And here we are at the finaleeeeee! Time to find out what is going on and to have everything wrapped up! But will it be a happily ever after or will be have a bittersweet ending? This writer is known for her bittersweet endings so that is definitely a possibility. But hopefully she changes her mind this time? Crossing my fingers!

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Caution: Be wary of typos

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How to Watch: Netflix

Shorthand Character Chart: The King the Eternal Monarch Character Chart

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 RECAP EPISODE 16 – PART 1

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Tae-eul’s father takes out the trash and wonders when his daughter is coming home. He gets a text from her saying that she is under cover right now and smiles. He walks back inside. 

Luna/Tae-eul looks at him from the side and sees his text. He text for her to catch the bad guy and be sure to eat something. She sends back – I will be sure to call you soon.

( I think that is Luna because a savvy commenter said Luna always wears black!)

Luna/Tae-eul limps away.

Elsewhere, Shin-jae sits on the floor in the abandoned building and thinks about how much he loves Tae-eul. he remembers eating with her int he taekwondo gym and starts to tear up.

Meanwhile, Tae-eul has Lee Rim at gunpoint in the bamboo forest. The gun is pointed at the back of his head and he is standing. She looks around the forest for a moment and then tells him to walk. He walks into the green gate which is open.

1994 THE NIGHT OF THE COUP, KINGDOM OF COREA

It is a snowy night in the palace. The teenage traitor prince looks around but then Jo Young comes up and snaps his neck???? Wow. The teenage prince is dead. Gon comes around and tells Jo Young that he will go inside, you stop Lee Rim right here. As soon as you find him, kill them all.

JY – Are you going in the room by yourself?

Gon – If I fail in the room, at least you should kill the rebel Lee Rim

JY – Your highness, what are you thinking?

JY – Are you….no, you can’t

Gon – This is my last order.

JY – I am sorry, your highness, I have to go there. I want to protect my master, that is my job.

Gon – This is our last chance

JY – Same to me. This is my last chance for me to save you. I hoped everything goes the same as that night. Be well, your highness.

Jo Young runs away, in slow motion, up the columned walkway. Gon starts to walk away and thinks about Tae-eul. He tells her that the more beautiful the equation is, the simpler it is. She told him that everyone in the world cannot be brave, so she decided to be brace.

We also see Shin-jae who says that he will be the one to go with Gon. 

In the courtyard, Halmoni prays as she always does.

Gon takes off running as well and voices over.

Gon – Tonight I am not alone, we are not there yet.

IN BETWEEN

In the in-between area, Tae-eul and Rim talk. He asks her what her plan is. She tells him to wait until Lee Gon stops him from the past and saves the world.

Photographs are floating all around them and lighting is all around as well. Tae-eul says that if Lee Gon fails then she will stop him here. She cocks her gun and points it at him.

Rim – Well, if Lee Gon is successful then you will lose all his memories.

TE – So that is why my heart hearts. All those glorious memories are in my heart. 

She aims at Lee Rim.

Rim – You cannot fire a gun because nothing flies.

TE – You never know because you’ve never fired a gun here.

In the trophy room, the little prince picks up the sword and holds it high against Rim. He is crying. Rim asks, do you think you can hurt me with that? Little Gon says he will try.

But then the right hand man comes up and holds a gun to little Gon. Rim tells him to kill him. But a gun shoots and knocks out the roof. The glass falls and the glass cuts Lee Rim’s hand this time, not the sword.

Little Gon runs away. Gon and Jo Young walk into the room like they are Neo and Trinity in the Matrix. They slow motion shoot everyone and don’t get shot when bullets come flying at them.

They are a force to be reckoned with as they blast through everyone in the room. Everyone is shot.

But Lee Rim is still alive and he still has the pipe. It is a full pipe now. He picks it up. Gon checks his pipe in his jacket, he pulls it out and it burns to a crisp.

In the in between world, the pipe that Tae-eul is holding is burning also.

Rim – Why.…the pipe.…I have you.…finally….the complete pipe.

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In the trophy room, Gon keeps shooting people who come out of the woodwork to shoot him. Jo Young does as well. Though Jo Young looks like he might be injured. Or maybe just tired.

In the in-between, Rim tells Tae-eul that if his pipe disappeared, that means that Lee Rim will never come back, you are trapped here forever.

