Season 2: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
"Even if I am guilty and regretful, the mistakes I made won't disappear, and the dead won't come back to life. What's done is done, and what's gone is gone. Now that I have been reborn, I should look forward to the future."
— Wei Wuxian muses about his past mistakes and how to move forward
While he's slowly being cured of the Devil's Mark, Wei Wuxian recalls one last memory — his ultimate fallout with the Four Great Clans. Once he wakes, he and Lan Wangji come to the conclusion that there's more than meets the eye with what transpired in Nevernight.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Wei Wuxian reunites with Lan Wangji and finds out the latter knew his identity under more dramatic circumstances than the original source. In the novel, Lan Wangji interrogates "Mo Xuanyu" on his Devil's Mark right after finding him and reveals he knew his true identity all along by calling out Wei Wuxian's birth name mid-conversation. This adaptation saw Lan Wangji frantically calling out Wei Wuxian's name as soon as he found him last episode due to the curse overwhelming Wei Wuxian and making him pass out, and the latter wakes up to Lan Wangji subduing the curse with his old Clarity Bell while calling out his name.
- Adaptation Distillation: The episode shortens the protagonists' conversation regarding how Lan Wangji found out Wei Wuxian's identity, so that the two can focus on a more pressing issue afterward and speculate what really happened to the latter's out-of-control powers 13 years ago.
- Angst Nuke: When Jiang Yanli died, Wei Wuxian was so consumed with grief that he uses the full power of the Stygian Tiger Amulet, and the resentful energy surrounding Wei Wuxian created powerful gusts of wind and was implied to instantly kill many cultivators on the spot.
- Chekhov's Gun: Lan Wangji found Wei Wuxian's Clarity Bell after the latter's disappearance in last season's flashback. This becomes key in this episode for suppressing the latter's Devil's Mark in the present timeline.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with someone entering the protagonists' room and Wei Wuxian demanding for their identity.
- Continuity Nod:
- The scene where Wei Wuxian lashed out at Wen Ning for Jin Zixuan's death mirrors the scene where Jiang Cheng did the same to him after the destruction of Lotus Pier. The musical score and scene composition are similar, and they both involved a person engulfed in grief and desperation venting their frustration at someone who wasn't even the main culprit.
- When Wei Wuxian appeared in Nevernight, a murder of crows signalled his appearance and the torches transformed into ghost fire, much like when he appeared in Chongyang to save Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng.
- Death Wail: Wei Wuxian screamed out of guilt, grief, and anger after Jiang Yanli died shielding him.
- Face Death with Dignity: Despite being burned alive, Wen Qing merely closed her eyes and lowered her head, fully accepting her impending death.
- Friendship Trinket: Lan Wangji reveals that he kept Wei Wuxian's Clarity Bell all this time and tries to return it to him. However, the latter tells him he can keep it as a token of his gratitude.
- Forced to Watch: Wen Ning was made to watch his own sister get incinerated into ashes.
- Go Back to the Source: To properly deal with the Devil's Mark, Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian that they need to return to the Man-Eating Castle (where the curse was first inflicted) and find the creature that Jin Ling angered.
- Gray Rain of Depression: After Wen Qing announced she and her brother were turning themselves in to the Jin Clan, it began raining. It kept pouring as Wei Wuxian crawled his way out of the Burial Mounds and roamed around. Then he ran into a wanted poster for the Wen siblings, and the skies cleared as his mood changed from gloomy to choleric.
- Internal Reveal: Wei Wuxian finally realizes that Lan Wangji knew who he really was since Dafan Mountain, something that was hinted at and then confirmed to the audience last episode. He doesn't mind much, but he does question how the latter recognized him.
- Not What I Signed on For: Both Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng attended the conference in Nevernight where Wen Qing and Wen Ning were to be executed. When Jin Guangshan announced the plan to attack Wei Wuxian, however, both men gasped in shock, implying this plan wasn't originally part of the agenda. Lan Wangji even tried to reason with the Jin Clan leader before Wei Wuxian showed up.
- The Reveal: Despite Wei Wuxian being held responsible for the tragedies at Qiongqi Road and Nevernight, Lan Wangji reveals to him that his loss of control on his demonic cultivation was partly due to someone else casting spells both times. The spells attracted too much resentful energy for Wei Wuxian to handle, causing him to inexplicably lose control of his powers and unknowingly attack those around him.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Wen Qing and Wen Ning gave themselves up to the Jin Clan, hoping that this would get the Four Great Clans to leave Wei Wuxian and their family alone. Of course, Jin Guangshan wasn't willing to let Wei Wuxian be no matter what, and both had Wen Qing executed and planned an attack against him.
- Squish the Cheeks: Downplayed. In the flashback shown in The Stinger, Jiang Yanli poked Wei Wuxian's cheek while teasing him that he's more like a one-year-old rather than a three-year-old.
- The Stinger: The post-credits scene is a happy flashback of Wei Wuxian being playful with Jiang Yanli back in Lotus Cove and having his usual banter with Jiang Cheng prior to rescuing the Wen survivors.
- Take Me Instead: Wen Qing and Wen Ning gave themselves up to the Jin Clan so that they wouldn't come for Wei Wuxian. The latter tried to convinced them to let him ago instead, willing to give himself up to the Jin Clan after he finding the real culprit behind the Hundred Holes Curse, but they refused and knocked him out with needles so he couldn't stop them from going.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Wei Wuxian never willingly attacked any of the cultivators in Nevernight until after someone killed Jiang Yanli, to which he then used the Stygian Tiger Amulet and unleashed chaos.
- Tragic Keepsake: It's revealed Lan Wangji held on to Wei Wuxian's Clarity Bell even after the latter came back from the Burial Mounds, because he received another bell from Jiang Yanli before the former could return it. The episode shows he still has it on him in the present, implying he's carried it around ever since then, including during the time Wei Wuxian was dead.
- Tranquil Fury: Wei Wuxian was mostly collected when he confronted Jin Guangshan in Nevernight but also nothing short of furious. While he raised his voice to show that he wasn't in the mood for pointless arguments, he had a greater control on his temper than the latter. He lost his composure altogether once he began fighting everyone.
- The Unreveal: Many cultivators believed that Wei Wuxian died of backlash from overuse of demonic cultivation. But according to Lan Wangji, when he went to the Burial Mounds to investigate, what he found disproved that claim. However, he doesn't tell Wei Wuxian any explicit details about his findings.
- Vegetarian for a Day: Downplayed in the present day. After waking up and sitting down for dinner, Wei Wuxian sees that Lan Wangji ordered food that's neither spicy nor has any meat, and there's only tea but no wine. Lan Wangji reminds him that he's still recovering so he shouldn't ingest any alcohol or strong food.
