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Caution: Be wary of typos
Shorthand Chart: The Last Empress Character Chart
How we do this: We update the 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, there might be lovely updates at the bottom, so check back in!
Recap Countdown: Recapping!…Check twitter for updates!
KOREAN DRAMA THE LAST EMPRESS RECAP EPISODE 7+8
——-dramamilk.com——-
#1 OPENING
We open on the Royal guard interview finalist bonanza. It is Enter The Dragon style so several people are grouped and fighting each other. Then we get to the end where the Emperor comes in with his gun blazing. He holds his gun out to guards one by one. They all crumble.
But then he holds it to Wang-sik. WS does not crumbles, he disarms Hyuk and points the gun back at him. Then he thinks about his mother dying, his hate grows. But he lowers his gun and is forced to the ground by the guards. They tell him, how dare you point your gunt o the emperor? WS says he is not his guard yet, so he thought he should protect everyone else’s life from him and his gun.
Hyuk tells them to let him go, he will protect him well with this spirit. He asks him his name and says that he will appoint him to take care of the emperor and the emperors wife. he walks off. Wang-sik looks fire ready.
——dramamilk.com——-
#2
Scene change to the grandmother eating at Suni’s family place incognito style. But she does not have any money and is headed out. The daughter tells her that she better hurry up and pay right now. She holds out her hand. The grandmother repeat that she does not have any money, can’t you just regard it as giving money to the homeless.
But the sister says there are no homeless people with these expensive glasses! She starts searching around the grandmother and pulls out some money. The Grandmother tells her that she has to go home on the bus, she can’t walk! The sister tells her to sell her glasses but halmoni says that it is fake.
She tries to run out to escape, it is a scene. She is able to get out without her money. Suni runs out after her and gives her some emergency pocket money so that she can get home. She also gave her a lot of candy to eat while she is in the bus. Then Suni runs back inside.
The grandmother takes off her disguise and happily thinks that Suni is very nice, the sister is bad. She walks to the edge of the street where tons of secret service officers are waiting for her.
Int he palace, the mother talks about Suni’s family. She mentions that they do not have moneya nd they do not have pride. She will also take care of the rest now. Cut to Yura getting kicked out of the palace and stripped of all her things. Yura runs to the queen to apologize, please give me one more chance! But the Queen tells them to take her out. The guards drag Yura out. The queen calls her a poor girl and mentions that she should have left when she asked nicely.
AIRPORT
Another prince gets into town, Yi-Yoon. He talks to someone on the phone about taking a break and calling the publishing company. But he notices the news because a normal girl is becoming a princess which breaks the palace tradition. This has happened seven years after the princess died so everyone in the world is looking at her.
The prince mutters, why are you marrying again, how much more unfortunate things do you want to see?
——dramamilk.com——-
#3
At home, Suni is getting ready to receive all the Ham (luck) from the husbands side of the family. She should stay inside though. Her sister and father go outside to receive all the presents. It literally takes a moving truck to bring them all. The father has their one gift that they prepared contrasted to dozens of gifts that the royal family prepared. But they wonder who will break the pumpkin.
the sister runs up and breaks the pumpkin and then introduces herself as the Royal sister. Then she uses the family as an Instagram op as she poses next to them because they are so quant.
They all go inside where the sister continues taking selfies in their home. Appa is about to feed the princess something but does not feed her because she has divorced twice. The princess gets a bit upset and turns her head. Then Suni comes out to greet them all. A bit of debate endues between Suni’s sister and the royal sister as they talk about the amount of respect that should be given.
But the father says that they can just go straight to the gift giving.
Sojin starts to hand out all the super expensive gifts. They are things like Audrey Hepburns purse and other seemingly priceless items. They also give them a palace apartment that they can move into next week. Appa is shocked, they will give them a house?
