I realize that with Faith, I entered into this rare territory where my love for a drama is utterly irrational, where it transcends any story, acting etc and hits me on a purely visceral level, right into the nerve endings. I never know when it will happen and it happens very rarely - I get enthusiastic about dramas very often, but it's a rare one that slips into my bloodstream. I've been having dreams about Faith, I think about it in the most random times, I fantasize about what Choi Young and Eun Soo are doing right now (down, those with gutter minds :P). It's kinda crazy, but then all the best obsessions are.
(Episode 16 caps and thoughts)
Yeah, DH, congrats, you managed to keep your tiger on a leash for what - 4 days? Good luck not dying shortly. I love that CY calls DH's bluff but he is so terrified inside as you can see him drop the facade when he knows nobody is looking. But then what choice does he have?
Woodalchi fighting, outnumbered, made me cry. I swear, I am overinvested in this drama. And oh, Gongmin, so worried for Nogook and brave and awesome and angry.
When Choi Young appeared, to disperse the soldiers attacking Nogook, like some sort of an avenging God (yes, Faith makes me break out in purple prose), I literally cheered. And then when he grabbed Nogook's hand and cut through the soldiers like so much grass - clearly there is some major issues in my background, because I found it sexy beyond words.
This was a great scene and showed that Advisor threw away someone amazing like Gongmin for DH, who is a sociopath, but I confess my main thought during this sequence was "well, now you know what it feels like to be stabbed through the gut. Oops!"
I love the way she smiles when she sees him with the Woodalchi all around him like puppies. They are totally the Wooodalchi Mom and Dad. Only Dad is way jealous - the way he bites his lip when she starts checking out DM's wounds, LOL - and poor DM looking apprehensively at his General, knowing he's in trouble :) Someone doesn't like his woman getting touchy with other guys :P Also, her teasing of him is priceless.
She totally wants the diary because she is worried by her dreams of him dying and wants to save him. I am willing to bet. And I love that she doesn't want to tell him about her nightmares because she doesn't want to worry him and his overdeveloped sense of responsibility. Love that he doesn't want her to meet DH or Gi Chul and then is about to leave but comes back and is totally "are you going to go meet them anyway?" He knows her so well (and of course, by now she always gets what she wants from him, doesn't she - including the meeting, because he knows otherwise she'll go alone). And they've both retreated back in their shell now that she is better but every glance betrays them. And when she takes a 'picture' of him when he is being his most Choi Young-ish (talking about strategy and King etc) and his uncomprehending look - my heart broke.
Bromance is back!
This scene! So incredible on every level. Of course I've already rewatched it twice. The way she wins the argument about going to see the bad guys (of course), the way he freaks out when she is in pain (and the way he holds her shoulder - he can't help but touch her now, can he?) but she is so brave and matter-of-fact and shuts him down when he tries to blame himself for it yet again (not everything in the world is your fault, Choi Young! Though claiming responsibility is one way of finding control - a dysfunctional way, but still...) The way he gets angry (because that's the only way he can express his terror at her pain and possibly dying) and the gentle, loving way she tells him he shouldn't or it would become a habit and what would he then do if she leaves, who would he get angry at (and it's so true - he is so enormously repressed except for her - but with her he is not a legend or a warrior but a man). The way they sit and she says she is cold so he opens up his arm and she scoots in, and the way they fold into each other, almost. The way he says he won't go to heaven (why?! grrrr! I get it, I do, but think of my heart) and the way she asks for a piggyback if she falls asleep and he half-whispers in response that he can't because how would he carry his sword otherwise (hello there, symbolism! Also, if this isn't a piggyback foreshadowing, I don't want to know. And another also, you left the sword for her before, Choi Young). The way they are so tender and their faces are so unguarded - she in particular looks luminous. The way she points out he now answers all her questions, not like before. Why are you so perfect together, why?
