My Royal Nemesis Episode 3 K-Drama Short Recap
A Blast From The Royal Past
The grand third episode kicks off with a trip down memory lane to the Joseon era, where our heroine Kang Dan-sim is busy plotting her ultimate revenge against the local palace bullies. Her schemes are cut short when two masked assassins suddenly jump out of the shadows to attack Past Se-gye. The brooding hero manages to overpower the thugs, leading to one assassin dramatically taking his own life while the other scrambles away into the night. Just as Past Se-gye catches his breath, he spots Dan-sim hiding in the bushes and instantly suspects she is a dangerous spy. Dan-sim drops to her knees and begs for her life, which leads to a funny moment when the two finally recognize each other. She politely asks for his name so she can thank him for saving her, but he just runs off to chase the remaining assassin, leaving her to whisper a prayer that he stays safe.
The Great Escapade And A Fake Faint
Back in the chaotic modern world, Dan-sim is convinced that the slimy Mun-do is actually the historical king out to get her. In a total panic, she hides her face by aggressively hugging Se-gye tightly. Se-gye stands there looking absolutely confused by the sudden affection, while an amused Mun-do watches the bizarre couple and leaves them to their business. Before they can breathe a sigh of relief, the television station crew comes looking for Dan-sim to scold her for ruining the production. Thinking fast on her feet, Dan-sim pretends to faint right on the spot. Desperate to avoid another major celebrity scandal, Se-gye plays along with the dramatic act and carries her out of the building in a classic romantic hero fashion.
The Credit Card Heist
Once they arrive at his luxury car, Dan-sim quickly recovers from her fake faint, hops right into the passenger seat, and demands that Se-gye drive her home. To make matters worse for the stressed businessman, she then orders him to drive slowly because she gets terrible car sickness. Se-gye grumbles the entire time, but he cannot help but worry about her well-being anyway. When they pull up to a gas station, he hesitates for a moment before deciding to do something nice by buying her some motion sickness medicine. He walks back to the car only to find the seat empty because Dan-sim has vanished into thin air, and she has taken his precious credit card along with her.
Snakes In The Corporate Jungle
While wandering the modern streets, Dan-sim looks up at a massive public billboard and learns about the powerful Chail Group. Realizing how dangerous Mun-do is, she decides she must keep her distance from Se-gye just to protect herself from the king's lookalike. Meanwhile, Se-gye discovers he has much bigger problems on his hands than a missing credit card. He finds out that the main investor for his tech start-up, Biojei, is a company called Kaiserman Capital, which secretly belongs to none other than Mun-do. Even worse, one of the Biojei directors is a mole working for the enemy, and the corporate villains are currently scratching their heads wondering what kind of relationship Shin Seo-ri has with Se-gye.
Childhood Rivals Fight Back
Furious about the corporate sabotage, Se-gye storms into Mun-do's office to confront him. Mun-do just smirks, revealing that he had approached Se-gye earlier just to give him a little heads-up about who holds the power. Mun-do is a truly slimy character who has made it his life mission to toy with Se-gye and ruin his happiness since they were young children. Instead of backing down, Se-gye decides it is time to hit back where it hurts. He decides he will secretly use Kaiserman’s own investment money to fund the highly anticipated launch of his product, Dynaestie, turning Mun-do's trick right back on him.
Sweet Revenge and Street Meat
Over at the agency, the stingy manager Gwang-nam tries to hold back Dan-sim's hard-earned wages because she caused such a massive scene on the set. Dan-sim is not having it and simply snatches the cash right out of his hands. Feeling a bit bad, she offers to buy him dinner to thank him for his help, but he proudly declines because he has a hot date lined up. His joy is short-lived because his girlfriend immediately breaks up with him for another man. Dan-sim heads to the street market instead, where she discovers the absolute magic of plastic money. She happily uses Se-gye’s credit card to buy a mountain of sweets, since his loyal assistant Son has not cancelled the card yet. Se-gye gets the notification and is deeply annoyed, but he is not mean enough to call the police on her. Instead, he drives over to her neighborhood to get his card back himself.
The Accidental Date Night
When Se-gye shows up at her place, Dan-sim misinterprets the whole situation. Between his desperate attempts to get her to sign the Dynaestie contract and his sudden appearance at her house, she assumes he is just deeply worried about her safety. This accusation completely flusters the cold businessman, but he somehow ends up tagging along with her to a local beef restaurant anyway. He spends the entire evening grumbling under his breath while personally grilling the meat and paying for her hearty meal. The two get into a hilarious argument over English words like romance, and Se-gye convinces himself that Dan-sim is just a super dedicated method actress who is taking her Joseon woman character a bit too far.
A Heart Fluttering Walk Home
As they finally prepare to part ways after dinner, Se-gye cannot stop himself from fretting over her living conditions and safety. Dan-sim is quietly touched by his secret kindness and realizes that underneath his grumpy exterior, he is actually a decent human being. The feelings seem to be mutual because as Se-gye drives home, the car radio keeps playing cheesy love songs and he starts hallucinating Dan-sim's face everywhere, which flusters him even further. Meanwhile, Mun-do is out on a peaceful fishing trip with his uncle Dal-su. When Dal-su praises Mun-do for running Chail so well and wishes Se-gye were more like him, Mun-do drops a hint that Se-gye is currently failing because he is totally distracted by a mysterious woman.
