Reunions
Episode 7 of Lovers of the Red Sky begins after our week’s hiatus with Eun-O launching himself at Prince Juhyang. Cheon-Jin is shocked and begs for mercy, knowing that his penalty could well be death. Well, Juhyang challenges her and suggests that Cheon-Ki be the one to pay instead. And the price? Giving up her hand. Thankfully Ha Ram steps up and saves her, pointing out Cheon-Ki’s talent and the 300 bags of rice he’s bought for her painting. In order to calm things down, Ha Ram suggests handing over the rice to Juhyang instead. Juhyang declines the offer but promises to be in touch regarding what he really wants in due time. With the Crown Prince ill, King Seongjo arrives to check out the paintings. He has nothing but nice things to say but when he catches a glimpse of Cheon-Ki’s painting, he’s taken aback by how real it looks. Closing his eyes, he feels the paining’s energy. Off the back of this, Grand Prince Yangmyung suggests they let Cheon-Ki into Gohwawon to keep her close. The King agrees and allows Cheon-Ki to come inside the palace for three months, working on his painting. News of this travels, with Juhyang discussing his plans with the shaman, deciding to use black magic to connect with Dae-Yu and control him. All of this is unbeknownst to Ha Ram and the other royals though, who set to work waiting for Cheon-Ki to show up. Ha Ram heads over to see Cheon-Ki, who apologizes for being a nuisance. Ha Ram admits he wants to use Cheon-Ki’s skills to work with him and uncover thee truth about this portrait, how her Father has been twisted and warped by it, and divulging that Cheon-Ki’s dad was the one who painted the King’s magical painting. He also promises to check up on her Father and get him some medicine too. In the morning, Cheon-Ki prepares to go to the palace. Only, God Samshin shows up again and freezes time, intent on seeing her painting. This happens to be a tiger she obtained from the Baekyu Painters Society earlier on, and Samshin mysteriously runs her hand over it, adding strange mystic powers. Speaking of strange, as time unfreezes Cheon-Ki races into the palace and tries to find where he needs to go. Only, she winds up running into Ha Ram’s home. She thanks Ha-Ram for helping her out but unintentionally leaves her painting behind. As the rain hammers down outside, Grand Prince Yangmyung catches up to Cheon-Ki and shields her from the rain, encouraging the young woman to run with him and get on his back. Only, Ha Ram suddenly heads out with an umbrella, apologizing as he mentions how he’s the one who was supposed to meet her first.
The Episode Review
After a week’s break, Red Sky returns and sows the seeds of a love triangle to follow. With both Grand Prince Yangmyung and Ha Ram both vouching for Cheon-Ki’s love, it’s pretty obvious who’s going to come out on top. Still, this does work to add an injection of drama into proceedings, during an episode where, actually, not much happens. Beyond Mi-Soo scheming and working to undermine the King, and Cheon-Ki getting into the palace to paint, there’s not much else going on. Still, the production design is great and the show has a real ebb and flow to it, with lots of interesting characters. The ending looks like we’re in line for quite the dramatic episode to follow though, so we’ll have to wait and see what that has in store for us!
