In Queen Mantis episode 7, it was revealed that Jung-yeon was pregnant, but she didn’t reveal it to Su-yeol because he had been called back to Jung-ho’s task force, despite his recent betrayal where he didn’t reveal that he was I-shin’s son, to help nab the copycat killer. During I-shin and the copycat killer’s latest conversation, Su-yeol was suddenly hit with the realization that Ah-ra was actually the perpetrator. Her real name was Kang Yeon-joong; yes, as a child, she was tortured by her father, who was then killed by I-shin. Hence, she aspired to be just like her, and after all these years, she wanted to meet her and probably be accepted by her as her child. She kidnapped Jung-yeon, took her to the mines of Woongsan, and used her as bait to get Su-yeol to bring I-shin to her. After a lot of deliberation—because there was a good chance that attempting to save the life of a civilian would lead to the escape of 2 serial killers—the commissioner allowed the exchange to happen. In episode 8, the exchange went as badly as expected. Jung-yeon was rescued and rushed to the hospital because she had been injured by Ah-ra; meanwhile, Ah-ra kidnapped I-shin and took her to her lair. There was no way to track them down because Ah-ra had destroyed the GPS device that was hidden in I-shin’s coat. Kim somehow managed to catch up to the two and injure Ah-ra, but after that she couldn’t keep track of them. Once Su-yeol was sure that Jung-yeon was doing fine and their baby was safe, he returned to the fray again to complete his mission. Did he succeed? Was that success worth it? Will we get a second season of Queen Mantis? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Is Ah-ra Dead?
When I-shin told Ah-ra that the police were going to find her lair, which meant that she was living on borrowed time, Ah-ra decided to end it all by first killing I-shin and then herself. I-shin thwarted Ah-ra and stabbed her with the knife she was going to use on I-shin. She left her in her lair to bleed out, wished her luck that the cops would discover her before she died, and then left. Su-yeol, based on Jung-yeon’s description of Ah-ra’s lair, reached the location and got jumped by Ah-ra. Right when Ah-ra was about to shoot her, Kim finally arrived and prevented Ah-ra from killing Jung-yeon. Ah-ra stabbed Kim once and was about to go for the kill when Jung-yeon shot and put an end to Ah-ra’s reign. Although Kim was severely injured, she ordered Su-yeol to go after I-shin instead of worrying about her, because she knew that help would arrive before she bled out. Hence, Su-yeol went off to search for I-shin, while a bird’s-eye view of the crime scene confirmed that Ah-ra was in fact dead. The reason why I kind of speed-ran through Ah-ra’s final moments is because I want to critique the writers’ decision to create a trans serial killer. As mentioned in last week’s article, this is a trope that can be traced back to Psycho, Sleepaway Camp, and Silence of the Lambs, and it exists only because straight people have an irrational hatred for those who identify as trans, suffer from some form of gender dysmorphia, or partake in cross-dressing. It’s not like the trans community hasn’t been vilified enough that Queen Mantis just had to pile more hatred on them via Ah-ra.
I mean, what did Yeon-joong transitioning to Ah-ra bring to the table? What about her father’s torture drove her to become a trans woman? What about I-shin’s righteous murder compels her to become a trans woman? She went on this huge rant about how she did what she did to literally become I-shin because that was the ultimate way of remembering her contribution to society. But didn’t Gu-wan and Min-jae commemorate her—Min-jae building a shrine of the Mantis’s kills without killing anyone—without transitioning? Are we supposed to assume that domestic abuse was a catalyst for Ah-ra’s transition? The show doesn’t care about all that, because it doesn’t want you to empathize with Ah-ra’s plight or really think about the trans community, as it’s more focused on Ah-ra’s psychosexual feelings for I-shin and her need to (checks notes) watch a baby die in the womb. Mind you, neither Gu-wan nor Min-jae had such demented thoughts, but the trans serial killer did. I’m sure Han Dong-hee was there just to collect a paycheck, but it doesn’t help that she went so over-the-top with her portrayal of Ah-ra, a character who can’t even differentiate between history and myth. I’m not going to say ignorant stuff like, “They didn’t even hire a trans woman for the role of a trans character,” because how would a trans actress have helped this situation? Anyway, the bottom line is to stop vilifying the trans community for a cheap plot twist. It’s a trend that has gone out of vogue already; please, don’t try to revive it. A little sensitivity in this insensitive world can go a long way.
Why Did I-shin Kill Hyeon-nam?
