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

[facethestrange]

"I don't know about the healing - agreed that he must have healed himself around Kunlun in YOHE (unless he only learned that power later, but I prefer to think he already had it)."

This is one of the things where I like both possibilities because they both lead to interesting YOHE scenarios. :D But 90% of the time I end up with him already having the power back then, and I think in actual canon I prefer that too, yep. :)

"And as Professor Shen he might simply not have got injured in front of other people in ways that would have given him away, so he might never have had reason to learn to suppress his battle instincts to self-heal as fast as possible. (I don't think I ever got visibly injured at work myself - twisted my ankle once, but you bet if I could have healed that the second after, I would have, and no one would ever have known. *g*)"

Oooh, that's a fantastic point about battle-like injuries vs. everyday ones! No one would pay any attention to the more mundane/invisible injuries, they would just be glad that he's okay and it wasn't as bad as it looked. *nodnod* (And maybe his instincts are different when he's actively bleeding too, because that's not something that happened much between YOHE and the present.)

"I have no clear idea either, but I think he's just being deliberately threatening and creepy."

This is so funny to me for some reason, lol, like, he's being really poetic when he's just trying to be scary, where did all these words come from. :D :D

"I thought he was listening to input from his puppet, but how exactcly it works I don't know either."

Ahh, it didn't occur to me that he could be listening! True, maybe it's only mundane humans who don't move their ears in order to listen. :D

"Xiao-Guo would definitely cry, but Wang Zheng I'm not so sure, she's less outwardly weepy. She'd look very sad, though!"

They'd both look like sad puppies, honestly I feel like Shen Wei could never go there. xD He was probably glad that no one actually vulnerable showed up so he could keep doing what he was doing. (And yeah, novelverse Wang Zheng is the one that cries more. :D)

"Aw! I really feel I don't have a good grasp on his character. Like, what does he think is going on - what's his perspective on everything? If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear them!"

I don't really have any deep thoughts, I just adore that when he witnessed something terrible he immediately went 'I need to make at least some of it better, logic and safety be damned'. ♡ And Zhao Yunlan is all pot calling the kettle black, lol, because the only difference between them is the training. Which is obviously very relevant in this situation, but I don't believe Zhao Yunlan for a second that he wouldn't do the exact same thing before he had any training. xD (He probably DID the exact same thing and now he knows first-hand that it's a bad idea, lmao.)

"china_shop suggested elsewhere in the comments that Zhu Jiu sent him to test Shen Wei, and that makes sense to me - trying t see how he reacts, and maybe trying to force him to expose himself?"

Yesss, I immediately adopted this explanation too! (So Shen Wei not doing anything is not only showing Zhao Yunlan that he's reliable and professional, it's also not playing into Zhu Jiu's hands!)

"Yeah, I think as far as ZYL is concerned, Da Qing shadowing Zhang Danni and keeping an eye on her is the only plan, and the sting is all Zhu Hong's. She just drafts him into that as well, so he's part of both, as you say."

*nodnod* Hah, good for Da Qing, he gets to do all the things! Or bad, since it doesn't end very well for him. :P

[trobadora]

This is one of the things where I like both possibilities because they both lead to interesting YOHE scenarios. :D But 90% of the time I end up with him already having the power back then, and I think in actual canon I prefer that too, yep. :)

Yeah, for fic I could go either way, too!

And maybe his instincts are different when he's actively bleeding too, because that's not something that happened much between YOHE and the present.

That would definitely make sense to me!

True, maybe it's only mundane humans who don't move their ears in order to listen. :D

*gigglesnort*

I don't really have any deep thoughts, I just adore that when he witnessed something terrible he immediately went 'I need to make at least some of it better, logic and safety be damned'. ♡ And Zhao Yunlan is all pot calling the kettle black, lol, because the only difference between them is the training. Which is obviously very relevant in this situation, but I don't believe Zhao Yunlan for a second that he wouldn't do the exact same thing before he had any training. xD (He probably DID the exact same thing and now he knows first-hand that it's a bad idea, lmao.)

Oh, that's a great point about Zhao Yunlan pre-any actual training/expertise! Oof. That definitely makes Lin Yusen more interesting to me, looking at him from that angle.

So Shen Wei not doing anything is not only showing Zhao Yunlan that he's reliable and professional, it's also not playing into Zhu Jiu's hands!

Yes! I love that. :D

[china_shop]

Oh, that's a great point about Zhao Yunlan pre-any actual training/expertise! Oof. That definitely makes Lin Yusen more interesting to me, looking at him from that angle.

I think that parallel is actually explicitly stated in the second half of the ep. But I doubt ZYL, having grown up in ZXC's household, was that much of an innocent. (I'm thinking of the "getting scolded for losing his puppy" scene, especially. You know?)

[trobadora]

I'm going to have to pay extra attention to that in the second half!