Summary
Bon Appetit, Your Majesty gets more overtly romantic than ever in Episode 10, but questions still linger about where everything is going.
Who knew unjust imprisonment could be so… romantic? Bon Appetit, Your Majesty shifts into more explicitly lovey-dovey territory in Episode 10, in slightly unlikely circumstances, but given Ji-young’s fate at the end of the previous outing, this is perhaps the right time for Yi Heon to solidify his feelings for her. I’m left wondering quite how the remaining two episodes are going to cover so much ground, and how they’re going to weave in a massacre, and whether the time travel rules will be followed stringently or messed with in favour of a happy ending, but one thing at a time, I suppose.
In short, Ji-young has been arrested for poisoning Jinmyeong, which nobody in the palace seems to really believe, except the people who are deliberately trying to fit her up for the crime to get her out of the way. Yi Heon is predictably furious about this turn of events and adamant that Ji-young is innocent, and is determined to prove it. After a while, Ji-young is freed so she can attempt to prove her own innocence. And just like that, we have a romantic buddy adventure whodunit – even though we know whodunit, but you get my point – backdropped by Prince Jesan and co.’s perpetual scheming.
The peril of the situation makes Yi Heon extremely open about his feelings for Ji-young. It skirts the line of an almost childlike excitement that I’m not sure is totally believable, but we mustn’t split hairs at this stage. It also helps that the king is in pretty much the same position as the audience. We know Ji-young is innocent, and he believes it so strongly that he basically knows as well, so it isn’t as if his infatuation is clouding his thinking. She’s not the type.
This does raise some interesting questions. I’m curious to see how Ji-young’s presence and the connection the king obviously has with her ultimately ends up changing history – or not, as the case may be. But Ji-young is from another time, another world, and her presence has fundamentally altered Yi-heon’s nature (this is noticed by his grandmother and cited as the reason for her freeing Ji-young, much to Mok-ju’s annoyance). In that case, it kind of stands to reason that Yi Heon’s character arc is taking him on a different path from the one that he’s known for in history. Ji-young shouldn’t be there, technically, but she is, and that must have an effect, right?
I’m speculating, obviously, but this seems like more interesting territory than the precise function of squirrel turd poison, and even, in its way, Mok-ju covering her tracks by fitting her court lady’s murder up as a suicide. That kind of stuff’s dramatic on the face of it, but it’s pretty standard royal conspiracy stuff. I’m much more intrigued by this show’s potential as a fantastical alt-history story, should it commit to being that in the final two episodes.
I’ll tell you what is ridiculous about Bon Appetit, Your Majesty Episode 10 – the fact that French fusion cuisine is, once again, the solution to all ills. The royal physician’s antidote gives Jinmyeong a seizure, but Ji-young’s broth magically revitalises him. I know I was just talking about being intrigued by the show’s more fantastical elements, but this isn’t quite what I meant. Sure, it fits right in with the obvious fondness for the importance of food that we’ve seen highlighted throughout in the myriad cooking and serving sequences, but we’re almost into outright magic territory here. Still, at least it convinces Jinmyeong’s mother that Ji-young was innocent all along.
Heading into the remaining two episodes, only a couple of key questions really remain – will the truth about what happened to Yi Heon’s mother come out and send him postal, thus leading him to his tyrannical future, or will Ji-young remaining in his time, which she’s really starting to consider, change the course of history and allow for a happier ending? Time will tell, I suppose. But I bet French food has something to do with it either way.
Dining and Cooking