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While Wei Wuxian recovers from his injury at the Cloud Recesses, he, Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen confirm how Jin Guangyao was able to trigger Nie Mingjue's qi deviation. Wei Wuxian finds out a few things about the Gusu Lan Clan. News reaches the protagonists that fierce corpses everywhere have started heading towards the Burial Mounds.
- Acting Unnatural: Wei Wuxian has just found out about the head ribbon rule from his notebook when Lan Wangji walks in the room, and the former tries to act like nothing's happened. This comprises him hastily throwing the notebook onto the bookshelf, running to the shelf to sloppily cover the notebook with another book, conspicuously posing next to it and then unconvincingly letting out a cry of pain from his wound. After checking on the injury, Lan Wangji is a little suspicious but pays no further attention to the situation when Wei Wuxian changes the topic.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Although the significance of the scene isn't clear here, this episode brings up a certain moment between a younger Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji much earlier than the novel.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: In the novel, Wei Wuxian discovered the rule about the Gusu Lan Clan's head ribbon prior to going to Jinlintai (specifically from the junior Lan disciples and right before having to deal with Nie Mingjue's corpse). Here he has the "joy" of finding out from his own notebook right at Cloud Recesses, and right when Lan Wangji walks in.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Wei Wuxian discovers the Emperor's Smile jar he's drinking is actually filled with water, which he apparently did himself. When and why this happened is only explained in the novel — he filled two jars with water as a prank against Lan Wangji when he was first taken back to the Cloud Recesses post-resurrection.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The episode shows how Lan Xichen was saved by Jin Guangyao and became acquainted with him while on the run from the Wens in more detail. This includes a scene of Jin Guangyao helping him wash his clothes (since the Lan cultivator didn't seem to know how to tone down his arm strength for it), a trivia revealed by the author but otherwise not mentioned in the novel.
- Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are shown dealing with walking corpses and discussing the current situation with Wei Wuxian before getting attacked by an unknown party. In the novel the attack occurs offscreen and their whereabouts beforehand were not specified.
- Adaptational Explanation: In the novel it's unclear why Wei Wuxian doesn't know the head ribbon's significance, considering all the times he had to copy down the clan rules as punishment back when he was studying at Cloud Recesses (assuming it isn't from a separate set of rules). The donghua's take on it is that he copied the rule incorrectly and apparently never noticed, meaning he remembered it wrong (if at all) this whole time.
- And Here He Comes Now: Wei Wuxian cries out "What have I done!?" in response to discovering that Lan Wangji's violated the head ribbon rule on multiple occasions thanks to him. The man in question walks in right then, asking, "What did you do?" Cue comedic sequence of Wei Wuxian Acting Unnatural.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Lan Sizhui questions Lan Jingyi if he believes people's claims that Wei Wuxian is summoning evil to the Burial Mounds; despite grumbling about the Yiling Patriarch earlier, Lan Jingyi's hesitance to answer implies that he too is unconvinced that Wei Wuxian means any harm.
- Cerebus Call-Back: Lan Wangji telling Wei Wuxian to get lost after their clash at the Library Pavilion in Season 1's flashback arc was a comedic moment of the former having a Not So Stoic moment. In the first flashback of this episode Wei Wuxian said the same thing to Lan Wangji — however the line appeared to be much more dramatic and dark in tone.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with a civilian that's about to be attacked by a fierce corpse.
- Continuity Nod: Wei Wuxian's miswritten rule about the head ribbon funnily enough matches his excuse from several episodes ago that Lan Wangji tied him up to demonstrate how to capture a corpse using the ribbon; in Wei Wuxian's notebook 命定之人 (fated one) is mispelled as 非命之人 (someone without fate) which can refer to the deceased, thus misinterpreting rule to mean that one may only use their head ribbon on corpses.
