King the Land (Season 1) Episodes 7 & 8: With every coming episode, the central pair of ‘King the Land’ is getting increasingly closer. In the last two episodes, we saw Goo Won expressing his love to Cheon Sa-rang while she started getting smitten by the special treatment. He went to the lengths of jumping from a helicopter to save her. How could you not fall for such a dramatically romantic man?
Anyhow, they continued to have some professional battles to face along the way. Sa-rang’s new teammates were not supportive and kept making her feel increasingly miserable. Goo Won, on the other hand, continued to face his sister’s opposition to the control of their family business. Let’s find out how the two love birds manage their love life while working for the King Hotel.
*Spoilers Ahead*
King the Land (Season 1) Episodes 7 & 8 Recap:
Episode 7
The sixth episode ended with Goo Won (Lee Jun-ho) showing up at Cheon Sa-rang’s (Im Yoon-ah) doorstep. He was worried for her and wanted to know why she was upset at the party. She saw someone with him and believed she was his girlfriend. Hearing that, he realizes that Sa-rang is getting jealous of other women getting close to him. He reveals the truth and realizes that she, too, has feelings for him.
While he tells Sa-rang the truth, he hides the fact from Pyung-hwa (Ko Won-hee) and Da-eul (Kim Ga-eun) that he is the chairman’s son. They start listing out the complaints that Sa-rang made about the head manager, which leaves her embarrassed. Still, Gu Won keeps up with his act. Before leaving, he also takes Sa-rang out to walk a few laps around the house. Since he knows she likes him too, he directly asks for a date, and she agrees.
At the King Hotel, Hwa-ran (Kim Seon-young) tries to take credit for saving Sa-rang by sending the helicopter. She also gets a press release written for Sa-rang to portray her in a positive light. While Sa-rang points out how they are deceiving people by doing this, Hwa-ran shuts her up. Still, despite Hwa-ran’s objection, Sa-rang mentions Gu Won as the person who came all the way to save her. Gu Won happens to come to the press conference just in time to greet her with a charming smile.
Talking about the smiles, Gu Won now loves Sa-rang’s smile, maybe because it does not feel fake as others’. Because of the press conference, Sa-rang remains absent from her duties for a few hours. So, her co-workers dump all the remaining work on her and leave. Gu Won soon joins her and offers assistance. He notices how she puts a little extra effort and consideration even in the most basic things, like putting on a cloth over the table. He hopes to be as sincere toward her in their relationship.
Besides her, her friends also have work struggles. The pilot at King Air keeps harassing Pyeong-hwa and threatens to reveal her past secret to others. He also objects to her getting closer to a flight attendant. That is when Ro-woon swoops in and shows the harasser his position.
On the other hand, Da-eul’s team’s new supervisor continues to steal the team’s meals while pushing them to work even harder. She entices them with greater incentives and some tour offers. But in exchange, they will have to work overtime. Da-eul realizes how it would mean she would not be able to make enough time for her family. But the supervisor does not care about their concerns but only about bigger numbers.
Meanwhile, the Arab Prince, Samir comes into the picture. Many hotel owners from South Korea are hoping to host him but Gu Won manages to convince this old friend of his to stay at the King Hotel in exchange for signing a ridiculous agreement. According to that, Gu Won would be required to say ‘Yes’ to anything Prince Samir asks of him.
The Prince starts throwing tantrums from the moment he lands in the country. He even asks Gu Won to open the car door for him. Since Sa-rang is appointed to greet Prince Samir with a bouquet, he sees her first and gets smitten by her within an instant. His flirting gets on Gu Won’s nerves, who tries to keep them away. But Sa-rang’s love for her work and the obligatory servitude makes the Prince fall for her even more.
The Prince asks her to join him for a meal and then for a visit to a local attraction spot. Over there, he asks her to fake-marry her according to a local custom ceremony. Gu Won decides to put a stop to Prince Samir’s obsession and threatens to tear apart his contract. He does not even mind if the Prince takes his business elsewhere. But Sa-rang stops him and agrees to go along with the wedding for the sake of their hotel. She gets all dressed up to be wedded to the Prince. However, to her surprise, she sees Gu Won on the other side.
