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The King 2 Hearts Episode 9 Recap — 131 Comments

  1. “Bong Goo is bathing in his weird tiny little egg-shaped tub. Seriously? This is one character who should not get a bath/shower scene. EVER. ”

    LOL!! I almost fell off my chair! 😀

    Thanks for the recap, it’s getting interesting!

  2. Thank you!! As for the episode all I wanted in life was to make the secretary confess and then beat the crap out if him…. I put my brain away for the political plot holes even though a few times I had to scream wtf was that? I really hope Hang Ah can hold it together while they’re separated….

  3. There was a scene in the preview of hang ah being in pain then her dad ran to th hospital, i want a hospital scene between the otp, i need more skinship moments!!

  4. Is this Secretary crazy or he’s just faking…
    He can’t admit his fault so he’s dragging everyone with him.
    Mayer, so obsessed with JH, his only reason to live, is to see JH on the knees…
    Get a life.
    I love SK & JS relationship.
    JH, still jealous at SH, adorable.

  5. While I’m reading this, I’m cringing…
    The 8 first episodes are developing well, except for…yes..except fot the evilness of Bong Goo. I just hope the writer able to develop the story well in the future, it hurts to see how the story broken down just by ‘innocently bury the handphone’

  6. ughh Hang-ah, why did you hurt my Jae-ha so!! 🙁 Talk about throwing back his words in his face. She did the same thing he did, when he snitched behind her back about her motivations to join the WOC!! So, it WAS that shooting episode that came back to haunt them!! I hope people don’t blame Jae-ha too much for this heart break!! He did everything in his power to protect her but alas, if one has a lying back-stabbing secretary for a confidante then protecting one’s fiancee is an impossible task to accomplish. I’m peeved that our Royal couple wasn’t able to share a romantic moment after they became intimate! *shakes fist*

    BG is a cartoon…..who in the bloody world would visit with the King and talk smack about his fiancee. And yeah the less we talk about the implausibility of the evidence the better!! I just want to put this ‘evidence episode’ behind us and move forward. I foresee more angst tomorrow!!

    ps: What the frick is HA thinkin’ by popping those sleeping pills?! I just wanna slap her silly. I’m fervently praying that she wasn’t preggers!!

    • I’m fairly certain she’s got an ulcer and was trying to take pain medication, but in the pain the bottle spilled and she likely collapsed and needs to be taken to the hospital. There is no indication that the pills she’s taking are sleeping pills to commit suicide. Its much more probable all the stress caused her to get a painful ulcer. I know I would.

      • ok, cool!! Thanks for letting me know. I freaked out and thought to myself, “wow!! The writer’s totally lost it!!” Hold on, is that when (in the hospital) she’ll find out she’s preggers or if at all?!! o.O I just hope the writer can tighten up the script since this lame-o evidence bit and the secretary are royally pissing me off.

        Thanks Ms. Koala for the recap!!

  7. Wow such a fast recap, thank you. The writer is very poor at setting up wars of intelligence, which should be something very important for a political/revenge type of show like this one. I hope she improves, else the show will feel lacking if only fueled by romance.

  8. I’m anticipating the next episode. I hope the writer would do better as far as the planted evidence in the future but the interactions and acting we’re pretty well done.

  9. O she left…bad, bad HJW & LSG, made me sad.
    This with a cellphone is just a trigger, I fear screenwriter is preparing nuclear bb for us.
    What’s with the Mayer creeping around JS, is he gonna become king by marring her, or he’s just testing her brain ?
    No pills…Run JH, run 😉

  10. Thanks for the speedy recap, Koala! I’m not gonna dignify Bong Goo (aka: Mr. Crazy Eyes) or the lousy Secretary Eun….so I’ll just say that this confrontation about their (lack of) complete trust in each other was overdue and very necessary for our OTP. You can’t just sweep major issues under the rug and hope they go away. As much as I hate seeing them experience these painful conversations, they have to go through this so they can go forward.

    Here’s the silver lining: just imagine the awesome reunion scene….!

    • OMG.. what a big relief to read your comments… since I begin to get insane by this drama.. my stolen life.. ottoke???

      • I’m also so addicted with this drama. I’m multi-tasking right now…reading Ms Koala’s recap, watching ep9 raw and reading Live Recaps (ep10) from soula81 (www.vingle.net).

