Crouching Tiger Hidden Cheon-Ki
Episode 3 of Lovers of the Red Sky begins out in the forest with the demon possessing Ha Ram and honing in on Cheon-Ki. Given she’s the one holding the eyes to replace Ma Wang’s sight, the demon prepares to attack. King Seongjo continues to worry at the palace, seeing the sight of owls atop the palace as an ominous sign. In fact, he calls on his subordinates to bring back Supervisor Ha, who’s currently off in the mountains. Unfortunately he’s attacked by Ma Wang, who slaughters his entire group en-route to finding Cheon-Ki. Among those is Elder Il Won Seong who’s currently missing, causing quite a stir. Speaking of which, Cheon-Ki wanders through the forest but happens upon Samshin again, disguised as a kind old lady. She encourages Cheon-Ki to stick around and keep warm (after some magical powers make her fall asleep.) As she dozes off, the demon appears but Samshin uses her powers to make them both seem invisible. Unfortunately it doesn’t last long, especially when Cheon-Ki awakens. Just before the water demon can take its eyes back, time freezes. Out of the woods comes a spirit called Ho-Ryeong, the Inwang Mountain’s guardian. It manifests in the form of a tiger and manages to keep Ma Wang at bay. With Samshin’s help, the pair keep the creature at bay for now. However, they remain intent on trying to expel the spirit from Ha Ram’s body, with Samshin explaining how Cheon-Ki fits into this prophecy, given she’s supposed to save them. When time unfreezes, Ha Ram is back to his ordinary self. Well, sort of anyway. He’s delirious and passed out, with sweat forming on his forehead and suffering from nightmarish dreams. Cheon-Ki nurses him back to health, and he’s there when Ha Ram’s red eyes return. He’s blind again. Cheon-Ki briefly chats to him but eventually does leave, heading back to town for help. Unfortunately, she ends up caught and taken away by the headmaster, who scolds her for injuring her right hand- the same hang she uses for painting. Ms Gyeonju does show to hear her out, although she’s more curiously amused than genuinely wanting to help. Meanwhile, the Grand Prince remains determined to track down Supervisor Ha. With Man Su as the only surviving party that has made it back to town, the royal keeps him close while trying to uncover what happened. Another interested party here is Mi-Su, who remains close to Grand Prince Juhyang. They head out to the forest and also check out the body, with both groups trying to work out what the cause of death is. The trouble is, given they were killed by the water demon, there’s no natural signs of a spear or sword wound. The bodies are blackened and thin strips of fabric seem to point toward Ha Ram’s whereabouts. When Ha Ram finds out there are royals after him, he decides to stay put. However, Cheon-Ki finds him first. As they sit together, she divulges that her name is Hong Cheon-Ki. In doing so, this seems to bring back Ha Ram’s memories, reminiscing on his past with her.
The Episode Review
Lovers of the Red Sky returns this week with a slower episode, one that sees Ha Ram start to get his memories back. There’s also Cheon-Ki’s little journey too, which essentially sees her head into town and back again. Away from this pair, the political drama starts to take shape, with the head shaman and the two Grand Princes remaining determined to track down Supervisor Ha and the group. Of course, we know that Ma Wang is responsible for all this but it’ll be interesting to see what conclusions they arrive at on the back of this. Beyond that though, there’s really not a lot else going on here. With a shorter episode run-time, clocking in at a little under an hour (if you exclude the brief recap to episode 2), Red Sky remains enjoyable but also a bit of a slow burn, preparing for much bigger twists and turns to come in the episodes ahead.
