Spoiler warning: this article discusses episode 48, the second-season finale of The Apothecary Diaries.
Tamamo's appearance at the end of episode 48 strongly suggests that Loulan, also known as Shisui, survived. The woman appears in a port town carrying what looks like the hairpin Maomao gave Loulan, and the credits connect Tamamo to voice actress Asami Seto. Together, these clues identify the character and point to a new life under another name. The episode does not, however, reconstruct how she survived being shot and falling from a height.
How the hairpin passes from Jinshi to Tamamo
Jinshi originally gave the hairpin to Maomao. Before the final confrontation involving the Shi clan, Maomao passes it to Loulan, hoping her friend will survive and return it one day. Loulan is subsequently shot by imperial soldiers, falls from a height and goes missing. With no recovered body shown, the story leaves room for its closing reveal.
In the season's final scene, a woman who introduces herself as Tamamo visits a stall in a port town. She notices a cicada-shaped ornament and offers a hairpin in exchange. It closely resembles Maomao's gift but now bears a mark that looks like bullet damage. The object links the farewell at the fortress with the new identity shown at the end, as described in ABEMA TIMES' detailed July 2025 coverage.
Why is Tamamo identified as Loulan?
The accessory is not the only clue. Tamamo's interest in the cicada recalls Shisui's fascination with insects. When her face is revealed, she closely resembles Loulan despite her different hairstyle. The most concrete supporting detail is the voice credit: Asami Seto, who plays Shisui and Loulan, is also credited as Tamamo. In a MANTANWEB interview published after the Japanese broadcast on July 4, 2025, Seto's role as Tamamo in the finale is explicitly acknowledged.
The identification therefore does not depend on recognizing a single face or object. Appearance, behavior, the hairpin and the voice credit all point in the same direction: Tamamo is the new identity Loulan has taken. Exactly how she escaped remains off-screen.
Did the hairpin stop the bullet, and how did she survive the fall?
The damage on the metal invites the theory that the pin took a projectile's impact. Yet a bullet-like mark does not establish that the object stopped the bullet, where it was positioned when Loulan was shot, or how she survived the fall. Área Jugones suggests that the pin might have softened the shot and that snow could have cushioned the landing. These are proposed explanations in the outlet's reading, not mechanisms demonstrated by the reported scene.
That distinction matters: the ending provides strong clues about who Tamamo is and that Loulan is alive, without providing equivalent evidence for how she escaped. A plausible theory should not be mistaken for something the episode actually shows.
Does the medicine given to the children explain Loulan's survival?
There is no basis for that claim. ABEMA's reporting on the same finale describes a different plan: Loulan gave the Shi clan's children a substance that induced a deathlike state so they could escape execution. Maomao was kept near them to care for those who woke up, and the drug's effects still involved uncertainty. The episode explains the children's fate; it does not establish that Loulan herself took the same medicine.
What does the name Tamamo really signal?
The port-town scene moves Loulan away from her former place at court and points toward the possibility of starting over. Trading the hairpin for an insect-themed keepsake expresses that transition visually, rather than spelling out an escape route. Episode 48 does not establish that she has already crossed the sea or promise future appearances. It ends with a strongly recognizable new identity and an indicated survival, while the physical means of escape remain unexplained.
