Scarlet Heart Ryeo

What to expect, before you press play.

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Scarlet Heart Ryeo

달의 연인 – 보보경심 려 (Dal-ui Yeon-in – Bobogyeongsim Ryeo) · 2016 · South Korea

WriterCho Yoon-young

DirectorKim Kyu-tae

Episodes20 eps · ~60 min each

Where to Watch✅ Viki, Prime Video

⏱️

Binge Time20h 0m

AiredAug 29 – Nov 1, 2016

GenreHistorical · Romance · Fantasy

Content RatingTV-14

VikiPrime Video

Time TravelGoryeo DynastyPalace PoliticsTragic RomanceChinese Drama Remake

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The princes of Goryeo, the women who love them and the one woman out of her time.

IU

Go Ha-jin / Hae Soo

Lead

Lee Joon-gi

Wang So

Lead

Kang Ha-neul

Wang Wook

Supporting

Hong Jong-hyun

Wang Yo

Supporting

Baekhyun

Wang Eun

Supporting

Nam Joo-hyuk

Wang Baek-ah

Supporting

Kim Ji-soo

Wang Jung

Supporting

Yoon Sun-woo

Wang Won

Supporting

Kim San-ho

Wang Mu

Supporting

Seohyun

Princess Woo-hee

Supporting

Kang Han-na

Princess Yeon-hwa

Supporting

Jin Ki-joo

Chae-ryung

Supporting

Just enough to stay oriented, episode by episode.

EP 01

Traveling Back to Goryeo

Aug 29, 2016

Go Ha-jin, a 21st-century woman drowning in debt after a bad relationship, is pulled back a thousand years by a solar eclipse and wakes in the body of Lady Hae Soo, cousin of the eighth prince’s wife. She tumbles into the royal bathhouse during a ritual bathing, and while she is first terrified she decides to live as Hae Soo to survive. Meanwhile the princes worry about the return of the feared fourth prince, nicknamed Wolf Dog, whose face is scarred and half hidden behind a mask, and whose own mother ignores him. His horse almost runs her down.

EP 02

A Fall, a Horse and a Prince

Aug 29, 2016

Su, a 21st-century woman now living as Hae Su in Goryeo, is saved from a fall by the fourth prince, Wang So, who then drops her in the dirt and rears his horse to frighten her. A bystander warns her that he is the notorious fourth prince. At the palace, So’s mother, the queen, wants him sent back after the ceremony, while a rumour spreads that she herself caused his scarred face. Later an assassin attack turns on Su: she bites the man holding a blade to her neck, ruining So’s chance to learn who sent him, until the eighth prince Wook’s dagger arrives and the two brothers cross swords over her.

EP 03

Blood on the Sword

Aug 30, 2016

So and Wook stand off with Su between them, with So furious that she cost him information about the assassins. Su says that people dressed like the dead assassin were killed nearby, and the princes trade alarmed looks. At the palace, the tenth prince Eun is found with a bruise and the king demands to know who dared strike royalty, so Su paces at home waiting for her punishment. The episode darkens when So tracks down a monk linked to his mother, kills him with the temple burning behind, and walks through the night to stand, sword dripping, before the queen.

EP 04

Like a Beast

Sep 5, 2016

So stands in his mother’s bedroom with a bloody sword and tells her he has erased every trace of her wrongdoing. He is like a boy asking for approval, but the queen answers that he is a beast, and his smile dies. In the aftermath Su cries in bed, Wook leaves medicine at her door and admits he hopes she can forget what she saw, and the two talk through the doorway. Later So and Su watch the snow fall, and she says she is afraid of herself and not of him, and they look away from each other the moment they are caught staring.

EP 05

Lady Hae’s Last Walk

Sep 6, 2016

The princes line up for the ancestral ceremony at which King Taejo honours past kings, and So refuses his assigned palace quarters to stay in Astronomer Choi’s tower, where he can see the stars Su once mentioned. Su makes soap from the herbs Wook sent for his wife Lady Hae, and Wook smiles from afar. When So teases her, she insists he knows her from a thousand years in the future. Lady Hae’s illness takes hold: she asks Wook to look after Su and dies on his back as he carries her home, while he asks Su softly not to wake his wife.

EP 06

Into the Palace

Sep 12, 2016

Everyone wears white for Lady Hae’s funeral, and Wook lights the pyre. Su cries beside the thirteenth prince Baek-ah, who has been quietly mourning his sister-in-law through drawings, and later she finds Wook alone in his library asking aloud why he could not say what he felt. Court talk turns to a possible marriage for Su, and Wook tells the queen he is against it because he sees her as a younger sister. The princes crowd round Su, who wonders silently which of them will become King Gwangjong, and then she walks alone into Damiwon Palace to meet the formidable Court Lady Oh.

