EPISODE 24 RECAP
Back at the palace, the emperor is appalled to see the three girls covered in bruises and bleeding wounds.
Xiaoyanzi wastes no time in crying and calling the emperor the worst dad ever. Ziwei plays the “but you are a benevolent emperor” to appeal to him and asks for the Fu brothers and Yongqi to be spared.
The emperor orders Ziwei to go back and rest for now, but she won’t budge, not until everyone else is pardoned.
Xiaoyanzi and the boys take turns criticizing the emperor for his method. Shameful, humiliating, a disgrace to the great kingdom of Daqing — they say. They know it wasn’t him who ordered the girls to be tortured, of course, but I suppose they figured guilt-tripping is their best bet at this point.
The official — Liang, who had the girls whipped and tortured — is brought to the court.
Off with his head, says the emperor.
No no, we need him for the investigation, says a scholar.
Another scholar hands the emperor a piece of paper he found in Xiaoyanzi’s prison cell. It’s that secret order from a “certain someone” to kill off Xiaoyanzi and Ziwei.
The emperor reads it and then, OK, NOW off with his head.
Ziwei is forgiven. Everyone is forgiven. But Ziwei faints before they can celebrate. Er’kang lunges to catch her, but the emperor beats him to it. Which is pretty impressive. How many people can be faster than Er’kang when it comes to Ziwei’s safety? No one.
Ziwei wakes up, the emperor spoon-feeds her some medicine. She tells him this makes her so happy she could faint. The emperor voices what everybody, including the audience, is thinking: enough fainting already.
Ziwei is acknowledged as a princess. The Boy Trio is happier than ever before, and they’re not shy to show it at all.
The empress comes next. She is about to make things difficult for Ziwei when the emperor tells her to take it down a few notches because she’s in enough trouble already. The secret order to torture the girls was from her.
The emperor declares then that he doesn’t care whether Ziwei is his real daughter or not, he likes her so she stays, and that all orphans in this kingdom are his children. Yep, that’s Huang-ah-ma* to you.
(To be accurate, the emperor actually says: all orphan girls in this kingdom can be my daughters. But I take it he means all children. He just doesn’t include boys in his statement because he probably feels boys already have enough privileges as it is. And no boys got whipped or stabbed by needles or daggers in this drama, so…)
When the empress won’t stop talking, the emperor orders for her to be taken to the justice department so they can investigate into her crimes. The empress goes crazy, grabs a pair of scissors and starts chopping off her hair, yelling that if the emperor no longer wants her advice, she will become a nun.
Yongqi snatches the scissors away. Then Ziwei comes over and works her magic: showing kindness to the empress and reminding her that a woman’s hair is her most priceless possession. The whole kindness thing is a little forced and not that convincing but because Ruby Lin looks adorable here, we can give it a pass.
Can we at least punish Nanny Rong, though?
Next, there’s still another problem. Er’kang has been promised to Princess Saiya. Upon the Fu brothers’ request, the emperor agrees to hold another martial arts competition so Saiya can take her pick from the other princes and nobles. I mean, it doesn’t have to be that complicated, just let her talk to Er’kang for five minutes, I guarantee she’ll change her mind.
Although, something unexpected happens. Saiya starts hanging out with Er’tai, who is whimsical and fun. And since Saiya is like another Xiaoyanzi, she’s exactly Er’tai’s type. Problem solved.
The drama ends with our three couples happily riding on horseback towards the sunset.
COMMENTS
There are many comments I’d like to make about this drama, but I believe it’s clear from the recaps that this has been an extremely enjoyable journey. Sure, Princess Pearl is a drama from the 90’s, cliches and cringy dialogues are bound to be there, but the tight plot, the meaningful story, the satisfying ending, and well fleshed-out characters are also there.
And hey, at least now we know that Er’kang will freak out a lot less. Or… will he? Only season 2 will tell.
*Huang-ah-ma: lit. imperial father
I loved reading these! What a treat 🙂 Love and agree with all the idiosyncrasies you pick out (particularly how you take extra delight in skewering Er Kang)
Thanks! This was a super fun ride that Erkang plays a big part of 😀