This episode had so much happening. Chang Tai strikes first with assassins followed by troops, coming in determined to kill his father and anyone in his way. The action is fierce and brutal with several signific deaths. We get some important bonding between Hua Yong and his father. And of course we get the long-anticipated-yet-painfully-too-soon death of Hua Yong in a beautifully filmed cinematic death scene. A tragically sad outcome, but overall the makings of a fantastic episode. The only glitch is that the director or editor or both ended up really, really dragging out some of the scenes with loooooong pauses and meaningless monologues. Chang Tai's death scene was just absurdly too long and pointless. That was a lot of wasted screen time. And then the long drawn out scene where Xi He is racing back to find Hua Yong and he is walking slowly out to find her. That was stretched out absurdly long. The other oddity was with the aftermath of the initial battle, the scene with just the Emperor and Hua Yong - where the heck were all the guards and servants? Why was everybody else suddenly vanished from that part of the palace? It really seemed weird. And that strange state of 'no one around' continued through the final scene with Hua Yong and Xi He.
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we get a full-on sweet storyline episode as our leads enjoy multiple romantic moments and the pleasant surprise of learning that Xi He is pregnant. This episode is wonderfully cheesy without any sense of shame for doing so. Lots of sentimentality. Of course, we all know that this goodnesss won't last and just means bad things are coming ...
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By the end of this episode, the Crown Prince has saved Prince Xin's life multiple times now. And Xin's outlook on his brother is clearly affected. The guy is still a delusional psychopath and I don't believe for a second that he will ever give up his insane obsession with Xi He. But this investment by the Crown Prince in saving his brother's life hopefully will pay off somehow down the line? Meanwhile, CP is presented with yet another accusation against his father as the one who poisoned him. That's now a lot of fingers pointing at the Emperor, but .... it seems too obvious. Feels like a misdirection by the show writer. I suspect that there is still some big truth that is yet to be revealed.
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The moment Jingjing sees the 2 penta-kills on her account was a pretty big deal. This was a huge signal to her about his sincerity that she had not known about. And it was her uncertainty about his sincerity - his true commitment to her - that was keeping her from accepting him. She was clearly scared to try again unless she could feel certain because of how much he had hurt her with that rejection. So that's why she had kept things at arm's length, waiting to see. The penta-kills were a sign of his thinking about and acting for her without her knowing. That broke the ice. Then the bold and impulsive show he put on at the reunion event was a sign that he had listened and was taking her words to heart about what love needs to be at times. That was a signal that he trusts and believes in her and is willing to change to be with her. This episode also finally lets us meet her bestie, Pei Pei who is played by Zheng He Huizi, who would later star as the lead in a similarly well-received rom-com, You are my Fated Love.
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I'll give credit to the show for having YuTu's incredible lack of social & emotional skills be consistent. Even when he finally gets his moment to finally apologize and confess to Jingjing, he says all kinds of dumb things and nearly botches it. At least he does sort of get it out. I'm glad she decides to keep him at arm's length for a bit. He hurt her really bad and needs to do at least some penance! Plus, his whole life he has been the one the girls have been pursuing and I think that has contributed to his self-absorbed nature - he has literally always just taken girls for granted. So it's good for him to learn what it's like to be pursuing her.
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The sequences showing YuTu at work in the field aren't bad. And they help add 'color' to his life away from Jingjing and gaming. But as a matter of detail, they aren't critically important to the larger plot. What's important in this episode is that YuTu currently hates himself a little bit as he's realized what a jerk he has been. So he's self-punishing by not allowing himself to join his comrades in social events and mostly just sits pondering his navel, looking at old Jingjing text messages and feeling (rightfully) sad. Things don't finally start to move forward until late in the episode after YuTu talks with Guan Zai and his wife and then starts to compose letters to Jingjing. We see that she receives them but don't know what they say at the end of the episode.
