'Perfect Crown' Episodes 9-10 Recap: What Happens To I-An In The Fire? 

When I first started watching Perfect Crown, I found it quite mid, but after 2 episodes, the show started to feel more natural and almost old school K-drama-like. As time has passed, the show has become more and more interesting, and all the characters have grown on me. I do find that IU was the perfect choice for a role like this, and it’s quite reminiscent of her character in Hotel Del Luna. In the meantime, Byeon Woo-Seok is a perfect match for her as well, because while at first I thought they didn’t have much chemistry, it’s grown slowly, just like the characters have grown fond of each other gradually, which makes it even more fun to watch. After all this time, we’re finally seeing the true colors of the PM, but I do feel like we all saw it coming from miles away. There’s no way a man that handsome can be cast as a PM opposite I-An’s Prince and not be a villain. Know what I mean? Anyway, with that said, let’s jump straight into this week’s episodes.

Spoiler Alert

What Happens After The Contract Is Leaked? 

Perfect Crown episode 9 opens on the same stage that Hui-Ju was talking on at the end of episode 8, where she’s addressing a bunch of students before word of the contract is leaked, and I-An immediately gets on stage to take Hui-Ju away. While she’s been putting up a brave front, the truth is, she is super anxious about what this has done, not just to her own reputation but to Prince I-An’s. It has to be Jeong-Woo who leaked it, right? There’s no way it was anybody else. As a decoy, the Prince and Hui-Ju make Hye-Jung and Hyeon go in their stead, while they escape together. In this moment, the two decoys end up holding hands, and it’s only too clear that they like each other too. While the royal couple are trying to find a solution with Jeong-Woo, I-An says that he wants to tell the public that they’re not faking their relationship anymore, but this would clearly show that they did, in fact, plan and execute a fake marriage, which is, of course, a terrible idea. But the real moment of scandal arrives when speculation of Hui-Ju being involved in the fire from when the first King was killed is spread on the news. Really, this makes zero sense, but as we know, public figures can end up in any kind of situation because of their public presence. Now, this whole thing is a game of honour, and while the Prince comes from a prestigious background, Hui-Ju is like scum of the earth, which leads to everyone protesting about them. 

In a quieter moment, Hui-Ju checks on the Prince, because though she’s stressed herself, she can imagine I-An is even more so, and it’s true, because he’s literally held a fist for so long he’s bleeding now. Additionally, Yi-Rang also insults Hui-Ju in front of the whole court, but Hui-Ju holds back, because she knows it’s not her place to say anything, blaming herself for this whole mess. It was her idea after all. To make things worse, after everything that’s gone down, people now believe Hui-Ju didn’t actually faint at the wedding, but faked it. However, Jeong-Woo’s investigation clearly shows that there was foul play, and it was A-Reum who put Digoxin in the goblet that the prince was meant to drink out of. She was being blackmailed to do it because her brother needed surgery. It’s only too clear that the person who set this thing up is Inpyeong, i.e, Yi-Rang’s father. Also, unsurprisingly, Yi-Rang has no idea about it, and Jeong-Woo allows her till the end of the night to figure out what she wants to do. When she does go to talk to her dad, he immediately goes back to the day of the fire at the palace. He implies that she was the reason the king died, but we see later, in a moment of desperation, when Yi-Rang wants to get her son out of his room, she asks his maids to light the room on fire, and he’ll come out. This is what she had done back then, too, because he wasn’t willing to open the doors after deciding to abdicate. She insists she didn’t kill her husband. But, if it were an accident or if Inpyeong did something, it isn’t so clear just yet. It was Jeong-Woo and Yi-Rang who leaked the contract on purpose to save Yi-Rang’s family legacy. But, it’s all going to backfire soon. 

Who Threatens The King? 

Inpyeong goes straight to the king to ask him to get I-An to step away from the royal family. I-An’s nephew clearly loves his uncle, and we understand this further in these two episodes, because in flashbacks, we see that the current King heard his parents talking before his own father’s death. He heard his mother yelling at her father for wanting to abdicate. The young boy never wanted to be king (obviously), but he was forced to “not disappoint” his mother, and so he just cried and cried without doing anything about it. But, in the present day, when he refuses to do what Inpyeong is asking, the grandpa threatens the boy just in time for I-An to interfere and get furious enough to pick the man up by the collar. I-An also heard what his brother and sister-in-law had discussed that night with his nephew, and had comforted the boy. He will do anything to protect the boy, which is why he never took the throne despite knowing what his brother’s wishes were.

Why Does Hui-Ju Ask For A Divorce? 

