In early February, Episode 4 of 'To the Moon' aired.
The pacing of this episode was similar to the first three.
It continued following Neil and Eva as they explored Johnny's memories.
This time, the audience got to witness Johnny's wedding with River through his memories.
They saw his mother become emotional at the ceremony, calling him by his old name—[Xu Qiao (Joey)]—with tears in her eyes.
They saw how, in middle school, Johnny had summoned the courage to ask River out to watch a movie.
They saw what kind of person River was—an autistic prodigy who was academically brilliant but completely clueless in social situations.
She accepted his invitation to the movie... but never showed up.
When Johnny confronted her, frustrated, River replied, "I was in the theater the whole time. I knew where you were sitting. I just picked the most convenient spot for me. We were in the same screening, same room, and I watched the whole movie."
To River, someone with autism, this was her way of fulfilling their promise to "watch a movie together."
And throughout the entire process, she always had that platypus plush with her.
From her school years all the way to her final moments in old age, she never let go of it.
At the end of Episode 4, when a classmate asked Johnny why he was pursuing someone like River, who was terrible at social interaction and always offended people—
Johnny answered: "I think she's cool."
Strictly speaking, Episode 4 felt much more emotionally engaging than the previous ones.
It also laid the groundwork for much of the narrative of 'To the Moon'.
["So this is why in Episode 3, when young River asked Johnny why he liked her, he gave that answer?"]
["No wonder River looked so heartbroken then. That clearly wasn't the answer she wanted."]
["Thinking a girl is cool and getting close to her—that's totally normal, though?"]
["Not for someone like River! It may seem simple to us, but to her, that's not what she wanted to hear."]
["Why didn't she just say so?"]
["Because she couldn't! Her condition isn't made-up—people with this disorder usually have high IQs, but their social communication skills are a mess. A normal person can just express what's stuck in their chest. But people with this disorder… they can't. Their thought process is just wired differently."]
["Honestly, we watch this and think River is strange. But from her perspective, she's already laid out the paper rabbit, the platypus. Johnny just doesn't understand what they mean. She actually is the most heartbroken one—she thinks she's said everything she could. It's just… Johnny doesn't get what she's saying."]
["River must've felt awful before dying… She asked over and over again what the paper rabbit meant, and Johnny couldn't answer. I've got a feeling—the paper rabbit, the platypus sandbag, the lighthouse, and the moon trip—they'll all connect in the end."]
["Now it's all up to the screenwriter to reveal the truth."]
["First time watching a drama that travels through memories. It's clearly a romance, but there's a mystery woven in. Su Yan-sensei really knows how to innovate."]
["It is fresh, sure. But if all this buildup ends in a weak payoff, it'll be a problem."]
By now, most viewers had become emotionally invested in Johnny and River's relationship.
Everyone already knew how it would end: River would die, and Johnny would be on the brink of death.
Exploring their past with the ending already known might seem boring.
But it wasn't. Not at all.
Because viewers wanted to know—what kind of attitude did River carry into death?
What did the rabbit and platypus mean to her?
After Episode 4 aired, its ratings hit 3.46%, pushing 'To the Moon' back into the top 8 for the week.
However, 'The Crimson Magician' topped the charts with a 4.25% rating, 'The Gate' came in second with 4.19%, and even 'Imperfect Divorce' rose to 4.01%.
While 'To the Moon' held its rank, the gap between it and the frontrunners was widening.
Critics and industry peers continued to belittle the drama.
Yet ironically, the show's rating climbed to 8.7.
Even within Sakura TV, the performance of 'To the Moon' was considered acceptable.
For a Class B production with a 20-million yuan investment and a 3.4% viewership rating, it was well above average for its category.
No matter how much Akasaka Yoshitoki seethed with hatred toward Su Yan, there was nothing he could do right now.
In fact, he even begrudgingly signed off on Ogata Aya's proposal to add an extra 2 million to the production budget, since the show was doing better than expected.
This wasn't how Akasaka had envisioned it.
He had imagined 'To the Moon' would lose steam due to its slow start, causing ratings and word-of-mouth to collapse, giving him a chance to strike back at Su Yan and Shinozaki Ikumi within the production department.