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A lot of the stuff related to YuTu's job is ultimately irrelevant to the plot. Some of it is based on real technological issues and other stuff is just hand-wavy tv-show nonsense. Ultimately this episode is just filler with YuTu burying himself in his work to avoid thinking about Jingjing while every 10 minutes something reminds him of Jingjing. Even the arrival of his annoying ex-girlfriend ultimately accomplishes nothing but reminding him of Jingling. The key event in this entire episode is that, upon sitting down to talk with Xia Qing, YuTu finally realizes that he had been a complete jerk to her. That the only reason he had gone out with her when they were in college was because he was 'comfortable' with her. She was 'smart and capable' and he foolishly thought that was what he wanted. Now, finally, after having been with Qiao Jingjing, realizing that there is so much more that binds two people together, and thinking about his past with Xia Qing, he finally realizes that he was the asshole. And he apologizes to her for that. This is a major moment of emotional growth for YuTu as he realizes that he has been a jerk to both women in his life. If you have nothing else to do, watch this episode. Otherwise, just skip to the last few minutes. Nothing else all that important happens.
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Well, as I predicted while enduring the over-the-top sad mess that was the Guan Zai gets sick plot line, the writers turned the supposedly brilliant Yu Tu into a complete idiot who learned the completely wrong lessons from watching what his friend's family went through. He should have learned that it is a mistake to bottle things up and hide things from your loved ones. He should have learned that it is your loved ones who will be there for you to help you when you are in trouble. He should have learned that loving someone isn't about avoiding the pain but rather enduring it for the sake of love. Because all those things were actually on display in the Guan Zai plot line. But the writers contrived our hero to become an idiot who only noticed the pain and sadness that Shen Jing was experiencing. Never did he ask her if she would choose otherwise because if he did, she would have told him, "No". And the idiotic inability to understand how to balance work and life is just stupid. Yu Tu has turned what should be a plus-plus combination into a ridiculous either/or equation. The writers have made YuTu into someone who is so self-absorbed that he fails to have the empathy that would guide him to NOT HURT THIS WOMAN THAT HE CLEARLY LOVES. He seems oblivious to just how much pain he just caused her this night, which should have been her happiest. I get it. This is episode 15 and the show wants to keep the lovers separated for a little longer for 'dramatic purposes' and now we will have an arc that eventually brings them back together. But I just wish the writers would not resort to making characters be so absurdly stupid in order to do that. Because the YuTu that the writers have created is simply not an attractive, healthy human that any sane woman should want to have a relationship with. Now they have to contrive ways to completely transform him from this jerk back into a likable human. And that contrivance will likely be as hard to believe as the above transformation that got him here.
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At this point it is very, very clear that the other various Princes share almost no genetic connection with the Crown Prince because ... every single one of the other Princes is mentally damaged. Either they are simply dumb as a post such as Prince Lie, insanely insecure to the point of incompetency such as Prince Ning and Prince Yu or outright psychopaths the way power-mad Prince Ding and creepy Prince Xin are. The fact that Crown Prince Hua Yong is actually sane is strong evidence for the theory that HIS dad is perhaps NOT the Emperor, but rather his late Uncle, the true heir to the former Emperor. And that this may be why he was poisoned as a child.? At any rate, this episode features more evidence that Prince Ding (who wasn't actually poisoned in prior episodes) is freaking insanely jealous and power-hungry and orchestrates a betrayal and near slaughter of the Shen family. Interestingly his wife (played by actress Snow Kong, once again paired up with an absolute psycho after having been stuck with one in Pursuit of Jade) is showing to be not the nutcase displayed earlier and tries to talk him out of his power-mad pursuits. One wonders if she will act against his insane actions later? And finally we get to the absolute creepiest, obsessive psychopath Prince Xin, who has resorted to following and literally hanging around outside the Crown Princess' room at night - even when he knows the Crown Prince is inside WITH her!!! He has become an outright stalker and is not hiding it. His stated strategy is that he will wait for the Crown Prince to die and for her to change her mind and accept him? It's truly insane because if the woman truly is his former wife returned he should know that she already killed herself once rather than stay alive as his wife!!! She's told him again and again that she will NEVER be with him. Yet he obsessively persists. Clearly at this point the only way to get rid of this psycho is for him to die. The story will probably drag that out to the very end so it has a disgusting creep to taunt us viewers with.
