After Loulan dances her way to an epic end, it is time to pick up the pieces of what the Shi Clan left behind.

Video Review

What Stands Out the Most?

Experiencing the Roller Coaster

Episode 24 just proved that “you can have your cake and eat it too.” What do I mean by that? Let me explain.. Season 2 has led to this very moment of solving every mystery as to what is leading to Jinshi’s attempted demise. It all comes back to this very character, Loulan. She is the daughter of the Shi Clan head, Shishou and Shenmei. They are the ones that have been setting up a rebellion, resulting from Shenmei’s vindictive revenge from the previous emperor, never “spending time with her.”

Yes.. Let’s destroy the world because of your shame and embarrassment..

Although it was Shishou’s ultimate goal to act as the “necessary evil” to bring all the corruption into the Shi Clan, he didn’t realize that his own daughter had similar goals to be that martyr. An entire plot that stems back to season 1, finally ends with Loulan taking her mother down. Due to her role in this entire rebellion and being a high consort, there is basically a 99.9% chance that she would get executed. Due to this, she saved everyone she could—giving the children the resurrection medicine. She even got Jinshi’s word to do his best to save the people of the Shi Clan that didn’t have a choice in this entire fiasco, including her sister, Suirei.

This culminated into the MOST ICONIC moment of the entire series.. Loulan dances to her death, while getting put holes into her body. This marks her end.. All of the emotions that we felt from figuring out that Loulan is Shisui, who has been with us the entire season from even the ice cream incident with Xiaolan. To seeing her live through years of her mother’s corruption, playing her role as “Loulan” for her mother’s revenge, being pregnant with the emperor, watching Shenmei abuse Suirei and to being the very one to put the finishing touches to the Shi Clan’s demise.

As a character, she speaks volumes to all of those that are put in the worse of circumstances, but had a heart of gold the entire time. This is the person, due to mother’s ambitions and her father playing along—WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO DIE?! That’s the tragic nature of her character and puts into perspective how devastating it felt to see her fall to her death.. Or so we think?!

Everything said prior is that cake because the writer wants us to feel that bittersweet ending, but satisfy those that want her to live on in all fairness to karma. That karma ties beautifully to the great storytelling of this series. It was our deuteragonists playing the hero. One was intentional in Maomao and one was by association of Jinshi’s hairpin that she gave to Loulan. That hairpin gave us the victory we wanted for “Tamamo,” tanking that last bullet before she fell off the cliff into the heavy snow.

Tamamo-no-Mae is the inspiration behind Shisui’s new name. She is a legendary figure who was an empress high consort that can shapeshift into the nine-tailed fox, connecting the fox masks back to her character. The ending of the episode gave us quite the insight as to potentially how Shisui will keep her promise to Maomao, in trading away Jinshi’s hairpin with the bullet hole to a shop vendor that had the locust jade. We have to assume that at some point, Jinshi’s hairpin with the bullet hole will make it back to Maomao. This leads to Tamamo telling the shop vendor her name because her name holds significance to the fox that she is associated with. Along with the fact that she bought a green jade locust and we know how much Shisui loved eating those bugs during the festival.

THIS is the “having your cake and eating it too,” coming to fruition. The last connection Tamamo has to her previous life as Shisui and Loulan is officially over by trading away that hairpin. All the context clues are there for Maomao and Jinshi to get a good idea as to what happened. This is as Tamamo said it herself as she ventures across the sea, “bye-bye.” She is likely never coming back, having been given this second chance at life. For those like myself that would have loved such a great character continue to be apart of the story, that character is gone and it logically makes the most sense to leave it this way.

Delivering the Emotional Brilliance with the Storytelling

What I think the author, Natsu Hyūga did was brilliant. Part of “having the cake and eating it too” involves all of our emotions within this episode. The episode proceeds to give us a win one-by-one, reviving our souls while our assumption is that Loulan is dead. The kids ended up surviving and were given as adopted kids to someone that we can trust in Ah-Duo. She even took in Suirei as well, who arguably had the worst upbringing of all. The episode even gave Maomao’s adopted father a win, by the fact that the rear palace fully accepted him back in full-time.

The “I Will Cry Moment” for Xiaolan..

This eventually leads to one of the most rewarding and heartfelt moments of the entire series when Seki-u drops off Xiaolan’s letters for both Shisui and Maomao. Due to the circumstances with the Shi Clan, the official story is that Shisui and Maomao were hired away from the rear palace.

This happy-go-lucky, golden retriever, sweet sounding Xiaolan has been here with us since the very first episode.. She couldn’t read or write and here she is with a letter written by herself to her friends, explaining the absolute excitement of her next journey of working for a concubine’s little sister, due to her two season’s worth of hard work. To make it even more of a tear jerker is the fact that tells Maomao how much she misses both her and Shisui—that one day they can all eat ice cream together again. However, we know that this marks the end of an era for The Apothecary Diaries. Although all three are alive, the likelihood that this will take place again becomes fantasy. Making us realize how bittersweet this moment has become, in which the scene is capped off with Maomao’s tears.

After crying a bucket’s worth of grown man tears, the story sways our emotions to the reality that Loulan MAY BE ALIVE! When you can’t find a dead body, it opens up the possibility that what we want to come true, has become close to reality. The story plays into this possibility using Maomao and Shisui’s promise of Jinshi’s hairpin being returned back to her. Ignoring everything that has to do with Jinshi trying to bite the romance into Maomao, this is the story’s peak of the potential return of Shisui’s character. However, as explained earlier, it is the bittersweet “having your cake and eating it too.” The author still delivers both the ending of season 2 episode 23 and episode 24 with Loulan and Tamamo likely never coming back. This episode played with our emotions like a fiddle and that is what makes The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 special.

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