When a Snail Falls in Love 如果蜗牛有爱情 - Episode 18 (Recap)

kakashi: Xu Xu goes in frantic search of Ji Bai who, I may as well tell you, isn't dead but alive and kicking. Kicking bad guys.
Trotwood: Umm. Were you talking? I think I cut myself on that jawline.
Eleanor: That jawline makes me think all sorts of thoughts. And those lips, don't get me started...
JoAnne: Imagine a historical drama where we have Wang Kai and Mark Chao competing for the lady. *backs away slowly from the carnage about to ensue*

Episode 18

The explosion is massive. And the entire team knows, or at least strongly suspects, what just blew up! Everybody starts moving in the direction of the supermarket. Xu Xu gets to the site on a tri-bike (her colleagues were out drinking together and the phones don't work--where did she get that bike? First Monkey and his scooter and now this. Are these things just randomly lying around in Myanmar?) - and we see that the damage is horrifying. The military personnel there won't let Xu Xu get any closer. No information for her either, however frantically she asks, they shoo her away.
How come I get the feeling they just don't care that much?
You too, huh? I've been suspicious of them from the get-go.
Doesn't she have some sort of badge she can flash around? I thought police people have to carry identification around. I mean, maybe the guy still wouldn't have cared, but it seems weird that she wouldn't have some sort of ID identifying her as police. 
A bit to the side, there is an agitated man talking about eight attackers who beat up two people, one guy bled from the head a lot. Xu Xu shows him a pic of Ji Bai, but he says it's not him. Before he changes his mind and says it looks like him. He says they drove off in a car. Poor Xu Xu. Everything is so frustrating, they can barely communicate, his English is very poor.
She shows him more pictures and he recognizes the white van Monkey followed earlier! That's the car, he claims. Xu Xu gets herself a taxi and goes straight to that Casino that they identified as bad guy lair. On the way there, the taxi driver warns "the little girl" against gambling. Yeah, gambling is bad. Not that Xu Xu cares.
I usually get offended when men call women little girls and act in this way, but honestly, she does look like a kid here with those suspenders and all.
Yeah, I had a male colleague call me "girl" the other day. Made me want to punch him, but I held back. Xu Xu's look in this episode is quite cute though. Such fashionable police we have here.
I think it depends, that 'girl.' There's a guy at work (my age) who will occasionally say it to me if we're joking around, but I'm just as likely to 'boy' him. We graduated high school the same year, we have the same memories of those times, so it feels like we're kids again. It's not patronizing in the slightest bit. If a stranger did it, though... In this case, she looks like an actual kid.
Once she gets to the location, she looks at the entrance, but doesn't go in just yet - she first checks out the back. The white van in parked there, behind a blue (sturdy and locked) gate. There is blood on the ground, right next to that van. I guess that's a good sign?!
Why? Because if you are still bleeding it means you aren't dead?
LOL I think it just confirms to her that maybe Ji Bai isn't blown into a bajillion pieces. Well, at least she hopes that. 
We all hope that.
Now she turns around and enters the casino ... putting on some glasses as disguise. (because that ALWAYS works. Pfft. But honestly what else would she have? She had to find that bike thingy; she couldn't also buy a disguise) I dunno. Sometimes when I've walked around with my glasses instead of my usual contacts, people don't recognise me when they walk by. It's super weird. She exchanges some money for chips and then tells the lady behind the bar (she looks posh, we later find out she's the manager) that her phone isn't working in here and she's waiting for her mum. Can she please help her find Xu Xu if she gets here? She will wear a red dress and a bag. Suuuuure. Not such a bad cover though, it sounds detailed enough not to be a blatant lie.
Also, the glasses are cute.
Xu Xu mingles and plays a bit (she's the only woman participating in gambling by the way!), but in reality, she is checking out the security. She then tries to get into one of the upper floor corridors, but a guard stops her. She claims she's looking for a toilet! And she can't go to the one outside, because her mum will be back any minute. The manager at the bar knows her mum, by the way, they're friends. Xu Xu waves enthusiastically to the other woman and she waves back. Ha! Smart.
I actually laughed out loud at this--out of admiration.
Way to go XuXu! 
I just typed 'our smart girl' and then erased it.
The guard buys her story and lets her pass. As we know, Xu Xu has memorized (or at least studied) the floor plans, which is good, because this looks a lot like a maze. Soon, she runs into another guard or dude just hanging around. That's not good. She lies that she has come to pay her debt ... or rather, her brother's debt. 
It looks like the guy believes her? But he locks her up inside a room. An office of sorts? With a security camera. And a fridge in the corner. Anyway, Xu Xu - she's so smart! And lucky, I guess - manages to get the key that the guy deposits outside on a ledge with the help of a magnet from the fridge.
That was clever AF.
Haha, she is too small to put the key back on the ledge! So she just drops it outside and continues to search for Ji Bai. She does come to a room with wounded people in it, two of them, bleeding heavily. Only it's not Ji Bai at all. Ji Bai did this to them, hahahaaaaa. But where is he?! Xu Xu, get out!
Yup. This was funny, too. She's searching for him, thinking something horrible has happened to him, and she's only finding the trail of people he's beat up.
Haha good work Ji Bai! But yeah, GET OUT OF THERE XUXU!!! 
She is almost at an exit when the bad guys catch up with her: there is a massive amount of them, too! She runs away, screaming ... and from one of the rooms, Ji Bai appears and beats the crap out of the gangsters. Buying them a bit of time, he grabs Xu Xu's hand and they flee together. They get to the front room of the casino and the gamblers start fleeing in panic. Okay, Ji Bai is an excellent fighter, and so yum. They run out (the rest of the team also got there), just as the military and Tisa arrives, blocking the gangsters off.
I still don't trust that Tisa. He's too...I don't know...casual? about things.
Tisa has a stare-down with the manager and says they want to investigate illegal drug trade and prostitution at their venue.
How come I felt like he was actually trying to seduce her? I know this isn't true in the scheme of the story, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he had grabbed her, dragged her in some room and kissed her like she was the woman who had left him for his best friend even though they were in love long ago. So he hates/loves her. (I know. I know. This doesn't make sense. It's the mirrored sun glasses effect)
Ahahahahahaha I love it. 
It's because he gives off an air of decadence and corruption just by standing there, complete with vaguely menacing aura of testosterone.
Xu Xu says someone really important in Brother Lu's gang must be in that casino right now. How does she know? Because they knew immediately that she was lying when she said she was here to pay a debt. She thinks they knew she is a police officer. Someone saw her through the CCTV camera, someone who knows her! Brother Lu? No, that seems unlikely.
They make a lot of assumptions in general, but really a lot in this particular arc. There are so many other explanations for why they suspected her: she was the only woman in the place, one. They wouldn't have let someone upstairs to pay a debt unaccompanied, two. They probably never have people come to them to pay debts at all, preferring to handle that elsewhere, three. And on and on.
There is someone else, says Ji Bai. Someone who recognizes her. I'll be damned ... he must be speaking about Uncle Zishan! They go in and search the place with the help of the military. He is nowhere to be found, but our Xu Xu is the smartest. She realizes there must be a secret room besides a more obvious secret room (with an obvious hidden door)!



