Kusuriya no Hitorigoto – Episode 31 Review

「選択の廟」 (Sentaku no Byō)
“The Shrine of Choosing”

I think this was one of my favorite episodes of the cour for me. The events pulled us closer to the tangled, intriguing knot that is Jinshi and his story. Not to mention, as a former scientist who studied genetics, I have a soft spot for puzzles relating to genetic inheritance, and this was very cleverly done with the whole color blindness bloodline test. Though rather anachronistic, as color blindness and inheritance would not have been connected or known about in ancient China.

We start off with Jinshi in the shadows having a flashback to his childhood. In particular, the last memory of his mother and a cameo by who he later comes to realize are his grandparents. This troubles him quite a bit as he languishes in the dark with his sword. He does call out the elephant in the room- Mao Mao’s selective curiosity. Something’s clearly odd about Jinshi’s presence in the palace and his proximity to the emperor, but despite Mao Mao’s insatiable curiosity, she doesn’t appear to notice that. Or so it seems. As we see from the end of the episode, her spidey senses indeed start flashing, but as someone who knows first hand the danger of getting involved in court politics, she wisely doesn’t dig any further. I wonder how long that will last though… They’ve been building towards the mystery of Jinshi since the beginning, so I don’t imagine Mao Mao will stay ignorant forever, willingly or not, at least for the sake of the blooming plot.

This week, we go back to the topic of the original inhabitants of the land, something that was briefly mentioned a few weeks ago in reference to the Northern part of the Rear Palace. This time, it brings us to the origin story of the kingdom, where once upon a time, a maiden from a foreign land, the Royal Mother, came to this country and gave birth to the child who would become the first emperor. From that time on, each emperor went through a rite of passage in the “Shrine of Choosing” to determine their suitability. Due to the other competition royal princes dying off in a pandemic and the current emperor supposedly being the only heir, the Shrine of Choosing has been in disuse for many moons.

The ancient building of course catches Mao Mao’s attention, which flatters the new school’s sensei who hasn’t had anyone pay any particular mind to the building since Mao Mao’s father. I guess it runs in the family. The rite of succession very quickly becomes the linchpin to the story, as Mao Mao is summoned by the emperor to accompany him along with Jinshi so he can retake the rite. I imagine it has to be humiliating for the emperor to have already failed it once. Though I do wonder why he bothers to go through with it in the first place, given how usage of the Shrine has pretty much fallen by the wayside. I wouldn’t be surprised if the recent visit from the Western emissaries had something to do with it, given that the Royal Mother also came from the West. Perhaps it’s a condition of a marriage deal that’s underway or there’s some sort of political instability on the horizon, where he feels the need to reach back into tradition to prove his legitimate claim.

The rite consists of a labyrinth of different colored doors that the emperor candidate must choose correctly. My instinct was to choose all the blue doors and I would have been mostly correct. It just seemed like a royal color (which is probably what Mao Mao meant by some candidates passing through sheer luck). The emperor does not choose that path, and fails the second time. Mao Mao is also stumped, but goaded on by the sensei “your father would’ve figured it out” (oof, burn), she requests a re-try.

About part way through, before Mao Mao’s second try, I pieced the puzzle together- the other princes dying from illness, color-based door puzzle, it screamed “genetics”, namely color blindness, explaining what it meant by “child of the Royal Mother”. Mao Mao is granted her request, the Emperor joking that she has to become either his or Jinshi’s wife, due to the rule that concubines with the “special ability” can guide the emperor to the right end. I love that he was playing wingman for his brother, LOL. That was also a massive anvil sized hint dropped on Mao Mao’s head- I mean, if Jinshi were a eunuch and not of royal blood, it would make no sense for the emperor to propose that, even in jest. But she consciously puts on the blinders, much to Jinshi’s chagrin.

The colorblindness trait passed down from the Royal Mother to children with her DNA and using that to control bloodline politics is a rather intelligent maneuver. I do have a small nit to pick though- I find the thing about the Royal Mother being colorblind and women of her lineage carrying the same trait marrying into the Emperor’s household a bit of a stretch, given how much rarer (though not impossible) it is for women to have colorblindness than men because of the X chromosomes. I doubt it would be as easy for a non-related emperor to conveniently find a woman with that trait. Anyhow, that’s just a minor thing.

I do wonder if Jinshi had the color blindness and could tell the correct path when his brother couldn’t. We all know what that would mean, and so does the emperor. Much as Mao Mao tries to stay out of it by keeping her blinders on, but she’s already in too deep to avoid trouble when it does eventually come knocking, due to her proximity to Jinshi. She’s smart- she knows there’s nothing she can do about it now that she’s in deep, so at this point, it’s probably a coping technique in convincing herself she’s fine so long as she feigns ignorance. I think she also finds the palace life comfortable- it affords her excitement and experimental materials, so she wants to avoid throwing a rock in the pond, disturbing her status quo with troublesome speculations. As I said earlier, it’s only a matter of time before she can’t ignore it any longer.

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