The Untamed Take Two: Episode Fourteen

You know, it just occurred to me that this segment would have made for better alliteration if it went up on a Tuesday. Oh well. We'll just stick with Mondays for now.

We're still in the slaughter tortoise cave. LWJ wakes up, so WWX guesses it must be around five o'clock in the morning. Fancy being able to set your watch by your crush's sleeping habits. In any case, LWJ is awake now, and he tells WWX that this is the slaughter tortoise. The one Xue Chonghai kept. WWX notes that he had snuck out to try and find the tunnel Jiang Cheng and the others escaped through, but couldn't. He fears the tortoise blocked it somehow. They've no choice but to fight it. And if they die to it, well, says a cheerful WWX, they'll be famous.

They collect arrows quickly and quietly and prep for war together. LWJ takes the strings off the bows to create his killer string... which I though he used his qin for, but maybe this is just a variant. Then they come up with a plan. It's... an interesting one.

First WWX sneaks into the tortoise's shell. It's at this point my suspension of disbelief takes a bit of a hit. You see, there's no way he'd get in there without first having to slice the beast open somehow... or maybe he crawled up it's butt? But, he's in the shell. That's not how shells work, my dude. Anyway, he's in there.

Inside, he discovers the corpses of people. They're just standing there, covered in red goo. Dead. Like some macabre wax museum. Somehow WWX surmises that the slaughter tortoise (I'll never get sick of saying that) not only kills people, but consumes their magical essence. He tells LWJ so, because now they can communicate telepathically thanks to a spell LWJ performed.

Also inside the shell, WWX comes across a curious sword, grabs a hold of it and is immediately overwhelmed with ... something? The sword is screaming. I don't know.

Then, the slaughter tortoise snakes its head inside it's shell to attack WWX.

That's not how shells work, my dude.

But hey, it happens. WWX uses the scream-y sword and stabs the thing in the lower jaw. It pulls it's head out of it's own arse, presumably, and now LWJ can join the fight.

Right! So, LWJ gets to work, wrapping his killer string around the slaughter tortoise's neck to garrotte the beast. Meanwhile, WWX is "hanging" from the lower jaw. I say "hanging" because he's perfectly horizontal the whole damned time.

That's not how physics works, my dude.

Anyway, the sword WWX is hanging on to starts to affect WWX, and then this happens:

And it's stressful, because I can't tell if that means the sword is somehow possessing WWX or if WWX has managed to control the sword. Incidentally, LWJ also doesn't know which one of these it is either, and appears freaked the fuck out. So, it's also really hard to tell if what happens next is because of WWX or the sword, but WWX manages to used the sword's power to lift all the weapons at the bottom of the lake and plunge them up into the slaughter tortoise's neck. Combined with LWJ's garrotting, that finishes off the beast... but it almost finishes WWX off, too. He falls face-first into the lake and doesn't move. LWJ fishes him out and leans him up against a rock. It's his turn to nurse WWX, just as WWX nursed him.

WWX has a fever, so LWJ warms him up with some magical transference. WWX turns a bit petulant and asks LWJ to sing a song for him. LWJ obliges. If you listen carefully, he hums the theme music and if you recall, it's exactly that song WWX played to calm Wen Ning the puppet way back in episode two or three. So cute. WWX falls asleep briefly, and we get a flashback of all the interactions the two have had up until this point.

Cute.

WWX wakes enough to ask the name of the song. LWJ answers, but WWX is passing out, so he doesn't hear it, and nor do we.

It's important to note that he clutches the sword to him the whole time.

The scene fades to black and we fade back in on an open fire, and WWX sleeping outside, still clutching the sword to himself. Jin Zuxian (you know, the peacock that Jiang Yinli likes) is tending the fire. He chastises WWX for being so heavy (which I find difficult to believe - WILL SOMEONE FEED THAT BOY), and then Jiang Cheng shows up. All WWX can think about is LWJ (who, we learn, has rushed back to the Cloud Recesses), and Jiang Cheng rightfully chastises him for not thanking either him or Jin Zuxian, who travelled without rest to ensure they could rescue WWX and LWJ.

