Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Episode 5 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

Covert Operations

Maomao is cooking matsutake with the physician when a eunuch bursts in, blaming a curse for his raw hands after burning refuse that included a scorched woman's garment and a wooden tablet. She explains that the flame colors work like fireworks and that something on the tablet irritated his skin, and makes him an ointment. Jinshi then orders a search for anyone with a recently burned arm.

For the garden party she makes ginger-mandarin candies and underrobes with pockets for warmers, which Hongniang has her make for everyone. On the day, the attendants wipe her face and her freckles vanish: she tells Jinshi she painted them on with dried clay to avoid being dragged into back alleys, and was kidnapped when the makeup wore off. He apologizes and gives her a man's hairpin.

• Sparring and the tablet mystery

  Jinshi praised Basen's strength while the worker's burned-garment story and tablet hinted at a secret message, which Maomao chose not to pursue.

• Garden party preparations

  The attendants fitted Maomao's garden party clothing, and Maomao made ginger and mandarin candies and underrobes with pockets for warmers, which Hongniang asked her to make for everyone. Meanwhile, the search for the arm-burned person failed.

• Fake freckles wiped off and hairpin gift

  When the attendants wiped her face, Maomao's freckles vanished; she told Jinshi she painted fake freckles on with dried clay to look plain and had been kidnapped when that makeup was wearing off, and Jinshi gave her a hairpin as the party began.

Recent Timeline

• Poisoning, pottery test, and drugged bun (Episode 2)

  Soldiers collapsed after eating a village meal, and the village headman was held on suspicion of supporting an opposing ethnic group. Maomao's explanation of poisonous plants suggested the poison came from the soldiers' own utensils or cooking, not the village food. Hongniang revealed that the earlier pottery had been used to test Maomao at Jinshi's suggestion. Maomao accepted a deduction from the share of her wages sent to her abductors and received hazard pay nearly equal to her salary. Jinshi received a bun from an officer, and Maomao identified an aphrodisiac in it by smell, suspecting Jinshi knew of it. Jinshi then asked her to prepare an aphrodisiac, which she compounded and warned was strong.

• Fuyo's transfer (Episode 3)

  Fuyo was kept under eunuch supervision and forbidden to go outside until her transfer. She left the palace on the day she was handed over to the military officer.

• Attendant punished for poisoned cosmetics (Episode 4)

  An attendant had kept applying the poisonous face powder to Rifa to preserve her beauty. Maomao condemned her for using the same poison that had killed Rifa's child and punished her. After confinement she returned to serve Rifa again and promised not to repeat the mistake.

• Rifa's recovery (Episode 4)

  After attendants obstructed treatment, Maomao took over Rifa's care. She fed Rifa thin rice gruel and tea to flush out lingering poison, then gradually added richer foods. About two months later Rifa could walk on her own again, and her willingness to eat showed she did not want to die despite losing her child.

• Failed search for the arm-burned person (Episode 5)

  An order was issued to find someone who had recently burned an arm. By the eve of the garden party, Gaoshun reported the search had failed and the person remained unidentified. Jinshi hoped the party would pass without trouble.

Character Graph

Gyokuyo

Rear palace

Consort favored by the emperor, mother of a surviving princess (Lingli); received a warning about face powder and appointed Maomao as a lady-in-waiting.

• Role

  Mother of the surviving princess Lingli, favored by the emperor

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Thanks Maomao for saving Lingli and appoints her as a lady-in-waiting

Gaoshun

attendant to Jinshi

Jinshi's attendant who formally introduced himself to Maomao and gave her permission to use the available supplies.

• Warning on misuse

  Warned that Maomao's medicinal knowledge could also be misused.

• Jinshi (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Attends Jinshi as his attendant and reported where the village meal came from.

• Maomao (Colleague, Mixed)

  Warned about the misuse of her knowledge and objected to Jinshi trying the aphrodisiac, while granting her access to supplies.

Hongniang

head attendant

Gyokuyo's head attendant who showed Maomao around the Jade Pavilion.

• Staged pottery test

  Revealed that pottery had deliberately been used instead of silver at Jinshi's suggestion to test Maomao.

• Gyokuyo (Hierarchy, Neutral)

  Head attendant to Gyokuyo at the Jade Pavilion.

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Mixed)

  Introduced herself and granted Maomao hazard pay, while having staged the pottery test on her.

Jinshi

Rear palace

The rear palace administrator, a strikingly beautiful eunuch. After the 'curse' on a eunuch's hands, he ordered a search for anyone with a recently burned arm, and on the day of the garden party he apologized to Maomao and gave her a hairpin.

• Role

  Introduces himself as the rear palace administrator

• Maomao (Other, Hierarchy, Mixed)

  Sees Maomao's medicinal knowledge as a useful asset and is intrigued by the open contempt she shows him.

Fuyo

middle-ranking consort · princess from a small dependent country

A middle-ranking consort in the rear palace, a princess from a small dependent country, who was to be awarded to a military officer the following month. She had failed at her specialty dance before the emperor and was secluded without receiving his intimate attention.

• Transfer

  Awarded to a military officer she had known since childhood, and was placed under eunuch supervision until her departure.

