When last we left the warlord and the beauty, the bad guys suddenly and expectedly did very bad things.
Everyone is still upset about Liang’s death
Including me.
Wei Shao sends Wei Qu to Kangjun to get Man Man’s father and find Liang. No sooner is he off than Man Man collapses.
Once the doctor leaves, she cries and hugs Wei Shao. He tells her not to blame herself, but she does. Besides not helping him restore the Wei family, she’s taken Liang from him and Tao.
He’s crying too, and rightly blames her Uncle and Liu Yan. She knows he has to go to war and does not blame him either. He thanks her and promises they will never fail each other.
Like that, he heads out.
Tao cries with her orchid, and it’s awful
Ci arrives to stare at her and tell her that Liang would not want her grieving this way. Can you give her a minute?
Liu Yan plans to destroy a dam to kill Wei Shao, much like he planned to do way back when. He wants the Panyi magistrate to do it, which is cruel because that guy loves dams and canals.
The Panyi Magistrate uses excuses about how complicated it will be to get a dagger smuggled in and try to kill Liu Yan. But Liu Yan goes metal and grabs the dagger by the blade.
The Magistrate takes Man Man’s Horrible Uncle hostage instead. I can’t see this working out for him, and it doesn’t. Liu Yan stabs them both through with a sword, killing them.
This is a very Liu Yan solution to a problem.
How have 9 months passed?
Man Man is about to give birth. The first year of their marriage (and more) took 33 episodes. Somehow, 9 months passed in the last 2 episodes.
Man Man gives orders on handling troops right up until she goes into labor. At the same time, the rain hurls rocks from a cliff at Wei Shao and his soldiers. As Man Man valiantly gives birth, Wei Shao valiantly lifts a rock.
I don’t… what? Points for whatever that was.
Man Man barely gets to enjoy her baby girl before they get news that the enemy is marching towards them. Grandma wants her and Wei Shao’s mom to leave, but Man Man promised Wei Shao she would not. This is her home, and she is the Lady of Wei.
Wei Shao’s Mom also decides to stay and prove herself. Points, Wei Shao’s mom.
Wei Shao now has a terrible choice to make
He can return to Yujun or continue to Panyi. He remembers Man Man talking about the choice her grandfather had to make, between betraying one person or all the people. Now he really gets it.
He announces they will continue to march towards Panyi. Betray one person, yay!
Wei Qu makes it to Kangjun, where Liang’s corpse hangs in perfect condition. I’ll take that over realistic decomposition, I guess.
Wei Qu kills guards to get Liang back, and sobs, promising to bring him home. Then he ties Lian to his back and fights through the dungeons to free Man Man’s Dad. He even LOSES AN ARM and keeps going. This is more metal than Liu Yan.
He gets Man Man’s father out, only to be confronted by more soldiers. Wei Qu tells them that Man Man’s Uncle is dead, which is news to her Dad.
Though tearful, Man Man’s father condemns what his brother did and asks the soldiers to follow him. The soldiers easily switch sides again and are off to join the fight for Panyi.
Liu Yan is not worried about any of this
Because things always go well for him.
Yu Lou and her general are thrilled that Wei Shao isn’t fighting for Yujun. But Man Man, of course, understands. She even wishes they could support Wei Shao. But they can’t because they’re all about to die.
But here’s Wei Yan to save the day! With troops he stole from Evil Uncle Bian.
Liu Yan lets Wei Shao into Panyi so he can face off with Bi Zhi. Bi Zhi makes it clear he’s only doing it for his wife, who is being forced to watch from the parapet with Liu Yan and his advisor.
It’s a fight between two people who don’t want to fight. Fan keeps yelling at Bi Zhi to stop, while the advisor and Liu Yan call Bi Zhi an animal in front of her. Eventually, Wei Shao gets a good hit in, but it seems to send Bi Zhi into Hulk mode. Wei Shao is in trouble.
