Home > The King The Eternal Monarch > The King: Eternal Monarch Episode 3 Recap – Part 2

The King: Eternal Monarch Episode 3 Recap – Part 2

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

Click here for part 1

Check out our current Giveaway with Meeniful here!

Caution: Be wary of typos


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!


KOREAN DRAMA THE KING: ETERNAL MONARCH EPISODE 3 – PART 2

——-dramamilk.com——-

/4/

KINGDOM OF KOREA

nam looks at Tae-eul’s ID. Then we see her give the ID to Young. She tells him to investigate everything he can about them. He tells ehr that this is the ID that Gon has. I searched for her but I never found her. I also think the ID date is strange so it is fake.

Nam sighs and mentions that her heart is so stressed, so he finally started to look for her? Do you think he is looking for her now? How can we really not have any clue? Even not coming in and out of the country.

Young tells her not to worry. She won’t even be able to talk to him. She looks like a literature major from her photo. Nam asks if he even knows his own style? Ah, my head.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Tae-eul gets the DNA results from the forensics person. The forensics person says that he has no DNA match or ID. I have never seen it before. Tae-eul answers a call right then, it is from a person who wants to look at the horse.

She excuses the officer and talks to this man. It appears that he is from the horse organization. The man says this horse is not stolen, but it is a very precious pure blood horse from Spain. You cannot see it in Korea. I do not understand how this kind of horse is in Korea.

She drops her phone to her side in dismay.

CAFE

Cut to a BBQ place. Tae-eul sits with Gon. She tells him that she needs a drink and mixes soju with beer. He asks why she is doing that so she explains that it is a cocktail and then starts to talk about his horse and how it is from Spain but he has never seen soju+beer?

She asks, don’t you even know MSD? (MSD – Most Significant Digit). He asks, do you know it? He looks at her amazed. She tells him, it means Making-Shaking-Drinking. She makes him a drink and gives it to him. She also tells him that he is the kind so take it in one shot.

He chuckles and says that their MSD versions are worlds apart. I am telling you again that I do not drink something that has already been tasted. She asks if he is really from another world? He says he told her but she does not believe it.

She asks who can cross that door. He tells her that he is guessing right now, but I think that one more person crossed it. She asks who that person is. He tells her that he can only tell her if she becomes part of the royal family.

She gets annoyed. He tells her that if he makes up something then it becomes the law. She tells him, if I hit you then it becomes a bruise. He tells her that she is really a literature major.

She sys that literature majors imagine things and Math majors realize things? You say it is a parallel world so why is the capital Busan?

Gon – Busan is the cultural capital. The political capital is in Seoul. Seoul is political capital and Pyong-yang (in North Korea) is the capital of the economy. You call it North Korea and South Korea here, but we call it North Side and South side. The emperor and Empress stay in Busan palace, just in case you want to know.

TE – That is nonsense, why is the emperor in Busan and not Seoul? i don’t care.

Gon – Ever since the Korea and Japan war a long time ago, we always opposed each other and were always about to have a war so my grandfather set up parliament in Seoul but moved the palace to Busan. (We see flashbacks and cut aways of this). SO the palace confronts the world first. In my word, General Lee’s statue is in Busan. It means that no one can cross the Korean sea and invade us.

TE – You wrote a lot.

Gon – You did not get any results from my DNA but you still cannot believe me, that is where you are at. What do you think I am? You have no information about me. I hope the Earth is rounder to you now.

She leans in and whispers that she is going to go to the bathroom and pay for the ticket. You should leave first. She walks off. He looks momentarily shocked then chuckles.

But he waits for her outside with their to-go. He says that the owner of the store asked her if he needed more so he said yes. She says that must be why her receipt is more expensive than she thought and is sarcastic with him about being the emperor. He says she cannot stop him from talking or she will be executed. She tells him to just stop writing his book.

He follows her. She tells him  not to follower her. He says he is not following her, he is just saying goodbye to his horse Maximus. So he keeps walking to his horse.

