‘When I saw Nakyum locked in that shed the other day, I could not help but think of you, Master.’
Seungho has numbed himself to pain, both physical and emotional, to cope with his father’s beating and strangulations to a point where he literally provokes his father into anger and dares him to abuse him even more. It’s a rebellion.
Jihwa sneaking in and unlocking the shed door from the outside show that Seungho had spent years being locked up in there, a very long part of his formative years, like a feral animal his family was ashamed of and gave up upon. He still put up a fight, judging by the broken ceramics.
It will be interesting to see how Seungho went from an abused prisoner kept like an animal in a shed to a person feared by one of the most powerful men in Joseon. How did he get a hold of something that eventually made the pater familias quiver and run in fear? What is it?
The painting on the folding screen symbolizes Seungho’s father - a daunting dark threat looming over him, seemingly insurmountable - suggesting that his father is the crux of the whole problem. But is there more to it? Perhaps something that happened in that particular room?
The unresolved issues, no closure and no healing process whatsover summed up in a crystal clear metaphor - Seungho killing the boar symbolizes the need to punish the men who hurt him almost beyond repair and whose shadows keep haunting him - which also explains why he has been hunting so often since the beginning. He wants to stop being the victim, the prey that’s being hunted.
A proof that Seungho falls into a trance-like state where he loses the sense of time, space, himself and even the people around him. For a moment, he becomes completely baffled that he’s been outside, in the cold, the whole day killing animals.
Seungho’s hunting obsession is reminiscent of Kang Moo in The Best Must Die who coped this way with his psychopathic need to kill people, trying to keep it under control. It’s both Seungho’s coping mechanism and manifestation of his darkest inclinations.
Lord Song is shown to be entertained by kisaeng.The scene with Heena where she vows to do everything to free Nakyum from Seungho might not have been about a particular man behind a curtain, but showing that she has access to powerful men she can beg to 'help and that her desperation may backfire.
Seungho never met anyone he liked better than his hair… until Nakyum.
