REVIEW: ‘The First Night With The Duke’ Episodes 11-12

The line, “Everything concludes when you reach the ending,” serves as a warning to viewers going into The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12. In these final episodes, we watch as various threads come to their natural conclusion, with some satisfaction. For main characters K/Cha Sun-chaek (Seohyun) and Duke Yi Beun (Taecyeon), things seemed poised for an unhappy ending, despite all aspects of the genre screaming otherwise. However, a more important question lingers for Cha Sun-chaek. Will she choose to stay in the novel’s world?

In The First Night With The Duke Episode 11, things are incredibly dire for our beloved couple. For the newly exiled Yi Beun, his fate was left hanging in the air after he was seen getting into a skirmish with some enemies. Unfortunately, due to Prince Yi-gyu’s (Lee Tae-sun) manipulations (and honestly, being butthurt after Sun-chaek keeps rejecting him), solemn news arrives at Sun-chaek’s doorstep. With Yi Beun’s helmet in tow, it is announced that he has been slaughtered in battle. Sun-chaek, being the headstrong heroine that she is, refuses to believe it.

Firstly, good for her. Secondly, as one of the biggest fans of The Obsessive Tyrant web series, she would know better than anyone whether or not Yi Beun could be so easily taken out. So, this isn’t just a cliched story beat for her. It matches what we know of her. This belief in Yi Beun and her love for him seals her fate, however, when Yi-gyu approaches her again to try to convince her to marry him. Her repeated refusal drives Yi-gyu to the point of madness, and he quickly adopts the ‘if she won’t be with me, then she will be with no one’ sort of attitude.

While this development isn’t surprising, had there been more time in the series, more flashbacks to flesh out the relationship between Yi-gyu and the original Sun-chaek could have given his obsession with her more weight. This is one of a couple of storylines in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12 that stood out as needing more time. Even still, each attempt to bring Sun-chaek to heel across these two episodes makes sense, one of which almost results in her demise.

The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12 highlight the depths of Yi-gyu’s scheming.

Since these final episodes are meant to be super climactic, Yi-gyu ramps up the treachery across The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12. Seriously, he wastes zero time once Yi Beun is gone. He wrests control from the king (Joo Suk-tae), who progressively grows weaker. His faction of supporters, particularly the Ministers who were working against the king this entire time, work to overthrow and push aside their enemies. It’s a madhouse.

Yet, there is doubt about whether or not Yi-gyu is any better than the king. This doubt gets planted when Yi-gyu orders Sun-chaek and her family to be rounded up for execution. The charge? That they are the ones affiliated with the conspirators. Not Yi-gyu and his ilk. This moment highlights Yi-gyu’s impulsiveness in the face of rejection, but also shows his allies how quickly he can turn. But what everyone doesn’t count is the fact that plot armor will save Sun-chaek and Yi Beun in the end.

Part of the joy of isekai/portal fantasy stories is that the rules don’t matter if things are sold properly. And, with a couple of instances of other forces manipulating the outcome in the series so far, a divine intervention kicking in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12 in the final hour makes sense. It also finally gets us answers as to how the real K and the real Sun-chaek swapped places. It is unfortunate that the teasers leading up to this reveal proved more frustrating as the series dragged on.

That being said, a lot happens once Sun-chaek and K reunite. The reunification is attributed to a server crash caused by the high viewership numbers of the web series. However, the body swap couldn’t have been achieved without the help of some mysteriously connected charms (which seems a convenient addition rather than having an active role in anything). The two women had a desire to become the main characters in their own lives, which created a strong enough connection to switch. Oh, and the mysterious kid we’ve been seeing? He is the creator of the original story, apparently.

The attempt to address questions in The First Night with the Duke Episodes 11-12 reveals convoluted answers.

