Reaction shot: Kingdom episode 2 (or, man who jokes about murder surprised by actual murders)

[spindizzy]

• Right, when we find our intrepid heroes: they're in the woods, Mu-yeong is looking after everything like a competent soul, and the Crown Prince (Whose name is Lee Chang, which I surprisingly didn't forget yet!) is being a spoiled brat who is sick of *squints* Bacon?


• I love the Mu-yeong is scolding him for committing treason, endangering everyone who works for him, AND for swearing like a commoner. BLESS THIS MAN, HE DESERVES SO MUCH BETTER THAN PRE-DISCOVERING-THE-PLOT CROWN PRINCE.


• How could you blame Mu-yeong for swearing around you. Also, DON'T JOKE ABOUT ANNIHILATING SOMEONE'S FAMILY WHEN THAT IS A REAL AND ACTUAL THING THAT HAPPENED IN EPISODE ONE. HOW DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE POWER YOU HAVE HERE?!


• YOU ARE LUCKY MU-YEONG DIDN'T PUSH YOU INTO THE FIRE.


• STOP MAKING THAT JOKE YOU INSENSITIVE DOUCHE, OH MY GOD.


• All he wants from the Crown Prince is fancy seaweed for his wife. ;_________;


• How did Prince Numpty notice that it was too quiet?! Don't tell me he's actually useful!


• ... Okay, no, now that he mentions it, it IS too quiet.


• Holy shit they barricaded that place REALLY WELL. And terrifyingly. Because hey, guess what, all of those are to keep things IN, not OUT.


• "What is that blackish red thing?" TAKE A GUESS.


• The first time I watched this I was like "Man, they didn't even put a DON'T DEAD OPEN INSIDE" sign up, and Mike pointed out that they weren't expecting anyone to come up this way, but also I don't know if Shady Dude and the Nurse can read, and now I'm SAD.


• NO MU-YEONG, DON'T DO IT, I DON'T WANT YOU TO GET EATEN, YOU HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR.


• Look at this man straight up ripping planks off the door. MU-YEONG NO DO NOT CLIMB OVER THE WALL, THAT IS A TERRIBLE IDEA. DO NOT.


• Crown Prince, give the man a little time to open the gate. Also, you DESERVE a fright considering how much you've been threatening to annihilate his family!


• There are so many spikes and so much blood, holy shit. How long did Shady Dude and the Nurse have to deal with this? Like, were they trapped in there that first night? Have they been building fortifications over time? HOLY LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE THE ZOMBIES ATTACKED.


• "I think something terrible has happened to the people here," says Mu-Yeong, looking at a puddle of blood on the floor.


• ... Really? Is your only concern the physician when there's an entire hospital covered in blood?


• OF COURSE THE PRINCE FINDS THE PLOT BY LITERALLY PUTTING HIS FOOT IN IT.


• Oh hey, we found where the patients got to.


• SERIOUSLY THAT IS HORRIFYING, LOOK AT THEM ALL WEDGED UNDER THERE.


• Oh, all of the bodies are – are woven together like a mat, that's horrifying. That's so grim.


• "He looks fine but he's not well," is very faintly damning.


• Forty-eight corpses, that's so many people. And I kinda like the way that they've done the bodies? Like, they're not the grey like most zombie movies go with, they look like they've been necrotising and covered in dried blood, and they just – look horrible, which is really appropriate.


• I didn't see if the baby or the little kid were in the wide shot, and I'm kinda glad of it.


• So, there's a CHANCE Physician Lee got out okay?


• SIR, PUT YOUR SHIRT BACK ON!


• Cho Beom-pal is the useless magistrate, GOT IT. Everyone here is rubbish and I hope that they get fired.


• That guard looking at that plate of food that got thrown on the floor like "I could eat that and be back in position before anyone notices" because PEOPLE ARE LITERALLY STARVING and this CHUCKLEFUCK is throwing fancy parties where his guests are fine throwing food on the floor like it's nothing?


• Beom-pal there like "... No, what do you mean something terrible's happened, it's my first day!"


• SUCH GOOD HATS.


• Did he bring the ENTIRE PARTY to come and look at the corpses?


• ... Right, Shady Dude is actually called Yeong-Sin, got it.


• And according to the pause menu, Nurse is called Seo-bi! Seo-bi and Yeong-Sin, got it got it got it.


• Yeong-Sin's been gathering bamboo for the past few days, which means that they've been working to keep the corpses contained for MULTIPLE DAYS, oh no, oh bless these poor humans.


• Seriously, this guard who's giving the report deserves so much better than his rubbish bosses, because he actually seems competent.


• Yeong-sin's ID tag belongs to someone who died three years ago, which a) I am impressed at the beauracracy that let him find that out, and b) I TOLD YOU HE WAS SHADY.


• "FIND HIM!" says Beom-pal like no one has ever considered the idea in their life.


• I love Mu-yeong, he's literally just social-combatting this entire thing on the Prince's behalf.


• ... I was really surprised to see Mu-yeong agreeing with the Crown Prince's plan until he said about his wife.


