Recap:
*Sorry no pictures from now on!*
Well when we last left off, the two snakes were having a face off with each other. Bai Suzhen vs. Xiao Qing and as they go into their snake form, Suzhen is clearly bigger and more ferocious. Suzhen let out a roar which literally probably decided the battle right there because the next thing we know, Xiao Qing is trying to evade her by slithering among the tree tops but eventually she is caught and thrown out of her snake form by Suzhen. As Suzhen moves to eliminate her and Xiao Qing decides to reveal the truth of the affair….
Apparently one day Madame Yu went to Nuwa temple to pray for her child, Changsheng, to grow up into a strong man. Xiao Qing and her 4 minions were there, acting like statues as usual. Yu saw the alter table with food and after she pray she decides to take the food on the altar table because her family is poor. She even took a half eaten apple on the table and ate it as she walk out, unbeknownst to her that the apple belong to Xiao Qing. This was the true cause of the poisoning….
After Suzhen apologizing for thinking Qing poison Madame Yu on purpose, Qing forgives her and hands over the antidote while also bragging that she (I MEAN HE BECAUSE THEY BOTH THINK QING IS A FUC MALE JUST BECAUSE HER HAIR IS TIED UP) is the kindest young master ever.
At a nearby forest, random villagers are setting up a restaurant and cooking a soup. Fahai walks by holding his demon detecting bow, and one of the villager thinking that he was seeking alms pour him some soup into the bowl. Fahai doesn’t get mad at them, and simply asks if the soup-handing-villager have seen or heard anything suspicious. The soup-handing-villager reveals to him that recently a lot of kids had disappear in Lin An City and all of these children were the only child in their families. The soup-handing-villager tells Fahai that people have been saying that its a demon doing, capturing these kids for food. Fahai thinks that it is of course our resident snake, and his determination to get rid of this evil spirit grows….
Meanwhile Suzhen is walking back to the Lin’an City. She decides to check the antidote that Qing had given her, to see that while there is antidote Qing has added some bad stuff that is not suppose to be in there. Suzhen uses her magic to separate and dissipate the bad ingredients out, but sadly her use of magic trigger Fahai detection bowl and staff. Fahai was nearby at the restaurant and immediately rushes over to exorcise the demon. He sees Suzhen and condemn her to death for harming all those kids. Although Suzhen tries to explain herself, Fahai starts the spell so Suzhen quickly uses her magic to teleport away to Lin An City (wow girl why didn’t you do that like sooner??).
Fahai is hot on her TAIL (HA!) though and while she uses her magic to travel faster (turning into a white wispy trail), Fahai is effortlessly leaping from building to building (wow no one is seeing this??). Fahai staff also follows Suzhen ghostly trail carefully, trying to literally hit the girl out of her spell. Luckily though, Suzhen distract the staff by sending some of her magic one way while she goes the other way. The staff falls for it, and she manages to enter an alleyway without the staff noticing. She decides to hide out for a while and enter the Jin family home, whose front door was unlocked and slightly open. Apparently this is Ruyi family home (remember? The person that wanted Xu Xian dick?) and Suzhen enters Xian place of residence (cause remember he works for the Jin family, apparently lives there too) and slither underneath Xian’s bed sheet.
Meanwhile Ruyi and her maid enters Xian room on some fishy business. The maid adamantly tells her lady that she can’t enter the house of an outsider, although Xian works with the family he is not a close relative. Ruyi doesn’t pay her maid any attention, saying it’s her house her rules and she boldly enters the room. She sees Xian bed and tells her maid of her plan to get Xian dick every night. She would lay on his bed with rip clothes and act like Xian couldn’t control his lust for her and then Ruyi’s parent would have to force Xian into marriage with her (wow….. Wow I heard of unwanted sexual assault, I never knew about this girl wanting sexual assault to get a man). Anyways while her maid say “bad idea” Ruyi barely listens as she closes the door of Xian room on the maid.
Uh oh…. Fahai and his staff, which is NOT HAPPY AFTER BEING TRICKED, has picked up evil demon sense coming from the Jin household. He enters the same way Suzhen did, rudely without knocking, and goes through the empty rooms until he reaches Xian residence. He enters and sees a human figure cover in blankets, thinking it’s the demon he takes away the blanket and was about to proceed with his killing spell again until he sees the figure jumps up. It is Ruyi who was happy at the thought of Xian taking away her blanket just to have reality shatter her dream as she saw that it wasn’t Xian who took away the blanket, it was a bald staff wielding monk. She immediately screams thinking that Fahai is a pervert, and her screams instantly attracts Xian and her maid who rush into the room to see what had transpire. She keep saying how the monk was a pervert and tried to offend her while Fahai is just in the background closing his eyes TO EVIL WOMEN and chanting “Amtofu” (the Buddhist chant to calm one nerves). Xian grabs Fahai garments to ask for an explanation, just to have Fahai quickly explain that he is here to catch a demon and there’s not much time. He quickly leaves, and Xian chases after him. Xian runs smack into Master Jin (Ruyi’s dad) who ask why Xian is so flustered. They are interrupted by screams of snakes coming from Xian bedroom.
