Old Nine Gates 老九门 - Episode 48 FINAL (Recap)

kakashi: WE MADE IT! Actually, I was quite certain everyone I care for would die in this episode. Fo Ye does not have any descendants in The Lost Tomb, right? But then I realized that Fo Ye cannot die, because Changsha is Fo Ye and Fo Ye is Changsha. How I know this? The exposition fairy told me.
SakiVI: Yay for Changsha, which never caved to the Japanese! Yay for Fo Ye who always knew the Japanese were doing secret experiments! 

Episode 48 - Defending Changsha

And just like that, we're back at the Sacred Bai Qiao Tree with the coffins. Ba Ye wants an explanation for why they're staring at it and Fo Ye says: You've never wondered why the remains of dead children on this tree never rot? Or why the Japanese wanted a coffin from it to make their deadly disease? No, Fo Ye, we haven't wondered too much, to be honest. But the answer is: The third meteorite - it is buried beneath the tree! What a turning point!
Sigh, okay. 

Our pretty leader Shi Huai Chan does not permit any tree touching (or rather meteorite taking) though. Fo Ye just laughs at her: the meteorite has long since become one with the tree. Even if he wanted to take it, he couldn't. It's a wrap! Meteorite storyline.... over!
Oh, good.

Next, we're with Er Ye, who is making himself a coffin in his family crypt. How chipper. Were your ancestors Ice Tribe Kings? Bwahahahahaha! We get to see maaaaaany Yatou flashbacks, it's quite unbearable. Mo Ce comes looking for him with medicine. She thinks he's wacko, but he's says "I'm just making a coffin for myself". Yes, sure, people do that everyday. He also has all those fantasies about how they'll reunite with Yatou in the underworld. Okay, is this a wrap too? No more Yatou?
He becomes awesome in his Side Story, so hopefully this is the case.  

Hendry Cox alert! He has found his way to the Sacred Tree! Where was he when the disease pot didn't happen? Chilling at home? Anyway, the exposition fairy must have told him where the third meteorite is - but she left out some of the important details (like the meteorite fusing with the tree), because he starts digging greedily, until his hands bleed. Oookay. Another one a few candles short of a menora. But he does find parts of a map, pointing to the Biaozi mountains. And after that, Hendry Cox was not seen anymore. It's a wrap!! Done with the Cox!   
Until The Lost Tomb...

It's the Year 1931, autumn. We are informed that Ryouko was destroyed by Chen Pi (off screen) and overall, the Japanese did not succeed in their evil plans, but they never stopped with their evilness and now, it's war. We get to see a very sad goodbye between Xin Yue and Fo Ye - he is sending her back to Bei Ping, for safety. She is leaving him some of her listening servants. He promises her to come looking for her after the battle. Xin Yue starts crying at one point ... damn, I would too. See, this was when I was certain he would die.
I thought that too.

He smiles at her, briefly ... and then leans in for one last, passionate kiss. My heart breaks...
Sob! (But this dummy wasted so much nookie time when he was pushing her away in earlier episodes...)

When he's gone, Xin Yue says she's not leaving. She never wanted to. She will wait for him at home. If he should die, her going to Bei Ping alone has no meaning anyway... Fo Ye, come back!!!
She is one of the best characters in this show. So noble, so cute.

Fo Ye meets with Huo, Ba, Er, and Jiu Ye (who are playing games to pass the time - Ba Ye is losing, haha) - to say goodbye to them. I'm glad everyone is friends again.  Everybody who is not a soldier is leaving the city, the Japanese are coming closer. But Fo Ye will stay, of course. And he talks about them having to light incense sticks in front of his tomb when they return to Changsha. You idiot :(

And then, Fo Ye walks through the streets of Changsha, remembering...
So hot. And sad. I mean, so sad. 

... how he came here after the massacre of his family, with nothing ... how a little girl gave him an apple, because he looked at street food hungrily. How that girl was a niece of Huo Niang (maybe she will be Granny Huo?! let's think she will be) ...

... how he met Ba Ye, later - how he told him he had an auspicious face and good fortune and that Ba Ye wished Fo Ye would take care of him ...

... how they became friends and how Fo Ye went into the most dangerous tombs in order to become the Head of the Nine Gates ...

... meeting the other Gates (why is Liu Ye throwing him a bowl? (Acceptance from the crankiest Gate) Why is it important for us to know that Fo Ye was there when San Ye became a father? (it's because San Ye became a father to his sister-in-law's child in one of those short stories translated on the laymarence tumblr) Why did he not stop when he saw Old Wu sit there with a dog? (leave Old Dog Wu's dogs alone) And why was Old Wu so young? (dunno) And why did Fo Ye talk during Er Ye's opera? (to annoy Er Ye))

All I know is this: Fo Ye looks damn good, in his sad nostalgia.
True.

And then, the Japanese attack, with 6 divisions in total. This is the first Battle of Changsha. Changsha is bombed, but Fo Ye survives, thanks to Lt Zhang. But for how long? There's tanks, and many enemy soldiers. At the risk of his life, Fo Ye detonates the mines at the city entrance and all the Japanese are dead. At least the first bunch.

Fanning self.

Fo Ye holds a classic warrior speech, bleeding but sexy, about the homeland and ones blood, but begad, I would follow Fo Ye anywhere. I would! Chaaaaarge!
Jeronimoooooooooo!

Oh look, here's Lt Zhang, listening to Fo Ye's moving hero speech. Awww.
Any invaders touch that face, and I'm going to slowly cut them into tiny bits. 

And as they charge, dogs come flying (I kid you not), followed by Old Dog Wu! And Huo Niang! Jiu Ye! San Ye is there, in his wheelchair! And Er Ye ... and even Ba Ye. All of them have come back. I didn't see Liu Ye, but let's assume he's there too. Anyway, it's very heartwarming, because they're in this together. Chaaaaarge!
Jeronimoooooooooo!

The End

Comments

Well, well, well. I liked the ending. It's good to end with such a huge battle, one that the Chinese won, one in which the Nine Gates can stand together and show everyone why they are the nine gates, the foundation of this city. I'm not even sarcastic or anything, I did like it. It gives me closure.
Same here.  

As for the whole drama, well ... as we said many times in between, it did derail, I'm not even sure when exactly, after being truly awesome in the beginning. But this drama gave us Fo Ye and Lt Zhang and Ba Ye and Xin Yue and to a lesser extent Er Ye and very often, it was great fun and hugely entertaining. Even when the editing went down the drain and nothing made sense at all, it remained fun. Recapping it was fun. I will miss it! I am sad it's over, the drama and this recapping project.
Ditto.