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Queen Woo Part 1 released 4 episodes at once on August 30, 2024. The historical period drama featured Ji Chang-wook, Lee Soo-hyuk, Jeon Jong-seo, Kim Mu-yeol, Kang Yeong-seok, and Park Bo-kyung, among others. Part 1 focuses on the 24 hours when the king is assassinated and what conspires after his death.
The first episode of Queen Woo opens with King Go Nam-u (Ji Chang-wook) ruling in the year 197. He is on a quest to recover lost lands that the Han Dynasty appropriated during the previous king's rule. He is now outside the palace, engaged in combat. He leaves Prime Minister Eul Pa-so (Kim Mu-yeol) to guard and assist Queen Woo-hee (Jeon Jong-seo) in the palace.
In the king's absence, the Western authority, Hae Dae-bu, has begun to crave regal power. However, she is pressured by the Northern Queen's family to provide the king with an heir. The second episode of Queen Woo opens with a flashback to the Goguryeo Dongmaeng Festival, which took place 28 years ago from her present situation.
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A youthful Woo-hee defends Eul Pa-so from a conman. Prince Go Na-mu, who is also present during the celebration, is amazed by Woo-hee's talents and inquires about her.
The tragic and sudden death of King Go Nam-u (Ji Chang-wook) leaves Queen Woo-hee chased by Jolbon's soldiers and targeted by other clans and princes. Episode 4 (and the final episode) ends with Jolbon (Park Bo-kyung) getting a red thread tied on a pigeon's feet, indicating that "the Queen survived."
Queen Woo perfectly balances between drama, action, and mystery
Queen Woo episode 1 opened with a lady paying a wordsmith to fix a broken bronze sword. After paying him, she leaves with her comrade (another lady) as some ruffians follow them. After following them for a while, the ruffians attack them, and the two ladies get into a fight and defeat all the men.
Immediately, royal female guards arrive on their horses and bow down to the lady, announcing that she is Woo-hee, the queen and wife of King Nam-u. Episode 1 shows King Nam-u on a battlefield as he reclaims the territory previously taken away from his kingdom by the Han Dynasty. For 2 years and 3 months, Nam-u and his troops fight to gain victory; however, later he ends up getting severely injured.
After returning from the battle victoriously, King Nam-u is treated in his room while Woo-hee arranges a banquet to celebrate his celebration. However, several of the clans under their rule are unhappy about the king's return and start to conspire against him. The Hae and Go clans conspire to dethrone Woo-hee as well.
Episode 2 shows the king's sudden death after the banquet. Apparently, Queen Woo's sister, Woo-sun, has always tried to seduce the king and take her place as the queen. She gets a love potion from the palace shaman, Sabi, to make the king fall in love with her. Sabi tells Woo-sun to add only a single drop of potion to his food, however, Woo-sun adds three drops. Sometime later, the king is found dead.
Eul Pa-so (Kim Mu-yeol) tries to protect Queen Woo and asks her to leave the palace while he plans to investigate the king's death. For the queen to survive, she has to marry one of the three brothers of King Nam-u, or else she will be killed. Queen Woo discusses with her father (head of the Woo clan) and Eul Pa-so about her survival.
The king's death has thrown her into a worse situation, as marrying either of the three brothers would mean Queen Woo and her clan's death or worse. However, she decides to convince Bal-gi (Lee Soo-hyuk), King Nam-u's younger brother, to marry her, as she believes she can convince him to spare his clan. Eul Pa-so arranges for the queen to escape the palace.
After she escapes with King Nam-u's right-hand man, Mu-gol, Eul Pa-so orders soldiers to lock the palace gates and stand alert. He orders them to shoot any messenger bird that tries to leave the palace or anyone who comes closer to the palace barricades as he tries to keep the king's death a secret. However, one messenger bird escapes and reaches Myeong-rim, and they learn the secret.
In Episode 3, Woo-hee reaches Bal-gi's kingdom and is baffled to see his savagery. She sees dead bodies hung from trees as a show of Bal-gi's terror. As Bal-gi learns of Woo-hee's arrival, he rushes to welcome her and asks the reason for her visit. Woo-hee lies and says that King Nam-u (her husbands) sent her to chase a traitor and kill him.
Woo-hee tries to keep her husband's death a secret from Bal-gi and decides that she will not marry him as his treacherous reign will end the dynasty. Woo-hee escapes from Bal-gi's palace with Mu-gol and her troop, but Bal-gi learns about the king's death. He goes to Woo-hee's room to find her but realizes that she has fled.
Meanwhile, Eul Pa-so tries to investigate inside the palace and is surprised to learn that Woo-do has killed all the king's maids. Woo-do (from the Woo-do clan and Queen Woo's relative) did that to keep the king's death a secret as he feared one of his maids may reveal it.
Bal-gi orders his assassins to hunt down Woo-hee and bring her to him so that he can marry her and become the next king. Meanwhile, King Nam-u's elder brother, the actual crown prince who was banished from the kingdom after Nam-u was crowned, learns about the king's death.
Queen Woo episode 4 continues by showing the queen's treacherous journey running away from Bal-gi as his assassins hunt her down. However, surprisingly, we see Eul Pa-so send a messenger bird with a message.
In the next scene, we see Jolbon engaged in an amorous moment with a court boy while her council discusses dethroning Queen Woo and the king. While Jolbon is engaged in love-making behind a curtain at the council's court, a messenger bird flies in.
She kicks the court boy to leave immediately, and the council becomes quiet in anticipation of the message. Jolbon starts laughing once she learns that King Nam-u has died due to poisoning. She orders her troop to hunt Woo-hee and kill her so that she cannot marry the prince and reclaim the throne.
Episode 4 ends with Jolbon asking the King's court (all the heads of the five clans) to join her in her new reign of Gogurpyo, and they all bow down to her. She receives another message from a messenger bird that reveals that the queen survived their attack. We also see the shaman, Sabi, foreseeing Woo-hee in front of a golden throne with a sword in her hand.
This leaves viewers wondering what Sabi actually sees and what this will mean for the future of the Goguryeo kingdom.
Queen Woo Part 2 will be released on September 12, 2024, on TVING.
