Summary
In the third episode, the story moves in a predictable way but everything will only start to get more exciting from here.
This recap of The King’s Affection season 1, episode 3 contains spoilers.
Before we start, I want to give a huge appreciation to Park Eun-Bin for nailing her cross-dressing characters so far. Her charisma and how she portrays the tough, sentimental, arrogant Prince Lee Hwi yet sensitive, naive, and fragile Dam-I all in one body through her eyes and movement is impressive.
The King’s Affection season 1, episode 3 recap
The episode starts with Ji-Woon, once again, enchanted by the beauty of our Dam-i. The difference is she is no longer the Dam-i he knows. She is now the Crown Prince, Lee Hwi. After Lee Hwi shoots her knives towards him, Ji-Woon reassures her that he sees nothing and only passes by to hunt for herbs. Since he doesn’t know about her identity, he offers to help her to get out from the Royal Hunt Area or she’ll be mistaken as an animal. Lee Hwi hesitates but later has no choice to protect her identity. She leaves behind her royal clothes.
The fated couple run away while all the Royal Guardians are chasing after them until they reach the end of the cliffs. Since there’s no other way out, Lee Hwi pushes Ji-Woon to jump off the cliffs. But our Ji-Woon doesn’t want to jump all alone so he grabs her hand, too. Just in case he is drowning again. It’s a parallel scene to their first encounter when both of them fell off to the pond. After the situation is safe, Lee Hwi saves Ji-Woon who is drowning. He suddenly visualizes Lee Hwi as the same girl he fell for and saves him from drowning in the pond. Later, he finds himself waking up all alone in the river.
On the other hand, Lee Hwi finds her way back to the Royal Hunt basecamp. She watches how her father is smiling proudly towards her stepbrother. Her memories travel back to the younger days where her father happily plays with her stepbrother. With sad eyes, she asks her royal people about her father’s reaction upon seeing her for the first time. “Did father agree to kill me because I’m a girl and no use to him? asks Lee Hwi. The court lady replies that the order comes from the King so he has no power to disobey him. She finally snaps back to reality after sensing that someone is targeting her from behind. It turns out, an assassin wearing a blue uniform is aiming an arrow towards her. Hyun comes out of nowhere and successfully protects her while her Royal Guardian is chasing after the assassin. What a life you’re living, Dam-i.
Prince Lee Hwi reports the attempt of assassination towards her to the Royal Highness with the help of Hyun as her witness. The Palace counselors are suspecting that the assassination was organized by the insider because it happened during the Royal Hunt event which is highly guarded. No one can enter the forest, judging that our icy prince almost loses her life being chases down. All the speculation leads to the new Crown Princess, Lee Hwi’s stepmother. Since the Royal Hunt event is not something that the Crown Princess attends. Unfortunately, the injured assassinator that got chased down by Lee Hwi’s Royal Guard plays it well. He swaps his body with a dead man’s body and easily tricks the Palace guardian including the Royal Highness. But not everyone.
At the Palace, the Queen warns the Crown Princess to not get ahead of herself for attending any event that doesn’t require her attendance. No matter what the circumstances. She also gently reminds Lee Hwi that she will soon become the leader of the nation. After meeting the Queen, The Crown Princess oddly throws comments about how the Crown Prince’s area is very diligent at keeping the rules, especially with the five-step rules. Lee Hwi coldly answers that it’s her place so the rules are made by her, including all the businesses that happen inside. Or in short he means, “Stay away from my life.”
“I won’t live like you or grandfather.”
Ji-Woon is bewildered after seeing his father visiting him at his acupuncture house. His father, Jung Seok-Jo, tries to escort him back to the palace. Ji-Woon coldly refuses his offer. Seok-Jo confronts his son to move on from what happened in the past and stop disappointing him and his mother. Ji-Woon, with eyes full of hatred and traumatized, straightly tells him that he has no intention of becoming like him nor his grandfather after what he did referring to his positions and all the glory only comes upon an act of injustice. Later, the images of his father killing the innocent soul of Yi-Wool flash through his memory vividly.
Meanwhile, at the Palace, Lee Hwi is having a nightmare about the death of her twin brother, the real Prince Lee Hwi. Inside her dream, she is walking down the hallways with a fright. Suddenly a man comes from behind the hall, it’s her grandfather, and it suddenly chokes her to death while saying that she should be the one who dies instead. To clear up her mind, she goes to do archery in the middle of the night. Eunuch Hong comes and asks him to go back to her room. Suddenly, Lee Hwi grabs his hand and they’re both hiding behind the trees. It turns out, she sees Ji-Woon who is sneaking his way into the Palace. His only intention is simple: to find the court maid that he encountered at the Royal Hunt area. Well, unfortunately, the person you’re looking for has transformed from a being in a court to wearing a crown.
Lee Hwi becomes curious and secretly follows him while bringing her arrows. She is ready to aim for the arrow to shoot him while recalling the tragic memory of witnessing her mother, Crown Princess, kill one of her court maids because she finds out about Lee Hwi’s real identity. All because she couldn’t do the killing part herself. Ji-Woon goes to the familiar path that leads to the place where Dam-i and young Ji-Woon first encountered one another back then. Lee Hwi got puzzled and aimlessly shot her arrow upon seeing him trying to enter the small gate that leads to her small hiding place. Ji-Woon startles and although the arrow misses its target, it still makes a small cut on his cheek.
