Someone warns that detaining palace maids is a grave crime and insists he won't let the empress dowager slip away. Inside, the empress dowager suddenly clutches her chest and cries, "My chest... my chest hurts!" An attendant asks if her illness is flaring and offers to fetch medicine at once. Others call to her as they rush to her aid. The episode tightens as an urgent health crisis overtakes a brewing detention conflict, leaving the empress dowager's fate and the immediate decision about custody unresolved.