  11. I may be completely off base with this theory, but I think that the Club M stuff is meant to be extremely comical and idiotic for the purpose of driving home the real message with the North South relations. I don’t think that anyone thinks that the evidence is not planted. I think that this is meant to juxtapose the real, internal, and emotional tensions that exist between the North and the South. Just because Jae Ha and Hang Ah love each other and are able to bridge the gap between the North and the South, doesn’t mean that the rest of the country has come to that point yet or are even ready for it. I sincerely hope that the writers are using this over the top ridiculous Club M stuff to help show the fragile situation that exists between the two countries. In essence, the South was simply looking for an excuse to show that the Northerners cannot be trusted despite the overwhelming evidence against that theory. Even Shi Kyung instantly is certain about the North’s innocence by just the evidence about the poison. Yes, Ms. Koala, I agree with the fact that this episode is really a means for JH and HA to come to terms with the trust problems they have underneath the surface…
    It all comes back to the day JH shot HA, and only when they overcome that obstacle, can they really have a relationship. Hopefully the two countries will also realize how ridiculous their distrust in each other was and learn to grow from it and fight against a common enemy.

    (I hope that makes some sense…)

    • And Ms. Koala, thank you soooo much for the prompt recaps! I was going crazy at school just waiting for my K2H fix!

    • Wow, you have a very interesting thought! CMMIW, So the Kim Byong Gu aka John is the symbol of how ridiculous of their cold war. If that’s right then the writer is really witty!!

      But overall, I’m still hoping that they’ll fix all the espionage act, because this show is just too precious to let down especially for kind like this.

      Show, don’t disappoint me please.

      And Ms. Koala thank you very much for your super fast & awesome recaps*forgot to said it in the last comment

      • I am notorious for dropping dramas. Dropped Secret Garden when it got ridiculous and I was crazy for that one initially….i don’t want this drama to go that route since I’ve been loving every minute of this one thus far. I hope the writers get a grip and do away with the lame. Ji-won and Seung-gi are bringing it and don’t want this one to lose steam in the latter half!! Yunno one of those, started off with a bang and ended with a fizzle! :/

      • @ Saima

        Secret Garden was fundamentally flawed at the core – the OTP – so that drama going nowhere and then resolving itself in a puff of magic rose petals in a dream was actually quite expected. The only way a sick entitled arrogant bastard like Kim Joo Won would even be found palatable is because he’s played by Binnie. And toss in my Ji Won being a wallflower who happens to be a stunt woman, then it was like watching meandering conversations about I like you, I don’t like you, I shouldn’t like you, I now like you, and ad infinitum.

        TK2H’s flaw is to the side, the villain and the overarching conspiracy, as opposed to central to the narrative and storyboard. It’s easier to continue to stay on this ship because we’re only subjected to the evildoers for a discreet portion of the episode. Plus our OTP will prevail anyways, so I’m much more willing to stomach some lousy machinations under the assumption that even the best laid and believable plans will crumble in the end.

    • @ Anonymous

      I’ve thought about that, but I think you’re giving a bit more credit to the writers than I do. It would take a lot of chutzpah and planning to go the route of a villain bordering on satire. I think it’s a characterization failing from the get go, electing to go with an over-the-top villain that doesn’t flow with the emotional resonance of the rest of the narrative. The only way to resolve this gaping hole would be for BG to remain the caricaturish villain who is seemingly got his megalomanical agenda, but for it to be revealed further down the line that Secretary Eun is the REAL (and genuinely dangerous) big bad. He was merely playing stupid, playing cowardly, but in truth he has been the unknown puppetmaster behind the scenes. Even BG might not know he’s playing into the hands of Secretary Eun and is merely the Secretary’s tool to use to destroy the royal family for whatever reason the Secretary has.

      • I think you’re right about that. I think my love for the OTP and the other characters (minus the baddies) made me try to find a way to make sense out of all of this stupidity 🙂

        Your scenario would be awesome and salvage the story, but based on the events we’ve seen, I think that I would be hoping for too much. I can’t think of any viable reason why Secretary would want to take down the Royal family besides the back deals (plus that scene where he apologizes to Jae Kang??)…but I don’t think that would be enough for the whole Club M deal to make sense. Oh well. 🙁

        At least we have our OTP. 😀

      • You know, I really thought the beginning of this series was a dark comedy / satire, which is why I found the undercutting humor and emotional threads so perfectly satisfying. It seemed to weave through all the genres so well…

        But now, I’m a little unsure whether it’s doing that intentionally or not, or just got lucky that it somehow worked, and the over-the-top cheese seemed intentional….

    • My thoughts exactly. In a way I am satisfied, as this make things more real. Trust on this scale of things cannot be gained simply by kissing, or even sleeping together, specially when there have already been too much lack thereof from the very beginning.
      The kiss has been set up for a much needed affection at the time of the king’s death, and it wouldn’t be believable if that has already made a solid foundation of trust at this time. The mockery, point-blank shot in the chest and lies are still too fresh to just be brushed off easily in this episode. There’s got to be a greater reason to seal the deal, and I am hoping that we’ll see that soon.
      Thank you very much for putting up the recap this early as usual, much appreciated.

