Shining Light
Episode 7 of Light the Night begins four years before the incident, on September 10th 1984. Chiang-Han and Sue both find themselves at the library but Sue is nervous, erratic and struggles to compose herself around her crush. Slowly but surely the pair grow closer together, which makes the revelation last episode hit all the harder. We then jump forward to one month before the incident on September 8th. Sue sits passed out in a pool of blood as Tzu-Wei shows up and immediately phones an ambulance. In the car she tell him to look after himself before drifting out of consciousness. Meanwhile, Ah-Chi pays some of her debt back but learns if she doesn’t pay it all back by the next month, she’s going to be killed. The thing is, this level of stress is having a negative impact on customers, who are complaining about her bad attitude. Well, she soon brightens up when she finds Nakamura, who’s back from Japan. She encourages him to taste Taiwanese food and in doing so, holds his hand and broaches a touchy subject. In the past, he told her that she looked like his late wife. Now, she offers to try and be more like her. He understands what she’s trying to say and instead pushes her away gently, offering his thanks, along with a polite but stern “no thank you Ah-Chi.” Heading out for dinner with Ya-Ya and Aiko, they encourage Ah-Chi to make the most of Nakamura’s hospitality and have sex with him before he leaves for Japan again. After all, if a relationship is out the window, this is the next best thing right? Rose is called away when she hears about Sue’s accident. When Rose shows up, Sue breaks the news that Chiang-Han has broken up with her and how Rose is the one he’s chosen. “In this life, I’m doomed to lose.” She says sadly. Eventually she tells Rose to leave, unable to look at her following what’s happened. Out in the hallway, Wen-Cheng chases a crook who just so happens to be in the same elevator as Rose. He uses Rose as a hostage, holding her up at knifepoint as the elevator drops. This man takes his eye off the ball though when the doors open, allowing Wen-Cheng to tackle him to the ground and save Rose’s life. Rose heads over to see Chiang-Han, breaking the news to him about Sue. She begs him not to hurt her anymore. He eventually arrives at the hospital to see Sue. While they talk, Rose leaves them to it and visits Hana, who reveals that Sue actually handed over an envelope of money earlier on, encouraging her not to head back to Light anymore. Back at the club, Frank arrives and immediately makes his presence felt. He sticks with Yuri and decides they need to get the drugs back. Only, in the middle of all this, Aiko’s mum comes storming in and slaps her daughter in the face. She’s not happy, especially as she was initially told the girl was working in a bubble-tea shop. After calling her out as an embarrassment to the family, she tells Aiko not to come back. Aiko calls her bluff and heads into the dressing room, angry and upset. The thing is, all of this escalated off the back of photos being snapped of her at the club. It’s the last straw for Aiko, who decides to quit working and leave. This was very obviously Sue’s doing; revenge for the photos being left on Rose’s desk. Aiko knows this and immediately heads over to Sue’s house, sitting in the lounge waiting for her. As she steps toward Sue, holding pruning shears, Sue reaches for a weapon of her own. Before we see what happens though, we cut forward to October 6th 1988, the day of the incident. At Zhongshan police station, Aiko’s mum shows up with a missing person report. She hasn’t seen her daughter for weeks. Was it her out in the woods?
The Episode Review
Finally we get somewhere with the investigation but boy, does this episode make you work for it. The first 40 minutes or so are pure character drama and while that in itself is fine, Light the Night does feel like it’s juggling one too many subplots to be effective. The whole Ah-Chi plot with Nakamura, for example, is sporadically placed and it’s hard to see whether that’s genuinely important to the story or just padding at this point. Likewise, the drug subplot with Aiko, the obsession from Yu-En and the ex-husband ordeal are all strange inclusions to this murder mystery. Most of the time the show has handled these well, never losing sight of the main drama, but this chapter definitely slips up a bit. However, it’s still enjoyable to watch and the ending hints that we’re going to get some solid answers during the finale to part 1. Roll on the next episode!
