The Murky Stream Episode 4-5 Review
Director: Choo Chang-min
Date Created: 2025-10-04 13:23
3.5
The Murky Stream Episode 4-5 Review: The first three chapters of the drama 탁류 set up Mapo Port as a world where crime and commerce walk hand in hand, in which both merchants and bandits take advantage of the weak. Si-yul becomes an involuntary champion of justice, torn between compassion and duty, and Eun wins her place back in a company that excludes her due to her gender.
The introduction of Jung Chun, a gentler, honest officer, shakes up the status quo and implies cracks in a system of lies and bribes. In the meantime, Mu Deok wrestles for survival in order to maintain power and consistently comes up against Si-yul, prompting the Choi guild to move into a spiral of conflict.
Adapted from Chae Man-sik’s novel Takryu and directed by Choo Chang-min, it balances period ruggedness with complex inter-character drama. Rowoon stars in the lead role as Jang Si-yul, Shin Ye-eun plays Choi Eun, Park Seo-ham is officer Jung Chun, and Park Ji-hwan is Mu Deok. The supporting cast is Jeon Bae-soo and Choi Gwi-hwa, who also lend additional colour to this well-etched world.
The Murky Stream Episode 4 Recap
Episode 4 of The Murky Stream begins with Choi Eun secretively writing a letter to the Inspector General concerning the regime’s corruption that she has observed. This does not take long as the Mapo General snatches the letter from her and incinerates it in a tantrum and condemning Dol-gae and Jung Chun for tolerating Eun’s intervention. Jung embarks on finding Si-yul, but instead is unable to locate the horses as they have been seized by bribe-collecting officers, and so has no option but to walk on.
Si-yul, the manager who pays wages, shocks everyone by paying employees additional wages than they warrant due to mercy, which receives Mu-deok’s disapproval. Flashbacks clarify Dol-gae’s development from mistreated worker to bandit leader with Mu-deok’s unconscious endorsement. In the present time setting, Si-yul overhears as the bandits ridicule Mu-deok’s extreme stories of bravery.
Elsewhere, Choi Eun confronts Jung Chun and outlines the scale of extortion and exploitation within the area, and Wang-hae, a Jurchen smuggler, overpowers enemy bandits and begins concessions with Dol-gae. His nonchalant advances of wealth disturb Deok-gae, fearful of the loss of power. The episode concludes in chaos with Si-yul rescuing Mu-deok from execution, fending off enemy bandits in the process. But ire is set ablaze as Deok-gae, outraged, challenges Si-yul to a duel as both vie for leadership over the bandits.
The Murky Stream Episode 5 Recap
The Murky Stream Episode 5 continues with the violent battle between Deok-gae and Si-yul. Although talented, Si-yul dies from his stab and loses, and tradition calls for the defeated to be crippled. In a surprising turn of events, instead of crippling Deok-gae, Mu-deok stabs him, causing pandemonium. Crippled but surprisingly, Deok-gae names Mu-deok as the future thumb and tells him never to release Si-yul. Everyone realises that Si-yul is the real force that fuels the bandits’ success.
With Mu-deok as the leader, Si-yul initiates reforms directly for workers by ending oppressive taxes and shelter building, but other people criticise such reforms as impossible to implement. Choi Eun becomes embroiled with upper-level politics by presenting maps to the Guardian General, Lord Yu Tae-seok, who, incidentally, is on good terms with Princess So-ho. Jung Chun’s single-minded pursuit of justice lands him in the whirlpool of Tae-seok, where he discovers that the captains have forged documents for him to deceive.
Episode 5 of The Murky Stream ends on a dramatic note when Jung Chun arrives with a squad of soldiers and puts the Mapo bandits under arrest, and even Si-yul is rounded up and put under arrest. At first, it seems as if it’s a triumph for justice, but the plot quickly reverses itself. Dol-gae gets the bandits let off with his clout and shakes them down for money and produces evidence of just how deep the rot runs.
When Jung accuses him, Dol-gae strikes back by framing him with forged evidence and accusing Jung of being on the take. By the time the episode concludes, the bandits are once again at the dock as if no event took place, but Jung ends up being branded guilty — a bitter reminder of what it’s like to cross the system.
The Murky Stream Episode 4-5 Review
Episodes 4 and 5 unite the series’s best material that it’s been building up so far: loyalty, broken brotherhood, and the conflict between survival and morals. Si-yul’s battle with Deok-gae has spectacle and heartbreak, both due to the savage choreography and due to the fact that it also accents the gravity of Si-yul’s vow not to flee again ever. His quiet relationship with Mal-bok reveals an unexpected note of compassion, that mercy still lingers even in a world of blood and brawn. At the same time, Mu-deok’s ascendance is both absurd and touching, his timidity converted into reluctant leadership through no efforts of his own.
The second half of this arc shifts sharply into political intrigue, weaving the local struggles of the bandits into the larger corruption that extends to the royal court. Choi Eun’s encounters with Jung Chun highlight the futility of honesty in a system ruled by bribes, while the arrival of Lord Yu Tae-seok signals that the rot runs far deeper than the docks of Mapo. Jung’s dogged pursuit of justice, ending with his wrongful arrest, is a devastating reminder of how dangerous righteousness can be when power rests in the hands of the corrupt.
What makes these episodes so effective is the interplay between personal decisions and systemic consequences. Si-yul’s mercy alienates him from the very men he battles next to, and Eun continues to risk everything for the possibility of reform. Mu-deok, mired between feelings of guilt and responsibility, is the quintessential ironic man thrust into leadership that he does not merit at all. These combined arcs keep the drama emotionally invested, even as the pace drags on side plots.
By the end of The Murky Stream ep 5, the bandits have reappeared at the wharfs, Jung is imprisoned, and Si-yul is staring at an uncertain future at the mercy of Dol-gae. The bittersweet conclusion leaves each character at a crossroads and primes the future chapters of the drama for sending these frictions in volatile directions. Corruption, having a direct correlation with the highest court levels and loyalties beginning to fracture, it’s unclear how these chapters will send the drama.
