Episode 2 deepens the mysteries surrounding the palace and unravels the tangled threads of fate between Yeo-ri, Gangcheori, and the man she lost. What begins with a rescue ends with the return of a creature too terrifying to name—and a prince no longer human.

Yeo-ri awakens—bruised but alive—in the royal palace. It turns out Seo Jae-il, Yoon Gap’s loyal bodyguard, had gone searching for them when they didn’t arrive. But there’s no joy in their return. The royal doctor delivers a brutal truth: Yoon Gap has been fatally stabbed by a skilled swordsman. The King is stunned, and so is Yeo-ri—though her grief stays mostly buried.

Far away, the Queen Mother meets with a blind shaman. She recognizes the stench of the entity now possessing the Crown Prince—she’s smelled it before, 13 years ago. But the shaman wonders aloud: is this truly about saving the prince? Or is she maneuvering for her own son, Prince Yeong-in, to claim the throne?

Meanwhile, in a different corner of Hanyang, Kwak Sang-chung learns that the “bookworm” Yoon Gap somehow survived the ambush. He sends another assassin to finish the job—but that plan hilariously fails. Gangcheori, now in Yoon Gap’s body, keeps kicking the intruder out, annoyed at being disturbed from his newfound joys of eating, sleeping, and experiencing human senses. The doctor chalks it up to amnesia, and Gangcheori leans into the excuse, stuffing his face gleefully.

But the feast is short-lived. He hears a wail—the same dreadful sound tied to evil spirits—and immediately panics for Yeo-ri.

Yeo-ri, meanwhile, hears what she thinks is Yoon Gap’s voice. Drawn to a well, she is ambushed by a drowned spirit, who drags her underwater. Gangcheori arrives just in time, hauling her out and desperately trying to wake her. He even thinks she’s beautiful… until she spits water in his face. Her classic sass is back, and she’s not buying his concern. He insists it’s only because she’s his path to ascension. But his stab wound reopens, and he collapses.

The next morning, Yeo-ri meets the King—but he’s already wearing glasses. Her shamanic senses perk up: his spectacles are made from Neop-deok’s female Ghostbane Stone. Confused, both wonder why Yoon Gap insisted on an optician if the King already had glasses. Thinking on her feet, Yeo-ri offers to make him sunglasses, extending her stay and giving her time to investigate.

Wandering the palace, she bumps into the Queen—and catches the unmistakable stench of the creature from her. She’s quickly dismissed, but the Queen’s reaction confirms something else: she and Yoon Gap were working together to get Yeo-ri into the palace.

Things unravel further when Yeo-ri discovers that Gangcheori had planned to destroy Yoon Gap’s body so he could possess her. Elsewhere, the War Minister’s minions try to drown Gangcheori in food and wine, hoping to manipulate him. But Mrs. Yoon, Yoon Gap’s mother, finds him and scolds his behavior. Yeo-ri joins them, having paid his medical bills.

A flashback reveals a chilling prophecy: Yoon Gap would die before 30. In the present, Mrs. Yoon thanks Yeo-ri for saving her son, unknowingly twisting the knife in her guilt-ridden heart.

That night, Yeo-ri lights incense and prays for Yoon Gap’s soul. Another memory surfaces: the villagers once blamed and beat her for bringing Gangcheori into their lives. Only Yoon Gap had defended her. He even asked her to come to Hanyang with him. She refused, too afraid that Gangcheori would follow and hurt him.

Now, her pain is raw. Gangcheori mocks her again, but she is no longer scared. “You can’t possess me anymore,” she declares. “And I hate that you’re in the body of the man I love.” Her new mission? To reunite Yoon Gap’s soul with his rightful body. She storms off, leaving Gangcheori stunned.

We see the root of his obsession: a younger Yeo-ri once smiled at him with kindness, unaware of what he was. For a moment, he thought she could save him. But that longing has twisted into something darker—he refuses to let her go.

The next day, the King, suspicious of “Yoon Gap’s” odd behavior, orders Head Eunuch Kim to keep watch. Gangcheori is uncooperative, lazy, and irreverent—utterly frustrating Kim and deeply unfit for court life. Yeo-ri manipulates him into returning by claiming she’ll search for Yoon Gap’s soul alone—a move he can’t resist.

Meanwhile, Yeo-ri sets a trap for the drowned spirit, while across the palace, the blind shaman begins a rite to expose the creature possessing the Crown Prince. As the King and Queen sit by the prince’s bedside, tension crackles.

Yeo-ri corners the spirit and demands the truth. The spirit reveals that Yoon Gap’s soul has been eaten—by the 8-foot ghost, a malevolent entity. At the same time, Gangcheori hears the wail again and realizes with horror: it’s the same creature.

As the rite reaches its peak, the Crown Prince suddenly writhes. His eyes snap open.

They are not his own.

They belong to the 8-foot ghost. To find out more about the series, do check out the link below.

Alternatively, do watch the full series from the link below: