GUARDIAN REWATCH - Episode 19

[trobadora]

Beginning of episode: Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng are driving Bo Bi and the young men Ye Huo protected out of town
Ending of episode: after being captured on the rooftop, Zhu Jiu asks Shen Wei if he remembers him

Important scenes/developments:

• the car Chu Shuzhi is driving breaks down and Zhu Jiu attacks
• Zhu Jiu taunts Bo Bi and reveals the truth about Bo Bi's brother's death
• Ye Huo catches up and confronts Zhu Jiu; everyone is nearly blown up
• Zhao Yunlan touches the Mountain-River Awl and has visions
• Shen Wei finds Zhao Yunlan passed out, and aggressively wipes Zhao Yunlan's nose
• Zhu Jiu sends a video message and wants to exchange Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng and Ye Huo for the Hallows
• Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei plan to capture Zhu Jiu
• Zhu Jiu attempts to recruit Chu Shuzhi
• Zhu Hong and Shen Wei talk about love
• Zhu Jiu leaves the lab and turns on the mechanism to chill it down to absolute zero
• Shen Wei, Zhu Hong and Ying Chun convince Fourth Uncle to keep Ya Qing busy
• Lin Jing and Cong Bo hack the power grid
• Xiao-Guo attempts to say his good-byes
• on the rooftop, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan confront and capture Zhu Jiu

Thoughts:

We've discussed a lot of this episode's scenes in detail before, but the rewatch did give me some new thoughts as well!

• The fight scene between Zhu Jiu and Chu Shuzhi is fantastic! Zhu Jiu uses his super-speed to great effect, rushing Chu Shuzhi. He also looks very impressive spinning in the air, and a black energy-reinforced kick actually knocks Chu Shuzhi out of the game for quite a bit. (Though that might not have happened if Guo Changcheng hadn't distracted him - seriously, what was Xiao-Guo thinking, calling out to him in the middle of a fight?!)
  
  
  
  I also love the way Zhu Jiu briefly zips away when the explosion happens, then immediately zips back. His power really is incredibly useful! (Do we think Shen Wei learned it? Or does Wu Tian'en's power essentially do the same, with a different medium, and the seeming difference is only in the strength of the user? If so, Wu Tian'en's power is the superior one, since oxygen is kind of more ubiquitous than light. If there's no oxygen you already have much bigger problems. *g*)


• When Ye Huo arrives, he explains that he couldn't leave until the others have made it to safety; he won't prioritise his own safety. But in the end, despite everyone's best efforts, he and the SID both fail to protect them. Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng and Ye Huo are captured by Zhu Jiu; Bo Bi and the young men Ye Huo was protecting clearly don't make it out alive.
  
  (I keep thinking someone's missing from this scene because the young men are all such non-entities and barely appear - none of them even have names! But they're all three of them there.)


• It's very convenient for Zhu Jiu that a) the fight club boss put bombs in his trophies as insurance, b) Zhu Jiu took the remote control from the boss last episode before killing him, and c) Ye Huo turns up when he does so he can blow things up! Zhu Jiu might not have have won this fight otherwise.


• Zhao Yunlan touches the Awl in the hopes that it will help him find Zhu Jiu. He stands there for quite a while apparently thinking hard before the Awl suddenly begins to resonate; only then does he take the Awl's cover off. And he remembers Shen Wei's warnings before he decides to try using the Awl anyway - and even then he touches it carefully. For all our joking about his Hallows-fondling, he really doesn't do this lightly!
  
  
  
  (But it's still reckless because this is not a plan; it's taking a chance with his health and hoping he'll get lucky.)


• I used to wonder why we so often see Zhao Yunlan going for the Awl rather than the Sundial, when he already used the Sundial before - in the Hanga caves, the Sundial help him find Wang Zheng; it also activated for him when he tried to save Wu Tian'en. But rewatching this, here it's clearly because the Awl suddenly gets active and starts resonating, and he tries to take advantage of whatever it's doing. And after this, he knows it can give him future visions as warnings! Besides, he also saw Shen Wei use the Awl to save Sang Zan, so it clearly does have its uses.


