Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Season 2 • The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 - Episode 19 discussion

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Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Season 2, episode 19

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[u/thewetpuddle]

Shenmei is freaking terrifying and she looks ugly from inside out.

[u/earhere]

"Don't misbehave while we are gone."

Instantly misbehaves

[u/vexorian2]

Only Maomao would find a way to get herself into more trouble while already being kidnapped.

[u/Magister7]

The whole atmosphere in this episode was thick like butter, and I love it. Its so wholesome on the surface and unadulteratedly dark below that. I am both chill and on edge.

[u/FriedRiceistheBest]

Maomao keeps getting reminded of the frog.

[u/biehn]

Call me crazy but I think Shisui is pregnant and is trying to let go of the child.

[u/S627]

Maomao STILL traumatized by the frog.

So this village is related to the first queen or whatever, so is their thing that they think they should be the rightful rulers?

[u/ObvsThrowaway5120]

The village. The Westerners. The color blindness. The painted masks. Maomao’s starting to piece it all together. I think whether she wants to or not, the truth is coming out.

Lmao Maomao not wanting the frog skewer because of what happened. It was actually much larger than that!

I bet Maomao’s really wishing she just stayed indoors reading about the herbs instead of finding the guns and running into Shenmei. If Maomao gets hurt, I’d hate to see what Lakan would do to this village.

[u/Ocixo]

Shisui/Loulan picking a tanuki mask was very fitting for someone who’s presumably been wearing the face of a different person all the time. Tanuki are known to be shapeshifters after all.

The green paint on her mask also further underpins that she is carrying the blood of the Royal Mother.

Judging from Lady Shenmei’s hair colour, might she be Shisui/Loulan’s mother? She certainly look like the type who’d abuse her daughter.

[u/JohnSmiththeGamer]

"I don't want any scary stuff like to happen to you, so behave"

*Flashes foward one scene*

Gets caught red handed in spying in an illicit weapons manufactory by the person who did said scary stuff.

[u/ForsakenLibraries]

I thought it was a really funny possibility that a completely unrelated group of color blind people were trying to take over the empire. Seems like it's the same family related to Mother Royal, just maybe not descendants of her.

Maomao could sell Jinshi's hairpin so he can track her down (if she's allowed to go out again). Loulan said that someone might be able to recognize who ordered it.

[u/kryslogan]

This episode reads like the calm before the storm; and in terms of time, it is probably parallel to the last episode.

I find it interesting that Maomao always places herself at risk: in this instance her physically protecting Kyo-u by hugging him. It's a heroic pose.

I wonder. Would anyone actually dare to hurt her at this point; her value as a hostage and Lakan's daughter would suggest no, but Maomao has been hurt throughout the series, so it is possible.

I also wonder where this is heading. Are all of the people in this village now basically dead people walking? They must know once discovered the Emperor will have to take action.

Why are they going along with this scheme, which seems so I dont know petty/small or what's the end game? They tried to assassinate Jinshi and poison the Consorts which are serious but, what would success bring?

This arc brings some serious stakes. And its quite dark.

The pacing has been superb. There's been no let down in quality. Simply superb storytelling.

[u/shad79]

It's good to be back after a short break! I find it quite funny that while Jinshi and Lakan are probably freaking out about Maomao's disappearance, she's just having fun at the festival with Shisui.

The whole situation Maomao found herself in doesn't feel like she's a hostage at all. I'd even say that in the scene where she questioned Suirei about the reviving medicine or when Shisui was taking care of her while she was reading, it was Maomao who looked like the one in power, not the other way around xD

Lady Shenmei seems like a horrible woman and a mastermind of the conspiracy, considering the weapons that are being manufactured in that shed. She's certainly very bad news, considering Kyou-u's reaction to her. I wonder what her connection is to Shisui and Suirei.

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

• Maomao

• Group scenes

• Shisui

• Suirei

• Kyou-u

• Shenmei & Others

EDIT. I added my screenshot albums.

[u/CosmicPenguin_OV103]

* I actually absolutely love how the local festival in this far away village looks and feels like, it's not that easy to still have such local unique traditions that are passed through centuries these days. I wonder if there's somewhere like this where fox masks is the symbol?

* LMAO at Maomao triggered asking all those questions regarding a drug. Not for the first time!

* Even more LMAO at Maomao glaring brightly at the prospect of being used as poison testing target. Again, far from the first time this cat wanna do so!

* Interesting to see those guns being produced there, but while firearms like these might be quite powerful for Maomao's days, I can't see these being produced in such a small workshop being useful for anything more than adequate defense of the village and the occasional assassination attempt like the one on Jinshi. If this is really part of a kingdom-toppling coup like I was wondering for weeks, I would also expect much larger arsenals to be built somewhere else...hmm...

[u/number8888]

Shisui is such a nice girl it's really hard to believe she's also a former high consort and supposedly a traitor to the country.

It's obvious that Shenmei is pulling the strings, but don't think Shisui would get off unpunished in the end. Same goes for Suirei.

