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

A lighter set of episodes before we start off on the final story arc for the season, although as usual for the series, there are some hints scattered throughout further laying the ground for the final set of episodes.

It opens up with Xiaolan looking for a job opening since her term at the palace will soon get done. Shisui pops up and suggests providing massages at the bathhouse as a way to build connections for the future. The bathhouse is used by most of the women in the rear palace, apart from the high-ranking consorts who have their own private bathhouses and therefore is a good place to curry favour with the less favoured consorts. It also proves to be a fertile ground to gather palace gossip, leading Gyokuyou to immediately approve Maomao moonlighting there with Shisui and Xiaolan. Interestingly, despite the suggestion originating with Shisui, she appears to be ignorant of the proper etiquette when using the bathhouse facilities. Seems suspicious, and yet perhaps indicating how much blind trust we place in our friends, the usually astute Maomao doesn’t question this too much.

This kicks off the events for the next episode as Maomao notices Lishu visiting the bath, something unheard of among the high-ranking consorts. It turns out Lishu is scared about a ghost in her private bath, which in turn leads to Jinshi and Maomao paying a visit to her palace. It’s obvious that Lishu’s maids (apart from her head maid) have still not learnt their lesson about treating her better as they are embarrassingly obvious in their attempts to brush aside Lishu’s anxieties and belittle her in front of Jinshi. Pretty foolish actually, given that at least in theory, she is one of the most senior consorts in the palace. Although given that they have escaped any repercussions so far, it is not too surprising that they’ve grown cocky. Maoamo quicky solves the mystery of the ghostly phenomena – a mix of draft caused by rotting floorboards and the moonlight reflecting off Lishu’s old bronze mirror which turned out to have her mother’s face engraved on it. It is at this point that the other attendants reappear and try to take the mirror away from her which is the final straw causing Lishu to lash out at them. This also gives Jinshi the excuse to step in and finally give the maids the tongue lashing they deserve. With this, we hopefully come to an end of Lishu’s arc with her palace maids. Having read ahead, I understand how all this helps paint the picture of Lishu’s unhappiness within the palace which will shape her story further down the line. But it has been a bit frustrating seeing their poor behavior highlighted again and again with very little consequences till now.

The last episode of the trio is very much a set-up episode with the title referring to the ice for Consort Loulan that Xiaolan accidentally breaks. To save her from trouble, Maomao swoops in and uses the ice to make ice cream for the consort instead. Not too sure how this relates to the broader story but there are a couple of other key developments – a new eunuch, rivalling Jinshi’s good looks, has joined the palace and is causing a stir among the palace maids, and Gyokuyou, at risk of a breech birth, brings Luomen into the palace to assist with the birth. I’ve said this before, but Gyokuyou is pretty crafty and open-minded for her age – whether it is looking past Luomen’s (unjust) criminal past and focusing on his skills or being open to her attendants picking up odd jobs around the palace if it can help her, and she has become one of my favorite characters in the series.

Stray Musings

• It’s always interesting how Maomao with her wider experience of the world (and its less savory elements) often introduces new practices into the palace. In this case, she first introduces the concubines to the concept of threading, and then later creates ice cream as well. What serves Maomao well is not just her wide experience, but also her innate sharpness in pulling together the threads of what she has learnt outside and applying it in the right circumstance within the palace
• Maomao is still reeling a bit from her discovery that Jinshi is not actually a eunuch… wonder how she’ll react when she finds out the whole truth about his identity. Meanwhile Gaoshan is urging Jinshi to wholly bring her over to their side but Jinshi is afraid of ruffling her father, Lakan’s feathers