This is part 2 of our recap for The King: Eternal Monarch!

Caution: Be wary of typos

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How to Watch: Netflix

Shorthand Character Chart: coming up

How we do this: This live recap will be in two parts and we segment each post around every 10 minutes. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later depending on the scene. There will be typos which we have fantasies of fixing once the episode finishes airing. Also, if there is a preview then we will try and translate it. Look for that at the bottom or on a separate post!

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KOREAN DRAMA THE KING: ETERNAL MONARCH EPISODE 1 – PART 2

——-dramamilk.com——-

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KINGDOM OF KOREA, 2019

We open on an areal view of the Kingdom of Korea which is in Busan. A helicopter is flying around the city.

Koo Seo-ryung is inside this helicopter. She is the Prime Minister.

She gets to the Kingdom and has to undergo a pat down because she has a metal wire for her bra. So a woman guard checks for her.

Inside somewhere, we see Lee Gon getting his clothing put on him. We see the scar on his neck (is it on the wrong side of his neck?). The Emperor tells the new guy that he will do it himself. Young tells the new guy that the emperor does not like to be touched. The first time is a mistake, but the second time, you are doing it on purpose. Understand?

The new guys says he understands.

Lee Gon heads out with Young. Young tells the other guards that he is going to the horse fields. Gon tells him that he is going to his bedroom first. Yong looks like, aw man, just listen to me bro. But he doesn’t say anything.

Meanwhile, the cute head maid, hides talisman all over Lee Gon’s room. The assistant follows her around and writes down notes on the locations of all he talisman. 

Nam tells her that she has to change them every month, so write down the locations. The first one is behind the picture, then go clockwise. Never tell the emperor, okay?

She smiles and looks at one of the talisman and says that she heard that this one is he best to fall in love. Huh, why aren’t you answering?

She turns around and sees Lee Gon standing right there which gives her a tiny fright. She asks him why he is there when people are looking for him.

Gon asks if this really works? Will the prime minister Koo come earlier than planned because she is attracted to me? Maybe she will become the empress?

Nam – No, she is not..that B…no no no….she is not. You said that you don’t believe superstitions. It is nothing.

Gon – I don’t believe it but you believe it.

He holds the talisman out of her reach. it is adorable. 

Gon – I just wanted to follow what you wished.

Nam – I am doing this because our empire is more unstable than ever. So you should get married.

Gon – I don’t want to.

Nam – Getting an heir is your duty.

Gon – I don’t care.

Nam – You are young and handsome, so why don’t you have one? This is nonsense.

Gon – Ever since I became the emperor you re the only person that is this rude.

He gives them all to her and tells her to throw all the talisman in the trashcan. tell the Prime Minister to follow the schedule. i will see her 2 hours later as scheduled.

Nam talks about how these are so expensive and fishes some out of the trash. Then she tells her assistant that she needs to do it counterclockwise.

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/5/

HORSE RIDING

Gon rides his horse with some of his guards along the beaches of Busan. They get to the stables. Gon hops off and starts walking with his horse and Young.

Gon – I found talisman again. This time it is 8 so it is a total of 51. 

Young – Is it true?

Gon – What? Is it not 51? Did she hide more when you pick on her?

Young – She didn’t do it too closely.

Gon – I will, so get ready for punishment (jokingly)

But then they turn their heads and see the Prime Minister. Gon checks his watch, it is 10 o’clock. She walks right up to him and says that she knows that she is a little early. It is a good day and I wanted to see Maximus (the horse). She tells the horse hello.

Gon – He hates women and he bites people.

SR – I am like that also. I bite people often. They are talking pictures, so can you pose for them? Our public relations team thought that this horse racing field was good.

Gon – Walking over there is too much, let’s stand this way. Your left side is better and you should wear comfortable shoes.

SR – You are very meticulous.

She stands to the side he suggested.

SR – I did not have time to change my shoes because you shortened the reporting time to half.

Gon – Your average reporting time is 18 minutes. So 30 minutes is enough. Let’s do that.

SR – We are both busy so let’s make it 5 minutes shorter. *she leans in to his ear* As I reported earlier, the country is peaceful and the citizens are happy. And they will be happier with this picture.

The photographers take a lot of photos.

Gon – *leans in to her ear* It is all because of you.

He starts to look at his horse.

SR – I wanted to learn horse riding. Do you think I have talent for it.

Gon – When you first learn to ride, you hear this first – if you are honest then your horse will take you to the end of the world. Prime Minister Koo, are you always honest? Well, your report is okay and we had enough pictures so let’s finish this. I need to take a shower.

INSIDE

Gon finishes up his shower and looks in the mirror, he is shocked to see Young standing behind him to keep him on schedule. They joke with each other about the schedule. Young tells Gon that righteousness wins and you always run away. Gon tells him to watch his mouth.

Young says that he did what he asked him. Gon tells him to keep his manners. This is all mine. Mine!

Young leaves without answering. The camera scrolls on the old case where the pipe used to be housed. Young ignores him and walks out. Gon runs after him and tells him, hey, best swordsman, you have to answer me. Don’t you know that?

