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]

AHHH this thread! I love it. :D :D :D

What you've made me realise is that ~this whole thing~ is about their mutual stalking being found out and accepted.

OH! Yes! I hadn't put the thought together in quite those terms yet, but YES, that's exactly what it is, isn't it? :D :D :D

like Lin Yusen following his crush ;-p

PARALLELS! Repeating themes! And the contrast, where with Weilan it's 100% mutual and appreciated, once ZYL gets his head around it. *g*

Shen Wei puts himself at a disadvantage so ZYL can rescue him (I wonder if that's even one of the reasons he doesn't deal with the muggers himself??)

Oh, I could see that being part of his reasoning! I love how we keep assembling more and more reasons for him to do what he does. :D

Meanwhile, Shen Wei gets caught out having literally moved in next door, and ZYL's response is to tell him off for not inviting him over!! :D :D :D :D :D

YES!!!!!!!

(This is really the point where Shen Wei should find out about the Dixing inquiry and the banner cam, but of course, ZYL isn't remotely there yet. Accidentally coming this far clean is already excruciating. *pets him*)

I think it makes sense that it's a bit asynchronous, because not only is SW ahead of ZYL right now in so many ways (for time loop reasons) and ZYL needs the space to catch up, but also, secret reveals are a repeating motif with these two - building up to the final ones (first the time loop, then the white energy). That's how you make thematic coherence, baby! :D

This does make me wonder what Lai Su represents. He's kind of a metaphor for Ye Zun, whose stories are embodied by Zhu Jiu etc, and have a pretty high bodycount. But is it just that? I guess -- ZYL saw the horror to Wang Yike of her own power, but mostly she was aware she was using it; here, he gets to see a destructive power that the wielder doesn't even understand or know about. It that what makes it extra pitiful?

I think you're right with what you say below, that there should be something specific here that leads to the breakthrough, but I haven't managed to pin it down yet either. Agreed that we're still missing a puzzle piece here.

Idk. *thinks out loud* Lai Su is such an ordinary guy - a bit greedy, a bit full of himself, a bit cowardly - none of it remarkable, and he doesn't even have the slightest clue about black energy or Dixingren. He's just some guy, and it's really hard to see him as any kind of "other" after watching him interact with Lin Jing. I feel like that has to be part of it, but I can't put my finger on it.

Another thing is that what kills Lai Su in the end is looking himself in the face - his own inner monster, which he can't control because he doesn't even know it exists, frightens him to death. There's something in there, too, about self-knowledge and self-awareness and such ...

Q. Do you think he's consciously aware of his own growing romantic/sexual attraction at this stage? If so, when did he get a clue and how does that feed into the rest?

I think he was aware of his sexual attraction to SW from their first conversation, in a very superficial "he's gorgeous and fascinating" kind of way. And everything has just kind of been building from there, steadily, but I don't have any particular moment to point to where he actually has a realisation that oh, he's serious about SW, not just seriously into him. Hm, I'll have to think about that ...

Q2. Do you think he's aware of SW's romantic/sexual attraction?

Sometimes he thinks SW's attraction is obvious, and sometimes he thinks he's seeing what he wants to see, and second-guessing himself.

Haha, he's definitely not smooth in either of those situations. (I love his dorky self SO MUCH! :D :D :D :D :D)

It's completely delightful! He wouldn't be ZYL without it!

"WHY IS SHEN WEI LIKE THIS?!?!" An eternal mystery that keeps him up nights, lol.

Keeps him up in various different ways, I'm sure. :D

You know, I think you're right. Ahh, that's awesome! :D :D :D

Oh yay!

So I wonder if Shen Wei's smile, after his flustered moment, is because ZYL is back to their regularly schedule banter programming, and he thinks they can go from there?

That would make sense, at least in part! Another part has to be just overwhelming fondness for this dork. :D

Especially because, when this kind of thing happened in YOHE, it invariably led to sex. ;D

Hee!

Yesssss, that makes sense, too! (And I like to think there was some ambivalent/helpless jerking off in there, too. Because SHEN WEI had his HANDS on him!! :D)

Yayayay! And yep, absolutely, that has to have happened! :D

I love your explanation for the videocall, too! Beautifully put!!

:D :D :D

We don't see ZYL in SW's place again until the Envoy reveal, do we? I wonder whether this whole encounter gives him cringey associations, and that's why he never swings by there.

Oof, yeah. Now I want fic that deals specifically with him getting over those associations!

I did briefly wonder whether the final convo of the show might actually be in SW's flat, across his desk at home, and I'd just been reading it wrong, but no, it's SW's office - though it looks a bit different from episode 3, to me.

You mean the one at the end of this episode? Yeah, that's his office at the university. We see the door from the outside, and the banner, even! It looks the same to me as in episode 3, too.

"I suppose I'll just have to bore him back into a comfort zone!" LOL!!

Haha, I love how you put that. Yeah!

but they're still ~them~ -- they understand and like each other, even when they're not 100% in sync. <3 <3 <3

And this is why I love them so! ♥ ♥ ♥

[china_shop]

OH! Yes! I hadn't put the thought together in quite those terms yet, but YES, that's exactly what it is, isn't it? :D :D :D

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

And the contrast, where with Weilan it's 100% mutual and appreciated, once ZYL gets his head around it. *g*

(To be fair, we don't actually know if Lin Yusen's crush was into him. She could have just been shy.)

I love how we keep assembling more and more reasons for him to do what he does. :D

Haha, yes. :D

I think it makes sense that it's a bit asynchronous, because not only is SW ahead of ZYL right now in so many ways (for time loop reasons) and ZYL needs the space to catch up, but also, secret reveals are a repeating motif with these two - building up to the final ones (first the time loop, then the white energy).

