The Apothecary Diaries Season 2: Episode 7 FULL LENGTH Reaction!
Added 2025-02-26 14:00:10 +0000 UTC*COLORBLIND HEADPHONE WARNINGS*
If you told me the Emperor was going to enlist MaoMao to help him solve a puzzle connected to family lineage -- I would not have believed it! But this season is giving us some unexpected situations!
What is NOT unexpected is that the Emperor has joined the JinMao shipping club! Jinshi is struggling to keep his identity a secret and MaoMao is choosing to not look into it -- things are getting juicy and I love a good family tree dramaaaaa!
LINK TO REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/vurJatW4GKCBtkZDGr164N?
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Yeah, I have told the mods to be super strict from here on in and if something is revealed in comments that I'm *literally* going to find out the next episode, it may be best as a commenter to wait a little longer to see if the show shows us these things before referencing them, or I just sadly won't be able to see any comments like that for the time being. Thanks for the support!
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 18:11:39 +0000 UTCYeah,I could see how that is frustrating.it is hard for the show a show to delve into some of the exposition we get in the books. I do think the screenwriters do a good job with what they can. I am waiting until the end of the season to comment on what the light novels have because I think I am afraid that there may be an episode were they included some of the stuff they have left out so far. It could be done a little smoother the season the it could between book 1&2.
LoreleiS
2025-03-02 17:34:11 +0000 UTCThank you so much! I appreciate that! Haircut time! And yes, sometimes I like the styling better after I do it, but sometimes I just want it to stay like they had it! 😀 Yes, I am very excited to see more of the previous Empress Dowager as we go perhaps! I definitely want to give Jinshi a hug! 🙁I also love that while his close proximity (gets her flustered – in her own way?!) is not what she maybe wants, she’s not thrown off by it anymore. I can see the Harry Potter reference as well! The older Eunuch is so sweet; I loved him and that he knows Luomen! We can say MaoMao was at least SMART enough to pass, even if she’s not color blind! 😛 The emperor was a lot of fun in this episode and seeing his jovial personality DEFINITELY makes me favor him more! Especially in comparison to his grandparents…that line about the first hand knowledge is my favorite as well in the episode! It definitely goes in line with Loumen’s discussion of conjecture! Lakan is a force to be reckoned with, clearly! I do love the idea of Lakan as protection for MaoMao! But yeah, poor MaoMao! I feel her pain! But not back pain from larger bust sizes at least! ;) But yeah, maybe MaoMao doesn’t need her power unleashed hahaha! That is a great comparison and discussion about the British Royal Family too! Yeah, who knew I would be MISSING Lakan in this series?! Wild! But I do miss his zaniness! Thank you so much for the comment!
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:51:15 +0000 UTCI really did love PapaBro being matchmaker! And yes, Rhett overall does a great job of these highlights! MaoMao would be so fun at a magic show! That’s so cute the way you described it! 😀And thank you for the comment and kind words! This was such a fun episode!
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:33:51 +0000 UTCI just would like the show to let me see that backstory unfold rather than the comments just tell me. :(
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:31:27 +0000 UTC*sigh* I really want the show to tell us about the OG emperor...thus spoilers...but thanks for the comment and info.
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:28:29 +0000 UTCYes, I did discuss that in the episode discussion.
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:27:36 +0000 UTCI want to be like MaoMao and let the show give us all the evidence, so until we learn the truth, I'm going to give characters the benefit of the doubt. Thanks for the comment!
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:27:20 +0000 UTCThat is most certainly a Little Finger line!
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:26:47 +0000 UTCYeah, definitely getting the MDZS comparisons! We don’t know for sure if Jinshi is color blind or not yet, honestly - like I theorized in the discussion - so that may actually be the case! Same with the OG emperor, we just have to wait to see what the show will give us! Thanks for the comment!
