The Lament of Autumn episode 40 recap: Maple leaves

In short

Zhao Baoru takes Takahashi down with her in a burning ancestral hall, Yu Zhongquan stays to hold Wubeikou, Yu Changxuan falls in battle, and a year later Ye Pingjun plants a maple and waits for him.

What happens in episode 40

Under the stars, Yu Changxuan tells Ye Pingjun she is the only one he has ever loved and promises that when he comes back they will plant maples and send Xiao Yu'er to school. She cries once she turns away. Yu Zhongquan reads Yu Mingxuan's diary, changes his mind, and joins his son at the front with his own guard company. At camp, Xiao Beichen joins Yu Changxuan, both of them now simply Chinese soldiers facing the same enemy, and brings a letter from Yu Qixuan, who nursed him back to health even though he has a wife.

Zhao Baoru pays off the servants and gives the family's gold to the front. Ye Pingjun waits at the dock in Linchuan Town; Nanny Zhu brings a letter telling her to board without waiting. Zhao Baoru has gone back to the Yu house, where Takahashi is holding the servants to force Yu Zhongquan's surrender. She agrees to sign once they are freed, asks to pray first in the ancestral hall, then shoots Takahashi as the butler locks the doors, and sets the hall on fire. Reading her letter, Ye Pingjun weeps.

The Japanese break through at Wubeikou. Yu Zhongquan orders his son to reinforce headquarters and stays behind to hold the line, too old to run. As Yu Changxuan salutes and goes, his father shouts that he has always been his pride.

Gu Ruitong, Li Boren and Yu Changxuan fight on. Yu Changxuan falls. He seems to hear Ye Pingjun calling, sees her hairpin on the ground and reaches for it as their past flashes by, until his hand drops. The synopsis doesn't say in so many words that he dies.

One year later, in a Communist base area, Ye Pingjun and Jun Minru mend soldiers' clothes and thank Liang Wenbo and Song Hanzhi. She and Xiao Yu'er plant a maple, hang a charm for safety on it, and she believes he will come home when its leaves turn red.

Why it matters

The finale keeps its promise of a reunion only halfway: the leads end apart, with Yu Changxuan's fate left to the falling maple leaves.

Based on the episode synopsis, summarized in our own words: TVmao (电视猫) episode synopses