Song in the Clouds Episodes 12-13 Recap

Guess drama marathons are super productive to recaps. I marathoned about 6 episodes the other night and am now just editing what I had written up. Episodes 12-13 are centered around Meng Jue. Though I'm not his biggest fan in the novel, I do think I like him better in the drama. This is not to say he is my choice in male lead, but I still like him a lot more than what he was written to be.   

Episode 12

The emperor’s decree came just in time to save the princess. We as the audience get to see Official Huo contemplate whether to follow his orders -- this further reinforces that the emperor does not have authority. 

Meng Jue plays a sad song while we can see lots of casualties from the rebellion. Liu Bing Yi discusses politics with Meng Jue. 

Later Meng Jue’s adopted father (Feng Shu) says that he knows that Meng Jue caused this rebellion (he discusses this more in detail, basically Meng Jue fueled the fires and caused misunderstanding)—his ambitions are too strong. 

Feng Shu is very ill and says that Meng Jue also manipulated Yun Ge. Meng Jue was the one that originally asked for Yun Ge’s hand in marriage (back in episode 2) that caused her to run away from home. Then Meng Jue followed her to Chang An just to get to her and thus his adopted father. Feng Shu says that he will not allow for Meng Jue to “calculate/manipulate” Xing Cheng’s (drama name for Jin Yu) daughter. As he dies he passes the sect talisman to Yun Ge and Yun Ge hands this to Meng Jue.

Lots of court politics. The emperor wants to capture and seclude Yan Wang as punishment, but Meng Jue decides to get rid of Yan Wang and align with Huo Guang. Turns out Yan Wang was the one that captured Yun Ge to use to blackmail Meng Jue. 

Liu Fu Ling asks to find out who were the mysterious people that helped him escape that night. He then visits Shang Guan Xiao Mei his queen and warns her that she needs to cooperate because he does not have enough power to protect her. She must answer questions accordingly. She does have a good reason to be sad though since her whole family (Shang Guan) was killed. 

As she cries she says that if asked she will say that though she misses her mom she grew up in the castle and servant JieJie (older sister) seems more close. It's so sad that she cannot show her feelings or risks getting killed as well. From this scene we really get to see how her life is just as sad ad Liu Fu Ling's life. 

Sect members still call Yun Ge sect leader even though she tried to pass the position to Meng Jue. Apparently there needs to be a formal ceremony or something. They usher her aside so she, once again, does not see Liu Fu Ling who is visiting Meng Jue’s establishment--guess people in the sect are all loyal to Meng Jue and not Yun Ge. Turns out the emperor traced the mysterious people to Liu Xing Sect and came to ask why they helped him escape. Once again they discuss politics.

Meng Jue takes Yun Ge out into nature and reminds her that she told Feng Shu that she and Meng Jue will spend their future together. He talks marriage and how he has liked her since their first meeting—she has no idea that this was when they were kids. Instead of being more in the moment, she remembers her promise to Liu Fu Ling. 

She decides to stop thinking about Liu Fu Ling (yet again) and tells Meng Jue to ask her dad and they act all cute around each other. Meng Jue says something along the lines of “holding one’s hair is like holding one’s heart”. He also asks her to cook only at home to avoid dangers of politics/power.

Huo Guang talks to Meng Jue and they discuss politics and Huo Cheng Jun… Seems sketch because Huo Guang hints at how he has more power now after the princess's banquet so Meng Jue should marry Huo Cheng Jun. 

Seems like Xu Ping Jun and Liu Bing Yi’s marriage is not going perfectly. He is upset over her pregnancy (did he think that she wouldn't get pregnant...), and she is sad that he doesn’t love their future child. He’s really just sad that the child will live in fear like he does.

Episode 13

They make up and Yun Ge invites them to eat and celebrate her relationship with Meng Jue.  

After talking with Official Huo, Huo Cheng Jun invites Meng Jue to talk. He rejects her offer to marry her once more and tells her to go convince her father that they are not right (talk about terrible guy). She tries to reason with him that Yun Ge is just a chef while she can bring him power. Meng Jue rejects her again. And then it deteriorates pretty fast...

She threatens to jump into the waters… ans she does and this brings him back. 

He saves Huo Cheng Jun and her mom says that if he feels bad about it then he should stay the night. 

Yun Ge is sad and doesn’t know why Meng Jue doesn’t return that night. Meng Jue returns and apologizes and they make up. Yun Ge forgives her Meng Shitou (rock/dummyhead) always.

Huo Cheng Jun finds Yun Ge and tries to guilt Yun Ge about how she cannot help Meng Jue achieve his dreams. That doesn’t really stir her up but then Huo Cheng Jun talks about how he is power hungry and is only nice to people for power, this seems to get to Yun Ge somewhat. Ooo, maybe she is finally getting smarter!

As Yun Ge walks home she sees an old man who is running from people who want money from him and tries to help. They end up running together and later he shows her his tricks stealing money. She wants to become his student. The old man visits Feng Shu’s home and pays his respects. She realizes that he knows Meng Jue and Feng Shu so he tells her about Meng Jue's ambitions and how he used Feng Shu to get Liu Xing Sect and has worked towards this for a long time to attain power.

Meng Jue and Liu Bing Yi talk in the open about Liu Bing Yi's background.

Yun Ge realizes that she was manipulated by Meng Jue when they first met in Chang An. Meng Jue is the stealing master's student who surpassed the stealing master so this means that he stole from her the first day and could not have been stolen from. Meng Jue pretended to have been stolen from to gain her sympathy. 

She realized that her mom and Feng Shu were friends and Meng Jue only made her go with him to see Feng Shu to gain power. Meng Jue tries to talk to her and she doesn’t want to talk to him.

Meng Jue finds out that Yun Ge met his old man Shi Fu (teacher/master) 

Comments

Guess this is the start of the end of the Meng Jue ship. It was cute while it lasted, but I'm soooo on the Ling Gege boat. Onwards!

Something I really like about Huo Cheng Jun in the drama is how determined she is. In the novel I knew she was manipulative and kind of the female version of Meng Jue, but now I know more about her. Her traits are actually a ton better than Yun Ge ie she's smart, determined, and strong-willed. She also isn't as mean or evil, just trying to get her version of happiness and escape her messed up family. I can see there being a novel written in Huo Cheng Jun's perspective and readers taking her side instead of Yun Ge's side.

So far I'm pretty impressed with this drama. Oftentimes I get bored by repetition of Cdramas in recent years such as in the case of Cruel Romance with Chen Qiao En (Joe) even though I love Chen Qiao En as an actress. A lot of the plot in Song in the Clouds is likely due to it being a novel adaptation. Overall I'm actually still enjoying this drama. Not sure if this will stay once we get to the later episodes *shudders*, but right now all is well. Wonder if others are liking this drama still -- please comment if you have thoughts on this!