Dramatic Friday Review: King 2 Hearts ep 9

Unnie's Review:

When last week ended, I was so curious...did they?  Didn't they?  He was asleep in her bed, with his very nice bare shoulders & partial chest showing, thank you again director!   With her right next to him, in her pretty silky nightgown.  So did they or didn't they??? 

But the show starts off really creepy, not answering that question at all!  Dang it! Of course that was how the show ended too, creepy.  Leader of the M Group, John Mayer, is meeting with the new King, they have lunch together, he proves his creepiness & you get to see a little bit of crazy leak out throughout the whole meal.   Yoon Ji Moon, is doing an amazing job as the Super Villain.  Very talented at the whole creepy/insane/maniacal/psychopath character, without being too over the top.  Now I really want to see how he plays a regular guy. 

And way to go Jae Ha for standing up for Hang Ah, when John Mayer called her the "North Korean woman".  I wanted to cheer him on when he told him, "watch your words."  You tell him Jae Ha.  He has not clue, yet, how much he has fallen for her.  And a constant reminder to Eun Kyu Tae that he is the reason the King & his wife are dead.  Chilling!  Wondering how long before Eun Kyu Tae collapses or breaks from the guilt & stress. 

I know it didn't really have much to do with the rest of the episode, but I had to mention how much fun it was watching Eun Shi Kyung stumbling & faltering, when giving his 'present' to Princess Jae Shin.  Quite comical when the bird, instead of singing a sweet song that it could supposedly sing, started saying, "Crippled.  Crippled.  The baby is crippled."  Poor Eun Shi Kyung.  You can see he is thinking, "ok this went so much smoother in my head."  It's enjoyable, for me, to see him flummoxed!  Just a quick moment that had to be mentioned. 

But what to do?  They found a North Korean "hand-a-pone" at the vacation house.  Along with the box of charcoal powder, that killed the former King & his wife?  Eun Shi Kyung brings Kim Hang Ah the evidence & informs her he'll be placing a guard in front of her door. John Mayer wanted her (North Korea) set up, & he did a darn good job.  When confronted by Princess Jae Shin, Hang Ah asks her point blank, can you not remember anything from that night?  She says even if you remember the North Korean soldiers, I will take my punishment, for the Republic. {BTW I am totally paraphrasing} But if it wasn't them then we are all playing into the hands of an unseen foe.  Intense!

Then of course the Princess has a flash back later on. While telling the Queen mother that she does not believe her Hang Ah Unnie capable of treachery, she flashes back while listening to the same piece of classical music she heard that night.  She has jumbled up images in the flashback & demands the music be turned off, when it makes her sick.  Brain trauma, no doubt.  Does that sound flippant?  It's supposed to. 

Eun Kyu Tae tells the King he never approved the former King's choice to marry his brother w/ a North Korean.  He seems determined to hand off Hang Ah to the investigative committee.  They need some sort of scapegoat.  I gotta say I am seriously having a hard time liking Eun Kyu Tae.  It's like he's refusing to believe himself culpable of any wrong doing at all.  Even though John Mayer & his associates have said, flat out it's Eun Kyu Tae's fault the King died.  He takes denial & passing the buck to a whole new level. 

And once again I am praising Jae Ha for staying by Hang Ah's side.  He trusts her, he believes her, he says.  But she feels she has to show him that she has nothing to be ashamed or guilty of, so she tells him, I'll go.  The committee has called me for questioning.  I will go.  I have to prove it to you.  And ok, I have to admit I totally teared up when the Queen Mother called Hang Ah into her chambers before she left for questioning.  I was so nervous.  What is the Queen Mother going to say?  Will she be hard on Hang Ah?  She was awesome!  "I won't abandon you."  Said simply & heartfelt.  Hang Ah, teared up & I teared up.  And how awesome was Hang Ah during the interrogation?  And they didn't have much to say after she showed them, on her cellphone, the last text message she received from her father.  "Follow the South Korean rules.  You are now a South Korean". 

Another big meet & greet between politicians including the 2nd in command of North Korea arrives & discloses that North Korea did NOT make the cellphone found at the scene of the crime.  That they "bluffed" about their ability to even make that phone, therefore they were not & should not be held responsible for the death of the former King.  Ha, that oughta teach John Mayer to believe the North Korean propaganda. 

