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TL;DR Version
DFQC has made a deal with Evil God Tai Sui to use the Evil Spirit to save Orchid and his people, even if it means breaking her heart. Orchid will sacrifice herself rather than let him sacrifice himself. War starts and everyone dies. Orchid sacrifices herself and saves everyone. Chi Di Nu Zi and Shang Que wake up confused. DFQC is now in a dream with Orchid.
Recap
We pick up with Orchid having her heart broken. DFQC pulls off her proposal bracelet and flings it at her. After he reiterates that he’s only been using her, she runs away crying.
DFQC tells Xun Feng to keep an eye on her and looks depressed. We see that some time ago, DFQC explained to Shang Que that this is all a plan to destroy Orchid’s love for him so he can remove the Bone Orchid and save her life. Present-day DFQC is told that the war is about to start.
Xun Feng follows Orchid to repeat his usual lines. He warns the Evil Spirit will erode DFQC’s primordial spirit and turn him into a walking corpse. Orchid wants the Chengying sword.
The two armies face off in Xuanxu, near the trapped soldiers, in the middle of a thundering sandstorm. Orchid is on top of the sword statue, but before she can kill herself with the Chengying sword, she vanishes in a strange black cloud. Xun Feng screams.
DFQC’s eyes fill with Evil Spirit and he goes to Tai Sui’s place. He asks who Tai Sui really is, and it’s pretty close to a repeat of Tai Sui’s earlier convo with Rong Hao. DFQC returns to himself and Xun Feng says he couldn’t release the soldiers, but DFQC says he will.
DFQC goes to the top of the sword to use Evil Spirit. Rong Hao/Lord of Haishi City has Orchid, and when she tries to use the sword on him he breaks it and uses Evil Spirit to attack her. The war starts. DFQC’s forehead glows with the Heart Spell and he goes flying through the swirling sand to find Orchid.
Chang Heng shows up to fight Rong Hao, freeing Orchid. DFQC crash lands in the sand. Everyone is dying in the war, Dan Yin, Chang Heng’s assistant, the Ministers, all brutally stabbing each other. DFQC calls for Orchid but collapses in the sand. Orchid also collapses in the sand before she can reach the sword.
Chang Heng and Rong Hao may be the only ones still mobile. Rong Hao repeats that he had no choice and Chang Heng says they are no longer friends. They fight, and it’s the cool fighting, not the awful stabbing fighting.
Orchid and DFQC both revive and keep crawling through the sand, the OST giving them strength. Orchid grabs half the broken Changying sword. She remembers talking to her master back at Siming Hall, about how unreasonable love could be. Her master says that only love is not fate.
DFQC sees through the swirling sandstorm that Orchid has stabbed herself. A green explosion surges from her, knocking DFQC over first and then Chang Heng and Rong Hao. She floats into the air and glows.
The injured/dead fighters revive, and the trapped soldiers move again. Everyone bows to Orchid’s floating body. Chi Di Nu Zi’s spirit leaves the Bone Orchid and floats to Rong Hao.
DFQC holds Orchid, and she says she’s glad he’s okay and she wants to feel the sun. He takes her to the top of the sword monument. He’s holding her and crying. She tells him to smile instead, calls him annoying, and says she still likes him. Then she vanishes. He keels over, sobbing, clutching the Bone Orchid.
Shang Que slept through all of this and wakes up in the forest with Jie Li. She updates him, everyone is okay, the soldiers are free, and there will be a hundred-year peace.
Shang Que takes it in surprisingly well, focusing on why Jie Li worked for Haishi City, and whether she really lied about marrying him. Jie Li puts herself down, saying everything was just to use him, he’s a fool, and she’s leaving. He holds the sword to her neck, but can’t kill her. She says to forget about her and leaves.
Rong Hao is playing his flute outside where Chi Di Nu Zi’s body lies. She wakes up and comes out. He says she’s been asleep an hour, but she’s confused and remembers dying. He lies, saying she was saved by the Goddess Xishan and just having trouble remembering things.
DFQC wakes in Siming Hall and sees Orchid, hugging her tight even when she complains. They live a domestic bliss, with the Moon Supreme doing Orchid’s eyebrows, cleaning Siming Hall, and reading together. Orchid mentions being married for 500 years.
But we pull out to see DFQC’s really laying on a black stone slab, asleep.
Thoughts
This may be the most heartbreaking episode, though there is still plenty of angst left. And it’s not a Xianxia unless at least one person tragically dies. I’m not sure what “only love is not fate” means, but I felt moved when Siming said it.
Also, impressed with just how horrible this show made war appear. Every secondary and tertiary character we’ve met gets a close-up of them dreading the battle and then getting bloody and stabbed. This may be the most anti-war drama I’ve ever seen.
The swirling sand and thunder added some great atmosphere to the whole nightmare.
This section confused me the first time, but I think I have it straight now: DFQC made a deal with Tai Sui to free his soldiers using Evil Spirit at the same time he did everything he could to destroy Orchid’s love for him to free her from the Bone Orchid that is draining her spirit. The fact that he abandoned freeing his soldiers to rescue Orchid, I think proves what his choice would have been if Tai Sui hadn’t shown up.
The part that still confuses me is Xun Feng showing up mid-battle to tell DFQC he didn’t free the soldiers. What did DFQC tell Xun Feng the plan was? He can’t have known Xun Feng was going to try and convince Orchid to kill herself or he would have stopped him, but he doesn’t react much. Then again, war has just started and he has to use Evil Spirit to free everyone. It’s fair that he was too busy to react.
Orchid and DFQC prove again that they are more alike than they seemed at first because they are both willing to lie and sacrifice themselves for the other. They’re a great match.
Wang He Di is a young man who does a great job portraying an ageless god, but he looks like his real age when laughing with Orchid in the dreamland at the end.