Rating: A-
This episode has a bit of everything that makes this series great: expanded world-building, exploration of rich detail, hints of bigger mysteries, behaviors just suspicious enough to warrant investigation, regular cast members being themselves, lots of pretty venues and character designs, and a fun new regular being formally introduced by name. It may not have quite the dramatic push that the series’ top episodes have had, but there’s a definite sense of things building towards bigger events later on.
All of the events in the episode center around the arrival of a caravan in the Rear Palace, giving the denizens of the Rear Palace a rare opportunity to shop freely. For Maomao, this means both an opportunity to walk around with Xaolin (how much she adds to the series is easily underestimated) and another encounter with the rambunctious purple-haired servant girl she met last episode, whom we now officially know is named Shisui. Her passion for sketching insects allows her and Maomao to quickly find common ground, making her a good complement to Maomao. We definitely haven’t see the last of her. Whether or not her joining the Rear Palace at about the same time as Lulan is meaningful or not remains to be seen; there was a big personnel turnover at that time due to the departure of Ah-Duo and the fallout from the execution of Fengming, so it could be a coincidence, but little that’s purely coincidence gets mentioned even in passing in this series.
And there are much more immediate potential plots afoot here. The business about the style of dresses isn’t followed up on within this episode, but the suggestion that a certain style was deliberately offered because it’s more fitting for pregnant women isn’t at all a trivial detail; when Gyokukuyo is secretly pregnant and Lihua is giving signs that she may be, too, that suggests a disturbing information leak, and credit to Gyokuyou and Hongniang (both of whom have previously been shown to be sharp-witted) for quickly picking up on Maomao’s implication when she brought up the matter. But the pregnancy-related matter doesn’t end there; scented oils and teas which could, in concentration, be adverse to pregnancy are now cumbersomely frequent. While that could be innocuous, it seems all the more suspicious in conjunction with the other point and downright devious if it is being done intentionally. Again, it’s something that could easily go unnoticed if you didn’t have someone with Maomao’s kind of specialized knowledge around, and even then bringing it in through the caravan could make it hard to notice. This thoroughly smacks of the kind of stunt Suirei tried to arrange earlier.
That’s not the only mystery going on here, either. A mid-ranked concubine who was apparently ill has died from poisoning (presumably from something she tried to drink as a remedy), and there’s the matter of the odd smell on the north side, where some ruins are. (Nifty little slip-in of some additional world-building there!) Based on the Next Episode preview, one or both of these matters will probably be addressed next episode, but the real question is if these are separate or connected incidents.
So many potentially interesting things are going on, and the series generally looks great doing it, too! (The interior shots of Crystal Palace were especially impressive this time around.) After a milder starting episode, the series is back to full steam.
USA Anime 