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

‘If I stayed a doll, Mother would not become angry.’ – Loulan

Lady Shenmei cuts a truly terrifying figure. She is not just ruthless, but cruel for the sake of being cruel, and quite unhinged in her single-minded quest for revenge. Yet she does not come across as particularly cunning or a master of manipulation and instead seems to have an inclination to excesses (bit reminiscent of the famed image of Nero fiddling while Rome burned). So not even a very capable villain that you could grudgingly respect (unlike her husband). However, that makes her cruelty even more disturbing since there is no real rhyme or reason to it.

And now Maomao’s in her clutches. But just when she’s looks to be in serious trouble, Loulan turns up and plays her mother like a fiddle. She taps into Shenmei’s desire for immortality (of course the megalomaniac narcissist wants to be forever young!) and suggests that Maomao could deliver that to her. Which means that Maomao is now carted along with the rest of the troops to the Shi family’s mountain stronghold, and right into the heart of their plans for rebellion. Out of the frying pan and into the fire? And yet, any time gained is a time to figure out a way to escape. 

At least Maomao finally puts all the puzzle pieces together and faces the truths she has been subconsciously avoiding for so long – Loulan’s alter ego, Jinshi’s true identity and Shisou’s nefarious plot. Unfortunately, she runs afoul of Shenmei again when Kyou-u, in a misguided attempt to help, tries to distract her guard to let Maomao escape. Maomao takes the blame to spare the guard and Kyou-u and luckily for her, Loulan turns up again and manipulates her mother into punishing Maomao with Taibon. Basically, it’s a form of torture where the condemned is thrown into a cell teeming with poisonous snakes, scorpions and other creepy-crawlies. Sounds terrifying for the average person, but Loulan knows it’s a walk in the park for Maomao. Loulan might have been groomed by her mother to be a perfect doll, but as far as intelligence goes, she is truly her father’s daughter. 

One of the themes in Apothecary Diaries over the last 2 seasons has been screwed up parenting and the ripple effect that has had through the generations. We’ve seen how the actions of the previous emperor still continue to destabilize the current emperor’s reign, even long after his passing. We’ve seen how the rumors it engendered affected a young Moon Prince and led to him effectively running away from his role and hiding within the persona of Jinshi. Similarly, we’ve seen how Maomao’s mother’s obsession with her own fate and her attempts to leverage Lakan to escape it impacted Maomao’s upbringing and her ability to form normal relationships. And here we see something similar play out with Loulan (or rather Shisui). 

The aforementioned quote from her perfectly describes her experience of growing up with a toxic mother, one who only views her as an instrument for revenge and who doesn’t even recognize her own daughter when not dressed up. She was, almost literally, expected to be a doll and desperately tried to live up to those expectations in a futile attempt to satisfy her mother and maintain peace at home. But as she ultimately realized, when someone is determined to be unhappy, no matter how much you contort yourself to meet their demands, it will never be enough. 

Shenmei resents being tossed over by the former emperor (as she sees it) and being forced to marry a minor member of the Shi family (never mind that he has risen to such a position of power within the empire) and that resentment has eaten her from the inside over the years till nothing else is left. Given what we have heard of the royal family’s past misdeeds, it could have been easy to feel sorry for her. But her cruel nature and the disdain with which she treats everyone around her plants her firmly in the unsympathetic villain camp. 

And this is the abusive environment that Loulan grew up in. While Suiren got the brunt of the physical abuse (for the crime of being Shisou’s illegitimate daughter), Loulan was the other side of the coin, enduring an equal amount of emotional abuse (along with the occasional physical abuse when undercover as Shisui). It is no wonder then she feels no loyalty to the family and at the end of the episodes appears to be actively working to sabotage their coup attempt. 

Meanwhile back in the palace, Jinshi is faced with a decision. Confronted by Lahan and Lakan with the evidence of Shisou’s treason, he is asked to mobilize the troops against him. This isn’t something that Jinshi, the eunuch, has authority to do, but rather requires the Moon Prince. So, it very much represents a crossroads for him and a decision on the role he wants to assume going forward. While we don’t see the decision yet, it’s obvious what he will do. It’s also evident how much his feelings for Maomao influences his decisions. I think it’s fair to say that without Maomao’s influence he would have found a way to delegate this to someone else and continued to hide from his responsibilities. It will be interesting to see how this changes their dynamic in the next season. 

Stray Musings

• Trust Maomao to always get distracted by medicine, no matter the perilous situation she’s in
• It is tragic how happy Loulan looks when Maomao calls her Shisui. It’s evident that while Shisui was an alias, it represented her true self far more than Loulan ever did. So, it brings her such happiness when Maomao recognizes that and addresses her accordingly.
• It may seem heartless of Loulan to poison the kids in the fortress. But when you consider that they would be branded as traitors and face a much more unpleasant fate when the rebellion fails, it’s clear she did it more as an act of mercy.