Dramatic Friday Review: King 2 Hearts episode 11

Well. 

Yeah I'm not even sure where to start.  A seriously intense episode.  I took so many screenshots it was almost impossible to pick just a few for this review.   Guess I'll just dive in....

No need to worry about Princess Jae Shin.  I was sure bad girl assassin was going to abduct her at the end of episode 10, but no, her sole purpose this episode, was to rub food (?) on the window & glare creepily in the back window of the van at Jae Shin.  I wonder how much you get paid to stare in the window creepily for all of 1 minute of air time?  Seems like a waste of film to me but then I grew up on the "waste not, want not" philosophy. 


The only real benefit I could see to this entire sequenced scene is that it shows how in tune with Jae Shin Eun Shi Kyung is, he couldn't hear her freaking out inside the van & yet...



He still managed to just ... know, she needed him.  He heads back to the van opens the door finds her panicking on the floor of the van trying to claw her way over to the horn. 


He grabs her by the shoulders & forces her to look at him & yells at her, "Who am I?"


It takes a few tries but eventually she gets his name out & ta-da they embrace.  Later she'll accuse him of touching a member of the Royal Family inappropriately, which leads to a flustered & embarrassed Eun Shi Kyung, stuttering that it wasn't like that.


Then we cut back to the Head Secretary , Eun Shi Kyung's dear old dad, lecturing the King (Jae Ha) about the pregnancy/miscarriage that Hang Ah & oh, you know the entire world now knows about thanks to North Korea broadcasting it all over the TV & who knows what other forms of communication. 

The only thing that makes this bearable is seeing Jae Ha remorseful at the knowledge of what Hang Ah has been through & seeing him truly upset & blaming himself for the miscarriage. 



I still think Eun Kyu Tae is way too harsh on Jae Ha. Duh! He KNOWS he's the King. And excuse but he is trying to fix this & you are road blocking him every step of the way. Ugh Seriously, Eun Kyu Tae you are on my "List"! 



That's right old man I have just about had as much of your Holier Than Thou attitude as I can take.  You are just a Senior Secretary!  Why are you giving him this much power Jae Ha? 







Ok it was here that I had to calm down & walk away from the computer.  I was obviously getting too sucked in to the show & it was only 5...maybe 8 minutes in & already I was ready to have an aneurysm. 

Oh Jae Ha how can you take care of the mistake when you can't even stand up to the old guy???

Sweet, naive Jae Ha.








I loved how Eun Kyu Tae's reply to this information was, "Good for you!" And then he throws in the old premarital conception & how it's a big no-no....





Then he takes it one step further & decides the best way to remove the Royal Family Name from any misdeed or responsibility is to blame Hang Ah. 

He seriously likes throwing her to the awaiting blood thirsty crowd, doesn't he? 

Thankfully Jae Ha refused. I think that Eun Kyu Tae means well. He believes that you must sacrifice the good of the one, for the good of the whole. Which I can understand but this is a little too much sacrificing for one woman to have to make. Just like when he said they were testing her loyalty. Really? Dang even if I was mad crazy in love I am not sure I could give up that much....

Oh who am I kidding!!?!?! Look at him!!!

He's beautiful!

I'll sacrifice anything for you Jae Ha. Especially if I get to see you smile & show those dimples. Oh come on! You know you would totally do whatever he asked if you got a guarantee to see dimples.

No? Hmmmm....

Denial.

But then we see Jae Ha's reaction to the news interviews of the South Korean politicians & the awful things they say about Hang Ah & how she was obviously a loose woman, after all, she did date BEFORE she came to meet the King for the engagement.  GASP!!!  A woman who dated before she got engaged & married & settled down?!?!  The audacity!  Ummm...I could see if she dated AFTER those things but before?  I thought that was how it was supposed to go.  Hmmm...if not then Captain Awesome & I are going to have to have a talk.  And I will of course need Lee Seung Gi &/or Kim Hyun Joong's contact info... 

Anybody have that info readily available???  

