An Unlikely Reunion
Following last week’s double bill of episodes, King Maker: The Change Of Destiny returns for another decent episode as Heungseon continues to scheme and the livelihood of our two main characters rests precariously in the balance. With another cliffhanger at the end and lots of individual moments worth watch – including Bong-Ryeon and her Mother reunited again – King Maker continues to deliver some compelling period drama. After shooting both our main characters, King Maker: Change of Destiny episode 8 begins with Chun-Joong charging down the side of the hill desperate to find Bong-Ryeon. At the same time, a maddened Heungseon realizes what he’s done and sets out to kill Chun-Joong to prevent any witnesses from finding out. Thankfully, several people walk past on his way down and spot Chun-Joong, who collapses on the ground from his injuries. Fruitless in his search, Heungseon returns home where Jae-Hwang, informs him they’ve been invited to see the Queen Mother. Only, she catches wind of what’s happened involving Bong-Ryeon’s disappearanc and immediately tells them to head home, telling the Father/son duo that she’ll call for them in time. Instead, In-Kyu is imprisoned for trapping the princess in the first place and reminded that if Bong-Ryeon dies -then so does he. Meanwhile, the Kim-Moon family continue to scheme, desperate to find Chun-Joong who lies injured and in the middle of town with Pal-Ryong and the others. When he awakens from his slumber, he tasks them to gather the people. At the same time, Heungseon continues to struggle with what’s happened and visits Ha-Jeon, where he learns with shock that he’s going to use his son as a shield. For now he remains quiet but pieces continue to move against him, forcing him to take drastic measures and strike back in his own way. When Bong-Ryeon awakens, she finds herself in the presence of her Mother, Na-Hab, who happens to still be alive. As the two catch up on the time they’ve lost, Na-Hab pleads with her to lose Chun-Joong and forget him, especially as she visited a monk who advised that she’s going to kill him at some point in the future. Bong-Ryeon shakes off the doubts and shrugs, telling her that she’ll defy destiny if she has to. Eventually though, Na-Hab agrees to bring her back to the palace. Only, outside the city walls they’re ambushed by assassins who fire a barrage of arrows at the walls of the city while Bong-Ryeon huddles with her Mother on the ground. Thankfully, Chun-Joong arrives to help, fighting them off. As the assassins retreat on sight of the King’s guards, Bong-Ryeon is taken back to the royal palace. While this takes place outside the walls, inside Heungseon continues to scheme by stirring things up with the Kim-Moon family and placing cracks in the sibling relationship therein. He tells them about Chun-Joong meeting Myung-Hak and hints that the fortune teller has his own agenda. On the back of this, Chun-Joong is approached in the middle of the night and stabbed through the stomach for his troubles by a mysterious figure. Only, he’s well prepared for this act of treachery from Heungseon, and as we cut back in time we see that the townsfolk helped create a bullet-proof vest; a worthy endeavour given what Heungseon had planned. After what ‘s transpired across the episode, Heungseon is finally brought to justice before the King for harming the Princess and shooting her. As the King asks who ordered the hit, Chun-Joong arrives and suddenly lies, admitting that Heungseon didn’t try to kill anyone and pleads for mercy. As everyone looks on shocked, the episode ends leaving us with big question marks surrounding just what Chun-Joong’s motives are here. Why is Chun-Joong lying? Does this tie in with destiny and how Hwang-Lee needs to be sat on the throne? Or is there something else going on? King Maker continues to deliver compelling drama this week and while the plot points sometimes feel a little melodramatic at times, the story is interesting and has enough intriguing components to keep you watching. The decision to air two episodes a week rather than the original scheduled one is a smart move and helps the pacing of this show, and although it hasn’t been as tightly written as other period dramas there’s enough here to like nonetheless. Quite what will happen next though remains to be seen but one thing’s for sure – there’s bound to be a lot of drama in the weeks to come.
