5.10 - Review of Episode 10 of Mr. Queen

Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 10 of Mr. Queen, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Shin Hye-sun as Kim So-yong, Kim Jyung-hun as King Cheoljong, Seol In-ah as Jo Hwa-jin, Na In-woo as Kim Byeong-in, and Choi Jin-hyuk as Jang Bong-hwan. 

We discuss:

• The songs we featured during the recap: Palace and Secrets of the Well, both by Howl

• How everyone in this episode seems to end up at the well

• How the tiny queen rescued the king from the well by carrying him on her back

• The king’s unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the ledger, but now we realize that Jo Hwa-jin has it!

• Jo Hwa-jin tries to give the ledger to the king, but the Dowager Queen thwarts her by delaying her message to the king

• We have another great cooking scene where the queen cooks a simple but amazing meal for the Grand Dowager Queen

• How this episode cleverly brought the concept of K Beauty to the show through the face mask that the queen made for the Grand Dowager Queen

• Even though it was Kim Jwa-geun who had Oh-wol tortured and possibly killed, it’s now the Jo family that is exploiting the situation by faking Oh-wol’s death 

• Kim Byeong-in suspicions of the king, his conversation with the queen, and his secret meeting with the Grand Dowager Queen

• The lighthearted elements of the show, specifically, the royal chef and Court Lady Choi screaming into the woods over their frustration with the queen, and the queen’s cooking scene

• Our thoughts about why this episode is called Living a Nightmare

• Some background information on the Andong Kim family, including the Grand Dowager Queen and Kim Jwa-geun, who were real people

References

• Howl background and songs

• Life expectancy of Joseon kings and queens

• Andong Kim clan page in Wikipedia

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K Drama Chat is a weekly podcast where we take one Korean (K) Drama each season and and recap and analyze each episode. K Drama Chat is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.