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

[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!