King the Land (Season 1) Episodes 9 & 10: The eighth episode of ‘King the Land’ ended on an incredibly romantic note. After playing around with the notion that Sa-rang and Gu Won will be in a relationship, it finally showed them kissing each other. The couple spent so much time loving each other but kept their romance a secret. Now this week’s two episodes take the chapter on their love to the next step. Gu Won starts becoming more class-conscious and learns to understand the importance of little joys. Sa-rang also starts to embrace their romance. The two even get to spend some more time together, away from the hotel.
*Spoilers Ahead*
King the Land (Season 1) Episodes 9 & 10 Recap:
Episode 9 Recap:
Sa-rang (Im Yoon-ah) cherishes her romantic dinner night with Gu Won (Lee Jun-ho). It comes across as a sign that these two love birds are ready to take their relationship to the next step. On the other hand, Pyeong-hwa (Go Won-hee) manages to surpass their sales quota and seems the most likely employee to get a promotion. Unfortunately, another flight attendant gets promoted as a purser instead of her. Ro-woon (Kim Jae-won) notices her disappointment and consoles her. He makes her recall why she started working to be a ‘part of beautiful flights.’ He tries to make her see that promotion as immaterial.
In the King Hotel, Sa-rang and Gu Won start to play around with the realization that they are finally in a relationship. Gu Won starts to make romantic gestures that make Sa-rang slightly uncomfortable. After all, he is the chairman’s son, and she is the hotel’s employee. On the work front, Sa-rang helps her King the Land co-worker with a notebook of curated recommendations for a customer. She does not expect any reward for doing so since she thinks it is a part of her job to help her teammates. It improves their work relationship. Meanwhile, the battle between the hotel’s heirs continues. Gu Won and Hwa-ran (Kim Seon-young) continue to make attempts to prove themselves more worthy of the responsibility. During their new meeting, Gu Won pushes his own name to run the entire hotel. Their father shows confidence in him but notes that he will consider the suggestion after the event for their 100th Anniversary.
Gu Won has a hard time separating his personal relationship with Sa-rang from their professional one. Sang-sik (Ahn Se-ha), as always, overenthusiastically supports his friend. While he also tries to share his dating advice for Gu Won, Hwa-ran decides to bring people from her own circle for their upcoming event. Gu Won goes to meet Sa-rang’s grandmother, Soon-hee, and notices her falling from a table. So, he takes her to a hospital for treatment. By then, she had realized his interest in Sa-rang. So, she advises him to sincerely express how he feels about her. She also calls him candidate number one for Sa-rang’s marriage. Soon after, Sa-rang arrives there herself and gets emotional seeing her grandmother’s condition. Soon-hee calms her down by saying that she will receive all the necessary treatment. After their meeting at the hospital, Sa-rang and Gu Won get to spend some ‘alone time’ in her grandmother’s house. After the lights go off, they speak about their past issues. He opens up about his feelings, and she does too. Once they clear the air, the couple confess their love for one another. The night ends with a kiss, and the two share a room together. While they sleep on different mattresses, he notes that he will always be next to her.
The next morning, Soon-hee notices Gu Won caressing her granddaughter. She thinks he has some lewd intentions and so slaps his left and right cheeks. Soon after, she takes him to the market and grills him throughout their walk based on what she knows about him. Eventually, she takes him to a local office to get a housing subscription account created for her ‘potential grandson-in-law’. That makes it clear how much she loves him. Even back at home, she offers him extra food to show the same love and care. After dinner at Soon-hee’s place, Gu Won walks Sa-rang back to her house. While spending some time there, he learns about the horrible treatment her friends, Da-eul (Kim Ga-Eun) and Pyeong-hwa received by their seniors. While Pyeong-hwa did not receive her deserved promotion, Da-eul’s supervisor lied to them about their incentive foreign trip and rather took them to a local, lackluster food joint. Gu Won feels terrible for them and states that they should not be treated that way. He even forgets that he presented himself as Mr. No to these women and not as the head manager.
Nevertheless, the next day, Gu Won invites these three employees for a foreign trip. He calls their groups’ best-performing employees from King the Land, King Air, and King Sales Team, respectively. Gu Won joins them for the trip, and Sang-sik surprises him with his presence. While he is about to expose Gu Won’s identity, Gu Won quickly interrupts him. So, on this trip, Gu Won calls Sang-sik their department manager. As a result, he ends up getting demands from Sang-sik. Anyhow, they all move ahead with their exciting trip.
Episode 10 Recap:
Unlike other episodes, the tenth episode is highly uneventful. It mostly follows Sa-rang and her friends’ Thailand trip with Gu Won & Sang-sik. They all get excited by this surprise and look forward to the leisurely time together. Gu Won offers a business class seat to Sang-silk just so he can sit next to Sa-rang. But he is not aware of the lack of privileges he is used to. While Da-eul makes him aware of it, he swallows his pride for Sa-rang.
The couple finally reaches Bangkok and takes a scenic road trip. After a lot of excitement, Sang-sik walks them to their stay at a luxurious place. To not ruin others’ moods, Gu Won also agrees to share a room with Sang-sik. Later on, Sang-sik asks them to enjoy the trip as per his itinerary. When they go out to eat noodles, Sa-rang offers a bite to Gu Won. It creates a cute, embarrassing moment for them. Then, they walk through the local markets, shopping for anything and everything they can find. Sa-rang and Gu Won hope to spend some time alone, away from their friends. Later at night, Gu Won and Sa-rang text each other to meet without their friends’ notice. They eventually manage to sneak out of their rooms and meet outside to have a deep conversation. Sa-rang had not experienced such leisurely joy in a long time. She notes that she is more than happy with him at that moment. Gu Won promises to make her life filled with such happiness. He is determined to give her all the joy she could not experience before for one reason or another.
The next day, Sang-sik takes everyone sightseeing in Thailand through its tourist spots. They continue casually teasing Sa-rang and Gu Won (Mr. No) about being together. Da-eul also taunts him for his lack of experience for the years he worked for the King Group. Gu Won keeps wishing to get more alone time with Sa-rang. He even gets off a ferry holding her hand, only to realize he held Sang-sik’s hand by mistake. While Gu Won feels that his assistant is ruining his trip, Sa-rang manages to cheer him up. While they all were having dinner together, Ro-un suddenly shows up right next to their table. It is clear that he stopped by since he could not bear the thought of staying away from Pyeong-hwa any longer. So, two love birds get a chance to spend some romantic time in Thailand. They all go out and enjoy the night roaming around a gorgeous fountain.
King the Land (Season 1) Episode 10 Ending Explained:
Early in the morning, Ro-un prepares to leave without waking up his roommates. On his way out, he finds the gifts and breakfast that Da-eul left for him. Later, Gu Won and Sa-rang ditch Sang-sik’s plans to roam around on their own. They enjoy their date and the freedom they craved since they arrived in Thailand. After spending an entire day with Sa-rang, Gu Won opens up about his personal life. He reveals that he and Hwa-ran have different mothers and speaks about the reason he came to hate smiles plastered on people’s faces.
Gu Won shares that his mother left without any communication. Sa-rang decides to offer her help to find his mother. He, however, says that he is not curious anymore. Because of Sa-rang’s presence in his life, he does not consider an empty hole in his life anymore. They both thank each other for coming into each other’s lives. After this dialogue, they go out for a ‘VIP tour’ through the city and enjoy the night together. In the end, we see them all dressed up and go to a rooftop with each other. They both confess their love for each other and share a passionate kiss.
