Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions) » Dramabeans MGG

Queen of Divorce: Episodes 1-2 (First Impressions)

by Unit

What happens when an ex-lawyer, an ex-wife, and an ex-prosecutor come together? They form an ex-ceptional one-stop service team for divorce seekers! With a fast-paced premiere, borderline makjang plots, and a delicious revenge brewing in the corner, I think we’re in for quite the ride with this show.

Editor’s note: Weekly drama coverage will continue.
 
EPISODES 1-2

I knew this drama wasn’t messing around when it gave us a gun scare, a combat sequence, hacking, a negotiation, and a child extraction from a kidnapping step-parent all within its first five minutes! It almost felt like I was watching a spy thriller rather than a divorce drama. I mean, what type of divorce show features a badass team of elite operatives? Well, Queen of Divorce does. And now I’m curious. What’s their story and how did these guys even become a team in the first place?

To answer that, we start, like every good show, with a flashback to two years ago. We meet the first member of our elite divorce team: our heroine and the queen of divorce herself, attorney KIM SARA (Lee Jia). Sara might be the daughter-in-law of the prestigious Chayul law firm, but being a member of the royal family doesn’t make her a princess. Chayul’s founder, CHAIRWOMAN CHA (Na Young-hee), is the textbook definition of an awful mother-in-law, and she doesn’t hide her disdain for Sara.

Sara’s husband, NOH YOOL-SEONG (Oh Min-seok), spends his days feeling inferior to his very capable wife, craving his mom’s acknowledgement, and of course, he’s having an affair. The only bright spot in Sara’s life is her son and her loving mom.

When we meet the second member of our divorce team, SOHN JANG-MI (Kim Sun-young), she’s the housewife to a famous plastic surgeon — who is verbally and physically abusive towards her. Jang-mi eventually files for a divorce, and her husband hires Chayul to represent him in the divorce and custody suit. Chairwoman Cha insists that Sara takes the case, and dangles a promotion at her if she wins. As a mother herself, Sara wrestles with the implications of winning the suit and having the child custody go to the shitty husband. But the additional bait to finally be able to address her mother-in-law as “mother” rather than “chairwoman” keeps her going.

The divorce suit escalates when it’s revealed that: 1) Jang-mi’s husband is cheating (not surprising); 2) his alleged partner is Chairwoman Cha (wait, what!?); 3) he is gay (okay, I give up!). I guess this is why Cha was okay with the skinship. In the midst of all this, Sara is passed up for the promotion, and she confronts the chairwoman for intentionally leading her on. As payback, Sara “lets it slip” to Jang-mi that she was in a fraudulent marriage, and Jang-mi uses this information to get child custody and a very generous alimony from her ex-husband.

It is noteworthy that the third member of our divorce team, prosecutor DONG KI-JOON (Kang Ki-young) — who was investigating Jang-mi’s husband for distribution of Propofol at his clinic — was the primary source of the fraudulent marriage information. And from his brief interaction with Sara, it seems like there’s some history between them.

Jang-mi’s husband cuts ties with Chayul after losing the case, and since the firm’s other expansion plans aren’t working out as quickly as she hoped, Chairwoman Dearest makes her next move: she instructs her already married son to marry the daughter of the chairman she needs to approve her dream Chayul law school project. Is polygamy now legal in Korea? Of course not! As it turns out, Yool-seong and Sara have been divorced for a while. What in the makjang…?!

Apparently, Chairwoman Cha got Sara’s stamp under a false pretext and filed for a divorce. The reason: to enroll her grandson at an international school that only admits students on the condition that one parent is a foreigner. To beat the system, a number of couples get divorced, the wives register their marriage with a foreigner to get admission for their children, and afterwards, the couples get back together. Sara was kept in the dark about the admissions process for her son, but Yool-seong was in on the whole thing. Daebak!

Before Sara can process the fact that she has been divorced — and possibly married off to some foreigner — without her knowledge, Chairwoman Cha throws her under the bus when the illicit admissions scandal breaks. Yool-seong wavers when Sara is sent to prison because somehow he loves her despite all the cheating. But Chairwoman Cha promises to finally acknowledge him if he goes ahead with his upcoming remarriage, so he sides with his mom over his Sara. Mama’s boy also gets full custody of their son, and Chairwoman Cha uses her influence to ensure that Sara is not released on bail.

