Episode 15
[Cathy]
The episode starts off innocently enough. The Emperor 雍正 (Yong Zheng, Emperor) is still at 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan)’s place. He actually wants to promote her to the next level of 嫔 or Imperial Concubine. That’s one step higher than 贵人, or Noble Lady which is what 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) and 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) are right now. But it’s too early because she hasn’t given him a child so he’ll have to wait. It’s all lovey dovey. Still don’t get this couple.
The Emperor 雍正 (Yong Zheng, Emperor) and 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) head over to see 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) and they bump into 安陵容 (An Ling Rong) who tags along. It’s an absolute party. Literally everyone is there – the Empress 皇后 (Empress), 华妃 (Hua Fei), 曹贵人 (Cao Gui Ren), you name it.
There’s some innocent sniping between 华妃 (Hua Fei) and 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) before the Emperor 雍正 (Yong Zheng, Emperor) leaves with the whole retinue. Everyone gets to the courtyard, only to see a sneaky figure running away to the shadows. She is promptly captured and brought to the Emperor for questioning.
It’s 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang)’s maid 茯苓 (Fu Ling) and it looks like she’s stole something. 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) doesn’t have a clue as to why 茯苓 (Fu Ling) is stealing. Something’s fishy. Sure enough, who goes to grab the bag? 曹贵人 (Cao Gui Ren).
What’s in the bag – some bloody sheets. Everyone’s confused – why would there be bloody sheets? Unless 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) is on her period? But 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) is pregnant! What is happening?
沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) is extremely upset and wants to punish 茯苓 (Fu Ling). 茯苓 (Fu Ling) immediately yells and says “You told me to get rid of this!” This is a shocking piece of news! Did 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) lie about her pregnancy? Look at the shot of 华妃 (Hua Fei) in the background – she’s smirking.
[Karen]
The Emperor 雍正 (Yong Zheng, Emperor) calls for an Imperial Doctor. The usual doctor that 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) uses 刘畚 (Liu Bei) is not on duty tonight but they get another doctor. He comes to diagnose 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) and declares that she is NOT pregnant! How is that possible? This doctor acknowledges that he’s not a gynecologist and asks to summon Doctor Jiang. He walks in and nods to 颂芝 (Song Zhi) who is 华妃 (Hua Fei)’s head maid. They are definitely in on something.
Doctor Jiang also declares that 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) is not pregnant. Remember this Doctor Jiang also gave 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) some prescriptions in an earlier episode. Now he’s saying that he did give her a prescription to delay her monthly cycle. This is just getting worse and worse for 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang). She kneels on the floor, crying that she’s been wrongly accused.
[Cathy]
The Emperor 雍正 (Yong Zheng, Emperor) is done. He orders 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang)’s normal doctor 刘畚 (Liu Bei) to come but the eunuchs report that he’s fled. Now with no witness, 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) is toast. 刘畚 (Liu Bei) and 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) came from the same area and 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) was the one who recommended that he become her primary doctor. There’s no way to get out of this situation. 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) tries to put in a word for 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) but is stopped by the Emperor. 齐妃 (Qi Fei) another consort, almost accuses 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) too due to her closeness with 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang), and is angrily stopped by the Emperor.
雍正 (Yong Zheng, Emperor) is livid and angrily grabs the hairpin that he gifted her out of her coiffure. 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) and 安陵容 (An Ling Rong) try to appeal for 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang). Even the Empress does to but 雍正 (Yong Zheng, Emperor) has made up his mind. 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) is to be stripped of her title of 惠贵人 or Noble Lady and demoted to 答应 or 2nd Class Female Attendant. She is to be imprisoned in her palace and cannot leave unless summoned by the Emperor. No one can visit without permission. The Emperor orders the capture of the Imperial Doctor 刘畚 (Liu Bei). The maid 茯苓 (Fu Ling) is to be killed.
With this, 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) faints. 曹贵人 (Cao Gui Ren) and 华妃 (Hua Fei) exchange knowing glances. 安陵容 (An Ling Rong) rushes back to her quarters and orders all of the baby clothes she made to be burned. She doesn’t want anything to do with this. If others hear about this, she will also be punished.
We then have a scene of that missing Imperial Doctor 刘畚 (Liu Bei). He’s waiting for his contact to give him money to run away. But obviously it’s not going to be that easy. The contact tries to kill him but 刘畚 (Liu Bei) flees the scene.
The next scene answers the conundrum on who sent 刘畚 (Liu Bei) in the first place. 华妃 (Hua Fei). She sent 刘畚 (Liu Bei) and 茯苓 (Fu Ling). That’s plotting. This started several episodes ago in episode 12! Before 华妃 (Hua Fei) was even back in favor! I’ll applaud her for this – obviously she had help, most likely from 曹贵人 (Cao Gui Ren).
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[Karen]
The rest of the episode revolves around how 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) tries to protect herself from the fallout of this fake pregnancy scandal. Everyone knows that 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) and 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) are close friends and therefore, most wondering if the two were plotting this together. The servants, seeing the downfall of 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) treat 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) and 安陵容 (An Ling Rong) very poorly, giving them the worst flowers or amenities, and in the case of 安陵容 (An Ling Rong)，simply taking away a lot of decorations, which is quite humiliating.
甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) is trying to see if she can talk to 皇上 (Emperor),but is refused at the door and has to endure a humiliating interaction with 华妃 (Hua Fei) as she walks out of the palace, having just been with 皇上 (Emperor).
