diff --git a/scripts/telegram-bridge.js b/scripts/telegram-bridge.js
index 27d5d7ba4..34cdfefbb 100755
--- a/scripts/telegram-bridge.js
+++ b/scripts/telegram-bridge.js
@@ -78,15 +78,18 @@ async function sendMessage(chatId, text, replyTo) {
     chunks.push(text.slice(i, i + 4000));
   }
   for (const chunk of chunks) {
-    await tgApi("sendMessage", {
+    // tgApi() resolves even on API errors ({ok: false}), so .catch()
+    // never fires for Markdown parse failures. Check explicitly for
+    // Telegram's "can't parse entities" error before retrying plain.
+    const res = await tgApi("sendMessage", {
       chat_id: chatId,
       text: chunk,
       reply_to_message_id: replyTo,
       parse_mode: "Markdown",
-    }).catch(() =>
-      // Retry without markdown if it fails (unbalanced formatting)
-      tgApi("sendMessage", { chat_id: chatId, text: chunk, reply_to_message_id: replyTo }),
-    );
+    });
+    if (res.error_code === 400 && /can't parse entities/i.test(res.description || "")) {
+      await tgApi("sendMessage", { chat_id: chatId, text: chunk, reply_to_message_id: replyTo });
+    }
   }
 }