Perfect 10 Liners 1×05 Review: Episode 5

OK, I did not have “traumatic break up” on my P10L bingo card, so props to this show for pulling out a surprise. So in addition to being “cheerful and dumb” (Sand’s words, not mine), it looks like Arm has some unresolved issues with his high school sweetheart. Well, surely that will all be fixed with the standard BL beach trip.

First, though, Arm has to reset his brain after Arc kissed him in last week’s episode. He has a heart-to-heart with Sand about his feelings. I thought he was just oblivious about what was going on, but it seems like this is at least partly due to willful ignorance. Apparently, Arm had a breakup that really messed with him, and it may be preventing him from seeing what’s right in front of his (and everyone else’s) face. Sand tries to talk him through it, saying that he’s allowed to move on, and that he should open himself up to love again.

Meanwhile, Arc is having a similar conversation with Warm. But for Arc, the question isn’t whether or not he has feelings for Arm. It’s whether or not Arm has feelings for Arc, and what he can do to make his interest a little more obvious. Since Arm doesn’t seem to be catching on. Warm’s advice is to take care of Arm, to do things for him, and to be nice to him. All of which Arc pretty much immediately ignores, which is frankly hilarious.

We also have the return of the Engineering Cute Boy page, which I thought we were done with. Pun asks Arm to send her a picture (even though Arm is supposed to be taking it over?), so that she can post it. But Arc freaks out and messages the admin (still not realizing it’s Arm) asking for the picture to be deleted.

This whole scene left a bad taste in my mouth. Arc demands that the picture be taken down because he’s possessive and he doesn’t want Arm’s pictures to be posted. But Arm – as the admin – points out that they got permission from the photo’s subject. So, therefore, Arc’s objections shouldn’t matter at all, and the only reason the photo gets deleted is because Arm is the page admin and deletes it himself. Like I get that possessiveness is often a trope that happens in romcoms, but sometimes (a lot of times) it just hits wrong.

(Also, is this stupid page going to cause problems between Arm and Arc? It definitely looked like it could, for a bit, but then they dropped it. Now that they’ve brought it back, I don’t know. But I hope something this stupid doesn’t cause the standard miscommunication breakup because it’s just so dumb.)

Now, this moment is a little bit redeemed by the fact that Arc immediately calls Arm and makes fun of him for the picture. (Although, “Your collar is loose”? Really? And it wasn’t even that loose! You should see some of my t-shirts. If I don’t see collarbone, it’s not a loose shirt.) You see, Arc telling Arm that he’s possessive and doesn’t want him getting his picture posted on the page is fine – sort of. Arc telling random admin he doesn’t know the same thing is weird and controlling.

What this scene also does is have a nice little callback to A Boss and a Babe, with Arc and Arm on the phone with each other, but interspersed with scenes of the two of them talking in person. I like that effect for phone calls. It helps make the intimacy of some of these conversations come across better on screen.

And then we go to the beach! Arc wins points by initially booking two separate rooms – he even tells Warm that he doesn’t want to be presumptuous or come off as pressuring. But I don’t blame him one bit for not correcting Arm’s assumption that they’re staying in the same room. Like, is it kind of skeevy? Maybe. But Arc has been pretty big on consent the entire time, and if Arm wasn’t bothered, who cares?

There’s something about the beach, I guess, because as soon as they’re in their room Arm becomes 100% more playful, demanding that Arc accompany him down to the beach to play in the water. Arc agrees on the condition that Arm ask him more nicely, which Arm does, only after they accidentally end up on top of each other on the bed and they have a moment. (What is Arc’s obsession with Arm being polite to him anyway? I think it’s pretty clear by now that neither of them actually wants that.)

They have even more of a moment down at the water, when Arm admits that he broke up with his girlfriend at the beach, and that’s the last time he was there. Later, they watch the sunrise, and Arm admits to Arc that he’s afraid his girlfriend cursed him when she broke up with him, that he wouldn’t be able to love again.

Admittedly, I’m a little confused by the breakup, and Arm’s issues with it. In the snippet that we get, it isn’t really that clear what his girlfriend was upset about. She says, “You think I can’t live without you,” but then she says it feels like he only feels sorry for her. That sounds like she was more into the relationship than he was, but from how he talks about it now, it’s clear that what she said really bothered him. Because it was true? Or because it wasn’t true, and now he’s afraid that he’s just bad at love?

It’s actually really sweet the way Arc gets when things are serious. Like he will happily annoy Arm all day long, but as soon as there are Important Things happening, he becomes an adult about it. The last thing he wants is to make Arm uncomfortable in their relationship. So he asks Arm if he trusts him, asks if he can kiss him, asks if he will let Arc love him. And it’s pretty clear, in that final scene, that Arm’s hangups are absolutely totally about whether or not he can love Arc, and not if Arc loves him.

Even if he does ask, when Arc gives him his extra bracelet, if he doesn’t want to save that for someone he likes. After kissing on the beach. After shirtless makeouts. Arc has literally told Arm that he likes him – with actual words. My guy, he is giving it to someone he likes. “I know you’re dumb, but please don’t be this dumb.”

(Oh, did anyone else think Arc was going to pull something else out of his pocket? O.O)

By the way, mad props to the casting department, or whoever decided that P’Tawan, the guy who makes all of the group bracelets, would be played by Tay Tawan, because that basically made my day. And I love how Jet clearly engineered the situation by calling Tawan and getting him on board the ArcArm ship. Those two need the help of literally everyone in existence to get them together.

(Also, I know they filmed this a while ago, but it’s hilarious to me that Arm kept asking if they were going to Maldives, and then they go see a character played by Tay, who is currently on vacation in Maldives. It just added an extra layer of humor to that whole thing.)

Back at the university, Sand and Pond are chugging right along. I have to wonder if Sand has a lot of the same issues as Arm, because despite the fact that he’s seemed perfectly aware of what was growing between him and Pond, when Pond admits that he’s hitting on him, Sand is surprised. His flabber is gasted at the thought that the two of them have actually been flirting this whole time, even though it’s, like, super obvious that’s what’s been happening.

I will say, though, that Sand gets on board much faster than Arm does. When he finds out that Pond is hitting on him, he panics and makes him leave. (Pond quickly kissing his forehead was adorable, by the way. Marc and Poon need their own series stat.) But then he immediately goes all giggling and kicking his feet and admits to himself that he should have let Pond stay.

I love the contradiction between these two relationships. Arc and Arm seem dedicated to pissing each other off. Their flirting is hidden in about ten layers of annoyance. (Arc admitting to feelings in an argument and then noping out of there right after is so on brand it burns.) They have a stereotypical romcom dynamic going on. Whereas Pond and Sand are more grounded in reality. Pond invites Sand to hang out with his friends, they go out to dinner, they hang out together like (reasonably) well-adjusted individuals. Pretty much how most people in real life would begin dating someone. It’s just so fascinating to see the dichotomy.

And of course, the humor continues to deliver. I didn’t think we’d get new moments of Po failing at soccer, but here we are. (Po is a whole mood basically all the time.) Po and Sand let Arc and Arm talk among themselves, but still eavesdropped on the conversation and moved the table closer when they couldn’t hear. I love the fact that even with Po gone, Arm and Sand slept with their beds pushed together. That’s just how they sleep now.

I honestly did not think I would love this show as much as I am, but it’s a genuinely delightful way to spend a Sunday morning.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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