Prince of Lan Ling Episode 46

I begin this last episode with trepidation. I know once it ends I'll fall into a deep bout of the "Now What'll I Watch?" blues.

 

 

Prince of An De brings Xiao Cui to stay with Xue Wu while the menfolk go off to fight. Xue Wu asks her husband if she can at least keep Snowy the faithful horse with her.

 

The Zhou army is just five miles away from Ye City. King Yuwen Yung learns about Duan Shao's execution scheduled for noon that day. Yung surprises his advisors by ordering everyone to hold off and just observe until after noon. Does Yung know who Duan Shao is and knows Chang Gong will be staging a rescue attempt?

 

Zheng Er is still in the (nearly empty) palace. She has the chained imperial tutor brought before her. Duan Shao demands she just kill him and get it over with. Zheng Er informs the prisoner she needs him alive as bait. It must be working as a report is brought in of spotting the masked assassin in the city. He's even sent the empress a message. "A life for a life."

 

The masked man has the audacity to simply ride up to the steps of the palace. A confident Zheng Er orders the mysterious assassin to take off his mask. What he does do is pull out some smoke bombs, run up the steps, take Zheng Er hostage and carry her off to another location. Zheng Er tells Gao Chang Gong to release her. The warrior takes off the mask to reveal

 

Holy crap, it's Xue Wu! Another awesome fake-out, Show! Damn, you're good.

 

Chang Gong and his masked merry men are about to leave An De Manor to go rescue Duan Shao when something odd happens. Shi Shen and the merry men all turn and block Chang Gong's way. Shi Shen explains he's following Xue Wu's orders. She's wanting to save her husband from the taint of killing his own kinsman. Also, the prince is the only one qualified to take over the throne after Gao Wei is dealt with. Therefore she will be playing the part of the Lone Gunman in this assassination.

 

Chang Gong orders his brother-in-arms to either kill him or step aside. Shi Shen asks for a chance to make it up to the prince by aiding in the rescue attempt.

 

Xue Wu holds a knife to Zheng Er's throat as she demands to know where Duan Shao and/or Gao Wei is. Zheng Er presses her throat against the knife. She goes through the list of all the terrible things she's survived through this show. In other words it's going to take a lot more than a big knife to scare the shit out of her. (She does have a point, ya know.)

 

The women are interrupted by Chang Gong. He takes over holding the knife to Zheng Er's neck and ordering her to take them to Gao Wei. Suddenly Xue Wu is hit with an arrow from the battlements. It's Gao Wei and he's already got another arrow nocked. He first aims it at his old rival but then Gao Wei swings over to release the projectile at Zheng Er.

 

Xue Wu realizes the arrow in her chest is poisonous. Chang Gong picks her up and leaves everyone behind to go find a doctor. Gao Wei comes down to untie Zheng Er and tell her he knew all along she was poisoning him. He knew she didn't love him but he had hoped if he was patient and waited long enough she would finally feel some kind of affection for him. He's lost everything: his people, his army, his kingdom - all for her. 

 

Gao Wei pulls the bottle of Ancient Chinese Ambien from Zheng Er's robes and downs the entire contents. Everybody has blood coming out of their mouth. Everybody has a death scene.

 

Chang Gong is pleading with his wife to hang on as he carries her along. Xue Wu knows its too late and asks for him to stop. (Now I'm having Bridal Mask flashbacks.) She gives him permission to find himself another wife, provided the other woman isn't prettier or smarter than Xue Wu. Seriously, she says that. Chang Gong swears she will be the only wife he will ever have. With one last request, to take care of Ping An, Xue Wu makes a beautiful corpse.

 

For some reason the Qi soldiers in the city start herding all the townspeople into shacks so they can be burned alive. This is so masked An De and his men can come to the rescue. In the midst of the fighting an extra comes to announce Gao Wei's death. An De takes off his mask and orders the Qi soldiers to stop harassing the people as the war is now over. The soldiers run off. An De's people free the townsfolk who are glad Gao Wei is dead and are actually looking forward to the Zhou coming in.

 

An De rides out alone to meet with Yung. He's the one who has to break the news to the king about Xue Wu's death. It's a bittersweet victory for Yung as he rides into the city and takes over the throne. He orders everyone to turn around so they won't see his tears of sorrow. 

 

Time passes and now it's Yung's turn to have a bloody mouth death scene as the poison in his system finally gets to him. 

 

An De tells how Prince of Lan Ling disappeared after the loss of Ye City and hasn't been seen since. Perhaps its for the best as Chang Gong, off raising his son alone, has now grown a pornstache.

 

 

 

And I leave you with that.