The Royal sister says that they cannot keep living in this place. But the sister thinks that they need to just find someone else to marry into the family. Appa tells his daughter to stop fighting and agrees to move. it is all settled as the Royal sister walks out. But she does not want to step on the dirty entryway so the father holds his foot out for her to step on. She easily does and then puts her shoes on.
It looked painful for him, but he is so excited that they are marrying into royalty that he does not care. Suni asks if appa is sad at all, he is not worried? Will he be okay? Appa tells Suni not to worry about him she will only be a few bus stops away. Suni tells him that she will not worry, she will be happy in the palace because she is a charming person. They both share a moment then appa starts fretting about what he should do with all these expensive gifts.
——-dramamilk.com——-
#4
ISLAND
back on the island, Byun makes a last meal for Wang-sik to eat. he will be in the palace from now on. The little brother is there as well and asks Wwang-sik if he will be with Yura at the palace now? WS nods and smiles. Byun asks if he has her contact? WS says that he lost contact but will explain everything to her.
Later on WS goes outside to chop food to keep in shape. Byun says he can do it for him then does some kind of testing master move to see how good WS is. WS passes so Byun tells him that everything starts now. You will die silently in the palace if you are not alert. WS says he will not trust anyone until he kills the Emperor. Byun tells him not to trust anyone, not even Yura. WS thinks Yura is okay, but Byun says, if you really want to get your revenge then you will trust what I say.
PALACE
The grandmother greets Suni in the palace and asks how the gifts were. The mother is there as well but does not speak. The grandmother is happy to see Suni and gives her lots of words of wisdom and encouragement to become a good Queen with Foxes wisdom and lions braveness. Please make this sheet shiny.
Suni says she does not know what she is talking about yet, but she will try her best. Then they start to present their gifts. They said they did not have to prepare anything, but her appa wanted to bring a blanket. The grandmother looks touched by the gift. The mother tries to look touched by the gift. Suni is happy that they like it and says that if her mother was alive then she would have made it. But she will try and make her blanket by herself.
The grandmother tells her that she is so happy to have a grand daughter in law like her and can’t wait for summer to come. Then they all go outside where the mother tells Suni that she need to go to princess classes and to not skip any classes. Suni is happy to go and says that she is happy to have another mother, she is the prettiest person she knows like Miss Korea.
Suni skips off, but the mother just starts to talk badly about her and tells her person to throw the blanket away.
Montage of Suni learning how to be a princess. She burns her tongue and the hot tea, has to memorize a book of family history and asks about the conflict in the palace but the woman who is instructing her is hesitant to say. Instead, she gives her even more palace thing to memorize. Suni says that it is like learning math, but she is at least average at memorizing things.
They show her her room that looks amazing. Suni thinks it is daebak, her life has really turned around. She takes out her ducks that her father gave to her and starts laughing about how her father has no shame because he wants her to get pregnant quickly.
——-dramamilk.com——-
#5
the emperor shows up right then and asks her if she is okay, are you sick? he puts his hand on her forehead. She says she is okay and is a but bashful in front of him. He says that he was busy earlier but has prepared something for her. He snaps his fingers so a servant brings out a sapphire necklace (the one that the dead woman was wearing in episode 1). She wonders how she can wear it, it is so pretty.
She brings out her gift to give to him, a little couple bracelet that she made herself. The blue steal will help sprout love from two people.
SN – Emperor, I was following you since high school. I became a musical actress because of you and wrote you a lot of letters. I know that I am not good enough and that I love you more. But I will try hard to be a woman that you can love. I will make you love me more than I love you.
She happily jumps into a hug with him. He says that he will look forward to it, but his eyes say otherwise.
Elsewhere in the palace, Wang-sik sneaks around.
WEDDING
it is wedding day, news crews are there from all over the world. The news says that they will make this a small wedding as an example to the Korean citizens.
