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

This is it – the episode where everything, all the various story threads and seemingly minor characters come together in one major storyline that will take up the rest of the season. I’ve seen the episode a couple of times and it gives me a thrill every time when I identify the various callbacks to past episodes and realize the hints that were strewn throughout the season.

Luomen has made his way back into the palace to help with Gyokuyou’s (and presumably Lihei’s) delivery. However, in trying to improve the conditions in the rear palace, he unwittingly sets off a chain of events that leads Maomao to discover how deep the rot in the palace runs, which in turn leads to her being kidnapped by Suiren (yes, Suiren is back!) and Shenlu, the old palace lady who runs the clinic for the women of the rear palace. Turns out she’s not quite the benevolent figure she seemed to be. But why? That’s where the brilliantly interconnected nature of the story comes in.

Much has been made since the very first episode about the current emperor’s dearth of heirs, an unusual situation given that it is the very reason for the existence of the rear palace. And for the most part, it seemed to just be a consequence of the expected scheming for power in the rear palace, along with a dose of bad luck. But when Luomen tries to circulate an informational pamphlet about practices and materials to avoid like lead-containing face powders (shout-out to the very first episode that kick-started Maomao’s journey), Maomao quickly realizes that the very same information could be used to instigate the very situations it is trying to avoid. And so, we can look back and see afresh how so much of the rear palace drama (the deaths of the royal infants, Lihei’s illness, her head maid’s plotting) were not just isolated incidents, but the result of a puppet master pulling the strings behind the scenes.

And the motive? That goes even further back, all the way to the previous emperor and his proclivity for young girls. We’ve seen the consequences of that and the scars it left in various forms, from Lishu, to the (almost) deadly ghost story session, to the current Empress Dowager. But now we see how that hatred and festering resentment has spilled over to affect the current generation. It turns out, the clinic lades are in fact past palace ladies who caught the eye of the previous emperor while working in the palace. Once visited by the emperor their lives are in a way forfeit as they are banned from ever leaving the palace. So, they stay there, with no route to escape and nowhere to hide from the scars of their experience. With the previous emperor’s death, the focus of their resentment and vengeance shifted to the current emperor.

In retrospect, this makes so much sense. We are repeatedly informed that palace women typically serve for a two year period. So it is unusual to find older serving women, unless perhaps they are a consort’s cherished attendant. Maomao even notes this fact when she first meets Shenlu, but with everything else going on, it was easy to miss the significance of it. Unfortunately before Maomao can make her escape, Suiren reappears and kidnaps her using Shisui as leverage.

They escape the rear palace through a hidden tunnel and travel to a secret village (another seemingly inconsequential mystery solved – how Maomao the cat entered the palace!). Along the way, Maomao finally puts together all the odd little things about Shisui that didn’t add up and realizes that she is very much a willing participant in Suiren’s schemes. In fact, they are sisters, though has Maomao figured out yet exactly who she is?

While all this is happening, Jinshi is barely coping with Maomao’s disappearance while unraveling the plot within the palace. He discovers that Shisui was never a registered maid of the palace, that Suiren was hiding in plain sight in the guise of a eunuch (hmmm… familiar disguise anyone?) and that Loulan has also escaped leaving her maids behind to cover her disappearance by masquerading as her. That also explains why Loulan favored so much makeup and flashy clothes. All the better to enable her maids to pass off as her which begs the question of how long this deception has been going on. It also points back to Loulan’s father, Prime Minister Shishou, as the mastermind. Further bolstering this (and providing a clue to his motivations), was Lakan’s subtle manipulation over a glass of wine to reveal Shisou’s color blindness. We’ve seen before that this was a trait that was used in the past to confirm successors to the throne so does Shisou have ties to the royal family and is he making a play for the throne? Seems quite likely. Although as it turned out, it was Ah Duo rather than Jinshi who saw this so I’m unsure if she realized the significance. Further adding to the intrigue, Lakan’s adopted son, Lahan, turns up with some disturbing data about increasing crop and metal prices. All of which point to someone (obviously Shisou) hoarding up in preparation for a coup.

Maomao the cat also proves her importance to the plot by leading Luomen to the clue Maomao left behind. This helps Jinshi discover the hidden passage and also the links between Suiren, Shenlu, the palace lady who passed up and used to host the ghost story gatherings, and the story of the previous consort who had an affair with a palace doctor and had a baby out of wedlock. Proving once more that nothing is the Apothecary Diaries universe is ever a one-off story!

A lot happens during this batch of episodes. But plot movement aside, one thing which stood out to me is Jinshi’s evolution. I’ve mentioned before about how Maomao’s relationship with Jinshi and others in the palace has helped her grow as a person. And here we see that Maomao has influenced Jinshi in turn. From her, he has learned to lean into the serious side of his personality a bit more and to not let his emotions overrule his intellect when there is a job to be done. He also starts to question whether he is doing the right thing hiding behind the persona of Jinshi the eunuch. Interestingly, we get a glimpse into his thoughts and how the rumors of his illegitimacy when he was growing up convinced him that he didn’t really belong as a royal prince. That explains his willingness to disguise himself as Jinshi as it probably gave him a sense of freedom from the obligations of a position that he felt did not truly belong to him. However, that belief is shaken when Shenlu reacts violently because of his resemblance to his grandfather, and I believe that we are seeing the beginning of the end of Jinshi the eunuch, and his transformation into a full-fledged member of the royal family.

Stray Musings

• Of course, the lure of learning about the death herb convinces Maomao to go along with her kidnappers instead of fighting back (no matter how much she tries to convince herself otherwise!)
• The hair pin Jinshi gifted Maomao at the garden party makes a reappearance. I wonder if it will pay a critical role in a rescue or if it mainly to highlight how much their relationship has evolved right as they are separated once again
• Maomao certainly has an interesting family, all with razor sharp intellect but eccentric in their own ways.