Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花 - FINAL Episode 58 (Recap)

kakashi: We're at the end, my friends. What a delightful journey.
JoAnne: We still haven't recovered from what was basically a meteor strike dead center of our drama lives.
Will we ever? My normal drama life feels extinct, like the dinosaurs. 

FINAL Episode 58

Bai Qian and her 4th Bro witness Su Jin being left by her husband and Bai Qian understands: her brother brought her here to see this. She thinks Su Jin has paid the price she owed her - there are no more ties between them now. Good. Is Su Jin going to be reincarnated in a miserable life again and again? Maybe this is better than her being a worm.
Nope. Well, okay, maybe.
The siblings go and have tea - and fate wants it that the one serving it is Ghost Princess Yan Zhi. Awww, Yan Zhi is flustered and cute when she recognizes Si Yin. And awwwwww, look at her adopted daughter.
Wow, that dead baby boy turned into a really cute little girl.
Right then, A-Li appears (he saw his mother's aura through the clouds). Damn, Bai Qian has just left him in the Heavens for three years? And no visits? So sad. She claims she didn't visit because she has been asleep for three years - she only woke up from her dreams yesterday. That makes me sad too ... does that mean she wants to move on? By the way, A-Li is on his way to visit his father's "grave" at the Sea of Innocence.
Yeah, I won't say anything about this except that it pissed me off pretty badly. Okay but I will say this: HOW COULD SHE? No excuse. Just inexcusable, unforgivable, absolutely shameful.
Up in the Heavens, the annoying cousin and 2nd Prince's son are bowing in front the the Heavenly Lord. Asshat wants to grant Yuan Zhen compensation for mistreating him - and Yuan Zhen wishes to visit High God Bai Qian, his Shifu from the mortal realm (she has too high a status for him to just waltz in). The cousin thinks he's stupid for wishing for something so lame, plus, mentioning Bai Qian (or Ye Hua) in the Heavens is not a good idea. Asshat gets depressed and walks off. 
When they walk out of the Asshat hall, the annoying cousin is annoying and  annoyingly steals the Cloud Clearing Fan from Yuan Zhen, because she wants to pay back "a friend" who lent her money. Did I mention annoying.
Why is she even here? Again? Completely superfluous. 
I am happy to see that Bai Qian does not longer give a f*** about the Sea of Innocence being off bounds for non Celestials and neither does 4th Bro, because they're both there. A-Li asks Bai Qian whether she misses Ye Hua again and she says she misses him all the time. A-Li is convinced his father is invincible and Bai Qian considers herself fortunate to know both sons of the Heavenly Father. One as mentor and one as husband. Since then, she has no eyes for other men. Yes, we know the feeling around here.
The look on A Li's face though. Not sure he buys it.
Awww, look who's here! It's Sixteenth! He leads them to Ye Hua's coffin and I can't help but think how unsafe it is up there on those pathways without any railing. Plus, it looks like they've cryogenically frozen Ye Hua in that basalt crystal coffin.
I keep meaning to look up the properties of basalt. They act like it's a big deal. I also keep noticing the slack in those chains, which shouldn't be there.
... unless it's floating, which on an air cushion, which it probably is.
Sweetiepie A-Li bows and apologizes for not visiting for three years, but they kept him locked up in the Palace for studying. >.< Bai Qian converses with Ye Hua in her head and tells him that finally, he can get some rest. No more endless reports, no more conquests to make. 4th Bro looks at her sadly and then takes A-Li by the hand to give Bai Qian some time alone with Ye Hua. What else would she do but fall asleep!
I think I'd probably try to nap right on top of that crystal coffin.
Ohhhhhhh, Ye Hua appears!!! He is but a dream again ... or more? This encounter seems different.
Lotus dreams.
It's goodbye from A-Li afterwards and Bai Qian advises him to leave some of the books out if there are too many. She mainly wants him to be happy. However, A-Li knows he will be Heavenly Lord one day, so study he must! She: "You really are Ye Hua's son, you don't take after me at all." Ahahahaaa.
Doesn't everyone up there know she's really his mother? Why isn't she raising him? Yeah okay Heavenly Lord training and all that, but she should at least be seeing him regularly, if not sharing a home.
After everybody has left, the air around the crystal basalt coffin starts to glow and in the Nine Heavens, the sky is full of rainbow birds. What could this mean? Sixteenth leaves his post at the Sea of Innocence to report: the coffin is swarmed over by celestial blessings! Oh, I wonder whether I can get some of those? Anyway, this means: Ye Hua is back! He is BAAAACK! (did Bai Qian's visit do this?) Sixteenth is told to fetch Mo Yuan.
I knew they wouldn't leave us all unhappy like that.(I didn't, actually. I was really mad and upset when they killed him.)
Mo Yuan is STILL wearing the nipple robe. He is lucky I forgive him everything. Anyway, he does magickz...
I just imagined this scene with Bai Qian present and Mo Yuan doing his thing, making sure his his finger moves were perfect, thinking 'that's right, girl, you coulda had all THISSSS...'
... and Ye Hua is lifted out of his coffin. It looks silly so I won't gif it :) After some more magickz, Ye Hua opens his eyes.
He really DOES look fantastic lying down, doesn't he?
Mo Yuan tells him to go to Seventeenth straight away - she has been waiting for him for three years (and btw, hint, hint, the cenotaph she made for him is in Three Miles Peach Blossom). Ye Hua says, with tears in his eyes: "Thank you ... Da-ge."
My heart explodes.
As does Mo Yuan's
He kowtows to his family and then first walks, then runs across the rope bridge to go find his Qian Qian.
He never poofs when it would be most logical to poof.