After seeing the arrow, Ji-Woon’s trusted palace guard escort him out to the Palace while Lee Hwi, no, I mean Dam-i is still puzzled by the fact that Ji-Woon is trying to enter the place where only the real Dam-i and the young boy she used to has a crush on knows about. Well, isn’t it obvious, Dam-i?
“Don’t ever show me your face again,”
Lee Hwi and Eunuch Hong go on a secret mission to reveal Ji-Woon’s identity. Bok-Hong asks her what she’s going to do if the man she sees at the Royal Hunting Field turns out to be Seok-Jo’s father. Lee Hwi, with sad yet hopeful eyes, says that she’ll kill him because Ji-Woon is her biggest thread and weakness. Upon arriving at his acupuncture’s house, Ji-Woon is nowhere to be seen. Beom-Doo, one of Ji-Woon’s trusted people, escorts both of them to the guesthouse instead. Lee Hwi awkwardly walks herself inside the guesthouse to find Ji-Woon where she sees many noblemen are having fun with a group of women. Her steps keep on moving forward until she stops in front of a room. It turns out she finds out that it was Jang-Woo, Lee Hwi’s uncle that shot her with an arrow.
Jang-Woo is having a blast with two royal inspectors. He starts blabbering about his suspicion over Hwi’s mysterious secret. His suspicion getting bigger after he sees Hwi with her hair down at the Royal Hunt. “He looks like a woman!” He says. Jang-Woo persuades one of her royal inspectors to spill the tea to him. Especially since the royal inspector has commented on Prince Lee Hwi having a temper like a woman through her writings. The other royal inspectors unintentionally mock him saying that he’s been drinking too much resulting in Jang-Woo’s anger outburst. He beats him with no mercy. After realizing that there’s someone behind the closed door, Jang-Woon throws one of the inspectors outside the room, creating a fuss in the hallways.
Luckily, Ji-Woon saved Lee Hwi from her angry uncle’s temper. Not knowing anything, Ji-Woon wraps her arm around Lee Hwi’s tiny little body. He asks her to be quiet. After their eyes meet, both of them are flustered especially Ji-Woon. He realizes that she looks familiar like the woman he’s been searching for from The Royal Hunt. Lee Hwi acts cooly and stubbornly goes outside even though Ji-Woon has warned her that the man is known for being a madman. Well, Lee Hwi knows better anyway. Lee Hwi bravely confronts and surprises her angry uncle. With a fierce and sharp tongue, she is putting him in a tight spot over his attempt at assassination towards her at the Royal Hunting Field. She’ll keep his act of violence and assassination from His Majesty as long as he stays away from her business and better keep his dirty mouth shut. That is what he gets from using his power to abuse people. Jang-Woo asks her reason for coming to the guesthouse since there’s a lot of women in the Palace, tempting her to reveal her secret. Not going to fall into the trap, Lee Hwi calls Ji-Woon and addresses her as a friend. Ji-Woon awkwardly obeys and follows her direction.
After successfully avoiding the crisis, Lee Hwi asks Ji-Woon about his name. That’s when she knows that the man that’s standing in front of her is her heart’s biggest threat. “My name is Jung Ji-Woon,” answers Ji-Woon while still being fazed by the fact that she is the Crown Prince. Lee Hwi then asks him about his studies at Ming which makes Ji-Woon delighted since he finds it generous how the Crown Prince still remembers his words. Lee Hwi with sad yet longing eyes warns him to never show his face to her again if he wants to continue on living.
The King’s Affection season 1, episode 3 ending
Ji-Woon meets the fierce princess that threatens his shop and Yeong-Ji. She apologizes for the fuss she’s making and later asks him to remember her name, Shin So-Eun. He smiles towards her. After arriving back at his shop, Ji-Woon is shocked to witness the chaos that’s happening. A group of mysterious people, we believed is sent by his father, destroyed his shop and captured his dearest people. Since the chaotic event happens after Seok-Jo is ordered to bring his son, Ji-Woon, to become the Crown Prince’s tutor in preparation for Ming’s visit. Apparently, rumor has it that Ji-Woon is known for his acupuncture skill and once saved Vice Minister of Ming. Leaving him no choice but to get back to the Palace.
Meanwhile, Lee Hwi is peacefully writing down her journal and recalls her encounter with Ji-Woon. Hyun suddenly appears and gives Lee Hwi a pen with a crafted wooden flower pattern as a gift. For the first time, we finally witness the icy Prince Lee Hwi’s genuine smile. Unfortunately, Eunnoch Hong interrupts the moment because it’s time for Lee Hwi’s lectures. Since our prince is hard to deal with, Lee Hwi always finds herself changing the Royal Tutor. This time, she is curious about the endurance of a young man with a glorious recommendation. Since she confidently thinks the new tutor won’t last long either. After arriving at the lecturing hall, she confidently confronts her new tutor until she realizes that the new royal tutor turns out to be Jung Ji-Woon. Her biggest threat and weakness. Well, isn’t it fun, Dam-i? Let see who’s gonna survive suppressing their affection the longest!
You can stream The King’s Affection season 1, episode 3 exclusively on Netflix.
