Official Synopsis: A prince from the Chosun era, Yi Gak (JYJ's Yoochun), along with his entourage, which includes Song Man Bo (Lee Min Ho), Do Chi San (Choi Woo Shik) and Woo Young Sul (Jung Seok Won), are�catapulted 300 years into the future. As he attempts to investigate the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the princess he loved, he unexpectedly finds himself in the city of Seoul in the year 2012, where he comes across a woman who looks exactly like his beloved crown princess�

Ratings: The competition is heating up as SBS's 'Rooftop Prince' was able to hold its crown with a record of a 12.5% rating while�MBC's 'The King 2 Hearts' trailed closely behind with 11%. As MBC aired an additional episode with yesterday's broadcast of the elections, the eighth episode was able to rake in a higher rating of 12.5%. Meanwhile, KBS's 'Equator Man' achieved an increase from last week's rating with a 10.8%. With the drama nearing its halfway point, let's see if the positions will begin changing.



Recap of Ep. 7: Yi Gak runs after the crying Park Ha (Han Ji Min) and worriedly asks her the reason why she's crying, only to be met with Park Ha's anger. To comfort her, he hopes to offer her either a strawberry or banana yogurt drink, but ends up drinking by himself, sitting a few feet away from Park Ha. Despite his attempts, Park Ha vents out her frustration from her fight with Se Na (Jung Yumi) and scares the cowering Yi Gak as well as his three courtiers.

Se Na's hospitalized "mother" is visited by Chairman Jang, who makes a surprising revelation that she will stop looking for her daughter, Se Na. Chairman Jang explained her reappearance to claim Se Na. She has relapsed with cancer, despite a surgery four years ago, and wanted to see her birth daughter before dying.

While Park Ha packs up her bags, Yi Gak tries to stop her, making all her belongings fall to the ground. Discovering the ripped childhood photo of Park Ha and her father (with her mother's head missing), Yi Gak excitedly asks her if she regained her memories. Park Ha explains to him how her birth mother left her at a young age, causing Yi Gak to ponder his own conflict with Se Na as Princess Hwa Young.

As Se Na's adoptive mother is discharged from the hospital, she asks Tae Mu (Lee Tae Sung) to hire Park Ha at his company, which he agrees to do. Meanwhile, Prince Yi Gak discovers sweet peppermints, or rather 'Park Ha' candies, ordering all his three courtiers to bite on them, releasing their frustration and annoyance at Park Ha. However, much to Yi Gak's anger, Young Sul gently sucks on the candy, bullying him into biting into the candies.

Chairman Jang eases Tae Mu's worries, reassuring him that she is not abruptly returning to Hong Kong because of her disappointment in him. However, she makes a personal request before she goes, asking Tae Mu to search for her lost daughter, presenting the same photo that Park Ha has. Se Na notices the photo on Tae Mu's desk and realizes that the baby in the photo is Park Ha. After hearing that Park Ha's mother is the biggest shareholder next to Tae Young's grandmother, she prevents Se Na from meeting with Park Ha and Tae Young, who traveled to Chunchon to find Park Ha's family.

While Tae Mu and Se Na hug after sending off Chairman Jang, Tae Mu's father catches them and forbids them from dating. Depressed, Se Na meets up with Yi Gak, who reassures her that Se Na will come to like him. Tae Mu catches the two, and Se Na angrily tells him to break up. Later, Taek Soo, a worker at the company and close associate of Tae Young, tells Tae Mu that he knows he met up with Tae Young in New York. Nervous, Tae Mu later catches sight of Yi Gak, his servants, and Park Ha conversing, and eavesdrops on the conversation through headphones, catching that Yi Gak is allergic to crabs.

Tae Mu later takes Yi Gak to play squash with him and easily wins. He tells Yi Gak that he had never won a squash game against Tae Young before, warning him that he doesn't believe for a single moment that Yi Gak is Tae Young.


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kdramacrazy's Thoughts:

[Note : This post reflects the opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of allkpop.]

My bitter anger and frustration at Se Na, whose head I wanted to rip apart, seeped through my enjoyment of the episode. More moments of Se Na meant an unhappy viewer. While Tae Mu is also an antagonist where he committed voluntary manslaughter, viewers can sympathize a little bit with him because all his actions, his evil plans, are to cover his ugly secret and protect his innocence. Meanwhile, Se Na is much more evil and hated by viewers because she has absolutely no motive or reason to hurt Park Ha, other than her selfish mind not being able to stand the idea of Park Ha's mother being rich. Although I can see (a little bit, a tiny bit?) why Se Na could be necessary to help twist the plot, less moments of her make me a happier person. Or, even better, more moments of Park Ha sassing Se Na.

The makjang element of the drama, with the birth mother of Se Na and Park Ha being the same, was quite a twist, but it was a bit annoying that they had to overstretch the role of Chairman Jang. Never mind the fact that the woman is a terrible mother (Really?! Not just once, but twice?!), but I hope it doesn't go into a hot pot of mess with surprising birth secrets sprouting everywhere or turn the drama into a melodrama.

And although the fangirl part of me was a little disappointed that there weren't more cute or hilarious moments, although I loved how the story is steadily developing Young Sol's character (poor boy. I hope he starts to bully Prince Yi Gak), and was a little frustrated that Yi Gak is still head over heels for Se Na, I can see how it will be implausible to have Yi Gak abruptly love Park Ha. Not only will that question Yi Gak's faithfulness, but it's also nice that the drama is creating two parallel roads between Se Na and Hwa Young, in their conniving nature. Because it'll be interesting to see both girls' true natures being revealed, shattering Yi Gak's illusion.