SKKS Episode 18 summary / recap

I saw the episode today between classes as a nice break from teaching...I summarized while I watched, so today's blog is not as detailed as my previous posts, but I think I was able to get the majority of the action. Enjoy!


1. L puts a gold band/ring on K’s finger as a promise of his intentions. “Did you say that things would end once we leave SKK? That won’t happen. I’ll start each day anew.” He gently takes off K’s hat and then his. He kisses her.

2. Meanwhile, in the basement of the room (L and K are in the elevator kissing right above them), M slams his hands down on the table and tells G to just forget about finding the killers. G reminds M that he doesn’t believe the king but is in this because he believes in M. M tells G to be quiet and then says that in all the happenings, L’s father is involved. L and K overhear this in the elevator. G is stunned and asks for confirmation. M tells him to lower his voice so that they won’t be overheard. L and K enter the room, and K asks for clarification on the conversation they just overheard. G apologizes and tells K that nothing’s been verified. L grabs the evidence/clue and wants permission to verify the clue that L’s father may be involved in the incident. (Poor L and K…just when their relationship seemed to be progressing nicely)

3. M goes to drink, and G joins him, asking him if M doesn’t want to further the search because of Daemul. G realizes that K and L like each other and asks M when he knew. G tells M that L, in true form, has taken the clue to his father to ask for verification on how the land deed that his dad owned got into the hands of a guard. L’s father tells him to stop doing what he’s doing now, whatever it is, and asks for confirmation of whether L’s looking for the decreased crown prince’s book. L asks his father why he’s afraid of the discovery of the book. L’s father explains that history will prove him right in that he doesn’t want the foolishness of a king who missed his prematurely killed father (the crown prince who died at the hands of his own father, the current king’s grandfather). L’s father repeats for L not to get involved. L pointedly asks his father then if this is why he got involved in getting rid of M’s brother and K’s father. L’s father denies any involvement, but L tells him that he cannot take his word as he used to in the past, especially in light of what the paper tells him. L gets up to leave, and his father explodes: “Do you dare to show your father your back?!” (Honorable children are not supposed to show their parents, especially the fathers, their backs nor leave without being excused.) L then tells him father that he plans on becoming his father’s enemy from this time forward. (! The ominous music!) L bows, and father is left in shock.

4. L walks back in thought and K is seen in the library examining books. However, she can’t seem to get out of her head G’s comment about how L’s father was the mastermind behind everything. As she contemplates her ring, M sees her struggle and tells her that it’s late and that if she doesn’t go to sleep, she won’t grow any taller. (LOL) When she asks questions, M tells her to take things one at a time…he’s going to avoid her horrible sleeping habits and sleep with G. M sees the ring on her fingers and leaves with the knowledge that L and K have acknowledge their feelings for each other.

5. K and G are waiting in the basement room. K gets impatient and wants to go seek out L. G tells her not to worry and that another person has gone out to look for L. M finds L and tells him to desist, to not pursue the owner of the land deed. M tells L to not be intent on finding out the identity of the killer(s) of M’s brother and K’s father; their goal and royal command is simply to find the book. L asks M why he, who’s been so intent on avenging his brother’s wrongful death, is now willing to close the investigation on the murders. L understands that M wants to protect K, but L also says that K’s not the only one he needs to consider. He wants to clear the truth and seek forgiveness if needed from not only K but also M. He promises that he’ll try to not hurt K. L tells K that the land deed was indeed his father’s. She tells him to stop and that she needs more time to deal with this news that L’s father was involved in her father’s murder. To K, finding the book and establishing a new Josun (country) won’t compensate now for her father’s death. She leaves after telling L, “I need time.” (BTW, M notices the couple ring on L’s finger! So sad…)

6. G and M come out to comfort L. (LOL I love the look M gives G when G tries to pat M’s butt! LOL)

7. The guard promises to leave now that he’s been paid well by the ByungPan.

8. At her house, K asks her mother to tell her the truth about her father’s death, that it is her right. The mom tells her that she didn’t want her to have rage against the world because that’s how she lost her husband. K comments that it would have been best if her mother had told her from the beginning how her father had died (perhaps referring to her involvement with L).

9. K speculates on what kind of father they had. She tells her brother that whenever she thought of her father, there was a cold wind that swept through her. Because while her father held her brother in his lap, she was always outside, gazing at his outline against the paper door. The brother asks her if she really didn’t know…that all the time their father held him in his lap and read, he was really reading aloud difficult books that Yoon Shik couldn’t understand for her sake. Did she really not know that that was his original intent? The father’s voice is heard as K reads his journal of how the father doubts whether he’s doing the right thing by encouraging her in her pursuit of knowledge when he can do nothing to help such a gifted child fully embrace and display her talent. The father writes that once again, when he heard her voice reciting after him from outside the door, he had to suppress the emotions that welled up from within his heart.

10. K and Prof. Jung talk about whether her father knew the dangers of the book. Prof. Jung agrees that the father probably knew but that Prof. Kim found the risk worthwhile in order to provide an opportunity for his incredibly gifted daughter.

11. K reveals to the other three J4 that the hiding place of the book is SKK. When asked how she knew that SKK was the hiding place, she reveals that she learned from her father’s journal that he hid the book in the once place where he placed his hope in the new Josun/world, SKK the starting place that embodied his hopes for a new world order.

