*Spoilers for the end of episode 9.*
In addition to being pretty serialized, The Duke of Mount Deer moves very fast. We’re now a quarter of the way through the series and are settling into major plots that weren’t even hinted at in the first few episodes. I have no idea where we’ll be in another 10 episodes, or 20, or 30, and that’s kind of neat.
Wai Siu-bo has a lot on his plate. He’s still harboring two injured women from the house of Muk, one of whom was involved in a false-flag assassination attempt on the emperor, and Siu-bo just foiled another would-be assassination… against himself! The court is abuzz about who would try to kill the emperor, and Siu-bo is put on the case, but the lovely Fong Yee has also asked him to help her lover, who was taken prisoner during their plot.
Just like it took me a few episodes to get all the Ngo Bye and Hoi Goong-goong stuff straight in my head, I’m still playing catch-up with some of this new intrigue involving the House of Muk and the House of Western Pacification. There are a lot of ploys and double-crosses and wheels within wheels happening, and while I don’t quite know what’s what, I know (and appreciate) that Wai Siu-bo is stuck in the thick of it.
We haven’t had much of Andy Lau’s emperor lately, and a lot of the scene he does have haven’t been with Tony Leung Chiu-wai. While I miss their scenes together, Teresa Mo and Carina Lau have been making up for it as Princess Muk and Fong Yee. Both interact with Wai Siu-bo in such different, entertaining ways, and I enjoy their dynamics with each other too.
Wai Siu-bo does a little of everything in this episode. One of the perks of being a clever fool is that your station seems to keep rising as people notice your talents, but the drawback of that is that everyone then expects you to do things, sometimes dangerous things. Siu-bo has a lot going on even before you take into account the villain who’s trying to have him killed. As he ducks and pivots, working a number of people from every possible angle, he spends just as much time on the ropes as he does a step ahead.
I really like seeing Wai Siu-bo’s rapidly-developing feelings for Fong Yee, and not just because Leung and Carina Lau have been a real-life couple for decades. They’re a lot of fun together, Siu-bo’s teasing crossed with Fong Yee’s fierceness. When Siu-bo is feeling in control of the situation, he’s all cockiness and winks, cajoling her to call him “hubby” and messing with her just because. In these moments, when she rejects his advances, he complains and pouts in a performative way, like he knows she could never really resist his charms. But then, when he’s less sure of things, we see these little flickers where he drops the routine and gets serious, usually in moments when she’s not looking. It’s just a quick flash of dismay in his eyes, his face subtly falling before he gets his bravado back. Really nice work by Leung there.
It certainly isn’t exclusive to this episode, but I’m also a fan of Wai Siu-bo’s awkward, stilted martial arts. I love that he’s constantly meeting martial arts adepts and he just kind of stumbles around and manages to scrape by. It’s an entertaining character trait, and watching him BS his way through a move someone’s just shown him makes for good physical comedy.
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