King The Land is here to scratch that large itch that old cheesy and comical K-dramas have left on you. You’ve just got to sit back, leave your brains in the hallway and enjoy. To add to that, the chemistry between the two gorgeous leads is enough to make one ignore the corny dialogues and the impossible direction certain scenes take. We follow the same trope of a rich heir male lead with a poor female lead who works terrifyingly hard to achieve her dreams and goals until he waltzes into her life and ruins everything. So if you’re looking for classic K-drama, quickly dive into King The Land and get back to this article once you’re done!
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In Episode 3?
In episode 2 of King The Land, we left off with Sa-Rang being absolutely smitten by Gu-Won’s gorgeous looks. It’s as if she was blind until he put his hair up and chose a slightly more dapper suit than his regular one. After some usual bickering between the two of them, they quickly get on with the live broadcast. As we know, Sa-Rang has been given a new set of questions at the last minute that Gu-Won has no idea about, courtesy of his older sister. Sa-Rang throws the curve ball at Gu-Won and he collapses rather quickly. The questions are all about his mother and he walks out on Sa-Rang, who is quick on her feet and carries on like a natural until he comes back. In her monologue, she talks about how working at King Hotel was her dream because her visit there as a child changed her life. She hopes to do the same for all customers who visit them. In the meanwhile, Gu-Won gets some air and returns, realizing that his sister was attempting to sabotage him. He throws out the cue cards on live television and asks Sa-Rang to speak her mind and ask him things she’s actually curious about. She talks about the sunset and Gu-Won tells her it would be best to go look at it. In the end, a beautiful scene of two lovebirds watching the sunset is created and the broadcast is a success making the space they were at a new “hot spot”.
Gu-Won is allergic to looking at smiles because he thinks they’re fake, but on top of that he doesn’t know how to smile himself. They’re meant to take photos for the promotion of the hotel, but Gu-Won rushes the photographer, putting in no effort to make the pictures look nice. The last scene is on a boat and the captain suddenly tells them that there’s something wrong with the boat. It’s only the two of them on this particular boat and the man steers them towards a different island for the night. He points them towards the “best” hotel in the place and the two quickly head there. The “hotel” is actually an old house and the suite rooms are one large room separated by a curtain. An old couple manages the place and they bring out their most precious traditional alcohol for what they think is a “couple”. As they’re competitive teenagers, sorry, competitive employer and employee, they have a drinking contest. By the end of the night, they’re both extremely drunk and Gu-Won begins to notice how beautiful Sa-Rang’s smile really is. An unrequited love is bubbling… for now. On the other hand, Sa-Rang apologizes for throwing an unknown curveball at Gu-Won during the interview. She understands that it was something serious. They give each other nicknames and go to sleep in the two suites. When they wake up the captain arrives and it looks like he calls the old woman “mother”, meaning he had planned this whole thing out knowing how rich Gu-Won was, or at least how rich he looked. Sa-Rang haggles with them because money should be earned earnestly and just because someone is rich, it doesn’t mean they have to be cheated. She wins in the end and they get back safely to the hotel after a refreshing bike ride together to have a look at the wonderful landscape.
When they get back, Gu-Won’s father is highly offended by his behavior. He calls his son childish for trying to look for his mother. On the other hand, his sister still seemingly thinks he’s after her position and pushes him to his limits. Meanwhile, at the office, Gu-Won’s dad, aka the chairman, gives Sa-Rang a promotion to King The Land, the VIP lounge, for her amazing work at the interview. While checking the pictures from the trip, Gu-Won notices Sa-Rang and it is very clear to us that he has a large crush on her (how adorable, the rich guy loves a hard-working princess). Gu-Won buys Sa-Rang macaroons as a thank-you for the trip? Or maybe as a sign of interest in her. When he follows her out of the office to give her his special gift, he’s held back by an image of another man pulling Sa-Rang into a hug (Siri, play “That Should Be Me” by Justin Beiber).
What Happens In Episode 4?
