King Forever? — The King: Eternal Monarch [K-Drama review]
Who doesn’t love time travel and parallel universes? Here is one k-drama that deals with these mysterious concepts…
Hello, my dear fellows. Here is the jobless me writing a review on my all-time favorite drama The King: Eternal Monarch. Yeah, I know this show has mixed ratings, and the chemistry and the story was a bit controversial. But, I am a huge fan of multiverse(Marvel, anyone?) and doppelgangers and all the stuff that comes with it. So, let’s get started, shall we? The poster is just close-up shots of the main characters which doesn’t give much info on the plot. Let’s deep dive into the storyline.
No, I am not gonna describe the storyline…because that would totally confuse you and you would abandon this post(and me 😢) immediately. For now, just know that there is a king called Lee Gon and yes, he is the king for an eternity. Why? How? All these questions will be answered in my review, please be patient.
Now, the plot is based on one particular item, without which the concept of parallel universes would seem baseless. Ahem…introducing Manpasikjeok. History says that a certain king gifted a magical bamboo flute, Manpasikjeok, to King Sunmun of the Silla dynasty. This flute will prevent all sorts of disasters and let people live a peaceful life. But, the features of this flute don’t stop there — it is the key to opening portals to other universes!
The show begins with two detectives interrogating a blood-stained Lee Yi Rim(Lee Jung Jin). He tells the cops about the flute. Both the cops find it ridiculous that Yi Rim doesn’t look like his real age 70 and neither he is dead as stated in the report. Yi Rim admits that he hasn’t aged since 1994. Why? Because he possesses the Manpasikjeok.
In an alternate universe to the Republic of Korea of our world, there exists the Kingdom of Corea, where monarchy is practiced. In the winter of 1994, Yi Rim aka Imperial Prince Geum kills his half-brother, King Lee Ho, to obtain the flute. An eight-year-old crown prince Lee Gon(Jung Hyun Joon) witnesses the treachery and swings a sword to strike at Yi Rim, only to break the flute into two halves. Yi Rim nearly kills Lee Gon when a masked person enters the chambers and shoots Yi Rim’s men. The royal guards were alerted and Yi Rim and his men escaped hastily. The masked savior checks Lee Gon’s pulse before leaving and an unconscious Lee Gon in his attempt to grab that person ends up pulling the identity card of a police officer Jeong Tae Eul(Kim Go Eun). Yi Rim could only lay his hands on one half of the flute while the other half remained with Lee Gon.
After the king’s death, Yi Rim is a wanted criminal and Lee Gon is crowned as the king. The second-in-line to the throne is Lee Gon’s old uncle — Prince Buyeong(Jeon Moo Song), a doctor and professor by profession. Meanwhile, Yi Rim runs into a bamboo forest with his precious half part of the flute and notices the appearance of a portal. Yes, his belief in the flute didn’t go wasted — he crosses the portal and finds himself in the Republic of Korea. He also stumbles upon the shabby counterpart of his half-brother. He finds out that his alternate self in this world is in a wheelchair, paralyzed. Evil as he was, he kills his wheel-chaired self and also the alternate selves of his half-brother and nephew. The wife of the half-brother is happy about her husband’s death(seems like her spouse physically abused her). She is shocked when she sees Yi Rim advancing towards her.
Back in Corea, while he mourns for his dead father, young King Lee Gon bonds with young Jo Yeong(Jung Shi Yool) — the son of his father’s friend. Yi Rim’s body is discovered in a lake; likely it is a suicide. Prince Buyeong doesn’t believe it and tells Noh Ok Nam(Kim Young Ok), the head court lady, that he will falsify the report so that it looks like Yi Rim was shot dead by the royal guards. He hoped this would maintain peace in the country. A decade later, Yi Rim returns to his motherland to introduce the new world to his most loyal subordinate Yoo Gyung Moo(Lee Hae Young) who believed that Yi Rim was alive and well.
We’re in the fall of 2019, Corea. Lee Gon(Lee Min Ho) has grown up to be a fine king and Jo Yeong(Woo Do Hwan) is now the captain of the royal guards. Prime Minister Koo Seo Ryung(Jung Eun Chae) seems to have plans to become the Queen of Corea, as she makes attempts to be closer to Lee Gon though Lee Gon is uninterested in her. After a rowing competition that he had just won, Lee Gon finds himself curiously running after a person dressed in a rabbit hoodie. He misses the rabbit person though the two goons who were chasing that person were arrested. Lee Gon opens his favorite book Alice in Wonderland and looks at Jeong Tae Eul’s identity card. Ever since he got that identity card, he had been on the lookout for Tae Eul who he believes to be his savior.
Lee Gon again pursues someone wearing a rabbit hoodie and misses them but finds himself in a bamboo forest. He hears flute music and behold, the portal opens to the Republic of Korea. Elsewhere, time stops for a moment and Yi Rim witnesses the pause of time. Lee Gon is now amidst the traffic, on his white horse Maximus and people are awestruck by his strange appearance. Police officer Jeong Tae Eul approaches the stranger stating that he has violated the traffic rules, but Lee Gon is relieved to see his savior again and hugs her. And about the halves of the flute, Lee Gon is using his in a whip while Yi Rim is using his in an umbrella.
Jeong Tae Eul arrests Lee Gon. She has a hard time with him, she regards Lee Gon’s claims of being a king in a parallel world as pure nonsense. What baffles her most is the fact that he has known her for the past 25 years and he even possesses her police officer identity card which was issued on 11th November 2019, though she has no memory of knowing him personally. Moreover, Lee Gon has no identity card, his fingerprints don’t match and he is extremely rich that he spent all the diamond buttons from his attire to live a lavish lifestyle. Anyway, in the end, Lee Gon wishes to marry Tae Eul and make her the Queen of Corea.
Meantime, Jo Yeong is shocked after checking the CCTV footage of the bamboo forest — Lee Gon just vanished into thin air and there were no traces of him. Lee Gon is a habitual runaway explorer and with his whereabouts unknown, Ok Nam and Prince Buyeong declare to the public that Lee Gon has locked himself up in his room to study math. The goons who chased the rabbit person admit that the person goes by the name Luna, who is charged with various crimes and the cops are already trying to track her down. Back in Korea, Lee Gon meets Jo Eun Sup, a police guard and Jo Yeong’s doppelganger. Lee Gon studies the history of Korea to compare the two different worlds.
Remember the wife of Yi Rim’s half-brother in Korea? Her name is Jeong Hye. She is now looking elegant, but pale and sad as she places flowers on her dead son’s grave. That day when Yi Rim approached her, cops knocked on her door. Her son has drowned and her husband has died in an accident, making her the prime suspect(apparently Yi Rim staged their deaths). Yi Rim manipulates her with his words; guess she dodged the cops.
