Missing Crown Prince: Episode 1 (First Impressions)

by solstices

When a righteous crown prince gets caught sneaking out of the palace, his unsanctioned escapades reap unexpected consequences. Secrets are lurking in the shadows, and shocking revelations lie in wait for our titular prince — right up to the moment he’s snatched away.

Editor’s note: This is an Episode 1 review only. For a place to chat about the entire drama, visit the Drama Hangout.
 
EPISODE 1

This show is a bit of a head-scratcher for me, because it varies so wildly in tone, swinging from the darkly dramatic to the blatantly comedic. It’s not incoherent, per se, but its tonal clashes do make it feel somewhat disjointed. Still, one thing it certainly does is commit to the bit.

The premiere starts out in true sageuk fashion: the queen dowager (Myung Se-bin) finds herself plagued by nerve-racking anxiety, and it turns out her intuition is right. Under the cover of the night, masked assassins infiltrate the palace and slaughter their way to the KING HAEJONG (Jeon Jin-oh).

They’re led by the captain of the deposed king’s royal guards, who accuses Haejong of being a traitor — contrary to the story that the deposed king ousted his mother, slayed his brother, and extorted his people to satisfy his hedonistic pleasures. The assassins put up a good fight, but they’re ultimately defeated, and the king is shaken but otherwise unharmed.

Amidst the commotion, the king’s guards check on the crown prince to ensure his safety — only to find his bodyguard tucked under his covers instead. It’s time for laughter to take the stage, and we catch up with the crown prince LEE GEON (Suho) outside the palace walls. He’s snuck out to soak up the raucous tales of the townsfolk, alongside his younger half-brother PRINCE DOSUNG (Minkyu). Together, they track down a swindler who claims to be Haesung, the son of the deposed king, and the ensuing fight is pure cheesy comedy.

They win the fight, but Geon winds up with a nasty bruise on his face, so Dosung drags him to a gibang to borrow the gisaengs’ makeup, ha. Unfortunately, the perfumed scent gives him away when he returns to the palace. Under the withering glare of his royal papa, Geon ends up going along with the natural steamy assumption in order to conceal his nightly adventures.

What’s the best course of action when it comes to taming an unruly royal son? Why, forcing him to settle down through marriage, of course. It doesn’t take much deliberation for the king to choose a prospective daughter-in-law — the royal physician CHOI SANG-ROK (Kim Joo-hun) is already in his good books, having taken a sword to the gut to defend him during the assassination attack.

Sang-rok’s daughter CHOI MYUNG-YOON (Hong Ye-ji) is a delicate and refined young lady — or so everyone thinks. Myung-yoon runs a clinic, and she isn’t afraid to defend it from belligerent thugs with her fists and her insurmountable alcohol tolerance. With her headstrong spirit, our little spitfire is constantly running straight into trouble and coming out on top, much to the concerned chagrin of her loyal servant OH-WOL (Kim No-jin).

To Myung-yoon’s dismay, her father clips her wings with an unwelcome announcement. She’s to refrain from working at the clinic any longer, and she must carry herself with ladylike propriety, since she’s been chosen to be a royal bride. Reluctant to relinquish her freedom, Myung-yoon attempts to sneak out — already she has something in common with her fiancé — but to no avail.

As for Sang-rok, he harbors concerns that extend beyond an unwilling bride. According to a wise elder, Myung-yoon was born with a “widow’s fate” — her husband will die early, spelling doom for Geon. There’s only one way for Sang-rok to rid her of her wretched destiny, but it will risk everything he has.

We don’t hear what that method entails just yet, but its ominous doom has already begun to leak into the palace. A leisurely afternoon of fishing soon turns into a horror movie for Geon when his big catch turns out to be a dead body. It’s a young servant girl who had accidentally bumped into him one day, and though the autopsy results declare it as suicide, Geon knows the filial daughter wouldn’t have ended her own life.

Intrigued by an anonymous tip-off with just a time and place, Geon and his loyal servant hide in the rafters late at night. Their patience is rewarded with a shocking secret — the queen dowager’s illicit rendezvous. When a passing cat spooks the duo out of their tender embrace, the queen dowager’s lover accidentally drops an acupuncture case as they flee.

Geon decides to seek out information about the acupuncture case, which naturally means consulting the royal physician on his opinion. While he drinks in a tavern, waiting for Sang-rok to return home, Geon’s vision abruptly blurs. Then he’s out like a light, and his servant is struck unconscious. Geon is loaded onto a cart and whisked away, commencing the central premise of our drama.

Most of the first episode was spent getting to know our central characters, and I do like the relationships that have been portrayed so far. Myung-yoon and Oh-wol are a hoot — you gotta give credit to the girl taking care of a drunk young mistress who sticks her face in the water she just washed her foot in, LOL. This show’s particular brand of physical comedy is one that doesn’t quite float my boat — it feels just a tad too forced — but it does work to establish our leads as entertaining troublemakers who are just as earnest as they are unconventional.

As for Geon and Dosung, I already want to see more of their dynamic. Besides the rarity of a healthy brotherly relationship between princes, it’s interesting that the younger Dosung seems to be the more mature one. Surely there’s some truth to the tall tales surrounding the other missing prince Haesung, and I’m curious how that will factor into the princes’ camaraderie and Sang-rok’s plans. Our royal physician seems to be toeing the line between an honorable minister and a shady manipulator, and I like how it isn’t yet clear which side his morality will sway towards. Is the crown prince’s kidnapping simply part of his greater vision — or has it upturned his schemes entirely?

 
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