The Apothecary Diaries Episodes 12 and 13

I have two episodes to catch up on for this one. And I have to say, I loved being able to watch two episodes one after the other. I suspected it all along, but I really think that the Apothecary Diaries would be a very fun show to binge once enough episodes have aired. The story just flows so well from one episode to the next that it feels natural to sit down and just watch a handful in one fell swoop.

(Did you know that expression comes from McBeth. As in the Shakespeare play. I don’t know, maybe this will be asked at a trivia night at some point and now you’ll know the answer…)

So where are we at? Consort Ah-Duo sama has left the palace for being too baren and old I think. I’m making it sound crass but it’s essentially the reason. However, her head maid, Fengming was found guilty of attempting to poison Consort Lishu and her sentence was swiftly carried out. Additionally, though, anyone with even a loose association with Fengming and her family, who own various businesses, was to be “fired” from the inner palace and that includes Maomao.

This was a cute episode. The fact is that for Maomao, aside from the lack of freedom, life at the inner palace is in some ways more comfortable and practical than life outside. And fearing that she would be “put to work” in the brother, at this point, Mao would really rather remain where she is.

On the other hand, Jinshi, who is in charge of the firings, has always been told that Maomao hates it here (by her), so he lets her go in what he considers a generous and selfless act to make her happy.

Talk about some rom-com shenanigans here. Despite my usual lack of patience for such things, I think it was actually pretty cute in this instance. Maybe cause I’m biased, maybe because it was consistent with the characters we have now come to know for a dozen episodes, or maybe just because it was a nice change of tone from the slightly melancholy episodes of the last few weeks. Possibly for all of the above.

We get a small glimpse of what Maomao’s life outside the palace would look like. It’s actually not that bad….yet. She seems to have a lot of people who genuinely care for her and the Madame, is a shrewd and unyielding businesswoman but neither cruel nor in fact disinterested. She might be willing to sell off girls without batting an eye but she does think this is a good life for them and even though the show doesn’t go too deep into how dark it could get for women of the time, we have reason to believe she might not be completely wrong.

In keeping with the romcom vibes, the misunderstanding gets cleared up after a series of coincidences and Jinshi goes to buy off Maomao like a knight in shining armor. It’s goofy and sweet and I hope anyone that is into the romance aspect of this show got everything they wished for!

This marks a subtle but important change in the dynamics of the story.

Maomao is back at the palace. Although not the inner palace for now. She is largely doing the same thing, i.e. housekeeping work, being annoyed by Jinshi, and keeping up to date with palace intrigue. However, some things are markedly different. She is no longer a servant of the inner palace. My understanding is that she is in fact a personal servant to Jinshi which logistically means she belongs to him rather than to the palace/Emperor.

In practice, it means that she has a lot less restrictions now. She can come and go as she pleases as long as she has Jinshi’s permission, and we all know he’s not about to say no too much. She can have access to whatever she wants for her research more easily and she doesn’t have to keep up with all the rituals imposed on ladies-in-waiting to royal consorts.

I suspect that for narrative purposes, this will mean that she can do a lot more investigating as she can be called on for cases outside the inner palace now and she can have access to tools and information that would have been out of her reach up until this point.

Episodes 12 and 13 mostly served as pivotal points bringing the story from what it was, Maomao’s life at the inner palace, to this new context and I’m excited.

I’m also really fond of Jinshi’s maid. She just strikes me as the sort of lady I’m going to like.

But I’m starting to get a bit confused about Jinshi’s family tree.

So we pretty much know that Jinshi is Ah-Duo’s genetic son who was switched at birth with the Emperor’s brother (who died). So as far as we know right now, Jinshi is the son of the Emperor and Ah-Duo. I’m not sure if he knows that though.

The official story is that Jinshi is the emperor’s brother, the son of the previous Emperor, and the dowager Consort. Essentially, he has the same parents as the emperor which would conveniently explain and resemblance as well. And I would guess that this is a version of events that Jinshi and the Emperor both know (although whether they know it’s a lie is still unclear).

The point is, as far as they are concerned, Jinshi is either the emperor’s one and only son or his one and only brother.

Then why is he a eunuch? People do treat him with a lot of deference and respect, he is a very high-placed court official, but they don’t treat him as if he’s part of the Imperial family. At least that’s the impression that I get. The emperor is god, his brother/son should be a least a demi-god but the consorts act like they are equals, if not slightly above him and people do question him at times.

So was there a secret switcheroo and now even the cover-up story is a secret?

Maomao might have her suspicions, but she doesn’t actually know that Jinshi is the baby that was switched. She figured out the switch but as far as she knows, the imperial brother is either rarely/never seen in public or away…

And when she saw Jinshi’s quarters, even she wondered just how high up he was in the court exactly? She wouldn’t have been surprised or asked herself such a question if she knew Jinshi as the emperor’s brother, right? So why would that be a secret? I hope they tell us…