The Haunted Palace- Episodes 1-2

Ghosts, Dragons, and a Shaman’s Curse

Welcome to the chaos that is The Haunted Palace. Episode 1 kicks off with a bang—literally a mythical bang—as the eccentric shaman Neop-deok recounts the tragic tale of Gangcheori, a dragon denied his heavenly ascension thanks to one nosy kid who caught him mid-rise. As a result, Gangcheori plummets back to earth, stripped of his dragonhood, downgraded to a wrathful Imugi (think dragon-lite), and now hell-bent on punishing humanity.

Young Yeo-ri isn’t buying his sob story. She claps back, calls out his victim complex, and vows to become a shaman to stop him. Grandma Neop-deok warns her off. Outside? Yep—Gangcheori is already lurking, clearly amused.

Fast forward 13 years, and things have gotten darker—literally. The Crown Prince is possessed and acting violent, but King Lee Sung is too rational for ghosts and insists it’s a medical issue. Enter Yoon Gap, a civil servant who believes the supernatural’s behind it and wants to call in a shaman.

Meanwhile, Yeo-ri has taken a detour from destiny and now works as a skilled optician. But when her new client, Lord Choi Won-u, begs her to help his haunted daughter, In-seon, she gets dragged back into the spirit world. A one-legged ghost wants revenge for what Choi did to him, and his target is In-seon. Yeo-ri resists, then caves, confronting the ghost with her Ghostbane Stone. But the spirit's too angry to listen—he possesses In-seon and bolts.

Elsewhere, political chess begins. The King sends Yoon Gap to secretly rally support from regional lords like Choi and Song. Choi’s grateful to Yoon Gap but not interested in joining a suicide mission. Still, Yoon Gap leaves with Yeo-ri’s forgotten optician kit—smooth move.

Back at the market, Yeo-ri manages to force the ghost out of In-seon just in time. Gangcheori watches with delight. Turns out, he’s the one who gave the ghost a boost. After the showdown, he makes Yeo-ri a wild offer: let him possess her and he’ll give her the world. She storms off. He follows. Classic.

Flashback time: 13 years ago, Gangcheori saw Yeo-ri and got obsessed. To get her attention, he caused mayhem. Neop-deok, knowing the danger, gifted Yeo-ri the Ghostbane Stone. When she refused to give in, Gangcheori killed Neop-deok mid-ritual. The villagers blamed Yeo-ri, shunned her, and just like that, our heroine became an outcast.

Back in the palace, royal tension is building. The Queen Mother discovers something is very wrong with the Prince. The royal couple panics—if she exposes the truth, the throne’s in danger.

Yoon Gap finally reunites with Yeo-ri, catching her using shamanic skills to haggle. They share a warm, slightly awkward moment, complete with a childhood flashback. But Gangcheori ruins it, literally throwing Yoon Gap off a tree out of jealousy. Yeo-ri realizes anyone close to her is at risk.

Yoon Gap makes a bold pitch: become the King’s personal optician. Yeo-ri hesitates but is tempted. Gangcheori is furious and warns her against going to Hanyang. But Yeo-ri, ever the rebel, is intrigued by anything that scares him. That night, she dreams of a sweet family meal with Yoon Gap and a child—possibly their future? Cue blush.

But danger’s brewing. Kwak Gyun spies Yoon Gap and reports to his violent uncle, Kwak Sang-chung. The next day, Yeo-ri agrees to the royal job, trusting her vision. But Gangcheori manipulates the path and delays them. Then Yoon Gap falls and injures his leg. While Yeo-ri goes for herbs, Gangcheori watches as Sang-chung’s men corner Yoon Gap and beat him for info. He refuses. They kill him. Gangcheori, ever the opportunist, decides to hijack Yoon Gap’s body.

Yeo-ri returns to find Yoon Gap's ghost and then... Gangcheori arrives, wearing his face. She’s horrified. He tosses her Ghostbane Stone into a river, and as she lunges to stop him, she slips off a cliff. Gangcheori grabs her—too late. They both fall.

The episode ends on Yoon Gap’s anguished scream for Yeo-ri, setting the tone for a drama packed with ghosts, politics, forbidden power, and one very bitter dragon-Imugi.

Ghosts, Possession, and One Seriously Possessive Imugi

Welcome back to The Haunted Palace, where no one stays dead, everyone has a secret, and apparently, your body isn’t really yours until a ghost says so.

Episode 2 opens with Yeo-ri waking up in the palace after her tumble off a cliff—and yes, she's somehow fine. Turns out, Yoon Gap’s bodyguard Seo Jae-il had gone searching when the duo didn’t show up. But things take a sharp turn: the palace doctor delivers a brutal update—Yoon Gap was fatally stabbed by a skilled swordsman. Yeo-ri and the King are both stunned. (Us too, but also… is he dead-dead?)

Elsewhere, the Queen Mother confides in a blind shaman. She’s smelled that stench before—the same foul aura surrounding the spirit that's now hijacked the Crown Prince. She’s rattled but the shaman wonders: is she more worried about her grandson or just plotting to swap in her own son, Yeong-in, as heir?

Back in gangland, Kwak is reeling. How did a nerd like Yoon Gap survive a direct hit and take out trained guards? He sends someone to finish the job, but the guy runs into Gangcheori instead. Possessing Yoon Gap’s body, Gangcheori’s half-asleep, half-hangry, and keeps kicking the would-be assassin like a grumpy cat. The doctor bursts in, thinks “Yoon Gap” has amnesia, and chalks up the chaos to confusion. Meanwhile, Gangcheori discovers food—and let’s just say, sensory overload. The man eats like he’s been starving for a millennium.

