er deduces the identities of the people pulling the assassin’s strings. They quickly decide that there are two different factions. One wanting Tan Er dead and one attempting to kill the 8th Prince during the confusion.
I liked that the two girls worked together but thought the way the director filmed it was a bit odd.
Drama Geek: Agreed. I liked that they both were able to figure it out but the cuts were kind of weird. I guess they didn’t want to show her telling a lie and switching every time. My favorite part is that the 12th Prince was clueless and getting whiplash with them switching back and forth while the guard was just rolling with it. He’s gotten used to Tan Er’s split personality.
The Dowager makes her move
Drama Geek: The Dowager finds out that the evidence leads back to her precious twit and realizes that if the 8th Prince finds out about it then it’ll be the end. So she rushes over while the prince is unconscious and tries to get rid of Tan Er.
The 8th Prince wakes up just in time (again, if I didn’t love this couple so much I’d rant about how many times he comes to her rescue. LOL) and shuts The Dowager down. He kicks her out, and she runs away with her tail between her legs.
KMUSE: I agree. There is a constant damsel in distress concept going on. But unlike in other dramas, this doesn’t feel like it is making Tan Er less a strong character in her own right. It is odd how much this OTP combo seems to change the story into something more than the usual tropes.
Swooning… I am totally swooning.
Drama Geek: Pale prince. Head on Tan Er’s shoulder. Lost all other thoughts. Who would have known him places his head on her shoulder could be so romantic and swoony? The best part is he totally heard her promise to not go back to her world if he’d just wake up. He’s got her now and will never let her go!
KMUSE: I think it is funny how often we refer to 8th Prince as “swoony” but really it is the word that totally expresses my feelings for the love he has for Tan Er. His ability to express his love and his sexy voice just makes me, well, swoon.
Are suicides supposed to be funny?
Drama Geek: The 8th Prince and Tan Er storm into Tan Er’s family home and provide evidence that not only did the stepmom participate in the plot to assassinate the prince, she also used her lover (who has a very convenient identifying mole that he didn’t cover while committing said assassination attempt). Dad is ready to throw her to the wolves. She plotted behind his back and cheated on him. Plus, the whole saving his own skin thing.
KMUSE: I laughed so much at father Qu’s expression. The man just got totally walloped thanks to his idiot daughter and wife.
Drama Geek: Tan Er says she’ll spare their lives but then her older sister/1st Prince’s wife comes wailing in and ruins it all. So to save her daughter, Stepmom rams her head against a pillar. I have watched very few Chinese historicals so I’ve never witnessed death by head bonk before. At least one schemer is out of the way, but I can tell from the rage in the sister’s eyes that Tan Er will surely need saving soon.
KMUSE: I have watched a bunch of shows where people either kill themselves by head bonk, also is used to show their sincerity by hitting their heads till they are bleeding. However, the ease at which mom runs into a pillar and dies had me cracking up. It just seemed not real and I laughed when Drama Geek texted me to inquire if Mommy Qu was actually supposed to be dead from that?
Things are heating up as we go into the last half of the drama. Will there be more assassination attempts? Will our OTP continue to have ill health? Will we ever be told what the stupid Soul Switching Orb is? Find out next time as we chat all things positive.
Until next time,
Drama Geek & Kmuse
Dramas With A Side of Kimchi