She annoyingly asks Gon why this horse does not eat her carrots. Does he only eat fresh carrots? Gon asks her if she tasted the carrots first? She goes upstairs. Gon tells Maximus to eat her carrots, just hold it in your mouth if you don’t like it, that is a Kings order.

—————–

/5/

KINGDOM OF KOREA

Young keeps looking around the palace and thinks about Gon always looking at something at his desk. he is looking at an autopsy report of his Uncle. Gon says he is always looking at it because it is his uncle and yet is not his uncle.

he looks up and says that sometimes math and symbols are useful to understand a phenomenon. For example the plus sign does not have a meaning himself because it is a symbol of adding two things. I have a theory that this body is used to symbolize Lee Rim’s death. But the bigger question is what is this dead body with the same DNA? What is added to our criminal Lee Rim.

In the present, Yong wonders where Gon is and what will be added to him. He stares at Lee Gon’s desk.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

A little boy plays with a yoyo outside in the dark. A woman walks past him and looks at him for a moment, then she goes inside the building.

Cut to Lee Gon in his hotel. Thunder strikes and his shoulder aches suddenly. He looks at it, it is sparkling as if his veins have gold glitter in them. 

KINGDOM OF KOREA

The Prime Minister tells her mother (or a woman) that she does not want her to continue with her street market business. Just pretend that you are not doing it. it looks like this is a source of embarrassment for the Prime Minister.

There are two kids sitting in the small street shop so the Prime Minister tells them to move. But the kids say that they are sitting here so that they will be the prime minister one day.

Seo-ryung says that that only happened because she was sitting there then tells her mother not to take care of all the kids in town. She goes into the back room of her moms shop. Her mother sweetly tells the kids to stay there until their mother comes, it is okay.

The Prime Minister calls for her mother and says that she wants some kind of food (spicy soup maybe). Her mother comes in and asks about all the people outside. The Prime Minister is laying in her childhood bed. Her  mother tells her to take a nap, I will make you something. Then we see that the mother has a cane or something. Maybe this is Lee Rim’s cane?

Then we see Lee Rim with this same cane? He is walking the streets. (So did he make another one? It’s not clear). 

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Tae-eul drives and thinks about Gon. But then her car breaks so she has to pull over to the side. She is right next to a park. 

Meanwhile, Gon is at the taekwondo place and answers her phone call. She asks why he is the one picking up this phone? He hangs up so she calls back and complains to him for hanging up. He says she does this all the time to him.

She tells him that she wants to talk to her father. He says her father is talking to someone, he gave me a coffee and I am drinking it, so what do you want?

She explains that her car broke and she needs a taxi. He asks about her car, she asks if he will knows about cars? Then sarcastically asks him to tell her what to do , I want to hear it.

He asks if she change the oil filter then asks what she has with her in the car. She has water and a hair tie and a filter (?) so he tells her to open the hood, tie up her hair and drink her water, I will be there. She mutters that she will kill him. He says that a good car stops to protect the engine. You don’t have anything to do now so wait for me.

He runs all the way there.

She tells him that the toe truck is coming, can you take care of my car? Then she ties up her hair and he is mesmerized. The water droplet and everything stops right that moment. 

Everything has literally stopped in that moment. He walks over to her and pushes a leaf out of the way that is falling. He looks at her softly and then everything starts up again. She is a bit shocked that he is so close to her suddenly but not shocked enough and then tells him to take core of her car like he takes care of a 7th grade officer. This is a 5th grade officer to me.

Het ells her that the time stopped, didn’t you feel it? Everything stopped but me. I think this is a side effect of crossing the gate. Because of you, I saw something pretty.

She doesn’t believe him and tells him to take care of her car, then runs off. he thinks that he suddenly has a car now.

—————–

/6/

LEE RIM

Lee Rim walks to a building in an alley. He is dressed in an all black suit. he goes inside one of the shops which is a bookstore. he pulls a book off the shelf and leafs through it. There is a note inside. It says – the emperor left the palace.

A man walks up to him he addresses him as as your highness and tells him that he has not been there in awhile. Lee Rim tells him that the world is so peaceful, I did not even know how much time has passed. It seems like your bookstore is doing well?

