Historical Romance Kdrama Missing Crown Prince – Ep 1&2 Review

This is the review + recap page for episode 1 & 2 of the 2024 kdrama Missing Crown Prince.

TRIGGER WARNING - this kdrama contains depictions of self-unaliving and other violence typical in historical dramas.

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Episode Recap

SPOILERS BELOW

Episode 01 & 2 Recap/Story Beats

*N.B - I chose to recap this by story beats (the Save the Cat method) instead of a usual rundown-of-events recap. This is both to help me practice recognizing story beats, but also help anyone else who might be learning about storytelling structures! Kdramas do a really good job, so it's worth exploring the stories in this way way imo!

In the first episode, there are two different paths that eventually merge as the two main leads meet each other. I think both of these episodes stay firmly in the Act One phase of story structure.

Prologue:

This drama doesn’t begin with the main characters, but rather some...people who I think are going to become important later. The Queen Dowager (King’s mother), the royal physician, the king, and some rebels. There are two main scenes. One where the Dowager is nervous and being investigated by the royal physicians, and another which shows the rebels breaking into the palace.

The rebels were intent on destroying the king because he took over the throne in a way they disagreed with. But when they attack, the physician protects the king (risking his own life and getting cut), and the rebels are eventually all defeated. But we see some strange expressions from everyone involved. Is there some doubt, here? Why would the rebels go so far unless there was some truth in their accusations? Particularly the royal physician: he looks absolutely suspicious. But why?

Prince's Opening Image:

The attendants worry about the crown prince after the rebels were defeated, but they find out that he’s not even in the palace! He snuck out, and we finally catch up with him. He’s disguised as a rich noble, trying to track down the same rebels that stormed the palace.

Instead of finding them, he finds a scammer. But he catches on to the scam, confronts them, and they all fight. The one person lands a good punch on the prince’s face, but they eventually get the situation under control and the scammers are arrested. The crown prince’s brother doesn’t think the crown prince should return to the palace with his face bruised, and takes him to a Gisaeng house to put makeup on.

Prince's Theme Stated:

I’m always bad at spotting these! But after a quick scan through, I think “it’s not easy being a crown prince” might be one. And, “telling the truth will result in trouble” might be another. For the first one, we’re shown why when the King is absolutely furious that his son snuck out, and the ministers even conspire to replace him when they smell the makeup! So it seems to be justification for why he would believe that.

For the second one, the crown prince accepts his brothers’ wisdom and keeps his mouth shut about the real reasons he snuck out. Is this going to set the tone for the rest of the show, where he will keep things to himself to keep safe?

And then another contender might be: blood is thicker than water. This one is said by some side characters, and they all have various beliefs on it.

Prince's Set Up:

The Queen, the Queen Dowager, and the King are all in agreement: they’re going to have the crown prince get married so that he doesn’t sneak out as much, and they think the royal physicians daughter (Myung Yoon) is a perfect choice (because of how the physician protected the king against the rebels). The crown prince can’t get a word in, and has to accept it. But then later, while fishing, he finds a dead girl. He recognizes her, and takes an interest in the investigation.

It’s ruled a suicide, but he doesn’t think she would be someone to take her own life. His past interaction with her shows that she's bright and had a lot to live for. So he asks the physician to verify the investigation, and the physician acts strange about it. The prince finds out that this isn’t the only girl who ended her own life...and who also worked for the queen dowager. Someone sends him an anonymous tip to be at a certain place at a certain time, and he sees the queen dowager cheating with a royal physician!

At the end of episode 1, he sneaks out again but is abducted and put through a ritual with the physicians daughter (Myung Yoon) to help break her fate. The physician doesn't know it's the crown prince!

Myung Yoon's Opening Image:

She’s a noble but doesn’t act like it! Dressed down, and working at a local medical clinic for the poor, she handles a lot of rough and tumble things. And then when a kiddo comes running up to say his father is in danger again, she runs off to save the day. She beats up 4 guys on her own (and it isn’t the first time), before they finally give up and leave the man alone.

Myung Yoon's Theme Stated:

I think one might be about how things are going to repeat unless someone steps in to solve it for good. And she obviously is of the belief that she should be the one to step in. This is exactly what she does: she follows the guys she beat up, and has a drinking contest. She asks them to leave the man they heckled alone for good if she wins. And then she drinks a remarkable amount, until the men finally agree out of shock because she can not only beat them up, but also drink them under the table.

Myung Yoon's Set Up:

We find out that a shaman made a prediction about her married life: her husband would die young, and leave her widowed. Her father, after hearing that the king and the other royals selected her for the crown princess, comes up with a plan with his teacher to break her fate.

Myung Yoon meets with her father and finds out that she needs to prepare to leave for the palace. She knows about her predicted fate and argues with him, but he insists he's found a way around that. Later, she overhears that her father has some devious trick up his sleeve to get around the prediction. She tries to run away to stop it. All she wants to do is to work at the clinic. But her father’s guard stops her when she tries to run away.

Myung Yoon's attendant girl is ordered to give her a sleeping draught, and then Myung Yoon is put through the strange overnight ritual (with the crown prince) to break her predicted fate.

Catalyst:

Both of our main characters are now united through this strange ritual to break Myung Yoon's fate. So I think this is where the catalyst happens. Neither of them can really escape being abducted/being given a sleeping draught. AKA, it’s an event where they have to make a choice in a bad situation that neither of them wanted. And the choice they make is to run away.

The prince goes back to the palace. Myung Yoon worries about him (because she thinks her father might do something to him due to escaping the ritual, and she doesn't know who he is). She promises to wait for him outside the palace should he need to make a run for it.

Debate:

I think this is going to continue into ep 3, but in ep. 2 we see part of the debate for Myung Yoon. She tends to the prince's wounds (not knowing he’s the prince), and starts to see him as a human. He thinks she’s gorgeous, and tries to get her to call him “husband” because of the ritual. She’s slowly thinking about it, and shows signs of beginning to care about him. I think based on the preview, she might finish her debate beat in ep 3 by helping the prince get safely away.

And that’s because for the prince’s debate beat, he’s exposed to the toxicity in the palace. The dowager wants to hide her secret, and she’s got the support of everyone in the palace. This means she wants to replace the crown prince...by deadly force if necessary. At first, he thinks he can handle it. But then the Eunuch he trusted all his life...come for him, and try to end his life. The snapshot for ep. 3 shows more of his internal debate about the situation. He really didn't want to accept this reality!

My TMI for this recap:

I labelled this kdrama as a 4 for binge worthy, because I'm not sold on the slower pacing (yet). It's been a while since I watched a kdrama with more than 16 episodes! But this feels like it's working up to be a really good historical drama. It looks like a lot of political intrigue...a dash of romance and comedy...and a bunch of mystery and level-ups.

BUT...without too much violence. There's definitely some blood and injuries, but...it hasn't been as bad as some historical dramas can get. Time will tell on that one, but it seemed pretty tame compared to others I've seen.

If you're also watching this drama, let me know what you think over on X (Twitter)!