But now, with a whole month of the winter season gone, the drama hadn't dropped in ratings—it held steady.
Solid as a rock.
"How are the fans of 'Rurouni Kenshin' and 'An Ancient Love Song' this loyal?" Akasaka muttered, confused.
But in Week 5 of 'To the Moon', the drop Akasaka had been waiting for finally came.
Even loyal fans couldn't hang on—Episode 5 was too abstract, and it impacted the ratings.
The two doctors encountered a memory block in Johnny's mind. No matter how many times they restarted the machine, they couldn't enter his childhood memories.
They attempted to implant a desire to go to the moon into Johnny during his middle school years. The plan was that his memory world would then restructure—he would grow up dreaming of becoming an astronaut, study hard, go to university, join the space program, and finally go to the moon in his dream.
Then, he could die peacefully, thinking he'd achieved his dream.
But no matter what they did, Johnny's memory didn't change.
He still grew up, met River, married her, and only after her death developed the desire to go to the moon.
Did he really want to go to the moon?
Was that truly his deepest wish?
Why hadn't anything changed, despite their efforts?
At the end of Episode 5, the two doctors finally investigated his real-world medical records—and discovered that Johnny had been administered a large dose of beta-blockers during childhood.
Even though he didn't have a cardiovascular condition, these drugs caused memory disruption and erased large chunks of his past.
That was why the doctors couldn't access his childhood.
After extensive research, they managed to reboot the machine—using the stench of a dead squirrel they had run over as a scent trigger—and finally reached Johnny's childhood memory space.
This episode strayed from the Johnny–River romance and focused instead on obscure memory mechanics.
For viewers, it felt like a jarring tonal shift—Why are we suddenly talking about childhood trauma and dead squirrels?
But the episode was important—Su Yan couldn't ignore this part while writing the script.
The result: a significant drop.
Episode 5's ratings fell to 3.21%, a sharp decline from Episode 4. The show slipped to 10th place in the seasonal rankings.
Akasaka Yoshitoki finally saw his chance.
Once ratings start sliding like this, it often signals the beginning of a show's downfall.
If Episode 6 dropped further, it was likely the show would spiral downward—ratings below 3%, reviews turning sour.
At that point, Akasaka could go after Su Yan with cause.
Naturally, critics and media reviewers weren't about to let a chance slip by to drag down the "genius screenwriter" Su Yan.
📰"Five episodes in, and we still don't know what 'To the Moon' even means!"
📰"Su Yan, please respect the audience's time. Stop wasting it with boring, nonsense plots."
📰"All over the place! The structure of 'To the Moon' is chaotic. No clue how this story is supposed to end."
📰"Sci-fi romance? Innovation isn't always a good thing."
📰"A romance with a known ending will always be abandoned by viewers. Episode 5 dropped by 0.2%! The show might completely fall out of the top ten."
📰"Genius screenwriter Su Yan? Barely two months in and he's already washed up. Maybe today's youth should focus more on growth. Three dramas in three seasons—how can you write anything good with that pace?"📰
In the 'To the Moon' production office—
"Not good," Shinozaki Ikumi frowned, scrolling through fan complaints about Episode 5.
"They're losing patience. What they want is the full story between River and Johnny. They don't care about Eva and Neil poking around in his memories."
"Totally normal," Su Yan replied.
"Honestly, I expected this when I wrote the script. I figured this is the point where the audience would start to lose patience."
The earlier episodes had relied on strong performances from Takezawa Kayano and Qiu Junlin to hold the ratings.
Episode 4 was boosted by the romance scenes—Johnny and River's youth, their dance at the lighthouse, the vows at their wedding—all gave it a visual and emotional pull.
But Episode 5? It tested the audience's limits.
And clearly, those limits weren't that high. Just one slower-paced episode and people were already on edge.
"Well, it all comes down to Episode 6 now," Su Yan said with a small smile.
With this, all the slow-burning setup for 'To the Moon' had come to an end.
From here on, the show would begin pulling back its narrative threads and finally explain:
Why is this drama called 'To the Moon'?