If you’re lost on any of the characters, I did a quick rundown of them at the top of episode 1 that you can consult.
Recap
Everyone is there to see Chan’s proof that Li killed Dong. Pao digs up the box and — it’s empty!
Song and Chan are losing their minds. Song tells Chan to stay out of it for her own good. Meanwhile, Jia and Li are confused about who saved them.
It was Tian, who broods alone in the garden. Jiu finds him and offers to listen to Tian’s troubles. Tian feels responsible for everything, and Jiu tells him how beloved he is by everyone. Jiu nearly confesses to loving Tian too but then tries to make it about his siblings.
Li comes out and sees the romantic tension. She yells at Tian in his room, accusing him of hiring a man to flirt with. Tian denies anything between him and Jiu. He brings out the evidence he hid, then burns it so they can’t use it.
Xiaotong comes for business but Song knows she’s snooping. Xiaotong meets Mud in the garden and sees Jiu and Tian together. She senses something, but can’t quite put her finger on what. She orders Mud to focus on seducing Tian into marriage.
Li brings Song tea, which is now inherently threatening. He drinks medicine from Dr. Qi instead. They have another fight about trust and Tian’s secret that ends in tears and denial.
Mud, following orders, tries to sexually assault Tian and gets Jia instead. Jia warns Mud away.
Jiu is helping Tian in the office. They bump heads over a dropped pencil and Yang bursts in to spoil the mood and announce Pin’s arrival.
Pin is there for Yang, but Tian has to show up since they’re engaged. Jiu sees them together and later asks about her. When Tian is too complimentary, Jiu is no longer in the mood to study.
Li sees Pin and Yang together and is not happy. She scolds Yang for seeking power by stealing his brother’s wife, but Yang hits back with a pointed comment about what Tian really wants. Li adds Yang to the list of people she wants Jia to spy on.
Li isn’t worried when she hears Mud is still hitting on Tian. With the vile idea of helping turn Tian straight, Jia tells Li about an aphrodisiac she can make — Cicada Orchid.
Tian helps Yang sneak away to meet with Pin. Tian is depressed because Jiu is upset with him. Pin suggests he talks to Jiu and later mentions to Yang how close Tian seems to Jiu.
Yang goes looking for Jiu, then goes into his empty room and finds a secret stash of knives and papers. Jiu kicks the papers out of his hands and Yang is certain there’s something incriminating on them. They fight until Tian finds them and drags his brother out.
Yang warns Tian about trusting Jiu. He feels like he’s dangerous and hiding something.
At Ma’s, Jiu’s brother overhears Chan and Ma talking and realizes Tian is in danger.
Jiu is burning the papers outside, which say Tian’s name over and over. They blow away from the flame and right to Song’s feet. Song’s suspicious about Jiu practicing writing Tian’s name and thinks there’s something more to Jiu.
Jiu burns the papers in his room and reminds himself why he’s there.
Qi leaves for Chonburi to make Beetle Orchid antidote, in case Jia and Li keep poisoning people. Jia and Li worry about his sudden departure. On the other hand, this means Jia can make Cicada Orchid.
The process involves rousing all the cicadas so they mate. The noise wakes up everyone on the estate.
Thoughts
Tian, like all the members of his family, handles accusations with indignant denial. Unlike the rest of them though, he’s being honest when he denies hiring Jiu to flirt with him. Even if he knows he has a crush on Jiu, his motives for giving him a job were about being helpful to someone who helped him and is in a bad situation, who also happens to be very handsome. The person Tian is lying to is himself.
On the other hand, I get the sense that Jiu has a better idea of his own feelings. Jiu is quiet and doesn’t reveal much, but he wasn’t shy about being upset about Pin. Then there were those papers he didn’t want anyone to see. The reveal of Tian’s name written over and over again is so heartbreakingly sweet and vulnerable, like his smiles. Easy to forget he’s also an assassin.
Tian and Yang’s brotherly relationship also tugs at the heart. They’ve been set up as enemies from childhood and have to keep secrets from one another. Yet they trust their love for each other and protect each other as best they can.
It’s a contrast to Song and Li, a pair who’ve lost the trust between them. Song thinks that he needs to preside over his family as a supreme ruler and keep everyone in their place. But how can anyone trust another person with that kind of power over them? It’s no wonder neither of his wives trust him and Bua moved out and won’t come back. None of them feel safe.
So instead Chan and Li lie to his face and do what they want behind his back. And then their sons lie (well, Yang more than Tian) and do what they really want behind their backs. That’s what usually happens when you try to force people to do things.
I love the Cicada Orchid. The production value of this show is pretty soap opera, done quickly and cheaply, with flat lighting and basic camera work. Not exactly atmospheric. But the last part of this episode, where Jia and Li go through the trees rousing the cicadas in the dark and then we cut to everyone reacting to the noise of the dying insects, put me right there with them. It’s weird and eerie and haunting.