What's Going On in Episode 32 and 33?

[forestofglory]

I just re-watched episodes 32 and 33 of Guardian which were really confusing the first time through. And they were somewhat less confusing this time. So I wanted to write down what I think figured out for future reference and to see if it makes sense to other people.

There are two major things that confused me. Which parts are a dream and which parts aren’t? And what is going on with Chu Shuzhi’s backstory? So here’s what I think this going on.

*Everyone is really sleep deprived during these two episodes. Episode 32 starts with an explanation of how they all stayed up all night to avoid falling into another of the Master of Nightmares dreams. I mention this because Chu Shuzhi seems extra dramatic here and I think the sleep dept is a factor.

*The two conversations with Zhao Yunlan bookmark Chu Shuzhi's dream. So when Chu Shuzhi returns to the SID and talks to Zhao Yunlan that’s real, but then everything until he wakes up back at the SID with Zhao Yunlan next to him is a dream. During the bench scene Zhao Yunlan tells Shen Wei that he was in a dream once, presumably referring Zhu Hong’s dream. This supports my theory that Zhao Yunlan was not in Chu’s dream therefore the scenes with him must not be part of the dream. (The 1st time through I though Chu Shuzhi might never have left Dixing and that all everything in Haxing might be part of the dream. This is in part because it's really unclear how he got back and why he left Guo Changcheng.)

*The Chu Shuzhi backstory gets told twice, but the first time is all a dream -- it's what Chu Shuzhi wishes had happened. The second story where Chu Nianzhi is killed in because Chu Shuzhi beat someone up in a bar fight and Chu Shuzhi latter kills his brother’s murderer and is punished for it actually happened.

ETA: at the beginning of episode 34 Chu Shuzhi tells Guo Changcheng yet another version of his backstory. Its basically the same outline as the one above but also involves Chu Nianzhi being set on fire and Chu Shuzhi going on a killing spree. So I don't know what to believe here.

There are still some parts of these episodes that confuse me but I think I’m getting a better picture of what’s going on. Does this make sense?

On a related note I’m frequently confused about the timeline of the drama. I don’t have time to do a detailed timeline by myself, but it occurred to me that we do have a wiki. So I went ahead and created a Drama Timeline page over there. It’s currently extremely rough. I will probably update it a bit more as my rewatch continues. But if anyone else wants to add to it or make it pretty and properly linked up that would be great.

Comments

[solo]

I'm happy to go over there occcasionally and add stuff in as and when I come across it. In fact, just did so. :) They wouldn't let me have my handle so I'm ソロ６６６

[forestofglory]

Thanks! That's a big improvement already. (Seriously I just kind threw some stuff up there.)

[demitas]

I keep changing what I think is a dream whenever I rewatch 32 and 33, haha. ZYL felt a little "off" to me when CSZ first wakes up so I've been assuming that's a dream, as well, but I could see it being just sleep deprivation.

Thanks for the timeline page!! I've been thinking we need one of those for awhile. :)

[demitas]

I just realized we also have Timeline/Drama, so... I'm gonna figure out how to consolidate those.

[forestofglory]

Oh no! I'm sorry. I should have looked around more instead of just accidentally making an existing page.

[demitas]

No worries, I didn't realize we had it either until I went to put the new page on the top navigation so it was easier to find, and found the other one instead, haha. Easy enough to fix. :)

[forestofglory]

Thanks!