The Long Season 1.11

Episode 11

106 minutes

Hualin, 1997. Wang Xiang breaks into the space where Wu Feijun lived. He finds something and takes it with him. He takes it to police HQ but Ma Desheng isn't there.

Wang Yang convinces his mother to untie him. She feeds him. He then tricks her, locks her in his room, and takes off. Xiang comes home and berates Luo Meisu for letting their son get away.

Ma Desheng goes to see Shen Dongliang. He asks him questions about Shen Mo. Shen Dongiang catches on to the fact that Ma Desheng is fishing for answers and laughs at him. Ma Desheng beats him up.

Shen Mo and Wu Feijun are eating lunch at a cafe. He gets up and says he will be right back. He goes to the bank to try and cash the check that they got from Lu Wenzhong. The police are there and arrest him on the spot. He left some money on the table at the cafe with a note for Shen Mo telling her to get away if he doesn't some back. She hears the sirens of police cars and sees him get arrested.

Xiang asks Gong Biao for help finding and bringing back Yang. Xiang says that they will be like family if he helps him. Biao says yes. He goes back to his apartment to get ready but then Huang Liru shows up and he forgets all about helping Xiang.

Xiang waits for Biao. He tries calling him but can't get him on the phone so he goes out by himself to look for Wang. He has a taser that he stole. He finds Shen Mo but she tricks him, gets the taser, and knocks him out with it. She leaves him laying there.

Shen Mo finds Yang. He has changed his mind about leaving town. He is willing to take responsibility for the murders. She can't agree to that and accuses him of betraying her.

Xiang returns home, without Yang. Luo Meisu wants to know where there son is but Xiang doesn't have a good answer. The next day there is a big meeting at Hualin Steel. Biao, before the meeting, sees Huang Liru talking to Song Yukan, the factory manager. Biao overhears her telling Song Yukan that she's pregnant with Song's child.

Biao is stunned by what he hears. He interrupts the big company meeting that begins minutes later. He attacks Song Yukan but he's pulled off him and beaten up by some of the factory's security. Xiang gets him out of there but then Xiang loses it and attacks Song Yukan just as the meeting is starting up again.

Huang Liru shows up at the meeting just as everything gets chaotic. She gets knocked down and starts bleeding. Investigators from outside of town show up and announce that Song Yukan is being investigated for stealing from the company.

Ma Desheng shows up after everyone has cleared out of the meeting hall except Xiang. He takes him down to the river where they have found Yang's body.

Hualin, 2016. Xiang goes to buy flowers for Li Qiaoyun, as a way of apologizing to her. He meets a man who is buying flowers for his girlfriend. Xiang gets some flower buying advice from the man and then offers him a cab ride as a form of repayment. It turns out that the stranger's girlfriend is Li Qiaoyun. Xiang doesn't make a scene. He plays it off like they know each other because they both worked at Hualin Steel but that's it.

Gong Biao goes to see Huang Liru's new storefront. He meets her business partner. He gets angry but decides to drop it. He makes dinner that night and then leaves. He's already drawn up the divorce papers that she requested a long time ago and signed them.

Xiang, Biao, and Ma Desheng rent a karaoke room. They sing and dance. Biao goes to get breakfast the next morning. He gets distracted by the lottery numbers being called out on the radio. He realizes he just won but then gets driven off the road into a canal. Xiang wakes up to discover the Ma Desheng is comatose and he is unable to wake him.

Thoughts

It looks like I was wrong about Shen Mo chopping off her hand. It look like she only chopped one of her fingers.

Wow, that was a long episode. It definitely could have been broken into a couple episodes but maybe there were contractual reasons why they couldn't do that. It certainly was a downer. I wasn't expecting Gong Biao to die in this episode.

My guess for the next episode is that it will wrap up whatever loose ends there are for Xiang and maybe for Shen Mo. Maybe Wang Bei, Xiang's adopted son, will return in the next episode or maybe not.

I think they must have aged up the actors who appeared in both 1997 and 2016 because I don't see how else they could have done it.

I'm not sure that I will find the ending satisfying but so far it has been quite a ride. I'm not expecting a huge twist ending.