History Series / Kingdom2019

* FacialHorror: In a flashback, we see the people in Yeong-shin's home village having their faces covered in bloody bandages. This is likely a result of UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi ordering the invading Japanese soldiers to bring back severed Korean noses for their remuneration claim.

* TheDungAges: This isn't quite evident in more urbanised, royal cities like Hanyang (i.e., modern-day Seoul), and the setting is Early Modern Korea rather than the strictly medieval Western Europe, but remote provincial towns like Dongnae are positively ''filthy'', with people wearing constantly soiled clothes, wet, muddy alleys, and open sewer channels, one of which even features a small child openly ''defecating'' into it. (The actual act isn't shown on camera, of course, but it's obvious what the kid is doing.) Prince Chang can't help but hold his nose.

** Yeong-shin thought that he was just feeding a bunch of starving people when he [[ToServeMan put Dan-i's body into the stewpot]]. Suddenly, what was a very limited and isolated condition becomes dozens of highly-infectious zombies.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The Crown Prince and his bodyguard Mu-yeong find a massacre at the Jiyulheon clinic. They then find corpses tucked under the floor, so they inform the authorities who collect the bodies. This leads to a zombie attack, as the corpses were only dormant because it was daytime and they reanimated later on.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler: At great risk to himself, the Crown Prince ensures no survivors are left behind as they flee from the ruins of Dongnae to Jiyulheon just as night falls. However, forces loyal to Cho soon track him down and demand his surrender in the daytime. When he refuses, they unleash a hail of arrows that kills many of them]].

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Seo-bi brings up a point to Mu-Yeong after their rescue from zombies by Lord Ahn Hyeon, "How is it that Lord Hyeon and his men knew how to fight the zombies?". Mu-Yeong has no answer but is shown to be discomforted at the idea. [[spoiler: It's revealed that in Ahn himself once instigated a zombie outbreak and unleashed it on the Japanese army surrounding Sangju]].

** Not in Episode 4 where the small girl Seo-bi was fond of was struck down when searching for Prince Chang.

** He later participates in an ambush against Cho's forces and takes out multiple soldiers with [[OneHitKill clean headshots]] from relatively long-range (for a musket).

** Considering the nobles deliberately abandoned the other survivors just before nightfall, [[KarmicDeath their fates were]] [[AssholeVictim well-deserved]].

* WrittenByTheWinners: Deliberately done by [[spoiler: Prince Chang himself to prevent the future Joseon kings from learning about the zombie plague that happens throughout the series. In a more purposefully benign reason, he commanded his followers to write his fate as being killed (alongside the young king's parents' fate) during the Korean-Japanese war to make sure that the young king will never know the truth.]]

* ImAHumanitarian: The starving villagers are tricked into drinking stew made out of a diseased corpse while thinking it is actually venison. This is also the origin of the outbreak.

Not in Episode 4 where the small girl Seo-bi was fond of was struck down when searching for Prince Chang.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Seo-bi brings up a point to Beom-pal after their rescue from zombies by Lord Ahn Hyeon, "How is it that Lord Hyeon and his men knew how to fight the zombies?". Beom-pal has no answer but is shown to be discomforted at the idea. [[spoiler: It's revealed that in Ahn himself once instigated a zombie outbreak and unleashed it on the Japanese army surrounding Sangju]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Cho Hak-ju of all people, while cruel, sadistic, and power-hungry, genuinely wants the best for the nation, and even [[spoiler: dies attempting to exile his own daughter when he realizes that she's attempting to pass off a commoner's baby as the rightful heir to the throne]].

** In Season 2, Beom-pal gets on the receiving end of a fountain of zombie blood vomit, straight out of the ''Evil Dead''. Even Yeong-shin is caught off guard by it.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The Gyeongbok Palace in UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} (then Hanyang) was burned down during the Japanese invasion, which happened shortly before the show's timeframe. Here it's shown in its modern-day form, which started reconstruction in 1989 after being left in ruins for over three centuries. May not apply because [[spoiler: it was revealed that Koreans changed the course of the war by weaponizing zombies against the Japanese invaders]].

