Our Kingdom of Love cast is calling it quits at the same time our leads make a serious start. This is a week of apologies for past offenses and apologetic glances for mistakes in progress. As our heroine tries to balance work and love, our PDs find themselves in a situation where work and love combine, like it or not.
EPISODES 13-14 WEECAP
We ended last week with Yeo-reum finally admitting her feelings for Jae-hoon and the two getting down to business immediately. This week, we see Yeo-reum wake up in Jae-hoon’s bed the morning after, feeling awkward. Jae-hoon is already up cooking breakfast, totally at ease.
At the breakfast table, Jae-hoon leans in for a kiss and says, “I love you.” Yeo-reum stares as he goes on to tell her she’s the one. He’s done playing hard to get and wants to be genuine with her. Since Kingdom of Love will finish filming this week, they agree to wrap that up first and then revisit the talk about their relationship.
But from then on, their relationship is pretty much all they can talk about. On set the next day, we get a sort-of explanation for Yeo-reum’s behavior the past few weeks. She apologizes to Jae-hoon for complicating things, saying she was trying to be a professional producer and to control her heart. She was selfish. He says it’s okay to be selfish and they start talking about how they’ll treat each other in the future. Their relationship is already a sealed deal.
A few days later — back to her problem-solving self at work — Yeo-reum falls off a balcony while trying to talk down a drunk and depressed cast member who seems suicidal. It’s only a couple of stories up, and she falls onto some mattresses the cast has laid out underneath, but she loses consciousness. When she wakes in the hospital, Jae-hoon is by her side. Her first questions are about work. Jae-hoon thinks she should be worried about herself first (which makes me wonder if he still doesn’t get why she brushed him off the last few weeks — her career is important to her sense of self).
With only one episode left of Kingdom of Love, the cast has a chance to go on some final dates before they pair up. They’re given three “date coupons” each worth one hour of time to spend with another cast member. The cast begins to exchange coupons with their usual partners: Chef John with the weather forecaster and Ji-wan with the manipulative start-up owner.
Before it’s too late, Ji-wan rips one of her coupons in half and asks Chef John for just thirty minutes of his time. He accepts without hesitation, leaving the cast and crew to wonder what’s going on. Unfortunately, on their short date, Ji-wan is being somewhat honest with her feelings, but Chef John can’t bring himself to fess up in front of the camera. He tells her she could have asked for an hour-long date — but then tempers it by saying she would have had time for a full lunch in that case, instead of just dessert.
Ji-wan leaves the restaurant (and we see she’s stepped up her outfit game with thigh-high boots and a mini skirt) and the chef’s next date walks in. We know from an earlier conversation that Chef John is supposed to have a kiss on this next date. Chae-ri sets it up, reminding Chef John that he promised to show his rear on this season of Kingdom of Love, but she’ll settle for an on-air kiss instead. The weather forecaster is game to get the attention and incites the kiss.
Before their lips touch, Ji-wan comes back looking for her phone. Seeing the two so close upsets her and she runs back out. Chef John grabs Ji-wan’s phone and runs after her, only to hand it to her and watch her leave. (I’m liking being strung along right now because I trust the payoff is going to be that much better in the end. Also, is it just me or has John Jang gotten better looking since he started liking Ji-wan?)
When the time comes for the cast to make their final choices, there are no surprises. In the closing ceremony, the men each receive a cake, which they can offer to the woman of their choice. The women can either accept the cake, and go on to a “sweet life” dating the man after the show, or smash the cake in the guy’s face.
Before this event takes place, Jae-hoon has told both Ji-yeon and Yeo-reum that he is going to pick Ji-yeon. He tells Ji-yeon that he can’t reciprocate her feelings, but he will select her as a final act of respect toward someone who deserves it. At the event, Ji-yeon takes the cake and says that she has been happy with Jae-hoon from the moment they met. But, she adds, this is the end for them — and then smushes the cake in his face. (This seems like an appropriate ending for these two.)
Ji-wan, unable to get Chef John to look her way, accepts a cake from the manipulator. When Chef John goes to present his cake to the woman he’s expected to, he looks over at Ji-wan, who’s looking back at him, and smiles — but then continues what he’s doing. (Are these two really going to swallow their hearts and not confess?! I so wanted a Kingdom of Love surprise ending.)
