What an episode. No exciting martial arts battles this time, but wow, some very high stakes quiet tension as Li Pei Yi puts her life on the line, coming to the brink of death while her colleagues and Xiao Huaijin work desperately to save her. The clock ticks relentlessly and the obstacles are subtle but seemingly insurmountable. But the episode isn't just about the race to save Peiyi's life. It also features a romantic arc as she and Hauijin are finally officially engaged for marriage and the episode features some sweet romantic moments and a very passionate kiss!
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The story is starting to really finally build out the emotional stakes for Li Pei Yi (and also, to a lesser extent, Xiao Huaijin) by fleshing out her back story. This is the first time we get a real look (through flashback) at her Mother and Father and it was cool to realize they are being played by the great veteran actors Ma Xiao Qian and Geng Le, respectively. Li Pei Yi's "forced" return to confinement in her ancestral family home feels like a calculated move on both her part and the Emperor's. Yes, it confines her. And yes, by putting her outside the palace, it makes her a possibly easy target for the villains. But it also serves to bring a seed of new life in the ancient manor and it also presents opportunities to lure the villains into making a mistake. I feel like the Emperor did exactly what Li Pei Yi wanted him to do by confining her there.On a side note, I'm really loving the side-couple of Wu Ren and Gu Ling Zhou.
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For much of this drama series, while the individual cases have been intense of themselves, our protagonist has usually been in the role of dispassionate investigator. But these more recent episodes are starting to really ramp up her emotional investment in the plot events and that is carrying us with her. This episode features a moment of remembrance for her late mentor that is achingly sad. Fortunately the sad is balanced somewhat by some incredibly cute flashback scenes featuring the young Pei Yi and the young Huaijin.
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After the Flower on the Wall I thought the villains were bad. Then came the absolute horror show villains of Secret of Auspicious Time. And now we get this disgusting word-weasel Wan Anping! How much more disgusting can the villains get? I'm guessing pretty bad because we haven't really gotten to the main villains responsible for the Le family massacre 15 years ago yet!
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This was a fantastic episode in almost all respects. So much plot closure on the Secret of Auspicious Time plot. There was tragic evil both revealed and avenged. And great fight action scenes as well. But man, the last few seconds ... that hurt.
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She moves around with such swagger in this episode. Constantly encountering resistance and each time boldly pushing right through it with her competence.
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The reveal about the true identity of "Pei Yu" was quite a twist. I wonder how the case will finally be resolved? She's kind of a fascinating character and I hope she can be a recurring character. But all that depends on how Li Pei Yi resolves the case next episode, I guess!
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This episode revolves around an epidemic and is clearly inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of the issues and behaviors by people are straight out of how our modern world acted.
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This is a very interesting episode with multiple plots moving forward and some great acting performances. In particular, in wrapping up the complex-by-itself Weeping Child case, this episode features a wonderful dueling ladies conversation between Consort Wei (played by Ma Rui) and Lady Wang (played by Hu Ji Xin). The tension and verbal sparring between these two is both subtle and intense and I really found Hu Ji Xin's performance, brief as it is, to be magnetic. Hope she gets a main actress role at some point. And then in the final climactic reveal conversation where it becomes clear just who's child was actually inside Lady Wang when she was murdered, the verbal sparring between Ma Rui (again) and Bai Lu is so powerful. Bai Lu is always great at micro-expressions so her cold cruel prosecutor mode delivery is so good. The way she dominates and breaks down the Consort Wei - a woman who is probably used to _always_ being in command of situations is fantastic.
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This episode features an interrogation by Peiyi of senior judicial chief Wu Yue Kun. This is a wonderfully camped-up portrayal by Bai Lu of the Pei Yi character at her ice-cold prosecutor best. She is in command the moment she enters the bed chamber, easily manipulating first the judge's wife and then the judge himself - who was no easy mark. Otherwise, this episode is kinda sad as it reveals how the Seven Palace Maids all sacrificed themselves to finally bring justice to some really awful men. Also, it is now even more clear that Xiao Hua'jin is hiding information from Pei Yi connected to the slaughter of her family 15 years ago.
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Across the Ocean to See You Episode 42
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Overall quality of this episode climbed back up a little from the schlock that the past few have been, but the show is still relying heavily on really cliche drama plot gimmicks. Sadly this includes killing off one of the few truly decent characters in this drama just to serve as a 'life lesson' to all the other characters. I'm sure some viewers will be upset by this episode.
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Across the Ocean to See You Episode 38
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Without Earl's cute little performance, this episode probably deservers a "1". At this point this series has really leaned hard into using nothing but cliche' plot trope after cliche' plot trope to drag out these remaining episodes. The script quality has gotten so bad. This barely resembles the show that was the first 20 episodes. I'm just gritting my teeth to make it past all this stupidity to get to the happy ending. But Earl was cute so I'm adding a +2 to the score just for him.
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Across the Ocean to See You Episode 37
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Wow. The show-writers have now doubled-down and infected the Tang Ming + Yan Xiaoqiu romance with the dreaded 'noble idiocy' trope. And through the use of one of the worst, stupidest scenes I can recall in recent dramas. Shan Shan threatening suicide to get her way ..... and succeeding!!!! Yan Xiaoqiu bizarrely gives up her love for her sister and insists Tang Ming turn any love he has for her towards her sister. - as if that makes _any_ sense whatsoever! That has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. And in the main couple thread, despite paying off Chen Jiaming's debts, he still manages to torment Su Mang more and she sinks even further into her already deep spiral of noble idiocy, running away from Zheng Chu upon the reveal that her baby is from an anonymous sperm donor! Of course, she doesn't realize that Zheng Chu himself was a sperm donor!!!! The show writing quality has basically sunk to incredible low depths at this point.
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Across the Ocean to See You Episode 35
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On the good side, the show has finally resolved the miscommunication trope betweenYan Xiaoqiu and Tang Ming. On the other hand, they are dragging and dragging out the 'noble idiocy' trope where Su Mang has sacrificed her relationship with Zheng Chu in order to not conflict with his parent's wishes and otherwise she is taking on way too much burden and starting to crumble under the weight of it all. And of course this opens the door for Fei Yi to try to worm his way into Su Mang's life in place of Zheng Chu, creating a feeble 'love triangle' where no one was needed. Sigh, it's all very disappointing of the writers.
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Across the Ocean to See You Episode 34
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The show writers are leaning heavily into the 'Noble Idiocy' drama trope now. Su Mang is basically breaking up with and reacting Zheng Chu, "for his own good" .... and of course this will cause all kinds of problems for both of them. Its such a stupid tired drama trope and I can only hope they won't drag it out too long.
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