Confidence Queen Episode 10: Yi-Rang’s Power Move Explained — The Real Game Begins Now

Confidence Queen finally pulled the mask off its boogeyman in Episode 10, and yeah, it is exactly the kind of reveal that makes you want to rewind the opening scene of the series. Yi-rang has been playing a long game, and the endgame just walked into an art gallery.

The setup: a painting, a gallery, and the guy she has been hunting

Park Min-young's Yoon Yi-rang has spent years conning, scheming, and chasing clues to find the man who abducted her. She uses a very specific bait to smoke him out: a painting by Yu Kang-il, the same one she spotted in her kidnapper's lair. She knows he wants it. So she positions herself at an art gallery, and like clockwork, he shows up.

Enter Professor Kang Yo-seop, a respected architect with a sterling public image and a rotten core only Yi-rang recognizes. She quietly admits to herself that everything she has done was about finding this man. When she talks about the real game, that is her drawing a line in the sand: she is done running and ready to bring him down for what he did to her and to Gu-ho.

So, who exactly is Kang Yo-seop?

Kang is not just a professor. He is the CEO of Josef Architects and a headline-name architect with a new book, 'Plan Utopia.' In Episode 10 he is out on the lecture circuit promoting that book, which lays out his big idea for a city with no barriers, a place built on equality and brotherhood where everyone can be equally happy.

He frames it as the natural end point of a rough childhood: he grew up poor, watched his father abuse his mother, and his mother sometimes locked him in his room to keep him safe. That trauma becomes the anchor of his public philosophy. He studied in Germany, talks like a visionary, and sells himself as a guy obsessed with tearing down the structures that keep people out.

His go-to metaphor in the lecture: rich kids have 'doors' to open, poor kids have to climb 'fences' to get anywhere.

It plays well in a packed hall. But Yi-rang knows the version of Kang that does not hold a mic.

How we got here, without the confusion

• Kang grew up poor and did not have the grades for a government scholarship. To earn money, he tutored the daughter of a major corporation. That daughter was Yi-rang.
• He describes teaching her as difficult because she was mischievous, but he also claims the gig helped him save enough to study abroad and gave her a taste of the 'real world.' The way he says it hints at a warped mentality lurking under the mentor mask.
• What the show lays out so far: he manipulated Yi-rang with mind games and abducted her. When he apparently failed to shake money loose from her family, he pivoted and kidnapped Gu-ho, the child of an informant.
• Gu-ho's father had been awarded money for providing information. Kang likely exploited that by ransoming Gu-ho and siphoning off the reward cash. That is likely how he bankrolled his studies overseas while maintaining the image of a self-made, diligent prodigy.
• Cut to now: he is the polished architect-slash-author with a 'barrier-free city' pitch, and Yi-rang is done letting him hide behind it.

Where this is headed

The preview sets the table for a final showdown. Yi-rang and her crew are gearing up to take on Kang Yo-seop in the last two episodes. Expect turbulence. She is calling this the real game for a reason, and the target is not just a con or a payday. It is the man who abducted her.

Confidence Queen is streaming on Prime Video.