The man says yes, they come on the days that they should come without mistake.

GON

Meanwhile, Gon drives away in the car. Perhaps he fixed it himself. He has his stick right next to him and goes to the bamboo forest. He hears the pipe sound when he is in the forest and looks at his stick. Suddenly the gate appears.

VO – On that day, when I confirmed that the pipe was the key, I should have known that the Nations traitor has the other half of the pipe and has a possibility of being alive and can travel to two different worlds. before I saw that pretty thing.

Cut to Lee Rim walking with his right hand man. He has his pipe with him.

VO – This pipe is the key and the lock.

Lee Rim walks to all his followers at the salt field. There are dozes of them there and they are dressed like assassins or warriors or some kind.

POLICE STATION

The cops talks about wrapping up the case because it has the blood of the victim and the accuser. They are happy. But Tae-eul this there is something else. The victim denies it. it is a bit too easy right?

The officers think that whenever a person says that they did not do it, they always did it. They always deny everything. What is the problem with all this evidence that we have?

She tells them that it feels like a setup. She says the same line that was in the TV show Signal (after 20 years have passed, something should be different). 

SHOP

Later on they both go to the victims wife’s shop. There is a cell phone there that Shin-jae sees. But the wife is not there. They talk about the thug. He thinks the thug should stay in jail. she says he shouldn’t’ say that as a police officer. ht ells her to investigate the cell phone.

But then some thugs call  Shin-jae and walk up the alley. They say that they haven’t seen him in awhile. Shin-jae is annoyed and tells Tae-eul to leave because he sent this guy to jail 3 years ago so he might try to kill him. But he does not look that concerned about it.

Tae-eul tells the thug that he looks successful after getting out of jail, you have a lot of people behind you. She ties her hair up and tells him to trust her. Then she says something sarcastic and flashes her badge.

They ask if there are only two of them there? 

Gon shows up and says three? She turns to her right and asks what he is doing here? he says he drove her car.

The thugs are all like, what is going on? And basically says that they are ready to fight.

The fight starts. It is a rumble in the alley. Gon watches with his designer shades on.

the voice over asks Tae-eul why she became an officer. She says that she decided to be brave.

Gon hits one of the thugs with his pipe so the thugs think they should fight him too. he casually tells them not to do it because he really does not like it when people touch him. But of course they bum rush him so he beats them all up.

—————–

/7/

She pulls him away later to yell at him in the street and asks why he drove her car! He casually says that he went to the police but she said that she is working outside. So I checked your navigation and you were here.

Shin-aje shows up with a plastic bag that he gives to Tae-eul. Gon asks how Shin-jae feels, it looks like you got hit a lot. She tells them not to argue and just eat first.

They walk away and starts talking about the food (more PPL). She tells him that the popsicle is too small, you should have bought two. She breaks it apart for them to share. Gon looks on jealously.

They go somewhere to eat and chat about something. Then she leaves. Gon goes out to tell her that he came to say goodbye. i am going back to my world. I have been out of the palace for too long. ALso, you two were eating the ice cream.

She asks if he was sad? Do you know the spell of the parallel world?

Gon – It is not that I did not know how to go back, it is that I did not want to go back.

TE – Bye. I am going to be late.

She walks off. He looks at her leaving.

APARTMENT COMPLEX

Shin-jae gives him a ride to his horse at the apartment complex. Gon tells him he will pay him back for the meal and the ride. Shin-jae asks him who made his saddle? Gon says he never wondered about it.

Gon – Even if I know it, you cannot get one.

SJ – Shut up, I saw this before, what is it *touches medallion symbol*

Gon – Wherever you saw it, that is your misunderstanding. That symbol belongs to the other Kingdom of Korea.

SJ – how do you know?

Gon – I am the emperor of that Kingdom.

SJ walks away, Gon thinks he is also a literature major.