EP 07

A Look He Can’t Stand

Sep 13, 2016

Su settles into her new post under Court Lady Oh, the palace’s highest-ranking court lady, who quizzes her on herbs and cosmetics. Su has to admit that she cannot read or write. She cheerfully tells So about the appointment, but he catches her bandaged wrist and the mood turns. She throws herself into the work, and Wook steals moments with her before Court Lady Oh notices. Then the brothers quarrel and Yo needles the crown prince about his in-laws. Su chases after So, who pins her against a pillar and tells her that the look in her eyes makes him crazy.

EP 08

The Rain Ritual

Sep 19, 2016

So tells Su he hates the pity he sees in her eyes and warns her to stay out of his sight. That night, wearing his mask again, he lies under the stars in Astronomer Choi’s tower. When a drought grips the land the princes draw names to see who will kneel for rain, and the lot falls to So. Su helps him cover his scar with makeup so that he can perform the rite. As he finishes the downpour begins, Su glimpses an unscarred So in a king’s robes, the queen looks furious, and the rain washes the makeup from his face.

EP 09

You Are Mine

Sep 20, 2016

The capital dances in the rain, and the ninth prince Won calls So a hero born. Jung guesses that someone skilled with cosmetics hid the scar, and Wook realises that Su did it. Su now feels sure that So will become King Gwangjong, the king famous for killing his brothers. She tells Wook she is afraid, and he promises that when it snows again they will walk the path from the flip book, then tells her he loves her. At the end of the episode she tries to push So away, saying that he will ruin everything, and So answers that she is his and kisses her.

EP 10

The Poisoned Cup

Sep 26, 2016

So drags Su out of the palace by the wrist, and Jung sees them ride away. Meanwhile Wook tells his mother and Princess Yeonhwa that he will ask the king for permission to marry Su and live far from the throne. At a tea ceremony So accepts three cups from Su in a row and realises, with a look at his unapologetic mother, that the tea itself has been poisoned. He drinks anyway, his toast steady, and the crown prince asks that So not be sent away to Shinju. So leaves with the world blurring and blood on his lips.

EP 11

What a Life Costs

Sep 27, 2016

So collapses and spits blood, and Su runs to him calling for help. When he recovers he goes to the king to beg for Su’s life, only to hear that sacrificing a lowly life to save an important one is no great matter; King Taejo strikes him and warns he will kill his son if he asks about Su again. The court demands someone pay, and Court Lady Oh takes the blame. The princes and Su hear the gong in the courtyard as Court Lady Oh is hanged, and Su, blaming herself, faints in So’s arms.

EP 12

The Sword Dance

Oct 3, 2016

King Taejo sends So to the Later Jin dynasty as an ambassador, and So agrees on the condition that Su may stay in the palace. The king lets him ask, then orders Astronomer Choi to send Su away where no prince can find her. Su leaves, and later she asks Wook whether he missed her; he answers every day, which is all she needs to hear. At a banquet Woo-hee takes part in a sword dance with a plan of her own, and Baek-ah steps in front of her to take the blade meant for his father while So and Wook fight in another place.

EP 13

The Rebellion Night

Oct 4, 2016

The sword dance ends with the king collapsing, and Baek-ah kicks the bloody blade away and tells Woo-hee to run. On his deathbed King Taejo names Crown Prince Mu as heir and asks General Park and Astronomer Choi to watch over both Mu and So. Su, who has sided with the crown prince, tells So she does not want Wook hurt, and So says he does not want it either. When the old king dies, So orders the defence against the rebellion Wook and Yo have planned. By night, in tears, he tells Su that he stabbed his older brother, and she holds him while he cries.

EP 14

Mercury in the Bath

Oct 10, 2016

It is 945, two years after the coup, and the late king’s son Mu now reigns as King Hyejong. Su has risen to sanggung and rules over Damiwon like her old mentor, and Chae-ryung has joined her as a court lady, a gift Su admits she owes to Wook. Su learns that So is breaking a promise he made to her, and she asks him for an excuse; he sends a poem through Baek-ah. Then mercury is found in the king’s bathwater, only Su was allowed to prepare it, and Yo offers So a cruel choice between loyalty to the dead king and Su’s life.

EP 15

Choose

Oct 11, 2016

Faced with Su’s life or his loyalty to the late King Hyejong, So drops his sword, kneels and swears allegiance to the new King Jeongjong, Yo. A flashback shows Astronomer Choi telling the young prince Mu that he carries a king’s star, and wondering what he would do if his life were short. Wook tells his mother that he did think of Su, and Su, her friends and the tenth prince Eun’s wife Soon-deok are caught in a palace full of guards. Jung holds them off so they can flee, Soon-deok urges Eun to take Su and run, and Eun refuses to leave his wife.

EP 16

Eun’s Last Stand

Oct 18, 2016

King Jeongjong’s soldiers cut down Soon-deok as she shields her husband, and the king himself fires an arrow into the tenth prince Eun. So leaps in to protect his brother while Jung and Su arrive to see the scene collapse. Later, in a quieter stretch, So and Su speak plainly: he tells her that the king was using her against him, which is why he made it look as if he no longer loved her. When she asks what he would do if she asked him to give up the throne, he says he would persuade her, and admits that he has come to want to be king to end irrational rule.