    • I totally agree with you. I don’t think anyone, that is, anyone who’s in power or politics or who really matters, puts too much weight on the evidence. They all have their ulterior motives to fan this thing, since it’s so easy to use the volatile NK and SK issues for other (their own) gains. Politicians fight for votes and salary increases (!). Anti-royalists fight to demolish the royals. Weapons merchants fight for markets and profits. Some countries want to see a divided, not an united, Korea.

      Also want to add that I thought the bluff about advanced technology is so smartly used in the script. Remember this was before the failed launch. But then, don’t we have earlier lessons of smokes and mirrors when countries were trying to one-up each other?

      Like you said, the heart of the matter is trust. And this episode brilliantly shows that both Jae Ha and Hang Ah still have a lot to work on.

      • So far I find the most intriguing thing is: why the bad guy wanted to REMIND Jae Ha of the stabbing?
        He positively wants Jae Ha to know he hates the royal and wants to be king himself.
        Come to think of it, he did not hide his intentions in front of Jae Kang either (he practically told Jae Kang he could plant bombs to get rid of any royal member).
        He enjoys to see them under his thumb, hating him but powerless to fight back???

    • I agree with Anonymous 🙂 I am actually fine with the stupidity of the planted evidence. It didn’t have to be something that made perfect sense. It just had to be something that creates tension between North and South and also within the South itself. During the egg shape bathtub scene (that has to be erased from my memory), that lunatic Bong Goo said something along the lines of: it’s fine even if they found that North doesn’t have the tech to build the phone because everything will go according to plan. (At least the version I watched. I do notice that translations can be very off at times). I think it wasn’t meant for the South to find North guilty, it was just something to make both parties stay on its toes. The lunatic will probably throw in some additional dirty scheme after this incident. He’ll ‘borrow’ the distrust and wariness formed between both parties to see that his plans follow through.
      Thank you Ms. Koala for the recap!
      *runs off to study for my finals tomorrow*

      • LOL, let me clarify. The evidence is stupid NOT because it fails to realistically be planted or be a plausible way of implicating the North. It needn’t be good evidence to be credible as a plot device.

        But on the flip side, the evidence plant method and implication that assassins would bury a cell phone (sealed in plastic, natch, to keep it from degrading) and a box containing charcoal is so beyond stupid it belongs in the realm of Austin Powers. I keep expecting BG is start cackling and whipping out his albino hairless cat and telling South Korea to pay him one meeeeellllion dollars.

        Evidence can be shaky, but it can’t be completely absurd, which is what this is. Sigh.

      • yeah, I agree the box of charcoal and phone wrapped in plastic is immensely stupid.

      • Though I agree with you to some extent, I don’t believe that Sec. Eun is all that evil nor does he have a vendetta against the royal family. I was a little hazy when I watched todays episode because I watched it live at the crack of dawn, but some of his actions tell me that he doing this to help them two in a way. Let’s say that Hang Ah actually didn’t testify because she was scared regardless of what Jae Ha wanted, the people of Korea would have perceived her as being guilty. He told her that as the future queen, she had to be strong. The things that he’s doing will only make Ha and Ah’s relationship stronger and help them win over the support of South Korea. These are all trials that the two have to overcome in order to be together.
        While I don’t believe that he has a vendetta, I do think that he has his own political agenda. He doesn’t want to the two Koreas to be unified for some reason and he’s only looking out for the best interest of the royal family.
        Maybe you are right and he does have a vendetta, but there’s little evidence to show why he would have one. We know so little about his character and I do wonder why he never told Jae Ha about Club M (regardless of the black mail) and I think that when Jae Ha cracks the password to his brothers computer, he’s going to wonder the same thing. if he could just change his phone number, why didn’t he ignore them from the beginning?

  12. A TK2H fan from Paris! (reason why the english…….is no good )
    I wonder if i’m the only one being This dissapointed.. I loooooove the dynamics betw the characters, it felt so right but their world that they live in is so dummy and filled with nonsense that it breaks my heart. Writers what’s wrong with you? The evil are just evil with no background story which make sense, a psycho, a dummy secretary. Yeahhh so much tension over nothing to make it believable. Didn’t they study, inform themselves with all the things happening around the world didn’t they get better ideas to create conflict? seems like not. anyway, i love the way they wrote the main characters, but the evil?…. I hope episode 10 will be better…!!!

