Rating: A-
Note: My apologies for this being so late. This episode did have the misfortune of hitting on the front end of a ridiculously-heavy weekend of Summer 2025 season debuts, but past a certain point I also just forgot that I hadn’t done this review yet.
With this episode, the franchise concludes its adaptation of the fourth source novel, and thus also its second season. The dramatic climax was last episode, so this episode is left to pick up the pieces and put the final touches on most of the plot threads up to this point. I can’t quite give it a full A grade because the episode falls just a little short of being fully satisfying in dealing with a few certain issues, but it gets plenty enough right to warrant my respect.
First, the matter of the Shi survivors must be dealt with. Every sign pointed to Loulan administering the “dead” children the resurrection medicine, and that does, indeed, prove to be the case. Jinshi has an “out” for not executing them due to the promise he made to Loulan (a fox, indeed!), but they’re still left in a very awkward position. The solution to the problem for most of them is a slick one: they come under the custody of Ah-Duo under different names. It’s inarguably the best possible outcome for the children, it keeps them under the watchful eye of someone both the Emperor and Jinshi can trust implicitly, and Ah-Duo will doubtless look at it more as a reward than a duty, since she never got to raise her own child or have more of her own. Sending Suirei to Ah-Duo is also a best-case scenario, since Suirei’s status is easily the most complicated due to her royal blood. It’ll be a gilded cage for her, but at least she’ll be with most of the kids.
That just leaves Kyou-u, who’s also an interesting case. The amnesia he suffered as a side effect is a good reason to direct him elsewhere; all things considered, he’s probably better off not remembering anything. Sending him to Verdigris is a curious choice, and the only move here which feels like a writing convenience rather than a purely logical play. (Though I suppose one could argue that he’ll be both far away from potential intrigue and under Maomao’s watchful eye there?)
Then, of course, there’s Jinshi and Maomao. Jinshi’s always been prone to being a little aggressive with Maomao, but it certainly seems now like he’s decided not to hold back anymore. The way he’s getting “frogblocked” (as I’ve seen one person describe it) by various random circumstances is practically becoming a running joke at this point, but it’s fun watching Maomao react to his moves. Ultimately the reveal to Maomao on who Jinshi really is hasn’t changed their relationship too much, though Maomao’s acknowledgement that Jinshi’s scar makes him seem more manly (which felt like a genuine statement) holds out hope that she will come around eventually.
There are other matters, too. With Gyokuyou having given birth to the crown prince, she’s now going to be elevated to Empress status. Where that leaves the other two high-ranking concubines is uncertain; will they and the rest of the Rear Palace apparatus and personnel be maintained? Apparently so, since Loumen is now in permanent residence there, though I’m curious to see how much of a change that will make. And where does that leave Lishu with her soon-to-be-born child? Enough time has passed that Xiaolin’s term has expired, but between her education and her bath gig she did, at least, find a relatively good position. I hope we haven’t seen the last of her.
Finally, that leaves the disposition of Shisui. Her actually dying would have been sad but still felt right, but the writing did leave itself an out, and the series certainly rolled with it. This is the other place where the series is fudging a bit; I’m totally fine with having the hairpin stop the bullet which knocked her off the wall, and I can totally buy her not dying from the fall because of a snowdrift at the wall’s bottom. (An avalanche did come through that area just hours earlier, after all.) However, it wasn’t snowing that heavily, so her not having left some kind of trail which could be followed seems unlikely, even if they didn’t know where, exactly, she fell in the darkness. There’s also the moral ambiguity of her getting to live when so many others in the clan didn’t. Still, she’s a good enough character to warrant a second chance, and seeing her finally getting to live her own life (even if under a different name) is heartwarming. Her trading the hairpin for the jade cicada also is a move packed with symbolism; it could be looked at as severing the final link to her old life, or it could be ridding herself of evidence of her previous identity. Either way, it signifies her moving on from her deadly fate, and that she’s considering going overseas suggests she won’t be back for a long time, if ever. That would be sad, as I’m sure I’m far from alone in wanting to see her and Maomao meet again, but it does also allow the story to make a cleaner break before moving on.
So where will the story next? We’ll find out sometime next year, as a season 3 has, unsurprisingly, been green-lit. Overall, it had stiffer competition for the top spot in the Spring 2025 season than I originally expect (see Apocalypse Hotel), but it’s still the top title so far this year in my book.
USA Anime 