REVIEW: ‘Destined With You’ Episodes 11-12

Just as it seems like there has been a major step forward in Destined With You, there are a couple of steps backward taken by the writers and characters. In Destined With You Episodes 11-12, Jang Shin-yu (Rowoon) and Lee Hong-jo (Jo Bo-ah) have reached a new milestone in their relationship. Both are more at ease with their emotions and around each other. The looming specter of the Jang family curse, i.e., the red bloody hand, has left its mark on Shin-yu and casts a lingering sense of doubt in him about Hong-jo and her connection to the hand.

While Shin-yu and Hong-jo are briefly away on their accidental excursion, Kwon Jae-kyung (Ha Jun) discovers that the reason why he was asked to transfer Hong-jo was due to Yoon Na-yeon (Yura)’s influence. When she approaches him, he gives her a warning. Considering that his boss, the mayor, is Na-yeon’s father, that may cause issues later.

Going back to Shin-yu and Hong-jo, we get a cute clothes-shopping montage with the two, and it’s a nice moment of levity. Neither of them has their guard up. They just get to be silly. Once they get home for the night, the lingering effect of that bloody red hand rears up. Shin-yu brushes it off, but it is a moment where he distances himself from Hong-jo briefly.

Everything seems back to normal the next day, which just so happens to be the start of the New Year. They watch the sunrise and awkwardly run into Jae-kyung, who admits that he comes to the beach every year to watch the sunrise. The trio go and eat a meal together, which ensues into some funny competition between the two men. Hong-jo, of course, is oblivious to it. The one thing that is different, though, is that there is a friendliness between Hong-jo and Shin-yu that they can’t bother to hide, even in front of Jae-kyung.

When back at the office, Shin-yu confronts Na-yeon and tells her to direct her anger at him, not at Hong-jo. But Na-yeon being Na-yeon refuses. Na Jung-beom (Ahn Sang-woo) sends her pictures taken of Hong-jo having a conversation with Jae-kyung in front of the house. Full of vindictive rage and pettiness, Na-yeon posts the photos online for the entire City Hall to see, creating a scandal and getting Hong-jo in trouble.

But the stalker in question, Jung-beom, has a confrontation of his own with Shin-yu. After learning that Jung-beom was suspected of having murdered his wife and uncovering financial discrepancies between what Jung-beom has been charging the City Hall for his services, Shin-yu lets Jung-beom know that he’s not dropping his suspicions. By the end of Destined With You Episode 11, his suspicions are justified even if Hong-jo’s lapse of judgment is not.

Hong-jo gets called out to Mount Onju to investigate an incredibly suspicious pit. Despite previous episodes of anxiety, for some reason, Hong-jo doesn’t question the legitimacy or suspect anything about this request. It should come as no surprise then that her lack of foresight results in her being pushed into said pit by Jung-beom. The reason as far as we know? Because she was seen with another man.

As writing decisions go, having Hong-jo forget the past couple of months of danger to go out to investigate something by herself, knowing that there was vandalization around the same area just a few episodes before, underserves the character. Especially given her paranoia surrounding Jae-kyung and any stranger since Jung-beom’s stalking first started. It’s a convenient thing to have her forget this time, but it’s too out of character to ignore.

At the start of Destined With You Episode 12, bones have been unburied in a park project nearby, prompting Shin-yu to connect the victim possibly to Jung-beom and panic about Hong-jo. Jung-beom starts to bury Hong-jo when he spies Shin-yu calling his own cell phone. This momentary distraction and the reveal that bones have been unburied, forces Jung-beom to abandon his task.

In Destined With You Episodes 11-12, we get more flashbacks to Shin-yu’s and Hong-jo’s past selves. While the focus of the flashbacks is related to Shin-yu, in Episode 12, Hong-jo begins to experience visions of her own. The first vision occurs when Shin-yu finds Hong-jo in the pit after a desperate search. Reaching for her hand, a vision flickers and it shows Shin-yu’s ancestor covered in blood, reaching his hand toward Aeng-cho. We also get a flashback of their younger selves, revealing that Shin-yu’s ancestor is the one who gave Aeng-cho her name.

