Pandarific!!

The episode starts with Yoon Hee begging her lecturer not to expel her because she has found people that acknowledge her talents and believes in her. She says that men and women are equal, this makes him really mad, she confidently says that she would win the Dae Sa Re. He mocks her as she can’t even hold the bow properly. He tells her that if she wins, as she says she will, he will spare her and her family, if not, they will all die. Finally her returns to her her mothers git (hair stick).

As she goes out, the rain stops and the sun comes up, signifying new hope. Immediately, she goes to Sun joon to ask him to help her out, he is surprised at this, but she asks for the miracle that he was talking about, she finally wants to train for the competition.

At the training ground, the three friends are not doing so well in their archery and want to give up. Yoon Hee steps up and does miserably in her archery, they tell her to give up. Even Sun Joon tells her to stop as she was exerting herself, in anger, she drops her bow and storms off, and he follows her. Unfortunately, she bumps into the student council President. His goons scold her for doing so, due to her anger before, she challenges him and says that she’ll become the champion of the competition, and if she wins he will apologize for mocking her family.

Later, she talks with sun joon, asking him what he thinks of the chances of her winning. He says that she is weak, her legs can’t support her body, etc, basically insulting her, but then he turns it over and says that her strong attitude is already a sign of a champion, with that she has hope.
So with that, the next scene, we see yoon hee tied to a tree and dangling around. She struggles and demands to be put down, questioning the use of this exercise, he grabs her legs and tells her to just do 30 rounds and he will let her down even if she insists on ‘flying off’. We see her doing so in the end, but with lots of struggling. The main purpose of this exercise was to strengthen her hands to hold the bow.

In the university, the students are lined up to receive a ‘gift’ (a bowl of ice) from the principle. He does this in the excuse that they have been working so hard, in reality he just wants to suck up to sun joon’s dad, when he finds out that he is actually not there, he gets frustrated.

Next scene, yoon hee runs up the hill followed by sun joon, she trips but is determined to go on. On top, she does some breathing exercises. The purpose of running up the hill was to strengthen her lower body to stabilize herself, or at least e able to stand firm. And the breathing is important especially when one lets go off the bow.

Of course, she questions all this training and he explains everything to her. While they are doing so, the student council president talks to Jae Shin telling him about the competition, Jae shin is surprised that Yoon Hee was actually interested in the competition.

As for all good training montages, the protagonist or the main character of course gets better, and we can see a lot of improvement as she no longer struggles to pull herself up, she can run up the hill perfectly, even soon jun is impressed. (we can obviously see he is very impressed and interested, this is the way they bond you know) But the main point is, can she shoot? Of course! Slowly, from a near target to further and further, she hits it every time. She even goes to the point of waking up earlier than the guys to train, she is so worked up that she eats so much, the sweet thing is that Jae shin gives her and apple. However that is not all, the trains her arm by pulling a branch of a tree while studying, sun joon is next to her studying and watching over her progress, she falls asleep on his shoulder and this is where he stares at her and doesn’t know if he should wake her up or not. A nice sentimental moment for the two of them, sun joon starts to give that caring look to her too.

As she practices, a lecturer comments that she has improved tremendously, the other lecturer (the one that knows she is a girl) is pessimistic and points out that she has still not hit the bull’s eye yet. We are taken to where yoon hee is, Jae shin appears and carries her off on his shoulder; he pulls out a pot and dumps her hand in. She wails as it is alcohol, it hurts her hand as it is full of bruises due to training, he explains that desperate measures have to be taken and that with a bruised hand, she can never hit the bulls eye no matter how many times she tries. In the end, they talk and she convinces him to come so that she can be champion of the competition. His attendance is really needed as all three, yoon hee, sun joon and jae shin have to be there as a team to qualify. She thanks him for his gift and leaves, he suddenly starts to hiccup and Yoong Ha notices.

The student council president’s sister, Hyo Eun comes as sun joon and the president are talking to each other. Yoon Hee spots them walking together and there is a hint of jealousy in her. As Jae shin hiccups, yoon hee almost gets caught by Yoong Ha, but then Hyo Eun is spotted, so that sort of explains it to him. (Yoon hee is safe yet again)

As food is being distributed by Hyo Eun, Yoon Hee watches her from under the tree, Yoong Ha joins Yoon Hee and they talk about Hyo Eun and Sun Joon, finally Yoong Ha comes up with a perfect nick name for sun Joon, “Ka Rang” meaning perfect husband material, Yoon Hee sort of agree to this.

