*Spoilers for some revelations from episode 28.*
We seem to be coming to the end of a particular section of the story—eleven episodes to go after this, so we’ll see if the show follows one thread through to the end, has a few more paths to explore, or starts bringing everything together as it builds to a climax. For a more transitional story, this episode certainly has some exciting things going on.
Things with Ng Sam-kwai have come to a head. The Reverend has her sword to his throat, prepared to take some long-awaited revenge, but his men are holding Wai Siu-bo’s allies hostage. With everything balancing on a hair trigger, it’s up to Siu-bo to make sure everyone he cares about comes out of this alive.
Every five to ten episodes, it’s seems we need to get some sort of bombshell about one character or another, and the most recent character on the receiving end of the Plot Twist Train is Or. Last week, we learned that she’s the daughter of Ng Sam-kwai and Princess Chan Yuen-yuen, kidnapped as a baby by the Reverend, who intended to raise her as a weapon and then unknowingly kill her traitorous father—which, needless to say, is a lot. As if that wasn’t enough, it was also revealed at the very end of the episode that Ng Sam-kwai isn’t actually her father. Rather, Chan Yuen-yuen had an affair with Li Chi-shing, a rebel leader who’s been in hiding basically since Ming was overthrown. It’s a very tangled web, and understandably, Or is thrown by all of it.
The Reverend has been an interesting gray character, someone who’s been genuinely wronged and has garnered quite the cache of respect as a martial arts adept, but also someone who’s willing to do despicable things to redress her wrongs. That aspect really gets pushed to the limit here, and we see just how far she’s willing to go. For Wai Siu-bo, who’s come to admire her greatly, that’s hard to watch.
It's a little unusual that a lot of the plot in this episode hinges on a character who’s only recently appeared onscreen, Or’s father Li Chi-shing. These last couple of episodes have been our chance to get to know him, but despite his recent arrival on the scene, I think he handles the narrative and emotional weight of the proceedings well. There’s a moment where he laments that, after everything Ng Sam-kwai has done, Chan Yuen-yuen isn’t ready to give him up—recalling the day Ng helped turn the tide of the Ming/Qing conflict, he says, “My country and my beauty slipped away from my hands.” Now, if that’s not a romantic rebel, I don’t know what is.
Wai Siu-bo does a little of everything in this episode. As I said, first and foremost is getting through the Reverend/Ng Sam-kwai showdown with as little bloodshed as possible, which he attempts through a combination of emotional appeals and his usual slipperiness. However, it is absolutely on brand for Siu-bo that, even as everyone’s life is hanging in the balance, he’s still trying to maneuver his way into becoming Or’s husband.
But as the Reverend points out, it is so not the time for that. Apart from the whole life-threatening danger thing, Or has just had her world overturned more than once in short succession. She doesn’t need all this right now and is well within her rights to throw rocks at Wai Siu-bo when he gets too familiar.
And Wai Siu-bo gets something of a taste of his own medicine when the princess decides to get more possessive of him. Even though he’s been collecting would-be wives left and right, the princess bluntly informs him, “You just cannot have another woman,” and muses about getting the emperor to declare him her consort when they get back to the palace. See, Siu-bo, it’s not so fun, is it??
There’s a lot of heavy stuff going on right now, so it’s nice to have a bit of a lighter moment later in the episode when Wai Siu-bo finally discovers his true martial arts talent: Swift Shift, a.k.a. the art of the running away. The Reverend, having realized she’ll never make an adept of him but he’s going to keep getting himself in trouble, teaches him this tool to at least help him stay safe from fighters who are much more skilled than him. Watching Siu-bo practice Swift Shift is a lot of fun, as is his enthusiastic reaction to it.
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