Maomao is drawn deeper into the rear palace's dangers, and the consequences of her actions become more perilous as she faces the enemies she seemingly made.
Maomao is finally caught in the thick of the rear palace’s dangers in the 40th episode of The Apothecary Diaries. Titled Festering Resentment, threads and hints quietly scattered across the season’s slower episodes finally come together; but too late for Maomao, who walks straight into a trap laid by Suirei.
Warning: Spoilers ahead
In this episode, Maomao runs an errand for her adoptive father, Luomen, and is tasked with delivering a piece of text to his old friend, Xiaolan's teacher and the eunuch who oversees the Shrine of Choosing. Luomen’s favour was a subtle request for his friend to use the text as material for the eunuch’s students to practise by copying it word-per-word. However, Maomao realises Luomen’s true intention: to spread warnings discreetly throughout the rear palace at a faster rate.
Speaking with the elderly eunuch, Maomao learns that Luomen has previously distributed similar messages to caution the court ladies about poisonous substances that could endanger them or any children they might bear. As this realisation dawns on her, the pieces fall into place: the events within the palace, including the items in the Caravan, were not mere coincidences. Maomao hurries to the clinic, where she finds Shenlu and offers her some distilled alcohol while inwardly trying to figure out what is truly going on.
Soon after, Suirei is revealed to be the beautiful eunuch, when she appears in the doorway and warns Shenlu about Maomao. Suirei then threatens Maomao by holding a weapon to Shisui's neck, demanding that Maomao come quietly.
Elsewhere in the imperial court, Lakan invites the emperor’s brother and Shishou for some drinks. Lakan brings up a Feifa design and asks if Shishou knows anything about it, before suddenly changing the topic to rave about the Go moves his wife, Fengxian, made when they played. Later on, he serves a bright green drink in front of Shishou and deliberately tells him that it is a very deep red, to which Shishou agrees. After this, the emperor’s brother retreats to a secluded room where he removes the cloth covering his face and hair. It is revealed that behind the mask was not Jinshi, but Ah-Duo.
Although the wheels are finally turning in terms of the dangers of the rear palace now directly involving Maomao, it was overall a sleepy episode, except perhaps for a very intriguing portion where Lakan and Shishou had refreshments with the “emperor’s brother,” who was in fact the former high-ranking concubine Ah-Duo. Lakan has a way of stirring things up when everything seems perfectly normal, so watching him tread through the world of politics is quite amusing.
Perhaps the reason why some parts of the episode felt sleepy was that the anime skipped a lot of material from both the light novel and the manga. It is understandable that things were cut due to limited time and resources, but it felt as though some of the more emotional and intellectual musings of the characters, especially Maomao, were glossed over, so that certain scenes lacked context and events progressed a bit too quickly.
Maybe the episode could have benefited from a few more minutes to flesh out just a few more inner dialogues, allowing the audience to feel the turmoil within Maomao when she was cornered by Suirei and Shenlu. It also does not help that Suirei’s expressions and voice were so flat and devoid of emotion (possibly a deliberate decision) so that it came across as less threatening and dire than it should have been.
Maomao’s kidnapper: Suirei
Once again, Maomao was outsmarted by Suirei, and this time it allowed Suirei to kidnap her. To be fair to Maomao, although she knew that Suirei was probably still alive, she likely did not expect her to infiltrate the rear palace disguised as a eunuch. Since the first episode of the second season, Maomao has always observed how danger lurks around every corner, and while she kept those things in mind, she is certainly not all-knowing to the point of predicting Suirei’s every move.
However, the bigger question is, who is Suirei connected to? Why is she so intent on bringing down the imperial family? Is it only the imperial brother that she is after?
Festering malice within the palace
What may have blindsided Maomao is the festering malice within the palace itself. One of the most obvious pieces of evidence is Shenlu and the older women in the clinic. At first, it may have seemed as though the clinic only had older women serving because they needed people with experience, but eventually it bothered Maomao: the fact that these women never leave the rear palace is a mystery. When audiences and Maomao connect it to the previous emperor, who had a taste for very young girls, as early as the age of ten, it becomes entirely possible that some of the women in the clinic were once young girls that the previous emperor took advantage of.
