4 People Who Bring Namgoong Min And Ahn Eun Jin Back Together In Episodes 11-12 Of "My Dearest"

“My Dearest” is back and ready to rip our hearts out after that explosive mid-season finale back in August. With our lovers torn apart and on opposite sides of a very dangerous border, it seems almost impossible that their paths could cross again. But war upends the chessboard, and it isn’t long before Lee Jang Hyun (Namgoong Min) and Yoo Gil Chae (Ahn Eun Jin) are thrown back together—even if it is for the most awful of reasons.

Here are four people who bring the leads back together in the recent episodes:

Warning: spoilers for episodes 11-12 below.

1. Lee Jang Hyun

The best part about Lee Jang Hyun’s actions after supposedly being dumped by Gil Chae is that he has no clue that the kindness he shows will come back to him in the best of ways. To say that he’s hollowed out afterwards would be an understatement. He even debates on surrendering to death just so he doesn’t have to feel the pain of Gil Chae’s rejection. Jang Hyun was never a man who had much to live for, and he has even less to live for now. He’s back in Shimyang and forced to hunt down escaped slaves so as to keep the Qing happy with him, while he secretly plots against them with Crown Prince So Hyun (Kim Moo Joon).

But Jang Hyun isn’t really murdering the escaped slaves. He’s buying them. He lies to the emperor’s righthand man Yong Gol Dae (Choi Young Woo) that he’s selling the slaves for money and that he’ll bring Gol Dae a cut of the profits. In reality, he’s using his own money, hiding the slaves in a secure place, and paying Gol Dae the cash from his own coffers just so he can keep his people free. What an incredible guy. Jang Hyun has every opportunity to drown his sorrows in the many willing women around him. But he just can’t forget Gil Chae no matter what he does. He cannot help but remember the woman he’s loved for about four years at this point. She isn’t going to vanish so easily.

Jang Hyun soon goes from helping escaped slaves to helping slaves escape. It’s a dangerous venture because he’s actually breaking them out of high places. He even helps the Joseon women forced into being the emperor’s concubines escape back home. And this is where his kindness will come back to aid him. The bonds and gratitude he has earned are about to save the life of the woman he loves.

2. The Qing slavers and Joseon king

As Joseon’s King Injo (Kim Jong Tae) grows increasingly paranoid and belligerent that his son is about to usurp his throne, he passes an edict demanding that all Joseon slaves who have successfully escaped the Qing empire return to the Qing empire or be killed. He even offers a cash reward for people to rat out their friends and neighbors! It’s a horrible edict because it means that people who’ve risked everything just to return to their homeland, for love of their homeland, are now being rounded up by their own people and thrown to the Qing empire. And, as with all things, people are only happy to abuse the system and lie so as to get rid of people they don’t like—or in Gil Chae’s case, of people they want.

A Qing slaver catches sight of Gil Chae when she’s unwittingly implicated for harboring escapees in her forge. Gil Chae’s about to get out of it by using her now-husband’s name Goo Won Moo (Ji Seung Hyun). He’s a senior military officer, so no magistrate would dare prosecute his wife. But the Qing slaver sees money to be made in Gil Chae’s beauty and has her and her maid, Jong Jong (Park Jong Yeon), kidnapped and forcibly dragged to Qing as slaves. Gil Chae, who already carries trauma from the war, is forced back into it. As a woman, she’s never been in more danger. Her beauty attracts the attention of a Qing prince who wants her as his concubine and the man’s wife who likes torturing beautiful women by burning them alive. Gil Chae’s plunged back into hell, and she and Jong Jong are alone in it.

3. Ryang Eum

Ryang Eum (Kim Yoon Woo) is shaping up to have one of the best character arcs in this show. After having made the devastating mistake of not telling Gil Chae about Jang Hyun in Part 1, he was abandoned by Jang Hyun. Brokenhearted, he spends his days watching over Gil Chae, his last link to the man he loves. So, he’s the first to notice that Gil Chae’s been kidnapped.

