Summary
Episode 12 of Captivating the King takes a few unwelcome leaps of logic in order to build drama, but this may pay off down the line.
Episode 12 of Captivating the King is that episode, the one where you have to suspend disbelief and excuse some questionable character decisions for the sake of drama. Sure, we’ve already had that to a certain extent in Season 1 given how long it took Lee In to realize that Mong-woo was a woman in disguise, but that little touch of silliness was kind of baked into the premise and resulted in an intriguing angle.
Time will tell whether some of these shenanigans will build to similar payoffs down the line.
I suppose we might as well talk about omens. At the end of Episode 11, lightning struck and set the peach tree alight, which Lee In takes as warning of impending doom. Later, Je-nam claims the tree’s fate suggests that the wrongs of the palace should be righted; corruption pulled free root and stem.
This is confirmation bias. The King would already rather not be king, so of course he’s going to interpret anything he can as a sign he shouldn’t be. The corruption in the palace is rife, so of course, it needs eradicating.
Principal Director Park continues to scheme
At this point, Park has emerged as the clear front-runner in the villain sweepstakes. You could argue that this does away with some of the show’s pleasing moral ambiguity, but there’s nothing wrong with a good bad guy. And the Queen Dowager is a pretty close contender too. Between them, they decide to secure Lee In a new queen to maintain their familial line of succession.
Since Park can easily control Hyun-bo, he’d like to pluck the new potential queen from his nieces. This is interwoven with the matter of Grand Prince Mun-seong becoming Crown Prince. Queen Oh, on her deathbed, pushes her father to endorse this.
Park volunteers Min Ji-hwan’s daughter as Mun-seong’s bride, which Ji-hwan is furious about, since he can’t outright reject the offer. However, he can endorse Munseong as Crown Prince, which would make his daughter the wife of the future king to sugar the pill.
Why does Lee In adopt Mun-seong?
This plan comes with a bit of a caveat. When Minister Oh petitions to have Mun-seong become heir at court and Je-nam agrees, Park isn’t thrilled. Apparently, Mun-seong being the son of the previous King would make Lee In a usurper, so Ji-hwan posits a potential solution – for Lee In to adopt Mun-seong as his son.
The King agrees to this. However, this is where we get to the slightly silly stuff. So, to keep up appearances, Lee In tells a concerned Park that he is doing this to eventually expel and kill Mun-seong. He’s obviously lying, but Mong-woo/Hee-soo is eavesdropping and takes him completely seriously.
How does Captivating the King Season 1, Episode 12 end?
Having heard this, Hee-soo agrees with Dal-ha that Mun-seong is not safe while the King is alive, so the two plan to assassinate him that night. Mong-woo will be the bait, while Dal-ha does the deed.
However, at the end of the episode Mong-woo kind of gives the game away with a few tears, warning Lee In not to go inside their usual spot. He at first suspects another lover, but the reaction he gets when he mentions a potential assassin gives it all away. He realizes that Mong-woo has been plotting to kill him.
