I'm loving the series but this episode did disappoint me a bit despite offering a lot.

I wasn't expecting the emperor's issues to resolve so neatly. Chinese inner palace dramas usually have the constant back-and-forth of secret plots and one-uppance, but everything got wrapped up so quickly. Admittedly, I think the empress dowager said some kind of curse before she died so I'm sure there's more to come, but it was just so odd to have all those involved quickly admit guilt without some kind of trap immediately being sprung. I was fully expecting the emperor to suddenly die in the next scene from that curse or some hidden poison from the empress dowager's plan B.

Unlike the other comment I saw, I was completely expecting the emperor to ask Shouxue to be his consort. That is just a very emperor-like thing to do; the dramas I've watched have taught me that any girl that happens to catch the emperor's eye, he can force into becoming his consort as his word is god and he is raised to believe he can have anything he desires. I think the series should've explored more of inner palace political rituals and culture before it blind-sides people like that.

Also that lotus thing Shouxue does feels like a magical girl transformation scene and I am already tired of it, but at least it's nice to look at, haha.

I thought this was going to be like xxxholic and introduce a different character with a different issue for the raven consort to figure out each episode, but I guess this might focus on the raven consort and the emperor. Can't wait to see where this goes next.