Reel Tastes & Travels – a light dose of entertainment to wake you up

‘Poison in small amounts can also be medicine.’ – Maomao

The caravan is coming to town… or rather to the rear palace and its causing flutters of excitement throughout. It is also an interesting way to contrast the sheltered, albeit luxurious life of the rear palace residents to civilians outside. Despite their life of luxury and comfort, they are essentially isolated from the rest of the world. And with no stores and hardly any visitors from outside, the caravan represents not just a means of shopping, but a window to the outside world and its happenings. And while that is definitely true for the concubines, it is also true for the palace staff (with less luxury to compensate perhaps, but also less uncertainty about how to make ends meet and survive on a daily basis). Maomao, coming from a more liberal background, is more practical about it, though even she unbends a bit at the thought of window shopping with her friend Xiaolan.

At the carnival, Maomao runs into Shishi, the maid who helped her with the kitten the last episode. While Shishi is definitely more outgoing, she has an obsession with insects that rivals Maomao’s obsessions with medicines and poisons. Realizing their interests overlap as some insects are useful for medicine making, they make plans to go spider hunting together.

However, there may be some more sinister plans underfoot disguised behind the gaiety of the caravan. Based on the type of clothing brought by the caravan (focused on high waist rather than figure hugging silhouettes), Maomao suspects that news of Gyokuyou’s pregnancy has leaked. Even more worrying, in the aftermath of the caravan’s visit, fragrant oils and teas start trending in the palace. Maomao eventually cottons on to this and realises that several of the fragrances are innocuous normally, but could be harmful during pregnancy. Hmm… just a quirk of circumstance or someone subtly pulling the strings as part of a broader power play? The jury is out, although the series of strange incidents over the past several months seems to point to more than just coincidence. However, it appears that Lihua may also be pregnant so was Gyokuyou actually being targeted, or was it Lihua?

Stray Musings

• Maomao’s affection for Xiaolan is sweet especially since she is usually so stoic
• New attendants are coming to Gyokuyou’s palace – partly to help out during her pregnancy but also to help her consolidate her position. Considering the size of the new consort Loulan’s retinue, Gyokuyou’s desire to stick with only a handful of trusted attendants could be seen as a sign of weakness, thereby forcing her hand a bit. Politics in the rear palace is a game of infinitesimal microscopic moves and countermoves and one cannot afford to be left behind.  
• We meet a new face – Lady Shin who heads up Lihua’s attendants. We see only a little of her this episode but she definitely gives ill-intentioned vibes so I expect we will see more in the near future.
• There’s a beautiful animated sequence which shows a jasmine flower opening up in hot water to brew jasmine tea. It brought to mind my first experience with a similar chrysanthemum tea and the wonder I felt.