But good vibes don’t last in this palace. Gangcheori hears an eerie wail—the same ghostly cry tied to that creepy well. Yeo-ri hears Yoon Gap calling and follows… right into a trap. A drowned spirit lures her in and drags her into the well. Gangcheori pulls off a clutch rescue. While trying to wake her, he momentarily gets lost in her face (romance alert), only for her to spit water at him. She shrugs off his concern, and he claims it’s only because she’s his “key to Heaven.” Yeah, okay.

He tries to drag her off to safety—but his stab wound reminds everyone he’s very much not immortal. He collapses.

Next morning, Yeo-ri meets the King. He’s pleasant, but also—surprise!—he already has glasses. Yeo-ri spots that they’re made from Neop-deok’s Ghostbane Stone, and both she and the King wonder: why did Yoon Gap want her here if there was no need for an optician? She quickly offers to make royal sunglasses to buy herself time and investigate.

During her snooping, she bumps into the Queen—and catches the same sinister stench. The Queen plays it cool and gently shoos her off. Turns out, she and Yoon Gap were working together to get Yeo-ri into the palace. So many layers, so little trust.

Yeo-ri then finds out the worst: Gangcheori was planning to destroy Yoon Gap’s body to escape and fully possess her. Meanwhile, the War Minister’s goons butter up Gangcheori with food and drink until Mrs. Yoon (Yoon Gap’s mom) finds him and gives him a scolding. Yeo-ri, who paid his clinic bill, tags along. At Mrs. Yoon’s home, we see a flashback: Neop-deok once warned that Yoon Gap wouldn’t live past 30. That warning hangs heavy.

Mrs. Yoon thanks Yeo-ri for saving her son, unaware of the truth. The guilt hits hard.

Later that night, Yeo-ri prays for Yoon Gap’s soul. Flashbacks show just how much he meant to her—he defended her when villagers attacked, he tried to take her away from that cursed town. She stayed behind to protect him. And now? His body’s possessed by the very being she hates.

Gangcheori mocks her, but she’s done being scared. She vows to reunite Yoon Gap’s soul with his body and storms off. For a moment, Gangcheori actually looks… hurt. A flashback reveals the first time he saw her—warm, innocent, kind. He thought she could save him. But in the present, that affection has twisted into obsession. He won’t let her go.

At the palace, the King orders the Head Eunuch to keep tabs on “Yoon Gap.” But Gangcheori is in full goblin mode—lazy, snarky, and dragging his feet. Yeo-ri uses reverse psychology to manipulate him: “Fine, I’ll go ghost-hunting alone in this haunted palace.” He follows, grumbling all the way.

Yeo-ri sneaks off to trap the drowned spirit. At the same time, the blind shaman begins a high-stakes ritual to expose the entity inside the Crown Prince. As the King and Queen anxiously watch, the Prince lies unconscious.

Yeo-ri corners the drowned spirit and demands answers. The ghost claims Yoon Gap’s soul was devoured—by none other than the 8-foot ghost. Cue dramatic music. Gangcheori hears the wail again and finally connects the dots: this is the monster.

And just like that, the Crown Prince opens his eyes—and they’re not his. The 8-foot ghost has officially arrived.

DramaZen's Opinion

OMG, I am obsessed!! 😭🔥 Just finished Episodes 1 and 2 of The Haunted Palace and I don’t even know where to start—ghosts, dragons, curses, political drama, emotional trauma, and a possessive immortal hottie?! YES PLEASE.

First off, can we talk about Yeo-ri?! She is THAT GIRL. Fearless, sarcastic, emotionally scarred but still pushing through like a queen. When she called out Gangcheori for blaming humans for his L? I stood up and clapped. And the way she’s just casually fighting spirits while being an optician? We love a multi-talented icon.

Also: Gangcheori?? Is it wrong that I’m kind of… into him? Like yes, he's technically a cursed, vengeful Imugi-turned-ghost-possession-specialist, but also he’s funny?? Petty?? Weirdly soft for Yeo-ri?? The way he looked at her after saving her from the drowned ghost had me blushing. And don’t even get me started on him discovering food for the first time. I’ve never related to a mythical creature more.

But THEN. THE TWIST. Yoon Gap 😭😭😭
I can’t believe they killed him off that fast?? And then had Gangcheori hijack his body?! The AUDACITY. I’m crying for Yeo-ri. She literally watched the man she loves die AND get possessed by the guy she hates most. Peak drama. Peak pain. 10/10.

The politics are also SO juicy. The Queen Mother is up to something, the King is in denial, the Crown Prince is 100% ghost-infested, and literally everyone’s lying to everyone else. Also, the way the Queen and Yoon Gap were secretly working together to get Yeo-ri into the palace? I'm hooked.

The supernatural lore is also chef's kiss. The Ghostbane Stone, the 8-foot spirit, the stinky possession scent (ew but also iconic)—it all feels so fresh and creepy and cool. I’m dying (hopefully not possessed) to know more.

Final thoughts: ✨ Yeo-ri = Best girl
✨ Gangcheori = Toxic fave I would absolutely write fanfic about
✨ Yoon Gap = RIP my sweet sunshine boy 😭
✨ The vibes = Immaculate
✨ The drama = DELICIOUS

Anyway, if you’re not watching The Haunted Palace yet, what are you even doing?? Catch up NOW before the 8-foot ghost gets you 👻💀

— A very emotionally unwell fangirl 💔