Essentially, at the end of the day, power is a matter of making up for the insecurities that the characters of Arthdal Chronicles face in their lives. Perhaps that is why Eunseom is being touted as the next Aramun Haesulla, because he is the only one acting from a place of love and goodness, despite having a life that was just as hard as the others. It doesn’t even matter that Saya is more interesting as a character, and if he gets a tragic ending, we will never forgive the writers of this show. In many ways, he is carrying the story on his cunning shoulders, and we hope he gets his due: the good kind. For now, let us just see what has happened in Arthdal Chronicles through Episode 7 recap and ending.
Spoiler Alert
What is Eunseom and Ago’s new problem?
As Eunseom takes back his place as the Inaishingi, he and the Ago tribe have a new challenge that they must take on. Since Arthdal has started building iron swords, the tribe also needs to get their hands on the technology or the product if they hope to win the way that is to come. But other than vague ideas, there is no way to do that looks feasible. But fate has to be on Eunseom’s side because he gets help in the most random manner. His people were apprehended by the Arthdal forces and then kidnapped by members of the Momo tribe. The tribesmen were booking for Hae Kkadak, Ttaemun, and Buksoe, but upon finding that the captured people were members of the Ago tribe, they took them instead to hold them captive till they could get the people they were looking for.
When Eunseom tries to find out why the people of the Momo tribe want the three men, Kkadak reveals that it is all part of a misunderstanding. On the other hand, Buksoe gives them even more valuable intel. He tells them about a huge deposit of iron at the bottom of the Lake of Stars, and if they are able to get that, Kkadak will be able to forge it into swords. This is what Eunseom has wanted all along, and when he checks, he finds that the meteorite is indeed there. However, there is no way to bring it out since it is way too deep in the lake, and no one could hold their breath for that long. But he still cannot let Kkadak go.
During the exchange of prisoners, Kkadak is kidnapped by the Ikomahis, and there is a long-drawn fight sequence between the three parties, which ends with Karat face down in the water and presumed to be dead by everyone. However, he is alive, and he kills the Igutu, saving Eunseom the trouble. This also reveals to them that Karat is from the Momo tribe, and he is the half-brother of Xabara, who is the tribe’s chief. Basically, that is a tribe that has an affinity for water and can hold their breath underwater for long periods of time. They are ideal for helping the Ago tribe get the iron at the bottom of the Lake of Stars. Therefore, Karat goes from being the enemy of Ago to their friend real quick, and we can see that he is probably being pampered more than the Inaishingi ever was because he needs to be convinced to help them. However, Karat and his tribe operate on a principle of ‘karma and debt,’ which means that they don’t want anything owed to them, and neither do they wish to owe anything to anyone. That is why they neither help nor accept help for anything, as it creates an imbalance in this very debt. Kkadak tells Karat that helping the Ago tribe could change the fate of Arthdal, and that convinces the man to stay away from their matters even more, as he ‘doesn’t want to owe the whole world.’
Has Tagon lost his mind?
There is no doubt left regarding this matter, and Tagon is certainly left with no redemption. But that doesn’t mean that people are not taking advantage of him. First things first, he is presented with the iron sword by Yeolson, and he decides to name it ‘Seed’ for superlatively destructive reasons. Additionally, he calls upon Hwajin, Taelha’s servant, who had been planted by him many years ago, to spy on his wife. She had been pretending to be deaf and mute this whole time, and that is how she had gathered all the intel on Taelha. She tells Tagon about Saya not being the real person and how Taelha made use of that.
With this information, Tagon is set on his conspiracy theory that his wife is his enemy, and he wants to kill her. At a banquet, he announces that she was shielding the fake Saya and that the real one had been killed by her through the Shahati. As expected, it is an incredible story, and nobody is ready to believe it. Even Taelha reveals how Tagon is not in his right mind and that he killed three doctors who had tried to treat him. But Tagon is still the King, and if he wants to be mad, who is going to stop him? When he orders a minister to be beheaded, Tanya puts her foot down, but there is only so much she can do. The King believes that Tanya knew about Saya being someone else, but at the last minute, Yangcha vouches for her which discredits the King. Unfortunately, though this saves Tanya, it just further proves that Tagon has unfairly accused the queen, who is being confined to her quarters at the moment.
What is Saya’s plan?
In the beginning of Arthdal Chronicles Episode 7, we understood that Saya cared about the Ago tribe because they had shown him some much-needed love. Even though that had not been for him, he was ready to work for them from then on. But when he gets orders to come back to Arthdal and learns that Dupa will be leading the attack on Ago, he makes preparations and leaves. The message is that Eunseom must capture the Mulbeol palace at any cost, and that will give him an advantage in the war going forward. Saya goes back, not knowing that he has been followed by the Ikomahis.
As expected, once he reaches Arthdal, the first thing he does is meet Taelha. These two finally clear their misunderstanding as Taelha admits that she knows that Saya never tried to have Arok assassinated. Initially, that was Taelha’s assumption, but when she found that the needle he had been attacked with had no poison, she realized that the intention was never to kill Arok. It was to stage an incident that would provoke her, and only Tagon would do this. He wanted her to try and kill Saya to get his obstacle out of the way. But that plan had gone out of the window because Saya had a twin and Mubaek was on their side, and they had ended up exchanging places. Saya and Taelha know that their long-term goals are against each other, but right then, they had to get rid of Tagon. Taelha tells Saya that she feels nothing for the King anymore, and he has himself made sure of that. She only wants Arok to take the throne while she becomes regent.
Once Saya is out of the room, he wonders about the necklace that had been given to him by the Ikomahis, and that brings him to the library to read about them. It is not completely clear to us what he found out, but the next episode will tell us that. Meanwhile, the Ikomahis themselves come to meet Saya, and they insist that if the necklace belongs to him, then he must follow them. But before anything more can happen, Eunbyeol protects Saya by killing the Ikomahis. At the end of Arthdal Chronicles Episode 7, Saya tells her that they are close to their revenge and they can kill Tagon and conquer Arthdal. Tanya hears the conversation, and perhaps Saya did not want her to see him talking as such, but she doesn’t care. Saya tells her that they should go ahead with the plan they shared with Mubaek, which was for him, Tanya, and Eunseom to start a new world.
Final Thoughts
Episode 7 of Arthdal Chronicles Season 2 was important, but we felt like it had a few too many minutes in it. We are also not fond of the character of Karat. He has interesting mannerisms, but something about him rings hollow, and though we know that he is just a means to an end, he could have had more substance to him. In fact, if the Lake of Stars had been shallow, his character could have simply been done away with. But the bigger mystery is that of the Ikomahis, and we look forward to that.
