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Duke Xue openly talking regicide now.

Not surprising, of course. He already showed 20 years ago he was willing to kill his own son for his ambitions. Killing his nephew would be trivial to him. His sister shuts him down for now. I also won't be surprised if he tries to assassinate Zhang Zhe on his fact-finding mission in order to blame it on Xie Wei and the Yan family.. Meanwhile, J'uan's and Ning'er's bizarre relationship moves "forward" with ... fake intimacy in order to fool Lord Pingnan. Methinks they are just fooling themselves, though. Later, we see a light go on in Ning's head as she starts to realize that in her former life, Xie Wei may NOT have been intending to kill her! That light going on in her head is like a push that starts her sliding towards finally, inevitably realizing her true feelings towards Xie Wei. The events in Pingnan's courtyard and finally Yan Lin's words to her accelerate it. And thank goodness that Yan Lin has grown up so much from the dumb jock he was when younger. He has learned wisdom, sincerity and grace and can see that Ning and his cousin truly love each other.

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"Xie J'uan, you really are crazy"

This line by Ning kinda sums up their relationship. He really does come off as bat-s**t crazy to her and I can't blame her for wanting to run far, far away. We've got 4 more episodes to somehow transform this mess into an actual romance? Now, wtf is Lord Pignan doing at this outpost? How the heck do c-drama villains always get to move around and pop-up wherever they want? And how does he know about Ning's importance to Xie Wei? Just who is his deep mole spy? It has to be one of Jian Shu, Dao Qin or Lyu Xian. Well, at least Ping Nan's character (psychopathic, child-murdering a**hole) is consistent. That guy is totally bent. Him finally getting his just deserts is going to be a welcome moment.

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Action!

After the (relative) slow pace of the prior two episodes, this episode explodes with lots of action as Xie Wei, Yan Mu and Yan Lin take steps to rescue the Princess. It was an understated but awesome side bit to watch the 'old man', General Yan Mu, kicking the butt of that jerk Prince Da Yue. We get a jealous petty bit by Xie Wei over Ning's happy reunion with his cousin, but he makes up for it the next day with a nice self-made gift of layered walnut cakes. And of course we get an emotional reunion between Ning and the Princess. Now we move on to the final 5 episodes with clashes against both Lord Pingnan and Duke Xue looming on the horizon.

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Ning'er and her mother finally reconcile…

Ning'er and her mother finally reconcile - just as she's about to leave, of course. But better late than never. Boy, did it make Papa Jiang happy to see his wife and daughter hug! Later, the assassination attempt on Xie Wei and Ning is predictable and it was fun to see Dao Qin and Jian Shu flex their martial skills. It was also a bit surprising to see Xie Wei actually show out with some fighting skills, though not armed conventionally. Some climate / wildlife inconsistencies: On one hand, Ning comments on how cold this mountain feels - like it's about to snow - but on the other hand a snake is active enough to bite Xie? Snakes do NOT go out and about in the cold. Also, the attack of the bobcats was weird. Other than the females of a pride of lions, I don't think any cats attack as a pack like that. Aren't all other cats solo hunters? The forced psycho kiss by Xie Wei upon Ning was about as unromantic as you can get and I'm trying to figure out how his psychotic behavior is supposed to make him attractive as a romantic male lead? Well, he did start to behave better after they got to the post. And his consent to put his health care in her hands by surrendering the xinshe pills we kind of a huge step. Despite all my nitpicking about the wildlife, overall this was a good episode because it finally feels like forward progress (however weird and psychotic) in their 'romance'.

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Some quick observations while watching this episode

In Ning's memory of her seduction of Xie Wei in her past life, it's notable that the music soundtrack is completely different from the music that plays whenever the two have a moment together in THIS life. In all the scenes of them together in THIS life, the music song is one that evokes yearning and hope for something unreachable. In the former life scene, the music is calm and cold, almost with a sense of dread looming. Later, just when she seems poised to run away from everything, it's interesting how insightfully Lyu Xian manages to drop the responsibility of caring for Xie Wei's health and emotional state onto her lap. He is one of the few who have read correctly the depth of feelings between the two and manipulates her sense of caring adeptly.

