A funeral, a devastating reveal, and a cruel “gift” from the copycat killer — Episode 7 of “Queen Mantis” is relentless, leading into the final confrontation in episode 8 where the stakes hit closer to home than ever before.
Your final episode 7 and 8 recaps for “Queen Mantis” are below!
Queen Mantis Episode 7 Recap
The episode begins with a funeral. Su Yeol, his wife, and the rest of the team gather to mourn the death of his childhood friend, a loss that casts a heavy shadow over everything that follows.
In the aftermath, Su Yeol and his wife face the fallout from his confession about his mother. The conversation is painful but honest, and it allows them to reconcile. Su Yeol tells her that he has stepped away from the investigation team, though he is unaware she is quietly hiding the news of her pregnancy.
Meanwhile, Detective Kim presses forward with the search for the copycat killer. However, the Mantis refuses to cooperate now that her son is no longer involved. Instead, she confronts Detective Kim with her custody loss, accusing her of asking the child to choose his father because he has special needs.
To Mantis, this loss represents a broader defeat in every aspect of her life, one that can only be corrected if Su Yeol is brought back onto the case.
Detective Kim firmly counters that Su Yeol was not asked to leave because of his mother but because he withheld the truth and broke the team’s trust. Even so, Detective Choi convinces Su Yeol to return, and the team quietly accepts him back into the fold.
The copycat soon calls The Mantis again. She provokes him by mentioning his father and his history of cruelty to animals, enraging him. In response, he vows to destroy everything she holds dear.
A flashback follows, showing how Su Yeol first met his wife and the beginnings of their relationship, with Jung Yeon’s friend present as well. Back in the present, Su Yeol senses something is wrong and rushes home, only to find his wife and her friend missing.
The team tracks their car and urgently warns Jung Yeon, Su Yeol’s wife, to escape if she is with A Ra. She manages to run but ends up cornered in an abandoned warehouse. Police officers find her, but A Ra ambushes them, killing the officers before abducting Jung Yeon. To leave a deeper wound, she leaves behind a positive pregnancy test as a cruel gift for Su Yeol.
The search for A Ra stretches into the night with no results. By morning, she calls The Mantis, taunting her with proof that she has captured Su Yeol’s wife. The Mantis challenges her to let go of weaker prey and face her instead. A Ra agrees and promises to release Jung Yeon if The Mantis arrives alone.
After a heated debate, the police allow the exchange. They transport The Mantis to the town where she once carried out her murders, now heavily surrounded by officers. Before the confrontation, she shares a tense moment with Su Yeol. He urges her to take a gun, but she refuses. He promises to stay close, though his fear for her is clear.
Mother and son then walk together toward a final, inevitable meeting with the copycat killer.
Queen Mantis Episode 8 Recap
The episode begins with our final flashback, showing the copycat as a child during her father’s murder. While most children would have been terrified, she smiled — a chilling detail that doesn’t go unnoticed by the detectives commenting on the memory.
Back in the present, Su Yeol and The Mantis walk together toward their dangerous meeting with the copycat. Police officers are hidden on standby, ready to intervene once the hostage is safe, but until then, they can only wait. The exchange takes place on a narrow mountain road. When the copycat sees Mantis arrive with Su Yeol, she releases Jung Yeon. Su Yeol pulls his wife into his arms, but in the chaos, the copycat slips away with Mantis, even managing to disable her tracker to throw the police off their trail.
While Su Yeol has his wife examined by doctors, she describes the room where she was held — the crumbling cement floor felt as though it were turning to powder. Meanwhile, we see Mantis and the copycat return to this same hideout. Inside, the copycat reveals her twisted admiration for Mantis, calling her “mother” and confessing that she wished Mantis had raised her instead.
Mantis bides her time, then seizes the moment to bite the copycat’s hand and break free. A fight follows with Mantis grabbing a knife, the copycat a hammer. Mantis gains the upper hand, stabbing her in the side. The copycat, weakened, tells her about an escape route, but Mantis refuses, determined to take the main road and avoid the headache of escaping. But before parting, the copycat throws Mantis a mysterious box, insisting it proves she knows everything about her.
Meanwhile, Su Yeol hunts for the hideout, convinced it may be located in an abandoned amusement park. His instincts prove correct, but when he arrives, the copycat ambushes him. She taunts him with the claim that Mantis already used the secret escape route and sneers that he knows nothing about his mother. Just as she raises her gun to shoot, Detective Kim charges in only to be stabbed in the process. Su Yeol reacts instantly, shooting the copycat, but Kim, gravely injured, urges him to leave her and pursue Mantis.
The search for Mantis consumes the police. Su Yeol also learns a devastating truth, his mentor, Detective Choi, never truly believed Mantis’s crimes were wrong. Bound by duty, he arrested her, but in his heart, he sympathized with her mission.
Su Yeol continues the hunt and stumbles across his mother’s psychiatric evaluation records. Through hypnotherapy sessions, he learns of her traumatic childhood: an abusive father, a mother who tried to protect her, and a fire that claimed her mother’s life. The revelations leave him shaken.
Meanwhile, Mantis has confronted her past directly, binding her father in his own religious home. He doesn’t deny his abuse but claims God has forgiven them both, insisting everything is now “okay.” Mantis is disgusted, she never even thought she would be forgiven for her crimes and refuses to let him escape accountability. Just as she prepares to kill him, Su Yeol arrives and points a gun at her, torn between his duty and his love for her. The grandfather urges him to shoot her on the spot, calling her a devil.
Instead, Su Yeol turns his gun on his grandfather, ordering him to stop insulting his mother. He tells Mantis to leave with him, but then he realizes something horrifying — the young girl left in his grandfather’s care has also been abused. Enraged, he almost pulls the trigger on his grandfather, but Mantis intervenes, stopping him from crossing that line. She injects Su Yeol with a sedative, and when he wakes, he and the girl are outside while the house burns with Mantis and her father inside.
Panicked, Su Yeol runs back into the flames. He finds his grandfather unconscious alongside Mantis, but he chooses to save his mother, carrying her out and reviving her outside. Mantis finally agrees to return to prison, and the two wait for the authorities together. Detective Choi personally escorts her to prison, and during the ride, she acknowledges that he kept his promise, believing that Su Yeol has truly grown into a man with compassion.
The epilogue shows Mantis stripped of her former privileges, now living in group housing within the prison. She keeps a photo of Su Yeol’s family, his wife has given birth, and the little girl from earlier appears to have been adopted into their home. But peace doesn’t last long. News breaks that Detective Choi’s body has been found. Soon after, guards summon Mantis from her cell. Outside, Su Yeol and Detective Kim are waiting, their expressions grim. When Mantis asks what’s happening, no answers come.
The screen fades, hinting at a new season to come. It’s a shocking, bittersweet ending (that I am so upset about!), but it also makes it clear that the story of Queen Mantis is far from over.
And that’s the end! It looks like they’re aiming for a Season 2 — or at least making sure we know the story isn’t finished. I think it’s such a shame that Detective Choi had to die; I was really hoping this show would wrap up with everyone finally getting a happy ending.
Ah well, I guess I shouldn’t expect that from a drama about serial killers anyway. We hope you enjoyed “Queen Mantis”! Let us know if you loved or loathed the ending, and be sure to check out even more shows on KOCOWA!