** In Season 2, Beom-pal gets on the receiving end of a fountain of zombie blood vomit, straight out of the Evil Dead. Even Yeong-Shin is caught off guard by it.
* ButtMonkey: Lord Beom-pal. From repeatedly getting caught in zombie attacks to his diagnosis of gonorrhea, the only bit of luck this guy has is that he keeps managing to survive through sheer luck.

** Season 2 ends with [[spoiler: the reveal the plants came from China, someone is purposely spreading them to cause a new outbreak, and the young king is still infected and it is shown a worm is making its way to his brain]].
* DarkestHour: Done both figuratively and literally. The Queen has [[spoiler: engineered an outbreak within Hanyang's citadels to make sure that no one shall have the throne, the zombies' advance are unimpeded and Prince Chang's forces have to make a LastStand in the frozen courtyard pool with absolutely no backup...]]

* {{Determinator}}: Not even being bitten stops [[spoiler: Prince Chang to break the frozen courtyard's pool in his LastStand to finish off the zombie horde by literally ''smacking down a large-bodied zombie by its head'' to the broken ice!]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Cho Hak-ju of all people, while cruel, sadistic, and power-hungry, genuinely wants the best for the nation, and even [[spoiler: dies attempting to exile his own daughter when he realizes that she actually isn't pregnant with the rightful heir to the throne]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: Both [[spoiler: Cho Hak-ju and the Queen bit this very harshly as the former got his cheek bitten off by the zombified Ahn Hyeon (he gets cured of the parasites, but he dies nonetheless later on) and the latter having herself being devoured alive by the zombies as she persists to not giving her throne to the Crown Prince]]. Given their highly immoral actions throughout the series, their gruesome deaths are well-deserved.

* QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice: In response to the rapidly spreading outbreak, Cho Hak-ju orders the closing of all gates into Sangju, effectively sealing the ''entirety of the southern Korean peninsula'' from the capital Hanyang[[note]]present-day Seoul[[/note]] and trapping the Crown Prince with a growing zombie horde.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Since nobody within the royal family bothers to eradicate the zombie plague either out of sheer incompetence or due to TheConspiracy, only Prince Chang that remains to defend his people from the plague and the more oppressive members of the royal family.

* SecretWeapon: How Lord Ahn Hyeon and 500 soldiers were able to hold off the Japanese invasion. Because [[spoiler: Cho Hak-ju approached Hyeon with the resurrection plant and the plan of converting the sickly Sumang village into zombies to unleash on the Japanese. A reluctant Hyeon accepts...]]

* SmugSnake: The Queen is this ''in spades'' when she's not occasionally giggling. Hell, she's not even [[spoiler:flinching at all when the zombies that she released deliberately are just an inch in front of her to devour her mercilessly!]]

* TooDumbToLive: Despite having witnessed first-hand the destruction caused by the zombies, an elderly noblewoman ''insists'' on smuggling her infected son out in a locked crate to spare his body from being burned. This is regardless of Seo-bi specifically warning survivors that the zombies seek shelter during daytime and will reanimate in the evening. Naturally, when night falls, the zombie reanimates and wipes out everyone aboard the boat.

* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Lord Ahn Hyeon is seemingly killed in a futile attempt to reach the Crown Prince after entering a trap set by Cho Hak-ju during Season 2. However, the public circumstances of his death was a plan organised [[note]]When Cho Hak-ju orders the transfer of the captured Crown Prince and his allies to Hanyang, Seo-bi resurrects Ahn Hyeon as a zombie during their attempted jailbreak[[/note]] to prove the existence of the resurrection herb and thereby implicating Cho in a cover-up of the King's death]].

* UndyingLoyalty: Because of Prince Chang's leadership skills, charisma and overall kindness, many found themselves to be extremely loyal to him in the face of a zombie plague, even when they have no more reason to stick around him, such as Yeong-Shin.

** [[spoiler: The season 2 finale show that the resurrection plant is purposely being spread throughout Korea and also that the young new king is still infected and likely will soon turn]].

* ZombifyTheLiving: [[spoiler: Faced with losing her grasp on power, the Queen attempts a [[TakingYouDownWithMe 'scorched earth']] policy to deny the Crown Prince his throne. Her attendants free their caged zombies, allowing them to infect the entire palace staff]].

