Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 8, part 2

[trobadora]

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

Here is last week's half-episode. On to the second half!

Episode 8, from 22:19:

Summary: In Dixing, the Regent sends a smoke message. In Haixing, Shen Wei pours his drunk mentor into car and then finds Zhao Yunlan ill on the kerb. He takes him home in a taxi (where he serves as a pillow), then discovers Zhao Yunlan's disaster apartment (featuring: wine bottles, dirty dishes, THE FRIDGE). During the night, Zhu Jiu finds the pillar with the Mountain-River Awl, but can't approach it. Meanwhile Shen Wei discovers that Zhao Yunlan asked Dixing about him and the Regent is ratting him out. He alters the message. In the morning, Zhao Yunlan wakes up to a tidy flat and Shen Wei sitting next to his bed. He tries to recruit Shen Wei for the SID again, but fails again. Wang Zheng sees a newspaper report about an earthquake in the Hanga mountains, passes out and regains her memory. Da Qing comes to tell Zhao Yunlan and finds Shen Wei there in the early morning. The Sundial begins to glow and resonate with the Awl; Lin Jing traces the source to the mountains.



Quote:

Shen Wei: "I suggest you eat regular meals. I don't want to find you on the road again."

Zhao Yunlan: "If you want to know whether I eat regular meals, why don't you just join ourSID, and you'll know?"

Shen Wei: "So your SID doesn't need a consultant, it needs a nanny?"

Detail:

I always notice that when Shen Wei takes off Zhao Yunlan's boots, he accidentally slips one of Zhao Yunlan's socks off his heel and doesn't pull it back up, argh! :p

Questions:

What's going through Shen Wei's head in the taxi? How is Zhao Yunlan feeling about Shen Wei taking him home? What's your favourite detail in Zhao Yunlan's flat? What's Shen Wei's favourite detail? Why do you think Zhao Yunlan keeps trying to recruit Shen Wei after Shen Wei has refused more than once? Do you think Shen Wei is seriously hoping to warn Zhao Yunlan away from leaving Dragon City? Why is Da Qing surprised to find Shen Wei with Zhao Yunlan in the morning? Why does Wang Zheng try to leave the SID? Any thoughts about how any of this compares to the novel? Or about parallels with other parts of the drama?

(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!)

For the next two weekends, we're taking a break for the holidays - time to catch up on the rewatch, if you've been meaning to! Regular posts will resume on 9 January.

Here is our schedule for the current batch of episodes - please do sign up to host a post if you can!

Comments

[trobadora]

My notes:

Ooh, is that our first look at the Dijun Palace? It's definitely the first and only time we actually see the Regent using any kind of power, which I still find fascinating ...

I love Shen Wei's dynamic with Professor Zhou. Awww! He's so drunk, and chiding Shen Wei for not learning to drink. "Drinking is a civilized act," LOL!

Somehow I had it in my head that the car Shen Wei pours him into is a taxi, but it's clearly not. For one, it has no taxi sign anywhere, and for another, we see its number plates as it drives away, and it has official number plates! (The normal ones are white text on blue; the official ones are red and yellow on brown.) Just like the car Professor Ouyang uses in episode 1. So it's presumably a staff car from the Inspectorate.)

I always like that Zhao Yunlan initially just tries to wordlessly wave Shen Wei away, miserable and embarrassed. *pets him* But after Shen Wei offers to take him to the hospital, Zhao Yunlan asks Shen Wei to take him home. (I guess he's feeling miserable enough that he's not up to fending him off further.)

And then he passes out in the car! I always notice that they're not using their seatbelts. Boo! But then with seatbelts this scene wouldn't happen, so I can't complain too much. *g* Shen Wei is visibly having SO MANY FEELINGS, OMG.

And then Shen Wei has his first Zhao Yunlan's disaster flat - first and only, because after Shen Wei is through with it, it's not a disaster any more. *g* I mean, overall it could be worse, the set dressers didn't bother to add such details as dust and cat hair under the sideboards. :p But the empty wine bottles lying around on the floor next to the bed always make me wonder just how much Zhao Yunlan generally does drink, ouch. Because he was out drinking with friends, and he has these empty bottles at home ...

Also, I don't think I ever thought of it that way, but it's really funny that we go from Professor Zhou telling Shen Wei how important social drinking is to Zhao Yunlan who's done too much of it.