Lee Gon keeps spewing his math and science knowledge to Tae Eul who endures it all as she waits for the DNA results. Lee Gon tests out the bamboo forest along with Tae Eul without his whip and he confirms that without Manpasikjeok he can’t open the portal to his world. Tae Eul is confused as there were no DNA matches and the fine Spanish horse Lee Gon possesses is a rare breed not found in Korea. Odd things continue to happen around Lee Gon. He experiences a sharp burn on his shoulders when there’s a storm brewing outside his residence. Just like Yi Rim, he also witnesses the pause of time when everyone and everything comes to a standstill except himself.
In Kingdom of Corea, Ok Nam asks Jo Yeong to gather info about the police officer's identity card, but Jo Yeong admits that he had already failed in obtaining the details of that non-existent person. The identity card must be fake. And for Yi Rim — he seems to be traversing between the two worlds and has a bunch of people under his command. Jo Yeong recalls a memory of Lee Gon checking Yi Rim’s autopsy report. Though the fingerprints and DNA match that of Yi Rim, the person on whom the autopsy was conducted was definitely not Yi Rim.
Kang Shin Jae(Kim Kyung Nam), a cop from Tae Eul’s team admits to Lee Gon that he had seen the flower symbol that represents Kingdom of Corea before, much to the disbelief of Lee Gon. He had even drawn pictures of it. It is to be noted that Shin Jae knew Tae Eul since her high school days as he had learned taekwon-do from her father and he has a crush on her. Lee Gon returns to his world.
Prime Minister Koo doesn’t easily trust the news about the king studying math, she knows that Lee Gon is missing. She demands to see the king despite warnings from Ok Nam. But, miraculously Lee Gon is in his room. Seo Ryung’s plan of revealing Lee Gon’s disappearance to the public is thwarted.
Lee Gon visits Prince Buyeong in his office. Prince Buyeong is his father’s cousin, and the last four generations of Prince Buyeong’s family are forbidden from entering politics. Though they are a part of the royal family, they are all abroad and no one has anything to do with the kingdom. Lee Gon gives Yi Rim’s autopsy report to his uncle and asks him if he has any ulterior motives for the fabrication of the report.
Now, Kang Shin Jae in Korea hailed from an affluent family but lost all his wealth after drowning in debt. His mother is into gambling and despite Shin Jae begging her to stop her bad habit, she continues to rake in money, and thus, Shin Jae let the cops arrest her and other culprits from the gambling house.
Seems like Yi Rim has someone stationed at the palace. In the bookstore that he frequents in Corea, he gets anonymous messages about Lee Gon’s whereabouts. Yi Rim links that with the time freeze and concludes that Lee Gon now knows the existence of Korea. The bookstore is owned by Gyung Moo, Yi Rim’s loyal minion. In Korea, his alternate self is Yi Rim’s right-hand man who knows the existence of the two worlds and also about his doppelganger. Yi Rim meets Jeong Hye who is locked up in a room. She hates Yi Rim who doesn’t age at all and wants him dead. Lee Gon at his palace again notices a brief pause of time and notes down the seconds elapsed.
Tae Eul keeps thinking about Lee Gon. She reads books on parallel universes. Unfortunately, her police officer identity card falls into the gutter when an unknown kid accidentally pushes her. Her new identity card is issued on 11th November 2019. Tae Eul is shocked as it is the same date as told by Lee Gon and at the same moment, she gets a call from Lee Gon. She rushes to her home and finds him with his horse(he had escaped the palace once again). She makes a final attempt to understand the situation: how does she look in the identity card that Lee Gon possesses? Lee Gon describes her appearance of the newly issued identity card accurately. To prove the existence of his world, he returns to Corea with her. Tae Eul is surprised to find Eun Sup’s lookalike Yeong. Lee Gon introduces himself properly to Tae Eul(he used to evade telling his real name because of his royal status).
Tae Eul does various checks to confirm that this is a parallel universe. Jo Yeong and Ok Nam recognize her as the person from the identity card. Karma is a bitch and just like Lee Gon, all belongings are taken from a flabbergasted Tae Eul, including her fingerprints for verification. She meets Myung Seung Ah(Kim Yong Ji), who is an employee of the royal court PR team. Tae Eul is awestruck because she looks just like her friend, Myung Na Ri.
Tae Eul stays for the night at the palace. The next day, she accompanies King Lee Gon as a bodyguard while he does various things according to his schedule. She finds herself being impressed by his cool personality. She is then permitted to explore while Lee Gon completes his remaining duties.
During her expedition, she discovers how much wealthy Lee Gon is. She also heads to Seoul, precisely where her police station is located, and sees the alternate selves of her seniors working as cops in this world too. She tries to check on Shin Jae of Corea, but he doesn’t exist. In vain, she visits her home address, but she finds no signs of doppelgangers of her father or her dead mother. After all the exploration, she doesn’t have enough money to return to the palace and calls the royal court to let her talk with Lee Gon. Of course, her calls are treated as spam but Lee Gon knows its Tae Eul. He immediately lands his helicopter in Seoul to return with her to the palace. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Koo stops by to meet Lee Gon. She introduces herself to Tae Eul with a twisted smile.
Somehow, Tae Eul manages to slip off from Prime Minister Koo’s clutches by pretending to be a foreigner. Meanwhile, we get to know more about Shin Jae — Tae Eul saved him when a bunch of schoolkids bullied him and asked him to join her father’s taekwondo class. Back in Corea, Japanese ships were entering the territorial waters of Corea with the intention of war. Tae Eul confirms the identity card that was with Lee Gon for the past 25 years as hers. However, the new identity card that was issued and confiscated from Tae Eul is now missing. So, Tae Eul takes the identity card that has been with Lee Gon to return to her world while Lee Gon prepares for the war against Japan as the Commander-in-Chief of his warship. That scene is pure goosebumps — watch it above.
In the in-between space of the two worlds, Tae Eul sprinkles the seeds of an imaginary flower she had bought from Corea, though Lee Gon is confident that those seeds won’t sprout as that place doesn’t have wind, light, or anything for a plant to grow. Back at her home, she also sprinkles some of the seeds in a pot. Because of his splendid leadership, Lee Gon wins the war and the Japanese ships retreat. After the event, Yeong finds that there was no match found for Tae Eul’s fingerprints. Besides, the goons pointed out Tae Eul’s picture when asked to identify Luna. Luna is the doppelganger of Tae Eul in Corea. Yeong is horrified that he has put his king in grave peril by not protecting him from the criminal Luna.
Prince Buyeong meets Lee Gon and gives him the real autopsy report. The dead body that was assumed to be Yi Rim’s had polio, a fractured cervical spine, and a broken neck. It could never be the body of a well-built man like Yi Rim. Prince Buyeong admits that he had falsified the report because of these oddities. Lee Gon feels that Yi Rim will approach him to get the other half of the flute.
Tae Eul waits for Lee Gon to return to her world while fulfilling her duties as a cop. In the current case she’s working on, she examines a cellphone with voice messages. The voice messages were just about news. There were no search results on the web for the concerned news. When Tae Eul hears Prince Buyeong’s name in the news, it dawns upon her that this news doesn’t belong to her world — they are from Lee Gon’s world. Lee Gon returns to Korea and waits for Tae Eul at her home. By the way, Yi Rim’s face also has burned scars when there’s lightning and storm.
