The Apothecary Diaries, episode 8

Rating: A-

Maomao’s back home, so naturally she’s going to get involved in a brothel-related mystery while there. Actually, two arise, and both are left open-ended, though in dramatically different ways.

The first is what initially appears to be an attempted double-suicide involving a courtesan and a customer. However, a few things don’t add up, not the least of which is the awful reputation of the customer. Really, a courtesan he jilted trying to poison him should have been a tip-off that the guy needed to change his ways, but he’d hardly be the first man who let his arrogance and vices override his common sense. The most interesting aspects of the case, however, are not the case itself but the other details involved. We’ve already seen that Maomao can forcefully take action when the situation demands it, and the scene where she attempts to revive the courtesan and guide another one to revive the man is her in action at her very best. Her father arriving at the scene also shows us who Maomao learned to be such an accomplished detective from, and perhaps also a bit about how she learned to restrain herself from getting too deeply involved. Then there’s the hints of the bigger picture here and the strong – but not certain! – suggestions that the courtesan responsible for the poisoning (which was clever but risky) may not have acted alone. We probably won’t ever get more details about that case, but that’s kind of the point here: sometimes knowing the full story isn’t always the best thing.

The other, far shorter mystery in this episode is who, exactly, Maomao visited in Verdigris’s annex after her bath with Meimei. It is also left open-ended, but based on the way Maomao acts, the strongest implication is that this is either her mother, who has not even been mentioned previously. Whomever it is, we can infer a couple of things: that she’s in an annex of Verdigris means that she was a courtesan, and that she’s in a darkened annex probably means she’s in this setting’s equivalent of hospice care. Given that, her not being shown fully may be a blessing. After all, syphilis has already been mentioned in this setting, and the late-stage effects of that are not pretty. If this is her mother, and she was a Verdigris courtesan, then all the pieces would fit about why Maomao was raised around brothels and is considered a little sister by its aces. Like with the cryptic comments by Maomao’s father, there’s definitely more to the story here.

But the mysteries don’t take up all the episode, allowing the last few minutes to be devoted to the comedy side of things. Not sure if I should feel sorry for Lihaku or not, as his future finances aren’t looking great but he certainly looks to have gotten one hell of an experience for it. (Which probably also means that Maomao has earned a permanent ally in Lihaku.) Much better, though, are Jinshi’s reactions. Maomao still only seems to understand the practical, rather than full symbolic, meaning of the hairpin, so why Jinshi is upset that he wasn’t the one relied on is a bit understandable, but his reaction to Maomao’s description of her “repayment” to Lihaku is priceless. I’m not entirely clear if Maomao accidentally or deliberately said things in such a way that she made Jinshi imagine she did it herself (either is possible, given the way her mind has worked at other times on sexual content), but the reactions of the others outside – especially Gyokuyou – were also priceless. The latter is getting so much amusement out of Maomao that she doubtless has no regrets about taking Maomao on as a lady-in-waiting.

Overall, this episode had a little bit of everything which makes this series so great, hence the high rating.