Not as much Tony Leung Chiu-wai in this episode, though the scenes he does have are good. Some big stuff and important revelations going on here.
While Right Emissary Fan continues his scheme to get the antidote Ming needs, Zhao Min is caught up with Zhang Wuji. Back at Miss Zhao’s HQ, the Ermei Priestess gets serious with Zhou Zhiruo, trying to give her everything she needs to know to take over the sect.
We continue Right Emissary Fan’s plot from the previous episode. In order to get the antidote to help the captured sect leaders, he prepared to deploy everything from clever trickery to blackmail (based on a hook he baited.) There’s some uncomfortable stuff here involving an important man’s “favorite concubine” being dangled at one of his subordinates as an incentive, which is gross. At one point, Fan is literally carrying the concubine in a sack and trying to avoid suspicion while doing so.
The Priestess has lost any hope that she’ll escape her imprisonment, so she sets to work gruffly preparing her successor to take control of Ermei once she’s gone. She has her own reasons for favoring Zhou Zhiruo, and she goes all in on imparting some last-minute teachings to her disciple. She severely warns Miss Zhou away from Zhang Wuji, repeatedly referring to him as “that licentious man,” which feels wildly inaccurate. The best I can tell, she’s looking at Miss Zhou and is reminded of Miss Ji, her former disciple who had a child out-of-wedlock with a Ming warrior. That ended very badly, so the priestess is desperate not to see Miss Zhou go down the same road. She also offers up some juicy info about the Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sabre.
Zhang Wuji inadvertently plays a role in keeping Zhao Min distracted from the goings-on at her headquarters, because she goes looking for him at the inn where he’s staying. She’s not the least bit slick in her interest in him, and Wuji handles the situation as delicately as he can. As I said last week, Miss Zhao’s crush on Wuji can help our heroes when she gets caught up in it, but it can also make her dangerous and unpredictable. Here, they meet up for a drink, and she casually asks him what he’ll do if she kills Zhou Zhiruo.
Obviously, she’s continuing to fish for confirmation that he likes Zhou Zhiruo more than her, but Zhang Wuji doesn’t take the bait. Instead, when Zhao Min wonders if he’d kill her in retaliation, we get a really nice moment where Wuji reflects on his life and how it’s shaped his overall philosophy. As a reminder, his parents both died by suicide when he was just a kid, after spending his childhood knowing only them and his godfather. He tells Miss Zhao about his youthful desire for someone to blame and punish.
But then he says, “Even if those people were the cause of my parents’ death, will my parents come back to life after I kill them all? I’ve been thinking about this every day. Wouldn’t it be nice if all people can stop killing other people in revenge and befriend each other?” And really, I think this is Zhang Wuji in a nutshell. He can come across as overly noble at times, but when you remember all he’s been through and the incredible loss he suffered at a very young age, all over the different sects clamoring for the Dragon Sabre, it’s easy to see why he always wants to find a kinder way to solve things.
There’s one more moment I want to highlight in this scene. Zhao Min asks him who’s prettier between her and Zhou Zhiruo, and Zhang Wuji instantly replies, “Of course you’re prettier.” And as soon as he says it, there’s a something on his face, and I can’t quite untangle what it is. Does Wuji surprise himself to realize that that’s his answer? Does he feel guilty because he knows he’s lying to placate Miss Zhao? Does he think Miss Zhao is objectively prettier but prefers Miss Zhou anyway? His expression really stands out to me here, and I’m curious to see if this is going to be teased out any further in the coming episodes.
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