{cricket, cricket}

Guess not. 

While all of this is going on, Kim Hang Ah is in North Korea, by herself, dealing & reeling from her miscarriage.  And as a woman, she is internalizing all of her pain & blaming herself & hating Jae Ha for kicking her out alone.  But at the same time it is obvious she wants is him to be with her.  This is obvious as she asks her dad, whether or not the South (Jae Ha) has even tried to contact her.   And then she is confronted by a North Korean soldier, I apologize but I don't recognize ranks in the military unless someone points them out to me, {BTW keep that on the DL as I come from a long line of NAVY members}, and with the North Koreans just calling each other Comrade a lot I cannot tell you who the guy is that confronts Hang Ah.  "Ryul" something or other...  

Next thing you know they are showing her the unflattering things the citizens of South Korea are saying about her & then telling her she needs to help teach them the truth.  So they bring in a camera crew & super bright lights & tell her to rant & rave about the unfair treatment & the loss of her baby etc...  but instead she says...

Needless to say this did NOT go over well with Comrade Whatshisname.
You go girl! 

She stands up & tells them to leave her alone that she is already losing her mind & leaves. 

Back in Seoul, Jae Ha has decided, he is going to take the matter into his own hands. He calls Eun Shi Kyung to his side, explains his plans & asks for ESK's help.  Which of course he gives. 

{At this point we don't get to know what the "plan" is, although I had my suspicions - which were pretty much spot on}

He even enlists the help of his mom, the Queen Mother.  I was so proud of her for doing the right thing.  And I loved it when she yelled at him for not being able to... {ahem}... for lack of a better phrase... 'keep it in his pants',  before they got married & then she qualifies the statement by adding that he could have at least been 'careful'.  You tell him Mama.  But then she bursts into tears at the thought of a miscarriage & the life of the baby & how much pain  Hang Ah must be in, so compassionate. 

But her son has asked for her help & even though she flat out said, "no", she helps him.  He tells her it will happen at 10am.

And its the next morning she asks for the Head Secretary to be brought to her & fakes that she doesn't understand some sort of appointment she has that day.   Obviously she is a good actress, as the Head Secretary totally falls for it, sucker!  And before you know it, the King has snuck out & ditched the watch dog Eun Kyu Tae tried to saddle him with.  I loved it when Jae Ha pushes the guy out of the car & hastily says that the other guy needs to go in another car because he (Jae Ha) wants to be able to stretch out & sleep.  So he pushes him & clams the car door closed in the guy's face.  Classic! 

At 10 am a video is delivered & on it is a recording that Jae Ha made...in it he explains to the people of South Korea that he is responsible for the miscarriage that Kim Hang Ah did have.  That it's indeed his baby & that he is a reckless King & if they are going to dethrone him, so be it, he doesn't care.  All he cares about is Hang Ah. 

How dashing is he when he's being gallant & heroic?!?!   Total heart melt.  So he arrives at the border & has to go through the international chain of command.  And informs the foreign consulates that they have 10 minutes to call North Korea up & get his access into the country or he's just going to go over the border without permission. 

But North Korea is having no contact.  And through all of this Eun Kyu Tae has been watching from the Palace & sends a text message to Eun Shi Kyung telling him...well I am sure you can figure it out.

 ESK tells Jae Ha they are out of time & he needs to cross or it won't happen...on their way to the demarcation line, the foreign guys show up & inform him they hadn't gotten permission & he says he has to go.  He knows it's deadly to do what he's doing but...

Hello cute little dimple.  sigh. 

Sigh.  His destiny.  So romantic.  {I pause here while I stare at that cute little dimple for a moment}

And we're back.  He crosses over after some really intense moments of guns aimed at him from the North Korean military.  Yikes!!  Did I mention this episode was loaded with intensity?   And then the scariest part of all...


What does one say to the guy who may or may not be your future father in law when you've already knocked up his daughter but then you kicked her out & back over a communist border?  Do you think Hallmark makes THAT card?  Ya, I seriously doubt it as well. 