This vision of Hong-jo’s creates uneasiness. We know that Aeng-cho, in previous episodes, saw her hands covered with blood. The audience has learned some things ahead of our two lovebirds, but the first of a couple of visions in Destined With You Episode 12 aims to rattle Hong-jo’s conviction towards trying to make this relationship happen.

The thought of these visions occupies her mind, and she asks Shin-yu later in the episode about his dreams. He tells her not to worry, but further visions throughout the episode lead her to go have a discussion with their mutual shaman friend. But there are other things competing for Hong-jo’s attention.

Things start to escalate for both Shin-yu and Hong-jo. With the return of the bloody hand (conveniently since Jung-beom cast a spell of his own in previous episodes), Shin-yu’s health symptoms have returned. He is found collapsed in the elevator at work, and his hallucinations prompt a doctor to tell him to see a psychiatrist when nothing is found in the MRI. Hong-jo begins seeing more visions of the past when trying to tackle a spell to try to ease Shin-yu’s pain.

Another incident at work prompts the Mayor to tell Shin-yu to do something about Hong-jo. Shin-yu’s father is pushing forward with the arranged marriage between Shin-yu and Na-yeon despite Shin-yu’s actions, but Shin-yu has a plan of his own. He confronts Na-yeon later that night with evidence of her cheating. Pointing out her hypocrisy, he bids them both well before taking off, with the knowledge that he has known all this time how little Na-yeon truly cared for him.

Na-yeon, refusing to take the L, goes to the mayor to find a way to get back at Shin-yu. This prompts the mayor to pull Jae-kyung in to try to confirm a construction contract. At first, he is unsure, but the mayor is offering a substantial amount of money in exchange for his guarantee of a confirmation, something that will be a giant loss for Shin-yu if it occurs. The other factor? Jae-kyung’s father’s re-emergence and demand for money from his son.

The emergence of Jae-kyung’s father is another addition that should have been addressed early on in the series when Jae-kyung had a conversation with him when he first moved into Hong-jo’s home. However, as previously suspected, it seems the writers are trying to tie up loose ends. In an already jampacked episode, however, it feels unnecessarily tacked on.

Destined With You Episode 12 ends with an aloof Hong-jo asking Shin-yu to pick her up the morning after he slept over. Rattled by a vision, she leaves him to wake up alone and asks him if they can go see the snow. The snow has triggered a memory for her and reveals something significant about their connection. Knowing that Shin-yu’s ancestor had been the one to kill Aeng-cho, and knowing that their destinies are intertwined, Hong-jo tells Shin-yu that she cannot meet his family. They cannot be together.

It is then that it is shown that whoever killed Aeng-cho would be cursed. There isn’t a reason given as to how or why, but the curse is connected to her death. With the Jang family ancestor having been the one to damn himself and his family line, it begs the question of what would have happened if someone else had killed Aeng-cho, and what the reasonings were behind her being killed.

One thing is clear. Destined With You Episodes 11-12 highlight how destiny is not always pleasant. With their memories coming to the surface, our two lovebirds are finding themselves once again at a crossroads. Hong-jo, knowing that her connection to Aeng-cho, ultimately cursed the man she loves, is now forced to make painful decisions. It also ties us back to the idea that it might be better to reject destiny if it means keeping our loved ones safe. It’ll be interesting to see how this idea, or if this idea, gets explored as the season wraps.

Destined With You Episodes 11-12 provides a bit more clarity surrounding the visions and the past but makes some incredibly frustrating choices to create impactful moments. Storylines that should have been touched upon earlier are now being rapidly tied up, which proves more distracting than not considering their place in the overarching story.

Destined With You Season 1 is streaming now available on Netflix.