Rating: B+
In one respect, The Apothecary Diaries can be a frustrating experience, as its mysteries operate on three different levels and it’s often not clear which level a particular mystery is on. Some of its mysteries are pure stand-alones (such as the military poisoning incident straddling episodes 1 and 2 or the dancer on the wall in episode 3), others are part of lesser plots (the poisoning at the garden party in episode 6, the servant’s death in the moat in episode 9), and still others are part of grand plots (the death of Jinshi’s acquaintance in episode 9, most of the mysteries in the third quarter of season 1). There’s even cases like the treated boards in episode 5, where we still don’t fully know how that fits in even 23 episodes later. To an extent, this ambiguity is expected, as whether certain details are part of a bigger conspiracy or not is a common element in mystery shows. On the short term, though, that can be a little bothersome.
Such is the case with episode 28. Gaoshun’s story about the two sisters feels like a standalone mystery, but there are too many potential connections here to discount. His behavior and thorough knowledge of the circumstances suggests that he was more intimately involved than he’s letting on, and both the sisters looking very similar and a large mirror being a key part of the mystery have connections to other things going on in the episode. Maybe it’s just thematic consistency, but I can’t shake the impression that this has something to do with the arrival of the duo of female envoys who were bringing large mirrors with them as gifts – mirrors that, as Maomao points out, are extravagant gifts in that era given the difficulty of both manufacturing and especially transporting them.
The other “mystery,” which is is more intrinsically linked to the envoys, involved the “Moon Fairy.” Here the mystery is less about who the Moon Fairy was – as Maomao almost immediately realizes that it has to have been the manager of Verdigris House – and more about how to duplicate the legend to impress the envoys. (Presumably, this is deemed necessary because the Emperor has to counter the lavish opening gifts brought by the envoys or be left at a disadvantage in the trad negotiations.) Finding a stand-in for the original dancer is the easy part, even if Jinshi isn’t happy about the solution both Maomao and Gaoshun quickly come to; the series has made diligent efforts to portray Jinshi as having an almost unearthly, feminine beauty about him, after all. The rest of the mystery is about how to replicate the glowing lights shown in the painting. Given what Shisui is shown doing at the end of the episode (presumably collecting insects and then seeing a seemingly luminescent flying creature), she will doubtless come into play on that.
The other aspect of this episode that I liked was how smoothly it worked in various setting details. The old woman’s tales from 50 years past is the first indication we’ve had that the current capital city has only been around for a few decades, and the palace for even less than that; this had felt like a long-established setting rich in centuries of tradition, but apparently it’s not. That the capital is built on old ruins – and that some of the ruins may still be present even within the palace grounds – is also interesting and practically screams for attention in some future mystery, though they don’t seem relevant so far. Curiously, the northern part of the palace grounds is again involved. (And this isn’t the last time this season that will happen, either.)
In many respects, this episode feels similar to episode 5: a lead-up to a big, key event. Will we have the same dramatics at this party as what we got on that occasion?
USA Anime 