EPISODE 61 – 65 RECAPS
There are a lot of moments in these episodes where you’re just not sure whether these guys are starting to like Feng Zhiwei romantically or not. They just keep giving her looks.
It’s all very confusing. Yuan Hong is really good with the “you’ve got my attention” look, though.
Onto more important things. It turns out that Ning Yi’s mother has been kept prisoner in some kind of dark room by the emperor this whole time. All right… listen, dude. We’ve always got your reasoning despite your crappy treatment of your family, but you’ve just lost us right here, OK?
Of course, when Ning Yi learns of this news, he breaks down in a panic attack. But his nanny and Ning Cheng manage to calm him down so that they can continue to carry out the plan of rescuing Feng Zhiwei.
It’s a really weird plan, though. It involves messing with her memory so the Prince of An can be fooled into thinking that he can win her and possibly Jinshi Kingdom too so he’d pay less attention to what’s actually going on? I don’t know, I feel like this whole thing needed to be edited a few times more. Who’s Ning Yi’s writer here? Fire them and bring back Xin Ziyan.
The plan is working, they say, because the Prince of An has as much a tragic life as Ning Yi. He is another Ning Yi in a way.
And Zhiwei, without her memory, everything emotional and comforting she’s always wanted to say to Ning Yi, she says hem to this An guy instead, making him ultra confused and… excited.
The Prince of An decides to marry Zhiwei. That’s gotta be out of some desire, right? Given that a marriage to her doesn’t give him any political advantage other than pissing Helian Zheng off.
On their wedding day, Ning Yi and Helian Zheng cooperate with their men outside the gates. Whatever they did — open a dam or bend water or whatever — they manage to flood the Prince of An’s entire estate.
Miraculously, Zhiwei also regains her memory here. And after being nearly drowned and a kiss underwater, she is well again. Not exactly happy, though, since she and Ning Yi once again have to say goodbye to each other. She comments that they had never managed to say goodbye properly before now. And off Ning Yi goes to rescue his mother.
Two deaths happen in these episodes. Hua Qiong, during the flood; and Xin Ziyan’s sister-in-law, because of Ning Qi’s useless and unthinking subordinates.
After a frightening confrontation that Zhao Yuan literally has to turn away from, the emperor finally agrees to let Ning Yi reunite with his mother.
But because of this, Ning Yi becomes less invested in the fight for the throne.
This makes Xin Ziyan feel betrayed because his sister-in-law just died, his wife had a miscarriage as a result of grief, and he himself is full of hatred because his desperate desire to bring Ning Qi down is no longer shared by Ning Yi.
Now Ning Yi is just like: you know, mom’s back so I’m gonna retire now. Screw the future of this empire.
In the meantime, Zong Cheng breaks into Ning Yi’s place, pretends to kidnap Ning Yi’s mom, and gets himself killed.
Don’t celebrate yet, cause this turns out to be a plan set up by the guy who claims to be Zhiwei’s brother in order to carry out whatever revenge they have in mind.
Nanyi is devastated at his mentor’s death, he delivers the news to Zhiwei and implies that Ning Yi is behind it all. She then decides to go back to Tiansheng to investigate. Oh geez… why? Why are we making the main characters do things on behalf of the ones nobody cares about in the first place?
Zhiwei’s decision leads to the fallout between her and Helian Zheng, who gets mad at her for thinking about Ning Yi, even though he already promised her to be understanding if she ever thinks about Ning Yi.
Helian Zheng cuts all ties with Zhiwei and walks out. Have they even had their honeymoon yet? If not, then shouldn’t you at least give the girl a month before pulling a Rhett Butler on her? So many things happened and she only said goodbye to Ning Yi like two days ago!
But in Helian Zheng’s defence, Zhiwei’s excuse to go back to Tiansheng is kind of flimsy. Once again, let’s go back to the fact that NOBODY CARES about Zong Chen. So we as the audience cannot sympathize with this decision of hers. Secondly, even if we did care about Zong Chen as a character, from Helian Zheng’s perspective, he is Zhiwei’s husband and her wanting to travel all the way back to her home kingdom to clear the name of (or confront) her old lover can’t sound appealing to Helian Zheng.
COMMENTS
I have no comments on the random “villains” this arc throws at us anymore since I’ve talked about them too much already. The bottom line is: who are they and why should we care? They don’t have good background building or good development and they clearly only exist to bring unnecessary tragedy.
I also refuse to acknowledge that underground market guy as Zhiwei’s brother because WHAT PROOF DO WE HAVE THAT HE IS?
The few good things in these episodes happen in the “Prince of An” saga, even though that too is carelessly written. We were never told anything about the geography of this kingdom and then suddenly Ning Yi and Helian Zheng just come up with a plan to release a river on the Prince’s palace and rescue Zhiwei? We should’ve had more episodes of elaboration before they flood this fortress and drown Yuan Hong in his wedding robe. What a waste of eye-candy.
Ni Ni and Yuan Hong’s performance when Zhiwei loses her memory, though — this is what good acting looks like, guys. These two characters have minimal interaction yet during a few brief minutes, they make it look like they’ve been in love forever, and still convey the confusion and danger of the situation. The stronger performance actually comes from Ni Ni, but Yuan Hong reciprocates well, that’s the point. If only this arc could have been drawn out and replaced that “hi I’m your brother” fiasco we’re about to get.
Also, you kill off Hua Qiong and Ziyan’s sister-in-law, two charming characters who could’ve made an impact on the story, and replace them with this new bunch of villains? I am so done.