In the Joseon Era (late 14th- to late 19th-century), when the country was recovering from the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasions_of_Korea_(1592%E2%80%931598) Imjin War]], word on the street is that the King is dead. The powerful Haewon Cho Clan is in almost complete control of the government, and its head, Chief State Councilor Cho Hak-ju (Ryu Seung-Ryong of ''Animation/SeoulStation''), suspects that the Crown Prince Yi Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) is behind said rumours. The Prince determines that something is seriously wrong with the King and goes to the countryside to investigate matters while being pursued on charges of treason by Cho's force. Meanwhile, in the countryside, physician Seo-bi (Creator/BaeDoona of ''Film/TheHost'' and ''Series/{{Sense8}}'') notices that villagers are dropping dead rapidly, but that will soon be the least of her worries...

* BittersweetEnding: How Season 2 wraps up, with [[spoiler: the plague being contained, the Haewon Cho Clan being ousted from most positions of power, and most of the main cast surviving to lead more fruitful lives. However, Prince Chang goes into self-imposed exile, Muyeong was killed in the process, his wife left a widow and unable to raise their child, and said child being raised by the state as the heir to the throne, never knowing about his parents. And to make matters worse, there's the implication that someone is trying to start a new outbreak, and it turns out that the young prince ''isn't entirely immune from the plague'' as there is still one parasitic worm in his body]].

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: The general politics during the series' time isn't stable, which the bottom of the palace's pond is filled with the corpses of those who were caught in the court intrigue. Yi Chang became a target of this with the birth of his half brother that entailed the possibility of his succession rights relinquished due to his birth from a concubine rather than a consort. Even in the zombie outbreak, the aristocracy and ruling clan still attempt to vie for power and sometimes take advantage of the chaos.

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Muyeong, the Prince's guard and personal advisor, bites it halfway through Season 2, in a hail of arrows from members of the Haewon Cho Clan]].

* TokenGoodTeammate: Of the Haewon Cho Clan, the only good member of the prominent Cho clan is Beom-pal who's a pretty kind guy and actually does wish to help people rather than use them as tools. Unfortunately, he's a doormat for bad advisors and he's loyal to the clan, including the evil Cho Hak-ju, so ends causing as much death as his crueller relatives (he's responsible for a lot of deaths at Jiyulheon and his acting on Cho Hak-ju's orders leads directly to Muyeong's death).

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The Crown Prince and his bodyguard Mu-Yeong find a massacre at the Jiyulheon clinic. They then find corpses tucked under the floor, so they inform the authorities who collect the bodies. This leads to a zombie attack, as the corpses were only dormant because it was daytime and they reanimated later on.

In the Joseon Era (late 14th- to late 19th-century), when the country was recovering from the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasions_of_Korea_(1592%E2%80%931598) Imjin War]], word on the street is that the King is dead. The powerful Haewon Cho Clan is in almost complete control of the government, and its head, Chief State Councilor Cho Hak-Ju (Ryu Seung-Ryong of ''Animation/SeoulStation''), suspects that the Crown Prince Yi Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) is behind said rumours. The Prince determines that something is seriously wrong with the King and goes to the countryside to investigate matters while being pursued on charges of treason by Cho's force. Meanwhile, in the countryside, physician Seo-bi (Creator/BaeDoona of ''Film/TheHost'' and ''Series/{{Sense8}}'') notices that villagers are dropping dead rapidly, but that will soon be the least of her worries...

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Cho Hak-Ju of all people, while cruel, sadistic, and power-hungry, genuinely wants the best for the nation, and even [[spoiler: dies attempting to exile his own daughter when he realizes that she actually isn't pregnant with the rightful heir to the throne]].

* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler: Cho Hak-Ju swears revenge on the Crown Prince after receiving his son's head, which was recovered from Jiyulheon. It's unclear whether he knows (or cares) that the Crown Prince was forced to behead his son after he was infected and turned into a zombie]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: Both [[spoiler: Cho Hak-Jo and the Queen bit this very harshly as the former got his cheek bitten off by the zombified Ahn Hyeon (he gets cured of the parasites, but he dies nonetheless later on) and the latter having herself being devoured alive by the zombies as she persists to not giving her throne to the Crown Prince]]. Given their highly immoral actions throughout the series, their gruesome deaths are well-deserved.

* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler: The Queen has always known that her father Lord Cho Hak-Ju hates her for being a female child of his. So she happily poisons him when he discovers her plan to pass off a commoner baby as her son]].

* QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice: In response to the rapidly spreading outbreak, Cho Hak-Ju orders the closing of all gates into Sangju, effectively sealing the ''entirety of the southern Korean peninsula'' from the capital Hanyang[[note]]present-day Seoul[[/note]] and trapping the Crown Prince with a growing zombie horde.

* SecretWeapon: How Lord Ahn Hyeon and 500 soldiers were able to hold off the Japanese invasion. Because [[spoiler: Cho Hak-Ju approached Hyeon with the resurrection plant and the plan of converting the sickly Sumang village into zombies to unleash on the Japanese. A reluctant Hyeon accepts...]]

* TokenGoodTeammate: Of the Haewon Cho Clan, the only good member of the prominent Cho clan is Beom-pal who's a pretty kind guy and actually does wish to help people rather than use them as tools. Unfortunately, he's a doormat for bad advisors and he's loyal to the clan, including the evil Cho Hak-Ju, so ends causing as much death as his crueller relatives (he's responsible for a lot of deaths at Jiyulheon and his acting on Cho Hak-Ju's orders leads directly to Muyeong's death).

* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler: Lord Ahn Hyeon is seemingly killed in a futile attempt to reach the Crown Prince after entering a trap set by Cho Hak-Ju during Season 2. However, the public circumstances of his death was a plan organised [[note]]When Cho Hak-Ju orders the transfer of the captured Crown Prince and his allies to Hanyang, Seo-bi resurrects Ahn Hyeon as a zombie during their attempted jailbreak[[/note]] to prove the existence of the resurrection herb and thereby implicating Cho in a cover-up of the King's death]].

** Season 2 ends with [[spoiler: the reveal the plants came from China, someone is purposely spreading them to cause a new outbreak, and the young king is still infected and it is shown a worm is making it's way to his brain]].

* SmugSuper: The Queen is this ''in spades'' when she's not occasionally giggling. Hell, she's not even [[spoiler: flinching at all when the zombies that she released deliberately are just an inch in front of her to devour her mercilessly!]]

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:At great risk to himself, the Crown Prince ensures no survivors are left behind as they flee from the ruins of Dongnae to Jiyulheon just as night falls. However, forces loyal to Cho soon track him down and demand his surrender in the daytime. When he refuses, they unleash a hail of arrows that kills many of them]].

* DarkestHour: Done both figuratively and literally. The Queen has [[spoiler: engineered an outbreak within Hanyang's citadels to make sure that no one shall have the throne, the zombies' advance are unimpeded and Prince Chang's forces have to make a last stand in the frozen courtyard pool with absolutely no backup...]]

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:The Queen murders any mother in her care who has given birth, and also any female infant they give birth to. [[NiceJobeFixingItVillain The trail of blood from an escaping mother raises the Royal Commander's suspicion and leads him to investigate into the conspiracy]]]].

* ZombifyTheLiving: [[spoiler:Faced with losing her grasp on power, the Queen attempts a [[TakingYouDownWithMe 'scorched earth']] policy to deny the Crown Prince his throne. Her attendants free their caged zombies, allowing them to infect the entire palace staff]].

* AnyoneCanDie: The resurrected dead aren't the only things killing the living left and right - the politics of the era, [[spoiler:particularly TheConspiracy instigated by the Haewon Cho Clan]], ensure all characters would not be spared in order to maintain a facade of normalcy.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Seo-bi brings up a point to Beom-pal after their rescue from zombies by Lord Ahn Hyeon, "How is it that Lord Hyeon and his men knew how to fight the zombies?". Beom-pal has no answer but is shown to be discomforted at the idea. [[spoiler:It's revealed that in Ahn himself once instigated a zombie outbreak and unleashed it on the Japanese army surrounding Sangju]].
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The Gyeongbok Palace in UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} (then Hanyang) was burned down during the Japanese invasion, which happened shortly before the show's timeframe. Here it's shown in its modern-day form, which started reconstruction in 1989 after being left in ruins for over three centuries. May not apply because [[spoiler:it was revealed that Koreans changed the course of the war by weaponizing zombies against the Japanese invaders]].

