Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 7, 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 7, up to 24:30

Summary
Shen Wei starts to get serious with the muggers, but just then Zhao Yunlan shows up and "rescues" him... only to be caught unawares with a metal bar. They go to Shen Wei's place for first aid and verbal sparring.



Zhao Yunlan asks Shen Wei to be an official consultant to the SID, and Shen Wei refuses. Zhao Yunlan accidentally implies he's been in Shen Wei's place before. The next day at the SID, Lin Jing is telling ghost stories when a call comes about a new case: one of the muggers is dead. When the SID review nearby CCTV footage, they don't see much, but rewinding to earlier reveals that Zhao Yunlan met up with Shen Wei in that alley. Zhao Yunlan unconvincingly laughs this off. The "bears" call: Zhu Hong grudgingly conveys a laptop to Shen Wei for a Zoom call with Zhao Yunlan and the others. After Shen Wei's extensive and illustrated lecture on different kinds of bears, Da Qing pipes up to suggest the attacker might be a Youchu; Shen Wei produces a relevant sketch. Zhao Yunlan, Lin Jing and Chu Shuzhi visit the surviving mugger in hospital; he's out of his wits, babbling about a monster. Lin Jing sees the crime scene photos and makes the connection with his favourite web novel.

Quote
Shen Wei: There are some questions that, out of principle, I cannot answer. But when the safety of people around me are at stake, I will surely not watch from the side and hide information from you. You can count on me for that.

Detail
The moment they're inside his apartment, Shen Wei starts disrobing takes off his jacket and attempts, twice, to fold it while pressing Zhao Yunlan to stay.

Questions
Do you have a stand-out favourite scene or quote from the first half of episode 7? Do you think Zhao Yunlan's arrival at the mugging was coincidence, or had he been tailing Shen Wei? Do you think Shen Wei had qualms about letting Zhao Yunlan take on the muggers? Shen Wei doesn't show any surprise at the job offer -- do you think he was expecting it? Which of them do you think was most turned on by the "first aid"? We didn't see Zhao Yunlan in Shen Wei's bedroom while searching the apartment -- did he? We now know Lin Jing and Da Qing read web novels; who else at the SID reads them? What do the others think is going on when they see Zhao Yunlan with Shen Wei in the CCTV footage? Did Zhu Hong volunteer to take the laptop to Shen Wei for the video call, or was she assigned to do it? Why a video call instead of Zhao Yunlan paying a visit? At the hospital, why is Chu Shuzhi so grumpy? Lin Jing draws a connection between the case and the web novel -- but how does Wang Zheng already know about this when she calls?

Did you see any parallels in these scenes with other parts of the drama? If you're familiar with the novel, any thoughts about how the drama adaptation compares, if at all?

(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]

I think it was just a hard line for him. He defended the pendant until he didn't need to. He had his back to ZYL, so there was time to cover (as we saw). But I don't know what would have happened if ZYL had arrived a little later, when one of them already had a broken wrist. ;-p

Haha, yeah. That makes sense! Priorities, and the pendant outweighs everything else in that situation. *g*

I have a whole list of possible reasons in my comment below, but I'm not sure which one is right. I feel like a lot of it is guilt/discomfort about having broken in and searched the place before, but I don't know if that's all of it.

Yeah, good point! *ponders*

I don't think it's about letting the muggers go. (I don't think the show cares about that.)

Yeah, I guess you're right abouit that. (I want it to care! *grumbles*)

I think it's a guilty conscience because he *wanted* more to happen than did. And possibly also because him tailing SW was unofficial/off-book, so he basically got caught out stalking his crush. Not cool!

Haha, yeah. And I just had another thought, but that will need to percolate for a bit before I can properly put it into words. It ties in with the ointment scene anyway, so I'll bring it up when I get to that comment. :)

Because SW is/has recently been a person of interest? Because SW is completely out of his league?

Hee! All perfectly legitimate reasons. *g*

DQ does come along on the old books mission -- does that count? ;D

No, not to me - it only counts if they're sent to Shen Wei on their own. *g*

Maybe because he saw the footage of the mugging, including the attack on ZYL? (I just thought of that.)

Oh huh! Yeah, I never thought about that either, but of course that would make sense! And CSZ has very weird feelings about Shen Wei, I wonder if that plays into his irritation too.

[china_shop]

*looks forward to the fruits of your pondering and percolating* <3

> Yeah, I never thought about that either, but of course that would make sense! And CSZ has very weird feelings about Shen Wei, I wonder if that plays into his irritation too.

Hee! You just inadvertently fed my complicated one-sided CSZ&/ZYL shipping. ;D