Metro Editors Predict the Finale of ‘The King: Eternal Monarch’

The episode starts with Tae-eul bleeding in the alley, injured from an encounter with her doppleganger Luna. Her father calls, saying he got her call and he had “beaten up the guys” like she asked. He abruptly hangs up when the police arrive to speak to him. Tae-eul is losing a lot of blood and so she passes out. Luckily, two strangers spot her and call an ambulance for her.

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Next, we go to Yeong and Shin-jae. Yeong tells Shin-jae about his mom meeting with Jung-hye, and asks for his help to track Jung-hye down. Shortly after, Shin-jae’s burner phone rings and he goes off to meet Lee Lim, whom he recognizes immediately from his youth. When Shin-jae remarks that Lim has barely aged a day, Lim muses that he had thought he had plenty of time, however, that was apparently “the first crack.” His nephew, Lee Gon, has now almost caught up with him. Shin-jae interrupts his rambling, and Lim cracks him over the head.

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It seems that it is time for Shin-jae to pay up for a decision he didn’t even make. The lives of his mothers depend on what he will do next. Lim wants him to retrieve Gon’s flute—the Manpasijeok—and killing him would merely be a bonus. Shin-jae claims he’s not a good son, to which Lim smirks at his lie.

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Shin-jae remembers his battered mom in the kingdom trying to commit double-suicide by making them both fall off a bridge. In this memory, Lim approaches holding her loan contract and offers them both new lives—hers in the Royal Court, his in another world. She’s startled to realize that he’s the supposed Prince Imperial Geum, but takes the deal anyway, hoping to secure a better life for her son.

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At the milk tea café in the Republic of Korea, Na-ri does a strikingly accurate palm reading for Lee Lim, who had happened to come by that afternoon. In olden times, he would have been beheaded for treason. Thinking of his future self murdered (and by himself, no less), Lim claims that fate has passed. He remarks that it had been foolish of him to not trust himself and go after Gon first.

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Eun-seob walks in and interrupts their conversation, saying he wants his palm read. He racks his brain trying to remember where he had seen Lim before until suddenly, the memory comes to him. Eun-seob grabs Na-ri and shoves her behind him protectively. Lim smiles and confirms that indeed, they had already met, at that night at Haeundae. He asks him to pass a message to Gon saying he hopes to see him at Gon’s mother’s death anniversary memorial mass. He threatens and says, if Gon doesn’t show, Lim will visit Na-ri again. Eun-seob calls Tae-eul but Na-ri spots Luna in the yard. Thinking she’s the lieutenant, Eun-seob shares that Lim came by. Shin-jae arrives and asks what “Tae-eul” is doing there, being injured and supposedly still in the hospital. His eyes narrow when she grabs her left side in feigned pain. Realizing who she is, he restrains her. Tae-eul comes walking up and tells Eun-seob to look after Na-ri. When Luna speaks, Tae-eul punches her in the face.

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Tae-eul, Yeong, and Shin-jae interrogate Luna in a warehouse. They find Luna’s medication and she confirms she’s dying of cancer. Tae-eul wants a private word with Luna, and so the boys leave.Tae-eul knows Luna could’ve killed her but didn’t, hinting perhaps she needed her organs. Luna admits it was because she didn’t want to upset Tae-eul’s dad. Tae-eul wants to know more about her since she knows so little. Time pauses as they each reach up in mirroring gestures to touch their hair.

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Gon runs into the police station looking for Tae-eul. There are tears of relief in his eyes as he spots a calendar dated 2020. Finally, he’s back. Gon asks the team rookie Jangmi where Tae-eul is.

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Outside the hospital, Tae-eul cries to see Gon rushing towards her. He wraps her in an embrace. They’re both crying as she says that she missed him, and he apologizes for always keeping her waiting.

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In her hospital room, Tae-eul is worried that he’s going to leave. Gon promises he won’t and lies down beside her. She’s happy he visited her twice in her memories, when she was 5 and 27 years of age, and he’s happy she hugged him. Tae-eul asks if he remembers what happened after that, and he nods. It seems that, unlike in the original timeline, she was quicker to believe his claims and sooner traveled to his world. Despite accepting her fate earlier, what was meant to happen still happened. The tragedy—we see the battle after she was kidnapped—happen even sooner. Gon wonders if there’s truly no way to change fate. Tae-eul tells him that she believes it’s set in stone, and they still have a ways to go to reach their destination.

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When she falls asleep, he calls Yeong. Yeong and Shin-jae come running. They confront him about their new memories of him, donning the same black ensemble and speaking to them instructions only he would be able to give, amazed he can travel through time. Yeong expresses relief that Gon is okay. Back to business, he reports that he and Shin-jae located Jung-hye.

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Shin-jae asks for repayment if he’s that grateful. Gon asks what he wants. “Your life,” he responds. Yeong throws him a look, but Gon guesses the truth—Lim has threatened him using his two mothers. He asks if Lim requested Shin-jae to kill him. Shin-jae casually asks if he’d die for him, noting it’d be better if it happened in Corea where people could mourn him. Yeong looks at him incredulously as Shin-jae tells him to call when he’s leaving and walks away.

