My Lovely Bodyguard Last Episode

[Auriville Cha]

Raisedup in a military family and trained to become a bodyguard, Zhen Ai-Ji (played by Summer Meng) is all about responsibility, loyalty and honor. But at heart, she is an ordinary young girl who is eager to fall in love. In order to prevent herself from becoming a "leftover girl" at too early of an age, she decided that her next mission will also be her last one. However, what she did not expect was that her new client, He Zhong-Qi (played by Alien Huang) the CEO of a famous motor company, would be such a difficult person to get along with...

A young woman discovers that she's the secret twin of the crown prince, though she was abandoned at birth. She sacrifices her identity to take the place of her brother, pretending to be him for the sake of her country and her loved ones.

Dam-yi then confronts her grandfather for the final showdown. Much like their other interactions, their conversation is quiet and respectful, yet tight with tension. They both drink a cup of tea, and Dam-yi ominously states that they can leave this world together. Oh my god. She laced their tea with the very poison that Lord Sangheon used to kill her father.

It's been a long time since I've watched a show live (I'd rather binge watch than wait painfully every week) and maybe that's why I also went through a rollercoaster of emotions watching this drama. Was it perfect? No. (cough poison cough) But for all its faults, I absolutely loved this ending. After 20 ep of watching Hwi suffer bc of many factors out of her control - she finally got her happy ending and more importantly with those who she cared about.

Started watching for Rowoon but Park Eun Bin was so amazing in this that I binge-watched Do You Like Brahms? in the week leading up to finale week. She was amazing in that too (Hot Stove League, you're next!). Definitely will be looking forward to her future projects.

I like to believe the anxiety pill she took right before ordering the tea worked as an antidote, BUT they didn't explain that at all. I mean that's a good way to save her considering Jiwoon gave it to her but atleast talk about that a little. The poison killed both her grandfather and father instantly so they should've made it somewhat believable that she lived. TKA's focus has been heavy on the romance since the beginning so I didn't think they'll go for the sad ending anyway. Kdramas have recently completely shyed away from realistic sad endings to go for forced happy endings. Though, I didn't feel it was as forced in TKA.

One of my favorite parts was when the officials came together to plead on Dam-yi's behalf at her hearing; I teared up during that scene. They saw her for the outstanding king she was, not as a woman who illegally took the throne. As the official said, the position was forced on her as a child by greedy adults, and she did the best she could for her people. I'm glad our couple got their happy ending, they so deserved it. I don't care how Dam-yi survived (maybe the anxiety pill helped, maybe Ji-woon was able to figure out an antidote), I'm just glad she lived. And Ji-woon giving her a hairpin was so sweet. I was sad for Hyun because he seemed lonely as king; I just hope he finds a queen he can love.

That was the best scene really. I don't think the offocials in real Joseon would have ever let sth like this slide but throughout the show DY had a good relationship with the officials so it became believable that they will take her side. Hyun looked sad too but he's the best fot for the throne.

For King Hyun - there would be a lady waiting somewhere to trip into his arms, just like the earlier instances in the show (Ha-Kyung into Crown Prince arms, Yeongji into Ga-On/Eun-Seo's arms) I kinda wish that it was this ending for him, as tropey and cheesey as it is, instead of him sitting on his own at that hilltop.

I don't get why they all the sudden we're on her side though. A lot of them was following grandpa and being evil...also, she wasn't King for that long and hasn't done much so how did they know/think she was a great king? She was always under grandpa control and her biggest accomplishment was just finding out who poisoned her dad. Right?

A minority opinion, perhaps but this show staggered on the 2nd half because of 20 episodes. There are many scenes they could have done away with and thus the finale as usual feels rushed. I fast forwarded most of the scenes to arrive at the conclusion we already know. But, PEB was excellent, as always.

Now I can go back to binge-completing the series. Yes, the movie got me with Prince Jehyeon's death, but what better king could we wish for? Hyun has more right to the throne anyway. I'm sure that were Wonsan alive, Damyi would have still named Hyun as King.

It got bleak at the end, before it got better, especially with the death of the Prince Jehyeon. Ouch, that was pathetic (in a sad way) and horrible, in equal proportions. The King suddenly seemed very much on her own, but this served to show how brave, resilient and resourceful she was.

