The Untamed episodes 46 and 47

[selenay]

So, my commentary to hockeybosh for most of episode 46 was lots of crying emojis, to give you a flavour of how this went. The only reason there were no stabbing emojis for episode 47 is because I couldn't look away from the screen long enough to find it on my phone.

Somehow the knife emoji isn't in my most used section right now. Apparently I've been having good days recently.

I feel like I've probably got a lot more to say about episode 46 than 47, but that's mainly a function of episode 46 finally giving me one of the things I really needed before the end.

Specifically: JC and LWJ finally know about the core transplant thing. At last!

And it came from the person I least suspected: Wen Ning.

I adore him. He needs to survive to the end and get some kind of happy ending, okay?

The lead up to it was also amazing. I'm suspecting there is significance to WWX and LWJ in the ancestral shrine that I don't get, but I did understand that it was an important moment and something WWX needed after all this time. I was thoroughly enjoying them having that moment, bonding together, WWX looking tired but also less troubled, and then of course JC arrived and was an angry grape all over the place.

Argh, JC, your anger is not an attractive quality.

(Also, a part of me was going "how did this get past the censors?" when JC basically yelled about how inappropriate it was for WWX to bring his boyfriend to the family shrine. Not even paraphrasing that much here.)

And then it got worse and WWX ended up unconscious. I feel like I need to rewatch to figure out how that happened. I was too busy watching LWJ catch him and cuddle him, sorry. I have my priorities.

In a lot of ways, I felt like it was a good thing WWX was unconscious while Wen Ning explained the core stuff. Given how he looked later when he realised LWJ and JC know, I don't think it would have been great if he'd been awake for Wen Ning forcing JC to finally see it.

Or for Wen Ning telling LWJ the details.

Although maybe WWX might have liked to see LWJ's face? Because that was the face of a man who thought he loved his boyfriend (possibly husband now) more than anything else already, but has just realised that he actually can't process how much he loves his boyfriend/husband. It was a really amazing set of tiny emotions hiding massive emotions. With a lot of cuddling.

LWJ is in love with WWX's brain, his bravery, and his everything. It's quite a thing.

Watching JC fall apart as Wen Ning forced him to accept what WWX had done for him was so powerful. He's had all this anger and pain for so long, this belief that WWX is to blame for everything, and already so much of that has been shaken by the revelations of what JGY has been doing. Now so many things are falling into place about WWX and the path he went down, and he did it for JC. How do you accept that? How do you process that?

Apparently JC processes it by having a total freak out and making everyone try to draw WWX's sword, and then letting JGY use that to freak him out even further and defeat him in battle.

I want to criticise him for letting JGY get to him, but I can't. He's got so much to process, he hasn't had time, and JGY is an expert at manipulating people. Unfortunately it still leaves all our heroes sitting on the floor of the temple with their powers sealed away, so there's that.

That scene in the boat on the lake was intense and gorgeous. I'm still questioning why LWJ doesn't want to tell WWX and Sizhui about each other, but I guess right now there are too many other things going on.

Argh.

But Wen Ning explaining how the core transfer happened and LWJ's face as he realised everything WWX had gone through...ugh, so good. You could see all the pieces he'd been missing falling into place. The regret intensifying, because he didn't know why WWX was doing what he was doing and if he'd known then maybe he'd have done things better, but also the love and admiration and relief that he's got WWX back (and can cuddle him in boats :D).

And then WWX wakes up and is hungry and LWJ has another "Fuck the rules" moment over the lotus seeds, which is definitley the way to WWX's heart, and it's still so good. Plus bonus WWX being incredibly smart and remembering about the land deed!

Of course, it wasn't all lovely character and relationship development stuff. There was Plot happening here a lot.

I am feeling the irony of all the cultivators asking WWX to do his demonic cultivation stuff to take care of the Yin Tiger Seal, barely hours after wanting to kill him for doing demonic cultivation stuff and possibly having a Yin Tiger Seal. And also after raising an entire army to defeat him because they were so scared of his tiny farming community in the Burial Mounds.

That expression as WWX and LWJ walked away from the banquet hall was clearly "I'm so tired of these people and this shit" and I sympathise. They were so fast to turn on him after he defeated Wen Ruohan, they're now so fast to ask for his help.

Yeah, I'm with you WWX. They'll ally with whoever is going to defeat this year's power-crazed dictator and turn on that person a minute later, they're not worth your energy.

Although they might be useful now everyone is in the temple with a lot of bad stuff going down and JGY digging up something. Pro tip: nothing good ever happens with things that were buried in temples.

LXC looks so sad and defeated. I really feel for him. He'd been clinging so tightly to the hope that WWX and LWJ were wrong, but he's finally having to see that JGY is exactly what they said he is. Maybe worse.

And after he'd given WWX two shovel talks and a warning about LWJ's mother and how worried he was that LWJ had fallen for a murdery bad boy. It turns out that he's the one who fell for was sworn brothers with the evil murdery bad boy. That's a lot for him to process and he's clearly not going to process it well. Who would?

The plan is that we'll watch the final three episodes tonight. I'm both excited and sad. Excited to see how all of this ends. Sad because I've enjoyed this experience so much and I'm going to miss screaming over it with HB.

Maybe we'll need to find another show to scream over...when I've recovered from whatever this one is about to do to me.

Comments

[soupytwist]

The thing you may not have got about the visit to the shrine is that WWX and LWJ are Kind Of Married now! The couple bowing three times (once to respect heaven and earth, once to respect the husband's parents/ancestors, and once to respect each other) is, as I understand it, a very big part of a lot of Chinese weddings. And even if you don't start shrieking "it's a WEDDING!", it is definitely saying LWJ is family, and to be brought into the family shrine. Which poor JC is not prepared for, bless him.

everything about the core transfer plot breaks my heart, and the reveal is so well done!

[selenay]

The thing you may not have got about the visit to the shrine is that WWX and LWJ are Kind Of Married now!

I did wonder if that was maybe the hint I was meant to take! :D

(I might have shrieked a while later, "OMG THEY ARE EVEN MORE MARRIED THAN BEFORE OMG".)

it is definitely saying LWJ is family, and to be brought into the family shrine.

This is something I definitely picked up on, and it's why I liked that part of the scene so much.

Which poor JC is not prepared for, bless him.

He is not. I'm not sure when or even if he was ever going to be ready for it. He probably never was. And I did rather pick up on his issue being about many things but particularly the implication of WWX bringing LWJ into the shrine and what that means for what they are to each other.

Maybe in twenty years, he will adjust to it?

everything about the core transfer plot breaks my heart, and the reveal is so well done!

I wasn't sure we were ever going to get that reveal but I was also really worried that we'd get it and it would be done so badly that I'd regret getting it. I should have trusted! It was so beautifully done!