Queen Woo – K-drama Episode 5 Recap & Review

To Save The Woo Clan

Queen Woo episode 5 starts with a flashback to 3 years ago when King Na-mu was at the Goguryeo army headquarters in the border region. He was receiving treatment for an injury.

Meanwhile, Woo-so worries that Myeong-Rim is trying to dethrone the Queen for not bearing the King an heir. He and Woo-do start plotting how to stop Myeong-rim and protect their family. The dubious Woo-do suggests they use Woo-soon to seduce the king.

Woo-soon led with her own greed, agreed to the plan and visited the king when he was recovering from his injury. He mistook her for Queen Woo and slept with her. The following morning, he realised his mistake but spared Woo-soon’s life since she was still his wife’s sister.

Presently, Queen Woo is still on her way to the next prince. Mo-chi is scared out of his mind since the White Tigers are still following them. The White Tigers realise that the Queen’s entourage is heading to Baeuitu and No-eum asks his son Gal-ro to take charge of the hunt.

Back at the palace, Eul Pa-so continues to investigate the King’s death. He is still suspicious of everyone except Mil-woo, his loyal assistant. He deduces that the likely suspects might be Woo-do or Head Secretary Song-woo. However, he is unsure since he doesn’t know the motive behind the King’s death. 

At the same time, one of the maids sends a messenger bird outside of the palace. On the other hand, Woo-do questions if they can trust Eul Pa-so. However, Woo-so asks him to be patient as it is too early to tell. They just can’t kill Eul Pa-so without knowing for sure where his loyalties lie. 

As the investigation at the palace deepens, Song-woo directs the head physician towards Woo-soon. Upon searching Woo-soon’s room again, they find the bottle of the elixir she used. The evidence points to Sa-bi and they check her shrine again. This time, she is unable to deny her involvement after they find more herbs that were used to make the elixir. 

Sa-bi refuses to tell Eul Pa-so who sent her. She insists it is not Seol-joo and Woo-soon was just a greedy puppet she used. Eul Pa-so takes her away for further interrogation, but some eunuchs attack them on their way out.

In the end, Sa-bi gets killed and takes the truth with her to the grave. A new mystery arises as to why the eunuchs attacked the Prime Minister. Song-woo shows up after the fight and asks what happened. Eul Pa-so responds that the people who killed the king must want him dead, too.

Elsewhere at the Eastern Temple Sabaegol, we meet the Chief Priest, Seol-joo. Her prayer session is cut short by a message from the Hidden One.

As she reads the letter, she recalls Sa-bi’s prophecy that the Fourth Prince will rise to the throne. Seol-joo asks her assistant, Mal-woo, to inform the faithful at the palace that the time has come. She immediately informs her members the same and they start chanting in prayer.

We circle back to Queen W0o is still on her perilous journey. They take a small break to check the road ahead and make a plan. The Queen insists on going to Baeuitu instead of the ferry. They only have three hours to sunrise and Woo-soon tries to convince Queen Woo to turn back and return to Bal-ki.

Mo-chi unsuccessfully tries to run away with Yu-hwa. Also, the queen starts to find Woo-soon’s behaviour even more suspicious. The entourage advances with their journey while the White Tigers are hot on their trail. Mo-chi starts complaining again, forcing Mu-gol to tell him about the King’s death. This gives the young man a renewed sense of patriotism and a new understanding of the urgency of the situation. He is unconvinced that running away from Bal-ki is the right move, but still keeps going.

Meanwhile, two soldiers light up the road to Baeuitu to see if an enemy is coming. This has been the tradition since the former king’s reign. The White Tigers catch up to the Queen’s entourage and launch an attack. The Queen guards try their best to counterattack, but the White Tigers are too formidable. The situation forces the Queen to wear her armour and step out of her carriage. She fights back using her bow and arrow while the White Tigers surround and hook the carriage. To save themselves, Mu-gol disposes of the carriage. This slows the White Tigers for a while.

Back at the palace, Eul Pa-so’s suspicions of Song-woo deepen even though it makes no sense why he would kill the king. Eul Pa-so starts looking into who might have paid Song-woo to kill the king. He realises that the eunuchs were after Sa-bi and not him.

Song-woo is in charge of the eunuchs, and Sa-bi knows what he did. He killed her to distort the truth, but Eul Pa-so is onto him. He switches the messenger birds in Song-woo’s room and waits for the latter to make a move. 

We circle back to the Queen, even though she has managed to slow the White Tigers again, they are still coming for her. She remembers a story the king told her about how the road to Baeuitu was fortified with rocks to deter enemies from Liadong from attacking Guknaeseong. Eul Pa-so’s grandfather came up with a plan to help the former king secure the region.

As the entourage gets to Baeuitu, she finally understands why the rocks were set up. She orders Mu-gol to cut the ropes holding the rocks and have them fall on their enemies. By the time Bal-ro realises what is happening, he and his men are trapped.

The rocks come crashing into them, killing them instantly. The death of his son angers No-eum, who vows vengeance on the queen.

The Episode Review

Somebody kindly take Woo-soon and Woo-do out, please! These two will end up getting the Woo family members killed. Why would Woo-do think it is a good idea to send Woo-soon to seduce her brother-in-law? 

Woo-soon is so lucky the king didn’t have her beheaded. She needs to wake up from her delusions and start being a supportive sister. There is also Sa-bi, she is always at the scene of the crime. At least she is dead now!

It is becoming clear that Song-woo killed the king and is manipulating the truth to frame other people. However, which poison did he use? Who is he working for or what were his motives in killing the king? Initially, we suspected Mil-woo, but I guess we were wrong. Either way, none of this is important right now.

We need to know if Queen Woo will make it to her next destination. She has created a strong enemy in No-eum after killing his son. The man will stop at nothing to come for her and she needs to get to the next prince before No-eum finds her.