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Yeong takes Gon to Jung-hye's place where Gon orders him to keep watch. Whenever Lim shows, he needs to follow him to his gate. Yeong, after having received a call from Eun-seob, passes along Lim’s message about the memorial mass to Gon. Jung-hye returns home and stops after walking by them. She turns back to look at Gon and recognizes him. Jung-hye walks up to Gon and she gazes at the face her late son would have had. “Because of you, Ji-hoon died … And you’ll die because of me, that’s why Lee Lim has kept me alive,” she says.

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Her guard rushes at them with a knife, but Yeong swiftly disarms him and holds him at gunpoint while he calls Shin-jae. Gon proposes that Lim will take her to Corea for his mother’s death anniversary, and she won’t be able to return to Korea. He can help. She asks him, will he save her? Jung-hye tells him to come two days before the death anniversary, then. Gon tries to apologize for what happened to Ji-hoon, but she doesn’t want to hear it. “Don’t die because of me. I’m not your mom,” she coldly says. Gon watches her walk away with red-rimmed eyes. When alone, Yeong asks when Gon plans on leaving.

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Next scene we see Gon helping take care of Tae-eul in the hospital. In voiceover, he tells Yeong he just wants one more day with her.

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Gon spends the next day by her side, going on walks, taking her to the chapel and eating together. That night, Gon sleeps by her bedside. We hear him telling Yeong he wants time to say goodbye.

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The following morning, Yeong takes the twins to school for the last time and smiles at Eun-bi’s suspicious gaze. He stops by Eun-seob’s where they both pretend to not think saying goodbye to each other, possibly for good, is difficult at all. Yeong asks what Eun-seob’s 65th dream is. He answers Yeong: “Seeing you again.” Yeong stares at him, stunned, then he grabs him in a big hug.

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Through tears, he says, “Let’s meet again.” Eun-seob breaks down sobbing into his shoulder.

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Meanwhile, Gon and Tae-eul sit outside the hospital on a bench. When Tae-eul says she wants to do all the normal date stuff they skipped, like watching movies at the cinema, Gon starts to interrupt. But Tae-eul doesn’t want to hear anything about him leaving. She doesn’t want to let him go—”Let’s not save the world,” she says, adding that they can just focus on the present and what they have now. Tae-eul knows that he’s planning to go back in time to stop Lim from coming to her world. If so, she won’t remember him at all. Gon doesn’t see another way to fix everything that’s gone wrong from the worlds colliding. "So tell me to go,” he asks her. He says to her that this his first time asking for permission from anyone, and he can’t leave unless she agrees. Tae-eul tries to hold it together and tearfully asks him to say he’ll return no matter what after catching Lim. Gon embraces Tae-eul and promises he’ll come back to her, he will open all the doors in the universe to do so.

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In Corea, in a dark tunnel, Seo-ryung foolishly tells Lim about her intention to steal Gon’s flute. He responds by doing his favorite grab-’em-by-the-throat move. She failed to snatch either Gon or the kingdom, so her only path to survival is to find Lim a way into the memorial mass of Gon’s mother. There, he’ll announce the existence of parallel universes, and that Gon’s mother is still alive.

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Time pauses while Lim still has his hands around her throat. He notes that Gon is back in Corea. When Seo-ryung comes to, she has a photo of Jung-hye in her hand, and Lim has disappeared.

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Back at the Palace, Lee Gon orders that the court gives Park Sook-jin a change of clothes and she sent to the bridge where Shin-jae is waiting. She walks towards him in a daze, asking if it’s really Hyun-min, the son she had given up many moons ago. He steps back. She explains it was her only choice and that she’s sorry. Shin-jae’s voice catches as he asks if she let go of him on purpose or lost him. She replies she merely wanted him to live well.

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He responds that he didn’t live well. Shin-jae wipes a tear and tells her not to get her hopes up or ask for forgiveness. He only wanted to see her once more and wake from his bad dream. This time, he’s the one abandoning her. She sinks to the ground and sobs as he walks away.

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Shin-jae has a meal and drinks with Gon at the palace, thanking him for letting him confront his mom. Gon assures him she won’t be harmed, claiming their debt is settled now. When he asks which world Shin-jae plans to stay in, Corea or Korea, Shin-jae turns the conversation to Gon’s plan to catch Lim. Gon reveals that he intends to strike when Lim is choking him that night—his anger will blind him. Shin-jae wonders why he didn’t do that before. Gon admits he was focused on saving himself last time. Shin-jae is shocked to realize he doesn’t plan to save himself this time. It seems that the only option is to make killing Lee Lim the priority, not saving young Lee Gon. If Gon succeeds, Shin-jae’s time in the Republic of Korea will disappear since he and his family will never meet Lim. He tells Shin-jae to make a choice he won’t regret, Gon saying this would be his last chance to kill him. Shin-jae scoffs that he should’ve poisoned his drink, making Gon smile. Does Tae-eul know his plan? “She can’t know,” Gon sighs.