Prince Buyeong conveys the truth about Yi Rim’s death to Ok Nam too. And don’t think that Lee Gon traveled to Korea alone. Yeong tells Lee Gon about the existence of Tae Eul’s doppelganger and he believes that Tae Eul and Luna are the same person. Lee Gon proves him wrong by bringing him to Korea and letting him meet Tae Eul. However, the real fun starts when Yeong and Eun Sup meet eye to eye. After all the introductions and explanations, it is decided that Yeong would have to live in Eun Sup’s home for the time being and he needs to be discreet so that he doesn’t get caught or mistaken for Eun Sup.
Tae Eul discusses with Lee Gon the most pressing matter as of now — the news from his world that found its way to this world. Lee Gon gives her Yi Rim’s real autopsy report so that she can follow up on the existence of Yi Rim’s Korean doppelganger. Meanwhile, Shin Jae is being followed by Yi Rim’s minion, and his photos are secretly taken. He recalls his young self being admitted to the hospital with his mom crying by his bedside.
Through her investigation, Tae Eul finds that Yi Rim’s alternate self had died due to natural causes. Yeong persuades his king to return to the palace. Just then, time stops. Lee Gon deduces that every time the portal is used to go to the other world, there will be a brief time pause in the world. Yi Rim might have also deduced this, and he would know exactly Lee Gon’s whereabouts. Lee Gon proves that time has paused by secretly slipping a piece of paper into Yeong’s pocket during the pause and Yeong is surprised by the proof. Though Lee Gon plans to leave for the palace, he wants Yeong to stay in Korea and shoot Yi Rim right away if spotted.
In Corea, Prime Minister Koo receives a parcel from her mom which contains a newspaper of the Republic of Korea. She ignores the news as fake. Luna who was recently arrested gets released from prison. Yes, Tae Eul’s fingerprints matched with hers. Prime Minister Koo gets info on Luna and visits the prison herself to meet Luna, who she believes to be Tae Eul.
Luna rudely denies having met Koo Seo Ryung before and leaves. At the bookstore in Corea, Tae Eul’s lost identity card is with Yi Rim. Gyung Moo admits to Yi Rim that the lookalike of Tae Eul(Luna) is a criminal who will do anything for money. Yi Rim plans to get hold of her. In Korea, Tae Eul investigates Yangsun Care Center where Yi Rim’s doppelganger was supposed to have died. Because of no warrant and limited database of patients, Tae Eul fails to obtain further information.
Shin Jae dines with his mom after she is released from jail and pleads to let go of her bad habit. But, here’s the twist: Shin Jae’s mom’s alternate self in Corea visits the bookstore and receives the photos of Shin Jae; she breaks down in tears. Elsewhere, in a Korean restaurant where Lee Gon and Jo Yeong happen to dine, the owner nearly bows to the king — a clear sign that he doesn’t belong to this world.
Now, Seo Ryung’s mom who is a seafood seller had met Yi Rim at her shop. It took her some time to realize that her customer looked so similar to Yi Rim. Tae Eul in Korea is working on a new case, and just like all her previous cases, two phones are involved. This is a pattern — why the victims or suspects are carrying two phones around? Well, the restaurant owner caught by Yeong too has a burner phone with no contacts saved; it is meant for answering calls only. The owner guy was one of Yi Rim’s men on that night of treason.
Shin Jae knows that Tae Eul is digging info about Yi Rim’s doppelganger and his family. But, strangely, he recalls seeing young Lee Gon mourning his dad’s death while his young self sits on the streets crying. Shin Jae then visits the grave of Jeong Hye’s son(the young alternate self of Lee Gon). Not long after, Jeong Hye also pays a visit to her son’s grave and wonders if Shin Jae is a friend of her son. It seems like Yi Rim is keeping her alive despite her multiple suicide attempts.
Yeong’s phone is with Eun Sub and Shin Jae gets hold of that phone. He is speechless seeing the wallpaper of Lee Gon with Eun Sup’s lookalike and the flower symbol of Corea. He demands Eun Sup to reveal the location of Yeong. Shin Jae trespasses Lee Gon’s room and obtains Lee Gon’s phone and Yi Rim’s autopsy report. Lee Gon and Yeong catch him but a frenzied Shin Jae asks if Lee Gon is the king of Corea. Lee Gon realizes that Shin Jae belongs to his world.
Once again, Seo Ryung receives a parcel from her home address with the same newspaper. Her mom denies sending out any parcels to her. Seo Ryung goes through the Korean newspaper and stumbles upon her doppelganger’s picture, who seems to be enjoying a match.
Lee Gon and Tae Eul go to Jeong Hye’s address only to find a barren land. They conclude that Jeong Hye is with Yi Rim. Seo Ryung’s mom tells her about the suspicious customer and expresses her concern about Yi Rim having a kid hidden somewhere. Seo Ryung is frightened by what her mother just told and by the fake newspaper.
In a flashback, we see Shin Jae’s biological mom in Corea leaving her son in the streets. She doesn’t come back for a while and young Shin Jae cries as he watches young Lee Gon mourn his dad’s death. After a while, Yi Rim turns up to the lost kid assuring him that he will take him to his parents. Next, we see him waking up from a coma in a hospital. In the present day, Lee Gon questions Shin Jae if he remembers anything other than the flower symbol of Corea. Shin Jae leaves without answering. He meets Tae Eul and asks if she believes the claims of Lee Gon. Upon affirmative reply, Shin Jae storms off. He takes a vacation and hides from Tae Eul. Tae Eul tries to learn his whereabouts but fails.
The burner phone confiscated from the restaurant owner flashes a call. It is pure silence on the other side, but Lee Gon quotes the writing of the Four Tiger Sword. And both of them break their phones. In Corea, we see Prime Minister Koo meeting her ex-husband in prison. She asks him to dig more into the treachery that happened 25 years ago.
Tae Eul gives Lee Gon a dead victim’s file and the king confirms that the person is now in his world, working at the stables of the royal palace. Lee Gon declares that he will take Eun Sup disguised as Yeong with him to the palace meanwhile the real Yeong stays back in Korea to investigate further and shoot Yi Rim if required. Lee Gon returns to his kingdom with Yeong(Eun Sup) and the restaurant owner. He orders the guards to lock up the traitor. He also commands the guards to stay alert in the bamboo forest and arrest anyone who is aged around 70. Lee Gon also house-arrests the worker from the stables.
Lee Gon goes through the CCTV footage of Tae Eul when she was in Corea. Strangely, there is a clip where Tae Eul passes by a bookshop with the same yo-yo kid outside who seems to be everywhere and the date of this footage recorded shows as May 27, 2022. How is this possible when there are still a few more days left for the new year 2020? After replaying for a while, Lee Gon notices that Tae Eul is wearing a different outfit from the rest of the footage.
