Perfect 10 Liners 1×13 Review: Episode 13

What’s all of this angst doing in my fluffy, feel-good series? This week’s episode of Perfect 10 Liners is probably the most downer one yet. There were a lot of tears, and I’d wager most of them were from me.

OK, I’m readjusting my opinion on Gun and his obliviousness after this week (and last week’s episode). I don’t think he’s oblivious; I think he’s confused as hell. Yes, I think Yotha is being pretty clear about his intentions, at least in his actions. Especially after last week, when they took that quiz together and Yotha admitted he was thinking about Gun when he answered the questions.

But it’s obvious that these two are not having a conversation about what’s going on between them, and it’s leading to a lot of misunderstandings. This lack of clarity is coupled with Yotha being horribly stunted emotionally; he doesn’t seem to know how to handle intense feelings, and so he just pushes everyone away. Then he doesn’t know how to fix it, and it looks like his go-to move to working things out with Gun is just to kiss him.

And when that doesn’t work, he has no idea what to do. Basically, Yotha in this episode is the epitome of, “I’ve tried nothing, and I’m all out of ideas.”

It’s a little understandable when you factor in what we learn about his and Warich’s relationship. I mentioned the age difference between the two of them before, once it was confirmed that they used to date. Without knowing how much older Warich is than Yotha, we just have to speculate, but the difference in emotional maturity would absolutely foster a dependent relationship on Yotha’s part. Add in their messed-up family dynamics and it stands to reason that Yotha would cling to Warich.

Warich himself admits he became Yotha’s world and then tore it down. We don’t know how yet – was he abusive? was there infidelity? – but whatever happened clearly warped Yotha’s sense of relationships and morality in general. And then this man who destroyed him ends up as his brother’s business partner and is around all the time, and yeah, I can see how that would mess a kid up.

(By the way, Warich hugging Yotha and telling him, “you don’t have to be strong with me”? I wanted to slap him so hard. You’re the one who ruined Yotha and made him like this in the first place. Don’t act like you’re his safe space.)

But I do not understand why he thought it was necessary to kiss Warich to prove there were no more feelings between them. (Well, I guess kissing is his normal way of solving problems.) And of course Gun witnesses this, which just makes the entire situation worse. Gun is already doubting his relationship with Yotha after their earlier argument; seeing firsthand the problematic behavior he’s only seen the aftermath of before certainly does not help.

You know what I appreciate? If this were a few years ago, Yotha would just be an ass, and that would be it. There are plenty of older BL dramas where one character is just a jerk, but you’re still supposed to like him anyway. However, Perfect 10 Liners is making it clear that this sort of behavior is not cool. It has consequences, and those consequences come in the form of Yotha losing Gun.

The problem is that Yotha doesn’t know why he lost Gun. He thinks he does; he thinks it’s because of the fight, and Gun almost getting hurt because of Yotha’s foolish, destructive behavior. So when he apologizes, he thinks that will be the end of it, because he thinks he knows what’s wrong. But he doesn’t know that Gun saw him kiss Warich, and that seems to be the main thing that’s upsetting him. (Which, can you blame him? Yotha kissed him like two days ago and is now just kissing his ex? Naturally, he’s upset!)

I also love Gun’s friends banding together to protect Gun – even Faifa. The scene where Book sits next to Gun to block Yotha from doing so was masterful, especially considering that we saw earlier in this episode that the others are still sort of scared of Yotha. But they’re coming together not only to make sure that Yotha can’t hurt Gun again, but also that Gun doesn’t forgive him too easily. After all, they all sat there and watched Gun repeatedly tie Yotha’s tie for him like it was their favorite drama. They know what’s up.

Now, what I don’t like is how everyone seems to be infantilizing Gun a bit. After Gun and Kong switched rooms and Yotha went to get him back, Yotha and Faifa argued about Gun as though he weren’t even there. Yotha in particular acted like this was something Faifa was doing to him and not something that Gun was doing for himself. 

Which is why he needed to ask Arm to help him trick Gun into going on the beach trip. I’m not going to lie, the scene where Arm was fake crying about missing Arc (when he literally left for his internship that morning) was hilarious. And I love that Yotha actually went to Arm for help, when he doesn’t seem willing to ask for help from anyone for anything. But I really hope that while they’re at the beach, Yotha and Gun actually talk to each other. Because they desperately need to.

So, I’m pretty sure I’m going to come out of this show with Faifa as my favorite character. I didn’t think too highly of him at the beginning, but this boy is solid, y’all. My heart broke during last week’s episode when he was sitting there with his parents and his mother just kept talking about Newton and Yotha. Remember, Faifa is the only one who went to live with his mother after the divorce; she obviously wasn’t that present of a parent.

But Faifa is such a good friend to Gun here, at the expense of his brother. He has his own trauma he’s dealing with, but he sets that aside to help Gun when it’s clear that Gun is struggling. And Junior is really impressing me in this show; I’m starting to get really excited for his arc.

Actually, everyone’s acting was superb in this episode. Perth has always done very well with emotionally heavy scenes, but this is the first thing I’ve seen Santa in, and I like what I see. In one episode he can bounce between the bubbly sunshine and the withdrawn brooder. I wasn’t expecting to see that kind of a range in a more lighthearted series like this. Color me impressed.

I really hope that Gun and Yotha actually talk next week. I really like their dynamic, and they have had some amazing moments. (Honestly, the quiz scene from last week was so intense, and they were taking a stupid relationship quiz! It had no right to be that intense!) They need the communication to balance it out.

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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