Mutiny
Episode 2 of Kingdom begins in the Five Armies base-camp with Seo-Bi contemplating her next move while looking at the resurrection plant. In the middle of the night, she sneaks out of her tent and hurries up to the palace, following a group of men as they head inside. At the same time, Prince Chang and the others hurry up to the walls and make their way to the top of the barricades. As they continue on, they silently infiltrate the camp and begin killing men left and right as Chang walks purposefully through. Young-Shin realizes there are very few men and tells them all to be wary as it could be a trap. Unfortunately it turns out to be just that, as Hak-Joo steps out of the shadows, all but confirming the mutiny. Chang’s Father, and King, has been turned into one of the undead. An-Hyun tells the group and as he walks away, Hak-Joo commands the soldiers shoot him in the back. Clutching the palace door, An-Hyun’s shot several times before collapsing to the ground. As he does, Chang presents himself to the group as he cuts off the head of the King and finds himself overcome with grief. Following the deaths that showed up in court last episode, the government officials scour Naesonjae for clues surrounding the murders. As they head outside, they find a caravan marching toward the village. Within that are more dead bodies matching the description given last episode, and more clues surrounding just what the Queen’s diabolical plan is. Chang’s actions have severe consequences. He’s imprisoned for high treason while Hak-Joo is given the opportunity he needs to ascend. Before he does that however, the Queen goes into labour, which is very good timing given the circumstances. It turns out the Queen was the one who gave the order to kill the other women, in a bid to seize their child for her own. Seo-Bi heads in to see Chang and patch him up but he spells something out on the floor with water, which clearly spooks her. Before we find out what this is however, Young-Shin and the others are imprisoned and try to formulate an escape, believing as well that someone among them is a traitor. In the morning, the prisoners break free and try to overcome the army. Young-Shin manages to seize a gun and fires at Hak-Joo. Only, another soldier gets in the way and takes the killing blow. Before Young-Shin can be dealt with however, An Hyun rises from the dead, prompting the group to watch in horror as this solitary undead soldier charges at Hak-Joo, subsequently biting a chunk from his cheek. With a shocking conclusion to this episode and more of the political intrigue oozing through as we saw during the middle portion of episodes last season, Kingdom continues to weave this in with the undead story. More clues surrounding the origin of these creatures are given too and this is followed up by some good characterisation as well. It seems likely that the Queen is rising up to become the prominent antagonist this season after sitting in the shadows for much of last year. For now though, Kingdom continues to impress and the cliffhanger ending to this will almost certainly have you desperate to get to the next episode.
