Post by ajk on Mar 13, 2020 16:05:19 GMT -5
Season 2 begins with a flashback from three years earlier. We’re at a military camp in the Sangju region, which is surrounded by Japanese soldiers. Cho Hak-ju studies a map of the current war situation, while Dr. Lee explains that the Resurrection Plant will bring the dead back to life and turn them into flesh-eating monsters. (So they did know back then.) But only if the corpse is fresh, and only if its brain stem is intact and undamaged. On top of the map are arranged small army men representing military units...and one side vastly outnumbers the other. Outside we find Ahn Hyeon, and we also see roughly six dozen dead soldiers’ bodies laying on the ground. Cho is deep in thought....
Now we’re back in the present, at the Sangju perimeter where we left things. And here they come, hundreds and hundreds of zombies. All of those defenses and gadgets we saw being built, they work well. Especially the covered pits in the ground, which swallow up dozens of zombies and trap them with wooden spears that impale their bodies. But wow there are just so many of them, and they keep coming and coming and coming...Military cannons are brought forward next, cannons with multiple barrels, and they’re VERY effective...but eventually the sheer numbers are simply too great and everyone has to flee the outer perimeter. Lots and lots of running as they all head for the Sangju citadel with its stout brick walls. They decide to try a little-known underground passageway into the city...but darn it, the door is locked and that delays their entrance. It costs Ahn’s head man Deok-seong his life but the rest make it to safety. They’re safe, but they’re exhausted, and dumbfounded by what’s just happened in broad daylight.
Roughly twenty zombies have found Seo-bi and Beom-pal on the mountainside where we left them. But the pair has managed to climb to safe ground. The zombies continue to watch them intently, but they won’t even dip their feet in the shallow stream in front of them. Remember, the prince said they’re afraid of water. Seo-bi decides to climb over the mountain and head for a place called Mungyeong, where she believes they’ll find safety and help from the Haewon Cho clan. Apparently the twenty zombies have been there for a while now, and the fact that their numbers haven’t increased gives Seo-bi confidence that they can make the journey without running into more of them in the area.
Now we’re in the capital. We learn that Cho Hak-ju has left for Mungyeong—Seo-bi was right—and it’s the minister of defense who seems to be in charge for now. He’s brought into a barn at the Royal Commandery Division and shown the bodies of three young women and a baby—all murdered. Their bodies were found just outside the north gate the previous night. Wait, one of the women lived long enough to utter last words, about how the people in her village had done this and would “kill every last one remaining.” Which village? Naeseonjae, which is nearby—and which happens to be where some of the queen’s family lives.
Elsewhere in the capital, we see the queen watching a rite being performed by a female shaman. An attendant tells the queen that those bodies have been discovered. This could be trouble, right? But she refuses to ask her father to help cover it up. So it sounds like Cho has no idea of the ruse that his daughter is carrying out. Then the shaman finishes, and tells her that on the day when the crescent moon sets, she’ll get her baby son. And it sounds like that day is near.
Seo-bi and Beom-pal have made it to Mungyeong. Whew. Cho Hak-ju is there and receives his nephew with contempt, holding him responsible for the breakdown in order that allowed Beom-il’s death to happen. But Beom-pal is now the only heir left in the family, so Cho has to take proper care of him.
It’s evening in inner Sangju. Everyone is safe for the time being, but there are a lot of refugees, and only enough food to last five days. We see Ahn and his aide talk about how the disease isn’t the same as what they knew from three years ago. Bites didn’t infect the bitten, and no daylight activity. The aide believes that Cho Hak-ju knows something about the disease and is hiding it from everyone. Hmm, don’t know about that...Anyway, Ahn is completely unrepentant and says he wouldn’t have changed a thing. It’s nighttime, and in the dark shadows we spot Mu-yeong, who’s overheard the whole exchange....
...and he goes and tells the prince about it. The prince is surprisingly unfazed. He has something else on his mind. He accuses Mu-yeong of being the mole who Ahn suspected had tipped Cho off to the prince’s destination here. Mu-yeong pulls the old routine about “how can you not trust me after all I’ve done for you” but he doesn’t deny it. Suddenly there’s trouble that interrupts them: a big fire that’s burning down one of the buildings. Uh-oh, not just any building—the food warehouse. Good heavens. Very quickly the head government clerk comes forward and said that it was him—he dropped his lamp in there by accident. Well gee could things get any worse?
Seo-bi is studying a cutting from a Resurrection Plant, pondering what form a cure might take. Cho Hak-ju happens to pass by and isn’t happy to see what’s in her hand. And even more unhappy to find out that she knows of it from reading the king’s medical records! She tells him what she read, written by Dr. Lee: “If you mash the resurrection plant, put it on a needle, and insert it deep into the glabella, in two hours time, the dead will return to life.” Realizing she’s knowledgeable and useful, Cho tells her he’s going to take her back to the capital with him because there’s “unfinished work” to do.