The main twist in Queen Mantis’ ending was that Hyeon-nam was the one who had set I-shin on this path of blood and carnage. While searching for I-shin, Su-yeol arrived at Ah-ra’s house, hoping to find some clues as to where his mother might have gone. He stumbled upon a secret room that had a computer full of I-shin’s hypnotherapy sessions with her psychiatrist, Mi-gyeong, where they had talked about her past. There, she had revealed that she had been raped by her father, Hyeon-nam. When I-shin’s mother found out about it, she protested Hyeon-nam’s despicable actions. So, Hyeon-nam killed his wife and staged it as an accident. While talking about that incident with Su-yeol, Hyeon-nam had conveniently left out the part about how he had tarnished I-shin’s childhood, and put all the blame on Su-yeol’s father. Yes, Su-yeol’s father was an insecure idiot, but he wasn’t the only reason I-shin did what she did. I-shin admitted that every time she killed an abusive man, she imagined she was reliving the murder of her husband. But the truth of the matter was that she was living out the fantasy of killing her own father. At this point, I was actually waiting for the other shoe to drop with the revelation that Hyeon-nam was actually Su-yeol’s father. As far as I know, the show didn’t go full Chinatown on us. That said, I’ll say that there’s a slim chance that Hyeon-nam might just be Su-yeol’s father because, while torturing Hyeon-nam, I-shin reminded him that he said that since her mother was dead, I-shin would have to carry out the duties that were fulfilled by her. That’d explain Su-yeol’s father’s insecurities. Speaking of I-shin’s marriage, that seems so bleak given the context, right? She must’ve thought that she was getting away from an abusive household only to end up in another. In an ideal world, I-shin shouldn’t have gone through all that; at the same time, I totally understand that she became a serial killer.
Anyway, coming back to Su-yeol, after that heartbreaking revelation, he rushed over to New Faith Child Welfare Center to prevent I-shin from killing Hyeon-nam, because that’d just cancel out all the good work she had recently done with the police. Hyeon-nam had played every card he had in his arsenal. He used religion to prove that he had been cleansed of the sins he had committed. He promised that he had changed, and that he’d corrected his pedophilia by taking care of kids who needed help. And that kind of convinced Su-yeol and I-shin to give him a pass so that he could be arrested by the police and punished appropriately. However, that’s when Eun-ae, the little girl that Su-yeol had saved from her junkie mother, entered the church, and Su-yeol noticed that she had make-up on her face. That meant that Hyeon-nam hadn’t improved at all, and was continuing his horrific actions to this day. That angered Su-yeol so much that he was about to kill his grandfather, but I-shin drugged her son (with the same drugs that Ah-ra used to incapacitate her victims) so that Hyeon-nam’s blood wouldn’t be on his hands. When Su-yeol regained consciousness, he saw Eun-ae sitting beside him while the church was burning. He told Eun-ae to get to safety and broke into the church to save his mother. He contemplated saving his grandfather too, but he didn’t because he didn’t deserve his benevolence. An unconscious I-shin was resuscitated. Even though she was on death row, she had gotten a second lease on life thanks to her good-hearted son, and it seemed like she intended to utilize this time as fruitfully as possible.
Season 2 Expectations
During Queen Mantis’ ending, Su-yeol promised to regularly visit I-shin in prison because, at the end of the day, she was his mother. Meanwhile, I-shin gave Su-yeol the validation that he had craved throughout his life: that he was nothing like his mother. On that note, Su-yeol handed over I-shin to Jung-ho, who informed her that due to her recent actions, she’d be deprived of the privileges she had, which allowed her to live luxuriously in jail. Su-yeol reunited with the task force and announced that he’d be taking care of Eun-ae. And that’s how the case of the copycat killer came to an end. But after all that, there was a time jump of 2 years, where we learned from a news telecast at the Anwon Prison that Jung-ho had been brutally murdered and his body had been found near Sinyang-dong, Seoul. I-shin was happily drawing a sketch of Su-yeol, Jung-yeon, their child, and their adoptive daughter, Eun-ae. However, as soon as she heard the news about Jung-ho’s death, she redirected her attention to the television, because even though they were at opposite ends of the crime spectrum, they had some form of mutual respect for each other. I-shin appreciated the fact that Jung-ho always tried to do more than his job allowed him to. Since Hyeon-nam was a monster, it was obvious that Jung-ho was the one who had been the most influential figure when it came to Su-yeol’s upbringing. Therefore, his loss must have saddened I-shin. Before she could process it, though, the prison guard summoned her, because she had two visitors who wanted to meet her. These visitors were Su-yeol and Kim. They didn’t exchange a lot of words, but it was obvious that the police needed the Mantis’ help to nab the killer. And that’s the tease for a potential second season of the show.
I say “potential” because, at the time of writing this article, I haven’t seen any announcement of a renewal. However, going by the views that the show has amassed so far, it’d be stupid to not give the showrunners a green light for Season 2. Now, since the show’s source material, La Mante, was a miniseries, that means the writers of Queen Mantis have to come up with original content to keep the story going. Given how I-shin and Su-yeol’s simmering rivalry primarily fueled the show, it’ll be interesting to see what they use to maintain the intensity of the IP now that they have resolved most of their differences. There’s a good chance that they’ll use the 2-year time jump and the fact that Su-yeol is a proper family man now to create some friction between the two. Then there’s the topic of the murderer of the season. Will it be the work of a serial killer or just someone who had a vendetta against Jung-ho? In addition to that, I’d like the show to delve more into the lives of Ji-an, Hyuk, and Sung-gyu and make them more integral to the plot. The show had some great pacing, direction, editing, cinematography, action sequences, sound design, production design, art direction, acting, writing, and relevant social commentary. I hope that’s carried over to the second season; they can leave the transphobia, or any other kinds of bigotry, in the rearview mirror though. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the ending of the show. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