Emperor

The emperor, master of the rear palace. While visiting the Jade Pavilion he ordered Maomao to look after the ailing Rifa at the Crystal Pavilion, and afterwards his visits to the Jade Pavilion dropped off sharply for a while.

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Neutral)

  Maomao accepted his request as an order to cure Rifa and feared the consequences of refusing.

Rifa

A high consort who lost her son, the crown prince, to the poisonous face powder and fell gravely ill herself. Nursed by Maomao for about two months, she recovered enough to walk on her own, and Maomao came to see her as proud but not arrogant.

• Maomao (Other, Affinity)

  Maomao cared for her during her illness and later reassured her and passed on a technique.

• Gyokuyo (Other, Hostility)

  Rifa questioned whether she could rival Gyokuyo in beauty.

Maomao

Rear palace

An apothecary from the pleasure district who was abducted and sold into the rear palace, now Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting and food taster. She paints on fake freckles with dried clay to look plain, and was kidnapped when that makeup was wearing off.

• Start in the rear palace

  Began as a lowly servant in the rear palace before Gyokuyo appointed her lady-in-waiting

• Gyokuyo (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Promoted to lady-in-waiting by Gyokuyo, who treats her as her own and teasingly complained at the garden party that Maomao was no longer hers alone.

• Jinshi (Hierarchy, Mixed)

  Jinshi, who praised her flame explanation, keeps pressing her into service; at the garden party he apologized for the lax oversight that let her be sold into the palace and gave her a man's hairpin, and she told him it was not his fault.

World Memo

• Rear palace administrator post

  The rear palace has an administrator role held by a eunuch, who oversees the servants gathered there.

• Food taster duty

  The Jade Pavilion keeps a food taster who checks meals for poison; tasting is limited to two meals and afternoon tea, and a previous taster lost the use of her limbs after poisoning attempts during Gyokuyo's pregnancy.

• Guarded rear palace perimeter

  The rear palace is enclosed by guarded gates and a surrounding moat.

• Poisonous face powder

  Face powder used in the rear palace is poisonous and dangerous to infants; many courtesans in the pleasure district were poisoned by expensive powder, a known hazard.

  The poisonous face powder has been banned, and eunuchs have reportedly collected all remaining supplies in the rear palace.

• Twice-yearly garden gathering

  Twice a year the emperor and high officials gather in the palace garden for performances and a banquet. Since the emperor has no empress, he brings his four highest-ranking consorts.

Clue Board

• Burned garment and wooden tablet (Episode 5)

  A worker burned palace refuse and found a woman's garment with a scorched sleeve and a wooden tablet, then threw them into the fire; his hand trouble and the flames were taken as a curse, and Maomao suspects something on the tablet irritated his skin and may carry a secret message.

• Search for the arm-burn person (Episode 5)

  An order was given to find someone who had recently burned an arm; the search had failed by the eve of the garden party, leaving Jinshi hoping the event would pass without trouble.

Deduction Board

Facts

• Attendant still applying cosmetics

  One attendant admitted she was still applying cosmetics to keep Rifa beautiful, using the poison

• Refuse burned by worker

  The worker burned palace refuse that included a woman's garment with a scorched sleeve and a wooden tablet, and he believed the flames and his hand trouble were a curse.

• Arm-burn search failed

  Gaoshun reported that the search for the person who had recently burned an arm had failed.

Evidence

• Rifa's will to eat

  Rifa still wanted to eat, showing she did not want to die

• Walking after two months

  About two months later Rifa could walk on her own

• Worker's skin irritation

  The worker's hand was badly irritated after handling the burned items, and at the physician's request Maomao prepared an ointment for it.

Inferences

• Plant-based cause possible

  Maomao offered an alternative explanation: poisonous plants, including wood that poisons when burned, could have caused the illness without deliberate poisoning

• Feigned sleepwalking as safeguard

  Maomao's explanation suggests the feigned sleepwalking provided an additional safeguard, since the emperor might still have wanted Fuyo before she became another man's wife.

• Poison believed to remain

  Maomao believed the poison remained in Rifa's body, so she gave tea to promote urination

Suspicions

• Loss of child drained will

  Maomao suspected that losing her child had drained Rifa's will to live

• Tablet irritated the skin

  Maomao suspected that a substance on the wooden tablet had irritated the worker's skin.

• Tablet carries a secret message

  Maomao privately suspected that the colored wooden tablet carried a secret message and decided not to pry.

Season Summary

Season 1 — Season 1

Episodes 1–5

Abducted and sold into the rear palace, Maomao exposes the poisonous face powder behind the imperial infants' illness and becomes Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting and food taster. She smells an aphrodisiac in a bun, suspects poisonous plants in a soldiers' poisoning case, makes an aphrodisiac for Jinshi, and concludes that the consort Fuyo faked her sleepwalking to avoid the emperor before being given to her childhood friend, an officer.

Sent by the emperor to the Crystal Pavilion, she stops the use of the poisonous powder and nurses Rifa back to health. She then traces a eunuch's 'curse' to a wooden tablet that may hold a coded message, while Jinshi's search for someone with a burned arm comes up empty. On the day of the garden party her fake freckles are wiped away, and Jinshi gives her a hairpin.

Music Releases

• Hana ni Natte (OP)
• Aikotoba (ED)