Summary
The best episode of Queen of Tears thus far is full of drama, moving everyone into a very different position for the back half of the season.
The usual quibbles notwithstanding – the length! – Episode 8 of Queen of Tears was good. Like, really good. The emotions were high, the characters were complex and believable, and Song Joong-ki cameoed as Vincenzo just for a little icing on the cake. Easily the best installment of Season 1 yet, it’s easy to see this becoming one of the biggest K-Dramas of the year over the next few weeks.
It’s almost pointless saying so now, but Netflix has yet another hit on its hands. Meanwhile, the sky remains blue.
An Unexpected Vincenzo Cameo
Anyway, despite Episode 7 having ended with the suggestion of another reconciliation between Hyun-woo and Hae-in… not quite. When Hae-in’s confusion subsides and her memory returns, what she recalls primarily is Hyun-woo saying how much he hated the previous few years of their marriage.
Naturally, Hae-in wants the divorce finalized posthaste, and brings in her lawyer, Vincenzo, to finalize the agreement. Hyun-woo isn’t exactly reassured by the presence of a Korean-Italian mob attorney, but the eventual deal is that they’ll remain amicable. At least as far as other people are concerned, anyway.
Divorced or not, Hyun-woo and Hae-in don’t seem to have any intention of staying out of each other’s way. Hae-in follows her husband’s odd route; where he runs, where he eats. She eavesdrops on Hyun-woo and Yang-gi discussing the divorce. Meanwhile, Hyun-woo figures out that Eun-sung is following Hae-in around and starts following him to warn him off. Their paths are irrevocably intertwined, and there’s nothing a piece of paper can do to change that.
Eun-sung Gets the Upper Hand At Hyun-woo’s Expense
Speaking of Eun-sung, he has figured out that Hae-in has cancer, and Hyun-woo has figured out that he has figured this out, so for once it doesn’t feel like he has all the cards. In flashbacks, it’s strongly implied that Eun-sung has genuine feelings for Hae-in – he still wears a necklace she dropped after helping him when they were kids – and isn’t just manipulating her as part of his plan to ruin the Queen Group, though his objective nonetheless remains the same. Hae-in is pretty wise to his nonsense, though, and tells him that she doesn’t want to collaborate with Hercyna so she’s not obliged to him in any way.
Things are still going pretty well for Eun-sung, though. Despite Hyun-woo helping to get things moving when Soo-cheol learns that the military base next to the development plot won’t relocate (Hyun-woo has some Army connections), it’s Eun-sung who saves the day at the last moment when the investors back out. Hyun-woo is running out of influence fast, and he has made an enemy of Hae-in’s family who want to uproot him as soon as possible, despite Hae-in herself believing that he should fight back.
Hostile Takeover
So, fight back he does. After figuring out that Eun-sung is Seul-hee’s biological child, he matches this up with the fact that Beom-ja knows Seul-hee is a fraudulent character with a son. A DNA test confirms the connection. Leverage has been acquired.
Hyun-woo tells the Chairman about this, but he’s too late. On his birthday, the Chairman had given Seul-hee power of attorney, and she uses the opportunity to poison him. While he’s comatose, she has control, preventing his family from visiting him. With Eun-sung the majority shareholder through his company Pione, the Queen Group’s familial leadership is suddenly under very real threat.
A Change of Scenery
With the Hong family expelled from their business, they relocate to the unlikeliest of places – Hyun-woo’s home. This puts two very different families under the same roof, forced to reluctantly share a space. It’ll be a big change of pace for Queen of Tears, but that’s no bad thing, and it’ll allow the show to explore its underlying themes of class disparity much more overtly.
In the epilogue of Queen of Tears Episode 8, we see Hae-in crying over the state of her marriage, and the fact that circumstances continue to get in the way of the obvious love that both she and Hyun-woo share for each other.
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