Slo-Mo Rewatch: Guardian episode 9, 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 9, from 22:52:

Summary: Everyone arrives at Qingxi village. Outside the guesthouse, Xiao-Guo finds a skull, and Wang Zheng explains her tribe's customs, disguised as rumours she's heard. A villager in a mask and wig tries to scare them away; the village head explains that a guard was murdered two days ago and everyone's wary of outsiders. He takes Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong to the crime scene. They see a light and explore further, and Zhao Yunlan reveals he has the Sundial with him when it starts resonating. Zhu Jiu tells the Hanga tribesmen to kill Wang Zheng, blaming her for their being trapped by the Awl, and they attack the guesthouse. Wang Zheng tries to sacrifice herself, but no one will let her. Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong arrive, and she has to take the gun from him and fire herself because he's paralysed by flashbacks of his mother's death. At night, Wang Zheng leaves on her own and goes into the mountain. Zhu Jiu is pleased - it's all going according to his plan.



Quote:

Zhao Yunlan to Wang Zheng: "See, what do I keep telling you? Don't keep dieting all the time, being skinny isn't good for you!"

Detail:

This episode gives us an update for who was in which car when! I'll put all of it here for completeness' sake, even though it includes stuff from the first half of the episode:

1st leg (Dragon City to car breakdown):

• Zhao Yunlan's jeep: Zhao Yunlan (driving), Da Qing (passenger seat), Wang Zheng and Zhu Hong in the back
• Other SID car: Chu Shuzhi (driving), Lin Jing (passenger seat), Guo Changcheng in the back
• University group car: not shown, but presumably Xiao-Quan driving since he assumes he'll drive after the breakdown

2nd leg (car breakdown to checkpoint):

• Zhao Yunlan's jeep: Lin Jing (driving), Zhu Hong (passenger seat), Wang Zheng and Guo Changcheng in the back
• Other SID car: not seen, but must be Chu Shuzhi and Da Qing
• University group car: Zhao Yunlan (driving), Shen Wei (passenger seat), Jiajia and Xiao Quan in the back

3rd leg (checkpoint to Qingxi village):

• Zhao Yunlan's jeep: Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng, Zhu Hong, Wang Zheng (shown waiting at Qingxi village when the other two cars arrive)
• University group car: until the jacket-sharing stop, Lin Jing (driving), Jiajia (passenger seat), Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan in the back. After the stop, not shown. (We do see all of the above plus the village head after they got out, but that's not conclusive.)
• Other SID car: not shown, though it arrives behind the university car, and there's a shot with a blurry Da Qing in the background, outside on the passenger side. (If the village head did ride with all the others, the third car was Da Qing and Xiao-Quan only, and maybe Xiao-Quan got to actually drive for this leg! *g*)

Questions: What's your favourite bit in this half-episode? Which SID character gets the best moment? When Shen Wei questions Wang Zheng, how much does he already know about her? Would you like to go on a field trip with Shen Wei, even though he might end up hypnotising you? Do you sympathise with the villagers? Is speechifying Zhu Jiu's greatest talent? If you've read the novel, any thoughts on about how the drama compares?

(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!)

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:

• Another conspicious shot of a crow cawing! And the characters draw additional attention to it by talking about it. Still a while until we learn about Ya Qing, though!


• The mechanics of Wang Zheng in the doll body elude me; Jiajia's comments about how light she is allude to her being in a blow-up doll, but she appears as herself outside the car here. (And later again, as she goes into the mountain.) The only time we see her actually inhabiting the doll is outside the SID door, in daylight.


• I love the little moment when Zhao Yunlan jerks his head at Lao-Chu, who gives a mini-nod and goes ahead to check things out! And Zhao Yunlan also signals Da Qing, who goes off in a different direction!


• Lin Jing is truly an allrounder; today he's moonlighting as an archaeologist and determines the skull Xiao-Guo finds must be at least 100 years old. *g*
  
  (Though Chu Shuzhi also contributes, suggesting a landslide shifted the soil and then the rain exposed the skull.)


• Proof that Wang Zheng's energy body doesn't work like normal bodies: she kneels on the muddy ground to pray, but is perfectly clean afterwards. *g*


• Xiao-Quan is so relatable, first concluding from Wang Zheng's explanation about the Hanga never marrying outsiders that they must have died out from inbreeding, and then complaining about the lack of indoor plumbing and fighting outside that wouldn't let him go pee outside!