POLICE STATION

Tae-eul takes the phone to the CSI and asks how long it will take because we are in a hurry. He politly tells her that he does all the serious murder cases are serious. I have a family and work 13 hours a day, I want to go home. So he put her in her place quietly. She understands that and leaves.

Tae-eul leaves and goes to meet with her friend Nari who own the apartment complex. she asks how much money she lent Gon. She says the exact number. Gon asks, because he did not have enough money to check out? You have him that much? (she gave him over $2k) Don’t you have a lock on your safe?

Nari says that he walks properly and he has proper pronunciation and he is good at talking, only a good education can do that. He should be rich. He will pay be back twice.

TE wonders where GOn is. Her friends ays he is probably back in his world. He said he was going home. He said he would stop somewhere and then go home.

LIBRARY

Gon is at a bookstore. He pulls a book off the shelf. It is a poetry book by Kim So-whol. This is the poet that he does not have in his world. 

VO – The broken name that disappears in the air. The owner that even if I call, I will die first. The words that are in my heart that I could not finish. 

Gon walks to her home and sees that the horse is not there.  

She turns around.

he turns around.

VO – My love.

Gon thinks, the person I loved.

Gon is in the bamboo woods on his horse. he turns back to the pillars then rides his horse towards them quickly. The air between the pillars breaks and he disappears inside.

Fade Out


COMMENTS

Okay, so  this show definitely did not get any better. I am not sure if it is worse than episode 2 or stayed the same, but one thing is for sure, I was bored out of my mind. SoOoOoOoOo bored, jeeze. This is only one hour and yet they have so many long drawn out scenes and conversations. What happened to the spark and brevity of the first episode? 

My favorite parts had to be when Lee Rim was walking somewhere, or basically when he was on the screen at all, because it at least felt like something was about to happen (even if nothing did). I also liked it when time stopped because that was cool and looked like something was going to happen as well (but nothing did).

Tae-eul is starting to bother me so much. Her attitude is just so rude for no reason? She snatches things away from polite officers, makes fun of officers, looks at people as if she is annoyed that they exist, makes snide remarks all the time, it is too much. I need at least one redeeming quality. Even if she is just really nice to a cat or perhaps if she was really nice to his horse. Something. But so far, she has no redeeming qualities. 

The only quality she has, is that she does not give up on cases easily. But even that is annoying because it is played as if she is the one that knows the truth and everyone else are just slackers who don’t care.

I also have another small gripe that is turning into a bigger gripe the more I see it. Why are they making fun of Literature or Arts majors?????? They are acting as if they are the dumbest things in the world. It was fine the first time they did it, but now that has more than run it’s course and feel more cruel than anything.

Another gripe is that Gon is so socially unaware. I would believe the way he acts if he was transported from 19th or early 20th century alternate universe Korea. But he is basically in modern Korea that has a King who does not make political decisions for the country. So I look at him as more like a Prince William (or you know the England monarchy). He should have a very high social conduct IQ and not go around talking about how people will be beheaded if they look at him and all that.

If he was the King with all the Kings powers, then okay. But he is a figure head in his alternate universe so ????? Unless I am reading this alternate universe thing the wrong way and he actually does have a lot of political power given by the people. But it really bothers me. In addition, why does he continuously tell everyone he knows that he is from an alternate universe? I can understand telling Tae-eul, but everyone? 

The Prime Minister is also out of place, why is she so mean to everyone? Shouldn’t she at least pretend to be nice for political reasons? She was pretty rude to those two kids at her parents shop with tons of people watching, that’s why I bring it up. But in the first episode she was so concerned with the public’s opinion of her. So it feels like there is a disconnect.

Okay, so those are my gripes. But I am still sticking with this show because I want it to be GOOD. It is one of my big wants of my spring drama watching. So get it together show, bring back that magic of the first episode!

EPISODE 4 PREVIEW

[Didn’t find a link]

English Translation

JI – Our emperor finally came out of his study

JY – Where did you go this time?

Rim – Finally, my nephew.

Gon – Time stopped for a second time.

TE – Why do you do that?

SJ – Please!

SR – I should have gone to the his bedroom directly.