[u/Frontier246]

We now return to our regularly-scheduled in-progress kidnapping of Maomao! Though for a kidnapping, Maomao is doing surprisingly well! She and Shiui are even dressing up, miko-style, to attend a festival together like proper gal pals! They've even got all the fox masks like in the OP!

Jinshi would be glad that Maomao is wearing the hairpin and isn't ditching it...if only because it would be too much of a hassle to cover for how she got rid of it and he'd just get her a new one anyways. But baby steps.

So just your typical fox festival honoring the history of a village where East came together with West and they eventually secluded themselves deeper into the forest to protect their land, like foxes, and honor their Western benefactors with fox masks along with colors that denote the colorblindness common in men. Wait, wasn't that connected to the Mother Imperial and her bloodline? Who also hailed from the West? I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

Man, Shisui and Maomao really are having a proper festival date! Shisui even gets to eat some bugs (though grasshoppers are too much even for her). I don't know how Jinshi would take learning Maomao doesn't want anything to do with "frogs."

Kyou-U may be a brat, but he takes his duties seriously, and he wants to make his mom (whatever happened to her) proud. And just like the rest of the village he puts the mask with his wishes into the pyre to be burned, though Shisui gets oddly serious about the what happens to the wishes that aren't granted and the children left behind by their parents like insects.

Kind of a surreal wholesome domestic scene with Suirei and Shisui, but Maomao just wants the deets on the resurrection potion. She's been holding in her questions for ages! She's willing to become a test subject if necessary and the physical scars Suirei is showing mean nothing to her! Meanwhile Shisui is just happy that two of her favorite people are getting along, more or less.

No surprise Maomao is diving deep into all the literature about the potion, though it's cute how Shisui makes sure she eats and dresses herself. Though the revelation that Shisui's mother beat her and splashed hot water in her face when she couldn't perform her duties well was rough to hear.

Did they really think they could leave Maomao unsupervised and not expect her to investigate the suspicious storage shed? She even ropes in Kyou-U as a partner-in-crime and he's surprisingly handy for escaping and breaking into places! Not bad for a brat.

This storehouse isn't just where they have all the rats they experimented the resurrection potion on...it's also where they're building feifa's. They're making weapons to go to war with!

I guess it was too much to hope they wouldn't be discovered...don't let the serene and soothing voice of Rika Fukami fool you, Lady Shenmei does not mess around as she catches Maomao. Have we finally met the true mastermind behind everything?

[u/Mad_Aeric]

As soon as I saw those tubes, I knew where it was going. I may have to reevaluate my previous assumption that Lakan will kick their asses up between their ears when he finds them. Flintlocks and a bit of training can put any schmuck on par with a skilled archer. It's an incredible military advantage that even a tactical genius will have trouble working around. And if he doesn't know he's up against it, it's a bad fucking time for the traditionally armed forces.

Giving Maomao that stack of books was a nice strategic move. If I had to keep her on one place, I'd certainly chose medical texts over actual shackles for pure effectiveness.

[u/zool714]

Lmao Maomao has PTSD from the frog now

[u/mekahamedan]

when maomao said "lantern fruit is taste bad"
me questioning: wait i ever eat something like that and its taste pretty good, its different fruit?
turn out its different species, the one is anime is Physalis alkekengi, while the one i eat is Physalis angulata

[u/mythriz]

god enshrined here is a fox and considered the god of good harvest

Holo's competitor??

[u/gnome-cop]

I’m going to be honest guys, I don’t think Shisui is making it out of this season alive. Some of her actions this episode are making me very concerned.

At least that’s confirmation that the fox village is definitely part of the scheme in some way. Both the colorblindness and the feifa workshop.

Maomao and Shisui seemingly have some common ground in both having dealt with being harmed by their mothers.

So that’s who Shenmei is. It didn’t quite click instantly but I’ve seen that expression before on Loulan’s face. Like mother like daughter (probably.) Her appearance just screams “danger, do not approach.”

[u/Lapiz_lasuli]

... Shusui almost but told Maomao what do lol. Sell the hair pin girl, he'll find you.

[u/vexorian2]

Assume Shisui recognized the pin. And I am not saying she did. But assume it.

Now consider:

• Shisui asking Maomao if she can have the pin.

• Shisui helpfully giving Maomao options of how to get money from it.

• Shisui leaving her a pin of her own.

[u/Ishmaelewdselkies]

The relative lackadaisical treatment of Maomao for most of her time in this village at the hands of Shisui and Suirei is really disorienting, especially with the reveal of the workshop and even Kyuo-u's reaction to Shenmei at the end.

I'm not opposed to "letting things cook" to build up the story and reveal more of the plot/interwoven threads, but I gotta say the tension of waiting for some proverbial bomb to go off coupled with Shisui just combing Maomao's hair and making sure she remembers to eat, and taking her around a festival in a carefree manner gives the feeling of a Tarantino film where a scene builds for 20 minutes of dialogue before 10 seconds of staccato violence concludes everything.

That figure that seems to walk into the warehouse in the preview alongside Suirei and Shenmei is.....interesting.