• In Zhao Yunlan's vision, among other things, a "dead" Chu Shuzhi wakes up and strangles Zhao Yunlan. "This is just the beginning," he says, laughing evilly. This episode is great for Lao-Chu going all-out on being Extra™! :D


• Zhao Yunlan winds up unconscious on the floor - and when he comes to, he's sitting upright on the lab table, Shen Wei glaring at him. I have to suppose this means Shen Wei bodily hauled him up from the floor and propped him up there - what a shame we didn't get to see this! :D


• My favourite thing in this episode, and one of my favourite moments in the entire drama: Shen Wei, seeing that Zhao Yunlan's nose is bleeding, stepping in (between his thighs!) and grabbing him by the lapels, then stepping letting go abruptly (so abruptly Zhao Yunlan rocks back!) to slam his hand against a metal ladder! You can see him breathing heavily as he stands there with his hand still on the ladder, before he turns around and goes back to Zhao Yunlan to aggressively wipe Zhao Yunlan's nose for him!
  
  
  
  Shen Wei is such a controlled person - for him to actually have to vent his frustration in such a physical way is A LOT. And I definitely mean both the pipe-slapping and the nose-wiping! Also, he's getting more and more physical with Zhao Yunlan - not so long ago, even though they were often very much in each other's space, they didn't really touch. But that is changing ... :D


• Shen Wei's expression! So tense! And Zhao Yunlan tries to laugh off what happened, making light of it (they both have this tendency to be all, "Nothing to see here, everything's fine! Why are you upset?!") - and only makes it worse.
  
  I'll just quote myself on this: "I don't think he has any idea how to deal with it because he's never seen Shen Wei this angry before. Shen Wei hits the ladder! He's so frustrated he's getting physically aggressive! It has to be pretty overwhelming, and Zhao Yunlan does what he does when he doesn't know what to do - he defaults to deflecting and trying to charm and joke his way out of it. Which only makes it worse, because the very thing that is frustrating Shen Wei is that Zhao Yunlan doesn't seem to take things seriously enough."


• When Zhao Yunlan describes his vision to Shen Wei, Shen Wei realises it might be a premonition. He explains: "Last time, in the Dijun Palace archives, I consulted a lot of records. They were all about the reaction of ordinary people to being infected with black energy. One case reported that after infection with black energy the victim developed the symptoms of temporal dysfunction. Sometimes he would hear or see scenes outside the timeline. It could be the past, or it could be the future."
  
  I used to think he must have found this info while researching the Hallows - weird black energy effects, maybe even temporal effects in particular (given the time loop), but "last time" implies it was the previous Dixing trip, and we do know he visited the archives then. And it does make some sense that he would only recently have started researching black energy corruption: he had no particular reason to investigate this topic until Zhao Yunlan started suffering effects.


• Out in the SID's main office space, we hear firecrackers, and Lin Jing talks about the Reunion Festival. I'm going to cheat a bit here and mention something from next episode, where it becomes plot-relevant that "Fireworks and firecrackers are prohibited in Dragon City's city centre. If you can hear firecrackers, it must be in the suburbs." Does that mean the SID in the suburbs?! That was not the impression I previously had - I always thought it was in the old town area ...
  
  (Also, speaking of firecrackers, the ones they'll hear in the video next episode are not audible here - that's cheating a bit, show, isn't it? *grumbles*)


• Notably, Zhu Jiu's video message addresses Chief Zhao and Professor Shen - what must the SID make of that singling out of Professor Shen? (And he does it again on the rooftop, in front of Zhu Hong.) It seems to me that Zhu Jiu is deliberately using this to taunt Shen Wei with the secret he knows, that he could reveal - but also, it means that Zhu Jiu is actively colluding in hiding Shen Wei's double identity! *g*
  
  


• Brief cut to Zhu Jiu et al., during which Zhao Yunlan apparently explains his plan, "One minute?" Da Qing says when we cut back to the SID. Zhao Yunlan says they need to make sure he's alone, and Shen Wei says he'll go, and he'll need to borrow Zhu Hong. I love how much Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan are immediately, without spelling anything out, entirely on the same page about asking the other Yashou leaders to keep Ya Qing away!


