The Apothecary Diaries – Season 1 Episode 20 Recap & Review

Thornapple

Episode 20 of The Apothecary Diaries begins with  Maomao waking up and noticing she’s all bandaged up. Suiren enters the room, informs Maomao why she’s in Jinshi’s quarters, and hands Maomao tea. Suiren escorts Maomao to a meeting being held by Jinshi. Gaoshun and Basen are in the room with them, too. 

Jinshi asks Maomao why she went to the ceremony and how she knew the pillar was going to fall. Maomao says someone planned to harm a noble at the event and details how previous cases tie directly to the one that just occurred. Then, she discusses the ceremonial items theft debacle with Jinshi and a metalsmith’s possible connections to it all. 

Maomao feels the metalsmith wasn’t aware of the commissioner’s true intent and was only fulfilling a request. Additionally, Maomao says the person who commissioned the metalsmith knew about the secret technique needed to make the special metal used for the pillars. Jinshi and Maomao discuss the metalsmith’s fate briefly. 

Then, Maomao contemplates why Jinshi was at the event and what would’ve happened if the culprit’s plans had been successful. She ponders Suirei’s involvement in all this briefly. Later, Suiren tells Maomao that Lihaku wants to speak with her. Lihaku informs Maomao that an investigation has taken place.

The people involved in it discovered that Suirei was connected to everything and that she died. Lihaku says Suirei consumed poison based on a physician’s autopsy report. He states no one else was involved in the crime, but Maomao is not willing to accept Suirei as the only culprit behind it all.

Maomao returns to working alongside Suiren and contemplates if Suirei’s the type of person to pull a plan like that one off on her own. Maomao navigates to Jinshi’s room at night and asks him to escort her to the morgue. She wants to discuss things with the physician who was in charge of Suirei’s autopsy.

The physician arrives at the morgue and Maomao asks him if Suirei’s poison contained any thornapple. Maomao asks if the hill she chatted with Suirei at contained thornapple. She mentions how thornapples can produce an effective anesthetic since they’re known for being extremely poisonous. The physician says he’s unsure but he’s not willing to rule out the possibility.

Maomao grabs a tool and uses it to pry open Suirei’s coffin. Maomao tells the physician to look inside and we learn that the woman in the coffin isn’t Suirei. The physician promises Maomao that he saw Suirei’s lifeless body. Maomao wonders if the physician was used and didn’t bother investigating the type of poison used inside the body.

Jinshi asks Maomao why Suirei’s body was switched with another woman’s carcass, but Maomao believes Suirei staged her death using a specific medication. Maomao says this medication comes from a distant area and it can put people in a death state for some time. Maomao tells Gaoshun to look at the empty coffin nearby.

Gaoshun realizes that the coffin contains nail marks, signaling to Maomao that’s what the “dead” Suirei was sleeping in. Maomao goes into detail on how Suirei pulled off this switcharoo routine with her accomplice. Overall, Maomao hopes to encounter Suirei again now that she knows what type of person she is. Moreover, she hopes to gain insight into the resurrection medicine’s recipe.

We cut to Jinshi reflecting on Suirei’s case in his room. Gaoshun arrives and gives Jinshi an update on Maomao’s health. During this time, Jinshi ponders Lakan and his ties to Maomao and reflects on his life briefly. Next, Jinshi and Gaoshun discuss Gaoshun’s family’s happenings and how Gaoshun wants to help his Basen (his youngest son) find a wife.

Gaoshun suggests that Jinshi should find himself a lover, too. Jinshi and Gaoshun visit Luolan. Jinshi says although the emperor will be meeting Luolan soon, he may not be interested in Luolan. Jinshi states how Luolan is a fashionable concubine, which makes her an unrecognizable person sometimes.

However, due to Luolan’s affiliation with a chief vassal who has a tight connection with Empress Dowager, the emperor can’t ignore Luolan. While leading, Jinshi confirms the emperor is not interested in Lishu either. Later, Jinshi and Gaoshun visit Lady Gyokuyou and learn about her bleeding issues. Jinshi leaves and informs Maomao to head for the rear palace.

Maomao’s looking forward to attending the rear palace again and thinks Gyokuyou might be pregnant. At the rear palace, Maomao completes some food-tasting tasks for Gyokuyou but says her return hasn’t been as eventful. Additionally, after observing Gyoukuyo more, Maomao thinks Gyokuyou may not be pregnant. Maomao leaves and ponders matters more.

We cut to Lihaku at the Verdigris House. He eavesdrops on a conversation two girls are having there. The episode closes with Lihaku learning that someone “bought out” of the Verdigris House’s Three Princesses. 


The Episode Review

Despite Maomao getting the daylight knocked out of her in the previous chapter, this episode shows how capable she is as this show’s lead protagonist. From piecing together Suirei’s role in all this to ignoring the injuries she sustained from the guard and ceremony, Maomao’s certainly a female lead worth cheering for. At the same time, fans may have trouble following this story’s events. 

While the dialogue is insightful, some may find the wording of things mildly confusing. Other than that, it appears Suirei will be sticking around longer, which is great to see. Hopefully, we’ll get to see her and Maomao interact with each other, especially after what transpired in today’s chapter.

Suirei aside, it was nice seeing Luolan and Gyokuyou again. While the episode gives us more tidbits on the former, we’re hopeful we’ll get to see her have a much bigger role to play in the story. If Suirei can receive a role boost, why not Luloan? Overall, this was an enjoyable chapter of The Apothecary Diaries. Based on next week’s preview, it appears we’ll be getting into some funny shenanigans involving Lihaku and the others. After this thought-provoking chapter, it might be best to receive a silly one. 

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You can read our Season 1 Review of The Apothecary Diaries here!

 

3.5