Doppelgängers
The King: Eternal Monarch returns this week and brings with it a lot more clues around where this story is going. With some big reveals throughout and plenty of material to digest before tomorrow’s follow-up slice of sci-fi, Eternal Monarch is shaping up to be a fascinating series indeed, cranking up the tension after a few slower paced episodes. Episode 7 of The King: Eternal Monarch begins in Corea as Ok-Nam and the Prince contemplate their dark past and making the choice to tell Lee Gon the truth about what happened surrounding Lee Lim. It’s here he admits to Ok-Nam that Lee-Lim is still alive. China’s Foreign Minister arrives and he sits with Lee Gon, where they discuss the future prosperity of both countries. Lee Gon is presented with the gift of his people being allowed to travel freely into China and he expresses gratitude in the wake of this powerful leader. After exchanging pleasantries, Lee Gon rides into the forest but is stopped by Jo-Young standing at the gateway. He goes on to admit what he’s found out about Luna and how he believes Tae-Eul has been deceiving him all this time; an imposter inside the palace walls. In order to prove there are two doppelgangers, Lee Gon takes Jo-Young with him through the portal to Korea. As Lee Lim continues to scheme, he feels time stop again and senses that Lee Gon has left the palace. As he contemplates just why he keeps leaving, Lee Lim makes his move involving Chairman Park’s son Byeong-U killing his own doppelganger and taking the position of CEO in Korea. Prime Minister Koo meanwhile, looks in the TV monitor as this happens and appears to see a glimmer of someone staring off into the distance – is this her in the other world? In the Republic of Korea, Tae-Eul and Shin-Jae receive a call about a murder and race there together, where they learn a 26 year old female has died. Given the piercings in the neck, they assume that the killer was a close accomplice. Determined to track her partner, Park Jung-Gu, to their dismay they realize they have to wait 3 weeks for the autopsy results to come back. In the meantime, Tae-Eul and Shin-Jae are tasked with a stake-out before her shift ends and she heads to Na-Ri’s coffee shop to discuss the prospect of another world being out there. It’s here Na-Ri tells her matter-of-factly that the rule of doppelgangers causes chaos in the world and as such, one of them will need to die to balance the universe out. This also leads to the situation about the worlds too, with either one or the other potentially surviving. This could be foreshadowing for what’s to come as Lee Lim’s plan starts to become clearer. Lee Gon returns to Korea once more and presents Jo-Young to Tae-Eul. Despite his insistence that they’re safe, Eun-Seop shows up and sees himself, leading to a hilarious turn of events. The most alarming part for Eun-Seop though is that he didn’t realize how handsome he actually is. As the two versions continue talking, they lay out some ground rules before Jo-Young and Eun-Seop talk about their differences between the worlds. While they do, Tae-Eul heads out with Lee Gon, who hands him a phone with useful numbers on before ordering chicken. Unfortunately their happiness is short-lived when Tae-Eul tells him news from Lee Gon’s world surrounding K-Stadium being built. This isn’t supposed to happen and clearly hints at it being Lee Lim’s meddling, given he’s been switching key players between worlds, gravitating around this company. Tae-Eul and Lee Gon agree to join forces and he hands over the autopsy death report for Lee Lim, along with his picture and fingerprint records. Knowing that he may well be the one behind everything, they decide to work on learning exactly what he’s been doing for the last 24 years. Lee Gon experiences time stopping again, quickly stuffing a note in Jo-Young’s pocket to prove this has occurred. When time unfreezes, Lee Gon now realizes what he needs to do and teams up with Jo-Young to try and trap Lee Lim and work out which world he’s jumped to. Meanwhile in Corea, Prime Minister Koo learns the identity of Tae-Eul and sees the images of Luna in prison. Given she’s been released quite recently, we cut across to Tae-Eul who realizes that someone has her face in Corea. As the episode draws to a close, Luna is released from prison and finds herself face to face with Prime Minister Koo, who obviously recognizes her face. It’s all starting to become clearer now. Lee Lim is using doppelgangers to collide both worlds and cause pure chaos. He wants both sides of the flute too and is potentially trying to flush Lee Gon out of hiding to complete his unfinished business, given he wasn’t able to kill him all those years ago. The CEO and various different figureheads in power are being used to push Lee Lim’s agenda too, which may involve blurring both worlds together. Na-Ri’s conversation with Tae-Eul feels like a significant one when it comes to this and the clever bit of foreshadowing could be giving us a taster of what we’re likely to experience going forward. No doubt, Luna is going to be approached by Lee Lim who may well tell her to assassinate Tae-Eul and take her place in Korea. Still, the growing romance between Tae-Eul and Lee Gon is good and this, combined with the increased emphasis on the main plot line, makes this a really solid episode and one that’s certainly establishing this as one of the better Korean dramas of the year.
