The Haunted Palace: Episodes 15-16 (Final) » Dramabeans

KDramaHQ AdminJune 9, 2025

The Haunted Palace: Episodes 15-16 (Final)

by mistyisles

The Haunted Palace serves up a stirring finale as the day of reckoning arrives for our imoogi-shaman team and their loved ones. A price must be paid so that age-old wrongs can be righted and both living and dead can move on into whatever comes next.

EPISODES 15-16

Sadly, the queen does not survive the Colossal Shadow’s attack, and it’s heart wrenching to see the king so completely broken. When the blind shaman and his helpers are rounded up, it’s all the king can do to stop himself from beheading them right then and there. But he’s still the same, righteous king under all his grief. He announces a formal execution for the following day, and then sobs until he has nothing left.

And that’s how the Colossal Shadow finds him: empty and vulnerable. Mirroring his appearance, as though he’s being confronted by himself, the Colossal Shadow floods his mind with memories from that fateful night 100 years ago. CHEON GEUM-HWI (Seo Do-young), the man who later became the primary Colossal shadow spirit, raced into the village that night to find his entire family, save for one infant, already dead. He’d tried to fight his way through enemy soldiers with the baby in his arms, but in the end they both perished just like all the others. With his dying breath, he’d vowed to ensure that every last descendent of the king who abandoned them would meet the same bloody fate. Now, he possesses the present-day king again, leaving him just conscious enough that he’ll be forced to watch while the Colossal Shadow murders everyone he loves with his own hands.

To that end, he cancels the blind shaman’s beheading and issues a warrant for Yeo-ri and Kang-cheol’s immediate arrest and execution. But those closest to him know this isn’t their true king talking. One of his personal bodyguards helps Yeo-ri and Kang-cheol escape to Lord Choi’s house, and the Chief Eunuch and queen dowager help smuggle the young prince out of the palace. And not a moment too soon — the prince and his rescuers are still wending their way through the palace grounds when the possessed king barges into the prince’s bedroom and skewers his pillows.

The refugees only get one night of peace before the possessed king shows up at Lord Choi’s door with an armed entourage. Lord Choi buys as much time as he can, but then it’s up to Kang-cheol to 1) keep the possessed king fighting long enough for Yeo-ri to get the prince out and 2) create a diversion so he can get out and away.

Yeo-ri and Kang-cheol have tried to put off the inevitable, but there’s no avoiding it now: they each have a self-sacrificial secret weapon, and one or both of them is going to have to use it if this is ever going to end. But instead of arguing over who gets to die and save the other, Yeo-ri circles back to Kang-cheol’s question about running away. Yes, the Colossal Shadow will catch up eventually, but all she wants now is a chance to live a normal, happy life — even if just for a few days.

It’s a white lie, of course: she does want that more than anything, but counts the days they’ve already spent together as her wish come true. Kang-cheol goes to collect Gab’s mother and the prince so they can all run away together, and when he returns, Yeo-ri has already left for the palace.

Yeo-ri slips into the king’s chambers, channeling the reaper of fire spirits and announcing that she’s here to escort the Colossal Shadow into the afterlife. This is Yeo-ri at her most powerful, and she’d probably succeed if the blind shaman weren’t back in his shrine performing a counter ritual to hers. The chains and knives she’s using to bind the Colossal Shadow fall to the ground… and so does Yeo-ri, vomiting blood. Just like always, Kang-cheol leaps to the rescue. He gives Yeo-ri one last sad smile before swallowing a handful of flower petals and using his magical bead to defeat the Colossal Shadow once and for all. When his blinding light fades, Yeo-ri and the king regain consciousness, but Kang-cheol does not.

To purge the remnants of the Colossal Shadow’s grudge, Yeo-ri and the king perform a final appeasement ritual. The king bows before the souls of all the slaughtered villagers and apologizes on behalf of his ancestor, acknowledging his own role as a beneficiary of their suffering and vowing never to let such atrocities happen again. It’s not about forgiveness so much as closure, and Cheon Geum-hwi remarks sadly how empty and futile it all feels now — after 100 years of vengeance, guilt, and hatred, this one conversation was all it took to let them move on in peace.

On that theme of closure and moving on, Yeo-ri receives a final comforting visit from her grandmother’s spirit, and likewise the spirit of the late queen lingers beside the king to say goodbye and wish him happiness (he can’t see or hear her like Yeo-ri can, but he does sense the touch of her presence). The queen dowager even performs an appeasement ritual of her own to apologize on behalf of her son to the well ghost. And the blind shaman? He tries to slip out of the city, only to be struck by lightning — the fulfillment of Kang-cheol’s prediction (or was it a curse?) that he would die alone in agony.

As for Kang-cheol, his loved ones prepare his (er, Gab’s?) body for burial. The most comforting words anyone can muster are that perhaps he was sent back to earth all those years ago for the express purpose of dying to save so many souls now. But even that feels hollow and cruel. They linger beside his coffin for three days, hoping against hope that he’ll miraculously come back to life, but he doesn’t.

…until they close the lid. Then he shoots upright, complaining about being smothered and winking to let them know it really is him and he really is alive. He later explains that the Jade Emperor took pity on him and let him choose between living as a human or ascending as a dragon, and he chose the former.

From there, it’s happily ever afters all around. The king and Lord Choi begin enacting those slave reforms, making sure to explain every step of the process to the young prince so he understands not just what they’re doing but why it matters. In a few years’ time, Yeo-ri and Kang-cheol are happily married with an adorable little daughter who definitely inherited her father’s temper. That vision Yeo-ri had way back in episode 1? It came true after all. And while the happy couple have settled into a normal life, they’re happy to answer the king’s summons whenever something *strange* bears investigating… for the right price. (Hey, an imoogi’s gotta make sure his wife is properly compensated for her time!)

I’m so glad The Haunted Palace ended on such a high, happy note, but it was the emotional notes that really made this finale for me. They made the happy ending feel earned, and kept me guessing for a while just how happy the ending would manage to be. These episodes shattered my heart and put it back together again, and honestly, a lot of that is due to Kim Ji-hoon’s performance as this beautifully written king.

I also appreciated the message of empathy and seeing the humanity in everyone, and the importance of acknowledging when you have benefitted from others’ pain even if you weren’t the direct cause of it. From the beginning, this wasn’t a show about slaying monsters, but about setting aside assumptions, listening to those who have been wronged, and seeking to right those wrongs without causing further pain. And that, I think, is a message that is both timeless and incredibly timely for our world.