The Promise I Mistook for Love - Episode 9

Clarissa (Ms. Yowell) appears before the court to plead after going alone to the battlefield for Xosa and returning blind. Women in the harem accuse her of faking blindness to win pity and push the emperor to name an empress; officials threaten to strip her noble consort title. Clarissa offers to die and says a lifelong promise has turned to dust. The imperial physician is summoned and delivers the key turn: Clarissa's blindness is real and irreversible. The episode ends with a shocked voice asking, "Clarissa, you've gone blind. Why didn't you tell me?"