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Best Queen of Tears Episodes, Ranked

All 16 episodes of Queen of Tears scored and sorted — from the 9.2/10 high of S1E8 to the 8.3/10 of S1E1.

By Mira Vance · Editor & Lead Reviewer

Our rating: 8.75/10 average across 16 episode reviews (best 9.2, lowest 8.3).

Queen of Tears runs a clean hump. It opens cool, climbs to a tall middle, then settles back down without ever falling apart — the whole 16-episode spread is just 0.9 points, so even the weak spots are watchable.

The summit is S1E7, “Hae-in Weaponizes the Divorce” (9.1), and S1E8, “Hae-in Chooses Divorce, Then Survival” (9.2). This is where the show stops being a sad-rich-couple premise and becomes a real story: Hae-in turns the marriage she was ready to leave into leverage, and the choice she makes at the end of E8 reframes everything before it. Right alongside sit two 9.0s — S1E6, “Hyun-woo’s Divorce Paper Breaks Germany,” where the whole charade detonates abroad, and S1E10, “Hae-in Turns the Press Conference Against Eun-sung,” her sharpest public counterpunch.

The floor is the premiere, S1E1 (8.3), which spends most of its runtime laying track — the diagnosis colliding with Hyun-woo’s divorce plan — before the hook fully sets. The other soft patch is S1E14 (8.4), “Hae-in Chooses Surgery as Eun-sung Takes Her Place,” a grim holding-pattern stretch where Eun-sung’s grip tightens and the plot stalls before the home stretch.

Since it’s one season, there’s no comparison to make except early-versus-middle: skip ahead a couple episodes and you hit the good stuff fast.

678910S1E1: 8.3/10S1E2: 8.5/10S1E3: 8.6/10S1E4: 8.7/10S1E5: 8.9/10S1E6: 9.0/10S1E7: 9.1/10S1E8: 9.2/10S1E9: 8.9/10S1E10: 9.0/10S1E11: 8.7/10S1E12: 8.5/10S1E13: 8.8/10S1E14: 8.4/10S1E15: 8.6/10S1E16: 8.8/10
Every episode scored on tension, payoff, and rewatch value. Hover a point for the episode.
RankEpEpisodeScore
1S1E8Hae-in Chooses Divorce, Then Survival9.2
2S1E7Hae-in Weaponizes the Divorce9.1
T-3S1E6Hyun-woo's Divorce Paper Breaks Germany9.0
T-3S1E10Hae-in Turns the Press Conference Against Eun-sung9.0
T-5S1E5Hae-in Wants to Go Home8.9
T-5S1E9Hae-in Finds Shelter in Hyun-woo's Yongdu-ri Home8.9
T-7S1E13Hae-in Chooses Life Before Hyun-woo Tells the Truth8.8
T-7S1E16Hae-in and Hyun-woo Choose Their Ordinary Miracle8.8
T-9S1E4Hae-in Vanishes in Yongdu-ri8.7
T-9S1E11Hae-in Wakes Up and Chooses Hyun-woo's Side8.7
T-11S1E3Hae-in Starts Seeing Hyun-woo Again8.6
T-11S1E15Hae-in Finds Her Own Way Back to Hyun-woo8.6
T-13S1E2Hyun-woo Learns Care Cannot Be Faked8.5
T-13S1E12Hae-in Refuses Hyun-woo's Ring as Man-dae Falls8.5
15S1E14Hae-in Chooses Surgery as Eun-sung Takes Her Place8.4
16S1E1Hae-in's Diagnosis Interrupts Hyun-woo's Divorce Plan8.3

Scores reflect our episode reviews. Tap any episode to read the full review, or browse the whole Queen of Tears season recap from the top.