Powerful Female Roles Thrive in "Kingdom's" Season Two Finale

Based on “The Kingdom of the Gods” by Kim Eunhee

Written by Kim Eunhee

Directed by Park Inje

(Some Spoilers ahead)

Battle Royale at the Palace

    Led by executive producer Kim Seong-hun, the team for zombie-apocalypse/political series Kingdom ramps up the thrills with effective cinematography, compelling storytelling, and ruthless antagonists that shine not only by their lack of morality but by their steady, single-minded hunger for political power.

“If I can’t have it, no one else can have it” - Queen Cho.

     With those chilling words Queen Cho (Hye-Jun Kim) cements herself as not only ruthless power hungry monarch but as utterly insane. It is a role that fits her well, but isn’t unique. Recently, many smash hit TV series end with the main antagonists being a woman entrenched in political power. Queen Cho’s ruthlessness earns her a place among recent dominant female villains like Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones and Danica Harlan from Altered Carbon. And that is not a bad thing, except that Queen Cho isn’t a sympathetic character by any stretch of the imagination. Her role is rote, flat evil, without the screen time and gray ambiguous choices that would make the role rise to that of legendary. Kingdom's season finale remains a rip roaring ride of gruesome, and it shores its strong female roles by cheer badassery, if that's even a word.

Seo Bi teaching a class in Bad Ass 101.

     The title of most badass character can arguably be given to the unlikely character of Seo Bi (Doona Bae). While Prince Chan has his men at arms, and the many duty bound sacrifices of loyal men under his command, nothing comes close to Seo Bi cloaking herself in fire and running through a hoard of blood dripping infected while carrying a baby. Sure, Prince Chan and crew dropped themselves in a lake of ice, fully expecting to die, but, come on, Seo Bi did it all on her lonesome, surviving by sheer gall and quick thinking.

Infected showing affection.

     The end of this season is open ended, with enough secrets and a potential new antagonist ready to take the place of the old ones. Perhaps the new season will bring a mutation or we’ll have yet another outbreak of worm infected dead. Either way, if there is a 3^rd Season, it promises to be another solid whooper with plenty of woman power in the mix and the type of political plots that fit quite well within the zombie-apocalypse genre.