Pandarific!!

[Spoiler Alert]

Episode Recap.

The scene starts with someone writing the final words in a book and the viewer is then given an aerial view of Joseon dynasty korea. A quick view of the university and its students is given, followed by the outside and finally in a bookshop. In the shop, a customer, a university student is anxious to get his answer script, finally the main heroine arrives, Yoon Hee, disguised as a man (it is really super obvious), has accidentally dropped the book, the student panics but she asks for 30 minutes, in that time, she writes out the whole book by memory. 

The scene shifts to the main Hero, Lee Seon Joon who is busy studying, (he is a very intelligent man), but someone throws and egg at him. His friend comes by and offers to help clean it up, as the guy is reaching for his hair, Seon Joon grabs his hand, knowing that the friend only wants his hair to make a brush in attempts to pass the exam. His friend then begs him for 3 strands of hair, and shows him all the strands he has collected, he grabs it and lets the wind blow it away. Meanwhile,Yoon Hee is asked by the shopkeeper if she wants to earn more money, he shows her all the answer scripts that has been written for the exam. She refuses to be a substitute exam taker as it goes against 2 of her principles, lying to officials and stealing from other people's rice bowls. As she leaves, two giseangs try to attract her attention, thinking she is a handsome man, they fail obviously and seek to get advice from their senior.

Yoon Hee changes back into womans clothes, but when she gets home, her house is being raided by 'loan sharks', they demand payment and she promises them she will pay back the money no matter what. She goes the shopkeeper and tells him she'll try out the substitute test taker job. The exam is officiated and here we get a glimpse of what people of those times would go through to do well in the exam. In the hall (which anyone can enter freely) she mistakenly goes to Seon Joon's place, thinking he is the customer.He threatens to report her, but she explains that she has to pay for medicine for her brother and repay debts too. He goes on to call the official and blames everyone, even the official for defiling the exam hall, they find out he is the ministers son and the whole place is cleared. After that the exam goes on. He hands in his paper and the examiners are impressed but they ask him if the words on his coat was a 'new way of cheating'. In fact those words were written by Yoon Hee as he was busy answering his paper. 

He chases Yoon Hee (who is still trying to smuggle the answers to the customer) around town and bumps into a group of seniors, he makes enemies with the leader In Soo and continues to chase her. She changes into her girls clothes again and he looses her. Back home, Yoon Hee finds out that her mother has 'sold' her to the minister that loaned them the money, her mother scolds her for helping others cheat, reminding her of her position as a woman. She begs her to stops dressing up as a man. The next day she goes to the minister, she tries to beg for more time and uses sun zu's strategy, but this only makes the guy want her more, the ministers son, In Soo (the senior) is unhappy with her attitude towards his father. He gets his goons to try and rape her, but a man Jae Shin helps her out and saves her. She thanks him but he asks her to leave him alone. 

Still insistent on finding her, Seon Joon goes out to look for her himself after his servant fails to. Yong Ha (one of the seniors) offers to help him and gives him a tip off. Before that, eh threatened the shopkeeper to keep quiet. To get more money, Yoon Hee agrees to deliver some illegal books, the man turns out to be Seon Joon and immediately the officials come. They run away, it turns out the senior Seon Joon offended planned it all out. The episode ends with Seon Joon and Yoon Hee trying to hide from the officials. 

For a first episode, it is very action packed, not the best thing to do especially when your viewers are trying to familiarize themselves with the characters. Seon Joon could do a little better with the expressions and In Soo just plays the typical villian role. I like Yong Ha as there is that mix of playfulness yet you know he's not all just good looks, he has some brain in there. I am taken back by the part where Yoon Hee declares her principles proudly to the shopkeeper but ends up breaking them and even enjoying the spoils to a certain extent, normally the character would stick to his/her principles to the end, if the writer is trying to put a twist to it, it would have been the wrong place to do it. It just makes the character weaker and less appealing. Nevertheless i found the episode quite entertaining after grasping what was happening. Hope the following episodes will be good too, hoping this will turn out to be a worthwhile drama. There is a lot of hype on it currently because of Mickey.