Ruyi, who is finally dressed fully and not showing any “goods”, and her maid cowers at the nearby corner as Xian and Master Jin rush in. The pair points to the white snake that is slithering off Xian bed and onto his table. Master Jin, who obviously have snake phobia, orders Xian to quickly catch that white snake. Xian does so by tossing realgar (arsenic-sulfide compound) and then putting a basket over the snake body. Everyone breathes a sign of relief and Master Jin quickly reprimands the maid for doing a horrible job serving his daughter. The maid then snitch on Ruyi, telling Master Jin that a pervert came by and saw Ruyi NAKED!!!!! (well not really). Master Jin is flabbergasted and ask Ruyi if this was true, it seem like his desire to have his daughter marry off to a rich family is crashing down on him. When Ruyi stutters to speak, Xian comes into the conversation and helps out saying that he was there and with Ruyi quick actions, the pervert was effectively repeal. Not having a dream crash down on him, Master Jin is obviously relieved but then ask his daughter why she was in Xian’s room in the first place. When his daughter shyly looks at Xian, Master Jin turns on his worker telling him that “don’t you get any ideas!”. Xian confirms that he has no such desire for Ruyi and that she is so above his class that he can only admire and never have like the moon in the sky. Master Jin likes the answer, and tells Xian to take the snake out and kill it and turn it into useful medicine.
Of course Xian being the totally kindhearted person that he is, put the snake inside the Jin’s pond for it to escape. He tells the snake that he would tell Master Jin that he was being careless and that he didn’t need to kill the snake for useful medicine, he has other methods that doesn’t harm anyone or anything. After telling the snake to stay warm (cause he thought the snake was cold and sneak into his blankets) and to go back to where it came from, Xian gets up to leave. The white snake swim down to the depth of the pond and turned back into Suzhen, who is grateful that Xian didn’t kill her.
Xu Xian is back at his sister-in-law Madame Yu house. He is stress that none of the method he has tried has any effect on her. Changsheng is being annoying helper saying that “the fairy sister would have a method”. Out from nowhere, Suzhen comes in holding her antidote cure. Xian is utterly surprised and scold Changsheng for not locking the door (looks like NOBODY locks the door). Suzhen hands the antidote bottle to Changsheng to give to his mom and when Xian intervenes, Suzhen blocks his path. Changsheng feeds his mother the antidote and like magic, color return to Madame Yu face to Xian utter surprise. Not soon after, Madame Yu completely recovers and Xian is further flabbergast. MAdame Yu thanks Xian and Suzhen for saving her, while Xian is in the background muttering that he feel ashamed for not being able to cure his sister in law. Yu offers them to stay back late and have dinner with her, and Xian offers to cook to make up for his shortcoming.
Cut to Xian and Suzhen in the kitchen as Xian is seen cutting the vegetables and Suzhen is sitting on the kitchen bench just watching him. She asks Xian why he cooks because men are suppose to be out of the kitchen (#FEMINISM #UH OH) and Xian replies that lazy men do not cook but gentlemen like himself certainly does. He asks her to help him make the fire bigger in the furnace to he can roast his vegetables while she hit him with the questions. “Is he a vegetarian?” “Does he cook live animals?” and importantly “Why you release that white snake?”. Xian accuse her of stalking him and she sidestep the question by saying she just happened to see him at a distance. In her quick reaction to cover up, she accidentally flame the fire too big. Xian pushes her away from getting burns and you can see Suzhen at this time has hearts in her eyes. Xian ignores Suzhen next few questions but finally tell her that he didn’t need to harm the snake to obtain useful medicine, there’s other medicine that works just as good and does not harm lives. Suzhen compliments him by saying that while he was a liar, he has a good heart. Xian immediately questions Suzhen why she keep saying he is a liar and she repeats her accusation that Xian claims himself to be a divine physician. He deflects that by saying EVERYONE in the market has a reputation, like the hot tofu lady who calls herself Xi Shi (one of the four ancient beauties of ancient china). Suzhen ask why he swindle others than, to which he reveal that he had no choice because he couldn’t afford more expensive herbs for Madame Yu condition. It’s Xian turn to ask Suzhen questions, and he ask her under which teacher she learn from to have such divine skills. She names Shu Zhong as her random place, and when Yu name famous physicians in that area, Suzhen says that her teacher do not like for his name and skill to spread. Xian then ask for a sample of the medicine that Suzhen gave madame Yu, Suzhen coyly replies “I used it all ooops!”.