Hyo Eun is shown to be feeding sun Joon privately, although sun joon is obviously feeling very awkward about it. The goons watch from behind and the one that likes hyo Eun is jealous. Sun Joon and Hyo Eun walk with each other and she tries to get him to talk, but in the end, he tells her not to come to Sungkyunkwan anymore, she accepts this and agrees to it.

Meanwhile, the king himself is practicing his archery; he is very excited about the competition.

At night, Yoon Hee and the lecturer meet, he tells her to give up as it is still not too late to humble herself as he will forgive her. She refuses to do so and says that she will not give up till she has shot every bow given to her. So she goes off to practice, sadly, she can’t seem to hit the bull’s eye, finally it comes down to the last bow and with much tension, she hits the bull’s eye. She is so happy that she doesn’t notice sun joon behind her. When she does she shows him what she has done. At first he doesn’t celebrate with her, which makes her frustrated, but as she leaves, he says that he is proud of her, they smile at each other and this just makes you so happy for both of them.

The goon sees this and reports it to the student council president, but he is not affected. Outside, the Left Prime minister arrives, but as he walks into the house, an arrow from the masked man is shot. The guards chase after him and this time they actually manage to hit him with a bow. He struggles but manages to run away. It is revealed that the masked man is Jae Shin. The Left Prime Minister and the minister of war discuss the situation and have come up with a conclusion based on the writing and the masked man himself that the masked man is a sungkyunkwan student. It is decided that they will catch him during the competition before the king can lay hands on him.

In the university, a head count if done for the students and Jae shin is missing, the lecturer says that if he is not present the next day for the competition, Sun joon and Yoon hee cannot participate. Yoon Hee, despite the circumstances still believes that he will turn up. The principle is not so positive and wants to relocate sun joon so that he can participate anyway. The two other lecturers do not agree with this and asks the principle to be patient.

In their room, sun joon and yoon hee cannot sleep; she is worried that something bad might have happened to Jae Shin. Jae shin is shown to struggle into the university and finally he is in the infirmary struggling to get the medicine, he eventually faints as he has lost lots of blood. The war minister is shown to give orders to his officers to disguise as guards for the king and capture the masked man, giving them orders to not hesitate to kill him on the spot.

The next day, the workers are shown to be preparing for the competition. The students come out of their quarters nicely dressed for the event and the giseang come in, admired by the students. Outside, the commoners are celebrating and the shopkeeper offers news and updates about the event for 3 pennies. The king gets ready to come and apologises to the left prime minister for the shock her must have gotten while being attacked by the masked man. He orders the war minister to hunt the man down, but not on that particular day.

Roll call is done for the students and Jae Shin is nowhere to be seen. The lecturer gives that look to yoon hee, telling her the consequences they will face is Jae shin is not present. Meanwhile, Jae shin is still in the infirmary, he is very weak and it looks like he won’t be able to make it to the competition.

Final roll call and Jae Shin is not there, sun joon and yoon hee’s names are cancelled off the list. However, we are shown Jae shin as he tries to make it to the competition, unfortunately he is still weak and is caught by the guards. The student council president comes over to insult them saying that he is disappointed that he cannot shame them in front of everyone, but then Jae shin suddenly appears and there is hope again.

Comments:

I like training montages, it just makes you want to train with the character too. More importantly, showing the characters determination will make the character more appealing to you. You can consider the training parts as a bonding time for yoon hee and sun joon. It is quite obvious that they are starting to like each other, the way he looks at her is just so sweet! Jae shin too is starting to like her and i like how he just randomly appears and helps her out in some way. So it’s the beginning of the battle of the two males for the main girl.

I personally feel that the fact that yoon hee can train up so fast is really unrealistic, of course they only have a short time to cover everything, but then again, it’s a bit too unrealistic. 4 days is just too short a time to become so good (days mentioned by a lecturer). Hyo Eun’s increasing involvement in the story also shows that the story is picking up fast as we know that she will eventually cause conflict between the hero and heroine, actually, some signs of jealousy on yoon hee’s part is already shown when she sees sun joon and hyo eun walking together.

The lecturer is just plain mean. He doesn’t have to go all the way to threaten her, furthermore she is the daughter of his own lecturer, so have some mercy please. But it’s also refreshing as he doesn’t fall into that role where he finds out she is a girl and just accepts her easily because she is the daughter of his old lecturer.

Overall the main part that i like is the training part as you get to see the development of feelings between yoon hee and sun joon. Especially when he says they he is proud of her, i was actually smiling broadly with them as they laughed with joy over her accomplishment.