    And, i forget to Thank you Koala ! so Thank you for your hard work ^^

  13. the trust thing.. i support that since HA forget the shot scene easily on Ep4 and she’s been fooled many times by JH. Now, they are really in love with each other but they must break this “trust” thing. Creepy villain but I am more in grief with the secretary, stupid enough to leak some confidential info regarding the king and trying his best to let the blame fell to NK. and the scene facing the late king’s portrait as if he had done his best?? sometimes i think his character is something sacrificial in the end?? playing the villain at first.. who knows..
    .. and the preview Hang Ah trying to take some medicine, ommy! hope she doen’t have a miscarriage since i assume she’s preggy.. 😉 some stalking picture revealed that the Ah-Ha shoot in the hospital so maybe JH went to see HA there.. urgh.. this is just the beginning of heart wreching scenes.. >,< thanks miss koala for this super fast recap! =)

  14. Thanks for the recap!

    I think the most important bit of info that we need is why the evil wants to be king? How he comes about?
    But I really hate him so much that I don’t wish to know if it means more of him and less of our OTP…

    Burying the phone part was a… move but I heard that initially the King and Queen is to die by explosives… so I was just wondering if the change in the script was just not well made…
    Nevertheless, this is just the beginning and I will forgive and forget this little letdown if bigger and more polished scheme is coming! (Crossing my fingers~)

    HA’s lashing out was sooo hurtful and cruel, especially done to someone she loves and loves her back… even though she is emotionally tired, sad and confused then. My heart hurts for JH to hear those words out of his love’s mouth…
    Urgh…all this because of that secretary… JH should have just fired him back then!

    • True, the initial script was the King & Queen were killed by bombing attack; don’t really know why the writer changed it (maybe because it was leaked or too predictable for the viewers?) – but the mobile phone evidence is too lame.

      JH punished Secretary Eun to stay by his side.. Wrong decision, Jae Ha! Fire him as soon as you can, please. My heart bleeds for Shi Kyung too, that he has to go against his father. 🙁

    • I’m really hoping against hope that there wouldn’t be a lot of stupid loopholes in the coming episodes. Brushing everything aside, I’ll stay on this ship even it the story goes to crazytown, all for the love of my puppy.:)
      The planted phone evidence is way off, but I would have to say that I’m quite satisfied on the manner that king and queen died. Them dying peacefully is one of the most beautiful scene of its kind that I’ve seen so far. The last two episodes have already had me brawling in tears, I don’t think I would have gone through the agony of long week of waiting if I’ve seen them die because of explosives.

      • Personally, I am glad that they didn’t kill the king and queen by blowing them up. Although they were assassinated, I think that their death scene was rather beautiful. They died intact, peacefully and in each others’ arms. Their last thoughts were happy ones. That is why it was more heart-wrenching. In a way, it befitted their gentle natures and made me cry more. It was also more ‘dignified’.

  15. Me neither, I experienced many of them since 2011 (effect of live shooting eh?)
    I hope the writers’ll develop more interesting & witty scenes like before, if they want to add Byeong Gu, please make him into someone who need to despised because his craziness, cunning and all kind of root of the evil not for his looney tuney act :/. I’m kind of okay for someone who is psycho and has no clear base for hating, if it is NOT SILLY. Just don’t give me a birth secret because I’ll throwing it away heh.

    True, the characters nailed their own role, not just seunggi & jiwon, all the second lead too, and deep from my heart, I don’t wanna drop them.

    Furthermore, this episode seem weak for me, I wonder is this because of the revision of the script? Because I read somewhere that the writer revised the script for episode 9, If this episode really get revised then I’m really disappointed 🙁

  16. Thank you for this super fast recaps Ms. Koala.
    Agree, the planted evidence is just lame. Writer-nim, please don’t disappoint us. Please.

  17. Ockoala, thank you so much for your speedy recap. Agree with you, most of the plots are truly well-done, except the villains plot.

    To be honest, I still don’t understand Bong Goo’s motive. His official character profile on imbc website puzzled me:

    “The President of the holding company, Club M gave a powerful influence over global military-industrial complex with enormous funds.
    He was a complete yes man to his father who left his mother and him. For this result, he succeeded to the president of Club M and became a new owner. For him, everything is all set and ready now, all he needs to do is enjoy what he got.

    However, the tastiest side dishes, North & South Korea, announced to live peacefully by themselves.
    Are they spitting on my table?
    I will surely give all these irritation and indignity back to you and show it to Lee Jae Ha.
    The only King in the world is me.”

    His father left his mother and him; So Bong Goo found out that he lived in Germany & killed him? Who is his mother? Please don’t tell us that his mother is Jae Ha’s mother.

