Category: Season 2
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The Apothecary Diaries S2E46-48 ”Royal Guard/The Shi Clan/ The Beginning”
‘He sounds like he is reading from a prepared script’ – Jinshi Therein lies the key to unraveling the Shi family’s plot. After spending most of the backend of the season apart, all the key players converge at the Shi fortress. Jinshi, fully accepting his role in the royal family,…
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The Apothecary Diaries S2E44-45 ”The Stronghold/Taibon”
‘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…
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The Apothecary Diaries S2E43 ‘Festival’
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…
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The Apothecary Diaries S2 Eps 40-42: Festering Resentment/ The Fox Village/ Lantern Plant
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…
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The Apothecary Diaries S2 Eps 37-39: The Baths/ The Dancing Ghost/ Ice
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…
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The Apothecary Diaries S2 Eps 35-36: The Hunt/ Ka Zuigetsu
My favorite episodes are generally ones which focus on the rear palace. The more intimate setting allows us to get to know a smaller cast of characters better. However as Maomao grows closer to Jinshi, her world (and ours by extension) is forced to expand beyond the rear palace. The…
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The Apothecary Diaries S2 Ep 34: Ghost Stories
‘Once you understand the meaning behind it, it’s nothing special.’ – Yinghua ‘The world is full of things we may never understand.’ – Maomao Two statements that encapsulate two opposing viewpoints that run through this episode. For surely part of the allure of a ghost story, a myth, a legend,…
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The Apothecary Diaries S2 Eps 32 & 33: The Empress Dowager/ The Late Emperor
We’ve had mentions of the late Emperor dropped throughout the series – enough to paint the picture of a weak, ineffectual man. An Emperor not held in high regard and viewed as a puppet of his power-hungry mother, the late Empress Regnant. Even worse, a man with a disturbing taste…
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The Apothecary Diaries S2 Ep 31: The Shrine of Choosing
Maomao, Maomao, Maomao…no matter how hard you try, you can’t hide your head in the sand forever. More than any other past event, we see here how entwined she has become in the imperial family, and not just as a useful retainer. Although Maomao is still trying her hardest to…
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