'The King: Eternal Monarch' Episode 8 Review: Tae-eul declares her love for Lee Gon, Shin-jae's truth surfaces
Spoilers for 'The King: Eternal Monarch' Episode 8 ahead
'The King: Eternal Monarch' Episode 8 sees a shocking truth surface about Jang Tae-eul's (Kim Go-eun) best friend and fellow detective Kang Shin-jae (Kim Kyung-nam). Turns out that he is from King Lee Gon's (Lee Min-ho) world too, but his memories from when he was a child are not intact. The only thing that Shin-jae still remembers is the emblem of the Kingdom of Corea which he keeps doodling everywhere.
This realization happened over time in the episode. Shin-jae first finds out that Tae-eul is investigating the death of a child that occurred 25 years ago and the picture of the child bothers him enough to investigate further. He arrives at the little boy's memorial and it is the picture at the memorial that unlocks Shin-jae's memories. He remembers seeing the same boy on TV mourning the death of his father and he was addressed as the nation's king, Lee Gon.
Shin-jae is unable to comprehend this fragment of his memory and just then he comes across Jo Eun-seop (Woo Do-hwan) looking at Jo Yeong's (Woo Do-hwan) phone. The picture of Jo-yeong with Lee Gon is the wallpaper and Shin-jae, who sees this picture is confused further. He gets Eun-seop to spill details about where Lee Gon is currently staying and tries to investigate him on the down low. However, when he sneaks into Lee Gon's room and is going through his stuff, he gets caught by Jo Yeong. Looking at Jo Yeong's face shocks Shin-jae further because it is the same as Eun-seop's. That is when Shin-jae loses it and tries to get Lee Gon to spill all the information so that he can piece it all together.
Initially, Lee Gon assumes that Tae-eul shared details about the other world and him being a king with Shin-jae, but when Shin-jae is shocked that Tae-eul also knows everything that's when it strikes Lee Gon that Shin-jae knew about Lee Gon way before Tae-eul did. When Shin-jae asks Lee Gon if he was the child that Shin-jae had seen crying on TV when he was young, Lee Gon understands that Shin-jae had been in his world when his father had died and was transported to Tae-eul's world much earlier, possibly by Lee Lim.
Since he had met one of the men who had conspired with Lee Lim to kill his father just a few hours before, he is not surprised that someone from his world could have stepped into Tae-eul's world. What he is, is shocked about the number of people who could have crossed over in the last 25 years with his uncle Lee Lim's help. He is beginning to see the larger picture and the more he learns the more he wants to return to his palace. After all, his crown does need protection now more than ever.
The episode also saw Tae-eul confess that she loves Lee Gon. The moment, not at all as dramatic as one would expect surprises Lee Gon. He did not expect someone as hesitant and cynical as Tae-eul to confess love so soon, but Tae-eul has her reasons too. When she confessed to him, only she knew about how far the two worlds have been tangled because of Lee Lim. She was also sure that the calm that the two of them enjoy at the moment is not something that would last very long, so she wants to make use of every moment that they can manage together. Seeing as how the Prime Minister of Kingdom of Corea has begun to dig into Luna, there are more obstacles in Lee Gon and Tae-eul's path than the two know of.
Speaking of Luna, the woman with Tae-eul's face in Lee Gon's world is a sociopath who is well-known in the criminal circle for tracking people, and robbing among other related jobs. How will Lee Gon deal with her when he finds her?
As more pieces of the puzzle come together, the show is getting a lot more interesting and we cannot wait to see what happens next.
'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.