Yes, very true! And ZYL is catching up quite amazingly fast, when you think about it (and about his upbringing).

Lai Su is such an ordinary guy - a bit greedy, a bit full of himself, a bit cowardly - none of it remarkable, and he doesn't even have the slightest clue about black energy or Dixingren. He's just some guy, and it's really hard to see him as any kind of "other" after watching him interact with Lin Jing. I feel like that has to be part of it, but I can't put my finger on it.

IOW, it could be anyone... Hm, I don't know if that helps.

Another thing is that what kills Lai Su in the end is looking himself in the face - his own inner monster, which he can't control because he doesn't even know it exists, frightens him to death. There's something in there, too, about self-knowledge and self-awareness and such ...

Maybe it's about ZYL deciding that he needs to face down his own inner "monster" -- oh, his bigotry?? Before it hurts more people and costs him what he wants most? Maybe he's consciously going, "It's time to shape up." And he wants SW to see that? (But then can't quite handle the sincerity of it.)?? /still unsure

I think he was aware of his sexual attraction to SW from their first conversation, in a very superficial "he's gorgeous and fascinating" kind of way. And everything has just kind of been building from there, steadily, but I don't have any particular moment to point to where he actually has a realisation that oh, he's serious about SW, not just seriously into him.

Yeah, agreed that he was superficially into him from the get-go. But I don't know when he reached "seriously into him" (probably fairly quickly) OR "serious about him." There are lots of possible points/moments that could have tipped him over. <3 <3 <3

Sometimes he thinks SW's attraction is obvious, and sometimes he thinks he's seeing what he wants to see, and second-guessing himself.

*nodnodnod* *pets ZYL*

Keeps him up in various different ways, I'm sure. :D

Definitely! :D

Another part has to be just overwhelming fondness for this dork. :D

Ohhhhh, yesssss! *LOVES SO MUCH*

Now I want fic that deals specifically with him getting over those associations!

Aww! <3

Yeah, that's his office at the university. We see the door from the outside, and the banner, even! It looks the same to me as in episode 3, too.

In ep 3, he sneezes all over the fish tank, which is on a kind of stand that you can walk around. In ep 7, the fish tank is on a shelf against the wall. The room seems smaller to me, too, but that might be camera lenses.

[trobadora]

To be fair, we don't actually know if Lin Yusen's crush was into him. She could have just been shy.

Yeah, fair. We know zero about her as a person.

And ZYL is catching up quite amazingly fast, when you think about it (and about his upbringing).

Yeah, it doesn't take him long to be all in! Though Shen Wei still has him beat, back in YOHE he was even faster. *g*

(Of course the circumstances are very different, and young Shen Wei in YOHE doesn't have reasons to be suspicious of Kunlun the way ZYL is of modern SW!)

Maybe it's about ZYL deciding that he needs to face down his own inner "monster" -- oh, his bigotry?? Before it hurts more people and costs him what he wants most? Maybe he's consciously going, "It's time to shape up." And he wants SW to see that? (But then can't quite handle the sincerity of it.)?? /still unsure

Yeah, idk either - there's something in there, I'm sure of it, but I can't quite put it together yet either. (Maybe the next rewatch? *g*)

Yeah, agreed that he was superficially into him from the get-go. But I don't know when he reached "seriously into him" (probably fairly quickly) OR "serious about him." There are lots of possible points/moments that could have tipped him over. <3 <3 <3

If you ever figure out which moment you think is most likely, I'd be so curious to hear! I have no firm headcanon either.

In ep 3, he sneezes all over the fish tank, which is on a kind of stand that you can walk around. In ep 7, the fish tank is on a shelf against the wall. The room seems smaller to me, too, but that might be camera lenses.

Huh, really? *double-checks* No, it's against the wall in episode 3 too, compare:

[china_shop]

(Of course the circumstances are very different, and young Shen Wei in YOHE doesn't have reasons to be suspicious of Kunlun the way ZYL is of modern SW!)

Yeah, they were both very different people then. Modern SW is more guarded and wary -- in a different way from modern ZYL, but still.

If you ever figure out which moment you think is most likely, I'd be so curious to hear! I have no firm headcanon either.

This sort of ties into my post last week on my journal about TPTB's approach, and whether there's one intended relationship arc or multiple on-ramps.

No, it's against the wall in episode 3 too, compare:

Omg, you're right. I've been wrong about this FOR SEVEN YEARS!! It's the SW-healing-himself scene in ep 2 that fooled me, because the camera goes behind the fish tank (into the wall?). That made me think the fishtank was in the middle of the room on a table or cabinet. And then when ZYL sneezes on it, I thought he was side-on to Shen Wei. (Turning away to sneeze is more polite, at least? If not to the fish. ;-p)

[trobadora]

This sort of ties into my post last week on my journal about TPTB's approach, and whether there's one intended relationship arc or multiple on-ramps.

Ooh, yes, we meant to come back to that, didn't we? I'd still love to hear more of your thoughts there! ♥

. I've been wrong about this FOR SEVEN YEARS!!

It's amazing that after so many years and so many rewatches this can still happen, and does in fact happen semi-frequently! Such a delight to keep discovering new things even now. :D

(And I totally get how the fish tank view from episode 2 can get you that impression! I had to double-check to make sure, too.)

[china_shop]

And I totally get how the fish tank view from episode 2 can get you that impression! I had to double-check to make sure, too.

Glad it's not just me! :D