BOOK READING EVENT

Then we cut in on a book reading event with is the emperor reading fairytales to kids.

The reads a story about how Alice jumped into the rabbit hole. There are a lot of kids all around listening very quietly. he keeps reading about how Alice felt like she was falling forever and wondered how many miles she fell. This is my favorite book because the person who wrote this book was a mathematician. Did you enjoy it?

The kids all yell NOOOOOOO, it wasn’t fun at all. The King says that they are the first of his people who say all that they want to say ever since he became the emperor.

One girl raises her hands and asks if he has a girlfriend? That is what I rally want to know. He tells them that these little citizens still worry about the empire. He looks at his head maid who looks guilty and then tells the girl that he knows who asked her to ask that. But I will answer, I do not have a girlfriend.

The girl tells him to follow the rabbit. He asks, me? Well, let me read more of this book. The kids all complain Nooooooooo.

CHARITY EVENT

A lot of people go to a charity that is outside. A woman runs on a bridge through crowds of people who are all going to this charity event. She grabs someones rabbit jacket and puts it on.

Cut to the King who is rowing in the river with a lot of other people. It looks like all the other people in his boat are military so maybe they are all in the royal academy or something like that. At least 6-8 row boats are racing on the water.

In the crowd is Myung Na-ri and her friend who are cheering along. Her friend thinks that this is great, men should wear less and move more. Nari tells her that people are super handsome when they are all buttoned up. She looks up and takes a few pictures of Young who is overseeing everything.

The Naval academy wins the rowing race.

Next to the water, someone sells cold bottled water when the running person int he bunny jacket runs past him and accidentally (or on purpose) knocks him over.

Then we cut to some thugs shooting guns somewhere. the Royal academy stops it and the rabbit person hides along a wall. The King sees this person. Perhaps he wants to follow?

Then the Rabbit person runs off, so the King runs after her. He is running barefoot.

The little girl from the reading sees him and says, wow, our emperor is rally following the rabbit with the clock.

They chase continues. But he loses this person around a corner. He looks left and right and cant see them. Then he looks at his reflection in the window of the building.

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/6/

Young catches up to him and tells him that he is in good shape, you rowed for that long and you ran this much. Why did you run?

Gon tells him that he saw a clock rabbit. Young asks him what that is? You saw a clock or you saw a rabbit? Gon sighs and asks him if he was listening when he read Alice and Wonderland to the kids?

Young says he was making plans with his guards. Gon tells him that he needs a fairytale. Yong tells him that he needs shoes. She puts them on the floor for him. Gon lightly kicks them and says they are not his.

Cut to then in the palace, Young tells him to wear a bullet proof vest from now on. But Gon is not interested and says that Young will bock him anyway. He goes to his desk.

Young tells him to wear it anyway. Gon tells him to wear two, including mine. Young says he will be in trouble if he doesn’t wear it. Gon asks who will give him trouble? You are the boss.

Young tells him that his vocation will give him trouble. They both look at each other for a moment.

JY – They caught everyone at the sight. And we are also investigating the rabbit person. As soon as we catch that person, we will see who that person is.

Gon smiles and walks in front of Young. He tells him that he picked the day. Young tells him not to do it. What are you going to do? Catch the criminal yourself? Are you going to get the citizen hero award?

Gon goes to his bookshelf and says that he wont catch the criminal, you can catch them, you are the head of the guard. I am not catching, I am looking for someone. A face that only I know.

He remembers the person from when he was a kid. It is the mystery man.

Gon – Every time this happens, I feel like he is there, 25 years ago and today. 

Young – 25 years passed, that person should be old.

Gon – yeah, maybe I already aw them and didn’t recognize them. But why doesn’t he ever come back to find me?

Young – Because you grew up well, you don’t need anyones help.

Gon – Hey, my Young, are you okay now? Want a beer?

Young- I refuse it. *he holds up the bullet proof vest*

Gon tells him to go home then sits at his desk to read. it is Alice in Wonderland.

He opens the book and we see the tag of the person. It is  Jung Tae-eul Police Gongwon (government worker). He looks at the tag and holds it.

Gon – I am oppa now Detective Jung.

He flips it over and sees that she was born in 1990. Her address is in Seoul and her birthday is in May. He looks at the date, it is June now. So it looks like he is older than her now.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA, FALL 2019

We see Jung Tae-eul casually walking to her car. She gets in and drives off. But she backs into another car super quickly. She must be a horrible driver????

Officer Park Moon-shik sees it. A deliver guy also sees it and thinks that should be at least several hundred dollars.

She gets out looking worried. The officer calls upstairs to the owner of the car. She gets back in and starts to hit the car over and over again. Then she leaves. The apartment cop asks if the man says this, come down now!

But the other apartment cop says that they will not come down, they never come down. The delivery mans ays that they will come down.

Ah, so this looks like a stick maybe? These cops area ll pretending to be inept. So the thugs run down to look at their car. They yell at the apartment cop to ask where she is!

Detective Kang Shin-jae calls Tae-eul to ask if she is okay? She is driving off and says that she is okay, it is not the first time. He asks if her clothes are okay? Her top and bottom do not match at all. She looks at her clothes and asks what is wrong with them? It looks like I am dressed but not dressed. Casual chic. I like it.