Yi Rim receives updates on Shin Jae and Tae Eul and decides to return to Corea. Lee Gon receives a report that there is no such bookshop as shown in the footage. He is also given the CCTV footage of all the events he had attended the last year. But, the bookshop exists and Gyung Moo, the owner stumbles upon Prince Buyeong. Gyung Moo looks familiar to Prince Buyeong but the latter brushes it off and leaves the place.
It is New Year's Eve and time stops again. Lee Gon is sure that Yi Rim has entered Corea and goes outside amidst a crowd celebrating the event. He recollects a memory where Tae Eul says that the ‘in-between’ space of the worlds might not age a person, as there is no time dimension there. Lee Gon finds his uncle looking as young as ever as he did in the CCTV footage of events. He and Yi Rim face each other finally.
Now, let’s take a step back and I’ll explain what Yi Rim is doing: He is switching peoples from the two worlds. First, he approaches people in Korea who are in a miserable state; ready to do anything to upgrade their life. He offers to transform their lives in the other world. He also makes them kill their alternate selves. The burner phones these people have contains news about Corea, so they are more aware of their new world. Most of these switched people are either Yi Rim’s loyal subordinates from Corea or Korean people whose alternate selves in Corea belong to the elite group. For example, Seo Ryung’s rich sister-in-law is soon to be replaced by her poor doppelganger from Korea. In this way, Yi Rim has a network of people in Corea backing him up. One such switch he made between the worlds is Shin Jae. Shin Jae kept dreaming about his world and he even underwent therapy for it.
Finally, Tae Eul finds Shin Jae and asks him to help her as the dead victim of their case is alive in the other world, but the latter ignores her. In Corea, Lee Gon asks a cop to investigate more on Luna. He also finds that the restaurant owner who was swapped to Korea is dead in his kingdom. He realizes that people are stealing the lives of their doppelgangers. No one is reported passing through the bamboo forest and it strikes Lee Gon that his and Yi Rim’s portals are located at different places.
Lee Gon commands his men to capture Yi Rim but Yi Rim’s men are quick and take a couple of commoners as hostages. To save his people, he tells his guards not to fire, but someone from Yi Rim’s side fires at Lee Gon. However, Yeong(Eun Sup) shields the king and takes the bullet. Yi Rim and his subordinates leave the commoners amidst the chaos and escape. Yeong(Eun Sup) survives the injury.
In Korea, Yeong checks on Shin Jae’s mom secretly. Jeong Hye was once her maid. Yeong at once recognizes her — she(Shin Jae’s real mom) is one of the employees in the royal palace. Ok Nam and Prince Buyeong both discover that Yi Rim is still alive and young, but to suppress the chaos that ensues from the shootout, the return of the traitor is kept secret from the public. Meanwhile, Shin Jae who is back at work, reveals to Tae Eul that the reason she couldn’t find him in Corea was because he was here in Korea. Tae Eul sympathizes with him and cries. Seo Ryung again meets her ex-husband and asks him to find the footage of the shootout that has been taken down everywhere.
Yi Rim assassinates Prince Buyeong at his residence, which struck as a major blow to Lee Gon. In Korea, Tae Eul waters the seeds of imaginary flowers and sees Lee Gon in front of her house. Lee Gon gives her flowers and disappears in thin air. Tae Eul holding onto the flowers cries loudly.
Before Luna is caught by the cops of Corea, she is kidnapped by Yi Rim. He shows Luna the photos of Tae Eul and her family. Yi Rim manipulates her just like he did with others. She gives all her belongings to the yo-yo kid as she prepares to leave Corea. Prince Buyeong’s eldest son covets the throne, but Lee Gon is stubborn that his cousin Se Jin would be next in line to the throne. At her residence, Prime Minister Koo receives Yi Rim’s photos that were captured during the shootout. Lee Gon’s unplanned mysterious disappearances are reported on every media channel; Seo Ryung is making sure that Lee Gon doesn’t disappear again.
Shin Jae receives a burner phone from Yi Rim’s lackey in Korea, but fails to capture him and gets injured. In the kingdom, Lee Gon goes through the security logs and finds that Prince Buyeong visited a bookstore — the same bookstore from the CCTV footage of the future 2022. Prince Buyeong visiting the bookshop earlier might not be a coincidence after all. Lee Gon gives one last chance to the traitors to explain the situation but neither answer, so the restaurant owner is ordered to be beheaded, while the man from the stables is sent back again to the prisons to suffer.
Tae Eul notices Seo Ryung’s counterpart and suspects that she is Prime Minister Koo herself. But, the alternate self seems to be genuine and her identity is confirmed. Meanwhile, Luna is now in Korea and stalks Tae Eul with her dad. She starts grooming herself to look more like Tae Eul. After an intense gym workout, Tae Eul drinks water and faints. She was kidnapped by a bunch of people and gosh, she’s now in Corea! At Na Ri’s cafe, we see Prime Minister Koo(or her alternate self) and Yeong exchanging awkward glances.
Back in the kingdom, Lee Gon does some calculations and discovers that the amount of time freeze when the portal is used every time is increasing exponentially by the square root of the prime number(121 seconds…169 seconds…189 seconds…261 seconds…529 seconds…and so on). This means that when the time pauses for the 62nd time, the two worlds will stop for an entire day. And if this issue isn’t resolved, the two worlds might stop for eternity. Lee Gon orders his guards to kill everyone who is inside the bookstore. Too bad, the Gyung Moo here is the alternate from Korea, while the real culprit is now with Yi Rim in Korea. Gyung Moo’s alternate and all the other men were killed.
Out of nowhere, the yo-yo kid appears and helps Tae Eul escape Yi Rim’s men. She kills everyone chasing her and leaves a voice message to the royal palace, asking Lee Gon to look for her. As she heads to the Busan palace, Yi Rim’s men catch up with her. But, the king on his white horse and his royal guards arrive in the nick of time and save the future queen of Corea.
Jeong Hye makes one more attempt to kill herself but is saved. We are now back at Na Ri’s cafe. Yeong pretends to be Eun Sup in front Seo Ryung, but then he chases her car and addresses her as Prime Minister Koo. She denies that identity and Yeong gets shot by someone from a passing car. Shin Jae arrives and helps Yeong while the Prime Minister escapes. Yeong survives the shot.
In Corea, Ok Nam is still digging into the identity of the palace spy. Evidence points to Shin Jae’s real mom, but she is poisoned before she can be investigated. Ok Nam arranges for her treatment to know the truth from her. Lee Gon safely brings Tae Eul to the palace and Tae Eul is treated for her injuries. Luna posing as Tae Eul has taken a vacation. She retrieves Tae Eul’s phone and goes through it.
Before Lee Gon and Tae Eul meet Yeong (Eun Sup) at the hospital, Tae Eul sees a ceremonial outfit — the same outfit in which Lee Gon gave her flowers and disappeared. She doesn’t say anything about it to Lee Gon and they visit Eun Sup. Eun Sup is extremely happy to see her. Lee Gon and Tae Eul figured out that Yi Rim had planned to use Tae Eul as leverage to obtain the other part of Manpasikjeok. Once again, there is lightning and all those people who had been swapped get burned scars at random parts of their body.
