Shin-Jae’s Truth
The King: Eternal Monarch returns with a revealing episode as the two worlds start to merge together and the dividing lines blur. At the centre of this are Lee Gon and Lee Lim, who both have seemingly been the catalyst for the issues that are affecting both realities. With some big reveals and some insight into exactly what will happen for the rest of the series, Eternal Monarch is gearing up for a pretty dramatic second half to this Korean drama. Episode 8 of The King: Eternal Monarch begins with Lee Lim making his move and deciding to track down Tae-Eul. As he discusses how Lee Gon was the one who made the first move, in Corea Prime Minister Koo finds herself face to face with Luna, who tells her she’s never met before. After talking, Koo realizes that Luna and Tae-Eul are different people but suspects they may be twin sisters. Luna continues on and meets one of her old contacts, demanding her money back and threatening him. At the same time, the pregnant woman Lee Lim met a few episodes ago starts getting ready while Lee Lim himself meets Koo’s Mother. In the Republic of Korea, Shin-Jae gets the test results back from the autopsy. Together with Tae-Eul they contemplate whether Jang-Ji may be the one responsible. Meanwhile, Lee Gon heads off with Jo-Young to a restaurant but find themselves blindsided by a group of thugs. Only, Mun-Sik shows up and it forces Young to improvise and pretend to be Eun-Seop. When he calls the King a fool however, Jo-Young is hilariously forced to have a mole on his face. Later that day he runs into Na-Ri who ends up wiping the mole off. When he heads back to see Eun-Seop, they discuss Na-Ri’s proposition for later that day. While thy do, Shin-Jae takes his Mother out for food and they have a really touching conversation about their circumstances. It’s a really raw and poignant moment but also one that seems to hint at one big plot point – the pregnant woman Lee Lim met in Corea may well be Shin-Jae’s mother. Continuing her stake-out, Tae-Eul and Jangmi catch Park Jung-Gu but in a surprising turn of events, Yeon-Ji decides to turn herself in. At the station she confesses to the murder and allows herself to be taken away in handcuffs. Outside, Tae-Eul says goodbye to Jung-Gu but he mentions how Yeong-Ji had 2 phones and it prompts her to immediately head back to the apartment where she finds the phone charger, meaning the phone itself must be around somewhere. Lee Gon and Jo-Young head to the restaurant but the waiter appears to recognize them both, ringing alarm bells for the King. That evening, Jo-Young captures him and hands his phone over to Lee Gon. It turns out this man was one of those guards in the throne room all those years ago when Lee Gon’s father was killed. That night, Yeon-Ji is visited by a man asking about the second phone. Eun-Mi overheard a phone conversation with her and that’s why she killed him. He tells her to bring the phone to him or there will be consequences. Shin-Jae heads back to the police station and speaks to Eun-Seop, demanding he hand over his phone which actually happens to be Jo-Young’s. He sees the photo of Jo-Young and Lee Gon together and demands to know exactly what’s going on. He heads to Jo-Young’s hotel room in the middle of the night and sees the Corean crest and documents in his coat pocket, bringing back memories from the past. Suddenly, Jo-Young arrives as Lee Gon bursts into the room too and the truth is finally revealed to him. It turns out Shin-Jae is actually from Corea but quite how he ended up in this world, remains to be seen. With a big cliffhanger ending and plenty of unanswered questions, one thing’s for sure – these two worlds are starting to collide and the once-stable parallel worlds are starting to become unbalanced. Shin-Jae actually being from Corea is a nice touch and certainly an unexpected turn of events, but also one that explains why he’s been drawing the crest all this time. Lee-Gon and Tae-Eul are starting to get closer now and their romance is really well written. Their progression over the episodes has been enjoyable to watch but I can’t help but feel that Luna is the real wildcard here and her inclusion in the story certainly spells some trouble for Tae-Eul and Lee-Gon going forward. The story is really starting to heat up now and the second half of this sci-fi K-drama is a very tantalizing prospect indeed.
