I feel like this week had been The King: Eternal Monarch's best week yet, with Episode 11 the best episode it has aired to date, ever. One, that kidnapping scene of Tae-eul was lit. I may not be a fan of this show's romance nor was I delighted with Gon's rescue scene at the end of Episode 11 (I thought that was sort of cringey), but Kim Go Eun is doing fine as Jeong Tae-eul, that's for sure. I love how Tae-eul was no damsel in distress (except when she's with Gon. well 🙄) in this show and that was definitely evident in the way she sneaked past her kidnappers in Episode 11. Even though she was already helpless and was relying on Gon receiving her New Year's message so she could get rescued, she wasn't going down without a fight, and that was such a joy to watch.
Second, I also love how the show has progressed to its latest reveals in spite of it being a slow burn. I love a drama that makes me think and theorize along the way, especially when a theory I've come up with turns out to be correct in the end. That being said, I have a lot of theories for The King: Eternal Monarch right now. One is about the burn marks that show up in Lee Gon's shoulder whenever it's raining—I think these marks only show up to those who went to the Kingdom and vice versa, whose doppelgangers are already dead and/or have been killed. Tae-eul and Yeong never had to deal with a burn mark like Gon's probably because Eun-sup and Luna are still very much alive in both worlds. I'm not quite sure about Sin-jae and Court Lady Noh's case though... It's either Sin-jae's doppelganger is still alive, or Court Lady Noh's doppelganger has died a natural death and it wouldn't count as something that warrants an equivalent burn mark since the balance of both worlds have not been disrupted this way.
I also think the location of the burn marks have something to do about the doppelganger's reason of death. Lee Lim's mark show on his neck, and in Episode 1 it was shown how he killed his doppelganger by breaking his neck. But then again this theory could be wrong as at the end of Episode 12, the stable worker's burn mark was shown in his stomach. If I remember correctly, the murder of the stable worker's doppelganger was the same case that Tae-eul was working on during the first two episodes of The King, and that the stable worker's doppelganger seemed to have died from a blow to the head and not to his stomach. I'm also not sure about Lee Gon's younger counterpart in the Republic—I'm not quite sure if the young Lee Ji-hun was stabbed by Lee Lim at the same location where Gon has his burn marks so again, this theory could be wrong.
Apart from these, I'm also curious about who saved Gon from the coup when he was just a child. I think the show is hinting at a possibility of time travel given Tae-eul's remark about a royal cloth that's still in the works in Episode 12, which Gon had supposedly been wearing in a brief visit to her during an earlier episode. Should time travel be among the active mechanism that makes The King work, could it be plausible that Gon's savior was actually himself? I mean, the build of young Gon's savior likely matches that of Lee Min Ho (ala City Hunter), and apart from Tae-eul, he's the only other person who has an attachment to Tae-eul's ID to be carrying it around like that. Hmmm. Should this theory be correct, I wonder how this will play out and how it would affect the story as a whole.
And what about this kid whom Luna has constantly been talking to since the previous episodes? He mentioned to Tae-eul that there is only one of him in this world, that he warns the people of danger, and that he's restoring the balance. Does that make him a deity, then? A deity like the one who had been possessing Deok Hwa's body in Goblin? Hmmm. That's also an interesting point.
Aaaaand regarding the cliffhanger in Episode 12 about Court Lady Noh's question to Tae-eul, I think it could either be a trick question to get Tae-eul to open up more, or it could be that Court Lady Noh really was from the Republic and has crossed over to the Kingdom as June 1950 refers to the date of the Korean War which has happened in the Republic. Should the latter be the case, can it be assumed that the Manpasikjeok has been used by rulers before Gon's father to travel to and from the parallel worlds? Has there been a mention of this in previous eps? Otherwise, why would Court Lady Noh be sooo understanding of Gon's disappearing stints when he's supposed to be a king, right?
Despite Court Lady Noh's intriguing position though, I think the real cliff hanger for this week is Prime Minister Koo and her burn marks. I knew it was her that Tae-eul was tailing in Episode 11 when she went to the department store to buy heels for herself. Heels are a trademark of Prime Minister Koo, and that reaction she had when she ordered her drink and met Yeong at Na-ri's milk tea shop was already a key take away about her identity. What I'm wondering now is the reason why she had to cross over, and why Koo Eun-a had to be killed too at the same time.
So yeah. This is the reason why I continue to enjoy watching The King: Eternal Monarch despite the unending backlash—I'm still curious about the story, the parallel world's mechanism, and the mystery it has built-up since the beginning of the show. Sure it may not be flawless, but all this curiosity is already a good enough reason for me to continue watching The King through—up until the end. I hope the takeaways in the finale would be worth the headache that this show has brought, and that it wouldn't be too lackluster nor disappointing for a show that's been too hyped. 🙂
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