He is so desperate for her to love him back. For her to even like him. For her to just not actively hate his guts!
That kiss - they've been married for over a year and I don't think he's even kissed her yet! And going off to battle, he had to take that chance, especially when she showed the teensy bit of care for his safety. And even then, it was a kiss on the cheek.
"I will never forget you saved my life." Not just his injuries!
I think Lan Xiang *is* slowly letting him in. Not just burning proof of his treason, but also admitting to him what she was so sad about - how her lack of household management put her friend in danger. She actually opened up to him.
Like the first time she actually really smiled at him after they were married - when he asked about her playwriting. She is slowly unfreezing.
Which makes me really wonder what will be in that play!
I did not expect THAT as the play. I thought it would be more petty things. But completely uprooting his entire moral structure?! His own brother just praised him for doing the best thing ever: protecting the emperor against a rebellion. And now his wife is telling him that all he has worked towards and is proud of will reward him in the end with a beheading by the very man he serves most - the emperor - in front of unsympathetic flatterers.
He starts by being excited to be compared with this famous successful general! "She's comparing me to a legendary hero!" And of all the things that hero is known for, his unheroic end by the emperor he served is less known. But more impactful.
Serve the emperor with all you can! Work as hard as possible to earn merits for him! And then die at his petty whims, as nothing.
A male parallel to his sister suffering for the family image?
The child reading the poem as the stagehands sweep off the stage... Scholar Han's life goals are just as implicated. Be a heroic warrior or be a renowned scholar. They both will come to the same end. Just like the Shen family.
That's why she is congratulatory to Scholar Han's achievements, but does not love him, because he *also* follows a moral code she cannot agree with. He has the same goal as Lin Jin Qi, just the alternate path.
🤯
#cdrama #AgainstTheCurrent
... does that montage and continuation of thr child's poem mean that the emperor fell? Or that Lin Jin Qi quit or was removed from office? And now that he no longer serves the emperor, he and Lan Xiang got to have a proper wedding night? They were married for HOW MANY years? 5? 6? Was Lin Jin Qi a 40 year old virgin?
Crickets? The young prince's cricket, then the emperor's cricket, now a cricket as a wedding gift?
#cdrama #AgainstTheCurrent
Aha! So Lin Jin Qi *did* resign!
These ladies are *masters* of how to twist and turn words from insults one way to insults the other way, all while still stating the truth. Amazing.
The Marquis looked shocked. Was he shocked that his wife may not be so simply jealous and in love with him? Was he shocked that she was capable of scheming on multiple levels like that to ensure her kids would be secure in their future? Was he shocked that she was that devoted to the security of her kids' future? That she'd be willing to walk away if necessary?
Lin Jin Qi has really shown Lan Xiang total devotion and trust, up-ending his entire value system and career goals, trusting that her way was the better way. But she doesn't yet trust him enough to tell him her secret.
Her secret *is* treasonous.
And he did store all of those pieces of evidence of her irregularities.
Maybe he still doesn't trust her? Or he forgot?
The mystery painting was from the Shens! Even Lao Lin mourns them.
But he figured it out. And burned the evidence, much like she burned the evidence of *his* treason. I'm glad he figured it out.
When one holder of power leaves, it makes an opportunity for others to seize it. But those opportunists better be damn well prepared in the face of ultra-prepared Lan Xiang.
That we got the Lin Jin Qi we did, influenced in the opposite direction as his father, is Lan Xiang's blessing.
"What do you live for?" Lan Xiang calmly asks, when offered the chance for petty revenge.
I did not expect such existential profoundness in this show.
#cdrama #AgainstTheCurrent
Ha, good diplomatic answer, Lin Jin Qi!
"Other than my wife, what woman's face could I possibly remember for over ten years?"
It explains why he didn't recognize Ji Er all those years ago, but I'm not sure this endears him to his feminist wife as much as he thinks.
Although there are so few details in that drawing, it is hard to believe anyone could be recognizable.
Han Liang returns! I wonder if we'll get confirmation that he married that townswoman.
Is Du Cui Que possibly linked to the exiled royal that Lin Jin Qi helped escape?
I am sad for the Marquis to die. Did he really have no sons? Then his wife did the right thing by fighting for her daughters to inherit. Unless she is secretly pregnant with a son...
And the scholar who saved 2nd sister - her first fiancé? Will they reunite?
If we are supposed to recognize the head fighting pirate as someone other than head fighting pirate, i do not. I was hoping he'd have an extra long pointer finger on his left hand.
I appreciated the showdown between Du Cui Que and Lan Xiang. The bluff by Lan Xiang, the weak women with oil lamps turning into oil throwing women ready to set fire to attackers. And the newly widowed sister throwing her pipa to save Lan Xiang.
I especially appreciated that pipa throw because Lan Xiang can't always be the only brave one. She was genuinely terrified when the burning Du Cui Que came at her. That the formerly meek sister counter attacked and saved her means Lan Xiang doesn't have to be the only strong one.
Lin Jin Qi is standing far more upright and strong on that boat after being sliced open 5 different ways. Ow ow ow. And his poor left hand!
I think this really stuck the landing. Even the fickleness of the ever-changing emperors. Han Liang could have been Lin Jin Qi and vise versa.
I'm glad for the verbal confirmation that Scholar Han *did* marry that townswoman. And that Lin Jin Qi had such respect for him even after they'd been love rivals. Because life moves on. People grow.
The ending arc was choppy with all the time jumps, but did not ruin the rest of it.
9.5/10
Oct 3, 2026, 8:19 PM@JillsJoy episode 39 was so rushed. It is a pitty in an otherwise so good series
@JillsJoy
Binging Story of Yanxi Palace brought me on episode 14 in record time.
Against The Current will follow soon , for 99% sure.
Unless #kdrama #GrandGalaxyHotel will be released, but don't expect that to happen.
That first episode is very very brutal. When an entire clan is wiped out for treason, that just means the men and male children. The women and other children are left to a different fate, of despair and, for some, suicide.