Rating: A-
Though he’s hardly one of the more likable characters in the series, Lakan is still an intriguing one. He’s ferociously smart and a superior judge of character and ability (last episode strongly implied that he is responsible for Lihaku being where he is, for instance), which allows him to maintain a high position despite a seeming lackadaisical attitude. Not much truly gets him interested beyond games (in both the literal and figurative sense), and for all his cunning, he doesn’t seem to operate with a bigger purpose; he annoys Jinshi just because it amuses him and, perhaps, gives him a convenient method to interact – however indirectly – with his daughter. As revealed at the end of this episode, he also has an odd way of looking at people, at he sees their faces only as game playing pieces; doubtless this contributes to his approach to people. However, Lakan is about to find out that he’s not the only one who still has her faculties intact who’s good at games. You can only prod a cat so much before she’ll scratch back.
This all arises because of some reminiscence Lakan has about blue roses being present at the palace, so he decided to challenge Jinshi to come up with some, knowing full well how difficult it would be to do. Blue roses don’t appear in nature, but in China they symbolize achieving the unobtainable. They are also connected to a folk tale about a princess who insists that she will only marry a man who can present her a blue rose. Ultimately she accepts a white rose as blue because it comes from the right person. (In some version of the story, it’s a gardener’s son that she’s long known; in others, it’s a wandering minstrel.) This seems to have some kind of connection to the matter with the courtesan who was Maomao’s mother, although exactly how hasn’t been revealed yet. Whether Maomao is aware of this or not, she clearly recognizes Lakan’s comments to Jinshi as a challenge. And we know well from past stories in this series that Maomao is relentless once she takes a challenge seriously.
For all that the procedure Maomao uses to try to coax roses to bloom out of season is interesting, as is the gimmickry she uses to temporarily turn white roses blue (infuse them with colored water!), that’s actually not the whole story here. She isn’t just trying to make blue roses; she’s trying to show Lakan up completely by playing a deeper and broader game at the same time. The whole business with spreading around the reddish nail polish – even including wearing some of it herself to entice others in the Rear Palace to start doing it – seems at first to be an odd choice of timing, but as the scenes with Lakan near the end show, it’s actually an elaborate scheme by Maomao to send a message to Lakan. She knows full well that a color similar to that was used by courtesans at Verdigris house, and a Lakan flashback strongly suggests that Maomao’s mother used it. Exactly what message she’s trying to send isn’t clear yet, but it clearly is throwing Lakan off.
And isn’t it interesting that, in Lakan’s view, the only people with faces which haven’t been playing pieces have been Maomao and her mother? That raises the question of whether Lakan’s stunned expression upon seeing Jinshi carrying the unconscious Maomao in episode 19 may have been because he realized he could see her face. (That was the first time he got an up-close look at her face.) That further raises the question of whether he can see her face because she’s important to him, or whether she’s important to him because he can see her face. I suspect we’ll find out more about that in what looks like a more direct game challenge next episode. Regardless, the Maomao/Lakan confrontation has been built towards all season, so I’m definitely looking forward to the upcoming payoff.
USA Anime 