Yi Rim walks into his home only to find through the CCTV footage that Luna had looted some cash from him. Jeong Hye tries to kill Yi Rim and escape but fails. Yi Rim is keeping her, the lookalike of Lee Gon’s mom, as bait to obtain the flute part from Lee Gon.
Seo Ryung and her sister-in-law meet at a dining place. Oddly, Seo Ryung seems to know that her sister-in-law is swapped. However, she is upset when she learns that the king has announced his future queen. She meets the king to know if the news is true. Just when Lee Gon affirms the news, lightning strikes, and both Lee Gon and Prime Minister Koo suffer burns. Meanwhile, Ok Nam gives Tae Eul more details about herself and asks Tae Eul about the Korean War. Tae Eul is too stunned to speak.
Ok Nam discloses that when she was 17 she lost her family to the war. Lee Gon’s grandfather who was then the king of Corea brought her to this world. Tae Eul explains how Korea was divided into North and South after the war. Now that Prime Minister Koo had lost her chance of becoming the queen, she hints to Lee Gon whether she should oppose the king instead. She briefly meets Tae Eul and doesn’t respond honestly when Tae Eul asks what she was doing in Korea.
The autopsy of the restaurant owner reported burned scars on his body. Tae Eul and Eun Sup don’t have such scars. Lee Gon realizes that the scars are appearing on all the people whose counterparts have been killed. In a flashback, we see Seo Ryung visiting Yi Rim at the bookstore. She is astonished to see Yi Rim as young as ever but she immediately deduces that Yi Rim’s motive is to swap her with her alternate self from Korea. She demands proof of the other world.
Ok Nam reports to Lee Gon about the palace spy. Shin Jae’s real mom confesses that she was given poison to kill Lee Gon, but she took it herself. She pleads to the king to spare Shin Jae as he is innocent. In Korea, Luna disguises as Tae Eul and visits Tae Eul’s home. Meanwhile, Jeong Hye meets Shin Jae’s mom and dines with her. She realizes that the guy who visited her son’s grave is Shin Jae. She offers money to Shin Jae’s mom and leaves.
Tae Eul had been investigating the area where she was kidnapped and was almost close to discovering Yi Rim’s portal to the world. However, there is no use in staking out near the portal as time would stop when the portal is used and Yi Rim would be able to kill anyone during that time pause. Making the flute whole again might restore the time rift. Lee Gon believes there must be a way to go to back in time and prevent the coup.
Tae Eul, Lee Gon, and Eun Sup return to Korea. Tae Eul figures out that Luna is roaming around posing as her. Her lost identity card is with Luna along with her phone. Lee Gon tells Yeong how Seo Ryung is now removed from her authoritative role as her conversation with her ex-husband about the traitors has been publicly released. Tae Eul gifts Lee Gon an outfit to disguise himself in Korea. But, the outfit looks familiar to Lee Gon.
Shin Jae and Tae Eul investigate more on Prime Minister Koo’s alternate and find her corpse in Yangsun Care Center. Meanwhile, Luna disguised as Tae Eul visits Lee Gon. Lee Gon is nearly fooled by Luna and that’s when Lee Gon recognizes the outfit as the one worn by his savior on that fatal day. Yi Rim and Lee Gon both realize at the same time — Lee Gon has saved himself. Lee Gon collapses on the floor after this realization.
At Yangsun Care Center, Shin Jae stumbles upon the real Shin Jae, who is in a coma. He doesn’t say anything about it to Tae Eul. Luna searches a poisoned Lee Gon for the flute, but Yeong appears and she escapes. Lee Gon is treated by an acquaintance of Tae Eul as Lee Gon is an unregistered person. Yeong doesn’t let Tae Eul visit Lee Gon in the hospital ward, as he isn’t sure if she is Tae Eul or Luna. Tae Eul warns Eun Sup to let her know if her lookalike shows up at her home.
Yi Rim is now contemplating how adult Lee Gon went to that specific time to save himself. Both Lee Gon and Yi Rim enter their respective portals to go to Corea. When they walk past each other in the in-between place, they hear the flute sound and instantly, they know the other person is right beside them using their side of the portal though they can’t see each other. Both Lee Gon and Yi Rim sprint towards their respective gates, while the yo-yo kid narrates to Jeong Hye that when the flute becomes whole in the in-between place, it can take you to the exact moment you desire. The seeds that Tae Eul sprinkled in this space suddenly sprout as time flows again.
The future Yi Rim meets the past Yi Rim and asks him to kill the crown prince to obtain the flute as a whole. But, the past Yi Rim mocks him and kills his future self. The half part of the flute that was with future Yi Rim disintegrates, which enrages the past Yi Rim. The violent events of that night proceed — Yi Rim kills his half-brother, injures his nephew, and now possesses a half part of the flute. The masked adult Lee Gon shoots Yi Rim’s men and they all escape. As before, adult Lee Gon checks for a pulse in young Lee Gon’s body and young Lee Gon grabs Tae Eul’s identity card(adult Lee Gon took that identity card from Luna before he was poisoned). On his way out, he meets Ok Nam and uncovers his face. He requests her to let him go which she does. So, Ok Nam knew all along that one day her king would time-travel back to that night of terror.
The adult Lee Gon notices the young version of Prince Buyeong’s eldest son who helped Yi Rim and his men escape. He shoots him in the leg. Meanwhile, in Korea 2020, Tae Eul cries after knowing that Lee Gon had left without a goodbye. Shin Jae meets his father in prison. Yi Rim needed the Yangsun Care Center and its morgue which was run by Shin Jae’s dad. The real young Kang Shin Jae showed no signs of recovery from his coma and so Yi Rim gave Hyeon Min of Corea to the desperate dad. That’s how Hyeon Min was brought up as Shin Jae. However, the mom is unaware of the swap and believes Shin Jae’s recovery to be a miracle.
The adult Lee Gon is trapped in the year 1994 as he cannot travel to 2020 with only one part of the flute. He has to wait for four months in the in-between place to be able to arrive in 2020. Since he was in 1994, he called the cops in Korea to alert them and rescue Jeong Hye’s son who was about to die at the hands of Yi Rim. But it was too late, that kid had died. He meets Tae Eul’s five-year-old self whose mother had just recently passed away. At present year 2020, Tae Eul waters her imaginary flower seeds which haven’t sprouted yet and she gets a report from a colleague that Lee Gon had called in 1994 to provide info on the death of Jeong Hye’s son. Lee Gon’s actions have formed this new reality and Tae Eul is suddenly hit by a memory where her five-year-old self meets Lee Gon for the first time.
Elsewhere, Shin Jae takes his alternate self away in an ambulance and his psychiatrist finally believes that everything Shin Jae told during his therapy was true. Tae Eul and her team find Jeong Hye’s residence but she is moved out by Yi Rim’s men. When the team goes to investigate, the place explodes as Yi Rim’s men rigged the place to blow up. The team escapes with minimal injuries.
