Confidence Queen

One box. Everything you need to decide.

The con artists, their targets, and the man pulling strings from the shadows.

Park Min-young

Yoon Yi-rang

Lead

Park Hee-soon

James

Lead

Joo Jong-hyuk

Myung Gu-ho

Lead

Woo Kang-min

Mr. Ray Bang

Supporting

Kim Han-jong

Mr. Mustache

Supporting

Gi So-you

Supporting Role

Supporting

Lee Su-ho

Supporting Role

Supporting

Jung Woong-in

Kang Yo-seop

Villain

Kim Joong-ki

Supporting Role

Supporting

Oh Chang-kyung

Supporting Role

Supporting

Kim Tae-hun

Supporting Role

Supporting

Hyun Bong-sik

Supporting Role

Supporting

Spoiler-light recaps for all 12 episodes — con by con, mark by mark.

EP 01

Speed Dial Zero

Sep 6, 2025 · TV Chosun

Team Confidence Man sets their sights on Baek Hwa — a shaman-swindler who defrauded a grieving mother. Using a staged casino and a pair of disguised allies, Yi-rang manipulates Baek Hwa into a high-stakes gamble that ends with a bag of worthless talismans instead of cash. In the epilogue, Yi-rang quietly returns the stolen money to the victim, and the team’s moral code clicks into place from the very first episode.

EP 02

Sand Foundation

Sep 7, 2025 · TV Chosun

Loan shark kingpin Jeon Tae-soo sends Yi-rang and Gu-ho on a chaotic mission to the Philippines as a loyalty test. When Jeon schemes to smuggle 50 billion won in slush funds aboard a chartered plane disguised as relief supplies, James infiltrates as co-pilot and executes a daring mid-flight heist — leaving Jeon with nothing but worthless paper. The stolen funds are anonymously donated to a youth shelter, and Yi-rang’s mysterious behavior hints at something far deeper than simple justice.

EP 03

Déjà Vu

Sep 13, 2025 · TV Chosun

The team infiltrates a lavish VIP charity auction to expose art critic and predator Yoo Myung-min, who sexually harassed young artists and ran illegal cultural trade schemes. Yi-rang discovers a personal connection to one of Yoo’s paintings — a revelation that deepens her investment in the mission. The setup goes beautifully until their forger is abruptly arrested mid-plan, sending the stakes into the red.

EP 04

Ghost Castle

Sep 14, 2025 · TV Chosun

The art world con reaches its climax as Yoo Myung-min — who had imprisoned young artists and laundered money through fictitious auctions — is fully exposed at a charity gala. The team stages a public humiliation using a fabricated artist named Myeong-shin, and victim Bo-ra bravely speaks the truth on recording, leading to an arrest. But Yi-rang secretly deletes a “Ghost Castle” file from the evidence USB — a clue to a personal trauma she isn’t ready to face, noticed quietly by James.

EP 05

Atoms Black Noir

Sep 20, 2025 · TV Chosun

The team uncovers medical negligence at Jae-kyung Hospital, where a CEO and surgeon covered up a botched operation that nearly killed a patient. James infiltrates the CEO’s circle posing as a VVIP broker, while Yi-rang assumes the identity of “Rachel,” a legendary ghost surgeon — convincing a terrified CEO Lee Sun-mi that she has a life-threatening condition and extracting a US$2.5 million payment. The episode closes on Yi-rang striding into a full operating room in scrubs, scalpel in spirit if not in hand.

EP 06

Waves on the Edge

Sep 21, 2025 · TV Chosun

Yi-rang completes the fake surgery con, forcing fraudulent surgeon Seong-woo to be exposed in front of medical specialists. The team collects their fee and visits the recovering patient in hospital. Then the episode pivots hard: a flashback reveals that at age 10, Yi-rang was kidnapped at her own Alice in Wonderland birthday party and held captive in a castle, where her intelligence was exploited through cruel games. James, her longtime bodyguard, rescued her then — and in the present, Yi-rang’s secret investigation wall hints that Gu-ho may share this kidnapping past.

EP 07

Mask Girl

Sep 27, 2025 · TV Chosun

A woman from James’s past appears to destabilize the team’s dynamic. Meanwhile, the trio enlists a popular beauty influencer to help punish Gil Mi-in, the CEO of cosmetic brand Mystique, who weaponized lawsuit threats against smaller creators and used them to silence critics. The scheme drags Gil Mi-in into a trap built from social media spectacle — a con that mirrors the very platform culture she exploited.

