There’s no question about it, Link Click is all the way back.  And when it goes, damn, it goes hard.  Even these last two episodes lack something of the subtlety and moral ambiguity of the first season, but they make up for it in sheer intensity.  The series has really hit on something with this premise, because the essential conflict is between Cheng’s impulse to change the past and Lu’s admonitions not to.  And it’s a very relatable one, because who among us would see what Cheng sees and not feel the urge to act?

Of course, the main difference this season is that everything seems to be tied around one central case.  We now know this trip to the past goes back about seven years, which dovetails with the children’s ages in the present.  And yes, it’s “children” – there’s a brother, Tianchen, seemingly a couple of years older than Xixi.  This answers the question about who the beloved brother in the photo is (I was way off), and pretty much confirms the theory that there are two pink-haired teens in the present.  Xixi being the witness in police custody is confirmed; Tianchen being the ability user is the Occam’s Razor explanation.

The ending of last week’s episode was a very skillful feint.  That mysterious stranger turns out to have been the neighbor, a gamer geek who’s slovenly and socially awkward but seems to be generally decent.  He wins the doll for Xixi, but Tianchen reacts with hostility when he sees the man show affection towards her.  One gets the idea that Tianchen reacts with hostility towards pretty much everyone except his sister, but towards her he’s relentlessly dedicated.  He teaches her sign language (which proves an issue for Cheng, even with Lu’s help).

The real issue here is the father, who turns out to be a true menace and general scumbag.  Having been tipped off by the building’s security attendant about Mr. Zhou, a teacher who’s been visiting the apartment, he’s convinced himself that his wife has been cheating on him and lying about it, citing as evidence the doll and the new camera which showed up in the apartment.  That’s enough to send him into a violent rage which the children overhear from the other room, and to set off Cheng’s usual instinct to intervene.

Has Cheng changed the future by convincing Tianchen to step in, and running to said neighbor for help?  It’s hard to say.  At this point the neighbor seems to have backed down rather than involve himself beyond knocking on the door, but I have a hard time imagining his part in all this is finished.  We know that in one timeline at least both the mother and father died in a criminal incident, but how did that play out exactly?  Did he kill his wife and then himself, or – more likely – did something more complicated go down that night?  And did Cheng’s presence impact it?

In the present, Xixi is certainly ready to speak about something, and it’s Cheng she ends up speaking to.  And speak she does, which it always seemed was possible since Cheng proved she was physically capable of it.  Her motivation is almost surely to try and save her brother – the question is how, and from what.  It’s evident he’s gotten himself involved with some very bad and dangerous people, and maybe the wisdom of some older guys who’ve been dealing with their abilities for a while could help him come back from the brink of disaster.