FINALLY.  Someone told Jae Ha that M Group is evil & to watch his back.  Thank you Kim Hang Ah's father.  So now Jae Ha is trying to go through his brother's old journal entries to see if he did indeed ever leave memoirs re: the evil doings of M Group & it's insane leader.  But he can't find the right password to acess the digital journal, curses!  {sorry I had to add that in there, it was begging to be used}

But once again Eun Kyu Tae has me completely confused.  Why did he not want to tell Jae Ha about the North Koreans being innocent & phone bluff?  Eun Shi Kyung spilled the beans, with an incredulous look on his face at his father's silence.  Why would Eun Kyu Tae want to keep that from Jae Ha?  I understand that they can't leak the info to the outside world, but why not tell Jae Ha?  Not only that but he still wants to hand Kim Hang Ah over to the public for prosecution.  Still the scapegoat.  Jae Ha puts his foot down.  Sending her the 1st time was hard enough on him.  He will NOT send her a 2nd time. 

Eun Kyu Tae believes she is smart enough to handle it & make the Royal Family/Administration look better.  Jae Ha still refuses.   He finally reveals the real reason to his son, while yelling at him, of course.  He doesn't think Jae Ha is a King.  Not a real one.  He doesn't trust Jae Ha to make the right decisions.  But Eun Kyu Tae is not done getting his way.  The news gets out that she WILL stand trial.  When she asks him about it, he says that the King knows & did not object.  That they want to see where her loyalty lies.  She agrees to go.  And then he turns around & tells Jae Ha that she had already made up her mind to go, of her own free will.  Seriously, I want to know does Eun Kyu Tae think he is the king?  Why does he get to make these decisions?  Arrgggghhhhh!!!   Politics is the same no matter what country!  A bunch of lying, backstabbing, untrustworthy know it alls. 

Even after she goes & comes back, Eun Kyu Tae, keeps Hang Ah & Jae Ha apart from each other.  Jae Ha was adorable while watching the trial on TV.  Yelling at the screen & frustrated by how hard they were being on her.  Then he just has had it!  He calls for the Prime Minister & tells him to go ahead & announce that the North had nothing to do with it.  And seriously so funny & cute when he meets Eun Kyu Tae in the hall & gloats about his order.   Eun Kyu Tae says he already knows & doesn't react, which you can tell disappoints Jae Ha.  Eun Kyu Tae is really good as a politician.  Very adept at pretending to be your friend, while at the same time he's digging the knife in deeper to your back. 

Meanwhile Hang Ah's dad is bad mouthing Jae Ha & his inability, even his perceived lack of desire, to protect Hang Ah from everything.  She warns him to knock it off & then closes her laptop ending their video call.  But not before her father has a chance to instill doubt & fear about Jae Ha's loyalty to her.

Speaking of Jae Ha & how cute he is, ahhh Lee Seung Gi Oppa I adore you!  The next morning he, the King himself, delivers breakfast to Kim Hang Ah's bedroom,{ooh la la}, all while being super cute, but she's sitting at her desk, stoically.  When she asks him where he went yesterday, he says it's a secret & he'll tell her later.  But, that isn't what she wants to hear.  She's scared, hurt, angry & she lashes out at him & calls him 'trash'.  Then she stupidly, after she insults him, asks him if he likes her or not?  I laughed out loud when she did this, explaining calmly & rationally to my paused screen that she is doing it backwards.  That she should have asked that question first & then, if she didn't like the answer, tell him he's trash.  But did she listen to me?!?!  No!!  Why does nobody listen to me?!?!  Oh wait, that's right!!  They can't actually hear me, in my laptop, can they? 

{cricket, cricket}

Anyway.....

All of this could have been avoided if they had had a chance to see each other & talk it all out the night before, before Hang Ah's dad got inside her head & then she had nightmares about Jae Ha shooting her.  Although I can't say I blame her for that.  I think I'd have nightmares if the man I liked had shot me point blank in the chest. 

But then k-drama misunderstandings are what keeps the drama moving forward aren't they?  All of us wait with baited breath, episode after episode, is this the one where they'll finally explain, is the one where they stop allowing outside influences to get in their heads & mess them up, where they finally realize & then admit how they truly feel for each other?  Another fine example of K-Drama 101.  Looking forward to the next episode.  Then once again....the week long wait begins again. 

Sigh.  Why did I get hooked on K-Dramas?  Because I am an idiot.  Plain & simple. 

Well, stay tuned for Dongsaeng's two cents worth...

My Two Cents - Dongsaeng:

GGGAAAARRRGHHKKKK!  No! No! No! No! No! No!

That's what I warned Unnie my review would be if I had to cover this episode.  I could barely make it through I was so upset.  In my notes I literally wrote to myself "it's just a drama!" because my chest was tight and I was crying.  I felt like screaming and pulling my hair out.  I think I need an intervention.  This isn't healthy.  I look forward to seeing the resolution.