Notching impressive local viewership ratings, Knight Flower blossomed through its fascinating story made engrossing by Honey Lee.
Adding to that is a skillful steering of a narrative and an efficient support from the main cast.
- Main Leads: Honey Lee | Lee Jong Won | Lee Ki Woo | Park Se Hyun | Kim Sang Joong
- Addictive Meter:
- Overall Rating:
- Rewatch Value:
- K-Dramas of Similar Vibe: Moonshine | Royal Secret Agent | The Matchmakers | Secret Royal Inspector and Jo-yi
Bunny S. watches Knight Flower on KOCOWA
Episode Recaps: 01 & 02 | 03 & 04 | 05 & 06 | 07 & 08 | 09 & 10 |
Our leads are up for one final face-off to take their mutual enemy down.
But their enemy has no plans of going down easily. He will sacrifice anything to keep shamelessly enjoying his so-called power.
Knight Flower Final Week Recap
To prove he is still useful, Pil-jik snitches on Soo-ho’s true identity to Seok, vowing to take out both Soo-ho and Yoon-hak and then offer his life to Seok. An eavesdropping Yeo-hwa overhears their conversation and resolves to warn Soo-ho. Yet Seok senses someone is outside and sends everyone searching for the intruder.
With some help from Jeong, Yeo-hwa makes it through. It is clear that Jeong is aware Yeo-hwa is both the masked vigilante and Soo-ho’s lover. But for now, he decides to feign ignorance and tease her about it, mainly because Jeong believes the masked vigilante is a good person who helps the weak.
Pil-jik sets up a trap to lure Soo-ho in. It looks like Soo-ho didn’t learn anything from his encounters with Pil-jik, as he indeed goes alone without consulting Yeo-hwa. Luckily, Yeo-hwa ends up getting wind of it and heads to Pil-jik’s inn to save the day. With much better teamwork, Yeo-hwa and Soo-ho take down Pil-jik’s men.
Under the pretext of celebrating the joyous event of Jeong returning back alive, the king invites Seok, along with the whole family, to the palace. There is a surprise guest too, Lady Oh, who came to serve them the same tea as the one she offered the late king the night he died.
Spotting the poisonous petals, Yeo-hwa’s anxiety hits the roof. Yet, she tries not to make her nervousness obvious since Yoon-hak has asked her not to meddle, no matter what happens. Wrongly assuming Seok isn’t heartless enough to watch his son die before him, the king bestows a cup on Jeong. But Seok barely bats an eye. And it is the king who stops Jeong from sipping on the tea.
Having come prepared, Lady Oh has already consumed some of the tea. She gulps down Jeong’s cup to prove Seok’s crimes once and for all. And with her dying breath, Lady Oh informs Yeo-hwa of her brother’s death at the hands of Seok.
Pil-jik’s testimony corroborates Lady Oh’s last words. One year after he disappeared, Yeo-hwa’s brother came back for his sister and was shocked to learn she was now Seok’s daughter-in-law. Seok got wind of Yeo-hwa’s brother’s return and got him murdered by Pil-jik.
Blinded by anger, Yeo-hwa dons her mask and goes to kill Seok. So-hoo barely stops Yeo-hwa from going through with that plan. Would her brother be happy to see her throw away her life for revenge?
Instead, they make it seem the masked man will hand over evidence of Seok’s treason to the king to get Seok punished for his crimes. Tricked, Seok organizes an ambush and snatches the fake letter, wrongly believing there is no evidence left to prove his crimes. He even plans to replace the current king with a puppet one.
To your face, lord Seok, Yeo-hwa attends the court assembly with the real evidence, the secret letter her brother protected with his life. But the only thing that breaks Seok’s shameless act down is when he realizes the masked person is Yeo-hwa.
Though her life in Seok’s house was suffocating. Yeo-hwa proves to be the better person, pleading with the king to only punish Seok and spare Jeong and his mother. Seok is sentenced to exile, though I argue he deserved to be executed.
We are back to square one. Even if Yeo-hwa gets divorced, her life won’t be any different from that of a widow, being branded as a divorcee. Not wanting to cause Yeo-hwa any further hurt after what she went through because of his family, Jeong pleads to get this marriage annulled. He has fallen in love with another woman and eloped to the Qing. So, this marriage was practically a fraud.
