EPISODE 25-26

The following is a semi recap plus review plus opinion on the specific episodes, emphasising more on the review than the recap. Spoilers alert and highly opinionated. Read at your peril.

I don't understand you, Zihua. Taking in such an energetic disciple, she must have given you a lot of problems. Are you looking for happiness or are you deliberately looking for trouble? - Tanfan (Episode 25)

For Donghua, Tanfan, Zixun, Zihua, the most difficult is letting go. For me... it is acceptance - Wugou (Episode 26)

Episode 25 & 26 is really on three things;

1. on Wugou and his story with Yun Ya and I suppose juxtapose it with eventually Shifu and HQG;

2. on the five immortals; and

3. on HQG finding out she is shifu's calamity.

Serious stuff and very very relevant to the story. I find these 2 episodes so intriguing in part because of Wugou. Let me start by saying the look is amazing, the costume is amazing but the actor as Wugou is quite simply exquisitely excellent. He appeared the most for 2 episodes but for me made a huge impact.

Well certainly you learn a few stuff from these 2 episodes.

1. the best non-CGI was of course our handsome shifu but in episode 25, the best non-CGI is the view. I am sure it is real. It has got to be real.

2. Tan Fan's house or hut in the bamboo forest. My jaws dropped.

3. The various close ups of our handsome shifu... exquisite

4. That 2 men  or immortals drinking tea can be so hot and so distinctively different at the same time. Also loads of close ups that it was pure ecstacy for me to watch. I am not ashamed to admit I paused, played, rewind, paused and played this tea drinking scene between BZH and Wugou.

5. That 5 immortals have very distinctive personality but share a common love for doing good. Tan Fan it seems is the most easy going, he can drink wine and eat meat, enjoying life to the fullest until Zixun sorta destroyed all that. Will explain more. Donghua it seems the gentlest? Zihua the most stoic. And of course Wugou is supposedly the most errrr.. was it stable? Or peace loving? Point is, let me illustrate my point...

See my point? Do they look peace loving and carefree to you? At this point only BZH remains as stoic as ever but ZX's memory of all 5 included a happy smiling BZH. If being immortals is so depressing, why be one? Tanfan is drinking all alone with his multiple self, Wugou is busy killing people for reasons only he knows, Donghua in the end we find out is held ransom by DONG!FANG!YU!QING! and Zixun, well Zixun is miserable. Everybody knows that, even Tangbao knows Zixun is miserable because BZH isn't in love with her and Tanfan is miserable because Zixun is not in love with him and yet Tangbao and Xiaogu feels if only Zixun was in love with Tanfan, he would have made her a very happy woman. It also seems immortals don;t suppose to live in forest. Which was why Tanfan is weird. Wugou is the richest, he owns the city anyway and like HQG said, shouldn't immortals live a life free of materials but to Wugou, money is needed to save people so being rich is a benefit to an immortal. He also believes in redemption, that perhaps letting go a sinner might make the sinner redeem themselves.

And every immortal in these 2 episodes tells BZH two things;

1. why are you taking HQG as a student? 

Tanfan finds her interesting but too perky, that sort that will bring him loads of trouble, hence the quote above. Something which BZH acknowledges. Tanfan of course sorta hinted BZH doesn't yet realise the consequence of such a cute disciple but I don't think that was what the conversation meant. It was merely towards the personality of BZH; if he is willing to take her as his student, then he is responsible towards her and so he must investigate all these mysterious deaths because HQG is being accused of being involved in the killings by way of her relationship with the evil sect of SQM. He is very concerned about her, that is for sure. Even Wugou feels HQG is not a good disciple for BZH. One look and he feels she is substandard and he certainly told BZH and HQG that and to which BZH simply replied;

As long as I am satisfied with her...

And of course we have shifu worshipping gaze stance courtesy of HQG. It would seem everybody thinks HQG is not a good enough disciple and you know, they're right and I feel BZH took her in in part because she is his calamity. He wants to change the course of things. Tanfan noted that is the nature of BZH. He is someone who talks endlessly about responsibility, duty, dedication to his work, in short no personal live. When it comes to Zixun, he does absolutely nothing which pisses Tanfan off which was why there was a funny scene when BZH visited him, he fed them and then left. 

2. why is he denying his feelings for HQG?

Which is something Wugou and Zixun kept talking about.Wugou is very sure BZH is or will fall in love with HQG and he is in denial and BZh simply replied with a resolute and stony faced "No" when Wugou said he will fall or is in love or is in denial with his feelings for HQG. I don't get how anyone can impute BZH is in love with HQG. He said no and he meant no. Wugou feels by saving HQG so many times, BZH has betrayed his resolute feelings and his denial but BZH is very sure. Right is right, wrong is wrong, BZH said resolutely he will not be in love with HQG. However perhaps at this point Wugou is using himself as an example and has incorrectly deduced BZH's feelings more than what it actually is. You see, Wugou caught a thief by the name of Yun Ya, took her in, for 2 years began to develop feelings for her eventhough his rule in his Lian Chang (Lotus City) is no love. One day she dropped a life stone and it glowed yellow. Wugou knew what it meant and accused her of stealing some pearls and kicked her out. She thought she did something wrong and as she cried, met her friend Mei Er who found out her shifu and a few other sect leaders were secretly learning a kung fu so dangerous, that Wugou forbade his disciples from learning because it meant they will die before they hit 40. Those manuals were stolen from Lian Chang and Mei Er wanted to get her hands on them and sorta coaxed Yun Ya to steal them. Yun Ya thought if she could bring these back to Wugou, he will take her back in. Anyway she was fatally injured in the process and died in Mei Er's arms, telling Mei Er to bring the manual back to Wugou so that he could forgive her. By this time HQG was listening to this story as she went to rescue an escaped Mei Er who finally found out why she was tortured for many months and she made Wugou very angry by saying he was the reason Yun Ya died, not her and he basically strangled her. She wanted to die and died hoping to see Yun Ya again. Meanwhile Wugou chased after HQG to kill her. Why?