Inside, Suni comes out in her royal garments for her wedding. She looks gorgeous. Hyuk turns around and is stunned at how pretty she looks, but she actually looks like his old wife. he is taken to a memory of his old wife on their wedding day. He tells Suni that she is pretty. he tells her that she is more handsome.
He puts on her shoes, but he keeps seeing his old wife instead of Suni. Then they are both ready to go out to the ceremony. Their guards come out to escort them to the cermony, PJ is in the background chuckling.
For some reason PJ can walk around the palace by himself freely. Flashback to him cutting a wire at the ceremony the night (or morning) before. In the present he chuckles that today will be an exciting wedding day.
Elsewhere, the Royal sister grummbles about this wedding being too small. But The Grandmother tells her that they are having this small wedding becuase Sojin had two amazingly huge weddings.
All the women are in a room together, 4 total includling a tiny princess. The tiny princess says that everyone says nice things about the new princess, she is nice and a natural beauty just like they say about my mother. Sojin is her mother. The grandmother tells hre daughter that she is not a natural beauty or something like that, but in a polite way. This causes Sojin to yell at the little princess about not telling all her busniess everywhre!
The head secretary comes in and says that Director Min Yura is there. The mother is upset to see her. But Yura says that she is the head of the secretaries that support her and the Emperor. The Grandmother wants her there and the Emperor accepted it as well. So do not bother her anymore. (So it looks like she got her job back)
END PART ONE
(Well stop here because we have to run off! But we will come back and finish later on today.)
——-dramamilk.com——-
#6
It is night and a ton of people are standing outside the palace as the Grandmother comes out. the new Prince is in teh crowd and smiles when he sees his Grandmother. He says he is happy that she is healthy. But then he turns his head away when the Queen comes out.
Cut to the wedding festivities. Old fashioned traditional Korean music plays as The Emperor and Suni come walkingn out together. Some people are happy and some people are serious as everyone watches the ceremony. The Emperror and Suni bow to the crowd and then awlk to their respective positions. Wang-sik escorts Suni to an apparatus that carries Suni high into the air over everyones head. She smiles and waves at them all.
But then the apparatus breaks! Suni is about to fall to her death. Everyone hops up and runs to her, but it is almost too late. The holder breks and sends Suni fallingo ut, but she is able to hold onto the carrier and dangles in the air.
the security team tries to fix the machine, but it is not working. Oil start to leak from somewhre and then catches fire so no one can get close. Something else breaks and falls, it is about to hut Yura so Wang-sik runs to save her instead of Suni. Suni is a gonner.
The Emperor wants to protect his family and tells them that they should leave. The grndmother does not want to leave, but is escorted out for her safety. Suni is still hanging for her life. Wang-sik is able to climb the apparatus to get to Suni, but it is too late, she lets go and falls. However, he is jsut able to reach other and grab her, giving the team enough time to blow up the huge rescue pillow for her to fall on.
But Suni is passed out. In her dream, she thinks abuot a happy wedding day and kissing the Emperor, but she is not able to actually kiss him.
Then she wakes up in bed with a stiff neck. She wonders what happened. Her father is right by her side and is fretting all over her. He thinks they have bad luck with the palace. Whenever she goes to the palace, she gets injured. Suni wonders if it was another terrorist attack? Her sister casually says that they don’t know yet. Suni asks about the Emperor. But the father says not to say his name, he is so dissapointed in him, all he did was run away.
The sister says that the bodyguard took him away so quickly after that. At least one of the body guards saved you, otherwise you would be dead or have some serious brain trauma. Suni wonders about the honeymoon, is it still on. They are all like, take a look at yourself. But Suni wants to goto the honeymoon, it would be her first time! She tries to get up but her neck is keeping her from doing it.
——-dramamilk.com——-
#7
In another part of the palace, teh Emperor wants to find out what happened. Yura says that the crane system was cut and the actual machine was messed with. It looks like someone did it on purpose. The Royal family thinks that someone wanted to attack the Queen, why would they want that? The grandmother says that no one wants that! But then the kang looks at her like, um…~. She looks around and wonders if anyone is suspecting her? It isn’t me! Then she starts thinking about who could have done it.