In her quiet room，now stripped of most comforts and decorations, we see that 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) is being consoled by a kind 敬嫔 (Jing Pin)。 You’ll recall that 敬嫔 (Jing Pin) is the head of the palace where 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) lives. As we see here, she is looking after 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) and urging her to eat. We also notice that 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang), now demoted to only a 答应, wears much simpler clothing and hairstyles.
[Cathy]
敬嫔 (Jing Pin) takes one of her hair accessories, which is made of silver, and uses it as a test for poison of 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang)’s food. Luckily, she did because a plate of vegetables turned her accessory black – which means the food was poisoned, The two ladies are justifiably upset and deduce that 华妃 (Hua Fei) was only one powerful enough to be able to do this. It’s clear that 华妃 (Hua Fei) hates 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) and will do anything to get her killed. Fortunately, they were able to save themselves this time. And we see that 敬嫔 (Jing Pin) so far is a kind hearted person. She’s been kind to 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) and will continue to play a larger role in the palace.
甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) is pacing back and forth trying to figure out what to do because she is not being given the opportunity to speak to the emperor. With 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) worried sick about what to do to help shen mei zhuang, her head maid, 瑾汐 (Jin Xi) suggests that 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) speak to 芳若 (Fang Ruo)。 Who is this 芳若 (Fang Ruo). 芳若 (Fang Ruo) is a maid who serves the emperor. She has direct access to him and therefore, is a powerful ally. 芳若 (Fang Ruo) is also the maid who taught 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) about court etiquette when they were first entering the palace, so they have some connection.
So, what does 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) do? She grabs an expensive looking bracelet off her person and stuffs it in her maid, 瑾汐 (Jin Xi)’s hand and says to give this to 芳若 (Fang Ruo) and ask her to help look after 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang)。 After all, money will and can solve most issues. AND – here is the interesting part – 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) says to grab make up from her cabinet and give it to 芳若 (Fang Ruo) to help draw eyebrows and says that having light eyebrows in front of the emperor is not pretty.
[Karen]
And indeed, later on in the episode, we see this 芳若 (Fang Ruo)姑姑， this middle aged maid, serving tea to the emperor and he actually does a double take on her eyebrows. He asks, your eyebrows are styled in the 远山黛 (Yuan Shan Dai) style? 芳若 (Fang Ruo) says yes, and that she helped the previous empress/wife, 纯元 (Chun Yuan)皇后 (Empress) draw this 远山黛 (Yuan Shan Dai) eyebrow style and therefore knows how to draw it herself.
The emperor does not say a word, but ends up going to see 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) that night.
We see that 芳若 (Fang Ruo) is incredibly smart – she does not outright do anything to help 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan)，except for the eyebrows. What is interesting is that she doesn’t even mention that the new make up was from 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan). She instead, purposefully mentions 纯元 (Chun Yuan)皇后 (Empress)， the emperor’s first wife, which leads him to go see 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan). This part is particularly interesting. This connection with 纯元 (Chun Yuan)皇后 (Empress) is a very important theme throughout the drama and we have already seen hints of it here and there but here is a brief instance we see this connection surfacing again.
For those of you wondering what 远山黛 (Yuan Shan Dai) is, I also didn’t know what it was and was only introduced to it through this drama. Apparently, it is a style of drawing your eyebrows that was named since ancient times, at least from the han dynasty, so 2000 years ago. We’ve talked about the han dynasty a couple of times already. There isn’t much significance here of this eyebrow style in this drama beyond the fact that it is related to 纯元 (Chun Yuan)皇后 (Empress)。
[Karen]
The episode ends with 皇上 (Emperor) coming to visit 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) and she, surprisingly, or smartly, steers away from trying to beg 皇上 (Emperor) for help. Instead, she discusses very simple and trivial matters with him. He clearly appreciates this and stays the night, leaving 华妃 (Hua Fei) to an empty bed. The next day, he even punishes the head eunuch of 内务府 (Nei Wu Fu), the Imperial Household department, for having given dying flowers and poor ornaments and decorations to 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan)’s place. This eunuch, is actually a distant relative of 华妃 (Hua Fei) and when she hears the news from 皇后 (Empress), she tries to get him released from punishment, but of course 皇后 (Empress) won’t have it. She’s placed her own guy on the job. The ladies are snickering at 华妃 (Hua Fei) for this turn of events and 华妃 (Hua Fei) is understandably upset because she lost a pretty powerful ally in 后宫 (Palace Harem)。 Having someone run 内务府 (Nei Wu Fu) is huge. There are many corruption opportunities there which now she will not be able to fully utilize because she doesn’t have a relationship with the head eunuch.
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Another couple of observations
The cracks between 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) and 安陵容 (An Ling Rong) are more clearly being shown. 安陵容 (An Ling Rong)suffers because of her association with 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) and she’s becoming more and more upset.
Something else that is important is that, though 皇上 (Emperor) is upset about the fake pregnancy, I think he’s probably more disappointed that 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) didn’t do enough due diligence on the matter and was so easily manipulated by people to fall for such a scheme. He could easily have executed her, or banished her to 冷宫 (Leng Gong, Cold Palace)。 Remember, a few episodes ago, we recall that lying to the emperor is punishable by death. It is his biggest taboo. He probably believes that 沈眉庄 (Shen Mei Zhuang) didn’t know she was being fooled which is why she wasn’t executed but has to put on a show and give her this punishment. He is cold hearted and she is absolutely heartbroken but in the grand scheme of things, I think it could have been way worse for her. This is also why 皇上 (Emperor) was so quick to go back to 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) and believe that 甄嬛 (Zhen Huan) didn’t have anything to do with the fake pregnancy plot. Something about the two of them gave 皇上 (Emperor) the impression that these two could be more or less trusted.