Summary
Kyung-sook’s son is targeted in another dirty smear campaign as the mayoral race gets nastier than ever.
This recap of Netflix K-Drama Queenmaker Season 1 Episode 9 contains spoilers.
In Episode 8 of Queenmaker, we got an inclination of what Yoon’s next target might be when it came to ruining Kyung-sook. It’s her son, Hyun-woo, whose most notable contribution to the season thus far was telling his mother how much she failed him by putting the needs of the world above his own personal problems.
When, in Episode 9, Kyung-sook is called away to deal with a fight that seems to have occurred between Hyun-woo and another boy, she gets a similar lecture about how she’s only there because the controversy affects her mayoral campaign. Kids!
Queenmaker Season 1 Episode 9 Recap
How does Yoon target Kyung-sook’s son?
It’s obvious, at least to Do-hee, that this situation is a setup. The police got there suspiciously quickly, and footage of the incident has spread like wildfire. As we see, Yoon plans to use the angle as a means to coerce indifferent voters to Jae-min’s side of the aisle. It’s all a play.
But the boy Hyun-woo fought with is going to press attempted murder charges, strongarming Kyung-sook into a position where she’s forced to resign from the race in order to make the whole thing go away.
Do-hee works with Joong-seok to expose how the situation has been manipulated, with Yoon compelling other kids to torment Hyun-woo with doctored photos of his mother. It was a calculated and prolonged social media campaign designed to make him lash out.
Does Kyung-sook resign?
After everything that has happened in previous episodes, we know that Kyung-sook can suffer all manner of injustices against herself, but that she’s weak when it comes to people she cares about being hurt on her account.
So, she decides to resign again. But Hyun-woo won’t let her. He won’t let them win at his expense, and it’s a nice moment coming at just the right time for Kyung-sook. She resolves to double down on her efforts and continue to work with Do-hee, taking no prisoners this time.
How does Chae-ryoung blackmail Chairperson Son?
The only intangible in Jae-min’s campaign that Yoon can’t control his Chae-ryoung.
We already know that the woman is wildly unstable. We know why. But her present situation is even more concerning for Eunsung Group since she’s required to be a doting wife in public while being consistently pushed out and mistreated in private, and something has to give.
So, Chae-ryoung blackmails her mother. If Son skips her in the line of succession, she’ll expose Jae-min’s affair and illegitimate child and reveal the depths of corruption on which Eunsung’s duty-free store has been built.
But she isn’t the only dysfunctional daughter of Chairperson Son. Seo-jin is willing to bankroll Kyung-sook’s campaign in exchange for securing her power at the head of the group.
There’s little wonder people are comparing this to Succession.
Queenmaker Season 1 Episode 9 Ending Explained
Episode 9 ends with Do-hee getting to the bottom of how Yoon manipulated the kids into setting up Hyun-woo, and threatening to expose Candidate Yook for his affair.
In response, Yook outs the conspiracy to protect himself and pledges his support to Kyung-sook, bolstering the strength of her campaign and letting the backlash blow up in the faces of Eunsung and Jae-min.
Kyung-sook triumphantly gives a public apology for the furor and promises to overcome the hatred on her path to mayor – so long as everyone gives her a chance.
You can stream Queenmaker Season 1 Episode 9 exclusively on Netflix.