The King is irate, he wants to find out who did this! Torture the crane operator first! The grandmother says, of course, then looksa t the mother. The mother says that it is not me! then she looks at Yura. Yura does not give her eye contact.
later on, kang meets with the Emperor. They talk about Yura. Yura dissapeared for two months and she is not sure how she contacted the grandmother so the mother things that Yura is a part of this accident. The Emperor thinks Yura is not involved, he wants to rest. But Kang tells him that it is her last warning. He needs to get rid of her or the palace will collapse. You will see that I am right.
Kang leaves. The Emperor says that Yura is a threat to Umma, so I cannot leave her even more. (he is attached to Yura even more).
Cut to Yura talking to grandmother Jo. She says that she investigated the crane operator. Actually, kang is behind it. It is suspicious that she changed it a few days before the event. But there is not any evidence to see if she is behind it. Grandmother Jo tells Yura that the reason she appointed her is because of the queen, you must take care of her. Yura smiles and says that she will do her best.
She leaves. The grandmother speaks to herself and says that Yura is also something…but she made them fight so they will catch who did it soon. (it looks like Grandma Jo does not trust any of them).
Yura walks outside and PJ walks right up to her. he tells her that she is lucky and asks how she managed to come back and as the chief secretary no less. She tells him that they should walk together. Seh asks if he ound Wang-sik and the brother. PJ has not found them even though it has been two months. (lol, only two months for that transformation?). Yura tells PJ to find them as soon as possible, she has a bad feeling about it.
Then she goes inside and runs into Wang-sik. She looks at him for a long moment and asks, are you — the one who saved me? He says yes. She thanks him and says that she is not injured thanks to him. She will thank him properly later. She goes into the Emperors room. Wang-sik thinks, Yura, just wait a little bit.
In the room, Yura tells the Emperor that she is back on the grndmothers request, but she will leave once the queen adapts to the palace. The Emperor tells Yura that he is doing this stupid marriage because he just wants to remove his mothers influence. When she called the police I realized, if things don’t go her way then my mother will abandon her own child. That is my mother. THAT IS MY MOTHER!
They both sniffle as he tells her that he will take everything that she has. The power and money and everything. He holds Yura’s and tells her that he will give her the highest power that she can have in the palace. So just trust me. If you don’t trust me then you can leave now.
Yura hugs him and tells him that she wont suspect him or be jealous of him! If you can be off the influence of your mother then I can even clean the Queens feet! Until that time — use me.
they embrace. He says okay and thank you. But Yura’s face looks conniving.
——-dramamilk.com——-
#8
Later on, Suni looks at her phone to check all the news articles about her wedding. They are all basically images of the disaster. She can’t believe that all her wedding photos are ruined like this. Yura knocks on her door so Suni goes to run off and pretend like she has been sleeping. But Yura tells her that the King has sent her a special meal. She puts the meal out for her which is a spread of healthy well prepared food.
Suni asks Yura to the Emperor that she is almost dying when she sees him, she can’t even eat. Yura says that she will. Suni thanks her and asks for her help in the future. Yura tells her that she will do her best to serve her, of course.
The next day Suni walks around and tells her father that she is doing a lot better. The emperor treats her well and is in love with her and sticks next to her all the time. Actually he is looking for me know, bye! She hangs up but wonders what is up with the Empror, his wife almost died but he never visits. She turns around and sees Wang-sik there guarding her. it startles her so she asks if he heard everything and tells him that he needs to let her know that he is there. Why are you following me?
He explains that he is her bodyguard. Suni says she has Min Yura. But Wang-sik explains that he is her guard for when she walks around. That is the rule. Suni is all like, so you have been following me ever since the clinic? You heard everything? WS says that if he heard anything he actually didn’t hear anything. She asks his name and finds out that his name is Chon Woo-bin. She knows that name from the person that rescued her.
