The New King
Following last week’s cliffhanger ending, King Maker: The Change of Destiny returns for an exciting episode, one that sees the various players teaming up to recuse Chun-Joong from his ordeal. Exciting, tense and featuring lots of drama, King Maker delivers its best episode so far. y begins with In-Kyu taking a battered and bruised Chun-Joong to a secret location but on the way, Bong-Ryeon tries in vain to wake him up. Eventually In-Kyu knocks out the princess and tasks his guards to bring her back to the palace. When he awakens In-Kyu propositions Chun-Joong, telling him he’ll confess to trying to kill the King and tasking the guards to continue interrogating and not letting him sleep until he does. While they set the wheels into motion to make this happen, Byeong-Woon tells Bong-Ryeon to remember her place. Instead, she gives him his prophecy; his children will pay the price and become criminals that are hunted and eventually take their own lives. The sins of a father will be his children’s to take. As he looks her in the eye, he sees that this is the truth given the glossy, misty look. In the village, Pal-Ryong and the Red Monk discuss Chun-Joong’s imprisonment and quite what they can do to help. Unsure what comes next, In-Kyu receives bad news as he’s told not to carry out the interrogation himself by his superiors However, this is heard by one of the maids who feeds it back to Na-Hab. At the same time, the Kim-Moon Family decide to move swiftly in the wake of the King’s abdication and decide upon allowing Jae Geung-Lee on the throne in order to gain King Mother Jo’s favours. Guessing as much, Jo pleads with the King to keep vigilant in the wake of these snakes. Meanwhile, the new torturer arrives, called Double Rabid, while In-Kyu visits Bong-Ryeon and tries to convince her to speak to Chun-Joong and get him to sign the confession. Although she agrees, she actually works with Na-Hab and Pal-Ryong in the village to free him from prison. With a date set for 3 days from now, she rallies the troops to work together before visiting Chun-Joong in prison. Cryptically she speaks of her plan and although she tells him to write the confession, he figures out what it means and holds strong. Chun-Joong tries to coerce Double Rabid into allowing him to read his fortune. After some deliberation he decides to do just that, using what he said about the painting beforehand as ammunition. Calling this a once in the lifetime opportunity, Double Rabid follows the instructions out to a shrine which happens to hold a whole stack of coins – all of which being Chun-Joong’s plan. However, what he’s actually taken is the bribe money but before In-Kyu can beat down the messenger who tells him this, Double Rabid arrives with the signed confession, just as promised. Only, he’s under instructions from Chun-Joong to steal the confession back in 15 days’ time in exchange for the painting. With him on-board and helping, Chun-Joong is smuggled out by his friends, eventually leading to the group fighting their way out and locking the door behind them. As the eclipse inches ever-closer, the trio use this opportunity to escape for real, thanks in part to Bong-Ryeon and Na-Hab who help orchestrate this. The next day, Chun-Joong heads outside and looks upon the face of Jae-Hwang. Instantly recognizing who he is, at the Kim-Moon House Bong-Ryeon arrives…followed closely afterward by Chun-Joong who enters. Myung-Hak demands the guards not imprison him again given her’s the best fortune teller in the land. When Chun-Joong mentions the next King is in the room – he picks out Hwang-lee, the future Emperor of the Joseon Dynasty. He decides to create the next King with his own two hands and after defying everyone with this bombshell reveal, what does the future hold for our fortune teller and quite what will the repercussions be for this? With an exciting prison break, lots of action and interesting political drama throughout, King Maker delivers a decent episode that helps flesh out the world and set the course for the series going forward. The big reveal at the end though is likely to be the talking point. Is this the foretold destiny changing for Korea’s future? Is Hwang Lee supposed to depict Hwang Hui from the beginning of the Joseon dynasty or is this a new direction? Either way, the episode does an excellent job capturing the drama of the moment and thankfully we don’t have to wait too long to find out what happens next. Published: 08 June 2020 at 1:15 pm on TheReviewGeek.com