• Xiao-Guo wants to help Ye Huo, and Zhu Jiu taunts him: "you can help him, but then you have to die here" - and Xiao-Guo agrees! Zhu Jiu, furious with this, then promptly almost kills him without even letting him help Ye Huo. *g*
  
  It's great how Lao-Chu distracts Zhu Jiu - he knows exactly how to get his attention, leans into his reputation of committing taboo crimes! (Whatever those are, as opposed to other sorts of crimes.) Zhu Jiu falls hook, line and sinker to Lao-Chu's torture talk, despite at the beginning of this very episode personally witnessing Lao-Chu and Xiao-Guo being protective of each other. And we get to hear Zhu Jiu's recruiting speech. "Fight with me against humans and the stupid Black-Cloaked Envoy!" The two of them madly laughing at each other, while Zhu Jiu thinks he's won Lao-Chu over, is an amazing image.
  
  
  
  (It clearly unsettles Xiao-Guo, who still doesn't quite have Lao-Chu's measure, apparently ...)


• We've previously discussed why Chu Shuzhi doesn't pretend to be recruited, and china_shop made excellent points: "if Chu Shuzhi pretended to be on Zhu Jiu's side, then strategically Zhu Jiu no longer needs Guo Changcheng or Ye Huo; Chu Shuzhi can walk into the SID and get the Hallows himself." And my own theory is that in addition to this, Lao-Chu was actually planning to try and turn the recruitment attempt around on Zhu Jiu. We hear him taunting and humiliating Zhu Jiu; if they hadn't been interrupted, he could have followed this up with "you're so stupid and pathetic, following someone who only makes empty promises and uses people," trying to undermine his commitment to his boss.


• Speaking of the interruption, and Zhao Yunlan agreeing to a hostage exchange: I don't think I really understood Zhu Jiu's plan before. He sets up this elaborate kidnapping/hostage-taking, and then turns on the freezer to kill his hostages before going out - but he's never actually planning to use them for anything other than that initial message; his entire plan is that since he can't go into the SID, he'll make them bring the Hallows outside the SID! Once he knows they're willing to meet, he has no need for hostages any more because his purpose has been accomplished.


• Zhu Hong confronts Shen Wei with her feelings for Zhao Yunlan, and he tells her these things pass. (Except when they don't, but he doesn't say that, because clearly he hopes in her case it will.) Quoting myself: "What strikes me the most about this scene is the way it parallels and contrasts Shen Wei's relationship with Zhao Yunlan vs. Zhu Hong's feelings for Zhao Yunlan. Despite that one mention of "friendship", the way Zhu Hong reacts to Shen Wei is very much as to a love rival, and she knows there's no competition - Shen Wei already has what she always hoped she might one day, and she sees that clearly. I really admire the way the drama manages to use Zhu Hong's feelings not to set up a love triangle, but to put a spotlight on the central pairing even though censorship demands it remain unspoken. (And I especially admire that they manage this without turning Zhu Hong into a figure of ridicule, even though she herself feels that way here.)"


• The Absolute Zero Lab really strains my suspension of disbelief. Zhu Jiu uses the panel by the door to set the chilling in motion; why can't that it be used to turn the temperature up again? Why does the emergency stop button have a cover that locks when it's accidentally closed? Why does an absolute zero lab apparently work by blowing cold air into an ordinary lab room?! Nothing about this place makes sense. Did Zhu Jiu borrow it from some mad scientists, or what?


• When Shen Wei goes to talk to Fourth Uncle, Fourth Uncle immediately recognises him without his mask, whereas Ying Chun in episode 6 didn't - he had to identify himself by summoning his dao.
  
  I love that Shen Wei and Zhu Hong clearly are a team here, working together on a pre-established plan. And Ying Chun is clearly part of it too - Shen Wei must have arranged for her to join them, so they could bring all their combined powers of persuasion to bear on Fourth Uncle.


