For a series that’s traded mostly on a dizzying swathe of characters spread out across many settings, these past few eps have been a welcome change of pace.  This week was effectively one long take – there were no scene changes, no time skips.  And while all the important players aren’t gathered in one place (that would be impossible with Kingdom) the most important are.  Kingdom is at its most gripping when the stakes are clearly laid out and the odds are hopeless, and this situation certainly checks all those boxes.

Zui – the “throat of Xianyang” – is in dire straits.  Their decision to surrender to the approaching army certainly made sense under the circumstances.  And their assumption is that they’re going to be berated (or worse) by these army types who’ve come to their town just before the enemy’s arrival.  It’s a tense moment to say the least, but credit goes to Zheng for his instincts here.  Nothing short of the king himself coming to Zui to plead the case would likely have won these people over for what’s essentially a suicide mission.  But he is the king, and in this day and age that means a hell of a lot.

Zheng, by narrative necessity, has been mostly a passive observer for most of Kingdom’s run.  We haven’t gotten many tastes of how formidable he is since very early in the series, but here he shows he has what it takes to inspire a very tough audience.  He can of course more than hold his own in a fight too, though putting that to the test here would obviously be inadvisable.  Arming citizens and pitting them against trained soldiers is not only an act of total desperation, but inevitably a cruel one.  Zheng knows full well what he’s asking these people to do, but the most impressive part of his speech is its honesty – he doesn’t pull many punches.

Of course even with the townsfolk – mostly women, children, and greybeards – won over, the situation is dire.  Diao doesn’t even have enough commanders (just Xin, Bi, and Changwen – who’s more a politician) for all four walls of the castle.  She should be at the command center, and Zheng needs to be alive and has little military experience.  A lifeline arrives in the presence of Jie Yi, one of her instructors from strategy academy – part of a delegation of 100 experienced men sent by Changping.  And along with him comes a familiar face, albeit one we haven’t seen on our screens for seven years – Meng Yi, youngest son of Meng Wu.

Meng Yi’s arrival is interesting in all sorts of ways.  He’s one of the most important historical figures of this era, and the least explored by Kingdom so far.  He’s also someone with whom Diao seemed to have a bit of a spark – or so I thought at the time, and her reaction upon seeing him does nothing to dispel the notion.  Hell, Jie Yi even takes a few affectionate digs at the two of them over that (perhaps implying something about the adolescent Meng Yi’s hobbies).  It’s also fascinating to consider what’s happening in Xianyang.  Changping and Lu Buwei are surely considering who they hope wins the battle, and planning for its aftermath.  Which makes Changping’s decision to send help quite significant.

Poor Meng Yi sure picked a hopeless cause for his first campaign, though.  Even with Jie Yi’s party the defenders are seriously outgunned and outclassed here.  Li Mu correctly susses out that the civilians are the “army” he’s unexpectedly seeing.  But he doesn’t immediately suspect that the king is present.  He tries to win over the populace with a mixture of praise, promise, and threat, but having been urged on by their king, their resolve holds.  And Xin takes advantage of the moment to get a few shots in at Li Mu, further riling up the makeshift force.

I believe Li Mu when he says he’d spare the civilians if they surrender, and I even believe him when he says he hates killing non-soldiers.  But that’s what makes Li Mu so maddening – he couches conquest in the clothing of moderation.  In many ways he’s by far the most modern thinker among the great generals of Kingdom, and in principle there’s nothing inherently making his cause any morally weaker than Qin’s (apart from that they are invading, but Qin has done more than its share of that).  But in this story he’s the white whale, the big bad – and he seems to hold many more cards than Zheng and Xin and their friends and allies.  As inspiring as it is to see these characters we love make their last stand, for now it looks like a hopeless one.  For now…