We need to talk about that Bon Appétit, Your Majesty ending — here’s what didn’t work

Korean drama Bon Appetit, Your Majesty has cooked up a storm since it aired in August, charting at the top of Netflix’s Top 10 Series in Singapore Today and catapulting male lead Lee Chae-min to newfound fame.

The time-travel historical drama follows French-trained chef Yeon Ji-yeong (played by Yoona), who finds herself transported to the Joseon era. She meets a tyrant king, King Yi Heon (Lee Chae-min), who has a refined palate and is very particular about the food served to him.

After a dramatic meeting and the events that follow, she’s appointed the chief royal cook. As she heads the kitchen staff to prepare meals for the king, she also tries to find Mangurok, the recipe book that caused the time slip. And of course, it wouldn’t be a rom-com if they didn’t fall in love.

With the last episode of the drama having recently concluded, social media has been abuzz with one topic: Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’s ending. So, of course, it’s inevitable that I would get spoilers. And so I knew King Yi Heon would time-travel to the future. I just didn’t know how.

Most social media posts I came across said they would be upset if the drama didn’t have a happy finale — many were still traumatised by the ending of Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, in which the lead actress came back to the future, and the actor remained in his timeline.

But when King Yi Heon travelled to the future, many complained about the Bon Appetit, Your Majesty ending. And as I finished the last episode, I understood why.

*Spoilers ahead!

Recap of Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’s ending

In the last episode, Grand Prince Je-san led an uprising to overthrow Yi Heon. Despite him being the antagonist, we empathised when he listed all of King Yi Heon’s own wrongdoings. Although King Yi Heon agreed to be exiled, Grand Prince Je-san wanted him gone for good, and decided to un-alive the deposed king himself.

Fast-forward a few minutes, and he basically kidnapped Ji-yeong to force Yi Heon to face him alone. When Grand Prince Je-san was about to strike the king with a sword, Yeon Ji-yeong threw herself before the blade to save him. As she lay in his arms dying, the words from Mangurok, the magical recipe book that caused the time slip, floated and transported her back to modern-day South Korea.

A month later, they were reunited in the restaurant she is working at because he time-travelled to the modern world to keep his promise of finding her. All of these made us think many thoughts, mostly questions that need answers.

1. How the heck did he time-travel?

In the last episode, Ji-yeong came back to the future after the Mangurok, revealed to be King Yi Heon’s culinary journal, made her float and dissipate. And subsequently, so did Yi-heon. But the big question — which Ji-yeong coyly called “a secret” — was never answered: How did Yi Heon arrive in the modern world?

King Yi Heon had one page of the book that was torn away when he held on to it, in the hopes it didn’t (literally) disappear into thin air. It clearly played a part in his time travel. Did that one page hold that much power? Why did it take a month for him to reach Ji-yeong? Or did he ask Jang Chun-saeng, the genius engineer ahead of his time, to build him a time machine? I need answers.

2. Yi Heon’s fashion is too good for someone who just landed in the modern-day world

When he first appeared in the restaurant dressed in all black, my first thought was: how did he get the clothes? With what money? Did he bring treasures with him to sell off as he time-travelled? Who styled his hair? And who told him black was fashionable in the modern world? If he dressed like that in the Joseon era, people would have thought he was an assassin. Moreover, as a king who had to wear the royal robe every day, presumably even when he was a prince, how did he suddenly get an impeccable sense of style? Sensei, please teach us your ways.

3. How is he going to survive without a legal identity?

Based on the historical dramas I have watched, one could suddenly appear in a village with a false identity, and no one would bat an eyelid (case in point: 100 Days My Prince in which the Crown Prince took on a whole new identity of being someone’s fake husband after he lost his memories). But in the modern world, where you need documentation for every single thing, how would a Joseon king procure an identity without raising eyebrows? Would he commit identity theft? Or would he just waltz into the Ministry of Justice and demand a new identity because he thinks he still holds the same power?

4. Let the supporting characters stay in the Joseon era, please

The writer probably wanted to give viewers a happy ending of the couple being reunited, we get it. But having the whole royal kitchen team and Im Song-jae (or their reincarnations) appear in Ji-yeong’s life all at the same time is an overkill. On the scale of logical to unrealistic, this broke the scale. To be honest, this was the moment that got the biggest eye roll from me.

5. Why were the events in the last episode so rushed?

The writers spent three episodes just on a cooking competition between Joseon and Ming, but squeezed the uprising into less than one episode. I guess you can say that the pace symbolises how long it takes for an actual revolt to happen but if the drama was written to be unrealistic anyway, a slower build-up might have been better. That aside, Gong-gil hemming and hawing before killing Kang Mok-ju got on my last nerve.

6. The cooks fighting alongside King Yi Heon just didn’t make sense

The fighting scene was supposed to make me touched, cry, and maybe feel immense sadness over King Yi Heon’s fate, but the moment the royal kitchen cooks — including Ji-yeon, who had no fighting experience and was wielding a stick as a weapon — appeared to fight alongside the jesters and the king’s small army in Avengers-style, I laughed out loud. The writer was probably trying to portray that King Yi Heon had his loyal supporters, but let’s be real. I would be more impressed if the cooks were revealed to be trained military personnel who worked undercover in the kitchen, but the fact that they were not makes the whole scene ultra ridiculous.

7. Unpopular opinion: I’d rather have a sad ending

Fans might have gotten a happy ending, but as someone whose MBTI is T, which basically means I thrive on logic and facts more than feelings, this happy ending did not sit well with me. As much as Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo‘s ending scarred everyone, including me, I would choose that ending over this unrealistic one any day. Let King Yi Heon continue to stay in Joseon and be in exile, or fight more battles. Let Ji-yeong return to Seoul. As long as she knows it’s all true, that’s good enough for me. This happy ending seems forced, in my opinion.

There will be a special episode airing on October 4. Maybe it will answer some of our questions.

This article was originally published in The Singapore Women’s Weekly.