The love stories appear to be amping up for their grand finale next week. So, the real highlight of these episodes is that we finally get to focus on Chae-ri. We don’t get a whole lot more of her backstory but we get a peek into her true feelings. We learn that Chae-ri is not unfeeling (as her colleagues might think), but that she has so much pain she keeps it bottled up most of the time — trying to feel nothing.
We see Chae-ri with her abusive stepmom who has been a part of her life since Chae-ri’s mother died thirty years ago. The woman is awful, telling Chae-ri she should have died along with her mother. We see Chae-ri break down after this interaction. She cries alone and then, when she stumbles on Jae-hoon on her way back to the set, she tells him that she hasn’t known love in her life — she only knows abandonment and misery.
Later that night, Chae-ri is live-watching what’s happening on all the cameras in the house. She sees Jae-hoon and Yeo-reum acting lovey-dovey and it puts her sense of loneliness over the top. She goes to the room of one of the male cast members and asks, “Would you sleep with me just once?” (This scene is odd because it appears that she knocks on the doors of all five men on the show, but we only see one answer the door.)
Chae-ri enters the room of the guy who owns a gym, but he’s not fully convinced she’s serious. When it seems she might be rejected, tears form in her eyes and she starts to leave. He seems to understand how sad she is and it almost feels like he’s taking pity on her. He covers all the cameras in the room with cloths before they go ahead with it, but one of the cloths falls and the deed appears to be recorded. Also, we see someone taking photos of Chae-ri when she enters his room.
After they sleep together, he asks why she picked him. Chae-ri says that in his interview, when asked what love means to him, he answered that love is a luxury. She thanks him for allowing her to feel warmth, at least for a moment, and then wishes him well, saying she hopes love won’t be a luxury in his life. The next day, the woman he chooses on Kingdom of Love accepts the offer to keep dating him after the show.
I loved getting to know Chae-ri in this way. While I’ve always found her honesty and humor likable, her vulnerabilities are really relatable. She doesn’t want to feel her pain — so asks for a moment of healing — but doesn’t want a real connection because it could lead to more pain. I kind of fell in love with her in these scenes.
After Yeo-reum’s fall, Chae-ri feels like everyone is looking at her with blaming eyes. She announces the show is over; everyone can go home now. The cast and crew clear out and the Kingdom is empty.
Before the final episode airs, someone on the cast anonymously reports that a staff member and a cast member hooked up during filming. The online article asks, “Are they trying to deceive the viewers?” (Wait, are you telling me reality shows don’t show reality?) The news is almost certainly about Chae-ri, but Yeo-reum assumes it’s about her, especially since she was the other party in Jae-hoon’s kiss scene. Yeo-reum promises to try to find out who reported the scandal before the final episode is broadcast.
At work, between the knife incident and the bipolar cast member on the balcony, Chae-ri is already in trouble. With the news about the cast/crew relationship, she and Yeo-reum find themselves in their boss’s office, eyes down in shame, for the second time in two weeks. (For some reason, I find these two adorable getting reprimanded together.) Chae-ri tells their boss she doesn’t know who it could be. Yeo-reum thinks Chae-ri is covering for her, not knowing there’s anyone else to cover for.
There’s a final scene of someone taking photos of Yeo-reum and Jae-hoon entering the gate to their house (where Yeo-reum has moved back in downstairs). So, even if the news was about Chae-ri, Yeo-reum and Jae-hoon have been found out.
Our penultimate week didn’t leave me super excited but I’m hoping that’s because we’re having a little dip in the energy to ready us for fireworks next week. As much as I love Chae-ri — and I was happy to see what’s underneath all her coldness — I’m worried about what twists might be in store. Why did we hear her knock on five doors and only see what happened at one? Is it possible Chae-ri staged the rumors to bring more interest to her show? I know, it’s terrible — I love her, but I don’t trust her.
One thing I’m really curious about is how the drama will end its send up of reality TV. It started as a spoof of variety shows. But as it’s gone on, I feel like it’s become a more serious critique of the genre. This week had a bunch of standout moments. For one, the humiliated woman on the balcony sobs — possibly ready to jump — wondering how people who don’t even know her can says such terrible things about her after seeing her on TV. Yeo-reum tries to take responsibility, saying she should have transmitted all her best features — it’s the PD’s fault the public isn’t seeing her for who she is. It’s an interesting take — one of many interesting tidbits we’ve seen throughout the drama — and I’m looking forward to seeing if all these parts come together into a whole.