Arthdal Chronicles is easily the best show on the screens right now. Despite filler elements and tiny loopholes, this is a clear upgrade from season 1. Tensions are high, and this is the kind of situation that warrants saying that it is the darkest before dawn. There are barely any more secrets, and the ones left will no doubt have major consequences. This is a recap of the episode for us to enjoy while we wait for the next episode to move the story forward.

Spoiler Alert

Is Saya dead?

Fandoms would have revolted if Saya had died in this episode. Apart from the fact that it is a terrible cliche that a man starved for love dies for it, Saya simply deserves better. He is not meant for a tragic ending, and even attempting that would have caused people to hate the show a significant amount, which shouldn’t be the case so close to its ending.

When Taelha was captured, she was about to drink poison, and that bottle was knocked out of her hand. Tagon doesn’t want to kill Taelha yet, and he simply confines her to a room. But he is not as magnanimous towards Saya. He tells him to either drink the poison in front of him or kill Tanya with his own hands. Tagon underestimated Saya’s love for Tanya and his recklessness with life. Saya doesn’t hesitate before drinking the poison, and he warns Tagon that it will be Saya’s face that he sees in his final moments. It may have sounded like gibberish to Tagon, but he has yet to find out the biggest surprise of all.

Tagon is unable to kill Tanya because he is still calling himself Aramun Haesulla, and that title cannot be held without the support of Asa Sin, which is Tanya. Tagon’s original plan was to have Saya kill Tanya, and the king could use that to justify his own actions. But since that is not the case, Tanya lives.

Later, Tanya says how she cannot ‘feel’ the death of Saya, and it cools our burned hearts to know that the man being alive is an option. The poison that Taelha had was not Bichiswan but something else. After all, it is foolish to assume that someone like Taelha would not be prepared with a Plan B, and that could not be taking her own life. Taelha would always keep a way out, and the poison she had, which was given to Saya, did not kill but instead gave the illusion of death for a few hours. Hae Tak and Hae Yobi escape from the guards and corner the maid who spoke to Taelha to find out what had happened to Saya. Taelha had never trusted the maid to begin with. She knew that Tagon would try to get some information out of her, and she had played her cards cleverly to get the information out the right way. It just goes to show that Taelha might be the cleverest character of them all, and Tagon was foolish to lose her from his side. Hae Tak understands that Saya is still alive, and she goes to where the bodies are dumped and rescues him. Saya is definitely alive, and we will see him in the coming episodes.

How does Tagon plan on attacking the Ago tribe?

The reason Eunseom was able to narrow down Suhana as the spy was because the drawing of the sword she had was the one that Eunseom had drawn in the court of Arthdal when he was pretending to be Saya. That drawing must have been sent to her to trace down anyone who had a weapon like that. There was no other explanation for it, and Suhana finally admits that she has always been an Arthdal spy, right from the time she joined the tribe and married her husband. She has always worked for Tagon, and she only considers him her true leader. Eunseom has Suhana arrested, and he still needs her to tell them what the other plans of the Arthdal forces are. But Suhana only speaks when she sees Yangcha. Tanya had convinced Yangcha to escape so that he could tell Eunseom what was going on. He had wanted to stay back with her, but Tanya knew that if he did, Tagon would not spare him. She was right, and going to meet Eunseom saved Yangcha’s life. He is also useful since Eunseom figures out that Yangcha is Suhana’s son, and when they are both held in captivity, Yangcha admits to his mother that he loves a woman (Tanya) and wants to be with her, which is only possible in a world where Tagon doesn’t exist. For the sake of her son, Suhana switches her loyalties and tells Eunseom that they will likely be attacked from the forests by the Arthdal forces.

Do Eunseom And Tagon Come Face-To-Face?

The problem with the people of the Arthdal Chronicles is that they keep underestimating each other. Tagon never fully understood the complex brain of his wife, Saya and Tanya took Tagon for a fool, and Tagon himself never fully comprehended why his detractors were being as brave as they were. This is what keeps spoiling their plans again and again, and they still don’t learn.

Before the war, Eunseom asks Karat to fight with them, but the man is still hung up on Galma. Eunseom rightly points out that it is impossible to have a clean Galma when you live amongst people. What he said was common sense, and since Karat was an intelligent man who had struggled with the exact idea for many years, he decided that he liked Eunseom’s way more. But before he could go back to him, he runs into some Arthdal forces, and there is a deadly fight, of which only he is left alive. As he rushes to Eunseom, the Arthdal forces realize that since they have harmed the Momo tribe, their only recourse is to wipe them off the land so that they don’t pursue vengeance for the lopsided Galma.

In the fight, the people with Tagon are easily brought down by the Ago tribe warriors, but what they don’t realize is that Tagon has used himself as bait. He leads them all to the plains, where his army is waiting to kill them all. Karat reaches Eunseom in time and tells him this, encouraging him to win the war for the sake of his tribe and for the world. Eunseom rushes towards the plains to protect his people, Mirosol and Tachukan. At the end of Arthdal Chronicles season 2, episode 9, when the Arth forces see that the Inaishingi is on the battlefield, Tagon rushes to fight Eunseom, and that is when he sees his face and realizes what Saya meant. It must have also dawned on him that this was the fake Saya in his court, and the actual gravity of the situation hits him.

Final Thoughts

There is so much that is yet to happen, despite the grim preview we saw. Nunbyeol and Chaeeun are alive, and they will likely try to help Eunseom get their revenge. Even Saya is alive, and with Tagon out on the battlefield, Taelha might be freed, and she will help the Inaishingi and Tanya in whatever way she can. There are so many people who want to kill Tagon, so despite his current victory, it won’t be long before he is pushed into a corner.