Memories And Melodrama
Back at the apartment, Dan-sim tries to check on a heartbroken Gwang-nam, who is still sobbing over his breakup. He snaps at her and lashes out, claiming she knows absolutely nothing about true love. Perplexed, Dan-sim looks up the definition of romance on the internet and gets upset because she feels like both Se-gye and Gwang-nam are treating her like a total fool. She sits by her window and thinks back to the real past Se-gye. In a historical flashback, we see the day she was officially assigned to be his court lady. Even though the palace was full of ghastly rumors about his terrifying nature because he only has one working eye, Dan-sim was never scared of him. In that memory, he gently asked her for her name.
Dreams and Schemes
Strangely enough, Se-gye is having the exact same dream at the exact same time. He wakes up in his modern bed with a single tear rolling down his cheek as the memories settle in. In that moment of clarity, he finally recognizes Dan-sim as Shin Seo-ri. He rushes to tell his psychiatrist friend Jeong-hyeon about the dream, but the doctor just laughs and claims that Se-gye must be falling head over heels in love. This diagnosis completely irks Se-gye, who insists that the strange woman is just a major thorn in his side. At the same time, Dal-su asks assistant Son about Se-gye’s rumored girlfriend, but Son confidently insists that Se-gye is single because there is absolutely no way he would ever date someone like Seo-ri.
True Royalty At The Mall
Dan-sim and Gwang-nam take on another random part-time gig at a busy shopping mall to make some quick cash. While walking through the electronics section, Dan-sim stops to watch a television playing a historical drama where the actress Ji-hyo is terribly overacting as a Joseon queen. Annoyed by the bad performance, Dan-sim steps up and reenacts the dramatic scene with the grace and power of a true historical royal, completely delighting the crowd of shoppers who gather around to watch. Another screen nearby starts playing an old show featuring a young Seo-ri, and the heartwrenching acting performance deeply moves Dan-sim. She is amazed that modern television shows have the power to make humans feel such deep emotions, and she makes a firm decision to repay the real Seo-ri by taking over her dream of becoming a famous actress.
The Battle For The Face Of The Company
Over at the corporate headquarters, the board of directors meets to choose the official spokesperson for the Dynaestie launch. Half of the room wants the famous Ji-hyo, while Mun-do’s secret mole aggressively pushes for Seo-ri just to stir up trouble. A heated debate breaks out across the table, with Se-gye secretly rooting for Seo-ri the entire time. When the final votes are tallied and Seo-ri wins the spot, Se-gye practically jumps out of his chair in pure joy. The celebration is cut short because Seo-ri’s terrible agency, Doran Entertainment, has not actually released her from her contract yet. The greedy CEO Hong completely refuses to let her take the Dynaestie gig because she wants to push Ji-hyo into the spotlight instead.
A Knight In Shining Armor
Se-gye finds himself worrying about Dan-sim's career and instantly feels embarrassed by how much he cares. He tells himself that she is a stunt double who is probably used to rejection anyway. Right then, Dan-sim calls his phone to officially accept the modeling gig, explaining that she was completely won over by his sweet sincerity. Se-gye feels terrible because he tries to break the bad news about her agency to her but ultimately fails to find the words. Unaware of the drama, Dan-sim happily shows up at the Biojei building and politely thanks the receptionist for guiding her to what she thinks is an audition.
The Hero Saves The Day
Chaos breaks out in the lobby when Dan-sim runs straight into CEO Hong and a furious Ji-hyo. It does not take long for the jealous Ji-hyo to start a physical catfight, scratching and pushing Dan-sim while Se-gye waits impatiently up in his office. When he finally marches down to the lobby and sees the red marks on Dan-sim's face, he loses his temper. Sounding exactly like his noble past self, Se-gye steps in and announces to the crowd that he will personally be representing Dan-sim from now on with his own newly launched entertainment agency. He grabs her hand firmly and shakes it to seal the deal, and when he flashes her a rare smile, Dan-sim feels a massive swarm of butterflies in her stomach.
The episode wraps up with a series of juicy flashbacks that reveal the bigger picture. In the past, the scheming King deliberately assigned Dan-sim to his brother, Prince Cheongheon, intending to use her as a dangerous trap to ruin him. In a terrifying parallel, modern-day Mun-do has the exact same plan to cause absolute havoc by using Seo-ri as a weapon against Se-gye. But our modern hero is already one step ahead, as the final flashback shows the exact moment Se-gye found out Ji-hyo had slapped Dan-sim, causing him to frantically fix his hair and run down the stairs at full speed to save his lady.
My Royal Nemesis Episode 3 Review Rating 4.5/5
This episode had everything: fake fainting, accidental dates, historical trauma, corporate backstabbing, and a male lead who is completely in denial about being head-over-heels in love