In a phone call, Seo Ryung instructs her mom to say the code word ‘mackerel’ as the last dinner she had, no matter what she had for dinner. Tae Eul in 2020 suddenly sees one more new memory — in 2016, Lee Gon calls Na Ri, Eun Sup, and Shin Jae. While the rest ignore the call as spam, Shin Jae attends the call and gives his phone to Tae Eul as asked by the caller. Tae Eul notices Lee Gon from afar and approaches him. She is surprised that Lee Gon looks the same as he did when she was a five-year-old, that too wearing the same outfit. Lee Gon hints that they will meet again in Seoul in 2019. The present-day Tae Eul cries and words appear in the photo booth — “Wait for me a little longer. I’m almost there.”
Yeong also recalls a new memory — on the day of the rowing competition, Lee Gon keeps a key card to the stables inside a rabbit hoodie and places it on a bench nearby. He cryptically hints to Yeong that while he visits a new place called Korea, he should find Jeong Hye. He should ask for help from the cop Shin Jae as Tae Eul could not be trusted at that time. The same events unfold after this — Luna wears that hoodie and runs away from the goons and she finds the key card.
At last, Luna and Tae-Eul meet when Luna still pretends to be Tae Eul to others. Luna stabs Tae Eul and leaves. Tae Eul calls the cops for backup and a new memory is etched in her mind — Lee Gon on a white horse meets Tae Eul after violating the traffic rules. But, this time Tae Eul skips all the rude things she had said to Lee Gon earlier and hugs him instead.
Tae Eul is admitted to the hospital for her injury. Yeong calls Shin Jae to find Jeong Hye because of Lee Gon’s instructions from that new memory. Shin Jae gets a call from Yi Rim on his burner phone. Yi Rim meets Shin Jae and commands him to get the whip from Lee Gon and if needed kill Lee Gon to save his two moms. Shin Jae aka Hyeon Min recalls his younger self and his mom on the verge of committing suicide in Corea when Yi Rim comes with an offer of a better life for Hyeon Min. In Korea, Na Ri and Eun Sup confront Yi Rim who remembers killing his future self. He asks Eun Sup to tell the king that he will come to the memorial mass held in the honor of Lee Gon’s mom’s death anniversary.
Eun Sup hurriedly conveys this message to Luna thinking she is Tae Eul. Shin Jae and Na Ri look over and they see the real Tae Eul turn up. Yeong, Tae Eul, and Shin Jae interrogate Luna in a warehouse and find out that she is suffering from cancer. In the middle of the interrogation, time stops and we see Lee Gon back in his original timeline — he is now in Korea in 2020 searching for Tae Eul. The lovers meet at the hospital. Tae Eul narrates that, unlike the original timeline, she was quick to believe Lee Gon’s claims of being a king from another world. But what was destined to happen, did happen. It was just that all the events in this timeline happened sooner, including Tae Eul being cornered by Yi Rim’s men when she gets saved by Lee Gon.
While Tae Eul recovers from her injury, Yeong and Shin Jae meet Lee Gon. Both are curious about their new memories(Shin Jae remembers Lee Gon from the 2016 call). Yeong admits that they have found Jeong Hye. Lee Gon guesses correctly that Yi Rim must have asked Shin Jae to kill him. Yeong and Lee Gon meet Jeong Hye. She immediately recognizes Yi Rim’s nephew and is salty to Lee Gon who had caused her son’s death. She has planned to attend the memorial mass along with Yi Rim. She asks Lee Gon to meet two days before the death anniversary.
It’s time to leave Korea. Yeong bids farewell to Eun Sup. Tae Eul knows that Lee Gon is planning to go back in time again to prevent Yi Rim from entering Korea, but that would mean she will forget everything about Lee Gon. Lee Gon promises to return to her and leaves. Meanwhile, Seo Ryung meets Yi Rim. Yi Rim threatens her to find a way for him to attend the memorial mass. He intends to show Jeong Hye to the public, revealing the secret of the parallel universes. Time stops while Lee Gon and Yeong return to their world.
Lee Gon thanks Ok Nam for letting him go on that night. He then bans the now limping Prince Buyeong’s son from Corea for treason. Kang Shin Jae is in Corea and meets his biological mother. He is not ready to forgive her and abandons her while she sinks to the ground, crying. Lee Gon admits to Shin Jae that when he traveled back in time earlier he intended to save his younger self. But, this time he won’t be focusing on his survival. He would give back Shin Jae the life he had before he met Yi Rim. Everything would go back to normal. Of course, Tae Eul is unaware of this plan.
Jeong Hye gives poisoned food to Yi Rim in Corea and also intakes the same food. She is happy to die at last. Time stops and Yi Rim couldn’t save Jeong Hye. He walks on the standstill streets and sees Lee Gon. Yi Rim tries to shoot him but the time pause doesn’t trigger the bullet. When time flows again, Yeong and Shin Jae catch up to Lee Gon, and Yi Rim gets shot in the leg. Yeong with Lee Gon’s flute part and Lee Gon with Yi Rim’s flute part try to open both portals at the same time, to make the flute whole again but it doesn’t work. It will work only for their respective owners as each of their blood is soaked in each flute part.
When Lee Gon holds both halves of Manpasikjeok, a new portal opens. This portal is Lee Gon’s grandfather’s(this might be the portal from which Ok Nam came to Corea.) Yi Rim tries to lure Lee Gon with the infinity and eternity the new portal offers, but the latter remains indifferent. Yi Rim is brought to Korea for investigation and we see the opening scene of the drama, where Tae Eul and Shin Jae question Yi Rim. Meanwhile, Yeong and Lee Gon cremate Jeong Hye. Lee Gon knows well that if he dies in the past, a new queen is needed. He tells his secretary to announce Se Jin as the first-in-line to the throne. However, Se Jin dies in an accident caused by Prime Minister Koo’s swapped sister-in-law. Seo Ryung immediately calls her mom to know what she had for dinner and collapses when she doesn’t hear that particular code word. Seems like Yi Rim had already planned out everything — he had even swapped Prime Minister Koo’s mom.
Tae Eul lets go of Luna and asks her to protect her father while she’s away. She asks Shin Jae to give her the part of the flute he has — she knows that Yi Rim and Shin Jae have been told to go to the portal. She wants to go with Yi Rim instead of Shin Jae. Shin Jae doesn’t want her to go as there is no guarantee of her survival. He even confesses her love to Tae Eul, who had known about it all along. Yet, Tae Eul pleads to let her go with Yi Rim.
Gon wears the ceremonial outfit that he wore when he gave Tae Eul the flowers. But, strangely those dried flowers in Tae Eul’s room disappear. Gon meets Ok Nam and thanks her for keeping his secret(the flute and his traveling to the past) and her secret(her Korean origins). He had guessed her origins after he bought a book from Korea, which had poems that Ok Nam read to Lee Gon when he was a child. He asks her to stay healthy and leaves with Yeong to the portal.
