The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

Episodes 30-31

“Observation” is at the heart of both episodes; fortunately for everyone, that's one of Maomao's strong suits. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be much tying episodes thirty and thirty-one together – the former is about Shin, the head lady-in-waiting to Lihua, while the latter is about a test of worthiness for the emperor. But both instances rely heavily on Maomao's ability to observe and analyze, while also highlighting her blind spots, something Jinshi laments at the start of episode thirty-one.

He's correct when he remarks that Maomao, for all her brilliance, is stubbornly blind in specific instances. While this could be him lamenting that she still hasn't noticed that he has a crush on her, the underlying similarities between the two episodes hint that there's something else going on. Both stories have to do with what makes someone worthy of the royal family: Shin hates Lihua because she took the coveted role of consort when both girls were being trained for it since their childhoods, while the emperor is uncomfortable with the fact that he can't seem to pass an ancient test of fitness by correctly passing through an indoor labyrinth. Shin is consumed by the idea that she deserves to bear the emperor's child (and maybe be his empress); the emperor is bothered by doubts that maybe he doesn't deserve the throne.

Jinshi's issue, on the other hand, seems to be that Maomao hasn't figured out who he really is. The dream he has at the beginning of this week's episode all but comes out and tells us that he's the emperor's younger brother – although he thought he was the emperor's son for his early childhood. Keeping that a secret is wearing on him, which makes a lot of sense – and if he's the emperor's blood relative, there's a very good chance that he's also keeping the state of his genitals a secret as well; the chances of him actually being a eunuch just dropped astronomically, because why would they endanger the royal bloodline like that? As he spends more time with Maomao, who can figure out obscure poisoning plots from a whiff of scented oil, of course it's going to wear on him that the one mystery she can't solve is the one he most wants her to. And if she figures it out on her own, he can't be blamed for spilling the secret(s), right?

Whether or not that's crossed the emperor's mind remains uncertain. He's very much a cipher as a character; we rarely know what he's thinking. His interest in Maomao does seem in part to stem from the fact that Lakan is her biological father (he mentions it twice this week, so he's aware of and fascinated by it), but she's also saved three of his consorts from plots designed to take them out, or, in the case of Lishu, make her profoundly uncomfortable. Is he taking her through the shrine of choosing as a test of her worthiness? I wouldn't put it past him, especially with the way he keeps baiting Jinshi about taking Maomao as one of his concubines. Jinshi may not (visibly) rise to the bait, but with his true identity revealed, I wouldn't be surprised if the emperor wasn't planning to get his little brother to take Maomao as his consort. The mentions of Lakan certainly hint that she's got the bloodline for that to happen.

With Shin out of the Crystal Pavilion and the emperor's eyes firmly on Maomao, her life in the rear palace stands to get a lot more interesting in ways she may not appreciate. She's inextricably entangled with the royal family at this point, and the title for next week's episode implies that she'll be meeting the all-powerful Empress Dowager. Will she finally figure out what Jinshi so desperately wants her to? I hope so, if only because the poor man clearly needs someone to see him rather than the role he plays.

Maomao needs to learn the truth before the story he's telling goes down in history as nonfiction.

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