Queenmaker – K-drama Episode 6 Recap & Review

Truck Of Doom Strikes Again

Episode 6 of Queenmaker begins with Son showing up to see Do-hee. The pair stand together in private, with Do-hee pointing out that she knows Son is the owner of Leah Company and wanted to exploit that to draw her out of hiding.

Chairwoman Son decides they should put this to an end but Do-hee is adamant she’s standing by her beliefs no matter what. Son adjusts the woman’s scarf and tells her to protect herself from the cold weather. Wherther this is an ominous bit of foreshadowing for a bigger storm in the future is anyone’s guess at this point, but later on we learn that it definitely is.

Flashbacks further solidify Chae-ryoung’s place in all this, including how she’s always been second in her mother’s eyes and will be left with nothing should Jae-min fail in his endeavour.

As the heat is turned up, Son speaks to Yoon in confidence and decides that Do-hee needs to be taken care of. She’s the biggest thorn in their side right now and they need to get rid of her… no matter what.

Do-hee’s campaign against Min-jung continues, this time with a tutoring scandal involving her daughter. It’s swinging the votes away from her and toward Kyung-sook and she’s not happy. If they can’t head this off, there’s no stopping it. They can’t sue Kyung-sook or Do-hee, so the only solution is to use Min-jung’s own daughter to come out and say that she’s being bullied. Joong-seok threatens her in secret, telling the girl needs to do this before the public, apologizing for everything, given she’s responsible for 80% of Min-jung’s faults.

Min-jung snaps with her daughter and decides she needs to be turned into a target; a pitiful girl that was bullied badly and decided the violin was the only thing that helped her out. Min-jung uses the sympathy card with the public, claiming to be a loving mother and only doing this to win the election. It’s a great performance, and the public eat it up.

Min-jung is a clear survivor in all this and with 10 days left before pre-elections, Min-jung is back but not out of the woods yet. She wants to take out Kyung-sook and is blinded by rage now that her own daughter was brought into all this. Part of the drama here comes from meeting with Yoon and Ji-yeon. Yoon decides that it’s time he repay her for the moving soliloquy. He’s found a breach in the campaign funds that could be exploited.

This gives Min-jung a good deal of ammo to use against Kyung-sook, as she decides to go through her campaign funds with a fine toothcomb and find irregularities. After cutting off her daughter’s hair, it’s clear that Min-jung will do whatever it takes to win this race.

Min-jung is blinded by her rage and brings up records of Kyung-sook spending money on expensive beef. Joong-seok thinks they should verify that she personally used the funds but that’s 3.6 million won and a good enough reason to launch a smear campaign. Yoon is the conductor here, as he weaves a song about how Kyung-sook has used funds meant for the public and spinning a yarn using buzzwords like Republic of Korea.

Min-jung is a woman determined to follow through with this and comes up with a whole bunch of allegations to use against Kyung-sook. When Kyung-sook finds out, she’s shocked and reporters are all outside her house too. When Do-hee learns of this, she immediately organizes for a press embargo and not to do anything but protect Kyung-sook from this slander until they can formulate a plan.

This is all completely fake news and violates the election rules, and it’s enough to push Kyung-sook into action. She heads to the Police Agency to file a suit against Min-jung. Do-hee is shocked when she finds out and rushes to make it there first. She gets there before Min-jung but she shrugs it off, as Do-hee brings up the embezzlement and the dirty tactics that Seo is taking in this election.

Do-hee is torn. She’s driving between places and needs to make it to Kyung-sook before they do anything rash or put themselves deeper into trouble. However, a call from the nursing home throws her off-track. Do-hee’s father has gone missing, so she detours to try and find him. This is all Yoon’s doing, given his goons pick up the poor guy and drop him off in the middle of nowhere.

This smear campaign is all part of the plan, and with Kyung-sook rattled, and Do-hee already indisposed, Yoon just needs to sit back and watch this unfold.

Kyung-sook prepares for her press conference to speak her piece before the public, with a pre-arranged statement to confirm what’s happening. As for Do-hee, she finds herself moving from place to place, attempting in vain to try and find her father. Only… he wanders into the middle of the road and is hit by a white truck.

Kyung-sook’s press conference is an absolute nightmare as no one shows up. Instead, they all arrive at Min-jung’s, as she parades out a woman called Kim Hwa-soo, who worked with Kyung-sook in the past. She oversaw the finances back then and before all the press, reads a statement about how Kyung-sook is the one in the wrong, even though it was actually Hwa-soo. When her family is threatened, she’s forced to read a statement about how bad Kyung-sook is.

Unfortunately, things take an even worse turn when Do-hee heads to the hospital. Her father is dead. After being hit by a truck, Do-hee’s whole world comes crashing down, while Son’s claims for Do-hee to “stay warm during cold weather” echoes across to this moment. The last of her family is gone which means she has no more bargaining chips to be used against her.

Son decides to spark the flames of war by sending flowers over to the funeral – Do-hee’s favourites no less. With Do-hee out the running for now, the rest of Kyung-sook’s team come together and pore over the statement read out for Min-jung. They know it sounds nothing like her and the language is not familiar with Hwa-soo’s speech. Kyung-sook decides they need to try and make it seem like she was coerced into this. But the party leaders are getting cold feet and believe Kyung-sook needs to resign.

Kyung-sook defiantly refuses to do so but things are looking bad. Many activist groups and women’s rights groups are withdrawing their support for Kyung-sook, while the public are not happy. Do-hee sees all the reports on the news, while Yang shows up at Do-hee’s father’s funeral. He claims to be an old friend and they sit and drink together, before he parts ways after some cryptic statements about the tide and waves.

Do-hee notices the flowers brought in by him to and puts two and two together, realizing that her dad was murdered. As she heads outside, angry and screaming at the world… the episode comes to a close.

The Episode Review

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And boy is Do-hee about to get her retribution. Now that she knows Yang and Son were behind her father’s abduction, she’s going to be hellbent on saving Kyung-sook’s image, making sure Min-jung suffers, and generally doing everything she can to right this injustice.

The show has been good so far and if you’re a fan of political dramas, Queenmaker certainly has enough in the tank to go the distance across these 11 chapters. It’s perhaps a tad too long and at times this feels like it would have benefited from a more conventional K-drama release of two episodes a week, but there’s some good character work and a simple but effective narrative woven throughout.