Frankly, it’s a lot and is delivered in a way that the audience should just accept these things at face value and move on. The two women are left with a decision that, ultimately, leads to predictable results. Offered a challenge by the kid, Sun-chaek quickly writes up an explanation for how everyone can be saved before being projected back into the world of the book again. This bit is cleverly done, forcing Sun-chaek to become a truly active participant rather than having stuff happen to her again. 

Once back in the world, the tension crescendos and carries across The First Night with the Duke Episodes 11-12. Yi-gyu tries one last time to get Sun-chaek, and she refuses. In a weirdly hilarious shot of her escaping from him, things come to a head in the courtyard where, lo and behold, Yi Beun arrives alive and in time to save the day. As it turns out, when the server crashed and Sun-chaek wrote explanations for their survival, it saved him from his fate. Now, he’s back, and Yi-gyu and his allies are taken down rapidly.

Yi Beun reaches the peak of his character arc in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12. In flashbacks to the battles, he refuses to take a life. That’s how he almost ends up dying. Similarly, when he confronts Yi-gyu, he refuses to kill him. Eventually, he rescues the king, realizing he’s being poisoned, but the king treats him with fear. Whether it’s due to the king’s guilt, these moments with the king finally force Yi Beun to air his grievances, offering immense catharsis for the character. Something we’ve been hoping for him to do forever.

From this point forward in Episode 12, the story shifts its focus to the fallout and epilogue. Yi-gyu is sentenced to exile, and he has a moment with Sun-chaek that confirms he knows she hasn’t been the original for a while. For all his desire in the end to carve his own path, his story ultimately ends in an off-screen death, which feels like a casual dismissal of the character. We also never received an explanation for the unexplained illness he had earlier in his introduction. Either way, this isn’t the greatest villain or character send-off.

For our original heroine-now-villainess, Jo Eun-ae (Kwon Han-sol), nor her adoptive father are spared punishment. She is captured and has one final discussion with Sun-chaek, who laments over their failed friendship. Eun-ae mentions that if Sun-chaek hadn’t butted in, things would have been different. As Sun-chaek and now we, the audience, know, this is true. Even still, this moment is bittersweet for both characters, and it is a testament to Kwon Han-sol’s acting throughout the series that Eun-ae still manages to evoke sympathy. 

There is still hope for Jung Su-gyeom in the future.

 Jung Su-gyeom (Seo Bum-June) takes on a slightly more active role in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12, showcasing his character’s progress. Not only does he tell his traitor father to disown him, but he also gathers his colleagues to petition the king not to cede his throne to Yi-gyu. Here, he has truly manned up, but as things transition to the epilogue, he slips back into a familiar role at least, when it comes to Eun-ae and a potential romance between the two. Yes, a romance may still happen.

This leads up to the epilogue portion, which may be the most lackluster bits of The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12. If only because with the ending, most of the series’s issues become more glaring. We learn of Yi-gyu’s offscreen death, which is underwhelming. Do Hwa-seon (Ji Hye-won), in particular, doesn’t learn much, which, by itself, isn’t a problem, but her character’s inclusion after the first half of the series has felt unnecessary. The only spark of promise shown is maybe her one day being with one of Sun-chaek’s brothers.

As for our love birds, Sun-chaek acts weird about a wedding because once they wed, the story ends. Once the story ends, the world is no more. Yi Beun rightfully talks sense into her, and we see them have the happy ending they deserve, with a beautiful wedding, way too many kids, and – surprise – their story continuing. How? With a spin-off series. As epilogues go, this one was pretty straightforward, with minimal surprises outside of Yi-gyu’s death. 

This is all to say, The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12 gave us the climax we were looking for. While the intensity and action moments were strong, the attempt to fill in the gaps and wrap things up at the end lacked finesse, making the wait for some answers somewhat unfulfilling. As finales go, The First Night With The Duke Episodes 11-12 struggled with consistency, and after such a strong start, were a letdown. 

All episodes of The First Night With The Duke are streaming now exclusively on Viki.

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