From there, it does not take them long to find a hidden door behind a cabinet.

There's a keypad. Xu Xu says they should try 1-1-4-5-#. That's not it. 1-1-5-4-#, then. No. She tries more combinations. Ji Bai pushes her aside - he's got this. 5-4-1-5-#. For 15 54th Street. The door opens. And there he is, Zishan. Trying to flush drugs down the toilet. Gotcha, you demon.
I completely missed how they knew these numbers. Please someone explain.
I don't remember. It's been too long since I watched T____T
Well, Ji Bai guessed that Zishan, being from the digital non-native camp would set one of those common-mistake password: your address. The casino is at that address, 15 54th Street. And Su Su just wanted to try out all combos, she said as much.
Zishan, the turd, in his throne room.


Comments

People, set better passwords, haha. 
Anyway, this was very satisfying. Kind of a lucky catch, all things considered, but the police needs luck almost more than anything. 

Two hands up if you are glad that Ji Bai is in one piece, with a very white shirt.
Doesn't make sense how that shirt is so white. I wonder if he buys them at the same place our Beautiful Banker bought his.http://dr-myri-blog.blogspot.com/2015/07/my-beautiful-bride-episode-6.html
Ji Bai in white is 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 The photo of Wang Kai dressed in this Ji Bai white shirt before shooting these scenes for Snail is a pretty popular one on social media. He just looks sooooooooo sooooooooo good in that white shirt and jeans combo *sighs*
It's a classic the world over.