Tae Eul along with Yi Rim enters the in-between space while Yeong and Lee Gon are in the past. Though Lee Gon orders Yeong to prioritize killing the traitors, Yeong refuses to abandon young Lee Gon. Tae Eul in the in-between space has decided to kill Yi Rim herself if Lee Gon fails in his mission. Before young Lee Gon could wield the sword to strike at his uncle Yi Rim, Lee Gon and Yeong enter the chambers and start shooting Yi Rim’s men. As a result, Yi Rim obtains a whole Manpasikjeok while the flute parts that are with adult Lee Gon and future Yi Rim disintegrate. Adult Lee Gon’s scar caused by the flute part also disappears. Young Lee Gon is less injured as Yeong shielded him from the gunshots. Ok Nam and royal guards enter the chambers and treat young Lee Gon for his wounds. Yeong loses consciousness.
Shin Jae tells the truth to his mom about the swap without divulging deep into the story. She visits her comatose son and accuses Shin Jae of hiding it. However, the next moment she repents and hugs Shin Jae since it was not his fault. In the in-between space, the disintegration of the flute part makes Yi Rim realize that his past self had succeeded in laying hands on the whole flute. Tae Eul tries to shoot him but time doesn’t flow in the in-between place. At the same time, the past Yi Rim has discovered the portal with his whole flute but adult Lee Gon catches up to him. Lee Gon slashes Yi Rim and he gets killed, while Lee Gon gets hold of the whole flute. In the in-between space, Tae Eul pulls the trigger and Yi Rim dies, as the time starts flowing again. In Korea, the imaginary flower seeds sprout. Lee Gon had successfully killed Yi Rim.
We see flashes of the young yo-yo kid in Corea and the teenage yo-yo kid in Korea. Yi Rim’s body disintegrates in the in-between place. All the objects related to the memories that Lee Gon and Tae Eul had together disappear, but Yeong, Lee Gon, and Tae Eul have their memories intact.
We now see how each character’s life unfolds without the intervention of Yi Rim. Jeong Hye after her husband’s death sends Yi Rim’s counterpart to a care center. Her son isn’t dead. In Corea, Prince Buyeong stops Shin Jae aka Hyeon Min, and his mom’s double suicide. In the year 1999, young Luna tries to steal money from young Seo Ryung’s mom’s shop. She is stopped by Seo Ryung’s mom though young Seo Ryung is quite rude to young Luna for stealing. Seo Ryung’s mom is kind enough to let Luna have some money.
Tae Eul wakes up amidst the bamboo forest in April 2020. Shin Jae and Lee Gon are no longer a part of her world, though she has their memories. She walks past Jeong Hye’s now grown-up son and Lee Gon’s alternate who is dressed in his military uniform. Tae Eul sinks to the ground weeping remembering Lee Gon’s promise of returning to her. Meanwhile, Lee Gon is opening all the doors to return to Tae Eul, and each time he enters a different universe where Tae Eul’s alternate exists as a pilot, military officer, celebrity, and as a cop with her healthy-looking mom.
Finally, in 2021, Lee Gon returns to Tae Eul’s world. He is astonished to find Tae Eul has her memories intact. After killing Yi Rim in the bamboo forest in 1994, Lee Gon went back to fetch the injured Yeong. Yeong is well in 2021 Corea. Gon gives her flowers and this is how the memory of Lee Gon in his ceremonial outfit giving her flowers came into existence in the first place.
Hyeon Min in Corea has become a cop. Luna is a cop too and she is close with Hyeon Min. We see the May 27th, 2022 CCTV footage that Lee Gon saw earlier, except that the yo-yo kid is nowhere to be seen while it's Luna who is walking past the bookstore. Luna visits her sister Seo Ryung in prison who had been arrested for embezzlement as an assemblywoman. Seems like Luna was adopted by Seo Ryung’s mom.
Every weekend, Tae Eul and Lee Gon meet and they use the portal to enter a different universe to spend time together. They always check the year so that they don’t meet their alternates. In one such universe, Lee Gon is a tyrant. They also visit Corea in 2000, where Tae Eul meets Prince Buyeong briefly. One day, they even went to Korea in 1994 and Lee Gon saves the young Shin Jae from an accident. Thus, Shin Jae grows up to be a healthy and wealthy adult. In 2022 Korea, Eun Sup is in NIS and married to Na Ri. In Corea, Yeong and Seung Ah are also in a relationship. Lee Gon’s loyal secretary becomes the new Prime Minister.
Lee Gon and Tae Eul decide to live just for the present instead of worrying about their future. They clasp hands as they walk into yet another universe for spending time together and we see their hands age.
DRAMA EXPLAINED IN A NUTSHELL, SCIENTIFICALLY:
So, basically, Manpasikjeok when halved is dysfunctional. For one, you can only travel between two universes: the Republic of Korea and the Kingdom of Corea. Lee Gon’s grandfather brought Ok Nam from Korea and I guess that’s the last time the flute was used before it was halved. So, Yi Rim and Lee Gon could travel only to Korea with the broken parts of the flute.
The origins of the flute are not broadly explained so let’s conclude that there is only one Manpasikjeok though there are multiple universes(if two flutes exist at the same time in a universe, one flute would disappear to avoid imbalance in the worlds). The yo-yo kid is Manpasikjeok’s personification and might also be a deity controlling everyone’s destiny. The broken flute also halved the deity — the yo-yo kid of Corea is one version and the yo-yo teen of Korea is the other version. When the flute was restored to its original form, the yo-yo deity was also healed.
I think while Yi Rim kept going back and forth between the two worlds since 1994, the time rift didn’t happen because only one part of the flute was being used. It wasn’t until 2019 that Lee Gon started using his flute part; now that both the flute parts are put to use at different times by their respective owners, the time pauses. The issue of time freeze is resolved once the flute becomes whole.
If the Manpasikjeok is whole, it opens portals to multiple universes, not just one. Both space and time exist in the in-between place because of the whole flute, making it possible to enter any universe at any past period (In the drama, the periods to which Lee Gon and Tae Eul travel are always the past, guess we can’t enter a future world with the flute; we can go only go back in time and return to the present). We can’t choose the universe or the period according to our desires.
The deity is responsible for taking us to a universe in a particular year. Throughout the show, the yo-yo kid created the destinies for the characters. The yo-yo kid pushed Tae Eul and made her lose her identity card. The yo-yo teen was one of Shin Jae’s bullies grabbing Tae Eul’s attention and that’s why Shin Jae becomes a close friend to Tae Eul. The May 27th, 2022 CCTV footage showing in 2020 was a sign from the deity that the future of Corea could be changed. Because it's already a reality in an alternate timeline. The deity chose to save young Shin Jae and that’s why Lee Gon was taken to 1994 Korea, in time to prevent Shin Jae from getting hit by the car.
While an intact unbroken flute could take you to any universe, the broken flutes when they become whole in the in-between place take you to the universe and period you wish to visit. It happened when Lee Gon and Yi Rim first time-traveled. The second time, Yeong and Lee Gon entered the in-between place with one half of the flute while Tae Eul and Yi Rim entered the in-between place with the other half, thus making the flute whole and letting Lee Gon and Yeong go to the night of the treason.