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and deal mainly with the impact of Guan Zai's health problems on his family. While the performances are excellent, it's a real downer plot-line and I worry that the point of it is just to paint all the negatives that can happen to someone working in Yu Tu's field who tries to have a family. And that he will use this as an excuse later to reject Jingling. But it's kind of over-the top and frankly there are a lot of flaws in the storylines the last few episodes. Assuming China's rules around who can get clearances for confidential work are at least remotely similar to those of other countries, one of the requirements is disclosure of things like, well, financial problems and severe health issues. The requirement to disclose these things is not to be punitive, but rather to protect the employee from becoming vulnerable. It's just not credible that YuTu would not have informed the Institute of the stressors on his financial situation and if he hasn't then he's probably in violation of his contract. So the storyline has been very irritating that so many of YuTu's colleagues and superiors are pressuring him about work .... when Yu Tu himself has simply not been honest and fully disclosed his financial worries stemming from his mother's health. And similarly, Guan Zai fails to disclose his obvious health problems to anyone until he ends up collapsing. Avoiding problems like these are why disclosure rules are put in place. So your employer and colleagues can help. or at least be understanding. The last couple of episodes are overall extra frustrating because of the many points where the righters have characters (mainly YuTu and Guan Zai ) purposely withhold information or outright lie to others about various problems in their lives. And Shen Jing also does it to hide things from her son. And later, when YuTu finally joins up with Jingling again, does he bother to let her know at all about his sick friend and how he's been spending time in the hospital with him? No. He keeps it to himself and says nothing about it. AAAAGH!!! This is simply not how real adults interact. It's like the last two episodes are a celebration of lies, half-truths and misinformation among friends! WTF are the show writers doing here? I really hope this isn't something the show keeps using as a plot device.
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Yu Tu was sort of sleep-walking through much of this to this point, clearly lost in his thoughts about whatever is going wrong in his career. Even seems depressed and vulnerable about it - which comes to a head at the little 'reunion' dinner where he gets ridiculed about it. But after his magical rescue from that situation by Jingling's clever wine trick she not only saves him from that awkward situation, but also just lights up his admiration for her. She's so sensitive and responsive to his emotional state that he clearly starts falling hard for her. I mean, yes, he's a math/science/tech/gaming genius (oh, and basketball stud, apparently) ... but she's clearly the master of people skills between the two of them and her game is in high form as she draws him into her web.
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The chemistry between Dilraba and Yang Yang is immediately do cute. Their back and forth quickly hinges off their each having certain strengths - his being intellectual and her's being socio-emotional. There is an undercurrent of tension running though, with Yu Tu clearly at some sort of career crossroads that is bothering him.
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Yu Tu's obvious struggle with what life goals to pursue - his science ideals versus practical $$$ concerns - really touch home. The different ways society values careers is just as problematic in the West as it is in China. And the dichotomy between his math, science & technical genius against her obvious emotional / social genius plays out quickly as she starts to manipulate him into helping her.
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She not only orchestrates the loss of her own pregnancy, but then poisons her husband? How is this supposed to help her positioning in the palace? And can we at least get a hint was to who the mastermind is behind her?
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It starts off with the aftermath of Cui Jun Bai and Bu Shu Lin spending a night together, drunk at the nightclub. He wants to go further but she rejects him. This seems realistic because she has spent her whole life playing this particular role and her very life depends on sticking to it at all times so it's not surprising that she pushes him away for both their own good. Unfortunately, bad folks (2nd Prince and the younger Gu sister) have started to figure out Bu's secret and plot to use it with a nasty honey trap plot. The good guys foil it but there are sad consequences. Xi He finally has had enough and draws a stark, cold line in the sand in front of Gu Qing Shu, but it's not clear if the latter is smart enough to understand and stay in her lane. And finally, Xi He starts to finally melt and show softness and concern towards Hua Yong.
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