Today, we’ll be discussing Episode 2 of Season 2 of Kingdom, the hit K Drama on Netflix starring Ju Ji-hoon as Crown Prince Yi Chang, Bae Doona as Seo-bi, Ryu Seung-ryong as Cho Hak ju, Kim Sang-ho as Mou Young, Kim Sung-kyu as Yeong shin, and Kim Hye-jun as the Queen Consort. We discuss:

• How this episode is full of betrayal: someone betrayed the Crown Prince, Cho Hak ju betrays Lord Ahn, and the Queen Consort betrays her father and the rest of the Haewon Cho clan
• How Seo-bi violated our rule of never opening mysterious chests without knowing that what’s inside is a friendly person or a cute, furry animal.
• How the Crown Prince must kill his zombie father, thereby honoring his father’s words to him from so long ago: Stay alive!
• We learn more about what happened three years ago and we learn that Lord Ahn has deeply regretted his decision to create zombies ever since.
• Cho Hak ju had Lord Ahn killed, something that the soldiers do with hesitation, given that Lord Ahn is a national war hero. So now, the Crown Prince’s mentor and guide has left him.
• Lord Ahn makes himself a weapon against Cho Hak ju when he asks the Crown Prince to turn him into a zombie.
• Back at Hanyang, the Minister of War orders the queen’s residence searched and the soldiers discover the bodies of seven mothers and babies. Curiously, the baby boy died of natural causes, while the baby girls were strangled to death.
• The court officials debate the line of succession in light of the king’s death when the head eunuch announces that the Queen Consort has gone into labor.
• The Queen, of course, is not in labor, but waiting for a baby boy to be born.
• The ID tags that all men over the age of 18 carried around during the Joseon dynasty.
• The desire for revenge by Young shin and Lord Ahn’s men, which leads them to try and take down Cho Hak ju when they are taken out of their jail cell to be transported to Hanyang.
• We wonder where Mu Yeong is.
• The crazy ending where the zombie Lord Ahn takes a chunk out of Cho Hak ju’s left cheek!
• The K Drama elements in this episode, including the Crown Prince sinking to the ground with great emotion, and the queen’s amazing abs in episode 1 of season 2.
• The enduring popularity of zombies, from around the world!
• How Korean zombies are different from Western dramas in that they often focus on the relationships between the humans and the zombies.

References

• Worn Identity, or information about the ID tags worn by people during the Joseon dynasty
• King Cheoljong and his family, who were banished to Ganghwa Island
• 30 Zombie TV Shows Ranked by Tomatometer
• The Last Of Us: A Closer Look at the Zombie Genre