As soon as she took the anxiety pill, I expected it to work as an antidote to poison, so what followed didn't surprise me at all, although I did expect that we would learn Ji-woon had given it to her as protection against poison, but we didn't.

I enjoyed the reversal of the most obvious gender stereotypes, especially in the character of Ji-woon when he was at his most emotional and she was at her most level-headed and rational. It added to Park Eun-bin's wonderfully suggestive Crown Prince/King. As a small woman, she couldn't rely on her physicality to "become" male, but she accomplished it by the power of suggestion. I guess that's good acting.

Grandfather's unprincipled lust for power anchored the whole thing, giving urgency to all the action. An exaggerated big bad, but in the parry and thrust between him and the king, he came across as extremely and unpredictability menacing. His brand of evil was convincing enough to justify the CP's fear-filled life.

Park Eun Bin is skinny, however she ain't that small at 163 cm. All the boys surrounding her are extremely tall even for Korean idols. As in Rowoon is 192cm tall, Nam Yoon Su is 188cm ( or more) , Byung-Chan is 185cm or more, Lee Pil Mo is 181cm tall. And so on.

PD-nim explained that he picked very tall rivals for the male lead because Rowoon is so tall. It was rather complicated. Byung Chan's acting skills are nowhere near Rowoon's or Park Eun Bin or Bae Soo Bin, not even saying that he was always near Go Gyu Pil, who is an experienced actor.

Honestly, I struggled with eps 19 and 20. They caught Grandpops in ep19 and a child could have explained to them that they needed to finish him off *now*. The idea that they didn't conceive he would be able to do a jail-break had me rolling my eyes. Same with Hyun's once again super-speedy recovery and readiness to become king at the drop of a hat. Then we had to go into the full all-out battle - this is very personal, but I find them very hard to get invested in. They're used so much, we pretty much know what the outcome is going to be, there's very little new that can be done with a sword fight, and it just feels tedious. And, lastly, I can't take seriously the idea that the king can just take a couple of days off with pretty much no entourage to go and visit a couple of friends on a deserted island. We didn't need to see a grand reunion of the "friends" (never felt they were a group anyway) - much better if they'd just left it with the two of them doing their thing.

This. I really enjoyed this show overall, but the last 2 episodes, while there were GREAT moments (Hwi trial) and I'm satisfied with how the plot resolved for the most part, I was strangely a bit disappointed and bored by the end. It might be having to wait a week that the anticipation was too great. I would have preferred to binge watch this show at my own pace.

This is something I discovered while watching on-air dramas. There's just so much anticipation and anxiety while awaiting new episodes, especially the finale, that no matter how good the ending is, it always seems a bit of a let-down.

This is why I drop some dramas and wait until it's finished before I watch them. Sky-high anxiety and disappointments are not for me. There are a lot of advantages of watching an ongoing drama, but TKA and now TRS have proved to me that maybe I should just stick to binge-watching completed dramas.

Thanks @sailorjumun for capturing the roller coaster of these two eps! Episode 19 had me muttering, wait/woah this is too easy, and sure enough it was. The finale was a mix-master of feels. Honestly I must have paced for a couple miles back and forth in front of the screen during the battle scenes. Every time Sangheon appeared on the screen I wanted one well-placed arrow to take him out. Cheered for Dowager Queen and her failed attempt on Wonsan but her archery skills were sadly not up to the task.

Finally, our fiesty little sword-wielding king decides to go toe to toe with her grandpa over tea (Princess Bride anyone?). Regarding her survival, I know that cyanide is used to leach gold from rocks and the stress med she took was wrapped in gold foil so either that or the herbal concoction within allowed her to live. Not overthinking this. After recovery she decides to accept punishment rather than cause more bloodshed - a noble, not idiot, gesture. Maybe implausible but glad the ministers were allowed a noble gesture of support as well.

Finally, our OTP enjoys a well-earned walk on a beach at sunset and Park Eun bin retains her status as one of the best K-actors of any gender. Congratulations to the entire production staff, actors, directors and especially writers, who should be righteously proud of their work on this show!

Hwi could defeat her grandfather by the law, proving he was behind the death of the late King and arrested him how a King should do. But he never played by the law, so she had to use his tacticts and the poisining scene was really good, she avenged her father and her brother! How did she survive? I guess they didn't die immediately, nobody tried to save the grandfather and nobody knew for the poison for her father. Ji-Woon knew about the plant after all.

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