The Haunted Palace: Episodes 7-8 » Dramabeans

KDramaHQ AdminMay 12, 2025

The Haunted Palace: Episodes 7-8

by mistyisles

They weren’t kidding when they called this palace haunted — our leads have a lot of ghosts on their hands in addition to THE evil spirit they’re trying to defeat. While some of those ghosts are helpful, others are helping their enemies. And considering they don’t even know who all of their enemies are, they’ve definitely got their work cut out for them.

EPISODES 7-8

This week, the Colossal Shadow keeps to the background, recovering from its latest setback. Meanwhile, our leads have a vicious water spirit to deal with and no idea who made it target the queen and her unborn child. Interrogating the palace maids yields no results, since the girl who was threatened into planting the skull in the queen’s pillow is poisoned before she can be tortured into telling the truth.

Yeo-ri does get a few hints from an adorable, if exasperating, child ghost who runs around stealing shoes. But Yeo-ri’s not the only person trying to stiff out clues around the palace. The blind shaman has caught wind of not only Yeo-ri’s spiritual connection, but also the fact that there are currently two imoogis in the palace. After all, there are enough corrupt nobles over the age of 60 here that Bi-bi can take his pick and meet his quota in no time. (Not that he wants to ascend without Kang-cheol, though, which means that as Kang-cheol’s fondness for Yeo-ri becomes more obvious, Bi-bi’s resentment toward her also increases.)

Then the queen falls gravely ill. When the royal physician can offer no explanation for the blisters that cover one side of her neck and torso, the king sends for Yeo-ri. Trouble is, the queen dowager summoned her first, so the king ends up having to go and fetch Yeo-ri himself. He’s panicking internally, but he can’t tell the queen dowager why he needs his glasses craftswoman so urgently, so he maintains his composure and makes up an excuse about fearing that the queen’s ailment might be contagious.

Unfortunately, his excuse hits closer to the truth than he expected. The “black water” that the water spirit likes to spit on the faces of its victims is actually a curse, and both the queen and Yeo-ri have been struck by it. Before they make it back to the queen’s chambers, Yeo-ri faints, the telltale blisters showing along her neck. That leaves Kang-cheol and the king to find a way to break the curse. Working together is the last thing either wants to do (they’d much rather kill each other, and say so in no uncertain terms), but work together they must or the queen and Yeo-ri will die. Thus, they set a trap by the river with the king himself as bait.

Except, this isn’t an ordinary water spirit, and they’re the ones walking into a trap. Yeo-ri figures it out before they do, but by the time she arrives to stop them, the king has already been dragged under the water and rescued, and Kang-cheol has been subjected to the black water curse. Just in time, Yeo-ri traps the water spirit in a scarecrow and breaks all of its curses. Then she throws her arms around Kang-cheol’s neck, sobbing with relief that he’s alive. Back at the palace, the queen recovers, and she and the king share a tearful embrace of their own.

Now at Yeo-ri and Kang-cheol’s mercy, the water spirit promises to answer their questions if they’ll grant his wish: deliver his remains to his daughter, whom he died saving from a flood. Yeo-ri does as he asks, even allowing him to briefly possess her and say goodbye to his daughter. Satisfied, he tells her the blind shaman’s name. Or, rather, one of the blind shaman’s names, and a secret one at that. The king arrests the entire association of blind fortune tellers, to no avail. Because so many nobles benefit from their services, the interrogation is extremely unpopular, and soon the king is pressured into releasing them without gaining any substantial information.

While all of this is going on, Yeo-ri and Kang-cheol’s relationship is slowly shifting. They’ve shared a few near-death experiences now, and Yeo-ri is inching closer to admitting to herself that not everything she feels for Kang-cheol is residual affection for Gab. After they grant the water spirit’s wish, they linger at an inn and lapse into gentle banter and almost-confessions while they wait for the rain to pass. (Okay, Yeo-ri waits for the rain to pass. Kang-cheol actively keeps the rain going, adding in a few rolls of thunder here and there for good measure, so she’ll rest instead of pushing herself too hard.)

But once they’re back at the palace, Yeo-ri is reminded of her grandmother, and all of that goodwill comes crashing down. Suddenly, she’s overcome with guilt for thinking of him as anything but her grandmother’s killer. She promises to continue holding up her side of their bargain, but lets Kang-cheol wonder why she’s giving him the cold shoulder seemingly out of nowhere.

Thankfully, this doesn’t last long. Turns out, Kang-cheol wasn’t the one who killed her grandmother, even though he told her he was. Thanks to a tip from the shoe-stealing ghost, Yeo-ri gets the truth straight from the king: the Colossal Shadow had possessed his father, and her grandmother had fought against it — only for the Colossal Shadow to chase her down for revenge.

And speaking of getting answers, we also learn the identity of the “Elder” directing the blind shaman to curse the royal family. It’s not Lord Choi as I suspected, but another member of the royal family — the king’s grandfather, Chief State Minister KIM BONG-IN (Sohn Byung-ho). Considering how much the king respects and leans on him, that betrayal is really going hurt when it’s exposed. But for now, the blind shaman begs for one last chance to get rid of the prince, offering his knowledge of Yeo-ri’s identity as proof that he can get the job done. In response to her grandmother’s name, the brazier he uses to communicate with the Colossal Shadow roars to life.

Generational grudges has been a big theme of this show since the beginning, and we’ve got a few of them floating around now — e.g., the one following Lord Choi around and trying to kill him, and the one linking Yeo-ri, Kang-cheol, and the king through Yeo-ri’s grandmother and the Colossal Shadow. But I think it’s interesting that many of the “grudges” causing spirits to linger haven’t been about revenge so much as closure. And I appreciate that Kang-cheol seems to be slowly realizing (however reluctantly) that he’s depriving people of that very closure by possessing Gab’s corpse. Everyone from Yeo-ri to the king to Gab’s mother can’t properly mourn him because part of him is still walking around and looking as though nothing happened to him. They can’t even punish his murderer because, officially, he’s still alive.

On another note, I wasn’t surprised that Kang-cheol didn’t kill Yeo-ri’s grandmother, but I was pleasantly surprised that she found out so soon. With that misunderstanding (mostly) out of the way, though, I’m guessing some external forces are about to try and come between them instead.