12. At the library, L helps K reach for a book. He notices that K has taken off her ring. She explains in apology that given the circumstances, it seemed appropriate to do so. She had never really tried to understand her father, who undertook this danger for her. L stops her and wipes her tears away, saying that she doesn’t need to explain anymore; he’s understood. Gently, he instructs her to promise to find the book, no matter the cost…that she will find it. With a small smile, L leaves.

13. ByungPan updates L’s father on the guard’s promise and then asks about the wedding date. L’s father tells him about the king’s mission to the J4 and tells the ByungPan to have his son, the student body president, try to refrain them. When the ByungPan tries to tell L’s father that this wouldn’t have happened if they had just married the children off and gotten L out of SKK, L’s father angrily asks the ByungPan if he spoke of a wedding. “Whose fault is this from the very beginning?” L’s father tells BP that there will NOT be a wedding now. BP goes home and fumes, planning to get back at L’s father for treating him like this after all that he’s done and put up with to get L’s father where he is now. When Chosun tries to calm him, BP grabs her wrist and only releases it when HIS walks into the room. (I can’t understand how HIS likes Chosun, knowing that his father has a thing for her.)

14. The J4 (minus L) look for the book all around SKK. The 3 scholars think that L isn’t joining them because of his father’s involvement, but they don’t realize that L is running around town trying to find the whereabouts of the guard who took the bribe. After a fruitless search, K astutely realizes that the book is not in SKK. Her father only left clues in SKK. She tells them that she’s going to look again, but this time, she’ll focus on finding the clues that will lead them to the true hiding place of the book.

15. As G returns to SKK, he runs into HIS and his gang. G affirms that he finds them boring and leaves. IBC asks HIS if he should teach G a lesson, but HIS tells him to let G be…that tonight will be the last time G will be able to act like that.

16. At a local bar, L is seen trying to search for the corrupt guard. However, during his search, he upsets one of the patrons who then proceeds to beat L. When L tries to retaliate, others join in the fray and beat him senseless. (Poor L! And the look on his face as he's being beaten....)

17. The J scholars hear of L’s fight and go to the bar. G asks L if he’s acting so unlike himself to find the book or to clear his father’s name. L replies that he merely wants to discover the truth. G adds that if the truth is revealed, L may not be able to continue living his privileged life as a prime minister’s son. L comments that he doesn’t care how he lives…that anything would be better than living as the son of a man who could have killed the brother and father of those people he cherishes and who likewise have given him their trust. When K leaves, L follows. K tells him outside that even though she can barely remember her father’s face, she misses him this much. She wants L, who thinks the world of his father, to stop so that L doesn’t have to suffer if the truth turns out to be the horrible truth that L’s father killed her father. She doesn’t want him to deal with that type of tragedy. As she tries to leave, L embraces her from behind, and says that he wanted to ask her for forgiveness…that while she was suffering all sorts of trials because of what his father did, he was enjoying all the benefits of those actions. He wanted to ask for forgiveness and try to make up for what she had to endure.

18. Inside the bar, G comments that L continues to surprise them. G comments to M that M should know better than anyone else what turning against a father does to a person.

19. The king and Prof. Jung discuss the scholars’ progress. The king speculates that this feels like Prof. Kim’s last lesson to him and the scholars.

20. Outside the gates of the city, the bribed guard happily leaves, unaware that L is following him. However, before L can apprehend him, the guard is shot with a dart and the fake HBS tries to kill him. L intervenes only to be replaced by M who tells L to deal with the guard while he deals with the fake HBS. M fights and is able to unmask the fake HBS. As the fake HBS leaves, M comments to himself, “So it was Chosun.”

21. K unravels the clues at the library. She connects one clue after another and realizes that the book’s resting place is in a place called “JongMyong.” In her excitement, she hurries out without telling anyone and doesn’t realize that HIS and his gang have retraced her studies and know where she’s headed. (ACK!!!)

22. M and L deal with the corrupt guard while G talks with other guards to find out who the corrupt guard was dealing with. (Anyone think it strange that G always has so much money for bribery when his house didn’t seem that expensive in the previous episode?) G bribes one of the guards to reveal that the corrupt guard was seen dealing with the ByungPan. At about the same time, L and M find out from the corrupt guard that L’s father did indeed order the book’s retrieval but that the killing order came from the ByungPan, thereby neatly clearly L from the murder guilt regarding his friends’ sufferings. The land deed, the corrupt guard, adds was given to him by L’s father after the deed was done as a way to silence the guard. However, the guard adds, things get interesting now since the ByungPan has sent Chosun to kill/silence him.

23. G sees HIS and the guards rushing to “JongMyong” while L and M wait for K at the library. M tells L that he should go look for K to tell her the good news…that this is good news for M as well as for L. G rushes into the library and asks if they haven’t seen K and that HIS and the guards were seen rushing to “JongMyong.” G rightly concludes that K’s life may be at risk.

24. At JongMyong, K discovers the book. Outside on the road, HIS tells the ByungPan that this may be their last chance to get rid of the book. ByungPan tells the guards to do anything and everything to get rid of that book. Observing the guards, M tells L that his priority is to protect K, no matter what. L goes to find K while M, dressed as HBS, fights the guards. L, when he finds K, embraces her. At the same time, a guard (in slow motion) swings at HBS, who appears unarmed, and the episode ends as M falls down from the sword. (ACK!!! I'm hoping that M doesn't die and that this is not the writer's way of resolving the love-triangle....)