Alchemy of Souls part 2 episode 10 recap & review

Open Go TV / January 9, 2023 / Reviews

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In the finale of ‘Alchemy of Souls’, Jang Uk marries Naksu before facing the fire bird that brings destruction to the world. The episode is now streaming on Netflix.

Recap

Jang Uk adheres to Naksu’s wish and spends the day with her, acting like any other normal couple. He promises to watch over her till the end. They visit Master Lee at his hut; he was the one who sent Naksu to Danhyanggok to meet Jang Uk.

He believes he is also responsible for what happened to them in the past. Refusing to stand aside and do nothing for them, he insists that they get married. Naksu is ready to do as he says because he saved her life.

He officiates at their wedding, and Naksu expresses her wish to be called by the name her parents gave her, Cho Yeong. Naksu and Jang Uk fulfill their old promise by climbing the tree in Danhyanggok.

Jin Ho-gyeong is no longer opposed to their relationship, as the two of them fought to protect Jinyowon. She remembers Master Lee’s words about Jin Seol-ran watching over them; she might have had a hand in reuniting them after three years.

Master Lee believes that Jin Seol-ran stayed back to protect the Ice Stone, knowing that it will be misused one day. She went through the Great Chaos with Master Seo Gyeong, and she took birth as Bu-yeon to prevent a reoccurrence of it.

Jang Uk decides not to keep a count of his last days with Naksu. She still does not remember what happened when she stabbed him. She assumes that it will be the last memory she will regain before her soul leaves her body.

She promises to signal him by holding his hand when she regains that memory, which will be her last love letter to him.

Naksu calls Jang Uk using the jade, and he finds her surrounded by a barrier. He crosses the barrier and sees the visions of the end of the world. As Master Lee had suspected, Jin Seol-ran had taken birth as Bu-yeon, and she summoned Jang Uk.

She tells him that the fire bird will awaken and turn the world to ash. She had seen this future years ago, and she stayed back to prevent it from happening. However, she cannot stop it. The man who is born against the laws of nature under the King’s Star is the only one who can do it.

She had deliberately attracted Naksu, who is Jang Uk’s shadow, and used her. Now she will make her disappear, as Bu-yeon needs to come to this world to stop the destruction of the world with Jang Uk.

Jin Mu needs to absorb other people’s energy to survive as a soul shifter. He convinces the king, with the offer of power, to take away Go Won’s Gold Plaque and keep him locked up; the king declares that Go Won is no longer the heir to the throne.

Jin Mu and the other mages of the Unanimous Assembly, except Songrim, attack Jinyowon to steal the fire bird. Jin Mu threatens to kill Jin Ho-gyeong and makes Cho-yeon open the doors.

They take the fire bird with them and leave behind an injured Jin Ho-gyeong as Jinyowon collapses. Cho-yeon rushes to get Songrim’s help. Maidservant Kim, who had come to visit, helps Jin Ho-gyeong in stopping the dangerous relics from escaping.

Jin Ho-gyeong uses every ounce of her energy to stop the relics, but she does not have enough strength. Park Jin comes to help, but he is forced to seal the door when some relics escape, despite knowing that Maidservant Kim will die inside.

After sacrificing his love, Park Jin is given an opportunity to save Maidservant Kim by siding with Jin Mu. He tells the mages of the Unanimous Assembly and Jin Mu that he would do anything to save her, but he must stop them from destroying this world.

He fights them, but when Jin Mu breaks the barrier around the fire bird, he is forced to focus his energy on it. This gives Jin Mu a chance to stab him. The assembly’s sages and Jin Mu leave him to die.

Jang Uk returns the next day and finds everyone mourning Park Jin, Maidservant Kim, and Jin Ho-gyeong’s deaths. Go Won, who escaped when the fire bird’s energy burned down the place, tells him that the king and the Unanimous Assembly have sided with Jin Mu.

However, Jang Uk tells them that the three of them are still alive. Last night, when Naksu discovered that Jinyowon is falling, she left the body to allow Bu-yeon to regain her divine powers.

Naksu signaled to Jang Uk that she has regained her last memory. He tells her that even though they were never destined to meet, they chose to love and bring happiness to each other. Naksu’s final words to him are her declaration of love.

