We were right when we refused to believe that Sa Rang and Gu Won broke up. Either the King The Land editors are having too much fun with us, or the episodes were written in such a way that the precaps could be edited with snippets that give us anxiety. It is the one evil that the makers of the show have allowed themselves in an otherwise diabetically sweet narrative. None of this is a complaint. It is just our way of having fun with the process, and here is the recap of it.
Spoilers Alert
Does Gu Won reconcile with his mother?
Episode 14 of King The Land ended with Won meeting his mother. But before she met him, she saw his father, and we finally know why she left her family all those years ago. She and the Chairman had a certain dream for the kind of hotel they wanted to make, but once the Chairman was handed his responsibilities, he strayed from their initial objective and started going with the flow set by his father. At the time, Gu Won’s mother brought the employees of the organization together in a revolt against the management, which is when her father-in-law, the owner of the hotel back then, had her sent away from the family. She left because she needed to protect her son and did not come back. The issue between the ex-couple is that the Chairman let her go and did not fight for her because it was easier to do as his father said than take an actual stand. Now that she is back, Won’s mother asks him not to interfere with her son and let him live his life for himself, something both his parents failed to do.
When she meets Won, it is an awkward encounter because Won knows why she went away and also forgives her for it. He never hated her for going, but he has carried the weight of understanding the situation. It may have protected him from being a bitter person, but it was heavy to carry. Won and his mother reconcile, and though we can’t say whether they will keep in touch or be in each other’s lives, a long-awaited reunion has happened.
From one reunion to the next, Gu Won goes to the King Tourist Hotel, where Sa Rang has been waiting for him. It is clear that she was not counting on him to come back. She had no idea whether he would choose his family and business or come back and fight for her. It is a relief when he chooses the latter. Since these two bring sunshine and roses wherever they go, Sa Rang and Gu Won want to renovate the King Tourist Hotel for the sake of the employees working there. The manager there is Hwa Ran’s lackey, who simply wants to sell the place, and Gu Won comes up with the ingenious idea to buy it from him. We want what he has—generational wealth. Later, Sa Rang has to make a choice between staying back or going to King The Land. What did her supervisor think when giving her such options? Of course, she went back to Seoul, choosing “love” over life in a forest.
Now that we have gotten the major obstacle out of the way, let us focus on Pyeong Hwa and Da Eul. We have been eagerly waiting for some kind of justice for PyeongHwa, and we got an iota of it in this episode. Pyeong Hwa takes down the pilot when he harasses her again and tells him to stay away from her. Ro Un also tells him to mind his own business because he is pursuing Pyeong Hwa. These two end up getting together finally, and our dear Pyeong Hwa has some happiness in her life after a long time.
As for Da Eul, when her supervisor tells her to fire one of the members, she says that the supervisor should be the one to go since she misappropriated company funds and does no work at all. The supervisor tries to pull rank and contacts, but they are outdone by Da Eul when Gu Won addresses her as a friend and family. We can expect the supervisor to get the boot in the finale of the season.
Finally, we have to talk about Hwa Ran, who makes it clear to Gu Won that she never thought of him as family. Back at home, she has paid off her husband’s girlfriend to leave him. We wish we did not have to witness the following scene of domestic abuse. Basically, Hwa Ran is starved for love, and seeing everything slip out of her hands, she finally recognizes that her son is right in front of her, ready to love her unconditionally if only she gives him the chance.
What happens to Gu Won’s proposal?
Commitment to your girlfriend is all well and good, but Gu Won might be moving a little too fast. He tells his dad that he is going to do as he pleases. The equation established is that the Chairman will try to reinforce age-old traditions of living for the company, but he won’t be stubborn about them. Gu Won can do as he pleases while keeping up with his presidential duties. Hwa Ran is already simmering over the fact that Won is getting everything he wants. He tells her again and again that he doesn’t want to fight, but she is not a reasonable woman, and she lets him know how much she hates him.
Thankfully, Gu Won knows how to get over it, and he plans a proposal for Sa Rang. Taking the liberty to insert a personal opinion here, diamonds might be forever, but they are so overdone that they don’t look special anymore. Maybe that is why the size of the diamond has come to matter so much.
At the end of episode 15 of King The Land, Won takes Sa Rang to the same place where they had their first meal, when Won had been trying so hard to show that he did not care for her. At this place again, as he is ready to propose to her, Sa Rang tells him that she wants to quit. We don’t know what she wants to quit or what she is annoyed by, but though the blood is leaving Gu Won’s face, he should know that she wouldn’t break up with him. Either way, he misses the timing as this misunderstanding clouds his mind at the precise moment that lights forming a heart brighten up the sky.
Final Thoughts
The writers of King The Land are dragging out their jokes way too much. Sa Rang would never ever break up with Gu Won because she “was tired.” It is a sin against love, romance, and everything that these two have restored our faith in over the last couple of weeks. The editors are particularly cruel for not giving us a precap for the upcoming finale, leaving us with absolutely no clues as to what is going to happen. But we insist on reading this in good faith, and Sa Rang has to mean something else when she says that she can’t do it. We will wait angrily for clarification.
