Reaction shot: Kingdom episode 6 (or, WAIT GET BACK HERE)

[spindizzy]

• The Queen is gonna talk shit to her dad and he is going to
  threaten to kill her and I am not ready for it.


• Okay, those were definitely HIS orders, of course they were.


• Look, I have read a lot of YA in my time, teenage girls are smart and
  when they point out an obvious flaw in your evil scheme, you should MAYBE
  LISTEN.


• "Do you regard power only as a means of coveting money?"


• "How many dead bodies do you think are at the bottom of this pond? To
  bring the day when no one can say a word about how many bodies I have
  dumped in this pond. That is what power is for." ... Holy shit as a thesis
  statement that is REALLY EFFECTIVE.


• The Queen promising to protect her father feels sweet but misguided –
  ah, as you see, he feels the same. And there's the threat of removing her
  power!


• I believe him that he'll try. Oh no.


• Every shot involving that pond is beautiful, it's ridiculous.


• ... Am I the only one worried about what's going to happen if a zombie
  ends up in that pond?


• Oh no, he looks like he's going to throw a tantrum.


• That guy IMMEDIATELY goes to "Hand over the Crown Prince, solve all of
  these problems," but I'm honestly more suspicious of Lord Ahn Hyeon's
  "Sure, I'll grant your request."


• That dude is clearly suspicious of it as well.


• Mu-yeong, I know you'd really like the Crown Prince to stop trusting
  Ahn Hyeon, but MAYBE you should wait until he's put the sword down before
  having this discussion, because he REALLY looks ready to stab someone
  today.


• Mu-yeong looking at him like "SEE. I TOLD YOU."


• Oh, they all got new clothes! That's nice!


• OH, oh it's THAT guy. And THAT's who the messenger meant when he said
  "They've arrived." ... Oh this just got complicated.


• Mu-yeong is looking at Lord Ahn Hyeon like "I will deal with this and
  THEN with you" is honestly what I'm here for with stories about loyal
  retainers.


• "Who is the traitor?" Oh this entire speech is gooooood. Especially
  because HOLY SHIT HE WAS SO PREPARED FOR THIS MOMENT. HE WAS USING THE
  CROWN PRINCE AS BAIT. THIS IS GENIUS.


• THANK YOU FOR TELLING THE CROWN PRINCE TO GO TO BED, I HAVE BEEN
  GENUINELY WORRIED ABOUT THIS.


• "How else will you fight the chief of the palace guards?" OH, oh there
  are schemes upon schemes, and the Crown Prince has just realised that one
  of his companions is a traitor and I AM SO SAD FOR HIM.


• This explains why he didn't tell Mu-yeong, but I REALLY DON'T WANT
  MU-YEONG TO BE THE TRAITOR. I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO BE THE TRAITOR,
  CAN WE NOT HAVE NICE THINGS JUST THIS ONCE?


• ... HOW ARE YOU STILL STANDING YOU MELODRAMATIC WHEEL OF CHEESE.


• Straight up just snatching the sword off Mu-yeong, who is just...
  Stunned by the look of it. Oh no. Honey. Please don't be a traitor.


• HE ALREADY ACCUSED THE CROWN PRINCE OF TREASON AND HE'S LITERALLY
  WALLED OFF AN ENTIRE CHUNK OF THE COUNTRY. THAT SHIP HAS SAILED.


• "Do you think those soldiers blocked off Mungyeong Saejae just to stop
  me?" And here we go, here is the moment where suddenly everyone else gets
  it.


• Of COURSE the rich people are like "Ugh, the peasants want to escape
  the epidemic, how dare they? They'll just loot things!"


• OPEN THE GATE OPEN THE GATE STOP BEING A RICH JERK TOO GOOD TO CARE
  FOR THE PEOPLE MAKING YOUR LIFE POSSIBLE AND OPEN THE GATE!


• "Who are you to decide who to sacrifice?" YES! THANK YOU! THANK YOU FOR
  THIS.


• And also for pointing out that letting everyone outside BECOME ZOMBIES
  doesn't save anyone INSIDE either!


• "I am the Magistrate of Sangju!"
  "No. You are no longer qualified to run this place. I'll protect Sangju and
  the people from now on."
  "By what right?"
  *draws sword* "I'm the Crown Prince."
  OH MY GOD I AM SCREECHING BECAUSE I REALLY SHOULDN'T LOVE THIS AS MUCH AS I
  DO!