Bu-yeon opens a door to Jinyowon using her divine powers. She prevents Jinyowon from collapsing. She saves Maidservant Kim and Jin Ho-gyeong, who are trapped inside.

Furthermore, she sends Master Lee to find the fire bird, but he finds an injured Park Jin instead. Master Lee saves his life.

Jin Mu asks the king to send all the guards to protect Cheonbugwan, where he plans to awaken the fire bird. On the other hand, Jang Uk gives his Gold Plaque to Go Won to give him power over the army.

Go Won realizes that Jang Uk has no desire to become the most powerful man, as he has already climbed to the top of the world with the person he promised to do so.

Jang Uk tells everyone that as the awakening of the fire bird is inevitable, he plans to awaken it in a place where he would be able to assert control — the place where the energy of the sky reached the ground and created a huge form of energy.

Jin Mu waits for the hour when the energy of the fire would be the strongest to begin the lake’s rite.

Go Won dethrones the king, Dang-gu and Sang-ho fight Cheonbugwan’s mages, Yul takes Bu-yeon to Cheonbugwan, and Cho-yeon destroys the fire bird’s replicas.

This causes Jin Mu to rush the awakening. He stifles all opposition and asks the Unanimous Assembly to hurry. Jang Uk interrupts them and messes up the awakening.

He traps the mages of the Unanimous Assembly and Jin Mu. He tells them that he is giving them a glimpse of the world that they desire, where the powerful wield even greater power. He uses the fire bird to kill the members of the assembly and Jin Mu.

He asks Dang-gu to take the fire bird to Bu-yeon, while he waits at Lake Gyeongcheondaeho. Bu-yeon uses Jang Uk’s constellation plate to wake the fire bird and send it to Jang Uk’s King’s Star.

The people witness the fire bird in the sky; it burns everything it contacts. Jang Uk fights the bird and defeats it at Lake Gyeongcheondaeho. Meanwhile, Bu-yeon gives Naksu back to Jang Uk and leaves the body.

A year later, Park Jin and a pregnant Maidservant Kim babysit Cho-yeon and Dang-gu’s twins as the couple visits Jin Ho-gyeong.

Naksu, who is known as Bu-yeon to everyone, possesses Bu-yeon’s divine powers. She has agreed to help Jeongjingak recruit new mages by judging their energies. She has also been secretly interviewing potential brides for Go Won, who is the king now.

Yul, who is in charge of recruiting the Jeongjingak mages, has allowed people from all backgrounds to apply, not caring that it might irk people from prestigious families.

Go Won follows all of Master Lee’s advice. He even wants Jang Uk to be the Gwanju of Cheonbugwan, but Jang Uk keeps refusing his offer.

Jin Ho-gyeong no longer resents Naksu, as she believes that Naksu was chosen by Jin Seol-ran to protect that body; she thinks her daughter is still living because of Naksu.

A total of 31 relics escaped Jinyowon the night it was attacked. Naksu and Jang Uk have been capturing those relics. Their story has become folklore and is narrated to children.

They keep visiting the tree in Danhyanggok, and Jang Uk keeps his promise to carry Naksu every single time. In the end, they are seen capturing a relic with their exceptional powers.

Review

The finale ties up a lot of loose ends. In the first part, Naksu thought she had accidentally shifted her soul into Mu-deok’s body, but the finale reveals that it was Jin Seol-ran who chose Naksu.
Do Sang-woo had to imitate Jin Mu’s habits to seem more like him. While the actor was not great in all the scenes, there were scenes where he shined. He convinced the audience that he has fully left behind Yun-o and embraced Jin Mu.
The losses of the various characters were truly devastating. The audience could feel the pain of Go Won being betrayed by his father, Ho-gyeong losing Jinyowon, Park Jin and Maidservant Kim’s sacrifice, and Jang Uk mourning Naksu.
While it is understandable that the show wanted a happy ending for everyone, the finale would have left a greater impact if every loss had not been erased and every character had not survived against all odds.
The episode was so focused on the emotional aspect that the action seemed insignificant. The feared fire bird that was supposed to spell doom for the world was defeated by Jang Uk in minutes without breaking a sweat.