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In a show with some terrible mothers,

Empress Dowager shows out as the absolute _worst_. Her cruelty to all three of her own children is unbelievable. She has to be certifiably insane. It's especially sad how she has treated Jie and Zhiyi. Meanwhile, despite how awful _their_ mother is, I love how the sisterly bond between Ning and Hui keeps growing with each step of the story. Hopefully that continues. Ning is going to need every close bond she can get now that her dear Princess Zhiyi is gone. Man, the farewell scene between those two was heartbreaking. What's the deal with the Emperor letting his new Consort Xian run around commanding troops and such? That seems nuts.

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Jeon Yeo Been's physical comedy

No one is talking about it, but Jeon Yeo Been, as Hong Cha Young, is killing it with her physical comedy. From bigger things such as her constantly bad sense of direction to little things such as her cute silly I'm-uncomfortable-walking-in-heels walk and her inability to do anything gracefully! Even sitting down in a chair is a small adventure. She's so far being very consistent and it's an understated mood lifter when it happens subtly as an extra bit in scenes. Aside from Cha Young's mostly passive comedy, the Zombie scene was hilarious. The episode took a melancholy turn in the drinking conversation between Vincenzo and Hong Yu Chan.

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Four Stars

I'm not cool with Ning'er trying to take the blame for Zhang Zhe's mother's death. First off, Ning should KNOW better than anyone, by now that some things are fated to happen in THIS life just as they happened in her prior life and nothing anyone could do to stop those things from happening. But even if we are going to accept that someone is to blame, it was (a) Gu and Zhang pushing to have Zhang play the role of Dujun the Hermit and (b) Zhang's choice to not tell his mother what he was about to do. Neither of those choices had anything to do with Ning. If anything else is to blame it is Zhang & Gu's lack of trust of Xie Wei. Ning just feels guilty because of what happened in her first life, but that is contrived, fake guilt because none of that happened in THIS life. Just stop. Characters carrying a false sense of guilt for things that are not their fault is a hugely annoying drama trope. Please just don't go there. Overall, it was a well-executed but annoying scene because it makes no logical sense. The only good thing about it is maybe it puts a fork in the whole Ning + Zhe romance finally because that just felt 'off' and contrived all along. The following scene, when Xie Wei comforts her is a pretty good scene because, despite the annoyance of her false guilt, his sincere heartfelt concern for her and selfless patience to continue to wait for her to find her way to him is pretty cool. And despite my annoyance that the writers have her character carrying this false guilt, I gotta say, Bai Lu's performance through these two scenes was powerful. Her aura when with Zhang Zhe shifted from simple concern to a strange state of guilt overlayed with the persona of her former Empress self and then to numb acceptance and then a complete despairing breakdown in Xie Wei's arms. The OST music shifts between the two scenes is very well done and powerful.

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Ning'er finally sees a flaw in her affection for Zhang Zhe

She was already starting to ponder whether her feelings were just guilt over what happened in her first life. But now I think she realizes that she and Zhe just can't truly work as a couple. She sees and admires him so much for his ironclad principles, but she realizes that emotional entanglements will break him due to those principles. And she knows that SHE, on the other hand, is much more morally complicated, just like Xie Wei. In a way, she sees that Zhe is both 'too good for her' ... but also that he is 'too limited' in his worldview for her. And just like a moon attracted to a planet by gravity, she ends up drifting right back in Xie's orbit. The only negative here is that she didn't fully realize things until after Zhe started to fall for her. So his emotions may be hurt already by her withdrawal. But hopefully she did the right thing soon enough to prevent any serious problems.

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Zhou Yin Zi showing his ruthless side

Zhou Yin Zi's "solution" to the rebel rescue team potentially freeing prisoners to create chaos is ruthless and brutal and possibly a cold, cruel foreshadowing of how his so-far 'neutral' alignment will ultimately show out. This episode featured some exciting action / fight scenes in the prison breakout event, but the flirting scenes between Ning and Zhang Zhe in the midst of all that chaos were bizarre and uncomfortable to watch because it made no sense for either of them to not be feeling intense urgency. This is one of the very few moments in this whole series where I found character behavior to be just plain odd and not very believable. To tell thee truth, I'm still just mystified by what exactly is the basis for Ning's infatuation with Zhang Zhe. Is it just a bizarre, extreme physical attraction? Or is it based on something from her former life? With all the chaos happening at the prison, I also have to wonder, just what happened with Yue Fang Yin during all that? She is staying somewhere in the prison. But I guess she was in a 'vip' cell so maybe that was in a completely separate part of the complex?

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