So these two episodes see strides being made in the Emperor and the Royal Concubine’s relationship. Hello world! Lu Zhen Recaps are back on! A thousand apologies for the delay, thank you for your patience.
Ep 38 Mini Recap – The One Where Royal Concubine Grows a Heart and the Emperor Grows a pair.
So in this episode the Emperor realizes that he wants to be like Gao Zhan and marry only one woman. He goes to talk with Royal Concubine and tells her that he will wait for her no matter how long it takes. He knows she loves him too and even though she may be blinded by hatred now, he’ll change her heart with his actions.
He’ll make sure that his mother never hurts anyone of them again. After the Emperor leaves, the Royal Concubine smiles so beautifully and sorrowfully, showing that the Emperor’s words really affected her. They’re finally getting their act together.
Meanwhile Lou Shang Shi tries to use Lu Zhen to poison Wang Shang Yi but Lu Zhen only acts like she did. Lou Shang Shi thinks Wang Shang Yi is dead and goes to mourn at her bedside, only to have Wang Shang Yi get up and say that she was only resting because it was the time of the month for her. Lou Shang Shi becomes the laughingstock of the palace for wailing at Wang Shang Yi’s bedside and she vows to kill Lu Zhen.
The Dowager sends Lou Shang Shi out of the palace for a while because it was so embarrassing. The Emperor learns from Shen Jia Yan that the person who has been behind all of Gao Zhan’s assassination attempts is his uncle and at the morning court he sends his uncle to jail and later executing him. The Dowager tries to intervene but the Emperor tells her that he’s known how evil and greedy she is for a long time, it’s time she stopped. He sends her to a temple out of the palace to reflect, effectively stripping her of her power. He warns her that if she tries anything, he will be very cold hearted towards her. The Dowager vows that she will abide her time and then attack.
Ep 39 Mini Recap – Apparently Ancient Chinese are Terrible at Assassination.
The Emperor is sad that he had sent away his horrible mother. The Royal Concubine comes and visits him. She brings him a kite and tells him that in her old country, whenever they were sad or had worries or had things they could not let go they would fly a kite and when it flew high enough they would cut the string. This way their worries would fly away on the wings of the kite.
Shen Bi asks her father to help her kill Lu Zhen, with no other people to back Shen Bi in the palace, she feels the need to act now before Lu Zhen might retaliate against her. Lu Zhen is tricked out of the palace because she needs to find some ceramic powder to help her make her dream of Kingdom of Qi manufacturing ceramics to rival other kingdoms. Lu Zhen is tricked into climbing into a mine shaft (okay I didn’t make that up, but that sentence was too ridiculous to write).
The person who led her in blows up the mine and Lu Zhen is trapped and injured. Gao Zhan and Shen Jia Yan both come to her rescue. Gao Zhan gets hit by a falling rock but they get Lu Zhen out successfully. Gao Zhan carries Lu Zhen back to his palace and he becomes a bit deranged. He is unreasonably angry, refusing for the doctors to look at Lu Zhen and waves his sword at the Emperor and the Royal Concubine who came to see what has happened, even throwing his sword at the royal concubine.
They realize that the falling rock has caused some inner bleeding which impaired his judgment. Shen Jia Yan hits Gao Zhan and makes him unconscious as they treated Lu Zhen. When Gao Zhan wakes up, haven been treated himself, he goes and apologizes to the Royal Concubine, who says she didn’t cause Lu Zhen’s injuries to which he snarks “Really?”.
Later Gao Zhan and Shen Jia Yan come up with a plot to find the killer. Gao Zhan also subtly warns Shen Jia Yan to not have any plans on Lu Zhen, to which Shen Jia Yan denies and its clear that Gao Zhan is a bit jealous of Shen Jia Yan.
Shen Bi almost falls for the plot to find Lu Zhen’s killer only to be rescued by Lou Qing Qiang, who has returned to the palace. Lou Qing Qiang plans to murder the still unconscious Lu Zhen by poisoning the medicine. The eunuch who prepares the medicine leaves the pot with Lu Zhen’s medicine in the care of a friend who basically was sent to poison the medicine. Lu Zhen drinks the poisoned medicine and her condition goes from bad to worse.
Shen Jia Min goes to see her brother about how Gao Zhan is so sweet to Lu Zhen and Shen Jia Yan tells her to give up, which enrages her. Shen Jia Min goes to see the Eldest Princess who says that she will stop Gao Zhan’s folly towards Lu Zhen.
The Eldest Princess is an idiot who acts like she should rule her brother’s heart. Shen Jia Min is the willful child who honestly is missing a couple brain cells which is made up by her colossal spoiledness. Can I say that the Royal Concubine is seriously the best actress in this show? That smile and tears in episode 38 was the epitome of someone who was letting go of all hate, being touched, being sad but no longer bitter, finally falling in love, finally allowing herself to embrace the now instead of the past. I lover her in that one scene where she expressed such a deluge of feelings which allows her character to mature and grow. What makes her character so believable is her that she doesn’t really lose who she is even if she falls in love with the Emperor. She still can be willful and heavy handed but she is now a woman who has fully committed to her husband.
dramatictealeaves 
ohhhhh, so he was brain damaged when he wanted to kill anyone who would take a steap near LZ? I though he was so fed up with all situations where she was nearly dying caused by all the people around him and that is why he did not wan anyone but HIM to see to her… if it was caused because of a brain damage (once again, I am at wonder how apt the doctors were at that time…) it took most of the drama from this scene killing it for me. oh, well.
the RC was great in those episodes but I just loved the Empress Dowager scenes in the temple…. looking at her basking in the light of purity and plotting her comeback… awesome!
The clothes are amazing in this drama, and yes her evilness lies her calm coldness and her vast ambition. I absolutely liked that scene as well