Episode 16 Spoilers Ahead

*****spoilers ahead****

1. Senior Pei, like Sisyphus (yup, the guy with the boulder), continues to chase the same goal: to kill Fu Yao with extreme prejudice.  And just like Sisyphus, she continues to fail.  Unlike Sisyphus, she can, at any moment, choose to abandon this seemingly impossible task.  Senior Pei continues to speak the same handful of dialogue: You will die, I must make Fu Yao suffer--how dare you speak to me slave--why does everyone love Fu Yao? (the last one is actually a good question and I have a theory about that).
               -To Elaborate, in this episode, we see the conclusion of Senior Pei's well thought out plan (actually it is a really bad plan) to use Seven to lure Fu Yao out and give her an opportunity to exact her questionable revenge.  The Emperor intervenes and easily renders Senior Pei unconscious.
              -Unintentionally, then, Senior Pei has become a matchmaker of sorts as her efforts of revenge turn into excuses for the Emperor to help the girl he likes

2.After exchanging somewhat candid and direct dialogue--Fu Yao asks the Emperor if he hangs out and waits for a chance to intervene just so she can thank him (I would argue this is a possibility) the chemistry between the actors sizzles--Lady Fei Tan attacks the two with the most deadly thing of all--Leaves (those suckers actually hurt have you been hit by a bunch of leaves on a severely windy day? try moving to a windy city and experience the brutal force of mother nature). Fu Yao runs off with her brother because he is literally at death's door, and the emperor remains behind to confront his  leafy foe

3.Godson (Ping Rong?) prepares to assassinate Prince Bei Ye (I like to call him Dong Hua) but Prime Minister Qi Zhen intervenes. He does not yell at him--Qi Zhen has a very cool head, something I really like about his character, he asks him why he wants to kill him.  His godson tells him that he believes that with the Prince dead they will basically have one less foe, especially since the prince made several provocative comments during dinner (not to mention hunting accidents were so commonplace it actually is a descent cover which makes one wonder why they did not try to kill him this way before).  Qi Zhen reminds him that the Prince is not to be underestimated and must be respected, citing the fact that he cannot afford to deal with the Emperor, who he is unable to predict/read as well as the powerful neighboring kingdom.  Keeping the Prince alive could be an advantage.
                      -this is reasonable logic, especially since the alliance between the Emperor and the Prince is based entirely around the retrieval of a single item, the Enlargement Globe and to a lesser extent their shared distrust of the Prime Minister, with Fu Yao being a weak third.

4.Poor Seven looks like is about to expire but the Prince arrives just in time to save him in predictable hero fashion.  Naturally it is far too soon to begin what I like to call The Tragedy Arc (yes I just made that up)(Tragedy Arc is when everything bad that can happen will happen to our female lead)

5.Seeing Seven stable, she returns to save the Emperor.  Now the Emperor, who we know possesses powers and intelligence far beyond the normal person, is actually uneasy fighting these leaves and recognizes that he is out powered.  (Yet another example of how he, and to a lesser extent, the male characters are just better written.  I care because it just can't be unseen and, well, it frustrates me when I only hear the positive things about a show and not the not so great things--everyone else sees these things too I am just writing it out loud).  Using TEAMWORK the two burn the leaves, and Lady Fan vanishes because she needs Fu Yao alive.  Luckily, our antagonist, like Senior Pei, created an opportunity for the two to fall on top of each other and almost make out...

--Now, this next scene had me giggling in my seat because I thought it was well executed and speaks to the consistency of the Emperor's character--

6.The Emperor knocks Fu Yao unconscious, intending to use her as a cover for this incident.  He returns and accuses Qi Zhen of wanting the throne to kill him, and that the young lady rescued him.  He looks so bewildered, and QI Zhen does not miss a beat, he takes advantage of the fact that omens are important and says it is a Test of the Gods (so funny since these shows are chock full of sudden things that seem pulled out of the air) and everyone accepts it without question, including the Emperor--but he succeeded in covering his escape AND planting a seed of doubt in the minds of the courtiers

