Episode 9: Disturbed by a Dire Owl

Zhanalytics

Brooding stares: 8

Intense eye contact: 4

Facial twitch: 4

Fist Clench: 0

 

Zhanalytics lessons: Apparently a great way to get Lan Zhan to make a facial expression is to suggest to him that someone likes him. Even if that someone is an evil soul-capturing fairy statue. 

 

Just as our heroes (and Nie) are about to make a run through it, the zombies turn and shuffle away. Because Wen Qing is playing pied piper. (And yes, I can tell the actress is not playing that melody, dammit. And the flute isn't even touching her lips, probably because it would mess up her lipstick.)

 

Dire Owl. Wen Qing is busted!

 

Ha ha! Jiang Cheng pretending to be the voice of the statue. 

 

C'mon Jiang Cheng, don't be so annoyed - Wei Wuxian trapped you in a force bubble with your crush. And Nie Huaisang. Surrounded by zombies. Hmm. Well, okay, you can be annoyed. 

 

"I can break it with a Glitter Talisman." Glitter Talisman! Aw, it doesn't work, which is a shame, because I really wanted to see the Glitter Talisman. 

 

"The Dire Owl is more disturbing when you have a lot of thoughts in mind." And Lan Zhan thinks only of Wei Wuxian, so he's fine. 

 

"We were a branch of the Wen Clan of Qishan." The ones who were not dicks, apparently. 

 

Oh, that was baby Wen Ning we saw almost being zapped by the statue in flashback. I guess I was right. 

 

Lan Zhan questions Wen Qing about the fairy statue while the other boys hunt a chicken. Aha, except Wei Wuxian circles back to join the interrogation. Oh, the fairy statue started trapping souls because someone took the Yin Iron that was at its heart.  

 

I like how Wei Wuxian's subtle information gathering technique is to buy a lot of booze and then ask the innkeeper if anything strange has been going on. 

 

Oh, boy! A haunted house. Nie excuses himself from going, to everyone's great relief. Seriously, I liked Nie Huaisang at first, but he's starting to get annoying. 

 

And in this week's episode of CSI: Yeuyang, detective Wei Wuxian deduces that the Chang clan were all made into puppets before being slaughtered.