In the palace, Gon keeps running. He finds the sword and picks it up.

In the trophy room, Jo Young is holding the prince and touching his neck. Perhaps the prince still got a cut on his neck? it is not clear. But Jo Young cradles the prince in his arms and asks him if he is okay?

Jo Young hears some people coming and lays the prince down and we see that he sustained several shots in his back.

Nam and all the servants come in and take in the scene with screams and cries about the King and the prince. Nam immediately goes to the little princes side to hold him and check him.

Jo Young hides off to the side somewhere, it does not look good for him. He thinks back to when he and the King met and the King told him that from now on he is the best swordsman in the world.

Jo Young drops his head, he is dead.

KOREA

Shin-jae tells his mother to listen to what he is telling her. They are in the hospital where his doppelgänger is. He tells her that this is a long story, abogi hid something from you. It is about your son Shin-jae.

The mother walks up to her son who is still in a coma. She cries over him and says that she did not know anything. Then she grips Shin-jae by the collar and asks how long he knew this! How long did you know that my Shin-jae is like this!

She cries and cries and cries. Shin-jae lets her hit him.

Later on, he walks up a tree lined path in a park near the hospital. He is a shell as he thinks about everything. But then he hears his name being called. It is his mother yelling. She runs up and hugs him and apologizes to him. She tells him that he is also her son, she should have hugged him first, I am sorry, Umma is sorry.

Shin-jae starts to cry and hugs his mother.

LEE RIM

Meanwhile, Lee Rim runs away to the bamboo forest. he has the complete pipe. He turns around and the red gate opens. Music plays. He tells himself that he was right. I was right. This is the door to another world.

Gon says, rebel Lee Rim!

Then Gon slices Lee Rim in the arm. Lee Rim falls to the ground, the pipe falls. Lee Rim tries to roll to it, but Gon cuts him with the sword again.

Rim – Who are you chasing me? Why do you have the sword of righteousness?

Gon – I am the Emperor of the Kingdom of Corea and the righteous owner of the sword and the one who will execute gods punishment for you.

Rim – Emperor? I just killed the emperor. Why are you the emperor?

In the in-between world, Lee Rim tells Tae-eul that his nephew might have failed. He holds his hands out and says he knows because he is okay. But Tae-eul tells him, you are not okay. Especially if Lee Gon failed.

She pulls he trigger, but it does not fire. 

Lee Rim laughs and tells her that it is fun to look at her struggle hopelessly. But I cannot see it anymore. He charges her.

A gunshot fires.

In the Republic Of Korea, at Tae-euls’ house, the flower starts to sprout.

In the in-between world, the bullet comes out of the gun and Lee Rim gets shot!

Lee Rim cannot believe that he just got shot. Tae-eul also looks like she cannot believe it.

The balloons and flower petals all start to move around the in-between place at Gon’s in between place.

In Tae-eul’s in-between place, the pictures that are floating start to disappear. The flower petals show up as well and start to float all around them.

VO – The sky gives us spirit and the earth nourishes the soul. The sun and the moon gets their shapes. 

Gon – And the mountain and the river gets formed. Lighting strikes. 

Rim – The crowned prince grew up.

Rim looks at the pipe on the ground.

Rim – This is the power of the pipe. You are Lee Gon. 

VO – Using the wise man to defeat all the evil. 

Gon – With the way of Tao, cut and make everything right. Rebel Lee Rim, I will execute you.

He pulls his sword back and slices Lee Rim right across the neck. Blood splatters on a bamboo tree.

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Elsewhere, the yoyo boy walks up a tunnel where a lot of people are walking and plays with his yoyo. He says, I thought it would sever, but now it has sprouted.

Suddenly the little boy turns into a teenager or young man. People continue to walk around him.

Boy – the door will close and only the memory will remain.

Cut to the taekwondo flashback where some boys where looking at Tae-eul in her windowsill, then we see him as a little boy playing with his yoyo, they we see him as a young man in military uniform at the funeral of the general’s father. It looks like he has been everywhere.

Yong man – Should I cut it *turns into a boy*

Boy – Or leave it alone?

Back in the bamboo forest, Gon stands over the dead body of Lee Rim who is laying on his back. 