There is no logical pattern to their poofing activities. Bai Qian also walked all through the realms in one of the episodes. And later, in this one, she flies over the orchard like a bird
Not knowing anything about this, Bai Qian is in the mortal realm again, watching opera in the teahouse. The annoying cousin comes running, glad to meet her again. They talk about how tragic the play is (Bai Qian says life is more tragic) and the annoying cousin starts speaking about her "highly talented cousin who died young" blabla and then continues to talk about how he isn't dead anymore blabla, which is a total secret, but she's just so dumb and annoying.
How would she know, she's a mortal now isn't she? And it only happened minutes ago anyway. Fail.
Well, she was there when the grown-ups found out from Sixteenth. Plus, I don't think she's a mortal anymore, I think she just likes to play in the mortal realm because she's completely useless and her life has no meaning
Anyway, Bai Qian confirms that cousin she is talking about is Ye Hua and goes straight to the Nine Heavens. She even transforms into a nine-tailed fox in her anxiety (or because she's faster that way?). But there is no Ye Hua at Xiwu Palace. The maids, who know nothing about Ye Hua's resurrection, are mighty confused when Bai Qian demands to see "His Highness", who, they assure her, is dead and burried. Bai Qian looks crushed ...
Maybe she should go back and beat annoying cousin's behind.
She stumbles outside ... and there is Shifu! He knew she'd come here and has come himself to explain everything to her (and us). Here it goes: Heavenly Father used half his powers in the transfer of the celestial fetus into a golden lotus. Those powers have been hidden in Ye Hua's spirit. When Ye Hua slayed the 4 monsters at Yingzhou he attained the other half of his daddy's power from them. 1/2 + 1/2 = 1 full powerful Ye Hua. He used all this power to curb the destructive energy from the Bell of the East Emperor - his own spirit was wounded from the collision of those two powers and he went into a "cycle of slumber". He would have slept for decades, but luckily, that basalt crystal coffin with its cryogenic powers did shorten his resting phase. Thanks, Mo Yuan, makes sense.
Not really. Remember how weak he was after fighting the monsters? He wasn't powered up, not by a long shot. But it's not really worth arguing over. Ye Hua is back and that's what matters.
And there he is. Wearing something that's not all black.
Aren't they stylized peach blossoms?
"Qian Qian, come here" he says.
We all go mush, instantly.
Who could refuse.
No one I have ever met. Well, Saki. But I think she's just trying to look cool, and secretly she's fangirling her heart out.
Cut to Yan Zhi and her cutie pie daughter. They're at Kunlun! And so is Sixteenth, lingering, I guess, after fetching Shifu to the basalt coffin. He runs into them at the gates. It kills me a little how delighted he is to see her, trying to hide it. Why has she come, he asks when he remembers how to speak again? To have her daughter greet her savior, is the answer. 
What is this bounty? We get Ye Hua alive again and my second favorite romance restored? What country did I save in a previous life?
They look at each other in silence for a while until she asks whether he has been at Kunlun all this time? He lies and says he was. His Master didn't get mad at him for making an elixir for the Ghost Tribe nor have his seniors picked on him. She is relieved to hear this and turns to go. Noooooo! "Hold on!" he says and we all expect ... but no. He remembers who he is and tells her to never come to Kunlun again (though it clearly breaks his heart). THE END (of 16th and Ghost Princess)
...Not.Cool.
Up on the Mountain, Mo Yuan smiles when Second says that Seventeenth can finally get married, now that Ye Hua has returned. He knows we're writing awesome fanfic for him, that's why he is so happy. And wow, I'd like to live at Kunlun (with him). It's gorgeous.
I would really like to to take the Easter Egg Dipping Spoon and the crumpled up chicken wire out of Mo Yuan's hair.
And I want to get him out of the nipple robe and burn it
Back at 3310 Peach Street, Ye Hua and Bai Qian have handed A-Li over to Zhe Yan and 4th Bro - for 7 rounds of Go. A-Li isn't even trying to win. Fine, Zhe Yan promises him to tell stories about his mother when she was little! Oh yes, that's always fun.
Yes! But where did Mom and Dad go?
They're just over there
Bai Qian tells Ye Hua how she always dreamt of him and couldn't make out the dream from reality after a while. Naturally, she would sleep whole days away to be with him in her dreams. To assure her this is not a dream, he tells her everything that happened between them, starting with the black snake, ending when he met her again the Crystal Palace. He knew: Whether she was Su Su or Qian Qian, it was just her. 
Don't just rub his face. Kiss the man!

THE END

Comments

I could write a long essay about how I do and do not like this last episode, but I will not! It doesn't matter, really, because in its entirety, this drama is a phenomenon and I want to honor it as such. I want to highlight how intense (and exhausting, but in a good way) the time with it was and how much I valued the great response our recaps got from you guys, our Peaches! You broke all records. You are funny, smart, creative people and it feels like I made a ton of friends - the kind I want to stay friends with until the end of my days. Ha! Yes, I'm almost crying.
This has been unique - partly because of the life these actors gave our lovers, but more because of the community that sprang up around us while we experienced the story. Isn't it funny how you can find these little corners of the internet that feel like home?

And now, you've ALL GRADUATED FROM PEACH BLOSSOM ACADEMY! Yaaaaaay! 
Now go get a job!

*****

If you crave more, come read our Fanfics!

MoYuan x Bai Qian by LalaLoop --> here
Mo Yuan x Bai Qian by Bunny --> here
Mo Yuan x Shao Wan (his OTP according to the writer of this story) --> here!