[Feb 11] "Captivating the King" Episode 9 & 10: Rating & Recap

The romance drama “Captivating the King” peaked in its viewership ratings after broadcasting 4 episodes over the weekend. The tvN series, which features Jo Jung Suk and Shin Se Kyung as the leads, usually airs on Saturdays and Sundays. However, it adjusted its schedule for the Lunar New Year holiday and added 1 episode on Friday and 2 episodes on Sunday. The most recent episode, which aired on February 11, achieved a nationwide average rating of 6.7%, breaking the drama’s previous record. Let's congratulate the cast and crew of “Captivating the King” for their impressive achievement!

The King’s heart was finally revealed in episode 8 when he learned that Mong-woo was actually Hee-soo, a woman. Episodes 9 & 10 take "Captivating the King" in a new direction, as the King’s feelings for Hee-soo overflow, but his royal duties remain unchanged. Love is complicated for anyone, but especially for a ruler. And in Captivating the King, the King’s love for Hee-soo puts them both in danger.

Can love conquer all? Can it heal Hee-soo’s thirst for revenge? Or will the King have to make more cruel choices to keep the power that he never really desired? The stakes are high, and anything can happen.

"Captivating the King" episode 9 & 10 recap

The King wakes up next to Hee-soo and remembers how much he cared for Mong-woo. Even though he knows they are the same person, his love still sees them as two, somehow. The flashback shows that the King loved Mong-woo even when he thought he was a man. When Mong-woo disappeared three years ago and Sang-hwa declared him dead, the King grieved, drank, and withdrew.

To protect Hee-soo from the principal director and Hyun-bo, the King pretends to punish her by locking her up, while keeping her true identity a secret.

A game of Baduk and diplomacy: Hee-soo’s fate hangs in the balance

The director isn't happy with this and wants Hee-soo to be exiled. He makes a deal with the King: if Hyun-bo can get information on a Qing envoy in 3 days, Hee-soo will be banished. The King outsmarts him, though – thanks to his Baduk skills – and gets the information first. He decides to let Hee-soo play Baduk with the Qing envoy.

The game is like a symbol of a possible war – it ends in a draw, but that won’t last forever, and the possibility of conflict arises when the Qing envoy says that their prince, Rui, wants to wed Joseon’s princess (the King’s niece.) If the King refuses, there will be bloodshed.

The King’s sacrifice and Hee-soo’s scheme

The King faces a tough dilemma: he can’t focus on his own love life when his people’s lives are at risk. He agrees to the marriage, even though the princess pleads with him to let her stay in Joseon. It’s a harsh decision, similar to how episode 4 changed everything.

Hee-soo has a different plan, though. She wants to replace the real princess with a maid and use the maid as a spy in the Qing dynasty. The director suspects something like this and tries to make the envoy see the princess’s face before she leaves, but the maid is ready and the envoy is pleased with what he sees.

But it all falls apart when everything seems to be going smoothly.

How does "Captivating the King" episode 10 end? 

A senior maid sees the real princess escaping, and tells the director, who realizes something is wrong. He stops the palanquin before the fake princess can leave for the Qing dynasty, and asks to see the “princess”'s face. He instantly recognizes the fraud.

As the episode concludes, the King is called for a meeting by the director without delay. The scheme was a complete surprise to him. This is bad.