Perfect 10 Liners 1×14 Review: Episode 14

While we must respect the healing powers of the obligatory beach trip, it’s important to remember that it doesn’t fix everything. Case in point, Yotha and Gun may have talked, but they don’t keep talking, and the misunderstandings continue.

Can I just say, first off, that I’m incredibly underwhelmed by what actually happened between Yotha and Warich? I mean, I was picturing some serious stuff – infidelity, emotional abuse. Because I figured it had to be something big to lead to such self-destructive behavior on Yotha’s part. Warich himself even described it as breaking down Yotha’s world. So for it to be something simple like “we just didn’t love each other”… Girl, what? Why are you spending every night purposely breaking up couples for funsies, then?

Perhaps that’s mean of me. Even seemingly mundane actions can be traumatic in the right circumstances. And it does seem like Yotha got overly attached to Warich, only for Warich to peace out at the end of the relationship with an, “I never loved you, bye!” Which I suppose would be devastating for a teenager, which Yotha was and still is. Especially given his family situation, which seems to get sadder and sadder every episode.

And I am still stapling red flags to Warich because, while the narrative isn’t coming out and saying it, it definitely looks to me like he targeted an emotionally insecure teenager, strung him along for a year, and then dumped him. And now won’t leave him alone.

Anyway, apparently all of that leads to Yotha not really knowing what love is. He can’t even answer a simple question from Gun about whether or not he likes the beach. (But Tawan can see right through them! I love that he looked at them and was just like, “Yeah, you two are dating”.) The two of them have a very open and earnest conversation about Yotha basically not wanting to get Gun’s hopes up, and Gun vowing to wait until Yotha can figure out whether or not what he feels is love.

(I don’t think they adequately address Yotha kissing Warich and how upset Gun was to witness it. But then, I don’t think there’s an explanation they could come up with that would be at all satisfying.)

However, as per usual, Yotha’s words don’t match his actions. He tells Gun he doesn’t know what love feels like, but he continues to initiate kisses. And now that they are no longer roommates, Yotha comes down to Gun’s room to spoon him pretty much every night. He brings him breakfast in the morning. He gives Gun his matching couple bracelet. They are, essentially, dating without calling it that.

Unfortunately, while Yotha is trying to sort out his feelings, he doesn’t seem to realize what the uncertainty is doing to Gun. As the days pass, Gun seems to get more and more withdrawn, which all of his friends pick up on. And I really feel for him in this situation, because everyone is like, “You’re usually so happy, it’s weird when you’re not”. And if you saw Inside Out, you’ll know the dangers of being “happy” all the time. It’s like Gun isn’t allowed to be sad.

In his quest to not hurt Gun, Yotha ends up hurting Gun. A conversation with Newton clues him in that his current method is inherently selfish; it’s all about him sorting out his feelings without any consideration for Gun’s. And of course, Yotha overcorrects. He pulls away from Gun without explaining why, which just confuses and hurts Gun even more. When Yotha tells Gun that if he finds someone else, he can be with them, Gun takes that as confirmation that Yotha will never feel the same, and he just breaks.

As frustrating as it is seeing Yotha stumble through things, I can appreciate he isn’t doing this because he’s a jerk (which is way more common in media than it should be). He genuinely does care for Gun and doesn’t want to hurt him. He just hasn’t been exposed to a decent relationship, so he doesn’t know what they look like.

And even though his chat with Newton threw a spanner in the works, I like they acknowledged how they were all affected, albeit in different ways, by their parents’ divorce. And given that so far Newton has not seemed very brotherly towards Yotha, I appreciate that he told him how brave he was being for taking a chance on Gun.

(Oh, and can we talk about how because Newton and Faifa were born on the same day, they just celebrate all of their birthdays then? Do they just not celebrate Yotha’s actual birthday? Because that makes me cry. This family keeps making me cry. Stop it.)

I really like that Gun is enforcing some boundaries in this episode, even as it pains him to do so. In last week’s episode, he hid behind Faifa a lot and let him fight his battles. But this week, he tells Yotha he thinks it’s better if they don’t room together. I believe his explanation about not wanting to bother Faifa and Kong with another room switch was partially true, but also at least a little bit of a cover. And after Yotha basically tells him to find someone else, Gun locks the door so that he can’t come in again.

Even without the preview for the next episode (and knowing that there are only two episodes left in this arc), I can tell that Yotha is, like, almost there. He just needs a swift kick in the butt to get him over the line.

Now, as much as I love Aou and Boom (and they ate in this episode), Warich and Klao’s love scene felt very out of place. In fact, their entire arc has felt very disjointed, because it’s so disconnected from the main narrative. We know very little about either of them or their relationship, which until this point has presented as fairly toxic. I’m not emotionally attached to their characters at all. And having that scene in the middle of all this angst felt pretty jarring.

And why is Warich making a big deal about Klao smoking when Warich also smokes?

But I love Aou and Boom, so I will forgive it.

Also, I’m starting to suspect that someone should talk to Arm about his drinking. It was cute at first, but now he just looks like he has a problem.

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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