My Dearest Nemesis: Episodes 11-12 (Final) » Dramabeans
My Dearest Nemesis: Episodes 11-12 (Final)
by Unit
Our show wraps up with a satisfying conclusion. But before then, our leads have to navigate their relationship alongside high stakes negotiations, bad press, office gossip, scouting offers, and an obnoxious grandmother.
EPISODES 11-12
Our final week kicks off with Joo-yeon and Grandma at the negotiation table. Joo-yeon’s replacement at work is involved in some shady business that is bad for Yongsung’s image, but Joo-yeon is willing to keep things quiet as long as Grandma stops harassing Soo-jung — and gives him his directorship position back. Grandma agrees on one condition: the Yongsung renewal project must succeed otherwise all bets are off. Joo-yeon is confident in his and Soo-jung’s abilities to make the project a success, and Soo-jung is additionally confident that Grandma would have to acknowledge Joo-yeon after everything is over. But don’t hold your breath, honey. If the project fails, Gran is set to channel her inner tyrannical Joseon king and strip Joo-yeon of his name and assets before exiling him abroad. Smh.
When Soo-jung learns about Grandma’s shady condition, she meets up with Joo-yeon to channel her inner Disney princess because why would Prince Dragon wager his kingdom for her? Joo-yeon then circles back to their “I won’t quit my job despite your grandmother’s petty antics because I can’t throw away my time and effort in this company” conversation. He knows Soo-jung wants to be acknowledged for her effort at work, and as someone who knows what it’s like to crave acknowledgement, there’s nothing he can’t wager in order to make that a reality for her. How romantic!
The cherry on top of the renewal project is the reopening of one of the Yongsung department stores. The strategy team comes up with a list of pop-up stores for the reopening, including Pirate King — which just so happens to be one of Joo-yeon’s fav animations. Cue: the fanboy trying — and failing — to be professional about the whole thing. Lol. But Dramaland 101 has taught us to never expect things to go smoothly. Joo-yeon’s quick reflexes at the food court prevents a collision between a student carrying hot food and a kid, but the kid’s parents blow the incident out of proportion. A vlogger picks the story and maliciously distorts it to make Joo-yeon out to be a cocky chaebol heir who hates kids. As a result, Pirate King’s creator decides to back out of the contract. Nooooo!
Black Dragon sets up a meeting with the creator, and the creator is delighted to meet up with his supportive (but very private) fan — who helps to show the animation to kids who would have had no access to it otherwise. Talk about using your chaebol powers for good! Prior to this meeting, Soo-jung personally met with the creator to convince him that Joo-yeon is not a capitalist anti-kids chaebol, but the creator wasn’t having any of it. But now that he knows that Joo-yeon and Black Dragon are one and the same, Joo-yeon doesn’t have to do too much to convince the creator of his sincerity. The creator agrees to do the pop-up, and things are back on track!
The reopening day is met with great success, and Joo-yeon proudly announces to all that he is a Pirate King fan. Cue: Grandma wearing the nastiest of scowls in the background. Smh. Grandma scolds Joo-yeon for coming out of his closet, talmbout “have you forgotten you’re still the successor in the eyes of the public?” But who cares? Your grandson is a big, fat anime fan. Get over it! Basking in the success of the renewal project, Joo-yeon replies that he no longer has any desire to seek his grandmother’s love by hiding his true self. And from now on, he would like to live as Ban Joo-yeon, not as the successor of Yongsung Group, thank you very much.
Speaking of successors and chaebols, Soo-jung is ambushed by a horde of reporters asking how it feels to have won the boyfriend lottery and all other Page Six-like questions. Tabloids reporters and curious netizens aside, the general consensus of office gossip is that Soo-jung should quit her job and enjoy her boyfriend’s money. Nevermind that it’d be the company’s loss if a talented employee like her quits. In the midst of all the drama, Soo-jung is scouted by the biggest department store chain in the U.S., and the recruiting officer (a former sunbae of hers) advises her to leave Yongsung because because she’s never going to be seen as anything more than Joo-yeon’s girlfriend. Ouch!
