Episode 10 Summary: The Mad Queen

-The episode begins with someone trying to strangle Li'er, who has been ordered to remain in bed for 7 days to stabilize the child. This person turns out to be the Dowager Queen, and she looks crazy, screaming at Li'er and insisting that she stop trying to steal her man

-The emperor comes in and pulls her off, and has the queen taken back to her palace and guards ordered to protect Li'er night and day. he asks how Li'er is, if she is scared, etc. and Li'er learns that the woman was his mother. She asks about it, and also tells him other than this, she has no desire to hear his voice or see him. Interestingly, the emperor seems used to this and does not yell her. He encourages her to recover before leaving.

-The emperor visits his mother and reminds her that Lu Buwei has left the city and is gone and that Li'er is his concubine. She flies into a tearful rage, and it is really sad to watch as she cries and asks him if he is happy now that her innocent children are dead and Lu Buwei is gone and her lover the marquis is dead.

-he becomes angry and tells her that her lover tried to kill him and the children were illegitimate so they did not matter and were a threat. she begs him to let her be reunited with Lu Buwei (I think he is her true love) because the palace is lonely and cold and scary and he orders a prescription be prepared to keep her calm before leaving.---now this scene is filmed wonderfully, because the director does a good job of showing how desolate she is, and it also gives Zheng to directly confront her for how her behavior has hurt him and his reign--and the scene of the the outside of the southern palace, where all you do is here her scream, is really sad

-Meanwhie, Ruo'er continues to express jealousy over Li'er's good fortune. She feels powerless to change her fate and resents Li'er who seems to have waltzed in from nowhere and just had everything handed to her (it would probably infuriate her if she learned Li'er didn't even want any of this). Zhao Gao appears to investigate her and he accepts her bribe.

-Zhao Gao visits the emperor and Li'er and says he hasn't found anything, but the emperor is very observant and states that he knows, but won't tell him. Zhao Gao behaves very suspiciously, and he is about to be executed. Li'er tells him not do this but the emperor says that if he doesn't no one will fear him and thus he will lose power

-Li'er is able to stop the execution by stating that she does not others to hate and resent her and the child because people died for them. So he lets him live.

-The emperor still wants to know who did this. Li Zhong then reveals that an outsider tried to break into the palace--she immediately know who it is and inquires--which raises Zheng's suspicions but he chooses to not pursue it.

-She cries all alone for Jin Ke and prays that he finds happiness and remain safe.

-Li'er then stops eating. And the emperor says that if she doesn't eat he won't eat. she says she will starve herself to death, and so he forcefeeds her by putting food in his mouth and making her eat. He says if she does not eat he will continue to do this--and that works.

-Jin Ke is a mess. Tuan rescues him, and he is basically courting death and looking to be killed. Lan'er and her father intervene, but Jin Ke rejects their hospitality and says they shouldn't have intererested. He is very bitter, very rude and unhappy. This I think stirs some sort of empathy in Gao Nie, who asks him to be his disciple--and basically tells him that if he is stronger he can protect Li'er

Final Thoughts: I thin that Zheng's explanation for why he needed to kill people--to gain their loyalty--well that says a lot about him--and essentially explains his relationship with Li'er; he feels he must use fear and intimidation to keep her by his side otherwise she will leave. In a way, I think this might imply that he thinks he is not worthy of love, since his mother, he thinks, never loved him. His confrontation with his mother also suggests this, as he accuses her of never behaving like a mother. He expects people to betray him, and he does not expect them to like them. He has used his power to force people to do things because otherwise they won't. And that includes keeping the woman he cares about by his side.

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