7.Back home, we learn that the Head House Maid in Qi Zhen's mansion serves a mysterious master--her duty is to assist Fu Yao, and she does not reveal who her master is, only that it is not Prince Li.  She provides an excuse for Fu Yao needing to cover her face (because of the magic fading): her ugly birthmark and a made up contagious illness that was caught in the woods (Diagnosed by Dr. Zong, never mind that she never met him or had time to).  Qi Zhen wishes to use this latest development (Lady Yi was born under a rare birth chart, and Qi Zhen is extremely zealous in his belief in fate) to plant her in the Emperor's household, perhaps as Queen.  He will play this new game...slowly

8.Fu Yao meets Qi Zhen who hears her side of the story--she reveals that the Emperor hid behind her during the fight and that someone from the shadows shot fire arrows at the leaves.  This story is believable enough for Qi Zhen to back off but he never trusts anything completely.  He basically tells her to prepare to go into the harem.  Fu Yao does not want this, since she has found Seven, she needs to get out of there, and she will use mysterious maid to help.

9.Meanwhile, Seven devours food and wishes to rescue Fu Yao (this poor guy.  he re-defines bad comedy) and Lan Zhu (who has two sides, cute, and extra cute--they could have made her a LITTLE more subtle--FJ in Eternal Love I think is a good example of being cute but not TOO cute.  yes, you can be too cute, especially when it is so inconsistent with every other character that in this universe it is strange that you are not looked at as a numnut but suspend disbelief in spite of my harsh words I actually like her character because I have a soft spot for cute airheads mainly because they are never really done in western dramas, only comedy, and they are usually more on the raunchy weird side). Seven reveals he may not be smart but he has a good memory and can remember the layout of the home.  Lan Zhu wants to bust her out--alas, Prince Li overhears this and intervenes.  Knowing that Lan Zhu adores him, he makes a point of touching her wrist, and this dispells all thoughts of busting her out

10.The Emperor theorizes correctly that Qi Zhen has his men in the inner court working on getting a Queen.  He reminds his bodyguard that the harem is a battleground where 'knives hide beneath skirts' and should not be underestimated--good line--and essentially there are several important women who are under selection--each one has a connection to either the Marquis or the Prime Minister, or appears to (there are some double spies) and all come from powerful families.  It is obvious that he wants Fu Yao to be his Queen, but he doesn't say it out loud,more like implies it.

11. Fu Yao plans to set a fire, use a corpse as a stand in (where in the heck would she know to get a dead body, and that fast? this is a plot hole and a complete 180 from the girl from episode 1) and escape dressed as a boy (yes, she looks like a girl).  Alas, her efforts suffer a problem when she triggers a trap set to detain spies--luckily Prince Li (?) shows up to save her, dressed like a ninja, but he is shot in the shoulder...by the PM.....

Ignore my personal criticism of the show up to now, as it is below:

This episode did not get a 10 because some of the dialogue is very heavy handed, I mean it just is not subtle, and some of the comedy is cringe worthy (maybe that is a cultural difference, I don't know)
It did not get a 9.5 because or a 9 because we are at episode 16 and though the show is about Fu Yao, every other male character possesses a great deal of depth of and grey.  Fu Yao is extremely black and white.  She started out as something of a defiant rule breaker, and has morphed into someone who reacts to situations, and always lands on her feet.  This is because she is heavily protected by people around her.  The BENEFIT of this, I hope, is that she will eventually see that she is not immortal, that she will be more vulnerable and acknowledge that she needs others around her.  Right now she is just this kind of Spartacus Savior, who shows little emotion, and when she does show it, it seems very contrived and thrown in forcibly.  How come the male characters are all given opportunities to show emotion and vulnerability and even dare I say it, imperfections but barring her Uncle's Death (which was SUPER heavy handed and deliberate) she has been flat.  I am being harsh, I love the show, I guess when I see a show that is on the cusp of going over into 9.5 or 10 territory, I really, really hope it goes in that direction.  This is not a solid 8.5  this is closer to a 9 because the plot flows very effortlessly, but it really could be so good....I want to see Fu Yao be selfish, or be more human.  She is very Mary Sue right now.

 Let's use Goblin, a universally well loved show, as an example of what I mean when I say there are characters with a lot of grey (and probably the best example of being able to do that bubbly character)

Keep in mind that this show has things that make it an 8.5 that other shows did not have (if you saw Flame's Daughter You Will Know what I mean--it was a slower show but the dialogue and action scenes, i think, were much better).  Please, please disagree with me I like disagreement.  I think if you can disagree on a show it usually means it is interesting.  

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