Anyway, Shen Wei gets a look at Zhao Yunlan's private life beyond the public performance, the façade he puts up - and it makes him want to shake Zhao Yunlan and seriously wrap him in blankets. (He gets to do one of those! *g*) He's is so exasperated and frustrated with how badly Zhao Yunlan is taking care of himself! Enquiring about his eating habits; and "No wonder you're suffering; you were asking for it!" LOL. The way he rips the meds right out of Zhao Yunlan's hand again when Zhao Yunlan tries to swallow them dry! Awww.

Oh huh, Zhu Jiu in the Hanga mountains has an old map that is clearly the same one Chu Shuzhi has in episode 10! I wonder where it's from. And the hapless guard who gets murdered doesn't know anything about any Hanga tribe, but when Zhu Jiu asks about strange legends, he looks in a very definite direction.

Also, I really like how we see him teleporting in the light of the torch, long before we're actually told he uses light as his medium! Great stuff.

I don't think I ever noticed before that when after Shen Wei (off-screen) takes off his jacket to clean a glass for Zhao Yunlan, the jacket ends up on top of the breakfast bar!

Awww, the first time he tucks Zhao Yunlan into bed. ♥

(I love that there's a whole other scene in episode 28 that also features Shen Wei tucking Zhao Yunlan into bed, plus a smoke message! But that time, Shen Wei actually sits on the bed, and Zhao Yunlan isn't at all surprised to find him there when he wakes up. ♥ ♥ ♥ )

I find the smoke message from the Regent so fascinating. It pauses after saying there's no one named Shen Wei and they can't help, only to then continue and admit that a high-ranking official has used the name before. That for sure is a choice!

Also, we learn that Dixing's population register has 900,000 people - pretty substantial!

Shen Wei has feelings over a) Zhao Yunlan asking Dixing about him, and b) the Regent ratting him out - I love all his microexpressions!

He quickly wipes the message to replace it with a substitute. For some reason the Viki subs transcribe the Chinese as 镇魂 您的指示是什么？which is sort of a rephrasing, but even for that it's obviously wrong because it only has 镇魂 and not 镇魂令主 Lord Guardian. Anyway, pretty sure the actual text of the letter says 镇魂令主有何吩咐 - many thanks to nnozomi for help with the characters; the 有 defeated me! And it does translate to "Lord Guardian, what are your orders?"

Which is a weird reply to a query, but maybe is intended by Shen Wei to come across as Dixing playing dumb?

Zhu Jiu has found the cave where the Mountain-River Awl is, but the pillar/Sang Zan repels him. Zhu Jiu already knows who Sang Zan is, and I'm so curious how he found out about it all. Even if Ding Dun saw much of Wang Zheng's backstory, he didn't share any of it before Zhu Jiu killed him!

(There's so much foreshadowing in the chained pillar with someone trapped inside! And there'll be even more in Sang Zan's story when we get to it.)

And here's a bit I completely didn't remember: after Sang Zan throws icicles at Zhu Jiu, Zhu tries again to use his powers on the pillar and is thrown back again, there's growling in the distance - and Zhu Jiu flinches, looks around and says, "I was worried I couldn't reach this ice cone, and now it gave me such a lovely surprise. I didn't expect a tiresome place like this to hold so many good things. With you [pl.], my plan will be even more perfect." (The original subs and Solo's have "such precious objects"; Viki has "something valuable", but what the Chinese actually says is [这么多好东西 "so many good things".]

So that means:
1) He didn't know there were youchu there! He literally just discovered them and decided to incorporate them into his plans. Possibly they've been stuck in the cave along with the ghosts for a long time?
2) Zhu Jiu recognises youchu from their growling! So I guess that means they do exist in Dixing, if he's so familiar with them.

And the next thing Zhu Jiu does is use his powers on the cave. Rocks fly - he's presumably freeing the youchu the rest of the way, so he can use them. So the earthquake in the Hanga mountains seems to be his doing!

In the morning, Wang Zheng is singing at the SID (!) when she looks at the newspaper and finds an article about an earthquake in the northwest. It has an image of the Hanga totem, same as the anonymous letter, and she faints. I wonder if the totem in the newspaper is the one on the pillar? Or if not, where else it appeared? And also how that got into the newspaper so quickly!