He asks doesn’t get it. She screeches her car to a stop and tells him that she does not feel good. Come down. She puts the car in reverse and drives back to the parking lot super skillfully all going backwards.

She stops the car right in front of them and hops out They call her a crazy women. But she throws one of them on the ground and then opens the trunk. There is a dead body inside. She says that this has turned from an illegal gambling site to a murder case. The man yells that he does not know about this! 

She has to beat them up and handcuff them. Some other ones run away so the delivery guy who is actually a cop and the apartment cop who is actually a real cop all give chase.

It is a chase scene y’all as each cop catches one of the men.

This chase scene is pretty hilarious, lol, one of the  men actually accidentally jumps into the cops van so they tell him to handcuff himself.

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/7/

Later on, they think about how this case turned from a gambling case to a murder case. They are still on the scene. Tae-eul and Shin-jae ask their boss, Moon-sik why no one is applying to the violence team. they need another person.

They joke about her clothes again. She is confident with her clothes though and pushes them all away. Though they don’t actually want to stand with hr anyway.

KINGDOM OF KOREA

Lee Gon is at his horses stables when he sees the rabbit person running off again. He grabs his horse and tells them to tell the captain that he is checking to see if this is a clock or a rabbit. He rides off. The guards tell the captain to come quickly!

Elsewhere, Lee Rim mixes red paint together, though it might not be red paint?

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Tae-eul calls her partner and says that they found the identity of the dead person. The partner gets the CCTV.

KINGDOM

The King keeps riding into the bamboo woods. His guards follow him and try to catch up. But then his horse Maximus stops. Gon asks him why he stopped, whats wrong?

But he senses something. He looks around the bamboo forest. he starts to slowly walk in the forest and look at the trees. It is thundering. Then the stone pillars appear.

He looks at the stone pillars that are shining.

The inside part starts to crack. Gon looks at his stick that he carries with him all the time. he rides into the gate and disappears.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

In the shop, Lee Rim puts some of the cloth away and knocks over a bowl. The bowl stops in mid air as if the time stopped on it. he touches it and it falls to the ground.

Elsewhere, Tae-eul is on her way home in her car when she sees a ghost like Tae-eul in her rearview mirror. She holds back a scream and turns around. But no one is there. She thinks she might be getting old. How can she see hallucinations like this?

But then she sees a man on a white horse. She thinks this is some kind of crazy guy. She gets out her speaker and tells the horse man to please go to the side. ut he is not listening so she puts on her siren and drives off to get him.

He walks to the statue of General Lee and looks around. The other statue is King Sejong. 

Tae-eul walks up to him and tells him that he needs to get off, hey horse rider. He looks at her and then all his memories come back of the person who saved him.

She keeps pointing at him and tells him not to block the traffic. Come down. Where did you get this horse? You violated traffic laws. if this horse poops then you will have a bigger fine.

He just looks at her.

TE – Why are you looking at me like that? Come down.

he hops off and starts to walk to her. He stops right in front of her and looks at her ID> She is all like, um, who is this crazy person.

Her ID is a little different but she has the same name.

Gon – Finally I see you Detective Jung Tae-eul.

He pulls her in for a big hug.

Music starts to play as the camera scrolls around them.

She is super shocked.

Fade Out

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COMMENTS

Absolutely loved the opening to this show!!! The first thirty minutes were amazing and had me hooked. When they hopped time to 2019, it started to slow a little bit, but I still liked it. So I am looking forward to what tomorrow brings!

I am absolutely intrigued by the split world where one world is still in a Monarchy (similar to The Last Empress) and it is set in Busan, and the other looks like contemporary Seoul. Though the writer said that both of these realities are fantasy places, so don’t try to make the contemporary reality into our reality right now. It is just most like our reality right now.

I do have some big questions, though. For instance it looks like the scar on the boys neck should be on the other side? Is that a mistake or is that something that will come up with the fantasy logic? It also looks like time travel is involved somehow? Otherwise how could little Gon meet with Tae-eul?

These are all questions I am intrigued to get an answer to, not annoyed by. Though I could be annoyed by them later on if the answers are dumb, lol. But I love this opening episode a lot so I think I am just going with it for now.

See you tomorrow for another recap! Be sure to let us know if you like this show and want us to keep with it!

EPISODE 2 PREVIEW

English Translation

TE – Who are you? Are you crazy?

Gon – I am the Emperor of the Kingdom of Korea. Ii think this is a parallel Universe.

TE – What? Parallel Universe?

Boss – Jung Tae-eul stepped on poop, but it is handsome poop.

TE – Kim Gae-tong! (like Mr. John Do)

Nam – W-what? the emperor was following a woman?

JY – Did you catch that woman?

GOn – Why are you here?

ES – What the f?

SJ – No identity?

Gon – What is your relationship with Jung Tae-eul?

SJ – We blinked our eyes.

Gon – I can’t stay here too long.

Gon – Is there any reason why I am in your world? I like being with you like this.

TE – I don’t know you. How do you know me?

Gon – Me and you ~.

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