The parallel universes were created by alternate timelines. Let’s assume that Corea was the original universe. In the original timeline, war doesn’t happen. In an alternate timeline, war happens. This new alternate reality has branched out from the original universe, creating a parallel universe called Korea. So, we can safely assume that our choices and our destiny creates new timelines, resulting in new universes. So, there may be a world where young Lee Gon died and Yi Rim escaped with an unbroken flute[Universe 1]. There might be a world where young Lee Gon with one half of the flute was saved by the royal guards rather than an adult Lee Gon, who grows up and goes to Tae Eul’s world, and somehow finds a way to save his young self[Universe 2]. There is a world where Lee Gon is a tyrant king[Universe n](This Lee Gon might be hungry for eternity and infinity just like his uncle). Every possible reality exists in real-time.
My theory is that alternate timelines merge in some cases and disappear in others. In the first episode, adult Lee Gon from an alternate timeline[Universe 2] saves young Lee Gon. The Universe 2 Lee Gon might have been unaware of the flute’s working and could have ended up in Korea at a later point in time. Assuming that Lee Gon is a science geek in every universe, he intentionally left Tae Eul’s identity card with young Lee Gon, knowing fully well that this young Lee Gon will create a new timeline[Universe 3]. Universe 3 Lee Gon understood the workings of the flute earlier than his Universe 2 version, so he does everything that Universe 2 Lee Gon did(like going back to save his younger self, placing the rabbit hoodie with a keycard, and so on), to overlap/merge the two timelines. Universe 2 and Universe 3 merge to create a Universe M1.
While Universe M1 Lee Gon travels back to the present, he creates new memories with Tae Eul, Shin Jae, and Yeong. This alternate reality is Universe 4. In Universe 3, Lee Gon was treated badly by Tae Eul when they met for the first time. But in Universe 4, Tae Eul believes him because of her new memories. All the following events happen sooner. Universe M1 and Universe 4 merge again to create a new Universe M2. That’s why, Lee Gon, Tae Eul, Shin Jae, and Yeong have their memories intact in addition to new memories.
Universe M2 Lee Gon again goes to the past with Yeong. They save young Lee Gon and kill Yi Rim[Universe 5]. Universe M2 Lee Gon travels back to the present with his whole flute and Universe 5 Lee Gon grows up with no flute. Universe M2 is the final universe as per the show. This M2 universe erases the existence of the M1 universe, and thus all the objects related to Tae Eul and Lee Gon’s memories vanish. Yeong and Lee Gon have memories as they were involved in killing Yi Rim and the deity lets them have their memories. In my opinion, Tae Eul had her memories undamaged because she was in the in-between place when Lee Gon got hold of the whole flute.
In the case of Yi Rim, Universe 3 Yi Rim goes back in time to warn Universe 2 Yi Rim. Universe 2 Yi Rim kills Universe 3 Yi Rim, so Universe 2 and Universe 3 merge to form Universe M1, where Yi Rim is aware that he killed his future self and is more reckless(kills Se Jin and swaps Koo’s mom). But, both Yi Rim from Universe 2 and Yi Rim from Universe M1 are killed. Since M1 and Universe 2 no longer exist because of Universe M2 Lee Gon, Yi Rim’s existence after 1994 vanishes and the swapping of people never happened in Universe M2. (I hope I am making sense of all these ‘merging alternate timelines’ concepts, which is my own theory; I might be wrong. Similar theories could be found in the movies like Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban and Timecrimes.)
When the universes merged, that’s when the characters were hit with new memories. I think this is kinda like deja vu: you feel like the certain event happening right now had already happened before. The new memories were memories of the alternate selves from the parallel universes. Lee Gon in his ceremonial outfit giving flowers to Tae Eul happens in an alternate timeline, and Tae Eul feels a deja vu for it, though she is holding the flowers in real-time. I bet there is an alternate timeline where Shin Jae and Yi Rim go to the portal as planned instead of Tae Eul, and Shin Jae remembers every memory since he’s in the in-between place while Tae Eul in the outside world loses her memories of Lee Gon. This alternate timeline merged with Tae Eul’s timeline — that’s why she saw the flowers given by Lee Gon disappear. But, the disappearance of the flowers made her realize that she has to do everything in her power to be with Lee Gon and not forget her memories, so she goes to the in-between place instead of Shin Jae. She succeeds in keeping her memories intact and the alternate timeline merges with her timeline in the last episode — Lee Gon finally finds Tae Eul and gives her flowers.
Lee Gon is a king and the kingdom desperately wanted him to produce an heir. But, Lee Gon is busy hopping in between universes with Tae Eul, so guess Se Jin will become the queen after Lee Gon’s death. That would mean the secret of Manpasikjeok would die with Lee Gon, he would be the last person using the flute. Of course, he isn’t hoping for eternal life as we see the hands at the end of the show age. He will be the Eternal Monarch because he will be the last person in possession of Manpasikjeok; he will forever be the owner of the flute.
To conclude, thanks to Lee Gon, both worlds are at peace, no innocent people were swapped or killed and the romance is in the air. I guess I covered all the unexplained things, please comment if you have any other theories or queries related to the show and I will answer promptly.
DRAMAGEEKS CORNER:
Drama: The King: Eternal Monarch
Country: South Korea
Episodes: 16
Aired: Apr 17, 2020 — Jun 12, 2020
Aired On: Friday, Saturday
Original Network: Netflix, SBS
Duration: 1 hr. 10 min.
Content Rating: 15+ — Teens 15 or older
Screenwriter: Kim Eun Sook
Director: Baek Sang Hoon, Yoo Je Won, Jung Ji Hyun
Genres: Mystery, Romance, Drama, Sci-FiDetails sourced from MyDramaList: The King: Eternal Monarch
Watch The King: Eternal Monarch trailer below:
You can watch The King: Eternal Monarch on Netflix, Kissasian and other similar websites.
Watch The King: Eternal Monarch on Netflix
Watch The King: Eternal Monarch on Kissasian
TKEM has an amazing collection of OST, especially the instrumentals are my absolute favorite. Do check them out: TKEM OST and Instrumentals. Unlike my other reviews, I won’t point out the pros and cons of the show, because I loved every second of TKEM. Woo Do Dwan and Kim Kyung Nam stole my heart with their amazing acting. I liked the dialogues and monologues because they had deeper and hidden meanings, some of such lines are etched forever in my heart.
I know time travel theories and multiple universes are tricky topics and need to be handled carefully or else it will create many loopholes in the story. I liked TKEM because it kept me on my toes, I was thrilled by the plot twists it offered. And oddly, I loved using the four brain cells I had to interpret the show.
I have just recently created a support page for myself. If you liked this review, then I humbly request you to encourage my work through my support page. It would motivate me to write more such reviews: ☕️ Buy Me A Coffee ☕️.
Thank you for reading this review. I hope you understood TKEM plot better and if you haven’t watched this stellar show, do hurry up and watch, you won’t regret it. That’s it for this review. You can check more drama reviews on my profile. Will meet y’all with a new review. Until then stay healthy and happy, my dear!
