Previously on Hotel King… recap ep 27

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Anna’s Recap

SPOILER ALERT: Do not proceed if you do not want to know what has happened so far!

This episode. Wow. The show has been preparing for a reunion between Jae-wan and Chairwoman Baek for awhile now, but never did I think it would end like that. Watching this episode, my emotions were a complete mess because I felt happiness, sadness, anger all in the span of one hour. As the show heads into the final stretch, the cliffhanger has set us up for one hell of an upcoming ride. You thought that characters were out for revenge and blood before? That’s going to look like a total joke compared to what’s coming.

In Chairwoman Baek’s office, Roman walks in to see his mother trying to strangle Jae-wan with her bare hands. Although she does eventually let go, Roman can’t let her hatred for Jae-wan continue any longer and blurts out that Jae-wan is actually Hyun-woo, her son that she long thought was dead. Chairwoman Baek is stunned to hear this, and thinks that there’s no possible way that this could be true. She collapses to the floor in shock, refusing to believe that Jae-wan and Hyun-woo are the same person. Jae-wan shows her the robot necklace that his mother gave him as a baby. Recognizing the necklace as the same one that she gifted her baby Hyun-woo, Chairwoman Baek realizes that he really is her son.

Chairwoman Baek stares at Jae-wan as if he was a ghost or a hallucination, and leaves the office and Ciel for the nearby fields. As she tries to digest the shocking information that she just heard, she recalls all the threats she made to Jae-wan. Devastated that she actually tried to kill her own son, Chairwoman Baek cries and screams at herself. Jae-wan eventually finds her there, and watches as she hits herself and the ground in despair. When Chairwoman Baek finally calms down, she asks Jae-wan if he already knew who she was when he came to visit her in the prison and if he made the meal for her at the Baek Mi-yeon house. He replies yes to both. He then reassures her that he doesn’t hate her at all for the things that she did. She calls out his name, “Hyun-woo,” finally believing that he’s real and not a figment of her imagination. They tearfully but happily embrace, and mother and son are finally reunited after 33 long years. They cry. I cry. Everyone should be crying.

The next morning, Roman is preparing to leave for New York. But before he leaves, he apologizes to Chairwoman Baek for not telling her sooner that Jae-wan is Hyun-woo, even though he knew for awhile. He admits that he was scared that if she reunited with her real son that she would forget about him. Chairwoman Baek tells Roman that she’s actually the one who is sorry because she didn’t know how to properly love him for all these years, causing him to worry about his place in her heart. Roman is relieved to learn that Chairwoman Baek does actually love him, and can now trust Jae-wan to take care of her while he’s in NY.

Chairwoman Baek visits Chairman Ah’s memorial at the temple with a prayer request. She prays to him that he will protect Mo-ne and Jae-wan because they are innocent and should not be harmed in the fight that is really only between her, Chairman Ah, and Joong-goo. Joong-goo arrives at the temple after receiving a call from Chairwoman Baek to meet there, and she reveals to him that she knows Jae-wan is Hyun-woo. She even thanks him for raising him all the years. Joong-goo makes up a bunch of lies, per usual, about how he would have told her sooner but didn’t know whether or not she’d react negatively to the news. Chairwoman Baek just keeps smiling and says that everything between them is fine now because she has Hyun-woo again. Her unusually calm and friendly attitude towards him immediately makes Joong-goo suspicious. Your spidey sense is quite on point, Joong-goo.

After her discussion with Joong-goo, Chairwoman Baek meets up with Jae-wan for their “first date.” Awww. Jae-wan, wearing an outfit that Mo-ne helped him pick out, adorably tries to make conversation with his mom by asking her about her interests. He promises her that they can now spend lots of time together, and that he wants her to nag him like a mom does. Jae-wan then calls her “mom,” and Chairwoman Baek and I both start crying.

As they walk around, they come across a local artist and Jae-wan asks him to draw a portrait of the two of them. After 33 years, Chairwoman Baek and her Hyun-woo are able to finally have another picture together.

When Jae-wan and Chairwoman Baek arrive back at her home, Mo-ne is there waiting. Chairwoman Baek brings just Mo-ne to her house and gives her the briefcase containing Chairman Ah’s journals. While grateful for the offer, Mo-ne refuses to accept them because she doesn’t think that she’s worthy enough for them yet. Remember the original condition for getting back the journals is that Mo-ne has to be a successful Chairwoman at Ciel, and she’s clearly not there yet. Chairwoman Baek disagrees, however, and says that she’s done plenty to show that she is more than worthy of the journals. Okay, clearly Chairwoman Baek’s elation at finding Hyun-woo is clouding her judgment of Mo-ne. Chairwoman Baek then reiterates that she didn’t kill Mo-ne’s dad, and that by the time she went into the office after hearing a commotion, it was already too late to save Chairman Ah. Mo-ne believes her, and apologizes for all the hurt and pain that her father caused her all those years ago. About time, don’t ya think.

