Old Nine Gates 老九门 - Episode 44 (Recap)

kakashi: Do I really need to care about Mo Ce going missing?! *sigh*... or will Er Ye go after her and save her? To live happily ever after and noodle free?! Of course NOT. One of the most pointless and boring episodes yet.
SakiVI: The producers were really dragging everything out.  Must've been written into everyone's contracts: this many lines, these many scenes, too bad no more story needed.

Episode 44 - Mo Ce Goes Missing

Chen Pi is with his woman - he calls himself "Ge" and promises to protect her against all evil. He also wants to go get crabs. She's lovey dovey and so is he ... or so it seems. This is weird. Oh gawd, he calls her Yatou!! Oh no, is he still in his illusion?!
In his illusion, he'd see the real Yatou.

aw, they were actually sweet together.  

Quite understandably, she's afraid he might leave her. A tip, girl: I'd kinda stay away from him full time. She'll just think he's misunderstood.  Oh noes, here comes Ryouko Tanaka with some black-clad men. But Chen Pi has gone for crabs! His "Yatou" is alone at home. Chen Pi is warned by an older man, but he returns too late - the henchmen have taken "Yatou" prisoner! Chen Pi doesn't even know he's called Chen Pi! Wow, definitely in the illusion.
Oh, you mean in the illusion in his head?

Ryouko Tanaka smirks. She's pretty!
Yes, she is!

But Chen Pi has no clue who these people are - he has amnesia. Awww. She thinks he's just a lying liar who lies - and threatens to kill his "Yatou". When Tanaka hears him call her by that name, she says "is this your Yatou?" - and bursts his bubble. Because they're no longer in the meteorite, people don't freeze though. They drag him away. Bye, fake Yatou. 
Poor girl, she just had her man stolen by the Japanese. 

They let Chen Pi sleep/heal at the Chamber of Commerce. Hendry coughs. Oh, is he dying? Sadly, no.  They discuss Chen Pi's illness and conclude it's "a mental one". You don't say. Wretched, "poor" Chen Pi. So he deliberately forgot all the painful memories. I'm crying so much NOT. Hendry pulls horrible faces and declares he wants him to "revive these memories" (by using hypnosis!). Oh no, that probably means boooooring Yatou flashbacks! But Hendry just wants his killer machine back.

You got one of the less horrible faces here, kakashi!  Good work.

While this boring stuff happens, Fo Ye is really hot and really busy. He's discussing Changsha's defense. Trouble is in the air.

Gosh, he's hot. Yes, that's all I've got.

Lt. Zhang comes in and is really pretty. It's what he's for.  He also wants to be alone with Fo Ye. Who doesn't. Exactly. Fo Ye dismisses his men.

Wow, they look so good! I'm distracted. 

The producers knew we'd need this. 

So, his wife wants to see him, but he is too busy. He has to work laaaaate. What a waste. Look at him!
He should be home every night - or Xin Yue with him at the barracks.

When he finally does return (I think he slept in the barracks for a while), she is asleep, but waiting for him in one of those rooms that aren't even proper rooms but just hallways with furniture.
That's mansions for you.

He kisses her and she wakes up - it's already morning! Damn, Fo Ye. Anyway, she has something urgent to tell him: her cousin, Mo Ce, has not shown up to an appointment with her and she is worried! She checked at the hospital, and she hasn't shown up there either for a while. Fo Ye promises to investigate and think it's pretty amusing when Xin Yue suggests he take Er Ye along. Yes, pretty amusing. He'll just mope and think of noodles and curtains. Annoying. 
And Er Ye knows Mo Ce likes him, so he won't want to go in case she thinks she has a chance. 

Anyway, here are two more pictures of Fo Ye. I better hurry or I'll never finish this recap.
Maybe you could just recap with Fo Ye pictures. 

The next day, Fo Ye puts on his grave robber costume (from the earlier episodes) and goes to investigate in the hospital. Lt. Zhang tried to get Er Ye to come, but Er Ye got too drunk the night before. Pffft, he'll be fat and ugly in no time this way.
Then he can mourn Ya Tou without all these pesky women after him.

To cut quite a few minutes short, the hospital director is totally shady and destroys evidence of the parasite virus. Fo Ye and Lt. Zhang realizes something is up with him and Fo Ye has Lt. Zhang shadow him. Ohhh, I'd like to be shadowed by Visual Zhang too! 
Forget shadowing: I want Visual Zhang up front and personal.

At home, Xin Yue shows Fo Ye a letter written in blood she received. It says "save me". That's probably not good.

How did Mo Ce get that out to Xin Yue?

Chen Pi wakes up! It seems Hendry's hypnosis works while one is asleep, how convenient. The Nose remembers and is back to his old, grumpy self. We get to see how he ended up with the wrong Yatou, whose name is actually Meng, but her late parents used to call her Yatou too. WHATEVER. Hendry thinks dirty thoughts (probably correct, though) and tells Chen Pi he should get married to that girl. Hendry, you're so disgusting, get lost. Later, they meet her on the street - Chen Pi saves her from Ryouko Tanaka, but that's as far as he'll go. She's the wrong Yatou. 
I feel bad for her. No way they were not living as husband and wife, and we know how nice Chen Pi is to whatever Yatou he's focused on.

Fo Ye has investigated further and found out that the blood letter was sent from a small village outside of Changsha. Lt. Zhang grilled the hospital director and found out about the parasite. GOOD ON YOU, now move the fuck on! Fo Ye says he'll go to the village to investigate, particularly because it seems the Japanese are somewhere around there too.
Yes, this is all really tedious.  

Lt. Zhang and Fo Ye ride their bikes to the village (cooool. But this was when William Chan got injured, right?).
Isn't that just moving scenery, though?

It's still deserted. Ah no, there is Uncle Three! He claims that the female doctor has left a long time ago. He is acting and looking suspicious though and Fo Ye decides they'll just stand there on a little hill and watch the village patiently. Looking hot. And cool.
At least this episode has plenty of scenes with these two incredibly handsome men.

And indeed, after a while, the villagers leave their houses, furtively, with food. They set it all on a little table and put up candles... is this a memorial service? There is bowing. Fo Ye says they will have to wait until the dark to find out what this is about. 

Comments

Chen Pi with amnesia was really sweet. So are we to think that Yatou is actually the one who makes him a monster?! As long as he didn't remember her, he was perfectly alright.
He was a monster without her. He still remembered a Yatou, and was nice with her until he realized she was not the right Yatou. Except, I like this new Yatou more. Of course, that's not a high bar...

Otherwise: so boring.
They could've just sent Mo Ce with Lt Zhang and Er Ye to investigate instead of having her disappear and then dragging out the searching for her.