- Dialogue Reversal: Back in Season 1 during the flashback of their studies at Cloud Recesses, Lan Wangji was annoyed at Wei Wuxian (who was trying to befriend him but also kept pulling pranks) to the point of yelling at him to get lost. This episode shows a flashback of an exhausted Wei Wuxian snapping the same line at Lan Wangji despite the latter's concern for him.
- Female Gaze: When Wei Wuxian feigns a reaction to his stab wound, Lan Wangji is quick to check on it by opening up his robe. The camera very closely focuses on a shot of Wei Wuxian's toned abdomen.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: A red correction can be seen in the notebook when Wei Wuxian opens it where the flower bookmark is. A couple of seconds later he notices the correction and finds out he wrote the head ribbon rule wrong, finally solving the mystery of its significance.
- Flashback Echo: Wei Wuxian passing out from his wound while being held by Lan Wangji in the rain is followed by a flashback of a younger Lan Wangji tending to Wei Wuxian in similar weather and similarly dire circumstances.
- Flashback-Montage Realization: After finding out about the head ribbon rule, Wei Wuxian thinks back to the younger Lan Wangji getting furious over his ribbon getting pulled off, the junior Lan disciples' shock over their mentor misusing it and Lan Wangji asking him how many times he copied down the rules. Now understanding the reason behind their reactions, Wei Wuxian is mortified with himself.
- Flashback Nightmare: After passing out from his injury, Wei Wuxian appears to dream of a past incident involving himself looking worn out and angrily telling Lan Wangji to get lost. The nightmare ends at him slapping his hand away.
- Flower Motifs: Gentian flowers grow near the late Madam Lan's residence as well as Lan Wangji's. The flower is said to symbolise sweetness amongst other things, and Lan Xichen implies that the woman was nothing short of a loving mother to her children despite her imprisonment.
- Gory Discretion Shot: When Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are attacked, the next shot only shows blood splattering onto a nearby rock. Mostly done to hide their attacker's identity rather than to tone down any gore.
- Gray Rain of Depression: It begins raining after Wei Wuxian is stabbed by Jin Ling. A flashback also shows it was similarly raining during what seemed to be a bleak moment between a younger Lan Wangji and an incapacitated Wei Wuxian.
- Hide the Evidence: Lan Xichen is puzzled as to why Jin Guangyao would need to take the page he used from the Collection of Turmoil since he has excellent memory. Wei Wuxian points out that he likely ripped it out in order to hide evidence that he tampered with his guqin therapy for Nie Mingjue.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Wei Wuxian had at one point added in water to one of the Emperor's Smile jars. The jar he happens to drink from in this episode is that same one, resulting in a Spit Take.
- Impairment Shot: As Wei Wuxian passes out from his wound, the P.O.V. Cam also fades to black before transitioning to his Flashback Nightmare.
- Madness Mantra: A flashback of a younger and exhausted Wei Wuxian repeatedly telling Lan Wangji to get lost implies he was not in a good mental state at the time.
- Match Cut: A younger Wei Wuxian slapping away Lan Wangji's hand is immediately followed by present-day Wei Wuxian reaching out for Lan Wangji's arm, with a switch in P.O.V. Cam but otherwise similar positioning. This transition emphasises how present-day Wuxian now finds comfort in Lan Wangji's presence unlike his old Yiling Patriarch self.
- Meaningful Echo: Wei Wuxian's musing about the Lan Clan's Undying Loyalty is similar to what he said about the clan's origins just before he was kicked out of Cloud Recesses. Only this time, he notices that all the men in the clan are very affectionate and loyal instead of being clueless about romanticism.
- Musical Assassin: The protagonists find out that Jin Guangyao secretly integrated a section from the Collection of Turmoil into Cleansing when playing the guqin for Nie Mingjue, thus subtly feeding him dark energy and triggering his qi deviation.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- The horrified expression on Jin Ling's face after stabbing Wei Wuxian implies he's at all not proud by his actions.
- Upon finding out about the clan rule regarding the head ribbon and the implications of him having messed with Lan Wangji's, Wei Wuxian immediately closes the book and exclaims, "What have I done?"