Yool-seong’s remarriage business starts out on the wrong foot when his mistress crashes his proposal party. Next thing you know, she “jumps” out of a moving taxi and dies. Her grandpa stages a protest stating that his granddaughter didn’t commit suicide, and Ki-joon takes up the case. On record, Yool-seong was the last person the mistress met, but he claims she was a stalker. However, Ki-joon had business in the hotel that day, and he overheard the mistress tell the bouncers that she’s Yool-seong’s lover.

A part-timer at Sara’s mom’s restaurant also corroborates Grandpa’s claim because she worked at the proposal party that day, and secretly took a video of Yool-seong instructing his henchman to “take care of” the mistress. Sara’s mom decides to use the information as a bargaining chip to get the prosecutor in charge of the case (Ki-joon) to help her wrongfully imprisoned daughter. Unfortunately, Yool-seong gets wind of this, and next thing you know, Sara’s mom “jumps” off a roof.

Sara is devastated, but there’s nothing she can do because all the evidence points to suicide. Jang-mi visits Sara to propose a fixer-like service for divorce cases using her alimony and Sara’s skills. And when Sara is eventually released from prison, she takes up the offer with the goal of destroying Yool-seong and taking back custody of her son. Hello, revenge!

The story moves back to the present where our Solution Divorce Services is up and running. Aside from Jang-mi and Sara, the team consists of Sara’s loyal paralegal at Chayul and ex-detective, KANG BOM (Seo Hye-won), and KWON DAE-KI (Lee Tae-gu), an ex-hacker.

In the meantime, Solution still needs a lawyer because Sara can’t practice law for five years after her release from prison. So Jang-mi scouts a lawyer for the team, and said lawyer turns out to be Ki-joon — who quit the prosecution as a big middle finger to the higher-ups and their cover up of Yool-seong’s mistress’s case. But Sara is very reluctant to have Ki-joon onboard because, as we finally learn, they have a nine-year history between them.

From the little we know, Sara chose marriage with Yool-seong over running away with Ki-joon. And though she appreciates the info he gave her regarding the case with Jang-mi’s husband, she wants him to decline the job offer from Solution. But Ki-joon accepts the offer because he doesn’t want to lose this chance to work with her, and now they’re back to being partners. Business partners. Love it!

As far as first impressions go, Queen of Divorce hit the ground running with a very solid start to what is shaping up to be a solid show. It definitely has my attention. The premiere episodes took us on a rollercoaster ride with things escalating at every turn. However, it slowed down just enough for us to meet — and be acquainted — with our main characters.

Lee Jia as Sara is all shades of fantastic — whether she’s kicking butts, dumbfounded by her mother-in-law, or attempting to talk a suicidal high-schooler down the ledge — and the show did a great job of making me sympathetic towards her losses, and making my blood boil at her monster in-laws. Chairwoman Cha was introduced as an antagonist, so I didn’t expect anything less from her. But Yool-seong? Seriously? I thought he was going to remain in the mama’s boy/trashy husband territory, alas! And he had the audacity to act as the chief mourner at Sara’s mom’s funeral! Nah, this guy is the spawn of Satan, and I’m patiently waiting for him and his mom to turn against each other and fall into ruins.

I would have liked to see more of Ki-joon (I mean, it’s Kang Ki-young’s first leading role!), but I guess it’s only fitting that we delved more into Sara’s story since she’s the center of the show. Still, the tenacious Ki-joon had my attention whenever he was on screen, and I can’t wait to see him work his magic in the divorce team. But Show, you cannot give me a flashback back hug and longing looks in the rain, and not expect me to anticipate a romance between Ki-joon and Sara. I’m already too invested!

As always, Kim Sun-young is a delight to watch, and I loved her transformation from oppressed housewife to the deservingly rich and liberated divorcée. Starting up Solution to help people who are stuck in similar situations like she used to be was a good move, and that, my friends, is how to use your powers for good!

I did not particularly appreciate having two murders in the first week of a divorce show. I mean, I get it. Sara needs a reason to get revenge on her in-laws. But putting her in prison and taking her son away is reason enough for revenge. Why did they have to off her mom too? I don’t care as much for the mistress, but did she have to die to emphasize Yool-seong’s evilness? This is not the kind of legal drama I signed up for. But I guess it’s fine as long as they don’t kill anyone else.

The show has its makjang moments with all the murder instigations, cheating husbands, scandalous affairs, and custody wars. And while it seems like that would make up the majority of the cases Solution will take on, it’d be nice to see a variety of reasons for divorce other than affairs in the coming weeks.

 
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