‘My Royal Nemesis’ Season 1, Episode 13 Recap – They Might Stick the Landing After All

Let me just say that I’m unusually confident about how My Royal Nemesis is going to end. This is despite the fact that Episode 13, the penultimate episode of Season 1, ends on a pretty serious cliffhanger that implies the K-Trauma climax everyone was worried about might be a real possibility. I’m not swayed, though. “Twist of Fate” is such a confidently solid episode, so full of so many of the attributes that this show really excels at, that I can’t help but feel like everything’s in hand.

This is one of those episodes that deliberately plays with the audience’s expectations and emotions. It knows what they want, and delights in giving it to them before suddenly taking it away. What happens isn’t quite what we suspected might happen, but it’s close, playing on the same ideas as the rest of the season has – love, loss, tragedy, and the cyclical idea of destiny, echoing through the ages.

Before that, though, it’s lovey-dovey time. But the mechanics of the soul-swapping transmigration premise having been laid bare, that gives Episode 13 a bit of time for indulgence. And this kind of cutesy romantic indulgence is what My Royal Nemesis has been doing well from the beginning. Viewers have firmly bought into the relationship between Dan-sim and Se-gye, and the idea of it being destiny helps to underpin it. Much like how Seo-ri’s soul, trapped in Dan-sim’s body back in Joseon, fell for Prince Cheongheong, Seo-ri’s soul back in her own body in the present day fell for Se-gye. It’s fated.

Of course, there’s still the looming idea that Dan-sim – or is it Seo-ri now, technically? – will return to Joseon, but in the early stages this is mostly used as an excuse to really lean into a committed romance. And some of these scenes are really good, sure to delight fans. What’s clearly happening here is audiences are being given a taste of a happy ending, a future where everything works out, and Se-gye and Seo-ri end up together. Any long-time K-Drama viewers know what this means. A rug-pull is coming.

My Royal Nemesis Episode 13 delivers a double-header in this regard. The first emerging problem is Grandma Nam’s worsening health and eventual death, which is a big heartstring-tugging moment that really benefits from the slow build and the performances of the cast, which, absent any other considerations, have been brilliant all throughout. It’s emotional stuff, but it’s the kind of thing you feel like you could get by with.

The last-minute cliffhanger isn’t quite so simple, though. Playing up the show’s themes of unavoidable fates and history repeating itself, Se-gye finds himself in a predicament that mirrors Prince Cheongheong’s ignoble fate back in the day. While picking up some groceries, he’s jumped by Mun-do in the parking lot and stabbed twice, pretty badly. He’s rushed to the hospital and kept in the ICU, and naturally, Seo-ri is devastated about his potential fate.

But in a roundabout way, Seo-ri may have caused that fate. As explained by the sudden arrival of the shaman, she and Se-gye are bound by a chain of fate. If they are together, he will always end up dead, in Joseon or the present day. There’s only one way to sever this chain, which is for Seo-ri to travel back to Joseon and save Prince Cheongheong. If she’s able to avert his fate, they can have their happily ever after.

There’s a pretty major downside to this plan, though, which is that if Seo-ri travels back to Joseon, she’ll never be able to return to the present day. If she can be with Prince Cheongheong, who is essentially Se-gye in all but name, isn’t she still getting her wish either way? Or has she fallen in love with this particular version of Se-gye too much to let it go? These are the essential questions heading into the finale, and they’re fairly compelling ones, especially since the next episode preview implies she does make the ultimate sacrifice.