Leaving behind a letter for Soo-ho to live happily and not worry about her, Yeo-hwa packs up and leaves the capital to start afresh. She wants to live freely as herself, not as someone’s wife or lover. One year passes. Soo-ho is now promoted to commander, now chasing after a gang that kidnaps women. And wouldn’t you know it? There is another one after the gang, a masked woman who Soo-ho can’t be any happier to see. Now that she is in his sight again, Soo-ho won’t let go of Yeo-hwa.
Knight Flower Series Quick Recap
Climbing over the walls, our widowed heroine, Jo Yeo-hwa, makes it her mission to teach bad guys a lesson. She has been doing this for 15 years. But everything is going to change after she comes across our male lead, Officer Park Soo-ho, who is the complete opposite of Yeo-hwa’s personality.
Knight Flower Series Highlights
An outstanding performance by Honey Lee as Yeo-hwa
I said it before, but casting Honey Lee for this role took the drama up a notch. Her comedic sense is out of the world, and she excelled in every scene she was in. From betrayed Yeo-hwa after she learns the truth about her father-in-law, blinded with revenge Yeo-hwa going after Seok to giving him the shock of his life by revealing her identity.
All of this speaks for how talented this actress is. I doubt the drama would have been as watchable if Yeo-hwa fell into another actress’s hands. Honey Lee breathed life into Yeo-hwa and made her a memorable character that will remain in my list of favourite heroines.
Knight Flower Series Musings
Investigative sageuks abound. And let’s be honest. It feels frustrating figuring out everything ahead of the leads and waiting for them to catch up. But what made this drama stand out was having the characters at its heart. I didn’t care about the mystery or Seok. My only wish was for Yeo-hwa and Soo-ho to have their much-deserved happy ending. How Yeo-hwa’s fraud marriage will end mattered to me more than getting Seok punished.
Yeo-hwa was a likable character from the beginning. And as the drama progressed, we gained more understanding of her perspective. She didn’t deem herself as the most righteous person going out to catch criminals and serve justice but only wanted to have meaning in her life. Living as a widow trapped behind the walls would have sucked the life out of her, so Yeo-hwa wanted to live doing what she could instead of awaiting her death.
On the other side, we save Soo-ho, a lonely guy with a deep secret he must hide from everyone. I think most of the reason Soo-ho was a rule-stickler was his fear of his identity getting revealed. He didn’t want anyone to find fault and dig into him.
Meeting Yeo-hwa turned Soo-ho’s life upside down. Instead of being a gloomy person, Soo-ho started to smile, fell in love, felt jealous, and threw a tantrum when he heard of the return of his lover’s husband. He then almost beat said husband up when he learned the whole marriage was a fraud. Puppy-eyed Soo-ho feeling devastated after receiving Yeo-hwa’s letter and then grinning from ear to ear after he met her again was a treat to watch.
Even the side stories hit deep. Lady Oh might have remained as a murderer who killed her husband and joined hands with Seok for her gain. But the abuse she got through and her backstory made me sympathize with her. Pil-jik was the product of her mother’s affair with a servant. Hiding this from others made Lady Oh eventually lose herself to the evil path.
I appreciate how the drama kept Seok a shameless person to the end. That man announced his son dead when he was still alive. And when Jeong came back, the only thing Seok thought about was that his plan to kill Yeo-hwa was ruined. He didn’t even bat an eye when Jeong almost drank poison. I bet he was happy since Yeo-hwa would be a widow again. Such a man remains unrepentant to the end. I am glad Jeong took nothing after him and remained a gentleman till the end.
I wish we got more of Yoon-hak and Yeon-sun’s love story. Justice now served, Yoon-hak could finally hand in his resignation letter and achieve his long-time dream of loafing around. He proposes to Yeon-sun and gets a yes as an answer. Wait! Does it mean Yeo-hwa and Yeon-sun will be sisters-in-law? Who cares? As long as everyone is happy, I am happy too. This drama was a blast. And surely, I will come back to re-watch Yeo-hwa’s crazy antics and Soo-ho falling head over heels for her.
Photos and Videos: MBC Drama