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:26:31 +0000 UTCYesss, that is what I thought as well with the doors! I love how this show works through the process of “explaining the magic trick,” too! Thank you! And yes, the idea of being color blind fascinates me, but I would hate to not be able to know ALL the colors! And YES, oh the blue/white dress mishap! I mean…blue and black, right?! ;) Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2025-03-02 14:24:17 +0000 UTCAnime only, no spoilers - Papabro - emperor by day, matchmaker by night! Loved him in this one, what a great episode! It was nice to get RedtheBest's highlights of the small differences between the various formats! Maomao researching lizard tails growing back so she can capitalize off a eunuch treatment was pretty funny. I think as a kid you can learn pretty quickly about volunteering at high budget magic shows, and it seems Maomao discovers something similar here - taking interest in things other's might not. As you raise your hand in hopes of some funny endless scarf or dove trick but end up with something along the lines of "Yes you, please come up to the stage - now just step in to the large box here, as we do the impossible Infront of everyone and separate your upper half from your lower!" You just never know what you're going to get! Maomao's version of this is "Congratulations you've solved the puzzle, your prize is your now a member of the royal family, take your pick. Jinshi or the Emperor! And please get your things ready immediately! Thanks for the reaction and discussion, the opening in particular of this episode definitely benefitted from a more in-depth second look for me!
L Freya
2025-03-01 01:04:26 +0000 UTC"When nobody with first-hand knowledge remain, the story becomes the truth" Best line of the season so far, Little Finger couldn't have said it better, MaoMao as empress would be dangerous.
Alex Kornejo
2025-02-27 07:37:08 +0000 UTCHonestly it did read the same way to me too.
Alex Kornejo
2025-02-27 07:26:11 +0000 UTCThe former Emperor preference were discussed in the spring garden episode.
LoreleiS
2025-02-27 00:25:13 +0000 UTCWe got the door scene with Jinish, MaoMao and the Emperor. So, in the light novel it is made more clear that the Emperor was teasing Jinshi about MaoMao and yeah he is a shipper. Also the fact that he keeps mentioning how angry Larkan would be. I honestly would be more afraid of Louman. I am so happy that they did the flashback scene justice. The current Empress Dowager ( Jinishi mom/ grandma) knew very well what her husband was capable of and what is preferred type is she not letting the asshole touch Jinishi.
LoreleiS
2025-02-27 00:20:16 +0000 UTCidk if that's the intended take away but that whole scene just gave me the heebie jeebies😬
Butthead faxe
2025-02-26 21:54:51 +0000 UTCI took that beginning scene in a muchhh different way because if that old man is the previous emperor aka the same emperor who took a 9 yr old as a concubine(lishu) and famously had a thing for children as dark as it sounds that would make alot of sense why the empress was shielding jinshi and why she had such a dark look on her face which I assume was directed at the old man not the old woman or maybe it was towards both of them which would also make sense given the circumstances
Butthead faxe
2025-02-26 21:50:37 +0000 UTCYour haircut looks so good! I have the same issue that my hair will never look the same as how the hairdresser cut and styled it. But part of that could be down to being unable to take the same kind of time as they do on styling my hair. When you were talking about Empress Dowager Cixi throughout Season 1 and we kept getting bits and pieces of information about the previous Empress Dowager back in Season 1, I was really looking forward to seeing more of the previous Empress Dowager. Like that controlling hand on the previous Emperor and telling him to go back to his room feels so similar to some of the ways Empress Dowager Cixi acted. Jinshi working out in his room after the nightmare did make me realise just how large his room is to be able to swing that sword around 😆 But yeah I just wanted to give him a hug when he was curled up, lying on the floor 🥺 Though it does help show that keeping the secret and living the lie of being the eunuch Jinshi is taking a toll on him. Gotta love how Maomao doesn't flinch or yelp at Jinshi suddenly being so close to her and speaking. The way the scene is set it seems like all of Maomao's attention is solely on the lesson taking place, but she's still aware of her surroundings to have not been surprised by Jinshi's appearance behind her. I have to agree with you that I'd be fascinated too, unlike the servant girls who are seemingly tired and not overly enthusiastic when learning about the lore of their kingdom. Honestly though it kind of reminds me of Harry Potter and how so many students weren't enthusiastic about learning certain subjects, but as a kid I thought learning those subjects would have been so much better and more interesting than my own subjects 😂 I love that the old eunuch gives his time to teach the servant girls, but also be available for them to ask questions or get clarifications like when Xiaolan visits him. Also his smile at hearing that Luomen was alive and well, not too far away made me hope some day the two could meet each other again 🥺 I will say though that his comment about Luomen figuring out the shrine was such a sly way to goad Maomao into working out the answer 🤣 Considering how she can be, I could easily have seen her thinking "Well it's nothing to do