She wants to shake hands with him, but he bows instead. She tells him that he can tell her anything since he saved her life. He asks if he can go out a little bit, he has an urgent matter. Can you keep it secret from the security leader? She says yes. He walks her all the way back to the Royal clinic and says that he will be back soon.
She tells him to take his time leaving but when she turns around he is already gone.
She meets with Grandmother Jo later on, possibly on another day, with the Emperor. Grandmother Jo is happy that she looks a lot better. The Royal sister and her daughter are there as well. Grandmother Jo thinks that Suni should rest but Suni wants to visit with everyone. She heard that kang does not feel good so she wants to visit her as well. But Hyuk tells her to rest, she has to take care of her health. The little princess says a lot of nice thing and then smiles.
But then we hear CUT.
The camera scrolls out to show that this entire thing was being filmed, lol. But now it is off the record. All of this was prepared because the citizens of Korea want to see the new Queens married life. Your family members also miss you a lot. The grandmother thinks her grandson changed a lot since he got married.
But then the Queen wakes up from her bed looking like something just aint right. She sits up and thinks, hey, i am sick but the Emperor is not visiting me? The emperor really said that? The secretary says that the Emperor told her to rest well and he went to the video shoot. Kang wonders how he can do that to her!
The secretary says this is grandmothers order. They can skip the morning greating until the new Queen gets better. kang thinks the grandmother must be suspecting her, This is all becaue of Min Yura. I WILL SHRED AND KILL HER.
Cut to more adorable photo and video shoots of the Emperor and Suni cooking at feeding each other in a camera friendly kitchen. Later on, Suni takes a nice hot bath in a sauna style room. Yura prepared it all so that she will feel refreshed. Yura also prepared for her to have a massage with Emperor. Suni thinks it is a bit embarrassing but if the Grandmother wants her to do it then she can. But she thinks this is their first couple massage, it is so embarrassing.
She walks into the room but grows shy when she sees the Emperor getting out of the bath with his shirt off (but long pants on?). He tells her that she might be embarased so put the screens up. The servants put up the screens so that Suni will have a bit of privacy during her massage.
Suni starts to get her massage and Yura sneaks in to give the Emperor his massage. he thinks it is director Jo and is surprised to see that it is Yura. They start to sleep together in the other area of the screen while Suni talks to Hyuk about getting a massage. She talks about her hair and how she gets it done while getting a massage and wonders where he gets his hair done(?). But he can’t answer because he is have a good time with Yura on the other side of the screen.
Suni thinks thta is strange and asks, your highness? She sits up.
Hyuk looks up as well and then looks at Yura.
Fade Out
——-dramamilk.com——-
COMMENTS
The craziness continues. I have not watched a crazy zany makjang in a long time. The mother, Kang, has to be my favorite character. Her looks is so outrageous and yet adorable at the same time so I can’t really take her too seriously. It just makes me laugh every time she is on screen with a reaction shot.
PREVIEW
VO – What happened to my background check order?
VO – He is not suspicious, if you do not have anything then we can just make up something.
SN – I am Queen of the Korean empire, Oh Suni.
WS – It is not something you can solve by killing one rat.
PJ – Chun Woo-bin, hmm…
WS – I will kill them all! I will kill everyone!
Thanks V for recaping this (i cant believe i havent said thank you on this one, my bad). Thank you, thank you, thank you! 😊
Author
So happy to recap it! Let’s see what other fun things they have coming this week!
I do say, beside the crazyness of this drama, what i do like about it too was the double-cross after double-cross after double cross….its like i’ve never seen a drama this much double-cross by multiple characters. 😄
Author
So many double crosses!
tq for recapping
Was there any special significance to the cherry picker/apparatus or just storyline drama?
Author
Hmm, I’m not sure. It might come back around.