Summary
Bon Appetit, Your Majesty delivers the happy ending fans were craving. It won’t hold up to scrutiny, but does anybody really care?
Don’t let me keep you in suspense. Yes, Bon Appetit, Your Majesty has the happy ending everyone wanted. Episode 12 isn’t about historical realism or unavoidable destiny. It isn’t a story of doomed love. It’s a finale that revels in romance so powerful that it literally transcends space and time, with Yi Heon striving to keep his promise to find Ji-young no matter what. There’s a nice full-circle quality to everything, with Yi Heon finally making that bibimbap he promised, and the deliberate, satisfying mirroring is already doing the rounds on social media.
But how did we get there? Well, there’s a big helping of violence and tragedy and scheming and such, and not all of the moving parts that facilitate the climax necessarily make a great deal of sense if you really study them, but this is very much a vibes-first finale, and fair enough. Let’s break it all down.
History Is Written By the Victors
I did mention this in the previous episode, but one of the key themes in the Joseon-era drama is that how history remembers Yi Heon isn’t necessarily accurate. He has been a victim of royal scheming on a ridiculous scale, and with Jesan pulling the trigger on the takeover, he’s essentially deposed in favour of Jinmyeong, with very little chance of clearing his own name or sharing his side of the story.
Overwhelmed and beaten, Yi Heon is willing to concede in exchange for Jinmyeong being protected and encouraged (it’s clearly a way for Jesan to snatch power, which should be obvious, but it’s a nice sentiment). Plenty of people still know Yi-heon is innocent, namely the cooks, and the enthusiasm is there to save him, especially since, according to the history books, the king died shortly after his exile. But Jesan has the ultimate trump card – Ji-young.
Here, Bon Appetit, Your Majesty kind of abandons any sentiment for the history. It has made its point. Yi Heon was the victim, and circumstances conspired against him. What the ending is really concerned with is tying a neat bow around his love story with Ji-young. When Jesan manages to kidnap her, Yi Heon goes to rescue her, setting up our final past-timeline confrontation. Who cares about the history books?
Time To Travel
The big plot predicament that Bon Appetit, Your Majesty had to deal with in Episode 12 was how to get Ji-young back to her own timeline. And if it kind of breaks most established rules of time-travel storytelling to do that, well, does anyone really care?
It turns out to be heroic self-sacrifice that does it. Ji-young jumps in front of Jesan’s killing blow meant for Yi Heon, and this ends her life… but sends her spiralling through time so that she reawakens from a coma in the present day, complete with a scar down her back matching the wound.
Most of the past drama is wrapped up. The true nature of the Mangunrok is revealed – it’s Yi Heon’s journal documenting his experiences with the food that she prepared for him, which is a nice way of tying the foodie fondness into the love story and continuing that whole full circle approach. Consort Kang also meets a fitting end at the blade of Gong-gil, having given up in dishonour. The only matters left unaddressed are the historical ones – what Jimyeong’s reign was like, for instance – and the logistical ones. But we’ll discuss those in a minute.
Ji-young Changed History
In Ji-young’s new, post-coma reality, Yi Heon doesn’t feature in the history books the same way. His body was never found. The timeline was changed. Again, don’t think about this too much. It isn’t the point, much like how it doesn’t really matter that the Mangunrok no longer works when she reads Yi Heon’s words aloud. This seems like a disappointing but understandable ending on its own, but Bon Appetit, Your Majesty has other things in mind.
Ji-young takes a new job at Enfin, creates a new menu inspired by a Joseon royal feast, and all seems well. But things take a turn when the royal chefs turn up. They’re reincarnations and can’t remember Ji-young from her time in Joseon, but it’s unmistakably them. That’s not all, though. The Michelin guide sends some personnel to taste her new food – Seong-jae, and, of course, Yi Heon.
There’s zero explanation for how Yi Heon got here, or indeed why he remembers Ji-young with perfect clarity despite the others having no idea. He made a promise, and apparently that’s all that matters. Nobody’s going to think about it too much, and that’s for the best. Bon Appetit, Your Majesty gave its fans the satisfying, happy ending they wanted. Anything else is secondary.
