Korean dramas hit different when the guy falls in love first. It also helps that nobody does the brooding man better than a K drama, which means that episode 3 of King The Land was a pure delight. On the other hand, while we are still getting only snippets of Gu Won’s past, we want to know more about Sa Rang’s. There is something about the way she switches between a smile and a serious face that indicates that she has gone through her fair share of troubles in life. We would like a better understanding of her. Until then, here is a recap of episode 3.
Spoilers Alert
Why Does Gu Won Leave When Asked About His Mother?
Since episode 2 ended, we have been dying to know what happened when Cheon Sa Rang asked Gu Won the wrong questions. We get the answer in episode 3 of King The Land. While Gu Won and Sa Rang are mesmerized by how they look, Sa Rang can’t stop herself from taking a dig at his hairstyle when he is mean about her smile. When the broadcast begins, Cheon Sa Rang asks Gu Won how he felt being in a place of which his mother was a founding member. As soon as Sa Rang mentions his mother, the color drains from Gu Won’s face, and he walks off the live interview. A dumbfounded Sa Rang is forced to manage the situation by talking about her own experiences with King Hotel and why she loves working there so much. Eventually, Gu Won cools down and comes back to the interview, though he refuses to answer any questions and straight-up demands to see the sunset. The interview is successful, though as an audience, we don’t understand why. After the interview, Sa Rang is furious with Gu Won since his little stunt could potentially lead to her own termination from the job. Gu Won tells her that she had unknowingly hurt him, and she should realize the effect of that. It is a tense moment, with both of them refusing to back down, holding onto their anger.
When Gu Won gets back to Seoul, his father is furious with him for acting the way he did in the interview. His father is clear with Gu Won that he should discard his emotions and simply focus on the business. We wonder whether this is the reason Gu Won has such an aversion to smiling and any expression of feelings. He believes that they are all a matter of business without any authenticity. Gu Won tells his dad that he is not looking for his mother, but he wants to know the truth. His father simply refuses to answer that and tells him to keep his head in the game. As for Hwa Ran, she has no remorse, and when Gu Won reminds her that he is not interested in the company, she laughs it off. Yet, her actions and her pretentious attitude make it clear that she thinks of him as a threat and will continue to make his life difficult.
Back in Jeju island, the day after the interview, the photoshoot continues with Sa Rang and Gu Won, which is not going as well as it should since Gu Won refuses to smile. The one time he comes close to it, the photograph is pretty much unusable. Left with no other choice, the photographer decides to just photoshop the rest.
When the two get on a boat for another leg of the shoot, it malfunctions while they are in the middle of the ocean, and the man steering it is forced to take them to Gapado island for the night, as it is the closest. There is just a makeshift hotel in Gapado where they can spend the night. However, Gu Won feels completely out of place in his surroundings and faints out of fear when he sees an eerie-looking old woman. When he comes back to consciousness, his clothes are changed, and the husband and wife who are running the hotel think that Gu Won and Sa Rang are a couple. They deny it, but in their petty fight against each other, they end up drinking a little too much alcohol.
What follows is a slow process of inhibitions being lowered and them letting each other know what they think of them. Sa Rang tells him off for bossing her to not smile. As for Gu Won, he admits that he doesn’t like people smiling because it feels insincere. At the end of their drinking session, they are a little closer than before while still fighting with each other. They close the night by going to their separate rooms, only to discover the next morning that it was just one room divided by a curtain.
Either way, we think Gu Won is already falling in love with Sa Rang because when she gets him a drink, there is a hint of a smile playing on the lips of this man who hates smiling. We believe that grows wider when Sa Rang expertly deals with the Gapodo hotel people who were trying to swindle them. While going back, Gu Won asks her why she did not just let him pay the money, and she replies that it was a matter of working with integrity. Gu Won likes Sa Rang more and more as he comes to know her as a person. He knows that she is not faking anything when she says these things, and he is appreciative of that authenticity.
Is Gu Won Falling In Love With Sa Rang?
In Seoul, Sa Rang’s friends are having troubles of their own. Pyung Hwa’s supervisor is giving her subordinates a tough time by humiliating them by measuring their weights, saying that the lower they weigh, the better it is for the airline. Yet, when Lee Ro Woon asks to check her weight, she refuses. Pyung Hwa has to deal with her snide remarks about not being good enough for a promotion, and we believe that the supervisor may have had something to do with it behind the scenes. Meanwhile, Pyung Hwa gives the gift she has brought to Ro Woon as a thankyou, and we can tell that he likes her back as much as she does. On the other hand, Da Eul has to deal with some juniors who are taking her new rules for granted. She had told them that the junior members need not bring snacks for everyone from then on, but her team had gone behind her back, saying that she did not mean it seriously. Therefore, Da Eul gave them a piece of her mind, saying that they could completely go back to the old system where only the supervisor got the weekends off, and the rest of the staff worked. This knocks some sense into the team, and they seem to understand her point for now.
In the hotel, Sa Rang is given a promotion to work in the VIP suites from then on in King: The Land. Soo Mi is left fuming at Sa Rang’s success, but there is nothing she can do about it. Back with Gu Won, as he is looking over the pictures from the photoshoot, he is left mesmerized by Sa Rang and her smile, even though he pretends to dislike it. He is not fond of the final approved pictures, but these have a place on his laptop. At the end of episode 3 of King: The Land, Gu Won buys some macarons for Sa Rang when he remembers that she was eating them right before the interview. But when he is about to give them to her, he sees her boyfriend hugging her. Gu Won goes back inside dejected, not knowing that Sa Rang must have wanted to break up with Yoo Nam, as we saw in episode 2. But it might not be the end since Gu Won took an online test that said that he probably carried a torch for Sa Rang, which was unrequited so far.
Final Thoughts
Episode 4 of King The Land is going to be all about Gu Won struggling to understand his feelings and going around in her orbit. We are also going to see Sa Rang face some new challenges that will inevitably come with her promotion. In the previous episode, we saw that the staff of King The Land were quite snobby in their treatment of her. That will certainly be an issue for Sa Rang, and in fact, we might just see Gu Won swoop in to be the knight in shining armor since this series is all about the mush. Its going to be quite the wait until the next episode.