It’s always annoying that the male lead has no patience to watch what happens next because Gu-Won could’ve swooped in after Sa-Rang broke up with her boyfriend! Even in the middle of that, her boyfriend has the audacity to pick up his phone and talk to his friends about ordering food. Fortunately, Sa-Rang uses that time to walk away and take her bus. She’s extremely upset and heads to her grandmother’s to get comforted. In the meanwhile, Gu-Won gets dating advice from a traffic officer who stops him from throwing out his macaroons on the streets. He tells Gu-Won that he needs to tell the woman he likes that he is the right one for her, not the other guy she’s seeing. Back at her grandmother’s, all the old men eating food at her restaurant call Sa-Rang daughter-in-law because she’s so kind. After a long day of work, before she’s about to leave, her grandmother offers some side dishes for her boyfriend. Finally, Sa-Rang admits that they’ve broken up. Sa-Rang’s grandmother tells her that she did the right thing and that in situations like this, she should cry and throw a fit rather than hold it in (ah grandmothers are the best!).
It turns out another hotel’s lounge has taken King The Land’s no.1 spot and the chairman is furious about this. Hwa-Ran visits all the hotel departments the next day to make sure they set new sales goals, much higher than before. In the meanwhile, Sa-Rang has a fantastic new manager, completely unlike the old one, but her team are not as great. They think because Sa-Rang went to a 2-year college, she has no right to be up there with them. When she’s reintroduced to Gu-Won as a member of the lounge team, he tells her team leader that she needs to be given special attention, like a little child throwing a tantrum. Even his secretary Sang-Sik is able to see through him. Sang-Sik forces Gu-Won to have a meeting with the lounge team for new sales ideas because his sister has visited all the other departments already. Gu-Won agrees only because it is Sa-Rang’s department, and shows his competence by trusting the ideas of the manager rather than running his own mouth about something he doesn’t know. Because he wants to spend time with her alone and she refuses dinner with him, Gu-Won tells Sang-Sik that he needs to invite her to a welcome dinner and make sure she shows up. Unfortunately, Sang-Sik doesn’t get the memo and invites their whole team. This puts Sa-Rang in a spot because nobody else got this special treatment. To add to that, he notices that she doesn’t touch the sashimi on the table and so he orders a special steak for her from a different restaurant. Sa-Rang calls him out of the room and makes sure he understands that all of his gestures are putting her in a spot. She thinks he’s doing it on purpose to sabotage her even though they ended things on a good note at the island.
Will Gu-Won Be Able To Tell Sa-Rang His True Feelings?
It happens to be Sa-Rang’s birthday and the gang is back together after a long time to celebrate it. She finally admits that she broke up with her boyfriend because they buy her a special kind of lingerie to spend some time with him. They cheer her up with a dance party to a “happy birthday” song and all is well. Gu-Won asks Sang-Sik if he too thinks Gu-Won is an inconsiderate man. Sang-Sik admits he is but he wonders who would tell him to his face. Plus, it’s not Gu-Won’s fault for being born rich. Things go dark when his sister is in Gu-Won’s office, holding his pocket watch in her hand. It had been her who had broken it many years ago when he was just a child and she was a teenager. It’s not clear why she won’t just let him find out about his mother, but she definitely finds him a threat in terms of her position in the company. Gu-Won reminds her that she shouldn’t be scared about him taking her position. Gu-Won still can’t find the records of his mother.
On the other hand, in the lounge, the Chairman brings some guests and Sa-Rang’s colleague tells her to take the back bench while he does the serving. She agrees but the guests realize who she is and ask for her recommendation specifically. This makes her colleague extremely irritable and he takes it out on her later. A tired Sa-Rang is interrupted by her ex-boyfriend while she’s heading home. He tries to give her flowers and apologizes for offering to take her to a kimbap shop the last time (oh man this guy is so annoying one feels like punching him through the screen). He calls her selfish after everything he’s put her through. At the end of the episode, she leaves walking in the rain to her safe spot which happens to be the same as Gu-Won’s. She’s crying without an umbrella and before she knows it someone’s shielding her from the rain. It’s Gu-Won and he tells her that that is his spot. She’s about to leave, irritated by his presence, but she trips and he catches her (ah! The moment we’ve all been waiting for). We can’t wait to see what pans out next for these love-struck birds!
