The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

Episode 37

Who do we blame for the idea that women are supposed to be hairless? Rebecca Herzig, professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates College, suggests that Charles Darwin ought to be the target of our ire, as he is credited with introducing the idea that body hair is indicative of "primitive ancestry and an atavistic return to earlier less developed forms." He wasn't around when The Apothecary Diaries takes place, though, and most sources I found seem to indicate that removing body hair wasn't a high priority for Chinese women at the time we can assume the series is set. Granted, it's a fantasy, so it's not bound by the laws of historical accuracy, and what removal was done seems likely to have been through the wet string method Maomao introduces this week. But the idea that women would have depilated their arms and legs may not have been true, which feels like a rare misstep for this series.

Still, it's hard to argue with how Shisui's suggestion that Xiaolan find employment by cozying up to concubines at the baths works to move the plot ahead. I know many of us would rather have the story picked back up with Jinshi (next week!), but Maomao's job right now involves dealing with Gyokuyou's safety – and what better way to ensure it than to pay attention to inner palace gossip. The whole endeavor may start as just networking for Xiaolan, but Shisui's good at catching things besides insects; I daresay she's more canny and possibly crafty than anyone's giving her credit for. She passes off her massage job as merely a way to make connections and get trinkets to sell, but it is a way to be aware of everything going on in the rear palace. This is driven home when Maomao spots Lishu and her head lady-in-waiting partaking of the public baths rather than the private one in her pavilion – and Lishu's statement that there's a ghost in her bathroom may indicate that there are still forces working against the youngest consort.

That's important because Lishu has become the least visible of the four consorts. Gyokuyou is pregnant, and rumors that Lihua and Loulan are as well are also circulating. This leaves Lishu very much on the outside of everything, the consort the emperor won't sleep with. She's already in the unenviable position of being on her second emperor and being too young to understand how to interact with the rest of the rear palace, so being made to come to the public baths can only increase her visibility in a bad way. Presumably that's why someone is attempting to scare her out of her private bath; the potential ghost telling ghost stories is an anomaly in a series that doesn't dabble in the supernatural.

The rumor about Loulan's pregnancy feels very much like just that – a rumor. Although it's possible that it's true, it still doesn't seem likely. The emperor has very particular tastes, and Loulan doesn't fit them; he also seems unlikely to bow to her father on the matter. It's one thing to accept her as a consort, but another entirely to acknowledge the man's bid for power by impregnating his daughter and potentially raising his status even further. The emperor seems to genuinely like Gyokuyou and care about Lihua in a way he doesn't with the other two, and allowing Shishou to push him so far but no farther sounds like a good way to play politics while maintaining his power over the other man. Having a child with Loulan would be a step too far.

If that's the case, the question becomes who is spreading the rumor and why. It may have something to do with Lishu's haunted bath, which could be why the two events came up in the same episode centering around gossip. Jinshi is almost certainly about to get involved, which again speaks to the stakes involved here. This may have been our calm before the storm, with more than just Jinshi renewing his attempts to get through to Maomao coming next week.

Rating: