iaria

+ Continuing to enjoy Gon/Tae-eul. I like that in their time apart Tae-eul has accepted that she does like Gon and has decided to just go with it and enjoy being with him, while knowing it's unlikely to be permanent.

- I loved Gon rubbing Tae-eul's hair tie and how it's become a sort of talisman for him.

- "I was a bit scared that you didn't want me to come back." and the expression on his face when Tae-eul interrupted him with a hug was a great look into what Gon's feeling.

- I love that Gon has missed being addressed casually. I love him taking Tae-eul's hand and leading her out, and her accepting it.

- I loved all the little smiles Tae-eul kept throwing at Gon during the chicken diner scene. She was so pleased to have him there again. I loved her telling him to take her other hand when he refuses to relinquish the one he had.

- Tae-eul taking Gon back to the shooting arcade he failed at and winning him the prize bear, while wearing sunglasses, was hilarious. I love how petty that was.

- Tae-eul rejecting holding hands in favour of him putting his arm around her. They were very cute together.

- I loved how Gon smiled and accepted Tae-eul's declaration that she was in charge of their partnership. Definitely a change from his usual life.

- I loved this line: "Don't tell me not to come, and don't tell me not to leave."

+ Great episode for Gon/Yeong.

- I really love how well Gon knows Yeong. I love that he knew Yeong was going to be at the forest to intercept him and had already decided to take Yeong to the Republic with him. That in fact taking Yeong was an essential step. I love that when time stopped he made sure to put the perfect note in Yeong's pocket to convince him.

- This exchange was a delight:

Yeong: If you must go, you'll either have to kill me or take me with you. Make your choice.
Gon: I choose number one.
Yeong: I'm better than you with swords.
Gon: Then number two.

LOL. Cute.

- I thought Yeong's reaction last episode re: 'Luna' was his realization/confirmation that there were two worlds not that he thought Tae-eul was the criminal Luna. I do love that he was so destroyed at the thought of Gon being deceived, that he'd have to tell him and how hurt it would leave him. That's lovely.

- I loved Gon being all guilty when Eun-sup reveals that Gon called him his Unbreakable Sword. Yeong seemed pretty annoyance/maybe hurt over it.

- Gon's "He looks so cute when he's flustered." was cute.

- Gon is asking a lot of Yeong. First, to stay in and navigate this world he knows nothing about and has no power/influence in, to b) find and kill his traitor uncle, who c) has spent 25 years living in this world and who 25 years ago was smart/influential enough to successfully assassinate a king. It makes me deeply worried for Yeong's safety. Especially with all this talking about and actual killing of doppelgangers, while he has one there.

+ I am so happy that secrets are being divulged and shared instead of being kept unnecessarily. Prince Bu-yeong has told Ok-nam the truth about Lim, both Yeong and Eun-sup now know about the parallel worlds with Yeong further being told about Lim, and best of all Tae-eul and Gon are working together as partners with no secrets. Yay.

+ We get a lot of talk about balance this episode. Na-ri thinks that doppelgangers have to be killed in order to maintain balance and it appears Lim agrees with her since he's having anyone he moves between worlds kill their doppelganger. It makes me curious about what would happen if two lived in the same world for any length of time - and I guess we'll find out since Yeong is staying in Korea.

But we know that things are getting unstable because people are seeing/feeling their alternates whenever Lim/Gon pass between worlds - Tae-eul seeing Luna, Eun-sup feeling Yeong's pain from the coffee, and now Seo-ryung seeing her alternate. I wonder if there's meaning about who is seeing/feeling their other, or if perhaps this is a wider phenomenon than we've seen?

Finally, Na-ri thinks that if there are two worlds 'one will destroy the other' which feels rather ominously like foreshadowing.

+ I love how quickly Gon worked out the 'rule' of the time freezes and what it meant.

+ Is the bamboo forest the only gate between worlds? Because if so then Gon can set a troop of guards to watch it and capture/kill Lim when he next tries to go through.

+ Yeong and Eun-sup were fun. Yeong's restrained enthusiastic threats to kill Eun-sup amused me. I loved Yeong's "You really didn't know?" after Eun-sup exclaims 'no one told me how handsome I was', ha. That was not what I was expecting. I loved Eun-sup casually throwing out "I have a boyfriend" even if it was just to get to Yeong.

+ I loved Gon's reaction when Eun-sup walked into the studio immediately putting lie to his confidence. It was very 'nope, nothing to see here, this has nothing to do with me' innocent, heh.

+ I loved Seo-ryung rejecting the pantsuits because why should she have to wear something more masculine to succeed in politics instead of her usual style? Excellent point. Also she wears such gorgeous clothes and looks amazing in them that it would be a shame to change her style. Meh on her jealousy of Tae-eul and calling her 'that bitch' though.

+ Seo-ryung's "fake news" response to the headline "Donald Trump visits North Korea" made me lol.

+ It looks like Lim is going to try and get Seo-ryung on his side but I'm really hoping that she'll side with Gon for the good of Corea.

+ I really enjoyed the scene of Tae-eul's cop team gossiping about their boss and him trying to shut them down.

+ I found Na-ri's reaction to Tae-eul confiding that she'd spent the night at a guy's (big) house really strange. She pauses for a second and then says "Good for you" but her expression and tone don't really match the words. They're friends, right? I would have expected some interest from Na-ri, or excitement especially if it's something Tae-eul has never done before but she didn't seem at all pleased or curious, nor did she show any interest in wanting to know more. She was perfunctory. In fact it made we wonder if she was jealous. If we didn't know her alternate I'd swear she had been replaced. It was a weird way to play that exchange.

+ The twins being Eun-sup's siblings instead of his kids was a little weird but especially so after leaning they were only visiting for the holidays. His apartment really looks like they live there.

+ The fact that Jangmi spent days researching Shin-jae's favourite flower to pick the right candle scent for the night duty room is pretty damn sweet.

+ That flash of Shin-jae waking from a coma as a kid makes me think now that perhaps his parents made a deal with Lim to get 'their' son back - that Korean!Shin-jae died and the Shin-jae we see is from Corea. Perhaps they were rich and gave Lim all their money to get him?

+ If Tae-eul believes Shin-jae is so trustworthy I'm surprised that she hasn't considering letting him in on the truth.