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

Maomao’s still a hostage but it feels more like a technicality at this point since she pretty much has free run of the village. Is that because there’s nowhere for her to run? Or because Shisui has a soft spot for her? She even finally gets her hands on Suiren’s materials about the death simulating drug and judging by her ecstatic reaction, I’m not even sure she’d want to leave if she had the chance.

It is practically like old times, with Maomao and Shisui hanging out and visiting the fox festival celebrations in the village. It feels almost like a filler episode and yet there are several minor, but key incidents that propel the plot forward. We see Maomao realize that several of the villagers (Shisui included) are color blind. While she doesn’t quite put everything together just yet, for us viewers with better memories (and the benefit of rewatches!), this is a clear link back to the emperor’s test earlier and, like Lakan’s little test for Shizou, further underscores the motive for the rebellion. Seeing the festival and learning the history of the village also highlights how many of the villagers are innocent but still implicated by their proximity to the plotters. In case the rebellion is unsuccessful, everyone will be punished whether or not they played an active role in it.

Most critically, it’s also where Maomao learns about a poor patch of rice crop in the village leader’s field. When she later sneaks out with Kyou-u’s help and sees the field, she soon realizes that the crop has been affected by light from the nearby (supposedly) abandoned storehouse. As she suspects, this is where the experiments on the death simulating drug happen. However, she soon realizes she’s bitten off more than she can chew when she uncovers guns stored there as well – the same type of guns used in the assassination attempt against Jinshi. And that leads us to the cliffhanger where she gets caught by Shizou’s wife, the dreaded lady Shenmei and the foreign envoy from the West. We don’t know much about her yet but considering how scared Kyou-u is of her, and the tidbits Shisui let slip about her mom’s behavior, this definitely does not look good for Maomao. Looks like her (relative) freedom is over now!

Stray Musings

• Kyou-u’s growing on me. He came off as a spoilt brat when he was first introduced but here, we see that while he is a scamp, he has a good heart and is acting out more as a way of getting attention. He is really just a playful little boy hurting for his mother.
• At what point did the foreign envoy get involved in this rebellion? Was the whole visit to the emperor and marriage proposal just a ruse to disguise their true intentions (and perhaps to enable more scheming with Shizou)? Or on realizing that they would not gain any influence through legitimate routes, did they then turn to Shizou as a more devious way to gain power over the throne?