It says a lot about Goo Won Moo that his first thought is that Gil Chae has run off with Jang Hyun. He even accuses Kyung Eun Ae (Lee Da In) and Nam Yeon Joon (Lee Hak Joo) of hiding that Gil Chae ran away with another man from him, despite the fact that Gil Chae broke her own heart to adhere to her obligations. Ryang Eum desperately tries to convince him that Gil Chae’s in danger, but it takes him and Yeon Joon following the slaves’ trail and finding Gil Chae’s ring and message for him for Won Moo to finally make a move. Ryang Eum’s search for Gil Chae seems to be a form of atonement. He wants to help save her and bring her to Jang Hyun to even the scales. He seems to just want to be with Jang Hyun no matter what shape and form that relationship looks like. In contrast, Gil Chae herself wants to avoid Jang Hyun at any cost—even if it means losing her life.

4. Gil Chae

After breaking her heart and Jang Hyun’s, Gil Chae’s sleepwalked through life. She sells the forge’s goods and is a brilliant businesswoman, but the joy that used to sparkle in her eyes is gone. She attends to her wifely duties as Won Moo wishes but doesn’t care about him as anything more than a friend. She’s become robotic. But being captured and forced back into hell reawakens the fierce tiger in her who fought for her friends’ lives during the war. She seizes her life in both hands and doesn’t stop fighting. Despite knowing that she’s headed to Shimyang where Jang Hyun is, she refuses to ask him for help after how badly she hurt him. She protects her maid throughout the journey to Shimyang, even allowing a slaver to take her valuables if it meant protecting Jong Jong. The first chance she gets, she cuts her finger, rips off some fabric, and writes a letter in her own blood, begging for help. She gives that to a beggarwoman with a jade ring, knowing that the woman will pass on the message after getting paid for it. And that’s exactly how the message ends up in Ryang Eum’s hands.

After being forced into joining the Qing harem and selected by the Qing prince, she cuts her own head just so her body is scarred, because Qing royalty only want unscarred women. Her tenacity and strength are just incredible. She’s thrown out of the harem and prepped to be sold at an open-air market, which is the same one that Jang Hyun rescues people from. Suddenly, we see what seems to be the same scene that we ended on in Part 1: of Jang Hyun and Gak Hwa (Lee Chung Ah) chasing some escaping slaves. Only now, we see that Gil Chae is one of those slaves and that Jang Hyun is actually trying to stop Gak Hwa from capturing them.

And we leave off there! It’s a jam-packed pair of episodes that give great insight into Jang Hyun and Gil Chae despite them not having seen each other at all this week. Despite having his heart broken, Jang Hyun doesn’t turn bitter or resent Gil Chae. Rather, he can’t stop loving her and keeps wishing her the best. Gil Chae knows what she’s done and can’t bring herself to beg for Jang Hyun’s help after hurting him so much, even if it means losing her life. These two are so perfect for each other. I just wish Won Moo wasn’t in the picture.

Next week’s preview seems to show Jang Hyun finding out that Gil Chae’s been captured and coming for her, which is just swoon-worthy for so many reasons. Firstly, the slavers took great pleasure in pointing out to Gil Chae that children pay to free their parents from the slave markets and vice versa. Even wives come to free their husbands, but no husband comes for their wife because when a woman is captured by the Qing, she’s automatically seen as dirty, even if nothing happened to her. But Jang Hyun, the same Jang Hyun who does not see women as commodities, is going to come for her! Here’s hoping they aren’t torn apart again!

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Shalini_A is a long time Asian-drama addict. When not watching dramas, she fangirls over Ji Sung, and spins thrillers set in increasingly fantastic worlds. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and feel free to ask her anything!

Currently watching:  “Arthdal Chronicles: Sword of Aramun,” “The Worst of Evil,” “The Killing Vote,” “Song of the Bandits,” and “Twinkling Watermelon.”
Looking forward to: “Gyeongseong Creature,” “Ask the Stars,” “Doona!” “Queen of Tears,” “Vigilante,” “Daily Dose of Sunshine,” and Ji Sung’s next drama.