with me 🤷♀" and just leave. But the suggestion Luomen could have figured it out made it a challenge for Maomao to solve, similar to Luomen challenging Maomao's learning during the tobacco poison case back in Season 1 in the Pleasure District. I was giggling away when you said "If Maomao can pass, are they like: 'you're worthy of being Jinshi's wife'" 🤣 With Maomao passing through deductive means, rather than being colourblind, I feel like she falls into a grey area of passing. On one hand she chose the correct path, but on the other hand if she isn't colourblind then it suggests she doesn't have the required bloodline of the original Mother Royal. I really love what we got with the Emperor this episode. Previously we haven't had much to go on in regards to his personality. Due to some of Jinshi's comments back in Season 1 about him I didn't see him as someone we could trust too much. But with how jovial he is this episode it definitely puts him in a different light. All the more so after seeing Jinshi's nightmare about the previous Emperor and previous Empress Dowager, and the way his Mother (or Grandmother if Jinshi is the current Emperor's child) reacted. I think because we got to see him behave in a similar fashion to Consort Gyokuyou when it comes to Jinshi and Maomao I definitely felt the Emperor earned a little more of my trust. I really love that line of: When nobody with first-hand knowledge remain, the story becomes the truth. It also links nicely I feel with Luomen's teachings to Maomao about not making conjectures. In this case just because someone says the story of the Mother Royal is true, it would be a conjecture to automatically assume it is and discount any other possibilities. Though with Consort Ah-Duo no longer in the Imperial Palace the line can also relate to the possibility of Jinshi's parentage being not what is accepted as truth, i.e. that he's actually the Emperor's son and not his brother. The Emperor's two mentions of Lakan honestly made me so happy. Even if Maomao doesn't wish to acknowledge him as her Dad (which fair play to her, Luomen has been a good father to her), Lakan's blood runs in her veins and she has more protection within the palace as Lakan's daughter than when she was a mere servant girl who'd been kidnapped and sold off. Also adds a bit more weight to Lakan's position and power if he's enough to dissuade an Emperor, or at least make him think twice about marrying Maomao 😆 But the more important reason in his book being Maomao's breast size definitely made me facepalm 😂 I can't fault him for knowing what he likes physically, but it does seem a tad on the rude size commenting on a young woman's bust size in public. Definitely agree with Maomao's intellect and maniacal she can be that if she was power-hungry it would be terrifying for her to be unleashed 😂 Maomao asking to speak freely is to show respect to the difference in the Emperor and her social standing. Unlike the old eunuch she doesn't feel she has the power or status to speak in the same way to the Emperor. By raising the possibility of the royal lineage having such a medical issue, even if it is something like colour-blindness, could be taken as disparaging the royal family. At least that's how I took that scene with my own Western perspective and the British royal family having hid away certain family members due to illness (mental and/or physical) even in more recent times. Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Princess Margaret had two cousins they believed died in infancy. Instead the cousins were locked away in a mental institute because they had severe learning disabilities. The Queen Mother, and other older family members, thought this to be a suitable solution because they could not have the royal line brought into questioning due to a physical or mental "weakness". Romania: I honestly miss Lakan, I wish he would come back. Did you think back in Season 1 when he was first introduced you'd think that way? 🤣
Anime Annie
2025-02-26 21:12:47 +0000 UTCI saw the empress glare stand in front of jingshi and I was in love. I love love love love a character that hides their glare. (Mdzs spoilers) Jgy and nhs for example. Imagine if Jingshi was color blind and he thought Mao Mao was a brunette. Also the anime is so tricky we by showing the emperor old and graying and hiding his eyes. When we see him young if he doesn’t have purple hair we’ll know who’s the daddy.
Icy
2025-02-26 20:39:04 +0000 UTCOn the first run-through I also thought the answer had to be going through the doors you're told not to go through because no one can command an emperor. But that got stumped on that last room, and it seems like a terrible idea to put in power someone so petulant that that's would be his thought process. Thankfully we don't experience that in real life, hahaa. I'm impressed you figured out the answer as soon as the second run-through started. I had to have MaoMao explain the whole thing before I got it. It always amazes me when I see how many men are colorblind, are there really that many people running around not being able to tell Red & Green? And I've personally seen that at least some make it to adulthood before figuring that out about themselves. Happened to a classmate in college who had a mini-freakout over it. My own brother sees 'The Dress' as white and gold, but I think that's a bit different. When you think about it, it's amazing how many people are going around experiencing the world completely different from each other.
Alex Kornejo
2025-02-26 16:40:52 +0000 UTC
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