The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 is currently in its second cour and finally delving deeper into Jinshi’s character. Ever since the beginning of the story, he has always been a mystery despite being the deuteragonist. In comparison, Maomao has a lot of character depth and complexity, but at least we know everything about her. Her background isn’t a secret anymore, plus her occasional fury when someone’s life is at stake is surely horrifying. Maomao may seem like an aloof person at first, but she is caring towards those around her. She always goes out of her way to help others using her vast knowledge.
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Jinshi, however, is a bright and charming person, admired by everyone, but hides many secrets. He is intelligent and diligent, but also somewhat childish. On the surface, he and Maomao are complete opposites of each other. Jinshi loves teasing her, while Maomao only finds it a bother, unaware of his underlying feelings. However, now that the second season is unraveling many of his secrets, we finally find out that the two of them are more similar than we thought. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 Episode 14, titled “The Dancing Ghost,” sheds more light on Jinshi’s character as it’s the first time we see him getting furious like that.
Jinshi Shows His Fury For the First Time in Season 2
Among the four high-ranking Consorts, Lishu is the youngest and the most pitiful one. She was in the former emperor’s harem shortly before he died. Lishu moved to a monastery for a little while before joining the current emperor’s inner court. Her previous background made most ladies-in-waiting look down on her. As a 14-year-old, timid girl, she always gets bullied by her servants and her no one to look after her. Although it’s Jinshi’s role to manage the inner court, he also has his limitations.
It’s possible that he couldn’t take action against the servants without Lishu lodging a complaint. However, when the consort sees a ghost in the bathhouse of the Diamond Pavilion, she seeks out Maomao’s help. When Maomao and Jinshi arrive there to solve Lishu’s problem, they realize the Consort’s situation in her own Pavilion is worse than they imagined. After Maomao solves the case of the ghost, which is nothing but a coincidence because of a copper mirror, things should’ve settled down.
Unfortunately, the obnoxious lady in waiting showed her true colors by trying to steal Lishu’s copper mirror in front of everyone without knowing it’s a memento of her late mother. Jinshi takes matters into his own hands by pointing out the hairpin she stole, which is a symbol of Lishu’s status. His actions weren’t violent like Maomao but they sent shivers down everyone in the room, including the target of his scorn. Both characters are usually cool-headed and indifferent to their own sufferings. They don’t usually get enraged, but when they do, it’s always on behalf of someone else.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 Is Revealing Several Unanswered Questions About Jinshi
While the first season focused mostly on Maomao and the tragic past of her parents, we do get some hints about Jinshi’s secret identity. Except for the fact that he’s not an eunuch, the truth behind his birth has only been speculative so far. However, Season 1 Episode 19 was a major leap in the story where Maomao saves a man with a high status in the imperial family without knowing it was Jinshi.
Season 2 finally confirms that Jinshi is the crown prince of the kingdom. It’s believed that he’s the Emperor Dowager’s son, who has quite a significant age gap with the current emperor. However, Maomao speculates he’s Ah Duo and the current emperor’s son, but was swapped as a baby. The reason he’s pretending to be an Eunuch and much about his past is still a secret, but the second season will likely continue to delve deeper into his character. Seeing as how Jinshi now trusts Maomao enough to let her in on a secret that can shake the entire kingdom, we can also expect some major development in their relationship.
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