    All along it seems like Secretary Eun is unhappy with the idea of the reunification so for him trying to separate Hang Ah & Jae Ha makes sense. But I hope the writer can write a witty plot for Secretary Eun, please don’t make him look too stupid… sigh…

    • But it wasn’t JH’s mom that was royal, was it, but his dad?
      The Queen Mum told HA that she herself was also a commoner before she married the then King.
      Hmmmm…

  18. Oh yah, ladies and gentlemen and Ms Koala,
    what do y’all think is the password to JaeKang’s diary thingy?

    I think it might be:
    1) The falling of the Berlin Wall
    2) JaeHa

    • It has to be something that Jae Kang wanted to accomplish, like “Jaeha as King” or “Take down Club M,” “Get Jaeha Married” or something like that. Not something that happened in the past or a specific person.

    • The show already told us I don’t remember is it 3rd or fourth, but apparently Jae Kang’s password is ‘ Aboji, Jae Kang ibnida’ (Father, this is Jae Kang). Just like how Jae Ha’s password is mixed with anger and sadness, I think Jae Kang’s password is more sentimental

      • So did the secretary lie to him about the whole “accomplish” thing to keep him from the password? Because that actually might make some sense, since finding out about Club M will bring Jae Ha closer to shooting through this whole mess. But at the same time, that would make Secretary a lot badder than expected.

        (Also, my “passwords” up there were “examples”…I didn’t think that any of them would fit Jae Kang…)

      • @Anonymous:
        I don’t think the secretary know the password either. I remember Jaekang said he need to record diary, and Sec Eun then immediately excuse himself.

        My take on about the whole setup of setting password is bitter, because The ‘New King’ need to set the password immediately after the previous passed away. Someone can’t think logically to set some genius or purposefully password while they are in great sadness and deep sorrow, plus the new king need to face ‘the previous king’. Jae Ha’s password: ‘Chunya'(are you happy now?) And Mulba?(What are you looking at?) Appears as logic and reasonable password for me as he is facing his ‘brother’*excuse me, I need to bawl a bit*cries* and he is angry for him to let him being a king.
        For Jaekang, apparently, if the password that I said is true, so we know that he is missing his father when he record that password.

        Well, I think at that kind of time, who can guess what crossed in your mind?

      • I would have never predicted the real password…completely unexpected but perfectly quirky for Jae Kang.

  19. Ah…that’s make sense now..the. box…initially the death was caused by bombing (initial script), but later changed into CO poisoning…Probably, the writer’s was confused how to blame the crime to Hang Ah, so they kept the box thing..yea..that’s make sense now.. I can imagin about finding the handphone in the middle of destroyed building
    But it doesn’t mean I could accept thw hole handphone thing for this script now. I hope they’ll make it better for the next episode

  20. To the plot holes I can only say “Ah… Stress…”
    Although I enjoyed the “We haven’t even developed it yet” storyline.
    But seriously, Jae Ha should just fire the secretary. It’s so obvious that he’s sabotaging him and doing a crappy job.

    • It isn’t obvious enough yet.
      HA and JH are too mad at each other to compare notes and contrast what they said vs what Skunkhead said they said.
      Right now, the only one who has witnessed Sec Skunkhead’s duplicity is the son, SK.

    • He needs his experience even though they both do not like each other. The secretary has served 2 generations of Kings before Jae Ha.

  21. thanks for the super fast recap! this is the first thing i checked when i woke up. yai! the last time i did this was during 49 days and it’s been awhile since i have been crazy waiting for recaps, thankfully your site always have something to get us by until wed and thurs.

  22. Secretary eun is most probably the one who leaked the fake news of jae ha and hang ah getting married in the fast place – that has not been revealed yet. So I’m hoping for more revelations to be made regarding the villains’ characters later on. Please don’t let the drama fall flat on this aspect…

    • Even though he did not say that he did not leak the news about JaeHa and HangAh possibly getting married, he stated firmly that he objects to JaeHa marrying a North lady in the first place… so I think he is the one who leaked the news…

      • Hmm… True. How about we stick to the old theory that secretary eun is holding a vendetta against the monarchy for some time already and is just trying to sabotage it? Remember the mayhem created when the news was first announced? Jae kang even faced the possibility of being dethroned. Just throwing up possibilities cos if it’s not jae kang or club m who leaked the news, who did? Or are they just going to gloss over that part? Aigoo… I love this show too much to see plot failures. Please writers, give us proper revelations later!

  23. Thank you Ms Koala for the amazingly speedy recap. I agree with your analysis, I just hope the writer can keep up the level of intensity and not completely jump the shark. The trust issue has to be resolved with some character growth on the part of Jae Ha. I kinda hope Hang Ah isn’t preggers, that is a cliched plot move and I would hope there is enough tension between the OTP without that. The evil twins…crazy and dummy, are a real disappointment and without a back story on either, a little incomprehensible. I really like the Jae Shin/Shi Kyung interaction, you just know more heartbreak is coming there and that’s before SK finds out about his father’s machinations. All of the actors are really bringing it so the writer needs to do the same!

