The contest of Taekhyeon has kicked off in “Under The Queen’s Umbrella.” This game of power is lethal. Prince Seong Nam would have died if the royal guards hadn’t saved him. The Queen takes responsibility for finding out who attacked him, and the investigation leads her to the queen dowager. The Queen doesn’t keep quiet this time and warns the queen dowager directly not to hurt her sons, or she will pay the price.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Prince Uiseong Kill A Civilian?
The Queen shows the evidence to the king that the queen dowager tried to kill prince Seong Nam, but the Queen doesn’t want the king to start an investigation in the middle of the contest. The king meets the queen dowager, who has gotten sick after drinking the poisonous cuckoo pint that the Queen gave her. The queen dowager puts on a show and asks the king how he could blame her for trying to kill her own grandson. Elsewhere, Prince Gye Seong has been looking for Seo Ham Deok, who is living disguised as Monk Dae Ham.
The Queen invites consort Tae to tea and asks her about her intentions of making prince Bo Geom the crown prince. The Queen has gotten a clue that the queen dowager has been planning something with consort Tae. The Queen tells her about the queen dowager’s illness, and consort Tae rushes out. Prince Seong Nam and prince Bo Geom have been wandering around the island with Park Gyeongu, and Seong Nam finds out about Gyeongu’s illegal taxation on the island.
The chief councilor is not aware of what the queen dowager is planning behind his back, but the Queen makes sure to let him know. He is surprised because he didn’t expect a betrayal from the queen dowager. Meanwhile, Prince Gye Seong has entered a monastery, but the activities happening there aren’t suitable for monks at all, as he sees the monks practicing swordsmanship. However, Monk Dae Ham, whom he has been looking for, has gotten into a fight with a man in the market. The man claims that Dae Ham had an extramarital affair with his wife.
Prince Uiseong already has information on Dae Ham and also has men helping him. He sees Dae Ham getting into a fight and immediately has a plan ready. Meanwhile, Prince Gye Seong finds more suspicious things in the monastery. In Dae Ham’s room, there many Buddhist scripts that have warfare strategies written inside them. Moreover, he finds a map of the palace hidden behind the wallpaper. Prince Gye Seong is sure that Dae Ham is planning to attack the kingdom.
The chief councilor and consort Hwang wait to meet the queen dowager as consort Tae shares a long conversation with her. The queen dowager has let consort Tae keep a secret; however, she is only using her because she is too naive. The chief councilor asks the Queen dowager directly about her intentions, and she tells him to just listen to her. The councilor and the queen dowager have a fallout when the chief tells the Queen dowager to stop being greedy because she is too old for that.
Back at Manwol Island, Park Gyeongu is impressed by Prince Seong Nam, not only for his intelligence but also for his humanity. Most of the other princes have returned to the palace. Prince Simso has been starving for days and doesn’t look great; hence, the guards don’t allow him in. His mother, consort Ko, sees him and tells him to go back. She orders the guards to send the beggar away. However, Prince Simso collapses right where the guard throws him.
Court lady Shin brings prince Simso into the palace, and the Queen feeds him. Consort Ko is not happy and thinks that the Queen did it purposely to make it easier for other princes. Ko yells at Prince Simso and tells him that he should have just died rather than coming back. Consort Ko barges into Prince Gye Seong’s room and finds his portrait as a woman while trying to find something to use against him. She hands it over to consort Hwang in exchange for the promise of destroying the Queen completely.
The Queen has been looking after prince Simso and regularly checking if he has been having meals. When he misses one of his meals, she goes into his room only to find he has hanged himself. The Queen takes him to the physician, and fortunately, the prince survives. Consort Ko runs barefoot to the Queen’s quarters to see her son. The Queen tells Ko to pretend that she doesn’t know what he did so that he will be able to face her again. The Queen also advises Prince Simso to live without any burdens.
Prince Gye Seong confronts Hae Dam about his plans to invade the kingdom, which is treason. Before they could talk, the guards arrested him for murdering the person he had a fight with on the street. It is all Prince Uiseong’s doing, and the prince offers Hae Dam freedom if he comes with him to the palace. Prince Uiseong is a truly evil being who aspires to be the king and has gone far enough to kill an innocent person to do so. Prince Uiseong sends a letter to his mother, telling her that her dream will come true soon.