Well, shifu was trapped by Wugou. It seems Tanfan already deduced Wugou was a serial killer. Frankly I don't get why Wugou killed all those sect leaders. He trapped shifu who can only break the enchantment by playing a game of chest. Zixun arrived and met with Tanfan to say goodbye, she went to see Wugou offscreen and basically told him HQG is BZH's calamity star. BZH heard this and vomited his first blood trying to break the enchantment and escaped. Before that Zixun told BZH she makes it her life mission to kill HQG so as to save BZH and BZH can kill her in revenge. Well, HQG doesn't understand why Wugou wants to kill her. To kill witnesses? Nope, said Wugou. He said;

As Yun Ya was my calamity, you are BZH's calamity. I want to save Zihua. I don't want him to end up like me, so I must kill you for him

At this point HQG was beyond shocked. She couldn't believe what she heard. She was shifu's calamity? Wugou even said if he knew Yun Ya was his calamity from the start, he would not have hesitated and would have killed her. When Wugou tried to kill her, she was so distraught by this discovery, she unleashed a power so strong it blasted Wugou back. And suddenly a masked guy came out of nowhere to stop Wugou and then flew off who then stood beside Dongfang. Who's that guy? You shall know. HQG fainted (yet again!!) but before that she saw her shifu rescuing her. Wugou decided not to fight BZH because he knew there was no point in doing that. BZH advised him to surrender and to give a proper explanation to the various sects whose leaders he killed. Yeah I want explanation also! Wugou said;

Don't worry. I will give them a proper explanation.

So BZH carried HQG and flew off and then came one of the most beautiful death scene. Basically Wugou threw his sword up, screamed and let the sword pierce him.. like this...

It was as dramatic as it was beautifully filmed. I wished it was with green grass or fields of flowers, that would have been poetic. BZH knew something was wrong and quickly gostan (aka go-as-turn aka turned back) and ran to Wugou and held him..

It was a beautiful death as Wugou in his last breath said;

This.. is my last punishment to myself for all the sins I have committed...

and I was like.. I don't know.. I kinda feel sad for that guy. Perhaps if he didn't push his calamity away.. but Mei Er said calamity is a concept where if you don't kill the calamity, that calamity will cause the victim lifetime of pain and madness. Seriously? Any proof in that? Why not try the other tactic, like not kill the calamity. Surely the heaven will reward those who shows compassion and maybe by accepting your  calamity,  you have earned goodness points and be rewarded likewise? Oh.... BZH will prove me wrong. Ok... but as BZH himself pointed out, Wugou has become obsessed. True! True! But I think it was Wugou who said BZH is also obsessed with being in control as much as Wugou is being out of control. Something like that. Anyway Wugou died.

We see Donghua under the thumb of Dongfang who wants revenge. It seems he has something on Donghua where Donghua will feel pain. So that's how Dongfang controlled him. And to prove my point why I can never understand Dongfang is fan favourite for HQG's affection, Donghua pointed out perhaps Dongfang should stop since he couldn't possibly let HQG know all these and Dongfang quite simply said...

I WANT REVENGE! I DON'T CAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

See! See! Why are you do shipping HQG-DF? Insane!

Tanfan was saddened with Wugou's death whose body disappeared and turned into a beautiful shooting star shooting upwards. He lamented now his only drinking buddy is dead. Meanwhile Zixun promised she will not let BZH suffer and will kill HQG in part to avenge for Wugou's death. Come on lady, give it a rest already! You're doing this because BZH will never ever ever ever love you!

Sad isn't it? One episode 1 immortal dead. And that is 1 memorable 1. 1 more is a drunkard. 1 more is an obsessed fatal attraction crazy woman. 1 more is under the control of another. Only BZH is the unchanged one and nope, he is NOT in love with HQG, yet. He said so, and he said so so surely. You must get his personality to know why I said so and why the wedding scene will be a significant scene in the coming episodes and why in the end we need all those blood drinking scene. BZH as his friends have said has perfected the art of being in control. Because he is so in control, he knows for sure yes and no and right and wrong and what is love and how to let go or not be involved in the first place. Only in the blood drinking moments we will see an out of control BZH and that's when he will be confronted with his feelings for HQG. That's how I see it.

Anyway, Wugou, I cry for thee even if I can never understand what's up with you. Maybe their shifus should re-study the whole calamity thing and take a different approach. Oh and Donghua was from Changliu and from the various conversation, it would seem he would have been the sect leader and not BZH if he didn't go missing! Ahhh I see.

Anyway kudos to the actors. I have got to say, the casting is impeccable. Right actors for the right role. Ceng Hongchang was absolutely amazing. He looked the part and scarily cold and all that. And his fashion is impeccable. I find the men's fashion so much more better than the women's.

As for HQG, how many times have she had blood by the side of her mouth and how many times have she fainted? And why someone so cute and yet NOT ONE immortal like her? Why? What's wrong? Is Ni Mantian the perfect BZH's student then? And how powerful is HQG? We shall see...

Oh save your squealing. BZH is not in denial. He is really not in love with HQG, yet.

Oh and  a short scene on SQM who has truly became insane. SCQ of course hugged him tightly, very loving. Poor SQM. He is now screaming he will kill Zhu Ran which means cue to Zhu Ran appearing in the next episode or so.