And of course he takes her to Gi Chul. Because he has come a long way from a man who tried to stop her and now knows she should do what she must and all he can do is come with her to the lion's den and protect her. What really gets me is the way once her hands cramp up, he instantly drops on his knees, and starts rubbing her hands with his own - without any thought for Gi Chul (whose eyes bug out of his head, I think), without any concealment or hesitation. Also, with DH being so awful, I am almost fond of Gi Chul now (who thinks he can go to the future with Eun Soo. Sure, except he doesn't know it might be hard to come back...have fun applying for social services, Gi Chul!)
Gongmin and Nogook and the way he shines when he sees her! OMG you darlings! Also, did anybody else's mind jump straight into the gutter when he asked her for a tour and she said she will show him their quarters :)
(Apologies, I switched to 450p here due to issues with my 720)
If there is a sight more glorious than Choi Young getting impatient with DH stalling about the antidote, deciding "fuck it," knocking out the royal guards and pouring poison down DH's throat (with some bonus manhandling), while telling Gi Chul he's never used poison before so he doesn't know whether he gave too much oops, I have yet to see it. I am a sick sick girl but I rewatched this multiple times. Also, Gi Chul (who I enjoy when he is a reluctant ally) makes the best faces.
DH and ES talk blah blah blah (Dude, you tried to poison her, she is not joining you), but all that registered was that DH referred to CY as "your lover" and ES didn't even bother to deny. Heeee. Faith, where even the bad guys are shippers!
But who could blame them. See touchy-grabby Exhibit A.
DH, either you really are brainless, hate CY to care about consequences or a combo of the two. Him telling Gi Chul that they have to kill CY or else ES will never come to them is insane! Sure, she'll help you guys after you kill her OTP! That's how normal people work! Oh wait - no.
Gongmin and Nogook with the people. Makes me think of Saint Louis and the oak tree.
Awww, poor CY - ES stayed in the med center to ferret out information (and, I bet, to make sure DH did not hurt CY). He is all 'she has no heart.' You are suuuuuch a goner, CY!
She gets her missing pages (well, half) and he is getting ready to escort ministers (who have a frelling nerve to ask that after they falsely convicted him!)
This scene! OMG! I simply have to quote the dialogue verbatim (courtesy of viki) because - I have no words.
"This... I should say this before I become drunk, but...for me... there isn't a "that person", really. Even though I tried to meet men, and tried to like them, my heart never opened. Even if my heart was going to go out...it would stop...and stop...and it'll be lost again. "It's annoying." And then... (my heart would) close again and hide. That kind of feeling was always first. "That person isn't it." "This isn't it." Even meeting that person, Choi Young, it was like that. I would draw a line someday and say, "Don't come in. Don't come in..." That...it isn't because I am someone who would leave someday, Doctor Jang. It's just...my heart wouldn't do that. When I'm with him, sometimes...I get too used to it...and miss him so much that I can't take it. I had those feelings, but..."That kind of person... this person can't be it." However...whenever I turn around, he is there. Looking at me. Even if I can't see him, if I ask "where are you", he would say "I am always here". I must be drunk...I should sleep."
Crying here, guys. I also love that, for once, it is the woman in a kdrama that has issues fully opening up emotionally, that has shut her heart, that needs to work through it (though I think her drunken confession does mean she has had to confront her emotional truth, and the fact that she loves CY, and I am sure whatever she does in the next ep to save his life will seal it. It's been a truth for a while, she just hasn't let herself realize it before). Because for all his manifold issues and his Spartan ethic, there is never any doubt that CY has given his heart over fully - he hasn't told her because he doesn't want to hold her back because he feels guilt and responsibility for bringing her over. But if she told him she loved him and meant to stay, you know he'd fall at her feet. (Or, being Choi Young, probably offer her his sword :P)
Side note - if I was in an even more romantic mood than I am now, I'd make comments how her heart being shut before she met CY is totally a hand of destiny - you couldn't fall for any guy because you were waiting for a 14th century national legend, girl, and didn't want to settle! :)
She realizes that the letter tries to warn her about a trap for Choi Young (yes, he is your 'that person') Big shock, freaking scholars probably betrayed him to DH. I bet that is where her nightmare comes in - she'll run in finding him the way she did in her dream, only hopefully not dead yet. The outfit matches.
Is it Monday yet? I can't believe I am yearning for Monday!