I don’t know exactly what happened with Kingdom last week.  It aired it Japan but didn’t stream in English, and there was an announcement that the episode was delayed.  It actually streamed in France – very briefly, as it was quickly pulled.  Whether there was an issue with the episode being unfinished and delivered mistakenly or something else altogether who knows, but it left us with two episodes this week – and a hell of a cliffhanger to have to chew on for all that time.

The aftermath of Lu Buwei’s failed rebellion was always going to be ugly, especially considering the family connections involved for Zheng.  Lao Ai at least theoretically had the chance to escape, unlike the Queen Dowager.  But the fleeing rebel army was ambushed by Huan Yi outside Hangu Pass and never had a chance.  Huan Yi has always been a vicious piece of work, and there was never any question of surrender or mercy under those circumstances.  It was only on the direct orders of Changping that he survives long enough to be brought back to the capital as a prisoner.

The situation in Yong is rather surreal, as Zheng, Lu Buwei, and the Queen Dowagar await side by side for news that will decide their fate and that of Qin.  It arrives in the form of one of Lu’s messengers, though the king’s soon follows.  Effectively this is a death sentence for the Queen Dowager and presumably Lu Buwei too, just as it would have been for Zheng had fortune fallen the other way.  Changping’s betrayal of the chancellor was the key to everything in the end.  The Chu army doing battle with Qin’s forces at Xuandou retreats as soon as news arrives from Xianyang – their need to be a distraction is over, and it was an effort wasted.

To give the Queen Dowager credit, she was smart enough to realize that an invasion at this stage of the game was a dumb idea – she went along only when it became clear she had no choice.  But in the larger sense she chose this path, so her pleas to her son for her children with Lao Ai’s lives seem rather hollow.  She’s never been anything but a thorn in his side, and the brutal truth is that this is a time that calls for Zheng to be ruthless.  Nevertheless, executing children – and his half-siblings at that – is an ominous way to inaugurate his reign as undisputed ruler of Qin.

Given that, it’s not a surprise that he would back down – though he does so secretly of course.  To be honest this is a pretty disgusting turn of events in some ways, because while thousands of people the Queen Dowager led down this path are executed or exiled – and her husband is torn limb from limb – she survives, and so do her children.  And not only that, he promises to reunite them.  She’s never shown the remotest affection for him (as far as we know) or supported his rule, but he shows her great compassion over and over.  Her children don’t deserve to die of course, but from a strategic point of view sparing them is questionable at best.  And letting them be reunited with their traitorous mother?  Absolute madness, frankly.

This is the essential contradiction of Zheng.  He’s a kind and sentimental man in many ways, yet he’s about to embark on a campaign that will turn his nation into a war machine and result in the deaths of more people than any other event in Chinese history to that point – and that’s if it’s successful.  There’s no disguising what this dream of his really is no matter how noble its supposed aim – it’s raw conquest, the subjugation and dismantling of sovereign countries under Qin’s heel.  That’s why Lu Buwei’s rhetoric in Yong sounded so convincing, even if his methods were despicable.

The matter of Lu’s fate remains undecided.  And as Zheng tells Xin on the ramparts (you knew that meeting had to happen soon), it’s a complicated one to be sure.  Half the country’s power structure is fiercely loyal to him, and – especially considering what Zheng is about to embark on – it’s not like he can write those people (and the resources they control) off.  He talks of Lu being tried within six months, but even that seems a trifle simplistic.  Lu Buwei can’t possibly be pardoned given what he’s done (which is now public knowledge, at least in the palace), but he can take much of the country down with him if allowed to.

At that, there’s still matter of Lu Buwei’s “joke” about being Zheng’s father.  It’s quite ambiguous by design whether he was in fact joking – I mean, why bring it up to the old man at all?  To be clear, some historians do in fact believe that Lu Buwei was Zheng’s father, and it was definitely rumored at the time.  It’s one of those things that we’ll never know for sure, but it’s an interesting subtext to the entire story to this point in the series, even if Zheng is unaware of the rumors himself (we’ve been given no reason to believe otherwise, but one can’t be sure).

As it turns out, Changping already has a plan to implement Zheng’s dream – that he too shared that dream is the reason he betrayed Lu in the first place – and Zheng reveals it to his most trusted and oldest friend.  Fifteen years – that’s how long Qin can be maintained in the state of constant warfare that will be necessary for this plan to succeed.  If the deed is not done by then, Qin’s conquest will collapse from the inside out.  Zheng will certainly have to be creative to give Qin any chance to succeed – reviving the six great generals is barely a start of it.  Only a ruler as sure of himself as Zheng could convince himself it would all be worth it.