Eventually, most of these women, trapped with nobody caring for their wellbeing and sanity, would have grown up with resentment festering through the years. As they grew older, trapped within the palace walls, younger women, mostly of age, would come in and be taken care of by the new emperor’s regime, with some gaining his favour and being treated with a certain level of care. It is not just a recipe for petty jealousy, but one that could build a handful of vengeful older women who know better and use the knowledge they have to prevent child-bearing. This is most likely the case with Shenlu.
In fact, Shenlu, who most believed was simply an intelligent and caring woman from the clinic, has probably one of the deepest layers in her character. On the surface, she discovers that Lady Lihua is likely pregnant. She sends a list of things to avoid for pregnant women—something that appears wise and caring, but also potentially serves as a long shot to subtly inform any resentful lady-in-waiting about Lihua’s vulnerable state. Actually, if Shenlu has been around for a long time, she may have known about the history between Lihua and her resentful cousin, Shin. Using the opportunity by reaching out to a sick servant at the Crystal Pavilion, Shenlu could never be directly framed for what Shin attempted—Shin acted on her own after learning the details from the clinic.
Whatever her connection with Suirei may be will be revealed in the coming episodes. However, it is most likely tied to the Imperial Family. Suirei, knowing full well that Maomao is a smart girl who can foil plots like the imperial brother’s assassination attempt, would naturally see Maomao as a threat to any plan of seizing power.
The Fox and the Raccoon: Lakan and Shishou
Lakan and Shishou are two of the most powerful men after the emperor in the anime, and their dynamics play out with clever precision in this episode. Lakan, known for being sharp, sly, and manipulative, much like a fox, seems to know that Shishou is indirectly involved in the assassination attempt. During their conversation, he effortlessly puts pressure on Shishou, laying out clear hints without directly accusing him. Instead, Lakan slyly baits Shishou, while the Prime Minister, always shrewd and power-hungry like a raccoon, stays composed, pretending to have no idea what is going on. Even when Lakan points out how mass-producing the Feifa could revolutionise warfare, Shishou does not flinch, which is odd if he truly wanted to maintain an act of innocence.
Amid this tense exchange, Lakan’s brief shift to discussing his wife’s Go skills offers a rare moment of comic relief. While it is a light-hearted diversion, it also subtly hints at Lakan’s genuine affection for Fengxian, Maomao’s real mother. The awkwardness it causes with both the emperor’s brother and Shishou adds a layer of complexity to the scene, as it momentarily humanises Lakan in the eyes of the viewers.
However, the transition back to the more serious plot is jarring when Lakan pours the grape juice, calling it red even though it is clearly green. This moment feels like another subtle test. Shishou’s lack of reaction to the incorrect colour hints at a deeper connection to the Imperial bloodline’s potential colour blindness. Lakan’s casual comment, “just like my uncle said,” suggests he has been quietly putting pieces together with Luomen, gathering knowledge while continuing to manipulate the situation.
The emperor’s brother and Ah-Duo
As the imperial brother and Basen are left alone, it is revealed that it was not actually Jinshi standing there, but Lady Ah-Duo disguised as him to avoid raising suspicion about his absence. For anime viewers, this scene may have caused some initial confusion over who was behind the mask and why the voice did not sound like Jinshi’s. Once the reveal settles in, the striking resemblance between Ah-Duo and Jinshi becomes impossible to ignore, almost as if Jinshi were a copy-and-paste version of her.
This resemblance naturally raises deeper questions. Was Jinshi truly the son of the previous emperor, or could he have been Ah-Duo’s child instead? The theory connects back to Episode 11, when Ah-Duo left the rear palace and told Maomao that her son had "left" her rather than died. At the time, Maomao even wondered whether the babies might have been swapped—and if so, whether Jinshi could have been the child in question.
Meanwhile, it is a slight disappointment that Jinshi’s immediate reaction to Maomao’s disappearance is not shown directly. Instead, Ah-Duo explains that Jinshi has already rushed off with Gaoshun to search for her, leaving the emotional impact of that moment to the viewers’ imagination.
The full reactions of Jinshi, the Jade Pavilion, and others might be revealed in the next episode. Maomao’s disappearance is bound to set things in motion, and hopefully, TOHO Animation will capture the characters' emotions more vividly, like in earlier episodes.
If you want to revisit insights and theories from previous episodes, here's a compilation of every review so far for The Apothecary Diaries Season 2.