Summary
In “Beyond Understanding”, My Royal Nemesis does a good job of developing the romance between Dan-sim and Se-gye, while Mun-do continues to scheme.
Things are moving pretty quickly in My Royal Nemesis, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Se-gye and Dan-sim have gone from vague acquaintances to a burgeoning romance in record time, with Episode 4, “Beyond Understanding”, delivering one of the most needlessly dramatic cuddles of all time. It’s early in the season, but for these two, a bit of confirmation about how they feel is welcome, since there’s only so long we can tolerate Se-gye not being able to recognise the idea of falling for someone.
And that’s definitely what’s happening. Se-gye has never met anyone who challenges him in quite the way that Dan-sim does, and I think that’s a compelling basis for a relationship. It gets at something essential about the privileged chaebol heir archetype who’s always treated the same way, and there’s obviously an interesting gender component to how little of a shit Dan-sim gives about everything, with that classic royal consort attitude getting things done in a present day where the meek have inherited the Earth.
You can see this coming through all the time, such as when Se-gye describes her as an investment after acquiring Doran Entertainment. The business context is a bit lost on her. Her woman-out-of-time shtick works well here because it shoots through Se-gye’s bluster. Hilariously, after learning through Gwang-nam how celebrities have fans who give them gifts, Dan-sim just reasons that Se-gye is a fan of her.
This theory is confirmed every time Se-gye goes out of his way for her, which he frames as simply looking out for his employees, but she, with amusement, takes as adoring fan behaviour. It only makes Se-gye more flustered, which carries on that entertaining comedic angle from the previous episode. When Dan-sim returns Se-gye’s “gift”, she ends up giving him a stray dog she found, since she doesn’t have the room to care for it appropriately. Se-gye is allergic to dogs, so he can’t realistically keep it, but he’s disinclined to dump the mutt since it’d upset Dan-sim, which ends up being pretty funny. Dan-sim’s careful to make sure that Mun-do doesn’t visit Se-gye very often, though, since in his past life as the King, he took great pleasure in killing animals.
This sounds about right. Mun-do’s still trying to cause trouble for Se-gye, paying a TV director to sue him and Dan-sim, and Se-gye is struggling to get around his investment in Biojei because Dal-su is too miserly to give him a loan (and, as was clarified in Episode 2, is extremely fond of Mun-do). Mun-do’s very good at manipulating this dynamic and presenting a friendly image, so Se-gye increasingly feels like he’s the only person who knows that he’s really like. That’s another thing for him and Dan-sim to bond over, even if he’s a bit alarmed by a mistranslation of a thank-you letter that he thinks describes him as her “amazing man” (it actually says “amazing fan” in the Joseon script).
As with the previous episode, there’s a bit of unexpected action in My Royal Nemesis Episode 4. It turns out that Grandma Nam’s restaurant is in the area of the Chail Songjin Resort, and she’s being pressured to up sticks. When she refuses, some men try to strong-arm her, and Dan-sim takes them all out. A last-minute intervention from Se-gye, who learns of what’s going on after Dal-su lavishes Mun-do with praise for taking on the responsibility of displacing the recalcitrant owner, isn’t even necessary. Dan-sim had it handled.
Mun-do attempts to use Dan-sim’s relationship with Nam to toy with Se-gye, promising to make sure the two of them are paid well if she tricks Se-gye into falling in love with her. This reflects a scene in the past when the King, after killing and cooking the stray dog and making Dan-sim eat it – which is an extremely heavy development for how comparatively light this show has been thus far! – instructed her to make his brother fall in love with her.
Intentionally or not, it’s happening either way. Se-gye might not understand his feelings, but they’re definitely there, and at the end of the episode, they’re confirmed with that dramatic hug. This also coincides with Dan-sim reaching her lowest ebb, allowing Lim Ji-yeon to show off yet another facet of her performance. She really can do everything. And one suspects that with the romance having progressed this far in the first two weekends, she’s still going to have many more emotions to play.