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Lim returns to Corea and sits for a meal with Jung-hye as his poison tester. After she tastes each dish, he takes a bite. Jung-hye begins laughing hysterically, and vomits blood. With a creepy blood-filled smile, she exclaims that he had finally let his guard down! Lim begins to cough up a small amount of blood. Jung-hye remarks she’s finally getting to die like she’s been praying for all these years.

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The “manager” comes in and begins preparing the injection, but time pauses with the needle stuck in the bottle. Someone is crossing over. It seems, Lim can’t save Jung-hye this time.

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Armed with his half of the flute and a rifle, Lim heads to meet Gon. They meet on the street in the city. Lim has cheated death yet why can’t he escape Gon? Gon responds that he’s got many others on his side wanting Lim’s demise. Lim is determined not to let him get away, even though Gon has messed up his plan to meet at the memorial mass. He aims his rifle at Gon and fires, but nothing happens. Gon reminds him time is paused, no shots can be fired. Lim tells Gon he is tired of him foiling his plans. Gon answers and tells him he is very tired of Lim destroying worlds and creating cracks in time.

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Time begins again, and Lim makes a move to shoot Gon, but he is shot in the leg first. Yeong and Shin-jae flank Gon who take Lim’s flute.

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They head to the gates and find that Lim’s gate won’t open for anyone else, and the same goes for Gon’s. But when Gon holds both flute halves, a new gate appears—the one of Gon’s grandfather. Gon remarks the flute isn’t “crying”—there simply is no sound. Lim changes tactics and says they should use the gate together, living infinitely and without bounds. He is frustrated to find that Gon just wants to return to that night of treason, which he can’t do without the flute “crying.”

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Lim is astounded that Gon is eschewing “eternity and infinity.” Gon tells him that he doesn’t need it; so long as Lim doesn’t have it, he’s fine. Even if Gon wants to use their gates, someone will need to escort Lim. Who will he sentence to death? Jeong or Shin-jae? Yeong and Shin-jae argue over who gets to sacrifice themselves while Gon’s eyes fill with tears. He takes both flute halves and enters the new gate, wondering how far he’ll be pushed to go.

We cut back to the Republic of Korea where Shin-jae has returned with a handcuffed Lim. Tae-eul goes in with him to interrogate Lim, bringing us back to the beginning of episode 1. Meanwhile, Gon and Yeong go to cremate Jung-hye’s body.

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Lim gets arrogant and snaps at her for the stupid choices her side is making. She should be afraid. Tae-eul is afraid. She is afraid that Gon will be lonely and their worlds will continue like this. Wouldn’t it be better for Lim to go there with her? She asks again who has the flute. Rim scoffs and says that he has “sent hell” to Gon and Seo-ryung.

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In the kingdom, news of Prince Bu-yeong’s granddaughter, who would be heir to Lee Gon’s throne, Lee Se-jin’s death shocks the nation. She died in a car accident in LA, caused by the pregnant swapper. Seo-ryung reads the news and drops her tablet in horror at how Lim used her frenemy. She calls her mom in a panic and asks what she ate for dinner. (Remember, she had asked her mom to reply to this question at any time with mackerel.)

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Her mom replies jjajangmyeon and Seo-ryung becomes hysterical, screaming and wailing in grief realizing that the one she is speaking to is not her mother.

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Back in the Republic of Korea, Tae-eul uncuffs Luna and tells her to live a long life so her dad doesn’t suffer. She tells Luna to take care of her dad because she doesn’t know when she’ll be back. But first, she needs Luna to steal something. Tae-eul calls Shin-jae to the warehouse and asks for the flute. She knows the plan is to hold Lim and bring him to the bamboo forest once the 48 hours are up. She says she will take him. Shin-jae protests she might not be able to return if she leaves, but Tae-eul can’t bear not trying… she loves Lee Gon and the thought of him being alone terrifies her.

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At this moment, Shin-jae finally confesses his feelings for Tae-eul.. She’s the only woman he’s ever liked—how can he let her go off and die? Tae-eul begs him to give the flute to her. Tae-eul won’t apologize for not knowing how he felt. “If I say my heart hurts for you now, I’d be a hypocrite.” There is someone that she likes a lot. She promises to return and make up for all the time she’s hurt him but he must give her the flute. She pleads in tears, claiming that she could just die if he doesn’t let her go.

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Remember the ceremonial outfit Gon wore when he brought Tae-eul flowers? We cut to scene where he is putting it on. He muses muses he received the mark on his shoulder so he’d follow his destiny. Gon goes over to Lady Noh and says she must’ve been lonely keeping both of their secrets.

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The lullaby she used to sing him was in that book of poems he brought from the Republic of Korea. He was afraid she’d return to her world if he asked her about it. Gon asks her to let him go once more. “If I let you go,” she cries, “are you ever returning?” He tells her to stay healthy, “that’s the King’s order”, and leaves.

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Tae-eul puts on the necklace Gon gave her (hidden in one of the coats from a few episodes ago) as he rides into the forest in his world. Yeong is waiting and insists on accompanying him wherever he goes, even if it’s somewhere from which they won’t return. Together, they ride through the gate and presumably right into danger—the night of Lee Lim’s treason.

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