The Apothecary Diaries Season 2

Episode 40

Isn't it nice when all the pieces start to come together? Similar to attaching the center of a jigsaw puzzle to the frame, suddenly you can see the whole picture, even though there are still gaps. That's what episode forty of The Apothecary Diaries does: it links the center to the frame, showing us how everything is starting to come together.

At the center of it all are the as-yet-unborn babies. That's not just because Maomao is concerned about them, though – it comes back to the previous emperor and all the little girls he was fed. As Maomao already noted, none of those girls could leave, and now they're old women, forever trapped at the scene of his crimes against them. Anyone would grow twisted and bitter, and that, perhaps, has informed the actions of at least one woman who has, intentionally or not, facilitated the death of at least one infant.

If we explore her motives, she never meant for Shin to kill Lihua's first child. But perhaps by making the information available, she was working through her past. Any woman in the rear palace who was pregnant with a child she didn't want could make use of the abortifacients. It was just bad luck that Shin seized on them for a woman who very much did want her child. She was never the person the old woman wanted to reach.

It's not easy for these abused women to see or accept that the new emperor isn't like his father, though. The late emperor and his mother did so much damage that Maomao hasn't uncovered all of it. Her kidnapping by Suirei is certainly a crash course in something she missed, as is what looks like the disguised “eunuch's” relationship with (or to) Shisui. Maomao had already started to wonder about her insect-loving friend as she realized how odd it was that she's literate, and I hope she doesn't truly believe that Suirei is threatening the other girl. If everything is as intertwined as it's looking, there's no way Shisui's presence is a coincidence.

That means that Lakan's demonstration of Shishou's color-blindness (which runs in the imperial bloodline, if you recall) is not a mere coincidence. He may have shown Basen and Ah-Duo rather than Gaoshun and Jinshi, but they're more than capable of reporting to the emperor or putting the pieces together themselves. Something is coming to a head, and the danger is that the major players are all in different places without each other's information.

There are two bright spots here. One is that Luomen is in the rear palace. Whatever happens, at least Lihua and Gyokuyou (and their babies) will have better medical care than Guen (he has a name!) can provide. Even if Maomao didn't anticipate being kidnapped, she's prescient enough to keep the inner palace from burning – metaphorically speaking. The other may be just as significant: Maomao has Jinshi's hair stick with her when she's kidnapped. If anything might keep her alive and unharmed, I think that'd be it.

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