Soo-jung’s Cinderella dilemma is realistic, and I like that the show didn’t gloss over it. I also like that Show did not make Joo-yeon tone-deaf to the gossip swirling around Soo-jung. Our thoughtful dragon wants his girlfriend to be judged based on her talent and not because she’s dating him, and he doesn’t want their relationship to hold her back from making the decision that is best for her. So he tells Soo-jung that she can leave for the U.S. as early as the next day. While this might sound like a noble idiotic declaration of letting her go for her happiness or some BS like that, Joo-yeon looks like someone who is ready to jump on the flight with Soo-jung. But his readiness to leave with her is not explicitly mentioned in the conversation, so she assumes the worst. *Facepalm*
Joo-yeon goes straight to panic mode when Soo-jung ignores his calls and texts, and Secretary Kwon has to help him understand that Soo-jung is not a mind reader. He needs to be clearer on his intentions for her to know what he’s thinking. On the other hand, Soo-jung has thought about it on her own and come to the conclusion that Joo-yeon probably intended to leave with her. And with that, the brief misunderstanding arc comes to an end. Phew! Ultimately, Soo-jung decides to remain in Korea. She already has people on her side who acknowledge her talent, and she’s not going to leave Yongsung due to the unwelcome opinions of gossiping colleagues and strangers on the internet.
While our main couple is in a great place, our secondary couple is still in angst-land. Ha-jin belatedly realizes that she’s not fully healed from her past relationship and this prevents her from fully trusting Shin-won. But as Soo-jung points out, the fact that she wants to trust Shin-won is an indication that she loves him that much. Ha-jin works up her last nerve to apologize for jumping into conclusions and shutting Shin-won out during their last conversation. She says she wants to keep dating him, but it’s Shin-won’s turn to turn her down because he’s always going to want more. Sigh.
After a heart to heart conversation with Joo-yeon and with the help of some liquid courage, Shin-won calls Ha-jin to confess his feelings to her — but her phone is connected to the Bluetooth speaker in the restaurant, and all her customers hear the drunk confession. Hehe. They rekindle their romance the following day when he’s all sobered up, and he promises to continue to prove that he’s someone she can trust. One of the customers posts the confession clip online and Ha-jin is overwhelmed with a surge of new customers when the clip goes viral. Shin-won is a natural at customer service and he enjoys developing new dishes, so he quits his job to become Ha-jin’s business partner. Personally, I think Shin-won’s decision is too hasty, and I’m not too sold on the future of their relationship either. But all’s well that ends well with our secondary couple.
Back to our dragon, Grandma cannot believe Joo-yeon dedicated himself to Yongsung not because he wanted to be her successor, but because he wanted her to love him. Of course, she can’t believe it since her heart has been replaced with a stone. Tsk. According to Grandma, love is a weakness, and she was tough on Joo-yeon because she wanted him to be stronger. But Secretary Kwon points out that love made Joo-yeon stronger: he endured Grandma’s tyranny because he loves her, and he gave up the successor position because he loves Soo-jung. “I hope you can apologize to him before it’s too late,” Kwon advises Grandma. Nooo, let her go down with the unrepentant ship!
Grandma visits Joo-yeon at home and she’s initially appalled by his no-longer-secret anime stash that now adorns every inch of his house. But she soon turns emotional and apologizes for being a robotic dictator to him rather than a grandmother. Joo-yeon needs this tearful hug and makeup session to move on, but I don’t. This woman is undeserving of a redemption arc, so, next scene, please!
From here on out, it’s all fluff and distribution of happy endings to our characters. Soo-bin passes his exams and becomes a firefighter. Dad — who bought Yongsung stocks whenever he had the money, as a way of supporting Soo-jung since she joined the company — hit it big when the stock value went up after the renewal project. Must be nice! As a proud shareholder of Yongsung, Dad is ready to square up to Grandma if she moves funny with his baby girl, but Grandma apologizes to Soo-jung for her petty actions and accepts her relationship with Joo-yeon.
Joo-yeon is elected as a Yongsung board member — which further solidifies his successor position. Soo-jung is promoted, and her jealous colleague stands up for her at work and apologizes for accusing her of seducing the boss. The drama ends with Joo-yeon and Soo-jung smiling at each other like two love-struck idiots in the middle of the road — and I wonder if they’ve ever heard of the concept of a doomed truck. Anyway, they set off towards their journey of happily ever after, and I sigh in relief as the drama comes to an end.
My Dearest Nemesis is a “don’t think too much, just sit back and enjoy the ride” watch, and it was really fun while it lasted. I liked the drama, but I will be filing it under the “nice, but will soon forget about” category. But I will not be forgetting the colorful character that is Joo-yeon any time soon, because if we’re being honest, this drama is basically the Bahn Joo-yeon show.
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