When Zhao Yunlan wakes up to find Shen Wei sitting by his bedside, he flails in the most delightful way. I love it so! And no, Shen Wei didn't spend the entire night either tidying/cleaning or staring at Zhao Yunlan - he's also reading Zhao Yunlan's books. *g*

Also, I know I noticed Zhao Yunlan's slippers before, and that Shen Wei put them in front of the bed, but I didn't remember they were mismatched!

(Shen Wei's jacket is now lying over the arm of the sofa, btw.)

Zhao Yunlan makes all the best faces that morning. Such a great WTF!face when he notices the state of his flat!

And Shen Wei says it's thanks for saving him from the muggers, downplaying things and trying to let Zhao Yunlan off the hook, but Zhao Yunlan goes right back to fencing, telling him to join the SID if he wants to thank him. Shen Wei promptly refuses him again. But Zhao Yunlan, not done, turns Shen Wei telling him to eat regularly into another request he join the SID.

Shen Wei: "So your SID doesn't need a consultant, it needs a nanny?" ♥ ♥ ♥

And then Zhao Yunlan still won't let it go - he sprawls on the bed, pouting: "If you keep on rejecting me, it'll really be my life's greatest failure."

At this point I suppose Shen Wei realises that shutting this down entirely isn't going to happen any time soon, so he tries to at least shut it down for now, telling Zhao Yunlan he's about to leave on a field trip and they can talk more when he's back. LOL!

I love the way Da Qing bursts in and then is so taken aback by Shen Wei's presence! But Shen Wei immediately tells him about Zhao Yunlan's gastritis attack, and that makes sense to Da Qing.

More Viki subs weirdness: when Da Qing mocks Wang Zheng for fainting, the Viki subs say, "Maybe, she just fainted from crying after watching some TV drama." But it clearly says 小说 novel, no TV in evidence! (Solo's subs are the best translation here, "Maybe she fainted from crying over a new romance novel.")

Also, Zhao Yunlan when Da Qing tells him not to worry over her fainting: "Nonsense, how can I not worry about my people?" ♥ ♥ ♥

Training montage! Except Xiao-Guo isn't using the fear stick, he's afraid because it's so overpowered so he wants to practice with an ordinary baton, LOL. And he talks about being useless, no help during the Ding Dun case - which makes me wonder at which point in that mini-case any help was even needed. Possibly another sign that something was cut/changed there? Anyway, Xiao-Guo learns that Chu Shuzhi had a little brother!

Another bit that I never noticed before: when Wang Zheng wakes up and says she wants to leave the SID, Zhao Yunlan asks her what her connection with the northwestern mountains is - and Da Qing says when they found her, it was 龙城的西北郊区 in the northwestern outskirts/suburbs of Dragon City! So according to this, she wasn't found in the mountains. I must have kept missing that because the actual flashback scene we see looks so much like the mountains and not at all like the suburbs, with Da Qing and Zhao Yunlan in hiking gear! LOL.

Oh, and also, Da Qing's explanation about energy bodies is so confident, I wonder if he's seen it happen before.

Oh, and interestingly, when the Sundial starts glowing and Lin Jing traces the source of the resonance, the bit highlighted on the map is just to the north of Dragon City, so not nearly far away enough for the Hanga Mountains - exactly where the dialogue said Wang Zheng was found. Meanwhile, Lin Jing here says the source of the resonance is 20 km into the mountains, definitely further away. It's like there are two versions superimposed on each other here, and I really wonder where those inconsistencies come from!

[salamandras]

I haven't rewatched yet, but I love seeing your detailed observations and thoughts and now I plan to look for them as I watch! The light as a medium for teleporting, youchu growling as something significant, or Dixing's registry size for example - I don't think I'd have noticed that myself. :D Do you think the registry covers deceased people's powers as well, or the living population is 900,000?

[trobadora]

Yay, it's great to hear that you're enjoying the details! I always wonder if I ramble on too much, LOL.

I think the 900,000 has to be current population - Dixing has a 10,000 year history, I think if it listed deceased people it'd have to be a lot larger.

Enjoy rewatching! ♥

[china_shop]

"Drinking is a civilized act," LOL!

I really enjoy Shen Wei failing at drinking culture (in a completely different way from how ZYL fails at it in ep 11, when he's visibly having to force himself to drink). It makes me wonder whether this is a problem for Shen Wei in Dixing, too. Maybe the Regent thinks he'd get along much better with the Envoy if they could just get drunk together like civilised men?? ;-p

So it's presumably a staff car from the Inspectorate.

