Apothecary Diaries 2x18 | Full Length Reaction

These last 3 episodes have been crazy with the reveals and moving the plot forward. I'm loving it. I'm super tempted to binge and watch the rest of this season ahead of you, but I will try and hold out. 😆

Couple of corrections from the discussion portion: About the Meesh/Dee confusion over who came up with "Loulan = Shisui": Meesh started it by noticing Loulan and Shisui had the same eyes. Dee thought it might be a family trait. Here's the funny part: Meesh is right that she THOUGHT Dee was saying "That's Loulan." But I think (and this is purely conjecture) : Dee thought Loulan was her FAMILY name. So "That's Loulan, bro" meant more like "That's A Loulan" - like saying "That's a Lannister/Targaryen." Except Loulan is her FIRST name. lol.. I have ADHD like Dee, so I completely understood her. But I'm also a details-observer like Meesh, so I completely understood her TOO. lol... So Meesh thought Dee had solved it, while Dee was confused about why Meesh thought she'd solved it. I noticed this earlier but deliberately said NOTHING because I didn't want to accidentally point you toward the answer and ruin this raw reaction. :) --- IMPORTANT clarification about 25:05 and 25:25: "Taiho gave birth to a daughter and it's Loulan." That's not what the episode said. This isn't a spoiler; you just mixed up the relationships. Taiho allegedly had an affair with a doctor and had a daughter (at least according to the rear palace gossip chains), but that unknown daughter is NOT Loulan. Interestingly enough, some contextual/lore Easter eggs from parts of this story may sound a little familiar from an earlier episode involving Empress Dowager Anshi's youth flashback. But I'll let you connect the dots ;) But anyways, that daughter is not Loulan, and that's all I can say about it. You can even see Taiho being separated from her daughter in this episode's flashback, implying that this daughter was thrown out of the palace, while her grieving mother Taiho was trapped indefinitely in the rear palace. THEN, after that scandal (which kicked off the ruling that all doctors must be castraded), a SEPARATE concubine (that Taiho was tied to) was offered to Shishou (Loulan's father), and Loulan was born from THAT relationship. I'm only correcting this because the episode explicitly said it, and I don't want the misunderstanding to snowball into your theories. Dee kinda corrected it at 26:08, but I don't think Meesh was listening hahaha. --- 27:10 - One more detail about the rumors that Jinshi was illegitimate: It wasn't just that he didn't look exactly like them and the former Emperor was old. More importantly, Anshi wasn't a young girl anymore. The rumor was basically: "The Emperor couldn't have fathered Jinshi with Anshi because she was already too old for his pedophilic tastes." That's why Jinshi kept questioning whether he was actually the former Emperor's son. Naturally, no one knows that Anshi basically forced herself on the former emperor (if jinshi is their "child of immorality"), OR if maomao's theory that Jinshi's actually the current emperor/ahduo's son. So those rumors Jinshi heard as a child could literally be 50/50 possible, if a swap was made or not.

14:40 - Watching you girls go giddy as your theories were confirmed was SO satisfying. Seeing you this excited about this part of the season brings me joy. Things are getting goooooood. ;) ------- Fun fact: rewatch the episode where Shisui was in the baths with Maomao. Meesh was already sus and said there was a hint she might be Loulan because she has... ASSETS (big boobs) that the Emperor likes. lol More importantly, rewatch the scene where Maomao drags Lishu over to have her arm hair pulled. Watch Shisui in the background when she's massaging a concubine on the massage tables. It's quite an interesting easter egg that Shisui is Loulan in disguise up to this point. But I won't say more unless you specifically are curious to see it for yourself: ya'll were too hyped about the boobages that episode (hey, fair enough, i feel you haha), and that little scene slipped by. --- This also explains the ice cream episode! Meesh said, "Does Shisui ever work? How did she know something was happening out of nowhere?" I was giggling SO HARD because you were SO CLOSE... Loulan/Shisui came to see what Maomao was making as Shisui instead of being "Loulan," supposedly stuck in her room. And you were BEGGING to see Loulan's reaction to the ice cream... THE SHOW HAD ALREADY SHOWN YOU. Shisui ate it and LOVED IT. Maomao even said she made it specifically around Loulan's preferences from Jinshi. Of course Shisui was obsessed with it! The show has been giving you what you asked for this whole time. You just didn't know it yet hahaha. There are soooo many more Easter eggs rewarding people who paid attention during the earlier "slower"/buildup episodes. You were SOOO CLOSE so many times but kept second-guessing yourselves, so enjoy the vindication. ;) I'll add more callbacks/notes later when the time is right if you miss anything. :)