  24. Dear Ms Koala,

    Thank you…thank you…thank you for the recaps. I just love TK2H and I always look forward to reading your thoughts as well as seeing the pics you posts. But the one where BG shown taking a bath has not only freaked me out, it may leave me scarred for life. Lolz!

    • I seemed to just automatically tune out when he is on screen so I wasn’t shocked at the bathing scene… actually it did not register in my mind at all that it was a bathing scene…

      I am glad my brain works this way~

    • I know! I kinda jumped up when they showed him in that garb.
      Where were they going? Why didn’t we go with him to there?

    • What is that though? In all of the sageuks I’ve seen, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that garb on a king before…

  25. Thanks for the recap…i was watching at viki but it was barely subbed and i wanted to know what was said since it was breaking my heart to see the OTP ‘hurt’ and ‘doubt’ each other…

    just when I thought they were finally getting somewhere…then of course the evil secretary has to show his evil ways…

    can’t wait for tomorrow’s ep…

  26. Thanks for the recap. I tried to hold out till it was fully subbed, but caved as soon as I saw this was up…

    Hated the stupid cell phone thing.
    Hate that our not-ever-even-getting-close-enough-to-be love birds have a Skunk running interference between them. I hope that only works for an episode.
    Usually it’s a second lead telling all the feasible lies, so at least it kinda makes sense that both of them are listening to a trusted advisor. But, see, that’s the problem…He’s NOT a trusted advisor, is he? He’s a skunk. How do we make them see it?

    My heart hurts for JH having to hear mean words from HA.
    I don’t like that she was manipulated by Skunky into showing her weaknesses to JH, but I do like that we are seeing some cracks in her armor. Up to this point, they have painted HA a little toooooo angelically. She always says the right things at the right time; she is understanding; she can’t be outsmarted; she is our brave little Northern toaster. I like that she is wrong for calling him names, and that she will later take back those words.
    The pair has a lot more testing to get through before they finally meet heart to heart in an explosion of LOVE and DOUGHNUTs!

    **sigh** We didn’t get enough King tonight being adorable, but I will take what I can get for now.

  27. I have to say something about the evil magician. From the beginning we were told the royals are supported by tax dollars and private donations. So commerce (or business) plays a very important role here. That’s why Jae Ha when offered a huge donation from Club M just gladly accepted it. (He knows nothing about his hyung’s dealing with Club M. This is negligence on the part of transition team – they should have briefed him better. But then, he had so many other things to take care of. And the secretary now had reasons to downplay Club M’s true colors as much as possible. Hopefully smart Jae Ha can crack the code soon and hear what his hyung had to say about this.)

    So, the CEO of a multinational company was chosen as the common enemy of the North and the South. That’s a necessary plot device if the drama wants both sides to examine themselves and think hard about true meanings and implications of the conflict. In this way, both are on the same boat, as victims of outside interests.

    Secretary Eun’s addition to the villain list was really surprising to me. But with one on the outside and one on the inside, the odds are really multiplied against our hero and heroine. Which not only heightens the tension, but also drives home the point that the issue is really deep rooted and so divisive.

    Again, this is a brave drama. I hope all the hearties do not lose heart but continue to support it.

    • It is brave alright…
      Official quarreling during the investigations in that frenzy way as there were no cameras…and the part where JaeHa went to demand the release of HangAh from the public interrogation, saying that the officials are actually not as concerned about the possible war with the North as their pay, that they are using the issue to cover up their proposal for wage increase… hahaha~

    • I like the set up for conflicts, but the writer is not good at smart plotting, and she also has no previous works to give me confidence in that improving (Look out for more clumsy spy workings like easy assassination and lame framing). But she is very good at the emotional delivery and dialogues.

      • I think the villain is very good.Look at how he planted the questionable evidence and still created conflict for N and S and the reaction of everybodyne. Everyone jump to their own conclusion. This is suppose to be a black comedy or satire. It is reality.

      • I agree with what em said below (could not find the reply button to you, em!). The plant seemed so carelessly done intentionally by the bad guy!!! But the after effect, so realistically portrayed, proved that he needn’t be very smart, right? The situation was like explosives all set up only waiting for the match to light.

    • That’s an excellent argument you make!! I’ve not lived in India but religion is such a sensitive topic there…and, every time there’s an impending election I will guarantee you that there will be some sorta brouhaha vis a via religion. As an outsider, it is soo blatantly obvious to me that this is generated by the politicians who care about nobody but themselves but the community is affected by a seemingly small ripple effect with unimaginable far-reaching consequences and suspect each other within the community.