Fan can’t take it anymore. She tells Bi Zhi she never regretted it, and jumps. He can’t catch her, she hits the ground, and she smiles at him as she dies. It’s really, really sad.
While this is going on, Wei Yan kills Yu Lou’s General
So that’s done.
Yu Lou is on her own now that her general is dead. She gets into a fight with her maids, and once they get her mask off, they are more horrified by her face than by her murdering them. Some guy runs in and kills the maids, and she stabs him because he saw her face.
As he’s dying, the guy says that Liu Yan knew her face was disfigured. He still loved her. She remembers Wei Shao telling her that she was loved, and cries that Liu Yan’s love can’t have been real.
She’s sobbing. I don’t care. Will someone stab her? Nope. Maybe she stabs herself? We don’t get to see, which is unfair.
Liu Yan’s Advisor tries one last time to reason with him
He thinks Liu Yan should retreat and let his soldiers kill everyone. Liu Yan refuses for some reason. The advisor orders the soldiers to drag him away.
Liu Yan stabs him, which I’m cool with since he was so awful to Fan and Bi Zhi.
Liu Yan is still determined to kill Wei Shao and have All The Power so he can Not Build Canals. But Bi Zhi and Wei Shao are both closing in on him. He sits down and tells Wei Shao that even if they kill him, Wei will drown in floods.
So Bi Zhi and Wei Shao stab him in the chest together. The end.
I have no idea what Liu Yan meant about the floods
We see how great the canals are and how the water is flowing. No one is dying. The Poet is back and has written a poetic history. Wei Shao is pleased to leave out the painful details.
Uncle Bian died. What a shame. Wei Yan is now the Governor of Bian, and visits his Grandmother like a good grandson. Wei and Bian will maintain a peaceful relationship.
In Kangjun, Bi Zhi is sad and alone with memories of Fan. He vows to take care of their child and rides off into the forest with the baby.
The generals and Tao mourn Liang. She brings the orchid to his grave and tells him that, whether he is alive or dead, she still wants to marry him. Oh my heart.
The generals bury their miniature weapons, so they will always be together. As they leave, Tao sees Liang smiling, waving, and holding the orchid. And she smiles too. So sad.
Back in Yujun, no one can find Wei Shao for an important ceremony. He’s too busy trying to get his daughter to stop crying. Man Man finds him, and they comfort the baby together.
Man Man remembers her grandfather’s advice and thinks the way to survive together is to be willing to work together.
We get a last bit on canals, and how they fixed everything and brought peace, and Man Man and Wei Shao got to enjoy their time traveling together
This ending was weak, but not terrible
The biggest problem was that they crammed a year into the last four episodes. I wonder why.
Certainly, I wouldn’t have minded cutting down the middle (and the poet) to get us more time here. Then maybe we could get a more complicated ending that (actually) involved the canals and Yu Lou’s fake fate (which was otherwise dropped). And I would have liked to see more of Wei Yan’s growth once in Bian.
Also, the earlier battle sequences were more interesting than these ones. It feels like they ran out of money, though they clearly didn’t have much to begin with, and that makes war scenes Difficult.
Again, they might have been able to fix it with more time and stronger plotting.
Liang (and Tao) broke my heart, but there was something about Fan’s story that hit me hard. The poor woman just wanted to live a quiet life, and it feels like those who loved her the most (Man Man and Bi Zhi) never understood.
To be fair, Fan only got to be with Bi Zhi because of Man Man’s sacrifice. The life she wanted was a privilege in a time of war. Though she only did it for Bi Zhi, her death essentially guaranteed everyone would have the peace she never got.
Ugh, sad.
While I would have wished for a crueler ending to our villains, I’m glad to see them gone and those who remain moving on. I’m pleased with how hard Man Man and Wei Shao fought for their peace, and feel a sad satisfaction about what was sacrificed. I’m glad they still have Grandma and Wei Yan.
And I’m glad I saw Liu Yuning survive to the end of a drama. And even be happy for a few minutes.
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