• I'm fascinated with the hints at Yashou politics we get here, including some foreshadowing for Zhu Hong's eventual role, when Fourth Uncle explains: 这族群方针都是我们三族三长老一起定的。当年说要休养生息。你不还拍手赞成的吗？
  
  Solo's subs: "We haven't had a High Chief for decades. Back then, the three of us decided for our three tribes to take time out from worldly things. You applauded that, didn't you?"
  Original subs: "The position of the Yashou tribe's presbyter has been vacant for decades. The direction of the tribe was made by three of us together. We decided to rehabilitate at that time. You clapped your hands in approval, didn't you?"
  
  I used to think this implied the current tribe leaders were also the leaders decades ago who made this decision, but looking at the original again now, it's not actually "the three of us together", but "our three tribes' three leaders" - and I think it's not "you applauded that" but instead, "Don't you still applaud that?" So he's questioning if she's changed her mind on Yashou isolation and staying out of things. Which she hasn't quite at this point, I don't think, but she has realised that while Ya Qing is working for one party in this conflict, the Yashou are already involved.


• Meanwhile, Ya Qing is warning Zhu Jiu that Zhao Yunlan is great at laying traps (presumably thinking of how Zhu Jiu almost got captured last time, when Zhao Yunlan pretended to be hypnotised), because unlike him, she isn't blind to other people. But he's very secure in his superiority complex. He's so confident in his powers and his ability to escape from anywhere because of them that he's not even bothered by the other party picking the location for the supposed hostage exchange.


• Lin Jing is with Cong Bo, who's hacking the power grid (though we're not told that yet). Cong Bo wants to know if they've really been authorised to do this, and Lin Jing hems and haws. *g* Cong Bo warns him about the impact this will have on the whole city, and Lin Jing is clearly worried, but forging on anyway, telling him it's important for the city's safety. He doesn't sound very convinced when he says they'll understand! *g* I do love that this conversation shows how big a thing this plan is, and that they're very aware of that. They're not doing this lightly.


• In the lab, things are getting very cold. Xiao-Guo asks about Lao-Chu's taboo crimes, and Lao-Chu promises to tell him when they get out. Xiao-Guo attempts to say his good-byes ("I'm so happy I met you", and "thank you for taking care of me"! Awww.). Lao-Chu covers him in his coat, then wraps himself around him. (And his sheer scarf around himself.)
  
  When Lao-Chu says he doesn't want him to be like his little brother, presumably he means he doesn't want him to die, but ... yeah, the subtext is undeniably there even if you don't ship it. *g*


• On the rooftop, a chair and a table have been set up so Zhao Yunlan can lounge there while trapping Zhu Jiu. *g* Shen Wei uses the Awl and the Sundial to send projections into the sky - it's interesting that he can apparently effortlessly use them in this way..
  
  
  
  And Zhu Jiu really seems to think he'll get the Hallows from them - he actually seems surprised when Shen Wei puts them away again! But the trap is perfectly set, and Zhu Jiu's overconfidence walked him right into it.
  
  I do love that the blackout is filmed with plenty of light so the viewer can see what's going on, even though it's so dark Shen Wei has to use his black energy vision to catch Zhu Jiu!


• Regarding the blackout: This is a very efficient trap for Zhu Jiu, but it's very strange that it's apparently a moonless night, since Zhao Yunlan says it's the Reunion Festival. 团圆节 is a name for the Mid-Autumn Festival), which happens on the full moon! Perhaps it works differently on Haixing? *g*


• We end on Shen Wei asking why Zhu Jiu hates him, and Zhu Jiu sweeping back his hair, asking if Shen Wei remembers him. (We don't get to see the scar until next episode.) I think this is foreshadowing for the question of why Ye Zun hates Shen Wei - but that's a discussion for next time. *note to self*)

Discussion starters:

• Favourites, discoveries, memories: What's your favourite moments in this episode? (Mine, as I said above, is definitely the nose-wiping. :D) And did you notice anything this time round that you didn't before, or that looks different in retrospect?
  