After all of this drama, Hui-Ju is hit with yet another problem: the investigation has reached Castle Group, and that means they’re going to go straight for her dad. Hui-Ju pretends her dad is sick and that she needs to go see him, asking I-An not to worry and stay back. Really, she first goes to see Jeong-Woo to ask him to fix this problem, but he’s too bothered by the fact that Hui-Ju looks like she’s genuinely in love with the Prince. He keeps talking about protecting her, but she tells him that she doesn’t care about what happens to her, she wants the Prince to be safe. She goes straight to her dad and gets on her knees, asking him to help her because of the mess she’s created. Her father though, being annoyed as usual, criticizes her for calling herself a businesswoman and acting this way. Really, he’s worried too. It’s her dad’s idea to have them get divorced if Hui-Ju wants to save the Prince. Hui-Ju takes the advice and straight up goes to I-An, asking for a divorce, claiming he has nothing to offer her. She knows this is the only tone that will work on him, but while she’s trying to save him, she’s making it clear that she doesn’t trust that he can save them both. She first deceived her family; now she’s deceiving the man she loves in the hopes that she can save him. I-An even compares his current situation with his late brother’s, and it does feel a little bit like the drama is telling us that women should always rely on men or they’ll end up making mistakes by deceiving everybody. 

What Does Tae-Joo Do To Save His Sister? 

The big plan that the family has made is to make it seem like Tae-Joo was the one who wanted to keep his sister safe, and didn’t believe that she was genuinely in love with the Prince. It’s an interestingly woven story for sure, and Tae-Joo plays the part well, acting all confident while giving a press conference where he threatens the press for defaming his sister. He also says that it doesn’t make sense that either husband or wife benefits from this contract. Hui-Ju also informs everyone in the palace of the same thing in a big meeting, claiming that all of this will quickly be smoothed over. She reminds the court how much the Castle group spent on the wedding, and how they earned more than that at the wedding. Her ultimate goal is to show everyone, especially Jeong-Woo, that I-An does not need to step down in any way. 

When I-An is asked about the divorce, he doesn’t give an answer, and before he can be asked a second time, a royal entourage shows up to tell I-An about a message from the King. Finally, the King’s original plan is put into motion, and his order is announced in front of everyone in the room, including Inpyeong. He immediately gets up to go talk to the king, but I-An stops him, asking him if he’s going to defy the king’s orders. I-An himself has to deny the abdication 3 times before accepting. It’s simply a formality. This is when Yi-Rang also learns of this new update, and it makes her go straight to the king, who has locked himself up in the same way his dad did. This is when she asks for a fire to be set, but luckily Jeong-Woo gets in the way and asks to talk to her. Jeong-Woo finally shows his true colours and threatens to reveal what her father did if she doesn’t manage to get either I-An or her son to stop the change from happening. 

What Does Yi-Rang Sacrifice? 

When Yi-Rang talks to I-An, she’s basically crying, screaming, yelling because she’s tired of having sacrificed her whole life for this place and not getting anything she wanted in return. She left her musical career that she was working towards, left her life behind on the wishes of her father, but more importantly. sacrificed her love, i.e. I-An. Yeah, that was a thing, why does this kind of stuff always happen in royal families, eh? Guess K-dramas are never going to beat the trope-y allegations. Anyway, he tells her she shouldn’t worry, because he will leave her alone despite all the crap that she’s done. When she tells Inpyeong it’s time to stop all of their shenanigans, he refuses. This is when we see that he’s working together with Jung-Woo now (sigh). Later, her son also tells her about having overheard his parents that one fateful night. It’s all very sad and they’re both crying. She’s not going to do any harm to I-An and Hui-Ju. In fact, she will probably end up siding with them. 

What Happens To I-An In The Fire? 

After all of this, I-An decides to spend some time alone, and doesn’t even answer Hui-Ju’s calls. Hye-Jung and Hyeon end up spending some time together in the meanwhile, and Hyeon finally gets an answer for whether Hye-Jung likes him back or not. She very much does, and they enjoy a cold drink in front of the Han river, finally getting to relax a little. But at the same time, Hui-Ju tells her husband that she’s sick after sending a dozen messages, to which she gets a reply immediately. She simply did it to get I-An to tell her where he is. It’s actually the court lady who suggests Hui-Ju go find him, because she knows how much she loves the man. Hui-Ju rushes out of the palace and goes straight to I-An’s private residence. She tells him that she wanted to be near him, and they finally do the devil’s salsa after all these episodes. Not going to lie, the chemistry was certainly soaring, and we all saw this coming in that moment when Hui-Ju came rushing for her man. A single hurrah before they never see each other again, eh? But, no, it’s not, because it looks like that divorce is not going to happen (duh). In the morning, I-An gets vulnerable with Hui-Ju, telling her about how he knew his brother’s plan before he died, because he’d sent him a Gonryongpo (a dragon robe) clearly showing him what he wanted. 

In Perfect Crown episode 10’s ending, Jeong-Woo invites I-An to meet him in the council room, and Hui-Ju has her own plans to go see her brother to figure out what’s next. But, as we expected, another massive fire breaks out and Hui-Ju rushes to the palace, having seen it from afar. When Hye-Jung shows up running in from the outside, Hui-Ju asks her why she’s here and not inside with the Prince. Hye-Jung is too stunned to process what’s happening, but finally gets straight enough to tell Hui-Ju that I-An is inside the burning building in the council room. Based on the preview, it’s clear that Hui-Ju is going to go find I-An herself, fallen to the ground in the fire. No, I-An is not dead, he’s just going to be unconscious for a while, and Hui-Ju will have to handle things till then before everything will go back to normal. Jeong-Woo will get his punishment soon. 

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