* BittersweetEnding: How Season 2 wraps up, with [[spoiler:the plague being contained, the Haewon Cho Clan being ousted from most positions of power, and most of the main cast surviving to lead more fruitful lives. However, Prince Chang goes into self-imposed exile, Muyeong was killed in the process, his wife left a widow and unable to raise their child, and said child being raised by the state as the heir to the throne, never knowing about his parents. And to make matters worse, there's the implication that someone is trying to start a new outbreak, and it turns out that the young prince ''isn't entirely immune from the plague'' as there is still one parasitic worm in his body]].

* CliffHanger: Season 1 ends as [[spoiler:the defenders of Sangju prepare to pack up after sunrise until the ground starts vibrating as a horde of zombies appears on the horizon, seemingly unaffected by daylight…]]
** Season 2 ends with [[spoiler:the reveal the plants came from China, someone is purposely spreading them to cause a new outbreak, and the young king is still infected and it is shown a worm is making it's way to his brain]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Cho Hak-Ju of all people, while cruel, sadistic, and power-hungry, genuinely wants the best for the nation, and even [[spoiler:dies attempting to exile his own daughter when he realizes that she actually isn't pregnant with the rightful heir to the throne]].
* EvilIsDeathlyCold: The resurrection medicinal herb that leads to the zombie outbreak was found in an icy cave. [[spoiler:This is also reflected in the zombies' ability to rise - they can stay active in cold climates, such as night time]].

* FireForgedFriends: Surprisingly enough, [[spoiler:Beom-pal and Yeong-shin]] after being lumped together during the final battle of Season 2, sustaining a decently warm camaraderie seven years later.

** [[spoiler:Things take another turn for the worse after it's revealed that the zombies fear ''heat'' and not sunlight itself, just as the weather begins shifting to winter. As it gets colder, the zombies can now remain active during the daytime, meaning the living no longer have any respite from their attacks…]]

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Beom-pal throughout seasons 1 and 2, continually shifting allegiance to his clan, the prince, and himself, before finally settling on [[spoiler:Prince Chang after realizing how monstrous his clan has actually become once told to execute innocent civilians]].

* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler:Cho Hak-Ju swears revenge on the Crown Prince after receiving his son's head, which was recovered from Jiyulheon. It's unclear whether he knows (or cares) that the Crown Prince was forced to behead his son after he was infected and turned into a zombie]].

* KillItWithWater: [[spoiler:The parasitic worms which started the outbreak are extremely hydrophobic; the zombies themselves will also refuse to cross bodies of water that are shallow enough to walk through. In fact, the worms will immediately expel themselves from the host body if submerged in water, allowing freshly bitten victims to avoid zombification by removing the parasite before it reaches the brain]].
* LaserGuidedKarma: Both [[spoiler:Cho Hak-Jo and the Queen bit this very harshly as the former got his cheek bitten off by the zombified Ahn Hyeon (he gets cured of the parasites, but he dies nonetheless later on) and the latter having herself being devoured alive by the zombies as she persists to not giving her throne to the Crown Prince]]. Given their highly immoral actions throughout the series, their gruesome deaths are well-deserved.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: These zombies are created as the result of an HealingHerb believed to have [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor the ability to raise the dead]]. Like most traditional zombies, they look like decayed walking corpses, cannot talk, eat human flesh, can only die through decapitation, and [[TheVirus turn anyone they successfully bite into more zombies]]. However, they can run and move fast, and they're only active at night, hiding under the shade and dark places the moment daylight hits and seemingly reverting back to regular corpses until nightfall strikes again. [[spoiler:Further differentiating, they aren't afraid of fire or sunlight per se, but ''heat''. If it gets warm or hot enough, they try to hide in cool places and go dormant but are perfectly able to operate during the day if it's cold enough]].
* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler:The Queen has always known that her father Lord Cho Hak-ju hates her for being a female child of his. So she happily poisons him when he discovers her plan to pass off a commoner baby as her son]].