Episode 8
Gu Won tricks Prince Samir into wearing a different attire from the groom’s. As a result, Gu Won enters the wedding, whereas the Prince ends up making a fool of himself. After this embarrassment, Prince Samir gets Gu Won taken away by his guards to spend some alone time with Sa-rang. He tries to entice her with his riches and believes she would desire that. She makes him realize that she loves doing her job and isn’t going to accept ownership of a hotel just because he offers her.
Once Prince Samir’s dream shatters (for the time being), Sa-rang gets a special treat from Gu Won. He offers her a night stay at their hotel room, where she can order anything she wants from the room service. Instead, she craves some instant noodles in the middle of that night. So, she and Gu Won go to a supermarket and then cook two bowls by themselves. Gu Won savors it without any pretense.
Back in the hotel, Kim Soo-mi suddenly walks up to their room. So, Sa-rang hides inside a room while Goo Won curtly responds to her. While Gu Won tries to be more class-conscious, Da-eul’s husband continues to be a living, breathing disappointment. He lies on the couch, expecting every service from his wife, even if she worked as hard or even harder than him. On the other hand, Pyeong-hwa goes through an accident in her journey, and Ro-woon cares for her as he always does. He drops her back home, worried about her back injury.
Despite his failed attempts, Prince Samir keeps making moves to impress Sa-rang. He invites her for a dinner date at the hotel and gets Gu Won to serve their table. She feels weird seeing him in that outfit while she sits in her chair getting the service. Gu Won still does everything for the sake of the hotel.
However, once Prince Samir takes out a ring to propose to Sa-rang, he flips out. He tells the Prince that it is impossible. Sa-rang takes the matter into her hands and kindly rejects Samir’s proposal. She says she will look forward to serving him in the future. He understands that she will always treat him as the hotel’s guest and gets impressed by her humility.
On the work front, Gu Won continues to find Hwa-ran’s ruthless managerial approach unnecessary. Since he competently handled Prince Samir’s matter, Goo Il-hoon gave him the responsibility for their next project. It obviously does not sit right with Hwa-ran. He points out her unjust treatment of the employees, where she pressures them in exchange for incentives. She still finds it justified. So, he gets ready to fight with her to learn who is more competent to take over the hotel’s responsibility.
On the other hand, Gu Won has nightmares of Prince Samir snatching Sa-rang away from her. So, he suddenly wakes up and calls her to meet him immediately. At the time, she was with Pyeong-hwa and Da-eul in a sauna. Both friends were there to help Pyeong-hwa reach her sales goal at King Air. That’s why the three try to lure other women in to buy their products. Gu Won walks in and gets awkward by seeing people sitting on the floor. He still goes on to join Sa-rang and her friends for a meal.
To his own surprise, Gu Won loves what Da-eul had brought to eat. He keeps feasting on the eggs as if he did not have any dinner! Anyhow, only after that Sa-rang realizes that Pyeong-hwa lied to her. What they were doing was illegal/unethical, and Sa-rang is against crossing that line. Pyeong-hwa says that she did it because she was helpless. Hearing that, Gu Won offers his help to sell some more products. While Pyeong-hwa and Da-eul make him jealous of Prince Samir getting closer to Sa-rang, he continues to treat them as his big family.
King the Land (Season 1) Episode 8 Ending Explained:
After the sauna date, Gu Won tells Sa-rang that he wants to speak about them as a couple. She agrees to it. She gets ready to meet him at a serene venue. She walks in to find Gu Won being a host for her. He apparently learned cooking from the chef and prepared some dishes, especially for Sa-rang. She gets impressed by how good they are and how quickly he learned, considering the onion peeling fiasco!
After the first course, Gu Won cooks pasta for her in front of her. She loves every bite of it, and it looks like her turn to get the joy she gave him till then. He says that it is an important day for him since he wants to treat his VIP employee. He, however, keeps stalling to have a ‘serious conversation.’ Soon after, he tries to heat a steak and mistakenly starts a fire. It ends up turning on the fire sprinkler. After that unexpected shower of water, Sa-rang and Gu Won end up kissing each other. So, the eighth episode ends on this incredibly romantic note.