• I love the timing of Zhao Yunlan saying dead people can't drive them away, and then immediately the fake ghost telling them to leave. :D


• Zhao Yunlan can immediately tell that the village head knows something about all of this, shouting for him! And Shen Wei confronts the village head about not telling the truth. Teaming up! :D


• Meanwhile, Zhu Jiu is speechifying at masked Hanga energy ghosts, complaining he couldn't get Sang Zan out of the pillar. (Presumably if he had, he could have got the Awl too?)


• The subs miss a lot when the village head explains to Zhao Yunlan and Zhu Hong what's going on! The Viki subs are better than the others, but still not complete:
  
  Solo's subs: "Two days ago, a village guard on night duty was killed here. Then came the earthquake. Our villagers are all honest and kind, so the killer must be a stranger. It's only been two days. I trust you, but other villagers have crazy ideas."
  Viki subs: "The day before yesterday, the assigned night duty village guard, Wang Erzhu, was killed here, and then the earthquake happened. Our villagers are all kind and never aggressive. Hence, this must have been done by an outsider. And after a few days, you and your people came. I trust you, but other villagers do not."
  
  Mostly literal translation: "Just the day before yesterday, Wang Erzhu, who was on night watch at the village entrance, was murdered right here, and then the earthquake happened. Our village is full of honest people; we've never been aggressive in our lives. It's outsiders' evil-doing. And it hasn't been two days and there's a whole bunch of you coming. I believe you, but Lao-Li and Lao-Zhao will let their imagination run wild."


• Zhu Jiu threatens the Hanga warriors, telling them if they don't do what he wants, he'll keep their families trapped forever.


• While Zhu Hong and Zhao Yunlan are searching outside, I think this is the only time the Sundial resonates audibly without also glowing? (Later outside the guesthouse it'll start that way too, but then will glow after all.)


• Funny: the guy who played ghost running straight into the real energy ghosts. :D


• Wang Zheng is trying so hard to do what she thinks is the right thing and sacrifice herself! But no one will let her. (I love that Shen Wei tells her Zhao Yunlan wouldn't agree!)


• Idk what the grenade thing is that Lin Jing throws at the ghosts? Da Qing thinks something about normal weapons not working, but I can't tell what it would do if it were working!


• I love the moment when Zhao Yunlan pulls his gun but can't bring himself to fire because he's having flashbacks of his mother's death. Clearly he hasn't been using the gun prior to this - in fact, the suggestion is pretty strong that the last time he saw it fired was in that flashback. And Zhu Hong just ripping it out of his hand and doing the shooting herself is excellent. :D


• I'm not sure what Shen Wei actually does to the students behind Wang Zheng's back when he wants to interrogate her. Is he hypnotising them in some way? They don't seem to actually fall asleep, and we only get a brief moment of the effect.


• When Shen Wei says the university team is here for research because a mysterious totem was found at the epicentre of the earthquake, is he lying? It doesn't fit, anyway - in episode 8, the morning after the earthquake, he talks about taking over a field trip for Zhang-laoshi, so it's already been planned before the earthquake. Maybe he's just saying that to make Wang Zheng talk?


• Another bit where the subtitles aren't quite right:
  
  Solo: "I helped you escape, so you have to follow my orders."
  Viki: "I helped you escape, not for you to do whatever you please."
  Literal: "Letting you out wasn't so you could do whatever you want."
  
  (Also, Zhu Jiu threatened the Hanga warriors with trapping their families forever; with the youchu, he threatens to never let them out again, suggesting he can trap them again.)


• Zhu Jiu clearly knows Wang Zheng will come outside, and follows her into the mountain. And is looking forward to Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei rushing after her, anticipating that this will let him gain the Awl and the Sundial both. He practically lays out his plan here, very convenient. *g*


• Wang Zheng has flashbacks to her execution again, and once again I notice that the box that supposedly decides whether she'll be executed has two pieces of the same writing. Perhaps it's just rigged! But also, one of them is written horizontally and the other vertically - so if you wanted to, you could say the horizontal piece is read right to left, which would make a different sequence with potentially a different meaning. /overthinking