Queen Mantis episode 7 recap — Pregnancies, betrayals, and a copycat’s cruel game

Episode 7 of Queen Mantis begins with a revelation that should be joyful but feels fragile from the start. Jung-yeon discovers she is pregnant and takes shelter with Ah-ra while she tries to process what this means for her future.

Su-yeol arrives to take them to Min-jae’s funeral, and grief swallows the room. Min-jae’s father lashes out, forcing Su-yeol to step in as chief mourner, an uncomfortable role for a man still trying to separate himself from a family history of blood and crime.

This opening of the penultimate episode of Queen Mantis sets the emotional stakes high. What should have been a simple farewell turns into a moment where old wounds resurface and everyone silently wonders if any of them can escape the past.

Later, Su-yeol and Jung-yeon have one of their most vulnerable conversations yet. He tells her about a picnic long ago with Yi-shin and Min-jae, and about the life he built trying to prove he is not like his mother.

Becoming a cop was supposed to free him from her legacy, but with the case slipping out of his hands he feels adrift. Jung-yeon comforts him and the distance between them softens. Even Ah-ra, who usually avoids affection, tries to play along to lift the mood (obvisouly suspicious). In hindsight, these gestures feel calculated, as if she were hiding darker intentions beneath a façade of friendship.

The writing leans into misdirection here: Ah-ra’s friendliness, her jokes about jealousy, even the way she tries to lighten Su-yeol’s grief read one way at first but later look like a predator earning trust.

Fresh blood and erased evidence

The investigation in the penultimate episode of Queen Mantis reignites when another murder surfaces. A doctor is found dead, killed in a way that mimics the original but with sloppy execution. The pattern rattles the team because it exposes the copycat’s weakness: she imitates but does not fully control the craft of the original Queen Mantis. This difference will later become a critical clue.

Jung-ho calls Su-yeol back, and even Jung-yeon encourages him to return, believing the work will anchor him. Alone with Ah-ra, she confides her pregnancy and promises to love Su-yeol despite his guilt and self-doubt. Ah-ra says she is jealous, a comment that feels teasing in the moment but later reads like a crack in her mask. Her reaction to the pregnancy, half-mockery, half-curiosity, becomes clearer once we know she is watching every bond Su-yeol forms, measuring how much control she has over his life.

Back at headquarters, the pressure mounts. Yi-shin abruptly withdraws from her agreement with the police, frustrating Na-hee, who tries to break her composure. Their exchange turns personal. Na-hee accuses the original Queen Mantis of manipulating her son, only to have the accusation flipped back with painful clarity about Na-hee’s own custody decisions.

For a heartbeat, Yi-shin shows something raw before she closes herself off again. The scene plays like a duel of wounded parents, where one is a killer who claims to act out of love, and the other is a cop forced to admit her own sacrifices were not free of cruelty.

When Su-yeol returns, the team greets him with suspicion. Na-hee, however, decides to work with him again out of necessity. Stopping the killer matters more than grudges or past betrayals, and the episode makes it clear that pragmatism is now overriding trust.

The call that unmasks the copycat

The turning point in the seventh episode of Queen Mantis arrives with a single phone call. The copycat reaches out to Yi-shin and identifies herself as Kang Yeon-joong. Yi-shin taunts her, but rage spills out. Yeon-joong insists that she killed Min-jae to protect the secrets of Yi-shin and her son. As she speaks, Su-yeol begins piecing together details that never sat right.

Ah-ra was there when Min-jae tormented them. She introduced Jung-yeon to him. She hovered too close for too long. The puzzle finally locks, but maybe a little too late: Ah-ra is the copycat. This deduction is played with precision in Queen Mantis: Su-yeol does not stumble onto the answer but builds it from small, half-forgotten moments that suddenly connect.

From that moment, the narrative accelerates. The police scramble to reach Jung-yeon and Ah-ra, but Ah-ra cuts contact and leaves no trace. She drives Jung-yeon away, calm and menacing beneath her friendly surface. At a gas station, Jung-yeon turns on her phone, sees Su-yeol’s desperate warnings, and tries to escape.

Ah-ra laughs and follows, playing hunter with terrifying ease. Su-yeol dispatches a patrol car, but Ah-ra ambushes and kills the officers, showing just how dangerous she has become. The show underscores her methodical cruelty: she plans the abduction with perfect timing, eliminating help before it can reach Jung-yeon.

She fully embraces her identity as Kang Yeon-joong now, kidnaps Jung-yeon, and calls Su-yeol only to drop a cruel revelation: his wife is pregnant and now in mortal danger.

A game of mothers and sons in Queen Mantis

Ah-ra keeps Jung-yeon in her childhood hideout, treating her like a pawn and mocking her role in Su-yeol’s life. She brags that she once tested other women before settling on introducing Jung-yeon to him, twisting their love story into manipulation.

She calls the original Queen Mantis and demands a personal meeting, threatening to kill Jung-yeon if she does not come. Yi-shin initially sounds cold but then offers herself in exchange. Her pride and anger burn through: she once faced punishment for killing abusers, yet Ah-ra murders innocents and dares to call it loyalty. This clash reframes the show’s central question: What kind of love justifies violence, and what kind of monster is born when revenge loses its target?

Meanwhile, suspicion poisons the investigation. Some officers theorize that Su-yeol could be colluding with both killers. Na-hee defends him but admits that Yi-shin and Ah-ra might be manipulating him into helping them escape.

Commissioner Hong hesitates, calling the plan reckless, but Jeong-ho takes responsibility and pushes it forward. A secret order follows: if capture fails, lethal force is authorized against Ah-ra and Yi-shin alike.

The tension here is thick: Su-yeol must navigate a unit that partly believes he has betrayed them, while the state quietly prepares to execute his mother and her imitator if things go wrong.

Pieces set for an uncertain finale

The penultimate episode of Queen Mantis ends like a chessboard arranged for its final moves. Yi-shin arrives in Woongsan to face her enemy. She accepts a tracker but refuses the bulletproof vest, making a bitter joke that everyone wants her dead. Su-yeol quietly admits he does not.

Then Ah-ra calls with instructions for the hostage exchange. Su-yeol cuffs his mother but slips her the key, a choice that could mean protection, trust, or a desperate gamble.

The board is set for the finale of Queen Mantis, and no one knows whose strategy will determine the outcome. The show leaves us viewers with a detective’s dread: every clue is now on the table, but the pattern they form could still lead anywhere.