Prince Gye Seong finds a cave with weapons hidden inside and understands the intensity of the treason that Hae Dam is planning. In an unexpected scenario, Physician Kwon and Master Toji visit Hae Dam together. The Queen also discovers that physician Kwon and consort Hwang’s relationship goes back a long way, and she was the one who recommended him to treat the crown prince.
How Did Seong Nam And Bo Geom Convince Gyeongu?
The Queen asks consort Hwang about physician Kwon and gives the reason for wanting to bring him back. She tries to find out how much Hwang knows about Kwon, but Hwang doesn’t give out much. Physician Kwon and Master Toji meet Hae Dam to discuss their plan to invade the palace, which means that Kwon was a spy all along. Hae Dam shows them the royal edict, which makes it easier for Hae Dam to enter the palace and execute their plan.
Prince Muan has been more interested in romance than his duties, and he proves it once again by dropping out of the contest to meet his lover. The Queen sees Muan and his lover, Cho Wol, sleeping together and is disappointed. Later, she asks Prince Muan how he is going to take on Cho Wol’s responsibility, and he just asks the Queen to make Cho Wol his concubine. Muan says that he loves Cho Wol but wants to make her his concubine and not his wife. The Queen meets Cho Wol and tells her to cut ties with Prince Muan.
The Queen had always been supportive of women’s rights and their well-being, certainly for women born in lower classes. The Queen has set up a shelter for such women, and Cho Wol has been raised in the shelter as well. The Queen feels good after seeing Cho Wol being firm in her opinion because it means that she was raised well.
Elsewhere, prince Gye Seong tells prince Uiseong to arrest Dae Ham instead of escorting him to the palace, but prince Uiseong only cares about winning. He sends a letter to his mother to inform her that he is bringing Dae Ham on the condition that prince Gye Seong must be killed.
Both prince Seong Nam and prince Bo Geom find out that Park Gyeongu has been taking even more tax from the merchants than they assumed. They need to get to the bottom of this and, hence, sneak into Gyeongu’s rooms to see if they can find any ledgers. Prince Bo Geom returns quietly, but Prince Seong Nam gets caught. Both of them get thrown out of his house, but they have already gathered the evidence.
Prince Bo Geom and Prince Seong Nam meet Park Gyeongu again the next day and tell him what they have deduced from his ledgers. Gyeongu has used the excess tax to pay off the debts of the villagers and help them set up stores. Seong Nam asks Gyeongu to come to the palace and work for the well-being of the people if he doesn’t want to work for the king. Gyeongu agrees to come with them the next day. The king had sent a letter to Gyeongu to become a teacher of the crown prince and to examine who would be more suitable as a crown prince.
Consort Tae started the rumor in the kingdom that prince Seong Nam was not a child of the king but an illegitimate child of the Queen. She has done it on the queen dowager’s orders, and both the king and the Queen are not happy with it. Prince Seong Nam and prince Bo Geom are bringing Gyeongu to the palace, while prince Uiseong is on his way with Dae Ham, and prince Gye Seong is missing.
‘Under The Queen’s Umbrella’ Episode 10: Ending
A group of thugs abduct prince Gye Seong and hang him to a tree when he is still unconscious. The royal guard saves him and brings him back to the palace secretly. Consort Hwang had planned to kill prince Gye Seong with help from the chief councillor, but their plan failed. Her plan was to show prince Gye Seong’s secret portrait to the king and make up a suicide story for Gye Seong, perhaps that he killed himself out of embarrassment. However, consort Ko replaced the portrait with another painting because the Queen saved her son, and it was only right that she did the same for her.
The remaining princes return to the palace after accomplishing their tasks. Prince Uiseong brings Dae Ham in front of the king to show him his victory and later announces that Dae Ham has been planning a rebellion. Park Gyeongu has returned with two princes, and the king asks him to choose one of them. The mothers of the three princes hear the news and get excited about the final selection. Before that, the Queen gathers all the consorts and demotes consort Hwang from first-grade consort to fourth-grade consort for humiliating a grand prince.
As for the final selection, the king called Confucian scholars from Sungkyungkwan to make the judgment. He wants the selection to be as impartial as possible. The final selection is going to decide who is the most powerful in the palace. The Queen has challenged the chief councilor that she will step down as a queen if one of her sons doesn’t become the crown prince, so prince Seong Nam is her only hope now.
