Summary
My Royal Nemesis really comes together well here, with its various constituent parts and tones all working together to create a dramatic cliffhanger.
For much of Season 1, My Royal Nemesis has kind of flitted between genres and tones, shifting focus between each of its constituent parts. Sometimes it felt more like a comedy, other times more like a romance; sometimes it played down the transmigration gimmick, and other times it reinforced the relevance of the past to the present day. Episode 10, “Hope, Despair, and Longing”, creates a scenario that really melds all of these disparate elements together effectively, and instead of feeling schizophrenic, the K-Drama is instead firing on all cylinders.
I do believe this is the best the show’s going to get. It’s the just-right balance of everything that the entire season has been striving for, and all the development thus far has created a scenario where we can have all the romance, the comedy, and the mystery without one feeling overwhelming and distracting from the other. It also sets up real dramatic potential for the next four episodes, which I suspect are going to be more serious and a bit more engaging than everything up until this point.
I never really expected this, either. With Dan-sim and Se-gye having taken the big step of confessing not only their feelings for one another but, in the case of the former, the entire transmigration ordeal, I largely suspected that the only remaining relevance of the Joseon stuff was going to be informing the present-day relationship. Making things official makes both leads a bit giddy and excitable, which I think is probably the weakest stuff in “Hope, Despair, and Longing”, as charming as it can be. I just think there’s much more meat on the bones of the scheming and drama.
Speaking of which, Mun-do is literally on his knees begging for another chance after Dal-su’s ruthless approach of using his ambition to keep the company flourishing before kicking him to the curb the second that Se-gye became the most viable heir. It gives Se-gye some leverage to nix the marriage with Tae-hee, but it only makes Mun-do even more incensed, desperate, and dangerous.
With his scheming going on in the background, largely, Dan-sim and Se-gye end up shouldering a lot of screentime, with romantic dates unfolding and going a bit wrong for comedic effect, lots of teasing back and forth, and mix-ups on the set of Dan-sim’s historical drama. It’s all light and fluffy and works well enough, but for once you get the sense in My Royal Nemesis Episode 10 that something much more dramatic is coming, and that suspense carries you through.
Se-gye has had enough of Mun-do and even Dal-su at this point. He terrifies the former’s acolytes and demands that he come out of hiding and faces him head-on, and simply walks in the other direction when the latter tries to strong-arm him into wedding planning with Tae-hee. But Mun-do finally manages to get a reaction from Dan-sim and Se-gye both when he purchases Grandma Nam’s restaurant when she’s in a vulnerable state, which incenses Dan-sim and, when he learns of it while visiting Nam and paying for hospital expenses, Se-gye too. He gives Mun-do a smack for the illegality of the acquisition, but his desire to fight Dan-sim’s battles for her doesn’t go down too well, since she has proved she can get by on her own initiative.
The flashbacks reinforce this, as we see how Dan-sim sacrificed her happiness and played along with the King in order to try and protect Prince Cheongheon. She’s made of sterner stuff than he thinks and is willing to fight her own corner. And she’s going to need to, since this episode ends with a pretty major cliffhanger. Dan-sim is sitting in a restaurant, joined by Dal-su, who is basically trying to convince her that, as a nobody, she can’t possibly be right for Se-gye, and if she truly wants the best for him, she’ll leave him. But a truck crashes into the building and badly injures both. Dan-sim loses consciousness as her phone rattles with a call from Se-gye.
Based on the preview of the next episode, this knock to the head is going to send her back to Joseon, where that bravery in dealing with the king is going to be tested once again. Now, though, she’ll need to find her way back to the present day. And what will happen to Se-gye – and perhaps more importantly, Seo-ri – in the meantime?