EP 17

The Revolt of 949

Oct 24, 2016

Su answers So’s wish to be king with a plea that he never kill his brothers, and he agrees. A year later, in March 949, the palace gates are shut against a revolt led by So while Su tends to a frightened King Jeongjong, who blames her for the ghosts that haunt him. Elsewhere, Woo-hee’s secret lineage is explained, and Wook tells So that if he wants to hold the throne he must marry Princess Yeonhwa for the support of the powerful families. So says he has promised someone else, and Wook reminds him that a woman who scarred her body to avoid marrying King Taejo cannot be queen.

EP 18

A Girl in Love

Oct 25, 2016

Princess Yeonhwa tells Su that she will marry the king and offers a way for the two women to coexist, with Wook pressing the same case on So. Su is not convinced until she hears it from So himself. Over a meal So criticises her for secretly sending word to Jung, who is forbidden to enter the palace, even though the queen is dying. Su grieves for Chae-ryung, who was executed, insisting she was just a girl in love, and asks Baek-ah to carry her hairpin to Jung with the message: “I want it.”

EP 19

The Wedding Hanbok

Oct 31, 2016

So finds Su dejected outside the Damiwon baths and offers her a hand, but she says she cannot return to that room and wants to leave the palace. He answers that she can never leave him, and then stares at the folded wedding hanbok in his room. Yeonhwa weighs her own plan, Wook kneels in the empty throne room and Su drops to her knees to beg So for his life. By the end of the hour Su has decided to go, a farewell is spoken, and So is left alone holding the wedding hanbok she only got to try on, with tears falling.

EP 20

The Letters

Nov 1, 2016

Su moves into Jung’s secondary home for a quiet marriage in name only, carries a child and, six months later, gives birth to a girl whom Jung tells the world was stillborn. Her health fails. She sends letter after letter to So, but Jung rewrote the calligraphy on the envelopes and So tosses them unread. Su dies in Jung’s arms. So reads the letters only after he hears of her death, rides to Jung’s house and takes her urn, and years later he meets Jung and the daughter, who wears the hairpin. In the present day Go Ha-jin weeps in front of King Gwangjong’s portrait. So thinks: “I will find you.”

Full spoilers — breaking down the finale and what it means.

Su dies, and So is left with the letters The answer to the question most viewers have is that there is no happy reunion on screen. Su, who has left the palace for Jung’s secondary home, dies after giving birth to a daughter, and So loses her without having read what she wrote. Dramabeans’ recapper called it not what the audience would have hoped for, and Silver Petticoat Review wrote that the ending leaves “no happy ending.” The finale cuts between her last months in Jung’s house, So’s rule as king, and a modern-day coda in which Go Ha-jin cries in front of a portrait of King Gwangjong.

The marriage in name only, and the letters he never read Su moves into Jung’s home for a secret ceremony that is symbolic, and he gives her back the hairpin that carries So’s memory. She is already pregnant. So hears from his spy that the couple is affectionate, is furious and stops the reports, which means he is not told how ill she is. She sends letter after letter. Jung rewrites the calligraphy on the envelopes because her handwriting is too much like the king’s, so So reads them as notes from his half-brother and throws them on a pile. Su asks Jung to keep her daughter away from the palace and dies in his arms. So opens the letters only after the news arrives.

What So does when he finds out So reads every letter, learns that she loved him completely and rides to Jung’s house, where he finds the urn. He blames Jung for waiting too long, Jung blames So for the envelopes, and Baek-ah is the one who realises how much Jung loved her too. So takes the urn to the spot where she once stacked her prayer stones. The recappers pick at the logic: Dramabeans asks “what and why?” about the handwriting excuse, and Silver Petticoat Review wished the show had explained why So threw her out in the first place. Won is given a cup of poison after Chae-ryung’s blood letter, and Wook, old and ill, tells Baek-ah that he hopes to see what kind of king So becomes.

The present day, and the portrait In the last stretch Su wakes in her own bed in the present. She works in cosmetics and has dreamed of a man in old clothes with a scar on his face for nearly a year. A presenter who looks like Astronomer Choi tells her that in the Goryeo era the surname Go was Hae, and adds that there is no such thing as coincidence: things only return to their rightful place. She wanders into an exhibit of Goryeo paintings and sees herself in them, then stops at the portrait of King Gwangjong and sobs that she is sorry for leaving him alone. The picture comes into focus as Goryeo again, where So hears her voice.

An open ending, and what it means So stands alone in the painting’s pose, looks back over his shoulder and says life is fleeting, as his father once did. He recalls Su telling him that if they had met in another world, she could have loved him freely, and thinks that if she and he are not of the same world, he will find her. The last shot is a flashback of the two of them running off together. Neither recap reports a present-day meeting: Dramabeans asked why the show would not give a single hint, while a Silver Petticoat Review reviewer chose to imagine that they do meet in the museum. What is on screen is a promise and an absence, and that is the ending.