At the dinner table, Suzhen is acting like a savage and using her hands to eat and not using the CIVILIZE chopsticks. When asked by Xian why she was being such a savage, she quickly say that where she came from, they use their hands. Xian being a smart ass say out loud that there is such tradition like that in Tibet. When Madame Yu asked Suzhen ask if she been eating like this all this time, Suzhen flatly states that this was her first time eating a cooked meal to the puzzlement of everyone at the table. Changsheng pops the awkward bubble by saying that in a few days the lantern festival will happen and that people from all over china will come to it. Suzhen takes that and flies with it complimenting that Lin An City lantern festival is VERY VERY unique and a very joyous occasion! Changsheng being the ultimate sidekick, suggest that Suzhen and Xian go see it together. Xian is reluctant while Suzhen accepts the suggestion with a smile on her face.
Outside, Xian ask for Suzhen PUNISHMENT since he lost the bet against her. Suzhen brush him off and say that they were even since they both contributed in curing Madame Yu condition. Xian then apologize for the incident earlier that week where Suzhen dress like a man and ask him to reform his ways and not to swindle others. Xian promises her that he will never do such things again and Suzhen compliments him as being a good person. He shyly accepts that compliment and stutters, saying she’s the truly kind and compassionate one not him. Xian then ask Suzhen for guidance on Madame Yu’s condition and the medicine that Suzhen gave her. Suzhen begins to tell half truth, saying that Madame Yu was poison by a rare snake. Suzhen proceed to say that in her hometown of Shu Zhong, she has seen this type of poison many times and that the most effective treatment is to use another type of poison in the right amount so both will neutralize each other. Xian ponders over this statement and the scene close out with…..a pair of butterflies in the background chilling out with each other…. UH OH.
The day of the joyous occasion has come and all our main characters are…. NOT ENJOYING THE FESTIVAL. You got Xu Xian in his pharmacy pondering over the books, the girl, and the Suzhen. You even got Xiao Qing, who has come into the city for this joyous occasion but instead of having fun is perch on a rooftop drinking wine. She laments about a time when she was still a little snake and her guardian/fairy has save her life and flew away. Xiao Qing train of thought is interrupt by a waiter who brings her next wine bottle and ask what was she muttering. Annoyed, Qing tells the waiter of her desires to eat him and that scare him away but also earn her several “DEMON DEMON!” from the guy. Fahai the exorcist is walking up and down the street to get a demon reading of the night. His staff rings out a reading as Fahai hurries to the destination….
Uh oh, it seem like somebody couldn’t keep her liquor well. Xiao Qing has turn into her full blown snake form and is trying to literally eat the waiter. The waiter screams and quickly pass out and as Xiao Qing goes in for the chomp Fahai appears in time. Fahai basically say “evil doer face your punishment” and Xiao Qing laughs it off and proceed to attack him in her snake form. This girl do not know how to pick her fight and after several moves Fahai easily subdues her. Next he chant his spell as his bowl opens up and spiel some divine light on Xiao Qing. Qing knows the end is near and close her eyes to accept her fate but suddenly Suzhen voice calls to Qing and suddenly a knock back spell cause the bowl to be knock down onto the floor. Xiao Qing uses this opportunity to escape and Fahai now sees that there are TWO spirits in this city.
NOW we get to the festive grounds where everyone is enjoying the fun occasion with music, food, and qirin dances. Xiao Qing is eternally grateful to Suzhen and basically decides that she is going to follow Suzhen from now on. Suzhen of course tries to shake Xiao Qing off saying she was just feeling kind and Xiao Qing should just leave while Suzhen would go to the lantern festival. Qing tries to discourage her from going (it’s a nerd festival anyways with poems and riddles!) but Suzhen is adamant in going!
On the street, Ruyi and Xian is enjoying the festivities. Xian tells her that he will be leaving for a little bit to check out the pens and paper the nearby store have. Ruyi tells him to go quickly and disappear into the clothing shop. Suzhen and follower Qing has reach to the same place as Xian was at just moments ago, and Suzhen decides to look to to the clothing store to look at the nice dresses they have. Qing on the other hand, is quickly distracted by the smell of food, and asks for 10 helpings.