The gathered cultivators decide to split up. WWX and his brother will return to Lotus Cove to try and get their father on board with the gathering resistance led by the leader of the Jin clan (who was convinced to by his son), and Jin Zuxian will return to his land to prepare for the coming fight. Before he heads out, WWX grips the sword handle to test it, but there are no screams.

We cut to Wen Chao, who's off trying to find Xue Yang. Wen Ruohan (in an earlier scene) reveals that he doesn't know where that brat is, and he wants that brats fragment of the Yin Iron.  Wen Chao gets news that Jin Zuxian and Jiang Cheng were spotted in the vicinity of the cave, and Wen Chao says they were probably trying to rescue LWJ and WWX, but were likely to only find their corpses. He sends two lackeys to confirm that LWJ and WWX are dead, and then decides to send his body guard and Flirty McBitchface to Lotus Cove. Oh dear.

​We go then to Lotus cove and Jiang Fengmian is showing a cute kid how to shoot. Jiang Cheng and WWX arrive and WWX faints. He wakes up in what I assume is his childhood bed, where the film makers left another huge clue that this is as gay as the day, with a childish image of two boys kissing carved into the bed, presumably by WWX in his youth.

In the warm exchange between himself and Jiang Fengmian, WWX gives credit to Jiang Cheng for coming to his rescue, but Jiang Fengmian only seems to care about what WWX went through. Jiang Cheng gets understandably pissed and snaps. His father then tries to school him on the clan motto and what that means. He's interrupted, though, by his wife, who is super pissed.

She asks her husband if he can remember between the two boys which one is his actual son. And then, OH SHIT! She's actually pissed off because Jiang Fengmian used to be in love with WWX mother, and there's talk about that WWX is actually Jiang Fengmian's son and no wonder she's such a bitch about it all. I mean, that's no reason to take things out on WWX, but now I understand why she's such a raging witch, at least.

Poor Jiang Cheng just stands there and is forced to watch his parents fight, and to hear all this nonsense. The poor bastard. He storms off. I would too, bro. But WWX follows and does his best to cheer his brother up, noting that of course Jiang Fengmian would be harder on his own son - who will on day be clan leader. WWX gets a lot of slack because he's ultimately inconsequential. When Jiang Cheng becomes clan leader, WWX will be his subordinate.

Jiang Cheng argues that is not true. His father is hard on him because he doesn't like his mother, and so he doesn't like his son. This broke my heart a little bit. It's not true, of course, but I've certainly felt like I was unlike by my parents at various points. I get you, Jiang Cheng.

The Lan Clan has the Twin Jades (LWJ and LXC), well, the Jiang Clan will have the Twin Heroes. The whole scene is a lovely moment between two brothers. In a stunning setting. Holy hell Lotus Cove is beautiful.

And so ends the episode.

What I Liked

I spent a lot of time making fun of this episode, but I actually really liked it. I loved the bonding between LWJ and WWX, and how we're finally seeing the cracks in LWJ's cold persona. He cares for WWX, and it shows. I love how we get to see the disfunction in the Jiang Clan, and how that affects Jiang Cheng and how he feels about it all. The poor dear. I want to give him a big hug.

I also really love the ambiguity surrounding the sword and whether or not WWX was possessed or if he managed to control the dark magic of the weapon. I also liked how LWJ seemed unsure which of those it was. Sure WWX seems fine and normal now, but... I mean... We don't know what happened to him with the sword. And I like that a lot.

What Could Have Been Better

That's not how shells work, and that's not how physics work.

Those are my two biggest gripes about the episode, and yet it still made for a good watch, even if I mocked it just now. I mean... come on, though.

Anyway, with the slaughter tortoise dead, we can now focus on the coming war between the clans. It gets bad, y'all.