The Apothecary Diaries – Season 1 Episode 22 Recap & Review

Blue Roses

Episode 22 of The Apothecary Diaries begins with Maomao confirming to the audience that Lady Gyokuyou is pregnant. Then, Gyokuyou’s daughter approaches Maomao and Maomao draws her a picture of a Wooly Milkcap, a poisonous mushroom. One of Gyokuyou’s workers hits Maomao and tells her to draw Gyokuyou’s daughter a normal flower. 

Meanwhile, Lakan visits Jinshi and Gaoshun in Jinshi’s office. Lakan brings up his fascination with Blue Roses. Although Jinshi feels such a flower doesn’t exist, he tells Lakan that he’d like to see these flowers around the palace. Lakan leaves gratified. Once he does, Jinshi asks Gaoshun to attain intel about the blue roses from the palace’s florists. 

Later, Gaoshun informs Jinshi that the blue roses aren’t in season. This entices Jinshi to ask Maomao if she can attain the blue roses by next month’s garden party. Maomao tells Jinshi this is an impossible task and Jinshi understands Maomao’s concerns. Maomao notices something strange about the aura Jinshi is omitting from his responses. 

Maomao asks Jinshi if Lakan is involved in this, and Jinshi says he is. Maomao says she’ll take the task. Internally, Maomao hopes she can hurt Lakan. Maomao submits some requests to Jinshi and departs to Lady Lihua’s place. She asks Lihua if she can use her steam room and Lihua accepts her request. Maomao presents Lihua with a gift and Lihua leaves Maomao be. 

Maomao meets with Jinshi and Gaoshun in the steam room. Maomao says she’ll be using this steam room to help her develop blue roses. After Maomao shares her plan with Jinshi, Gaoshun presents her with a rose. However, Maomao’s leg injury causes her minor pain, alarming Jinshi and Gaoshun. 

Suddenly, Xiaolan arrives and says she’d like to help. Then, we receive a brief montage of several people carrying potted roses. Maomao claims they’ve inserted over 100 roses inside the steam room. Maomao explains how they’re separating the roses from each other and delves into detail about the roses’ development process. 

While monitoring the roses’ growth with Xiaolan outside, Gaoshun arrives and presents the girls with food. After eating, Maomao, Xiaolan, and several palace workers visit the steam room. Maomao asks Xiaolan and the palace workers to handle the rose seedlings with many sprouts on them. The palace workers examine the roses and notice a bug roaming on one of them. 

Xiaolan grabs the bug and tosses it out of the steam room. We receive a few more scenes of Maomao putting in a massive effort to help the blue roses grow. While she and Xiaolan are monitoring the blue roses outside, Xiaolan notices Maomao’s tiredness and suggests she get some quality sleep. Maomao tells Xiaolan that she can’t leave the roses and must monitor them. 

Afterward, Xiaolan and Maomao sit on a bench. Xiaolan loves the manicure she received and Maomao informs her that manicures are a common practice in the pleasure district. Several female workers notice Maomao’s manicure and compliment her. Hongniang finds this ordeal uninteresting and Maomao feels that’s in line with her being. 

Maomao informs Gyokuyou that she finished her poison testing activity and will be returning to the Crystal Pavilion to continue her blue roses activities. Hongniang tells Maomao Gyokuyou won’t be attending the upcoming garden party. Instead, this will be dedicated to Lady Luolan. Maomao believes Gyokuyou isn’t attending because she wants to keep her pregnancy a secret. 

She visits the steam room later and Xiaolan informs her that one of the blue roses has a bud. Maomao falls asleep, happy that she’ll possibly complete her task before the next garden party. Maomao meets with Jinshi and Gaoshun at the garden party. Luolan and her party arrive in front of the emperor. 

Then, Jinshi graces the emperor’s presence, presenting him with multiple roses, including the blue ones. The other officials scoff at Jinshi, and Jinshi can tell the other men aren’t fond of the attention he’s receiving from the emperor. Although Jinshi’s concerned about Luolan’s father Shishou, he feels Lakan’s the one he should keep an eye on. 

Elsewhere, Xinghua comforts Maomao, telling her not to go to the Crystal Pavilion anymore. Jinshi approaches the two and Maomao confirms she couldn’t get the blue roses to fully bloom in time. We learn all the blue roses aren’t blue because Maomao dyed them from the inside. Maomao explains how she and Xiaolan pulled this off. 

Moreover, Maomao tells Jinshi she informed the emperor about this stunt before the garden party’s event. After discussing her manicure with Jinshi, Maomao asks Gaoshun if he has the item she requested on hand. Gaoshun hands Maomao the item. Maomao believes her elaborate plan is in motion. She hopes she’ll be able to catch Lakan by surprise. 

Then, we cut to Lakan and learn how he views people as game pieces. Then, he notices several women got manicures. As he continues his stroll, Maomao confronts him with Jinshi and Gaoshun at her side. The chapter closes with Maomao giving Lakan a blank stare. 

The Episode Review

The long-awaited confrontation between father and daughter is around the corner. We’ll likely receive new information about Lakan and Maomao’s past next week. While this chapter didn’t contain any new mysteries for Maomao to solve, this episode demonstrates the author’s sharp understanding of plant life and development. 

This will certainly appeal to those who love tending to their gardens and seeing flowers bloom in the sunlight. Gardening aside, it was nice seeing Xiaolan and Maomao together. While Xiaolan’s role in the tale hasn’t been a major one, her upbeat persona will certainly brighten any viewers’ day. 

Although this episode doesn’t delve into Lakan’s character heavily enough, it offers fans some insight into how he perceives and uses people. Based on the intel shared this week, we’re excited to see how Maomao will pull one over on this snarky, monocle-wearing individual. Coupled with some fanciful visuals and heartfelt segments, this was a great episode of The Apothecary Diaries. I’m looking forward to learning more about Maomao and Lakan’s history.