  And if you remember your first viewing of the episode: did you put together what they were doing with the blackout before it happened? I keep forgetting that it's not actually spelled out for the viewer until then - but it's entirely possible to figure it out. Zhao Yunlan has been thinking about how to trap Zhu Jiu from literally the second he discovered what medium Zhu Jiu's teleportation uses!


• Zhu Jiu:
  • Given that Lao-Chu's car breaks down just before Zhu Jiu attacks, the implication is that Zhu Jiu made this happen somehow. But how? Does he know someone with an anti-technology power? Did he engage in some old-fashioned sabotage? Or did a Crow do it for him? What's your theory?
  • Given that Zhu Jiu quotes Bo Bi's brother's suicide letter verbatim, which is it: a) he has photographic memory, or b) he memorised it in hopes of taunting Bo Bi with it one day? *g*


• Zhao Yunlan and the Awl: What does Zhao Yunlan expect the Awl to give him if he does get lucky? He's touched it before and it gave him past-and-future flashes, but I didn't think he'd realised that yet. Has he realised some of the flashes were from the future after they came true?


• Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei: What do you think Zhao Yunlan makes of Shen Wei's reaction to his fainting and nosebleed? He's never seen Shen Wei so angry, or get so physical about expressing his frustration, and his usual strategy of trying to defuse a situation by making light of it very much didn't work at all. Do you think he recalibrates his understanding and his responses after this?


• Shen Wei and the SID: What do you think the SID makes of Shen Wei being so prominently addressed by Zhu Jiu, and taking such a lead in this case? (It's even Shen Wei who says that since they can't give the Hallows to Zhu jiu bujt need to rescue the hostages, they have to capture Zhu Jiu and get the location from him. Not that that plan will end up working - but everyone seems to immediately accept it.)
  
  Also, why does Da Qing turn to Shen Wei to ask what they should do after they receive the hostage video?
  
  And what is going through Zhu Hong's head on the rooftop - has she been told anything or figured it out? It always seemed to me that she doesn't know about Shen Wei being the Envoy until then, but if that's the case, what does she think Zhao Yunlan's plan is for subduing Zhu Jiu?


• Dixing education. I love that it's Ye Huo who explains to Xiao-Guo about thermodynamics and absolute zero. He's the star of an underground fight club, but that doesn't mean he isn't well educated!
  
  In fact:
  • random areas Ye Huo knows something about: thermodynamics
  • random areas Lao-Chu knows something about: the nervous system and its responses to hypothermia
  Are such things common knowledge in Dixing, or did they learn them in Haixing? What do you think? (Lao-Chu has been in Haixing for less than three years at this point; we don't know where Ye Huo grew up.)


• Handcuffs: Do the handcuffs Zhao Yunlan uses on Zhu Jiu actually restrain his black energy? It certainly looks that way, but I don't remember these handcuffs ever being used for anything or anyone before or after.
  
  Alternately, is Zhu Jiu's inability to summon his powers the same as what happened to Chu Shuzhi earlier this episode when he was kicked so hard he couldn't for a while? Ye Huo, who is injured enough that he never attempted to help the others search the lab, has similar trouble, unable to use his powers to warm up. (Lots of parallels!) Shen Wei doesn't just cut Zhu Jiu - there's visible black energy on the blade.
  
  (Perhaps the handcuffs only work on someone who's already weakened? Thoughts?)

Let's talk about episode 19!
Come and talk about this episode - anything from favourite scenes or lines of dialogue to notes/questions about continuity or translation, most gorgeous (or angsty) smile, or anything else that strikes your fancy! And share links to your own and/or others' episode-related meta, picspams, and fanworks, new or old!

Comments

[trobadora]

I wonder if it's a social status/seniority thing, as far as they're concerned.

Oh, yeah, that's a good thought, that would make sense!

And agreed on Da Qing. He's clearly picking up on something, and responding to Shen Wei in ways he wouldn't to a Haixing professor.

Oh no, now I'm disappointed Lao Chu didn't try to stop up the air inflow -- it's easily within reach.

Good point! Yeah, they should have tried that!