Discussion post - episode 9

[yantantether]

Tang Yi and Chen Wen Hao face away from each other as Meng Shao Fei brandishes Tang Yi's birth certificate between them and we go into a FLASHBACK. Li Li Zhen and Tang Guo Dong are visiting Chen Wen Hao in prison. Li Li Zhen has obviously recently learned that her boyfriend didn't just pop out for some milk and never come back, but is in fact a convicted mobster. She angrily breaks up with him and claims to have had an abortion.

Back in the present, Meng Shao Fei seems to be trying to effect a family reunion between Tang Yi and Chen Wen Hao and unsurprisingly Tang Yi is unimpressed. Chen Wen Hao denies killing Tang Guo Dong.

Another flashback! Chen Wen Hao finds Li Li Zhen and Tang Guo Dong dead, but doesn't clearly see who shot them. He then shoots Tang Yi (by accident?) when he suddenly appears.

In the present, Tang Yi is desperate to kill Chen Wen Hao, but Meng Shao Fei tries to reason with him. Tang Yi shoves him pretty roughly and drives away. Meng Shao Fei follows him home and finds him sitting in the bath fully clothed (this made me giggle even though it's a serious moment. Sorry, Tang Yi!) Tang Yi kisses him desperately, violently. Kissing turns into crying and Meng Shao Fei cradles him.



Jack meets with his Interpol contact by the river. He hands over info on Xin Tian Meng and Chen Wen Hao, and then offers to go infiltrate Chen Wen Hao's drug-smuggling operation. I wonder why he does this right now when he's obviously so stupid over Zhao Zi. Does he genuinely think that Zhao Zi doesn't like him back so he may as well go and be dangerous in Cambodia?

Zhao Zi comes home in the rain and finds Jack waiting for him.



Zhao Zi is obviously worried about him, but when Jack asks him if he likes him back he doesn't reply and he ducks away when Jack tries to kiss him. (Jack! In this particular circumstance, maybe waiting till you're not right outside your shy, would-be boyf's front door in full view of any neighbours watching would have been a better plan.)

BUT THEN. Zhao Zi tells him, "When I saw you outside just now it already cheered me up... my heart felt warm."



Zhao Zi is smiling with his whole self and THAT is him making his declaration. They cook together and it's super sweet.



Next, Captain Shi and his daughter are wedding dress shopping. He cries when he sees her in the dress and it unexpectedly makes me teary (awwww, Captain Shi.) Then Jun Wei brings the news to the rest of the police department that the captain had turned himself in. Ah-Zhi leaves, sharpish. Zhao Zi (perceptive as always) works out that the captain's perfidy must have had it's origins in his daughter's need for a bone marrow donor, five years before.

Meng Shao Fei gets up to find Tang Yi cooking and being determinedly cheerful. Meng Shao Fei tries to make him hand over Tang Guo Dong's killer to the police, if he finds out whodunnit.

The cops set out looking for Ah-Zhi, who is currently in karaoke hell with a mobster who he's trying to persuade to help him leave the country. Next up doing unenthusiastic singing in a different room is Chen Wen Hao. Coming out of gangster karaoke central he runs into Ah-Zhi and recognises him as Li Li Zhen and Tang Guo Dong's killer. (Hilariously, I had completely forgotten about this plot point, so I was like "...ooh!" Don't ask me who I thought killed them, I have no idea.)

Meng Shao Fei runs into Tang Yi's house to find him beating up Ah-Zhi.



Ah-Zhi confesses, Tang Yi tries to shoot him, and Meng Shao Fei throws himself in front of the bullet!

Comments

[doctorskuld]

I have to go to bed now (boo, adulting) and it'll be forever until I get to respond because tomorrow is board gaming night at work, but I wanted to reiterate what a shit move it is to leave your buddy in jail for 24 years, raise his son as your own, and like...not even call him up to say hi when he gets out of jail. I am sad we will never know the reasons behind this. (Maybe he did have an on-again-off-again thing with LLZ?)

Also, I love this Jack and Zhao Zi interaction, because Jack does genuinely look like he's going to be the one that's heartbroken if ZZ doesn't reciprocate his feelings before he has to go, and that is such a cool role reversal for his character archetype.

My interpretation of his offer to go to Cambodia for Interpol is that that was the ultimate goal the whole time, that Xin Tian Meng information was just something along the way. And he just sort of went for it, because that's what he always does, that's what he's always done in the past, and it's not until afterward, when he realizes that he might lose a chance at ZZ, that it makes him think twice (as we see later).

More when I get back tomorrow night from board gaming!

[no_detective]

i agree - jack seems to be following his general drive, and infiltrating the cambodian gang sounds like the natural next step/ultimate goal. i do wonder if he perhaps subconsciously set it up as an alternative, so if things don't work out with zz he'll have a new assignment to throw himself into. he doesn't strike me as a character who gets attached easily, so it might be at least somewhat terrifying to realize he's developed FEELINGS.

[doctorskuld]

i do wonder if he perhaps subconsciously set it up as an alternative, so if things don't work out with zz he'll have a new assignment to throw himself into.

With the type of guy that Jack is, in the line of work that Jack is in, 100% this.

he doesn't strike me as a character who gets attached easily, so it might be at least somewhat terrifying to realize he's developed FEELINGS.

I headcanon Jack as a person who is honest about his own feelings, in the sense that he never tries to deny them to himself, but that doesn't mean he isn't terrified when he realizes that OMG he has actually fallen for that little police cinnamon roll. He has NEVER FELT THIS BEFORE.

[yantantether]

little police cinnamon roll
♥♥♥

[issenllo]

I second and third your thoughts about Tang Guo Dong. I still go WTF when I think about it. Their conversation earlier (and the novel, too) always seemed to imply that CWH took the rap for him over a medium serious matter (I think it's of injuring someone in a fight). He was supposed to be in jail for a few months. Instead: 24 years. And TGD never went to see him in jail again after that visit with Li Zhen, no mention of any more visits. I mean, I'd accept it if there were some record of him going and trying to explain, even if CWH shut him out. At least he tried. But nothing. Can't blame CWH for turning into a villain after that. >_>

[doctorskuld]

I like clevermanka's interpretation that it may have been LLZ's involvement that kept CWH in prison for so long. Possibly due to feelings of betrayal, possibly wanting to keep CWH away from her son, or whatever complicated things she felt at the time.

That said, I'm still surprised that TGD never went to see him after that, even if CWH did shut him out. It's possible that LLZ may have tried to blackmail him over that (i.e. if TGD didn't cut his relationship with CWH that she would bring him up on charges too), but that is less feasible and doesn't make a lot of sense either.

...Yeah, the mob plot in this show is definitely secondary to to the romance, and it shows. XDDDDDDD