Inside the store, Ruyi and Suzhen both choose out clothes. Ruyi sees Suzhen taste and automatically gives off the air that “my taste is SOOOO SUPERIOR”. Suzhen decides to copy Ruyi and wear whatever she wears. Suzhen tries on a new overcoat and then as soon as Ruyi walks into the changing room, Suzhen points to the mirror and scream out demon-ness. Of course these are HWAITING words, and tension quickly escalates. Qing, after eating her 10 course meal, gets there in time and basically say that her lady is 10x hotter and a better looker than Ruyi will ever be. When Ruyi calls them rude, Qing crack her knuckles and ask Ruyi to repeat those words. Well of course, that grudgingly send Ruyi on her way out the door and when Suzhen tries to follow to apologize, she is stop by the shopkeeper for not paying for the merchandise. Luckily, Qing has her cover and hands the shopkeeper the appropriate amount of money and follows Suzhen out.
Nearby, a shady woman (LOOKS LIKE THE EVIL DEMON THAT BEEN CAPTURING KIDS!) sees a little girl stopping by her store. After the little girl seems distracted in the silk designs laid out on the table, the woman proceed to creepily hold up more designs and ask if the girl has seen anything like it. Luckily her mom is there to pick the little girl up and the shady lady goes back inside her stall in anger and frustration.
Suzhen next stop is by a lantern store to write a riddle on a lantern. The shopkeeper explain to her it’s a little game, you write a riddle and then hang it on the shop front. Then a person will answer it and you guys will be a “match”. When Suzhen finishes her riddle and the shopkeeper ask for money, Qing comes by and save the day again (she has been indulging herself in more food) as Suzhen angrily stalks off. Ruyi and Xian is seen at a nearby mask shop where Ruyi buys a mask for Xian and tells him of the incident that she encounter in the dress store.
Meanwhile Suzhen is enjoying the qilin dances nearby and when she gets bored, she walks away while asking Qing if money is needed everywhere one goes. Qing basically answer with a “duh”. All of this is happening as Xian reach that lantern store and the lantern he choose to answer (which he does so correctly) is exactly the riddle that Suzhen wrote down. All of the fun and games is happening while Fahai is still wandering the streets looking for those two demons. Unbeknownst to him, the shady shop keeper (that was talking with that little girl earlier) is actually the demon that has been taking children away. She has quickly made some scented hat and cloth, even giving the parents discount when they don’t have enough money. These child that she has been selling to turns out to be all…….. ONLY CHILD IN THEIR FAMILY. The demoness basically sold out, and onto her next step of her evil plan! She puts on a mask and basically summon huge winds. This cause Ruyi and Xian to lose track of one another and Qing + Suzhen to be separated from each other. Somehow, Suzhen walks right into Xian arms, who mistake the Suzhen for Ruyi (because remember they were wearing the same thing!)
A bit slow so far I am not going to lie, but then again I have been extremely slow in recapping. I like the series so far, and I must applaud the director for using very very nice ways to follow the “Madame Snake” tale while still giving the story a unique spin. Like in the tale Xian does Suzhen a big favor (it was giving her essence for her to complete her human transformation) here though he was suppose to kill her but didn’t and let her go. Basically in the tale Xian gives Suzhen her human life, and in this adaptation that hasn’t change, it’s just that Xian save her from being turn into medicine. Another neat “adaptation” that follows the book but is unique is the fact that Suzhen gain Qing as her confident and minion. In the tale Suzhen saves Qing from being killed by I think a medicine shop owner? (Lol) Here, Suzhen saves Qing from being totally kill by Fahai. It’s just neat to see the adaptations following the tale while adding some unique angles to events that happen!
One thing I do not like though, is the fact that I don’t know about you, but does it seem like the scenes are “white wash”. Like the dark colors are not apparent, like everything look sort of unnatural. I saw this in some scenes, like the trees and the sky lack the proper colors like a white overlay was put on top of the scenes.
Overall pretty decent episodes, I like the foreshadowing especially when Suzhen and Xian was walking out of Madame Yu house and two butterflies was flying together in the background. We all know (from reading the tale and heck for the first few episode) that Suzhen and Xian will end up together, but does the butterfly symbolizes that this love is not meant to end well like in THE STORY. This scene seem like it made explicit references to “Butterfly Lovers” another famous Chinese tale that let’s just say have less than stellar ending for the two leads.
There’s another foreshadow that I don’t like though, it’s uh the centipede demon. She’s hot, she’s cruel and she’s apparently more powerful than the white snake or the monk (remember in the first episode she laugh when she was notify that there was a monk coming along). But what I don’t want this show to lead to is most of it spent on her character arc….. It seem like it’s building up to that, with her getting screen time and Fahai still have not figure out who is the true demon behind the strange events…… UNTIL NEXT TIME! GOODBYE!