Has the prince lost his mind? He wants to go to Mungyeong! With Cho Hak-ju there and with zombies all over the area? But he’s insistent. So the zombies are lured away from the passageway—yes they’re still there—with some blood dripped over the citadel walls. The prince, Lord Ahn, Mu-yeong, Yeong-sin, and a squad of Ahn’s best men led by a swordsman named Chang, make their escape through the passageway. They’ve reasoned that with all of the strain placed on the military at the moment, the Mungyeong guard force will be undermanned and they’ll be able to find a way in. And what’s the point of it all? “Cho Hak-ju,” the prince says, “will die by my sword.”
Now we’re back in the present, at the Sangju perimeter where we left things. And here they come, hundreds and hundreds of zombies. All of those defenses and gadgets we saw being built, they work well. Especially the covered pits in the ground, which swallow up dozens of zombies and trap them with wooden spears that impale their bodies. But wow there are just so many of them, and they keep coming and coming and coming...Military cannons are brought forward next, cannons with multiple barrels, and they’re VERY effective...but eventually the sheer numbers are simply too great and everyone has to flee the outer perimeter. Lots and lots of running as they all head for the Sangju citadel with its stout brick walls. They decide to try a little-known underground passageway into the city...but darn it, the door is locked and that delays their entrance. It costs Ahn’s head man Deok-seong his life but the rest make it to safety. They’re safe, but they’re exhausted, and dumbfounded by what’s just happened in broad daylight.
Roughly twenty zombies have found Seo-bi and Beom-pal on the mountainside where we left them. But the pair has managed to climb to safe ground. The zombies continue to watch them intently, but they won’t even dip their feet in the shallow stream in front of them. Remember, the prince said they’re afraid of water. Seo-bi decides to climb over the mountain and head for a place called Mungyeong, where she believes they’ll find safety and help from the Haewon Cho clan. Apparently the twenty zombies have been there for a while now, and the fact that their numbers haven’t increased gives Seo-bi confidence that they can make the journey without running into more of them in the area.
Now we’re in the capital. We learn that Cho Hak-ju has left for Mungyeong—Seo-bi was right—and it’s the minister of defense who seems to be in charge for now. He’s brought into a barn at the Royal Commandery Division and shown the bodies of three young women and a baby—all murdered. Their bodies were found just outside the north gate the previous night. Wait, one of the women lived long enough to utter last words, about how the people in her village had done this and would “kill every last one remaining.” Which village? Naeseonjae, which is nearby—and which happens to be where some of the queen’s family lives.
Elsewhere in the capital, we see the queen watching a rite being performed by a female shaman. An attendant tells the queen that those bodies have been discovered. This could be trouble, right? But she refuses to ask her father to help cover it up. So it sounds like Cho has no idea of the ruse that his daughter is carrying out. Then the shaman finishes, and tells her that on the day when the crescent moon sets, she’ll get her baby son. And it sounds like that day is near.
Seo-bi and Beom-pal have made it to Mungyeong. Whew. Cho Hak-ju is there and receives his nephew with contempt, holding him responsible for the breakdown in order that allowed Beom-il’s death to happen. But Beom-pal is now the only heir left in the family, so Cho has to take proper care of him.
It’s evening in inner Sangju. Everyone is safe for the time being, but there are a lot of refugees, and only enough food to last five days. We see Ahn and his aide talk about how the disease isn’t the same as what they knew from three years ago. Bites didn’t infect the bitten, and no daylight activity. The aide believes that Cho Hak-ju knows something about the disease and is hiding it from everyone. Hmm, don’t know about that...Anyway, Ahn is completely unrepentant and says he wouldn’t have changed a thing. It’s nighttime, and in the dark shadows we spot Mu-yeong, who’s overheard the whole exchange....
...and he goes and tells the prince about it. The prince is surprisingly unfazed. He has something else on his mind. He accuses Mu-yeong of being the mole who Ahn suspected had tipped Cho off to the prince’s destination here. Mu-yeong pulls the old routine about “how can you not trust me after all I’ve done for you” but he doesn’t deny it. Suddenly there’s trouble that interrupts them: a big fire that’s burning down one of the buildings. Uh-oh, not just any building—the food warehouse. Good heavens. Very quickly the head government clerk comes forward and said that it was him—he dropped his lamp in there by accident. Well gee could things get any worse?
Seo-bi is studying a cutting from a Resurrection Plant, pondering what form a cure might take. Cho Hak-ju happens to pass by and isn’t happy to see what’s in her hand. And even more unhappy to find out that she knows of it from reading the king’s medical records! She tells him what she read, written by Dr. Lee: “If you mash the resurrection plant, put it on a needle, and insert it deep into the glabella, in two hours time, the dead will return to life.” Realizing she’s knowledgeable and useful, Cho tells her he’s going to take her back to the capital with him because there’s “unfinished work” to do.
Has the prince lost his mind? He wants to go to Mungyeong! With Cho Hak-ju there and with zombies all over the area? But he’s insistent. So the zombies are lured away from the passageway—yes they’re still there—with some blood dripped over the citadel walls. The prince, Lord Ahn, Mu-yeong, Yeong-sin, and a squad of Ahn’s best men led by a swordsman named Chang, make their escape through the passageway. They’ve reasoned that with all of the strain placed on the military at the moment, the Mungyeong guard force will be undermanned and they’ll be able to find a way in. And what’s the point of it all? “Cho Hak-ju,” the prince says, “will die by my sword.”
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