Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 4, part 1

[china_shop]

Hi, and welcome back to the Guardian drama Slo-Mo Rewatch. Watch half an episode a week, at your leisure, and then come and chat about it here in comments. Or you can just jump into the comments without rewatching, of course!

Here are the previous weeks' rewatch posts.

Episode 4, up to 22:30

Summary
Zhao Yunlan catches Shen Wei at a crime scene and takes him back to the SID for questioning. Zhu Hong and Chu Shuzhi both have a crack at it, but Shen Wei is unflappable. Zhao Yunlan lets him go. Lin Jing complains about the lack of evidence. Chu Shuzhi and Xiao-Guo catch Lin Yusen at the morgue, and the SID questions him. Lin Yusen takes Zhao Yunlan to see a crime scene, and on the way, Shen Wei joins them. During a minor attack, Shen Wei's arm is cut; he heals it in front of Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei, and the supposed victim of the attack go to a tea shop; Zhao Yunlan is unconvinced by the victim's story but assigns Xiao-Guo to walk her home. Her boyfriend is jealous. Zhu Hong sets herself up as bait in a sting. Meanwhile, Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei take a night-time stroll patrol the area and talk about names and intimate friendship. <3 <3 <3 Then everyone is decoyed/captured/drugged, all at once. Zhu Jiu dark-energy-glues Shen Wei's feet to the ground.



Quote
Zhao Yunlan: If my mum knew I had an intellectual like you as a friend, she'd be bursting with joy.
Shen Wei: What's precious between friends is intimacy. If she saw you now, she would definitely be happy.

Detail
I love the juxtaposition of: 1) Zhao Yunlan being inadvertently distracted by Lin Yusen, 2) Shen Wei's foot being stuck to the ground, and 3) Zhu Jiu's lurking, while elsewhere 4) Da Qing is drugged with poisonous gas, 5) Chu Shuzhi runs towards the screams only to find they're a recording, 6) Zhu Hong is kidnapped, 7) Lin Jing watches helplessly from his lab, and 8) Chu Shuzhi speeds back to the site of the sting to find Zhu Hong gone.

Questions
Do you have a stand-out favourite scene or quote from the first half of episode 4? A favourite part of the interrogation scene, specifically? Are there any other SID members you would have liked to see interrogate Shen Wei? (*koff* all of them!! *koff*) Do you sympathise with Lin Yusen? How does Zhao Yunlan justify to himself allowing Shen Wei to join the investigation, after telling Lin Yusen, "A professional's job should be done by professionals"? If you can remember your first watch, did you find Zhang Danni suspicious at this stage? Does Zhao Yunlan know Zhu Hong and the others have set a trap for the serial killer? How could they have set their trap more effectively? Who do you think is the most competent member of the SID (excluding Zhao Yunlan), at this stage? How heart-clutchy is the "intimate friendship" conversation on a scale of 1 to 10,000? If you're familiar with the novel, any thoughts about how the drama adaptation compares?

(As usual, these are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the rewatch to join in. We'd love to hear your thoughts!)

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Comments

[trobadora]

Nothing to do with this episode in particular, but I am so curious about the wall of clocks, it's such a neat look but does it have a purpose?

I always wonder about that too! It's definitely striking, but I don't even remember any fic that did anything with it.

I'm not sure why they had Shen Wei mention the Yashou, him knowing about the Dixing was already unusual enough but to also know about the Yashou? And as many details as he did? That seemed like it should have been something that would have caused at least some questions on behalf of the SID.

Causing questions is part of why he does it, I'm sure - he's not at all trying to fly under the radar; he's very deliberately drawing attention to himself. He wants Zhao Yunlan's attention, and IMO he also wants to test the SID and see how they handle him and his knowledge.

Shen Wei healing himself was an interesting choice. Did he think ZYL wouldn't notice or that it looked like somehow he'd just gotten blood on his arm and was wiping it off?

I figure he healed himself on reflex and only afterwards realised that hadn't been ideal since Zhao Yunlan could still see the blood. So he pretended it wasn't his and wiped it off. But of course Zhao Yunlan did catch on, yeah!

And the nice nod and mention of the "Wei" backstory! *sighs happily*

Yes! That's so good!

The sting operation falling apart the way it did was meh. It's a common trope (although one I don't particularly like) that for some reason the bad guys know everything and counter the good guys' plans for no real reason in particular.

Idk, I think it matters both that Zhao Yunlan isn't involved, and that they think they're dealing with a face-stealer, but in fact they're dealing with a duo of Dixingren, one of whom is a face-stealer and the other has a knock-out green mist power. So even if they'd been more competent at it (if Chu Shuzhi hadn't left Zhu Hong - they needed one more person on the case!) - the fake Zhang Danni's power could still have made everything fall apart.

I really thought Zhu Jiu was going to be the big bad throughout the drama due to the way he'd been introduced, I'm still not sure if random editing changed his role or not.

I think that's a pretty standard structure, with the initial villain suddenly defeated just as it turns out he's not the one ultimately behind everything ...

[china_shop]

and IMO he also wants to test the SID and see how they handle him and his knowledge.

Oh, good point! I didn't think of that.