EP 08

Mr. Gray

Sep 28, 2025 · TV Chosun

Yi-rang and James improvise a present-day mini-con where she plays a widow in an inheritance dispute with her “stepson,” showcasing their seamless offhand chemistry. Deeper into the episode, new clues about the shadowy figure who orchestrated Yi-rang’s childhood kidnapping begin to surface. James becomes visibly more protective — and visibly more anxious — as the investigation edges toward ground he may not want uncovered.

EP 09

Their First Encounter

Oct 4, 2025 · TV Chosun

A flashback to April 2020 reveals how Yi-rang and Gu-ho first met, showing her struggling with sleeplessness and the weight of her kidnapping trauma. In the present, the team targets Ha Jung-ho — a corrupt seafood tycoon who exploits small business owners and fancies himself a cinephile. Yi-rang devises a movie-themed con, posing as a film producer to lure him in, before stepping in as a surprise lead actress to seal the trap.

EP 10

Madame Oh’s Heydays

Oct 5, 2025 · TV Chosun

Ha Jung-ho agrees to invest in the fake film only on the absurd condition that he write, direct, produce, and star in it himself — forcing the team into a wild improvisation. More significantly, Yi-rang’s deeper reason for targeting each corrupt figure is finally revealed to the audience, connecting the dots between her childhood trauma and her chosen marks. The episode’s darker, more emotional register arrives with the appearance of a haunting teddy bear and the mystery of a figure named Jin-su, pointing toward a conspiracy that reaches further than anyone expected.

EP 11

The Falling Out

Oct 11, 2025 · TV Chosun

The team faces a catastrophic internal rupture as trust between Yi-rang and Gu-ho fractures under the weight of hidden truths. The mastermind behind Yi-rang’s childhood kidnapping — powerful architect and real estate tycoon Kang Yo-seop — is now squarely in their crosshairs. Yi-rang, James, and Gu-ho must decide whether they can hold together long enough to execute the most dangerous and personal con of their lives — a mission that could break all of them.

EP 12

Checkmate

Oct 12, 2025 · TV Chosun

In the finale, the team executes their most elaborate and personal mission: a grand con targeting Kang Yo-seop, the architect who masterminded Yi-rang’s kidnapping. Yi-rang infiltrates Kang’s orbit through a fabricated real estate project involving Saudi investors, while James and Gu-ho handle their roles with precision. The con reaches its peak when Gu-ho is shot during the operation and Yi-rang and James are briefly captured — forcing a brilliant improvised escape. Kang Yo-seop is cornered and exposed; he attempts to flee but falls into the sea, his fate deliberately left ambiguous. In a post-credits scene, Yi-rang turns to the camera with a smirk and declares, “Confidence Queen will be back.”

Full spoilers ahead — everything that happens in the finale and what it all means.

The team fractures before the final game. The penultimate episode ends with the trust between Yi-rang and Gu-ho essentially in ruins — hidden truths about Gu-ho’s connection to Yi-rang’s childhood kidnapping have surfaced, and the team enters the finale wounded. The writers make a smart choice here: the emotional cost of the mission lands before the climax, so when Yi-rang, James, and Gu-ho choose to move forward anyway, it reads as genuine resolve rather than scripted convenience.

The Kang Yo-seop con is the series at its most operatic. Yi-rang infiltrates the powerful architect’s inner circle through a fabricated real estate project pitched to Saudi investors — a scheme that requires all of Team Confidence Man’s resources, including supporting members Mr. Ray Bang and Mr. Mustache, working every angle simultaneously. The choreography of the con is elaborate without being confusing, and the show earns the complexity because we’ve spent eleven episodes watching the team build their rapport.

It nearly collapses — and that’s what makes it work. Gu-ho is shot during the operation. Yi-rang and James are briefly captured by Kang’s security. The finale’s best stretch isn’t the con succeeding — it’s the improvised scramble when it falls apart, with Yi-rang and James feeding each other lines and trusting instincts forged over a lifetime. The show understands that a heist drama’s emotional core lives in the relationships, not the plan.

Kang Yo-seop falls — literally and figuratively. Cornered and fully exposed, Kang attempts to flee but plunges into the sea, his fate left deliberately unresolved. It’s a choice that signals a possible second season while still delivering closure: the monster is gone, his power destroyed, and the harm he caused Yi-rang and Gu-ho acknowledged. Gu-ho recovers from his gunshot wound and remains by Yi-rang’s side, having also sought justice for his own father’s death tied to the same conspiracy.

Yi-rang turns to the camera — and everything lands. The post-credits scene is a formal declaration of intent: Yi-rang smirks directly at the viewer and announces that Confidence Queen will be back. It’s the kind of ending that only works if the preceding twelve episodes have earned the audience’s affection, and here they have. The show never pretended to be a dark crime thriller — it always wanted to be a stylish, warm, righteous crowd-pleaser. And on that front, it delivered exactly what it promised.