The Long Season 1.09

Episode 9

Hualin, 2016. Wang Xiang makes a mess of his relationship with Li Qiaoyun. He brings up the fact that she used to work at Victoria. He wants to ask her if she knew Shen Mo but she reads something else into his questions and thinks he is looking down on her.

Ma Desheng goes to see one of his former coworkers he spots Shen Dongliang. He talks to Li Qun another former coworker who has risen in the ranks of the police department. Ma Desheng wants to look at the police files for the murder case of Shen Mo. Li Qun flatly refuses to let him look at the file.

Xiang, Biao, and Ma Desheng try to get their hands on Fu Weijun's ashes. They come up empty handed on that score. Xiang tricks the parking attendant at the gate into giving him some information that leads them to Shen Dongliang. They find him dead. Someone stabbed him to death.

They wind up at the police station where Ma Desheng has another encounter with Li Qun. It doesn't go any better than their meeting the night before.

Hualin, 1997. Fu Weijun and Sui Dong get beaten up by one of the local gangs. Shen Mo gets pushed around by Yin Hong. Wang Yang goes to Victoria looking for Shen Mo. He tries asking Lu Wenzhong about it and gets kicked around and kicked out by his former boss.

Yang goes to Fu Weijun's place. He finds the place a mess. Shen Mo shows up right after him and tells him that Sui Dong is in the hospital. The lights in the place go out just before the episode ends.

Thoughts

The first two-thirds of the episode took place in 2016. Everything seems to be coming apart in 1997. I have no idea what comes next but I think the ending of this episode might involve a bit of misdirection.

I'm starting to wonder if maybe Shen Mo isn't dead. What if somehow the body that was found belonged to Yin Hong? What if Shen Mo assumed her identity? It's a crazy plot twist. It's probably too crazy. I'm still not sure how she is going die. Yin Hong gets mentioned briefly in 2016. She took a train to Mongolia. It comes up during a meeting that Li Qun is having at police headquarters.

I keep wanting to say well that's it for this character. We won't be seeing them anymore but the way this show jumps around in time I don't think it's ever accurate to say that.

The next episode is the shortest one (40 minutes) and the one after it is the longest one (106 minutes). I'm looking forward to seeing how things shake out. Hopefully it will be satisfying enough for me.