'The King: Eternal Monarch' Episode 3: Lee Gon asks Tae-eul to be his queen but leaves without her in the end
'The King: Eternal Monarch' in its third episode shows Lee Gon learning about how the side effects of traveling across different universes would affect him. He also realizes that he has left his throne for far too long in the Kingdom of Corea and decides to return to his original world and without Jang Tae-eul, which is surprising. At the beginning of the episode, Lee Gon asks Tae-eul to be his Queen and confesses that she could very well be the reason why he stays back in the parallel universe a little longer even if it meant that he had no power or influence in this world.
Of course, Tae-eul is still unable to accept the fact that there exists a parallel universe so she continues to get frustrated every time Lee Gon mentions that he is a king from a different world. So that's when Lee Gon decides that he will take her to the bamboo forest where the obelisk stood raised and served as a gateway to the other universe. However, the piece of flute that he usually carries around is not with him at this moment so the gateway doesn't appear. He seems to have somehow guessed this, but he tries to confirm his theory and uses Tae-eul for transporting purposes.
Once he confirms that he can return to his world whenever he wants, he begins to work out a plan. However, before he could take action, the weather turns and there is heavy rain and thunder. At this time, Lee Gon experiences immense pain on his shoulder blade and a pattern that appears on his shoulder is the same one that appears in the title run of the show as the flute breaks. It is as if his skin is slowly being burned and this pain seems to be one of the side-effects of him stepping into another universe.
The next day, when Lee Gon meets Tae-eul and is talking to her everything around him slowly freezes. Time stops and Lee Gon is initially shocked but because he is a scientist and a researcher, he comprehends the situation faster than others would. In fact, he begins to even begin to see the beauty at this moment. When time begins to flow again, he just blurts out about time stopping to Tae-eul who gets further frustrated by the heap of absurd claims that Lee Gon has made so far.
However, Tae-eul is not able to completely ignore his claims either. The diamonds that were embedded in his coat, Maximus who happens to be a rare Spanish breed horse, the fact that Lee Gon's fingerprint is not registered or that there is no match for his DNA, are what makes Tae-eul hesitate. However, it turns out that Tae-eul will not get more time with Lee Gon to solve the mystery behind the man.
Lee Gon has decided to return to his universe where there is a lot that he needs to take care of. He even bids Tae-eul goodbye but she somehow doesn't take him seriously but this time, Lee Gon was not joking. Also, Tae-eul still doesn't know Lee Gon's name. She thinks everything that he had claimed so far was just a quirk but now that he plans to go back to the Kingdom of Corea, things might change in his absence.
Also, neither Tae-eul nor Lee Gon are aware of the connections between the murder that Tae-eul is investigating and Lee Gon's uncle who also stepped into this universe but many years ago.
'The King: Eternal Monarch' is originally aired in South Korea on SBS at 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The show can be streamed on Netflix in the US.