Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 7 of Mr. Queen, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Shin Hye-sun as Kim So-yong, Kim Jyung-hun as King  Cheojong, 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 discuss in this episode: Other world by Howl and To my one and only you by Xiumin.
• Why the episode is titled “The Mask” - lots of people in the palace are wearing masks and those masks are starting to come off.
• How we see the state that Jang Bong-hwan is in, in modern day Seoul. He’s in a vegetative state and Chief of Staff Han tried to kill him.
• We learn that Jang Bong-hwan is either in modern day Seoul or Joseon, so where is the Queen?
• The queen is in a corpse state and the royal physician uses acupuncture to treat her.
• How the king’s feelings toward the queen are changing. He has gone from wanting to kill her, to wanting her to live and wanting to understand her.
• In the confrontation between the king and Kim Byeong-in, the king shows his other side, a side that he had not been showing to others in the palace.
• What shamanism is and how it was prohibited in the palace during the Joseon Dynasty.
• How the king missed his important night with Jo Hwa-jin and this causes her to be more proactive against the queen.
• At the end of the episode, the queen regains some of Kim  So-yong’s memories, the king is thinking about his enemies and goes to train with his men, and Jo Hwa-jin is upset upon finding a book.
• The mysterious and moody Na In-woo, who plays Kim Byeong-in, the queen’s cousin.

References

• Shamanism in Ancient Korea
• Na In-woo on Wikipedia