• ... Oh no, oh no whose body is that. Who are they rushing off. This is not good.


• ... Are they literally weighting a body and throwing it into oh my god how many bodies are down there?!


• SURE IS A GOOD THING THAT ZOMBIEISM ISN'T A THING OR THERE MIGHT BE A PROBLEM WITH THERE BEING CORPSES IN A POND.


• "Where is the covenant with the Prince's signature?" Oh my god you can't just ask people these things.


• YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE WHETHER OR NOT YOU CONFESS TO CONSPIRACY.


• Okay, so Legit Scholar is apparently allowed to not be murdered because the bad guys want him on side, with all of the power and I guess NOT dead scholars that could be wished for. Valid but confusing.


• Oh, it's the Court Lady! She is probably going to die at some point before the end of this show and I'm going to be really sad for her.


• ... Okay, I'm gonna be honest: I'm more worried that people are FINDING the corpses in the king's palace than I am that the corpses exist.


• SHE IS SO BRAVE AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW HER NAME, BUT SHE DID SO MUCH AND DIDN'T DIE.


• Mate, you were all prepared to get in bed with Cho Hak-ju thirty seconds ago, don't think that I trust you now.


• He genuinely looks like he's never seen poverty before. God dammit Crown Prince.


• CROWN PRINCE YOU SHUT YOUR GODDAMNED MOUTH TALKING TO PEOPLE LIKE THAT.


• "Sorry, my colleague is like that because he was spoiled as a child." AND YOU'RE NOT EVEN WRONG.


• There's a survivor! Seo-bi is confirmed not dead!


• SURE IS GOOD THAT THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A RESURRECTION PLANT, THAT WOULD SURE BE SILLY.


• At least he admits that he's scared to be left alone.


• "Stay behind me," he says, as the Crown Prince immediately walks off in the opposite direction.


• Trying to work out if this set is a real place or foamboard.


• I apologise, Seo-bi is a physician, not a nurse! I'm not respecting her work.


• She looks so tired and – not necessarily scared, but not quite there? Like she has used up all of her allocated budget of scared.


• She's been digging so hard that her hands are bleeding, oh noooo.


• "How do you know that the people died at Jiyulheon?" OH NO.


• Her face as she realises that they've moved the bodies is just oh noooooooo, and Yeong-sin dropping his bamboo and sprinting for the hospital when he realises that the gates are open! ;_____;


• "Was it a fox?" ... My dude. Seriously.


• Yeong-Sin straight up SPRINTING from the hospital and charging the guards and still being ready to fight them to save them is so good.


• "Why have you not arrested that lunatic!" But sir, he's got a flaming stick!


• Oh, he's trying to torch the corpses before they can get up! Okay, that makes sense!


• Man, it's taken ALL OF THEM to keep him down, I respect that.


• Jong-gu! No! ;_____;


• ... I swear they've washed her face and made her look less tired since the last scene, but I don't know if that's just because the lighting's different.


• "My master said that he saved a dead man in Hanyang with the resurrection plant." AND LO, IT ALL CLICKS INTO PLACE FOR THE CROWN PRINCE.


• I love that he just goes "Did they have a stench and make sounds of a beast?" because he doesn't WANT to believe her, but he suddenly realises he knows what she's talking about.


• Everyone looks confused. Literally everyone.


• "Listen, there is a fetch quest to collect the plot item before we all die."


• I don't understand how she thinks that she's going to cure death, to be honest.


• And of COURSE they split the party. WHY WOULDN'T YOU IN A SITUATION WHERE THE DEAD ARE LITERALLY RISING.


• There is so much blood. So many handprints.


• His horse sounds very close by – why is his horse in here?


• Soon there will be a jump scare, I can feel it in my bones.


• IT WASN'T HIS HORSE.


• "Is this what you came for?" BEOM-IL OH MY GOD.


• He is a melodramatic son of a bitch and I am reluctantly impressed.


• He is wearing a DIFFERENT excellent hat.


• "Does this nation truly have a king?"


• Beom-il knows so much of the plot.


• "Of course he did not, Crown Prince. He is still alive. ... He will be fine until the Queen gives birth." OH.


• "You have done nothing" is so damning.


• *rips instructions in half* "You told me to strike you, did you not?"


• Guards: *come into room and close the doors because they know what they're about*


• Like, I'm not being funny, but my money is not on the Crown Prince here.


• "You cannot kill a person with that sword" feels like a historical/cultural thing that I'm not getting. Like, is it "You cannot kill a person with that sword, or is it "You cannot kill a person with that sword."


• Aw shit, he has a badass scar now! This means that he's going to be the dragon, right? The sub-boss of this series?


• THE HAT IS OFF, I REPEAT, THE HAT IS OFF. THE SITUATION IS SERIOUS NOW.


• I like this fight. It's so cramped and inconvenient for both of them but they're just WRECKING THE PLACE.


• ... Why is that cupboard rattling?


• Rest in peace guards, I know he's sending you because he's busy, but at least one of you is getting eaten.


• YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE FLIPPED IT OVER. YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN INFINITELY SAFER IF YOU HAD NOT DONE THAT.


• Beom-pal (whose name I DID have to go back and look up, because I am bad at this) is the most ineffectual and Yeong-sin sounds SO DONE WITH EVERY PART OF THIS DRAMA.


• He is embodying this horror trope very well, you know.


• She doesn't even know what he says, but she is confident enough that she just agree blindly.


• THE SUN SETS SO SUSPICIOUSLY QUICKLY IN THIS TOWN.


• She is trying so hard to save people and no one's listening. ;_;


• Oh hey, it's the tightrope walker from earlier.


• "It moved." NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.


• He is still in remarkably good condition considering that he's been dead for a week. Also, I would desperately NOT want to be one of the people who knew that secret.


• OH. OH THIS IS A FLASHBACK. Oh that's Physician Lee and there are so many things wrong.


• The way that the Queen and Cho Hak-ju play off each other is fearsome, okay, I fear these people.


• The king is NOT in remarkably good condition. I'd go so far as to say he was in terminal condition.


• LOOK HOW FUCKING CLOSE HE'S STANDING, HE IS LITERALLY ONLY JUST OUT OF BITE RANGE AND HE GIVES NO FUCKS.


• (The scene transitions are so nice. I know nothing about film and tv editing, but the "transition in a way that continues a motion or shape" thing really works!


• Mu-yeong, you were supposed to back her up on this, don't think I didn't see you hiding in the crowd like this isn't your problem.


• "It moved" is not a sentence you want to hear in a zombie show.


• THEY'RE ALL MOVING!


• DON'T JUST SEND SOME RANDOM GUARD IN TO LIFT UP THE MAT, HE'S NOT DONE ANYTHING TO DESERVE THAT.


• Honestly I wouldn't want to get closer than spearlength to one of those either.


• HOLY SHIT THE DEAD ARE WALKING IT SURE IS A SHAME NO ONE WARNED US ABOUT THIS.


• ... Sorry, I REALLY hate the Cassandra mode of storytelling, I would rather skip that bit entirely.


• HOW IS SHE DOING THAT WITH HER BODY OH MY GOD YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT SUDDENLY BEING AWARE THAT THESE ARE ACTORS WITH A SKILL


• Oh no, oh no, her husband's there. How could you tell it was her from that far away?


• Ohhhhhh no, that's the first victim right there.


• DON'T STAND THERE YOU IDIOTS, RUN!


• On the plus side, that prison cell is probably the only safe place in Dongnae right now.


• Yeong-sin: *RUGBY CHARGES EVERY SINGLE DOOR*


• Wait, so Physician Lee was actually locked in? One of them was brave enough to lock it and tip the cabinet? Or do we think it just jammed when the cabinet fell over.


• REST IN PEACE STRANGELY SYNCHONISED GUARD.


• Listen, I too would be distracted from My Nemesis if a zombie came out of the closet.


• WHY DID YOU LET GO OF THE SWORD


• Physician Lee does not give a single shit.


• Surviving Strangly Synchronised Guard: *HIDES IN THE CUPBOARD BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT'S UP*


• Beom-il just straight up cut that guy's throat without even hesitating. He would survive the zombie apocalypse.


• PHYSICIAN LEE OUTTA NOWHERE.


• Respect to the Crown Prince for braining Physician Lee instead of letting him just eat Beom-il. I don't know that I would have had that strength of character.


• So I was wrong about Beom-il surviving the zombie apocalypse.


• SERIOUSLY THOUGH, THESE ARE THE FIRST PEOPLE WE SEE GETTING ZOMBIFIED FROM BEING BITTEN INSTEAD OF DOING THE BITING.


• I think I might only watch historical zombie flicks now, because in a historical setting I am 100% okay with no one knowing the basic rules of surviving the zombie apocalypse.


• YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE TRANSFORMATIONS LOOKING PAINFUL. THAT LOOKS LIKE IT HURT!


• Died of a single bite. RIP Beom-il.


• Single surviving guard: *nopes on out*


• The Crown Prince's expression perfectly encapsulates "... He's standing up behind me, isn't he."


• Single surviving guard: *NOPES OUT HARDER*


• HOW DID HIS FACE DECOMPOSE THAT QUICKLY, HE WAS ALIVE ABOUT TEN SECONDS AGO.


• Single surviving guard: *bolts doors behind him*


• I am so impressed at the Crown Prince managing to take Beom-il's head off in a single blow, mainly because I'm pretty sure that was entirely luck.


• Is that the screaming from Dongnae? Because that sure sounds like it.


• THE CITY IS ON FIRE ALREADY. FUCK ME THAT WAS FAST.


• So it's episode two, we have a minimum of fifty zombies, there are two separate conspiracies going on for who controls the throne, all of our protagonists are in one place, and an entire city is on fire. SURE. EVERYTHING IS GOING TO PLAN.

(Kingdom master post) (Reaction shot master post)