In the in-between world, Lee Rim is also laying on his back with rose petals falling all around him. His body disappears.

Tae-eul looks at him with tears in her eyes and whispers, he succeeded. But then she realizes that this means she wont’ be able to go back. A watch falls on theh ground and starts to run either forwards or backwards very fast.

In Corea, Gon touches his scar, it disappears. Tae-eul voices over.

VO – If these two worlds run differently than now, then I will not be able to remember you.

Everything starts to disappear in the Kingdom of Corea and the republic of Korea that should not be there. so Shin-jae disappears from photos and the bear doll disappears and other things disappear. 

The clock keeps running backwards.

1994 IN KOREA

Gon’s mother in the Republic of Korea is laughing over her dishes. Just like she did in the past. She talks to herself and says that God exists, Joon’s father is dead. I wished this everyday for him to go die. I thought that in this family I would either kill and leave him or be killed and leave myself.

She clenches her fist and then starts to cry and says, someone killed him for me….

Crippled Lee Rim in this world is still in his chair. He starts to move a bit.

The woman says that she and Ji-hoon do not have anywhere to go now. She tells the crippled brother that he should leave now. But she tells him that she will not be like his brother.

She takes him to a nursing home and tells him that she cannot take care of him at home since she has to go to work. But she will visit him with Ji-hoon once a month.

And we see thta Ji-hoon left him a letter telling him that he loves him.

COREA

In the Republic of Korea, Shini-jae;s mother is about to throw him over the bridge. She tells him to just die with her. But a car honks and a man stops them and several men pull her and Shin-jae away from the edge.

It is Jong-in and all his guards. He asks what is going on here. Shin-jae tells him to leave. Jong-int ells the guards not to do that since they are scared. Shin-jae runs and gives his mother a hug. The elder prince sees that Shin-jae;s shoe is off and puts it back on him.

Now they notice who he is. He is the elder prince. Shin-jae says his name. The prince tells him he is that guy, what is your name? Little Shin-jae tells him that his name is Kang Hyun-min.

The prince tells him that his name should be shiny like a gem. But his mother pulls him away protectively and asks why the Royal family is coming to someone like us.

The prince says he is not here as the royal family, just as a parent. Being a parent is the only thing people cannot choose with their fate. So change your choice please, because your choice becomes his fate.

She starts to whimper and cry. The Prince tells them, first of all, how about we have a cup of tea? That is my prescription as a doctor. She keeps crying but it is in happiness.

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1999

Koo Seo-ryung’s mother is working hard at her fish restaurant. But a little girl start to try and steal some money. Little Koo Seo-ryung stops her from stealing it.

SR – Hey, why are you looking at me like that, you are the thief! (this kid actor is great, she sounds just like older Koo Seo-ryung!)

Her mother softly comes up and takes her daughters hand away from this kid. This kid tells them that she has a name, my name is Luna. The mother says, ah, that is a good name. My daughter is so strong right? Seo-ryung says she should turn her into the police, are you a humanitarian? But the mother just ignores her daughter and brings Luna inside for a meal

She tells her to eat and take some of this money. I cannot give it all to you since I did not sell that today. She chuckles. Luna takes half and says the other half is for the meal. The mother chuckles and says okay. Well, it is a lot of money so you should eat a lot today.

The little girl sits and looks at the mother like she is surprised that someone like this can exist.

2020

Tae-eul wakes up suddenly in the bamboo forest with her gun in her hand. Several people are looking at her. She asks them where she is and what day it is. They tell her it is the republic of Korea and the date is April 25, 2020. 

Tae-eul shows them her badge and says she is part of the police. Can I borrow your cell phone? She calls the team leader with it and asks tons of questions about everyone.

But it looks like the captain tells her something she does not want to hear because her face falls. She starts to cry. The people keep looking at her.

TE – For me, it was just one week.

Tae-eul gets back to work. It looks like the person that killed her roommate, still killd her. 

TE – The world is similar but different. I am still an inspector and I am still a good daughter once a month

She looks at the plant in her windowsill, it is still there and it is sprouted. She starts to think about Gon.

TE – I remember all the moments he was with me. I live my day to day life without him and without Shin-jae hyung-nim. 

She keeps looking at the plant in her windowsill.

END PART ONE

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