- Mythology Gag: Wei Wuxian takes a moment to admire a dried peony being used as a bookmark in his old notebook. In the novel, although he didn't realize it, the bookmark was actually one of the peonies he gave to Lan Wangji in his past life (either during the opening ceremony of the Phoenix Mountain Hunt or their meeting at Yunmeng, none which were adapted in the donghua).
- P.O.V. Cam:
- Wei Wuxian passing out from his injury and then beginning his Flashback Nightmare is shown from his perspective.
- The end of the Flashback Nightmare is shown from Lan Wangji's perspective as he tries to check on Wei Wuxian's condition before the latter slaps his hand away. The perspective then switches to Wei Wuxian as he awakes from his nightmare and instinctively grabs Lan Wangji's sleeve.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite now knowing his identity and that he's wanted by other cultivators, Lan Xichen is revealed to have knowingly let Wei Wuxian stay at the Cloud Recesses to recover. Although the clan leader is not completely convinced by what Wei Wuxian saw in Empathy and hesitates to lose faith in Jin Guangyao, he still hears the protagonists out and continues to respectfully let Wei Wuxian take refuge while he tries to grasp the situation.
- The Reveal: The reason why the Gusu Lan Clan head ribbon is considered so precious, to the point of drawing ire from clan members when used inappropriately in previous episodes? Wei Wuxian finds out from his old notebook that it's because only the clan member's "fated person" is allowed to touch it. Cue Flashback-Montage Realization and his mortified reaction.
- Rewatch Bonus:
- The flashback of Lan Wangji confiding in his brother that he wanted to take someone (Wei Wuxian) to Gusu and hide them there becomes more meaningful after his parents' backstory is revealed in this episode, as Lan Wangji's intentions echo what his father ended up doing to his mother; unlike his father, however, Lan Wangji wasn't willing to take his companion by force.
- If one rewatches the first Library Pavilion scenes from Season 1 and looks closely at the protagonists' manuscripts (and can read Chinese), it actually does show that the head ribbon rule was indeed copied down incorrectly in the same way as what's shown in Wei Wuxian's notebook.
- Rule of Three: It's the third "Get lost!" that was the loudest and had Wei Wuxian slapping Lan Wangji's hand away in the Flashback Nightmare.
- Spit Take: Wei Wuxian spits out his "Emperor's Smile" drink after finding out the jar was actually filled with water. By himself.
- Spotting the Thread: What catches the Twin Jades' attention when listening to Jin Guangyao's version of Cleansing is that a portion of it takes a faster pace and more unsettling tone than the original, implying that it's not from the same song despite otherwise sounding very similar. They confirm their suspicions when they find a page missing from the Collection of Turmoil and notice the preceding music passage connects to what Jin Guangyao played.
- Title Drop: The episode title comes in when Wei Wuxian reads aloud from his notebook with the Gusu Lan Clan rules in it — specifically, that clan members may only allowed their fated person to touch their head ribbon.
- Undying Loyalty: Wei Wuxian muses to himself that, despite their monk origins and conservative practices, the Gusu Lan men can be surprisingly affectionate and loyal. This happens after his talk with Lan Xichen, which highlights the loyalty of the latter and his family members to their respective companions:
- The Twin Jades' father, Qingheng-jun, fell in love with Madam Lan even after she murdered his teacher and chose to protect her from his clan's wrath by by marrying her. This came at a cost of ruining his reputation and the disapproval of his clan.
- Lan Xichen explains that Lan Wangji has always stood by Wei Wuxian's side regardless of his troubled history and reputation as the Yiling Patriarch, which he attributes to the latter's kindness.
- Lan Xichen himself admits that he finds it hard to shake off his trust in Jin Guangyao, as the latter had risked his life to protect him from the Wens while he went into hiding during the Sunshot Campaign and has shown such a kind side that clashes with his misdeeds.
