REVIEW: ‘Destined With You’ Episodes 13-14

As the series starts winding down, Destined With You Episodes 13-14 has the devil’s task of rapidly tying up loose ends. We have gotten bits and pieces of Jang Shin-yu (Rowoon) and Lee Hong-jo’s (Jo Bo-ah) past lives, but haven’t yet gotten the full picture. That is, until Destined With You Episodes 13-14. With Hong-jo having learned the extent of the pain her past self, Aeng-cho, has delivered upon Shin-yu and his family because of a curse, she aims to keep her distance from Shin-yu. Of course, that doesn’t quite work out entirely to plan.

Learning that the curse will last for as long as Hong-jo is alive, the young woman asks Shin-yu to give her more time. He reminds her that she said what happened in the past was meant to stay in the past, but she isn’t deterred. With the memory of her past self’s death, which is shown to viewers in a flashback, still so fresh on her mind, she needs to get away. Shin-yu, reasonably, has a hard time dealing with this request.

He feels the weight of her absence while eating dinner with his parents. Confronted by Yoon Na-yeon (Yura) at work, who remains consistently unapologetic, and met with increased resistance when he attempts to call Hong-jo up to his office, he admits to her that he’s not doing fine. Not doing fine turns out to be an understatement for the lawyer. He gets drunk with his friends later that night, lamenting this new change and not knowing what to do.

Hong-jo attempts to move on. She gets pressured by her coworkers into hosting a housewarming party, but mostly it’s to get them closer to her housemate, Kwon Jae-kyung (Ha Jun). In her need to try to make friends and keep her coworkers liking her, she doesn’t question them. She tries to procrastinate in getting Jae-kyung’s permission to join, but her coworkers’ frantic knocking and his feelings for it make it easy for him to say yes.

Just as the party wraps and Jae-kyung and Hong-jo begin to clean up, Shin-yu gets dropped off drunk at Hong-jo’s house by his friend. Despite his attempts to speak sweetly, she remains firm with him in keeping the boundary. It is for his own good, after all, that she is doing this. In her attempts, she tells him that she’ll survive without seeing him again, even though it is a lie. Both part ways considerably dejected, and Hong-jo realizes the true depths of her feelings for the lawyer.

After a few episodes have passed, the bloody curse that Na Jung-beom (Ahn Sang-woo) and Na-yeon have concocted for Shin-yu is discovered. The visual of blood seeping out from the potted plant is reminiscent of the visual of Aeng-cho bleeding out into the snow, sparking worry in Shin-yu. Connecting the glove that was inside the bloody shirt to Hong-jo, he verifies with her its disappearance before confronting Na-yeon with what he knows.

Things get intense after Shin-yu’s confrontation with Na-yeon. Jae-kyung, while on a trip with the mayor, spots Jung-beom outside Hong-jo’s home via CCTV. Both Jae-kyung and Shin-yu desperately try to contact Hong-jo and almost fail to reach her in the knick of time. Realizing that Jung-beom is closing in and in a moment of much-needed intensity in Destined With You Episodes 13-14, she tries to close the windows. She manages until he reaches through the bar to grab a hold of her.

The police manage to reach there before any further harm is done, but Jung-beom makes his point clear. Had she not been so close to Shin-yu and Jae-kyung, he says, none of this violence would need to happen. Destined With You Episode 13 ends with the further escalation of Jung-beom assaulting Shin-yu after following Hong-jo to the apartment. With his fate hanging in the balance, it makes leaping into Destined With You Episode 14 more imperative to know what happens next.

In Destined With You Episode 14, viewers are plunged back into the past in a not-so-clever way. With Shin-yu clinging desperately to life, Hong-jo rushes him to the hospital. As his heart stops, that is when we dive deep into the past to finally understand the extent of Aeng-cho’s and Jang Mu-jin’s tragic destiny. Aeng-cho is the lowest in social standing compared to Mu-jin, who is set to either marry or serve the king in the future. But their love for each other is seemingly known by all around them.

Between Aeng-cho’s powers and social standing and Mu-jin’s father’s manipulations, it seems the two are destined to be separated despite their love. It’s not completely unheard of in that time period. Threats made towards Aeng-cho and her guardian prompt her to break things off with Mu-jin, but given how things have gone, destiny finds a way to bring them back together years later.

Having finally taken over as shamaness, Aeng-cho is dragged into palace intrigue when concubine Jung is determined to produce a son with the king. While gathering ingredients, she is spotted by Mu-jin and the two resume their romance whilst serving their respective masters. Rumors abound surrounding Aeng-cho over time, with Jae-kyung’s past self sharing this information directly with Mu-jin.

As an aside, seeing characters from the present day reflected by the actors as well in this past life sequence provides the necessary connective tissue for understanding how the ensemble of characters is connected to one another karmically. It is this particular decision that helps with continuity as well and has been one of the stronger decisions made in Destined With You.

Tragedy starts to take hold as Aeng-cho is pressured into cursing the king’s son to make way for the concubine’s own child. With suspicions already high on top of the curse she takes on as a result of the deed, the noose of fate is tightening around Aeng-cho’s neck. Tensions rise further with the knowledge that Aeng-cho’s spellbook is evidence of the concubine’s misdeeds. Even after Aeng-cho receives punishment from the king, who now refuses to kill her after her declaration that her murder will bring forth a multi-generational curse, people conspire to try to apprehend her book.

Mu-jin, the precious cinnamon roll, only wants to save Aeng-cho. But to do so, he needs the spellbook from her. This Aeng-cho learns after waking up from a night spent with him. Believing he only saved her for the book and sensing that something else is coming, she prays. His assault at the hands of Jae-kyung’s past self as well as others forces her to run.

In what amounts to a heartbreaking moment, the real reason for Mu-jin killing Aeng-cho in the end? Because he couldn’t bear to see her torn apart. Rather than let her suffer so intensely, he takes it upon himself to give her a faster end. As penance, he assumes the curse. Honestly, this particular reveal makes the past few episodes of frustration worth it. If only because now this feels like a love worth fighting for.

With such an unhappy ending, we’re brought forward to the present day where Shin-yu has been miraculously brought back, albeit severely weakened. Hong-jo feels immense guilt when Shin-yu’s parents arrive, and spends the bulk of the episode distancing from him. She knows she needs to keep herself safe, and devises a plan with Jae-kyung to go off the grid.

While she checks her voicemails once a day, Hong-jo stays quiet. She’s not there for Shin-yu’s recovery, which further drives a divide between her and Shin-yu’s parents who have now placed responsibility for the incident on her shoulders. By the end of Destined With You Episode 14, the episode seems geared to an explosive finish, with Jung-beom having left a disturbing voicemail on her phone. Just when it seems like she’s going to meet up with the stalker in a park, it turns out Shin-yu is there waiting.

Both declare their love for one another. With the theory proposed by Shin-yu that the curse may have ended since he technically died, the set-up for the final episodes of Destined With You seems geared towards exploring the what-if scenario of what happens next.

Destined With You Episodes 13-14 show the writers finally wrapping up some loose ends and giving the audience what they’ve been dying to know – what happened in the past to produce this curse? While the transition to the past was predictably done, it provided much-needed background and weight that ended up making the romance between Hong-jo and Shin-yu stronger as a result.

Creating some tense, memorable, and impactful viewing, while not perfect in execution, Destined With You Episodes 13-14 leaves a lasting impact.

Destined With You Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.