*Episode premise spoilers.*
We’re getting down to the wire here! Some characters are coming to their final confrontations, And yet there are some comparatively new characters that factor in big in this episode. I can imagine the gist of where I think we’ll be by the end of the series, at least who’s going to come out on top, but how they’ll end up there is still pretty open.
While escorting an official back from Yangzhou to the palace, Wai Siu-bo and his crew are beset by a family of assassins who are looking for him. After some prime tricky maneuvering to wriggle out, Siu-bo is put in an even more difficult position when he learns who their number-one target is.
A few general things of note here. As usual, leave it to Helmsman Chan to diffuse a wild, intense situation, and also leave it to him to gently shame Wai Siu-bo for his less scrupulous actions. Sheung Yee comes in clutch, as she always does. There’s a moment in the episode when someone poses the idea of her potentially marrying Siu-bo, and when she responds, “Please don’t say so! I am not worthy. I have never thought of it,” I laughed out loud. All I could think was, “Well, maybe you haven’t thought of it, but Siu-bo definitely has!”
Speaking of our clever fool, it’s another good episode for Wai Siu-bo. We get him trying to convince his mother he’s made good and can set her up for life. When she refuses his offer to come back to the palace with him, he suggests she use his money to buy the brothel where she works, and then some—“Make a chain. You can corner the market!” We get some more of his patented finagling-his-way-out-of-danger moves, and this time, he manages to save himself and his friends while imperiling someone he hates. Win win! There’s also some lovely, poignant stuff that reflects his unwavering loyalty to the emperor.
Another moment I love is when Wai Siu-bo gets a vital piece of intel that he has to convey to the emperor immediately. The trouble is, he’s still on the road and the intelligence is too sensitive to share with anyone else. This leaves the illiterate Siu-bo struggling to figure out how get a message to the emperor. Bonus points for the way Tony Leung Chiu-wai holds the brush like someone who definitely doesn’t know how to write.
No comments:
Post a Comment