      As an int’l community/audience we do not really KNOW the politics b/w N-S and their history etc….so, even in this fictitious drama we feel “c’mon, everybody knows this phone is planted!!” but putting myself in that situation wherein neither of the two countries would want to even be looked at for being guilty, would react harshly is highly plausible. Remember that lame SNSD joke Jae-ha played on that fella?! We as an audience find it funny but actually the writers were telling us that even a small matter which doesn’t even concern their politics can wind up having far-reaching consequences when the N-S are concerned!! So, now I’d like to applaud the writers!! haha, I finally got it!! 😀

    • Yep, I think so too. I mean, if the South was really serious about the whole “evidence” thing, they would have kept it under wraps and launched their own investigation. Instead, they even allowed the media to get a hold of this news as soon as they found out about it. Why? Because they couldn’t wait to blame the old enemy. And Bong-gu is so clever to have them play against each other while he just sits in his lame bathtub (shivers). I have a feeling that his motivation isn’t all that serious other than this is pure entertainment for him, watching N and S destroy each other.

      • Or the two sides were at wars, so he can sell more arms. But most importantly, somehow the royal house has to be destabilized or totally diminished, so he can become the de facto KING.

        A belated thanks to koala, hats off to a tremendous job you’ve done!

  28. Thanks for the super fast recap! I have to say that I was very disappointed in this episode that I was looking forward to watching… the evidence, the evil loon and secretary and his clumsy manipulation, the contrived conflict, they are all so freaking cheesy, clumsy, make no sense whatsoever…. arg. Just a shame really b/c the drama was so promising.

    I hope really really hard that the double headers are better tomorrow.

    I do have a question, did I miss something? Why do people think HA is preggers?

  29. i dont like what happen in episode 9 ,..but craving to have episode 10 …huwaaa.. no more sad plot on ep 10 plsss…syiro .. syiro,….thanks ms koala… for the recap..love you so much..heheheheh

  30. I thought it was mentioned by the SH that the evidence is already under investigation,so I assumed the the cell phone should be in plastic so as not to contaminate evidence.

    • I watched the chi subs as it came out really fast and black plastic bag with the cell phone and the black box is just part of the evidence, and thus was approved to be brought out…

    • Yes, I’m assuming the same thing, for the evidence shown by SK to HA.
      It’s confused me at first because the evidence was in the black plastic bag. The evidence found in the construction site was also in the black plastic bag. So I thought they were the same thing.
      Wouldn’t it be better if all the evidence was not found buried and in one plastic bag? It’s so clear someone intentionally buried it waiting for others to find it. It’s so lame for an over-the-top villain like bong gu doing that. If only at least the evidence found one by one separately, it would make more sense and wouldn’t be so lame.

  31. And now that I thought about it, no brainer planted evidence created a lot of tension between N and K. So, it just shows how gullible both sides are.No reasoning at all. I think that’s what’s writer is trying to convey.

  32. I also thought that the planting of the evidence thing is so dumb cuz its soooo stupid and anyone could tell that it was to make North Korea the scapegoat.

    But then i realised this is exactly what politics is about, the truth is not the real truth until you can convince everyone that it is and this is what that’s not easily. It’s not like you can go to parliament have everyone seated down and tell them to think through it logically that “no one will be stupid enough to place the evidence so obviously that you can tell it’s a fake” and have everyone go “Oh yeah right” and end everything. Politics isn’t that easy (if it is, north and south wouldnt even be divided till today).

    The fake evidence is there to plant the seed of doubt into the heads of people who don’t 100% believe that the evidence is a fake, even if you have that 0.01% doubt that the evidence may just be true, you have fallen into the trap.

    • Yeah… so in other words, this is just the start and small part of the conflict, huh?
      More is to come… which ohhh… my weak heart… but really can’t wait for what else the writers have in store for us!

      • Did you see the scene where the politicians were bickering at each other and the prime minister who is due for a raise.? This a cheap shot to those real politicians. No wonder this drama is not rating higher because this is reality shown in K-drama.

  33. This is a real far off theory but here goes. Because I also cannot believe that the secretary can be so stupid…What if the previous King and his wife are not dead but actually in hiding? What if the secretary pretends to let slip of the king’s vacation spot but is all the while plotting with the previous King to lure The M villian out into the open? They chose not to tell Jae Ha as his brother wants to make a man out of him and let him be King in the interim. Tell me if I’m crazy. 🙂 or maybe it’s just wishful thinking as I hated to see the writer kill off the previous king and his wife.