Awwwwkward.

Next intense meeting is between Jae Ha & Hang Ah.  It was really hard to get through, so I'm going to spare you the screenshots.  They meet, it's awkward & painful & while she was trying to seem cool & aloof all I could think was, just grab her & hold her & get down on your knees & bare your soul!  And then she explained that she didn't hate him.  She hated herself for falling for his trickery too many times & waiting for him to come to her.  That it was all a game to him & she didn't matter.   And then her feelings about her inadequacy for losing the baby.  And how she killed the baby.  Because she didn't even know she was pregnant.  I wanted to comfort her & explain that she was just barely pregnant & there is no way you are going to know that early.  Poor thing.  I wept with her when she spoke of how little the baby was but yet it's heart was already beating.  I've had miscarriages so seeing her pain brought a lot of it back & I could completely empathize with her pain.  Eventually she tells him, it was a waste of time coming, that she won't fall for it again.  That he should just leave because she has no feelings for him at all now. 

And while he does leave the house he doesn't leave North Korea.

At some point during the end we get a quick peek at Psychotic Ahjussi.  Aka John Mayer who is working on a guillotine trick(?).  I have to admit, he seemed, I don't know, kind of disappointing in this episode.  Too over the top.  And his henchman guy needs a better wig.  Dang that thing looks like it crawled up there & died on it's own. 

Hair & Make Up has got to have a better toupee than this, right?

And I actually was hoping that John Mayer had chopped off the guy's hand, then it would have been terrifying.  But no, magically, his hand was nice & safe.  M'eh.  Disappointed this time in the bad guy.  Maybe next episode will be better. 

More showing of the North Koreans yelling at each other & blaming each other & Comrade Whatshisname is not happy & because he makes sure everyone can hear him, Hang Ah's Dad decides he needs to be followed. 

The report comes back that he is going to kill the King.  All of this is being orchestrated by .... who else?  John Mayer...of course.  Who is now recording a message just for Jae Ha to see.  Which doesn't make sense to me, how is Jae Ha going to see this video message about killing him, if he's already dead.  Are they gonna tie him up first & show the video? If I remember correctly from Austin Powers/ Dr Evil, whenever the bad guy takes time to give away his evil plot about killing the hero, it always gives the hero enough time to defeat the "Fricken Sharks! You know the ones that have Fricken laser beams attached to their heads!!!"   {no time for Austin Powers moments Unnie, stay on task & focused please?}  But voice in my head, it's 1am. 

Hang Ah is listening in as her father gets the report that Comrade Whatshisname wants to kill Jae Ha & that is how it ends ladies {& just in case there are any gentlemen out there in Crazy Ahjumma Blog land as well} & gentlemen. 

Like I said it was an intense & complicated episode.  Really hoping this next episode is a little easier for me to review.    Until then I leave you with Dongsaeng's 2 cents...

Sarang,

Dongsaeng's 2 Cents:

Well, Unnie, I think you just about covered it. This was indeed an intense episode filled with regret, sadness, pain, and building tension.  And this was the fourth episode in a row that I must admit brought tears to my sentimental eyes.  I really think I'm way more in to this than is healthy - holy moly.  I'm going to blame lack of sleep.  Yup, that's it.  I woke up too early and so was overemotional.  That's the reason.  Not to worry, next time I'll make sure to have plenty of sleep so that I can make it through an episode dry eyed.

I was so proud of Jae Ha when he took off for the North in order to see Hang Ah and make things right, er, well at least as right as possible in the situation.  I loved how he refused to let his position as king get in the way of being the man his woman needed.  Even if she soundly (and rightfully so) rejects his olive branch.  She's hurting and it's going to take some time.  Good thing he apparently understood this because he did right to let her vent without arguing or defending his actions.  Good man that Jae Ha.

Okay, I'll leave it at that because I need to save my strength for my upcoming review of episode 12.  Ooh, the suspense!  What happens next?