Joong-goo had his assistant do some investigating on Chairwoman Baek after that highly suspicious conversation they had at the temple. It turns out that she already transferred all her assets to Roman and Jae-wan, so it makes no sense that she would be offering to give him land in repayment for him raising Jae-wan. Nevertheless, Joong-goo goes to the abandoned building on the land she offered him to meet with her. Prior to Joong-goo’s arrival, Chairwoman Baek already had the place doused in gasoline and wired so that it would all go up in flames when she lights a fire. She had spent the last few days preparing for Jae-wan, Mo-ne, and Roman as if she wasn’t going to be around because she’s planning to kill both herself and Joong-goo today in that building.

When Joong-goo arrives at the building, Chairwoman Baek has the doors locked, preventing him from escaping. She tells him that everything between them is going to end today. She’s going to kill both of them because that’s the only way Jae-wan will be able to live his life. But because he was so very suspicious of her, Joong-goo had prepared for this and his men burst in through the doors and tie up Chairwoman Baek, instead. He tells her to give over her hotel shares to him or else he’s going to have no choice but to involve Jae-wan.

In the meantime, Jae-wan and Mo-ne are at the Baek Mi-yeon house where they thought they were going to meet with Chairwoman Baek. Instead, she left them a box of Hyun-woo’s baby things along with a note saying that she’s planning to go on a trip for awhile. As they are eating the meal prepared for them by Chairwoman Baek, Jae-wan receives a phone call from Joong-goo telling him to come to the building where he is if he wants to see his mother again. In the background, he very clearly hears his mother’s screams.

Jae-wan rushes over to the building and finds Chairwoman Baek bloodied and tied up. As he’s approaching her, he’s suddenly attacked by Joong-goo’s men with a cinder block to his head. Unable to free herself from the binds, Chairwoman Baek can only helplessly watch as Jae-wan is viciously beaten. After Jae-wan lost consciousness and looks close to death, Joong-goo comes back into the room and tells Chairwoman Baek that she forced him to have to do this to their son. But when he sees how seriously Jae-wan was beaten, Joong-goo somehow has the nerve to act angry that his men didn’t listen to instructions and beat him up so badly (again…let’s not forget that this happened last time too over that damn USB).

Joong-goo reprimands Chairwoman Baek for telling him that Hyun-woo wasn’t his son, and allowing him to believe that Chairman Ah was his father this whole time. Because of this, he says that she doesn’t have the right to lecture him on being a bad father for hurting his son. Didn’t he just act all concerned a minute ago about how hurt Jae-wan was? WTF.

Joong-goo pulls out a gun and points it at Jae-wan, threatening to shoot him if she didn’t give her hotel shares to him. Chairwoman Baek quickly agrees and signs over the shares. At the same time, Jae-wan regains consciousness for a moment to see the gun and his mom being tortured by Joong-goo. He manages to get away from the men holding him up and tackles Joong-goo, forcing him to accidentally a fire a shot. The gunshot sets the gasoline-soaked room on fire and flames rise up around them. Two quick “bang” noises follow and Jae-wan collapses on the floor again. It’s unclear if Jae-wan was shot or someone just hit him again, but he immediately loses consciousness. Joong-goo and his men manage to escape, but Chairwoman Baek and Jae-wan are trapped in the fiery room.

After Jae-wan left the Baek Mi-yeon house earlier without an explanation, Mo-ne had been waiting by the phone for his call. When Woo-hyun sees her and finds out that she still hasn’t heard from him, he asks if this might have anything to do with the abandoned building that his father, Chairman Sun of Woojin Ranch, sold to Chairwoman Baek. He learned of the business deal earlier when he was at the ranch. Mo-ne and Woo-hyun rush out to find Jae-wan and Chairwoman Baek, and arrive at the building to see it explode and become engulfed in flames.

WHAT. Jae-wan. Chairwoman Baek. They can’t be dead, right? Right?!

Et cetera:

When Chairwoman Baek and Jae-wan were reunited, Roman went to Haemil to tell Chae-kyung about it and how he was going back to NY the next day. He tells her to find him if she’s ever in NY, and she says that she hopes he will invite her when she’s there. Chae-Man romance, yes? They’d make a cute couple.

Mo-ne runs into Chae-kyung and thanks her for getting Chairwoman Baek out of jail. Doesn’t look like Mo-ne is going to keep her end of the promise by leaving Jae-wan. Surprise, surprise. Mo-ne tells Chae-kyung that she doesn’t dislike her, but Chae-kyung says that she doesn’t like Mo-ne. Excuse me, but what does Mo-ne have to dislike about Chae-kyung?

Team Chae-Man!