Introduction
The Apothecary Diaries episode 45 (AKA season 2 episode 21) was intense and amazingly good. On this blog, I’ve often written about the concept of identity and the importance of names. It’s one of my favorite themes in all of fiction. The Apothecary Diaries also tackles this theme with the character of Shisui/Loulan.
Since she was raised by an abusive mother who didn’t even know her face, this girl definitely developed some identity issues. As Loulan, she was constantly wearing thick makeup and masking her emotions. The only time she could truly be herself was when she disguised as a servant girl. She also adopted the name “Shisui,” which was originally the name of her half-sister.
When she was Shisui, she left behind the fake life of Loulan and felt like her true self. That’s why it was so important that Maomao called her by the name “Shisui” and not “Loulan.” That was truly a beautiful moment. For the first time, someone fully accepted her identity. However, there is a lot to discuss in this episode that was not beautiful. Let’s commence the episode review.
Episode 45: Taibon
Episode Rating: 10/10
The days were passing by uneventfully while Maomao worked as Shenmei’s apothecary. One day, Kyou-u tried to set Maomao free by passing her a wire for a lock-pick and trying to distract the guard. But Kyou-u’s attempt failed and he was caught by the guard and Suirei. Things would have been fine if Shenmei had not appeared. The sadistic woman was looking to punish someone.
Maomao didn’t want Kyou-u or the guard to get punished, so she lied and said she was trying to escape. She also insulted Shenmei, calling her a crazy old hag, and earning two staggering strikes in return. Suirei tried to help, but was assaulted into silence by Shenmei. That was when “Loulan” (Shisui) suggested punishing Maomao using the Taibon method. Shemei agreed to this idea with delight, while Suirei panicked.
Taibon was an ancient method of torture/execution where a person was put in a pit with a box full of dangerous and creepy animals – mostly venomous snakes and insects. It’s likely that Suirei went through Taibon once and survived. As Maomao said, no wonder Suirei is afraid of snakes. The centipedes and spiders would have freaked me out more than the snakes, but Maomao was apparently strong against all of them.
Alone with the creepy-crawlies, Maomao did not lose her head. She used her hairpins as knives (which I’m not sure would really work) and killed the venomous snakes. She then used the torch on the wall to build a campfire and eat roast snake. It was amazing watching Maomao save herself from this predicament. She even called the snakes cute while grinning. This character is insane and I love her so much.
The guard let Maomao out and told her the stronghold was in complete chaos with the news that the empire was attacking. Maomao followed her nose to the area of the fort where gunpowder was being made. “Loulan” was there, setting free the workers and telling them to run away. She then proceeded to blow up the gunpowder, causing a huge explosion and a fire. (I’m still not sure why she did that.)
Maomao and Shisui were reunited and were happy and relieved to see each other. Shisui explained that she knew Maomao would be fine during the Taibon. (On the other hand, if she had been submerged in cold water in winter like Shenmei wanted, Maomao would probably have gotten frostbite or even died.) It’s clear to me that Shisui loves Maomao. I think Maomao returns the affection, even though she doesn’t think of it as romantic. As a shoujo ai fan, I support this pairing.
Maomao was going to run away, but changed her mind after Shisui said she wasn’t going. Instead, Maomao followed Shisui to a dimly lit bedchamber where several children – including Kyou-u – were sleeping. Except that they weren’t sleeping. They were not breathing. Maomao realized they had all been poisoned – by Shisui. In my opinion, this was one of the most disturbing moments in The Apothecary Diaries, especially right after that beautiful and wholesome moment with Shisui just before.
According to Shisui, the poison was “medicine” mixed with sweet juice. She wanted the children to die peacefully in a comfortable environment rather than get slaughtered by imperial soldiers once the attack started. Maomao was rightfully enraged and almost attacked Shisui. I wondered at first if the children could be revived with the “resurrection medicine”, but if they’re not breathing, then this is probably irreversible. I think the children are dead for good. To be continued.
~Thanks for Reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
Anime Rants 
I actually had the opposite reaction in observing Shisui’s reaction to Maomao saying her name. There was something terribly off-kilter about it. It showed to me, at least, that there is something broken in her mind. That wasn’t something wholesome, that was a shift into, “I am this person now.” It makes me sad, seeing such a dear creature so hurt, so deeply within her… self.
The situation with the children is… horrifying, and more so the more one thinks about it. I mean, for comparison, there remains, even to this day, a very compelling argument to be made for women to be killed instead of taken by the enemy. While I don’t think *that* particular fate awaited the children, unless there has been some very major and very recent change in policy – not impossible, but also not to be expected – the children *would* be executed. Not just killed in the midst of the fighting, but deliberately executed. If they can’t be saved from that – and Shisui whittled down what chance there was of that when she blew up the armory – then I can see the line of… I wouldn’t really call is “reasoning,” but it follows a similar pattern. Instead of experiencing the terror and the madness of being taken by invading soldiers and put to death for things far beyond their control, they die together, in comfort and peace, without seeing it coming. It’s not too dissimilar to when we put down our pets and such in as much comfort as we can arrange.
The horror of it still stands, however. As Shisui made that choice, it follows that how things went was a bit like this: she put the children to sleep, then blew up the armory, and then returned to the children probably with the intent of joining them. It’s not like she’d be spared execution either, so it is unlikely she thought of living with her choice for very long, and probably can’t do so now. If it turns out that Jinshi and company would have spared the children, and she lives long enough to find out, it will utterly destroy her worse than merely being executed.
In this messed up situation, I find myself dwelling on what Suirei said of the resurrection medicine… that it can cause memory loss. There are very few details like that, in this story, which are dropped randomly and without purpose. Could they mean to spare a life or two by erasing their memories?
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Hmmm. Something else occurs to me. Shenmei was all “even a drop of impurity makes even the most noble blood foul” or something like that, right? Contrast that with the emperor and the man in charge of keeping that maze which tests their bloodline. The old man jested about, if the emperor was going to dilute the bloodline, why not add Maomao to it, and the emperor had no qualms whatsoever about the bloodline bit. When we first met Maomao, she was incredibly intent on keeping strictly to the station dictated by her own blood, her mother’s blood, but here we see the perils of focusing so much on that, as this entire rebellion and all the harm surrounding it rests entirely on the issue of bloodlines and their so-called “purity,” while the emperor and Jinshi are far less worried about that sort of thing. Interesting.
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