Gon – I didn’t want to hurt you, but what I say will be very harsh.

Woman – Just do enough so they wants to kill themself

TE – Where did you go?

Gon – Whatever happens, don’t be surprised.

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19 Comments

  1. Lisa
    April 24, 2020 / 2:10 pm

    Thank you for your hard work. For a character that is so cynical, she sure puts her guard down aplenty for a stranger that calls himself king and wants to make her his wife. Why hasn’t she issued a restraining order or get him sent for help for “mental” issues. Why is she traveling with him alone to the forest? Alone! She thinks he’s a crazy stalker but she’s following him where ever he leads her to?

    The dialogue for ep 3 didn’t get any better.

    • V
      Author
      April 25, 2020 / 7:48 am

      LOL!!!!! I did not think of any of this. So funny and trueeeee 😂

  2. No Longer A KDrama Newbie
    April 24, 2020 / 2:17 pm

    I WAS SO BORED!
    Time definitely slowed down during this episode.
    What was it’s purpose? It was largely a repeat of episode 2.
    We learnt very few new things and those scenes were not long enough to hold my interest.

    I’m not dropping this drama (since I have missed Min-Ho Oppa so much – he was my first K-drama crush, Boys Over Flowers anyone?)

    I was looking forward to this drama but seriously, we don’t even have a bromance to keep us going until the story truly kicks off.

    Bored, Bored, Bored.

    Thanks for getting your review up so quickly.

    • V
      Author
      April 25, 2020 / 7:51 am

      I was introduced to him in Boys Over Flowers too!

      Yep, agree with what you said completely. I almost feel like episodes 2 and 3 don’t even need to exist? You can go directly from episode 1 to episode 4 and not miss anything. that might have given the story so much more pep.

  3. Rachel
    April 24, 2020 / 3:09 pm

    I enjoyed this episode a lot….. Others view doesn’t matter… Their hard work showed… N most importantly I am a true fan of lmh and kge plus writter so I’ll watch no matter what….. So few mistakes neglected… Negative comments are more rude….. These days….

    • Lisa
      April 24, 2020 / 4:10 pm

      Just because you have a different opinion it doesn’t give you the right to look down on other people evaluations. Relax, it’s just a show.

    • V
      Author
      April 25, 2020 / 7:53 am

      So glad your enjoying it, Rachel. I will most likely keep watching too because I like the actors and the production value is definitely big. But I will also probably keep ranting if things bore me (personally). Feel free to ignore and continue to gush with all your love. Gushing and/or ranting are welcome here!

    • Nemarie
      April 25, 2020 / 10:26 pm

      This episode needs to be called as it is—-a waste of time. Maybe if we criticise more it’ll get better. Please just don’t watch blindly because you love the actors. Learn to criticise as well.

  4. Elle
    April 24, 2020 / 4:43 pm

    I am glad that he went back to his kingdom. She did not seem to appreciate him AT ALL. Maybe his absence will help her heart grow fonder. I am hoping that now she will now find out the truth about the parallel world and see that he was telling the truth. Maybe something to do with the very beginning of the show when she was interrogating the uncle about killing his brother. I am not sure why the show started with that scene. Hopefully, we will find out. Also, I would like to see her personality soften so that this can have some romance. Right now she is as huggable as an angry porcupine. LOL

    • V
      Author
      April 25, 2020 / 7:53 am

      Yes, I think it will speed up from here now that we are going back to his Kingdom!

  5. Jane M
    April 24, 2020 / 5:33 pm

    Wow! This episode totally captured my attention, so it just goes to show that different people have different ways of seeing things. I love this writer’s word play which was so much a part of Goblin, and I saw a lot of it in this episode. I even laughed out loud once or twice (“is your world a little rounder” cracked me up). I think the king’s character is so used to having everyone be deferential to him for his entire life that he is just a fish out of water in our world. And, add in a book store with secret messages in the books, shady characters (that little boy with the yo-yo creeped me out) and Lee Rim’s minion getting older all the time and you’ve got my full attention. I agree about Tae-eul’s annoying character, but it’s a common female role in K-drama (is it supposed to be cute when they act like that?) so I just let that ride. Also, the gray-haired man that was eating a peanut or something at the meeting with the Prime Minister is also a shady character in the other universe – so another thing to watch out for. Finally, seriously, Lee Min Ho is rocking the quiet royal authority figure. I’m in for the ride!

