‘My Royal Nemesis’ Episode 6 Recap – The Inevitable First Kiss

My Royal Nemesis hits an important and inevitable milestone in Episode 6, which is to say that Se-gye and Dan-sim finally kiss. We’re not quite at the halfway point of Season 1, but we’re close enough for the timing to feel right. Hopefully, this new step in the relationship will push Dan-sim’s character forward a bit, since, as in the previous episode, “One Magical Night” feels like it’s erring a bit too much on the side of infantilising silliness. Once again, Heo Nam-jum very much carries the hour.

I do like that shift in responsibility, though, and it has given this double bill of episodes a different tone. Se-gye’s personality could quite easily be abrasive and off-putting, but there’s a depth to the performance that helps to soften some of his harsher characteristics. It’s a shame that Dan-sim is becoming less likeable at the same time, but you can’t have everything.

Se-gye’s very different now from how he was at the start, obviously, but there’s still some of that in him, which you can sort of see when he gives Mo Tae-hee, his blind date, a bit of consideration due to her similar approach to efficiency in a romantic partnership. But we all know he’s only got eyes for one person, even if she is a meddler, and even if she has been electrocuted. They’re fated to be together, or at least it seems so, and since this idea of predeterminism is clearly one of the show’s recurring themes, it makes sense.

This is also an archetypal K-Drama episode in the sense that it’s a day trip to Jeju Island. Honestly, the frequency with which characters in TV shows go there is ludicrous, but it always makes for a nice diversion and a change of scenery. It also works quite well in this case because it’s another way for Dan-sim’s Joseon history to manifest. Her being charmed by the beach, which she has never seen before, is one of the more relatable ways in which the transmigration gimmick has been explored.

This is better than the crossed-wires scenario, which My Royal Nemesis does deploy in Episode 6, as it has all throughout the season for both comedic and dramatic purposes. Dan-sim mistaking lactose intolerance for a plague is pretty funny, but the whole business with Ji-hyo assuming Gwang-nam is Dan-sim’s rich boyfriend is less so. Mileage may vary.

This is also the case with Mun-do’s scheming. His various ploys make Se-gye worry that he might have gone after Dan-sim when she’s really out in the woods looking for the grandson of an old man with dementia, but to be fair, her phone dies and she gets lost, so Se-gye needs to leap to the rescue anyway. Her predicament reminds her of being locked in that chest in Joseon, so Se-gye’s rescue is welcome, even if his scolding of Dan-sim is somewhat less so.

Still, it’s this, or at least Se-gye’s apology for it, that leads to the big moment of the episode – and probably the biggest of the season thus far, on balance – when the two kiss. Se-gye’s apologetic for snapping, but not apologetic for worrying, which is a nice compromise. He cares about Dan-sim to a surprising degree, so much so that he’s behaving out of character in a way he can’t help. Even though she knows it’s probably a bad idea, she can’t resist. Despite some of the faults in the characterisation and in some of the humour, the core romance here still works really well, and this is a major turning point in that regard.

We’ll have to see how things are shaken up by this latest development. How far we’ve come since that awkward cuddle.