Ha! The poor driver. I wonder if this is partly a security precaution, to make sure people with top secret info aren't wandering around the city drunk on their own...

I always like that Zhao Yunlan initially just tries to wordlessly wave Shen Wei away, miserable and embarrassed.

YES! Me too, I love that!! :D :D :D

But the empty wine bottles lying around on the floor next to the bed always make me wonder just how much Zhao Yunlan generally does drink, ouch. Because he was out drinking with friends, and he has these empty bottles at home ...

Yeah, I know. He's such a mess, not just today -- and the fact that he's generally pretty capable of putting a good face on it when he's out and about is kind of disturbing in itself, I think? I wonder how much of his waking life he spends partly hung over.

The way he rips the meds right out of Zhao Yunlan's hand again when Zhao Yunlan tries to swallow them dry! Awww.

I always love that we hear one drop to the floor! Shen Wei is too angry to be careful!! :D

Great catch about the map!

I don't think I ever noticed before that when after Shen Wei (off-screen) takes off his jacket to clean a glass for Zhao Yunlan, the jacket ends up on top of the breakfast bar!

Oh, true! Another great catch! And then (as facethestrange pointed out last time) by morning it's over the couch arm. :D :D :D (Oh, you already noted that further down.)

(I love that there's a whole other scene in episode 28 that also features Shen Wei tucking Zhao Yunlan into bed, plus a smoke message! But that time, Shen Wei actually sits on the bed, and Zhao Yunlan isn't at all surprised to find him there when he wakes up. ♥ ♥ ♥ )

alkjsdfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhaskdjflhaskdljfhadksljfassa :D :D :D

Also, we learn that Dixing's population register has 900,000 people - pretty substantial!

!!!! I don't think that's in the VIKI subs (or if it is, it totally didn't sink in)!!

Which is a weird reply to a query, but maybe is intended by Shen Wei to come across as Dixing playing dumb?

It's hard to see what else it could be? But if ZYL replies to that, SW probably won't know...

1) He didn't know there were youchu there! He literally just discovered them and decided to incorporate them into his plans. Possibly they've been stuck in the cave along with the ghosts for a long time?

I only realised that this watch through, too!! *high fives*

2) Zhu Jiu recognises youchu from their growling! So I guess that means they do exist in Dixing, if he's so familiar with them.

Growling and smell?? ;-p /o\

And he talks about being useless, no help during the Ding Dun case - which makes me wonder at which point in that mini-case any help was even needed.

Maybe the point where they actually ran into Ding Dun, and then he got away before they realised? If GCC had been sharper and more capable, they could have possibly caught him. /how he might be thinking about it, without casting the slightest shade on CSZ, of course

[trobadora]

I really enjoy Shen Wei failing at drinking culture (in a completely different way from how ZYL fails at it in ep 11, when he's visibly having to force himself to drink). It makes me wonder whether this is a problem for Shen Wei in Dixing, too.

Oh yes, great point and great question, LOL!

I wonder if this is partly a security precaution, to make sure people with top secret info aren't wandering around the city drunk on their own...

Yeah, I could definitely see that!

and the fact that he's generally pretty capable of putting a good face on it when he's out and about is kind of disturbing in itself, I think? I wonder how much of his waking life he spends partly hung over.

It definitely makes you worry about him! Or it makes ShenWei worry. *g*

I always love that we hear one drop to the floor! Shen Wei is too angry to be careful!! :D

♥ ♥ ♥

alkjsdfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhalkdjsfhaskdjflhaskdljfhadksljfassa :D :D :D

PARALLELS. :D :D :D

!!!! I don't think that's in the VIKI subs (or if it is, it totally didn't sink in)!!

Viki subs: "We can't find any Shen Wei among the list of 900,000 names in our Underworld."

I only realised that this watch through, too!! *high fives*

*high fives*

Maybe the point where they actually ran into Ding Dun, and then he got away before they realised? If GCC had been sharper and more capable, they could have possibly caught him. /how he might be thinking about it, without casting the slightest shade on CSZ, of course

Awwww! Yeah, I could see that for Xiao-Guo. *pets him*

[china_shop]

Viki subs: "We can't find any Shen Wei among the list of 900,000 names in our Underworld."

Ha, that totally passed me by. Thanks!