    • Woah… that’s really far off…
      erm… to be honest, a little crazy + tons of wishful thinking…+ love for the lovely couple 🙂

  34. I also thought that the “evidence” was more of a bait and that Bong Gu had purposely made it so dumb and obvious just to see how easy it is to get both sides to start going at each other even at the flimsiest of reasons. I keep remembering this magic tricks and over-the-top antics, surely this is one of those sick jokes that he’s orchestrated so he can laugh at their expense? Or am I giving the writers too much credit? I guess we’ll just have to see in the next few episodes. I just hope that they don’t drag out Hang Ah and Jae Ha’s separation, I want these two to be next to each other when they start kicking Bong Gu’s crazy ass.

    Also, am I the only one who’s heart is already breaking for Shi Kyung? I mean, the poor boy will be CRUSHED if he finds out what his father is up to. And he will surely take the blame because that’s just who he is. Sigh. Shi Kyung-ah, be strong.

    • P.S. I kept replaying Shi Kyung’s parrot scene and how he was sweating bullets trying to salvage the situation, making it even more awkward. Awww…he is just so sincere, isn’t he? He will really need a big hug when the inevitable will happen.

      • But his spunkiness in the first episode as he points his gun at JaeHa is all gone, hah? Or maybe his spunkiness just evaporated facing the impossible JaeHa and JaeShin… and the his father…

    • Now that I have watched the episode with subs, I think that the finding of the cellphone evidence was meant to be dumb as Bong Gu thinks that the Korean and JaeHa is too stupid and even purposely donated the large sum of money to be used to build the memorial at that place where the evidence was buried so that they would suspect his involvement… That guy is wacky…

      • I think that way too after watching this episode with sub. Bong gu thinks that Jae Ha is an idiot king, so maybe that’s why he did this lame action. But still, Mr. Bong Gu, could you not do it this lame? Ugh.

  35. I’m still waiting for subs so just commenting based on the recap and the comments here…
    First off, I’m giving JH the benefit of the doubt, on the account that he has a 187 IQ and the condescending way he treated loony Bong during the dinner… I’m guessing that he does remember the stabbing but pretended not to. If he’s really smart, he should be able to tell right off that the loony is up to no good and he knows that by showing that he remembers, he may be playing into loony’s hands.

    Also, I’m confused by Secretary bowing to JK’s portrait and saying that he tried his best. Why? It threw me off… Does this mean that he appears to be stupid or evil but really trying to help JH in a twisted way?

  36. I just read this and it’s freakin’ awesome. There’s a grand event being held vis a vis TK2H and the general public are invited to attend….as in the entire crew will be dressed up as their characters for something special. Let’s get done with Today’s episode for the awesomeness we’ll witness in mebbe two weeks! Here’s the linky:

    http://tryp96.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/youre-cordially-invited-to-the-royal-engagement-party

    It better be awesome!!

  37. Ep 10 eng sub preview
    HA- “It’s smt. that people have to do sm.times and I told myself that there was no reason why I couldn’t do it.”JH – “…Bled dry , but I know that it was my fault. So, what do you want me to do?” (it’s hard to decipher what context he’s using this in, but I think that this is after HA faints?) JH – “Jae Kang, i’m really not cut out for this job.”JS ” No, please don’t leave me alone.”Mr. Creeper- “I killed your brother.”JH – “There is a loser that just left, GO CATCH HIM! IMMEDIATELY!”
    (it’s taken from Youtube)

  38. After all I read I came to conclusion: JH you are spoiled brat.
    Woman had the worst day of her life, and you weren’t there.
    When she asked you, you said it’s a secret. I’ll be pissed too.
    You always go the easy way, so you told her to leave.
    You are always mouth first head second when it’s come to KHA.
    But on the end of the day…you smile and I forget all.

    • Hang Ji Won’s part tore my heart apart too… the way her tears just flowed nonstop when the secretary asked if she is confident to face the South people and be their Queen!
      And how she totally just broke down when she went back North! T.T
      JaeHa, you better make up to her somehow! I demand some super duper sweet moments!

  39. Oh no!!! For real a miscarriage!?! How will they ever get back together now. Mistrust and doubt and etc… How will they bounce back after this angst! So sad!!!

  40. Just read somewhere else that there’s an open invite for public to participate in K2H royal engagement party’s filming on 29th April. So if this news is to be taken seriously ,then …this poor sweetheart DOES have some God-ordained bucket of Grace & Mercy to forgive & forget and take her ex-man back. If they clear the mess & correctly placed major blame on Old Eun , then , all that’s left to forgive is her calling him trash & him , being too quick to write her off & send her packing
    .Hope the royal engagement event is for them ! ( I’d be happy too if it’s for JS+SK but only if the primary couple is happily back together)

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