* PuppeteerParasite: [[spoiler:It's actually worms living in the resurrection plant that creates the monsters, making the infected a type of ParasiteZombie]].

* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Muyeong, the Prince's guard, bites it halfway through Season 2, in a hail of arrows from members of the Haewon Cho Clan]].
* SecretWeapon: How Lord Ahn Hyeon and 500 soldiers were able to hold off the Japanese invasion. Because [[spoiler:Cho Hak-ju approached Hyeon with the resurrection plant and the plan of converting the sickly Sumang village into zombies to unleash on the Japanese. A reluctant Hyeon accepts...]]

* SuperSenses: [[spoiler:The zombies have an extremely acute sense of smell, and are particularly attracted to the scent of fresh blood. This is also exploited by the heroes, who use it as a particularly effective way to divert their attention]].

* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Lord Ahn Hyeon is seemingly killed in a futile attempt to reach the Crown Prince after entering a trap set by Cho Hak-ju during Season 2. However, the public circumstances of his death was a plan organised [[note]]When Cho Hak-ju orders the transfer of the captured Crown Prince and his allies to Hanyang, Seo-bi resurrects Ahn Hyeon as a zombie during their attempted jailbreak[[/note]] to prove the existence of the resurrection herb and thereby implicating Cho in a cover-up of the King's death]].

* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:The season 1 finale reveals that the zombies rest not because of daylight, but because of the heat. This is realized just as winter is approaching in Korea... Oh, and the Queen is not actually pregnant, but has a whole room-full of surrogate mothers whom she's counting on to deliver at least one son]].
** [[spoiler:The season 2 finale show that the resurrection plant is purposely being spread throughout Korea and also that the young new king is still infected and likely will soon turn]].
* WhamShot: One of the Queen's new maids gasps when she undresses her Majesty and discovers that [[spoiler:she isn't pregnant]].
** [[spoiler:The ending of the season 2 finale shows worms spreading from the young king's bite wound towards his brain]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The Gyeongbok Palace in UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} (then Hanyang) was burned down during the Japanese invasion, which happened shortly before the show's timeframe. Here it's shown in its modern-day form, which started reconstruction in 1989 after being left in ruins for over three centuries.

* [[spoiler:The season 2 finale show that the resurrection plant is purposely being spread throughout Korea and also that the young new king is still infected and likely will soon turn]].

* [[spoiler:The ending of the season 2 finale shows worms spreading from the young king's bite wound towards his brain]].

* {{Patricide}}: The Queen has always known that her father Lord Cho Hak-ju hates her for being a female child of his. So she happily poisons him when he discovers her plan to pass off a commoner baby as her son.

** [[spoiler:Season 2 ends with the reveal the plants came from China, someone is purposely spreading them to cause a new outbreak, and the young king is still infected and it is shown a worm is making it's way to his brain]].

--> [[spoiler:Season 2 ends with the reveal the plants came from China, someone is purposely spreading them to cause a new outbreak, and the young king is still infected and it is shown a worm is making it's way to his brain]].

--> [[spoiler:Season 3 ends with the reveal the plants came from China, someone is purposely spreading them to cause a new outbreak, and the young king is still infected and it is shown a worm is making it's way to his brain]].

In the Joseon Era (late 14th- to late 19th-century), when the country was recovering from the Imjin War, word on the street is that the King is dead. The powerful Haewon Cho Clan is in almost complete control of the government, and its head, Chief State Councilor Cho Hak-Ju (Ryu Seung-Ryong of ''Animation/SeoulStation''), suspects that the Crown Prince Yi Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) is behind said rumours. The Prince determines that something is seriously wrong with the King and goes to the countryside to investigate matters while being pursued on charges of treason by Cho's force. Meanwhile, in the countryside, physician Seo-bi (Creator/BaeDoona of ''Film/TheHost'' and ''Series/{{Sense8}}'') notices that villagers are dropping dead rapidly, but that will soon be the least of her worries...