• Man, Lord Ahn Hyeon immediately rolling with it, because this is going
  to go BADLY.


• Okay, and now that they've actually agreed to help, they can ACTUALLY
  MAKE A PLAN. I approve of actually acknowledging that there are problems
  with the blind idealism of saving everyone and working out a plan to do it
  anyway.


• So his plan is to hold them off using water and fire. Cool.


• There's a little girl at the front of the crowd who genuinely looks
  like she's having a BLAST.


• Wtf bamboo is SO TALL. HOW.


• I love stuff like this so much – look at this beautiful montage of
  EVERYONE WORKING TOGETHER and USING THEIR SKILLS and HAVING A PLAN, I love
  stuff like that, it is my kryptonite, I am weak for it forever. And look,
  look, everyone has to be useful! Even the rich! And just – EVERYONE WORKING
  TOGETHER TO BUILD THE THINGS THEY NEED TO KEEP THEM ALIVE, okay, I cry, it
  gets me RIGHT in the tear ducts.


• Yeong-sin and Mu-yeong helping even though they must be exhausted!


• "Report to me only when a baby boy is born." LISTEN I WAS SO CONVINCED
  THAT SHE WAS MAKING SURE THERE WERE SPARES. AND IF YOU HADN'T FIGURED OUT
  THAT SHE MUST BE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE HOUSE FULL OF PREGNANT WOMEN,
  THIS MUST HAVE BEEN THE EYE-OPENING BIT.


• Oh no, oh no, this is no good, oh no. Oh no.


• All of the ladies huddled around the building to support her!


• WHY DID THE BABY STOP CRYING THAT IS BAD.


• That... That was a lot of blood. That was so much blood. And that
  nurse was blatantly not prepared for there to be questions, so I'm PRETTY
  SURE that mother and baby are both dead now.


• See, sometimes the transitions are good! Like going from a woman
  cleaning up blood in a poor area to another woman cleaning up in a rich
  area!


• Oh hey look, the servant characters are people too! Who have their own
  emotions and feelings and are filled with fear for simple mistakes!


• Oh god, if the robe had been damaged those girls would have died.


• So they burned a silk robe because it was stained. THAT IS NOT
  SUSPICIOUS AT ALL.


• I wonder how long they were listening to those girls? ._.


• Oh no, Oh that poor girl. Something terrible is going to happen to
  her.


• SO MANY LAYERS. SUCH CONVOLUTED LAYERS.


• "Why are you so slow?" she asks a servant who has never dealt with
  fancy court clothes before who is terrified to be there.


• OH GOD IS THE QUEEN SECRETLY A ZOMBIE IS THAT WHY THE GIRL
  SCREAMED


• OH SHIT SHE HAS A FAKE BELLY


• SHE'S NOT LOOKING AFTER THOSE WOMEN TO MAKE SURE THERE'S A GUARANTEED
  BOY, SHE'S LOOKING AFTER ALL OF THOSE WOMEN TO MAKE SURE THERE'S A
  CHILD AT ALL!


• I think we just found out why all of those court ladies died.


• I can't remember who said this (maybe iron_spike?), but someone on twitter pointed out that it's been clear the
  whole way through that the Queen has her own ambitions beyond her father's,
  but this is the first bit where she is explicitly revealed as a
  schemer to rival him. Because HOLY SHIT imagine pulling this on a man who
  will have you killed for breathing wrong. IMAGINE THE GUTS THIS WOMAN
  HAS.


• "What do you think? My baby looks very healthy, does he not?" Hooooooly
  shit!


• That long slow shot there? I am assuming the serving girl is dead. Is
  very dead.


• Beom-pal you idiot you don't even know what you're looking for, you
  literally just brought her a bag of useless green.


• Seo-bi's so DONE with his shit and I don't blame her. I have been on
  BOTH SIDES of that "I'll just doing myself" after hours of work, and it's
  not fun!


• "So it's for the Crown Prince," he says, like there's any question who
  Seo-bi is going to prioritise.


• "You got hurt while running away," Seo-bi says, not even looking at
  him, and I think I just witnessed a murder.


• "It's called the Frozen Valley," he says, and FINALLY gets Seo-bi's
  undivided attention.


• "Why is she fearless? ... That is her charm." OKAY WE HAVE FINALLY
  FOUND A THING ON WHICH HE IS NOT WRONG.