    • V
      Author
      April 25, 2020 / 7:55 am

      This comment was so fun to read, Jane! So happy that you loved this episode! And thank you for the tip about the Grey haired man. I will pay attention to that in the next episode!

  6. Arianna
    April 24, 2020 / 6:54 pm

    I think the performance of LMH in this episode has been the best from the beginning of the dorama. He went from the in love character to the action character to the funny character, I saw all the characters he made previously together in one scene. I loved his performance in this episode. And the episode per se caught my attention too. The scene when the time stopped is amazing, and the phrase: I hope your earth become round, OMG, is so well written and means so many things together. You need to see this dorama no from the same perspective we used to see The Heirs, it’s more complex, so we need to be focus to understand the messages, there are so little details in it that you need your all attention to get them. I loved this episode, I’m waiting anxious for tomorrow 🥰

    • Elle
      April 24, 2020 / 10:50 pm

      I agree about LMH’s character! I loved seeing the different sides of his personality. I really liked how in the action scene he did not even look ruffled up at all but the other two did.

      • V
        Author
        April 25, 2020 / 7:58 am

        The action scene was great! I also really liked the stopped motion scene. It was so cool how they did that visually! I was confused and intrigued when it happened to Lee Rim, so I was pretty happy to see that it happened again with LMH’s character.

    • V
      Author
      April 25, 2020 / 7:59 am

      It is really great to see LMH back on the drama screen!

  7. 토비
    April 25, 2020 / 1:25 pm

    I was originally upset that this episode was yet again slow, just like ep 2. But I got to notice that most fantasy kdramas tend to start out this way. I just rewatched Globin and I realised things were a little sloppy at the beginning too, with repetitions here and there and just subtle hints here and there. It could be the writer’s charm on how she develops a great story. We still have 20 episodes after the 4th so there’s still a lot to cover.

    There are many characters that are shady and my guess is, the writer doesn’t want to overload us with too much information that might get us confused. I won’t deny that KGE’s character was starting to get annoying but I’m really anticipating the episodes to come because I’ve been waiting on this drama, especially because of the writer (and the characters too). I also won’t deny that some scenes logically didn’t make sense to me but I’m rooting for the drama to the end because there’s a whole bunch of mystery yet to be explored. Thanks V

  8. SPDud
    April 26, 2020 / 1:35 am

    It’s hard to think about whether this show is going well or not after Ep 3. The creators are trying REALLY HARD to get that Goblin Magic back into the show. I mean, hey we’ve even got a scene where time freezes and the two leads are in a forest with fall colors…and the red leaves just slowly float downwards…. But anyway, the dialogue is very Goblinish, and the politics reminds me more of Mr. Sunshine with a whole lotta Palace (remember that show?) thrown in.

    One commenter is correct, Goblin too had a bunch of setup. What it didn’t do was just dump our female lead right out into the story, there was a great build-up to that first meeting. We don’t get that with Detective Lady here. She’s much more of a superficial character and if there’s more to her (such as what happened to mom?) they’re holding that back for now. In fact, I suspect they’re holding a lot of character development back for now. And that makes for a really slow paced start.

    Still hoping for good pick up in later episodes. At least everything looks super pretty.

  9. dano
    April 26, 2020 / 6:51 am

    Yes the different responses are interesting. I was absolutely absorbed every second and loved this episode. I understand that it might be a bit frustrating not to understand why someone is acting a certain way early in a show, but if this is done well the “why’s” will be revealed. Every character is so amazing and each has such unique personalities. Thank you so much for the recaps!!! When I really love a show I’ll watch an episode and the jump on here to read the recap so I can go through it all over again. I also find that I learn their names better reading your recap than I do just watching the show (as an English only speaker).

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