With a ruse, Crown Prince Chang (Ju Ji-Hoon) and his men lure the Queen's (Kim Hye-jun) away from the capital, then sneak into town to overthrow the guards, and prevent the execution of the "traitors", mainly wives and children of the Crown Prince's men, in literally the last minute. Most of the guards join Chang, so they meet little resistance going onto the Royal Palace. There, the Queen receives the Crown Prince with defiance, as if ignoring the fact that all but her most loyal retinue have deserted her. But while she seems delusional at first, it soon becomes clear thatshe had one of her loyals open all the zombie cages in the basement, to have the city overrun by the living dead ...

A very strong episode that both tells a powerful story in itself and drives the overall story, setting up the season finale quite beautifully by reintroducing the undead, who have played second fiddle in the last few episodes, as the story's centerpiece once again. The strongest scene here though is one that has nothing to do with zombies but has the captain of the guard trying and failing to order the execution of the Crown Prince's men's wife and children, being overcome by his conscience, a scene that doesn't have much effect on the story as such (as by now the Crown Prince has arrived to save them anyways), but gives a glimpse into the moral ambiguity of the show where soldiers are used as pawns in a game of thrones.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Kingdom episode 2.5 at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Kingdom episode 2.5 here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai

Thanks for watching !!!