• I love Seo-bi, she is fearless and gives no shits. Beom-pal is a
  disaster but I will allow him to stay as long as he continues to appreciate
  Seo-bi.


• THE RESURRECTION PLANT! SHE FOUND IT! SHE FOUND THE PLANT SHE WANTED
  TO USE TO MAKE A CURE!


• ... OH. Oh that's someone's experiment table. That has shackles on it.
  And it's next to the resurrection plant. Oh no.


• AND SOMETHING JUST TOOK DOWN THE BOUNDARY LINE WITH THE BELLS. NOPE
  NOPE TIME TO RUN NOW, TIME TO GO.


• Like, Beom-pal is a pain in the ass, but at least he has a spot
  check.


• Oh, Yeong-sin is DEFINITELY from the Chakho! Okay, that makes sense,
  even if it does mean that he's a known enough figure that Lord Ahn Hyeon
  and his staff are talking about him.


• Yeong-sin looks so tired and so done, but he's still trying to train
  people to be better shots!


• "I don't know him," says Lord Ahn Hyeon in the way that sounds like
  this is technically the truth, but not the WHOLE truth.


• *wails quietly about everyone working together and building stuff
  because this right here is shit that I LOVE in fantasy series*


• ... Oh, oh their scouts never made it back. Oh that's bad. Oh they're
  in danger.


• This must be so stressful, having to wait for an enemy with no clear
  knowledge of when they'll arrive – and LITERALLY just as I type that, Cho
  Hak-ju shows up on my screen again with a guard telling him they've
  arrived. GDI.


• WHERE HAS HE GONE, I AM SO SUSPICIOUS OF HIM LEAVING THE PALACE.


• OH. Oh he's gone to the barricade. WELL.


• ... Why is there a box that rattles. Why is it banging like there's
  someone in it trying to get out.


• Oh they are at least getting fed, that's good.


• Nights go suspiciously quickly here as well?


• Why is there a horse with no rider? That's not good.


• Okay, the gunmen are on the rafts, that makes sense.


• Isn't rule one DON'T OPEN THE GATES and STAY AT YOUR POSTS?


• ... Is that an arm hanging off the horse's reins? Is that – oh no.


• YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE MENTIONED THAT IT WAS NEARLY SUNRISE YOU FOOLS.


• ... Oh I hadn't noticed that the blood was still wet. Oh that's
  grim.


• LOOK AT THOSE FUCKING BOOM AS THEY LIGHT THEM UP!


• AUGH this is so tense even though I KNOW what's going to happen, I've
  seen this episode before, kudos to everyone who made this show, you all did
  great work.


• Oh no, Mu-yeong asking the sun to rise!


• I AM SURE THERE ARE NO NEGATIVE REPERCUSSIONS TO THERE BEING FOG AND
  MIST ALL MORNING.


• YAY WE ALL SURVIVED TILL THE SUSPICIOUSLY QUICK SUNRISE! EVERYTHING IS
  FINE AND THERE IS LITERALLY NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.


• They're so happy that they lived! And they're so excited to SLEEP and
  HAVE FOOD. SOMETHING TERRIBLE IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN.


• Cho Hak-ju asking if they think it's over is not what I wanted, to be
  honest.


• ... Oh no. What disturbed the birds. What disturbed SO MANY birds.


• HOW LONG HAVE YOU TWO BEEN SITTING IN THAT CAVE. WHEN DID YOU LEAVE
  TOWN. WHAT IS THE EXACT TIMELINE HERE?


• "It was not the sun. It was the temperature." OH NO. OH NO OH NO OH
  NO


• Oh this is bad. The ground is shaking. The zombies are rumbling like
  an earthquake in hell. Everyone is staring intently at the screen. And a
  literal ARMY OF ZOMBIES is charging them!


• DON'T JUST STAND THERE, RETAKE YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!


• AND THAT'S IT.


• THAT'S THE END OF THE SHOW.


• I'M NOT EVEN MAD ABOUT THE CLIFFHANGER, I'M JUST CAPSLOCKING BECAUSE
  WHOSE BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO ONLY DO THIS IN A SIX EPISODE CHUNK.


• So yeah, that's Kingdom. It's good. And horrifying. And they ended it
  about five minutes before all of the characters got eaten by zombies so I
  guess series two is going to open with a bang!


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