Perfect 10 Liners 2×23 Review: Episode 23

I don’t think I have the words to describe how much I love Faifa and Wine. Seriously, I think these two have rewritten my brain chemistry. I’m still relatively new to the world of BLs and so my list is much smaller than most, but I can’t think of another couple that’s more perfect for each other than these two.

First off, my apologies for missing the past couple of episodes; I had a health issue. I’m thrilled to be back and gushing over Faifa and Wine, who have seriously raised the bar for main couples. They may be the most well-adjusted, healthiest couple in the history of BL. I didn’t think I’d ever get to watch a couple that had virtually no misunderstandings or unnecessary angst thrown in. They’re just out here being adorable and in love, with their matching t-shirts and their open and honest communication.

There is nothing that these two can’t weather. They had a slight blip last week when Tor finally made an appearance, which caused Faifa to have a flare of insecurity and nix his plan to confess. But that lasted all of ten minutes because Wine literally decided to chase his man all around campus to correct his misconception. I loved that for their entire arc, everyone was worried about Wine misunderstanding Faifa, while Wine was more concerned that Faifa wouldn’t believe Wine.

(And while I loved, loved, loved the fantastic foursome of Yotha, Gun, Arm, and Arc following Wine to the rooftop and witnessing their mutual confession, a part of me is extremely angry on behalf of Faifa that these jerks saw how upset Faifa was, knew he was missing, and only tried to call him once and didn’t even bother looking for him.)

Anyway, we are now officially in the Faifa-and-Wine-are-dating era, and these two may be more embarrassing than Yotha and Gun. So it makes a lot of sense that Faifa feels the need to directly compete with his brother and his brother’s boyfriend. And I should have realized that once Faifa got a boyfriend he would be insanely ridiculous and obvious about it. But it’s hard to predict him stopping everyone in the hallway just so he could point at Wine and go, “That’s my boyfriend! Isn’t he cute?”

Everyone being immediately done with them is just the icing on the cake.

The only real issue is the fact that Wine still doesn’t have his bracelets. Despite having originally asked Faifa to go with him when he got them, Wine orchestrates it so that he can go alone to surprise Faifa with them for his birthday. While the plan goes off without a hitch, once he gets to the music festival Tawan is tabling at, he is immediately lonely. This boy is rife with down-badism. How fortunate that Faifa secretly followed him.

(Also, Tawan had way too short a cameo! I guess he had nothing to do, since Faifa and Wine figured out their relationship without him being mysterious and judgmental.)

I know that Wine is Faifa’s first relationship, which makes it unbelievable that Faifa is just so damn smooth. Faifa makes a couple of comments about Wine being cold, but once they retreat into their tent he just hits him with that seriously shiver-inducing line of just needing to hug him tighter. Do they make Faifas in real life? I want one.

This is Junior and Mark’s first bed scene, and I think they were superb. There was a lot of tenderness in the moment, and I particularly appreciated the lighting. I’m not as well-versed in color theory as others, but Faifa and Wine were both “blue” characters, and so the fact that the lighting matched that for their intimate scene is just perfection. Well done, lighting department.

As for the other two bed scenes, Warich and Klao still feel shoehorned in. I love Aou and Boom, but their story is so removed from the others. I wasn’t really able to connect with them at all, so I don’t particularly care about where they are in their relationship. (Those two also being the ones to get married – most theorized Pun and Jet – is also a bit odd, but then again we don’t know how long they’ve been dating.) I hate to say this, because again Aou and Boom, but I wish they’d used their screentime to give us more Pond and Sand.

Yotha and Gun, on the other hand, was intense. Their first one, back in episode 15, was a lot sweeter and more innocent, maybe because of who Gun was as a person back then. (Even though I was distracted by Perth’s bangs falling into Santa’s eyes. I wonder if that was uncomfortable.) But this one was just… *fans self* The yearning, the touching, how basically the only sound was their heartbeats. I may never be over the way Yotha’s thumb dragged against Gun’s bottom lip.

Now, let’s talk about all of this ridiculous nonsense regarding Faifa’s mother. I’m happy that the rushed, unearned reconciliation from episode 16 was not as finished as they led us to believe. That makes complete and total sense, just based on Faifa’s facial expressions during that scene. Sure, Yotha may have forgiven his mother, but his forgiveness came at Faifa’s expense. I’m really glad they brought all of that back, because Faifa was still clearly affected by it.

I also love that Faifa came to this conclusion mostly by himself. Much of this happened in episodes 21 and 22, with Faifa realizing that the happy family dynamic still didn’t really include him. I won’t get too much into it, but basically their mother delayed her flight and neglected to inform the one person who was picking her up – Faifa. Yet somehow everyone else in the family knew. I have a lot of sympathy for Newton and Yotha, who also grew up in that environment, but it makes me so angry that it didn’t occur to anyone to tell Faifa what was going on. (He’s like the forgotten middle child while being the youngest. It’s bizarre.)

When their mother showed up at Faifa’s apartment, I wanted to punch her so badly. The nerve of that woman, acting like it wasn’t her fault that she didn’t tell Faifa she’d changed her flight. Luckily Wine was there to help Faifa talk it out. And it was glorious watching Faifa put himself first for once, acknowledging that he felt slighted by being consistently forgotten.

Unfortunately, the problem with a lot of media (particularly Asian dramas, presumably due to cultural expectations), is that toxic family members are often forgiven and redeemed by the end of a series. I wouldn’t mind this so much if there was evidence that, like, an attempt was made. For example, in Jack & Joker, Joke’s dad actually tries to mend the relationship, so that reconciliation feels earned when it finally happens. But Faifa’s mom in Perfect 10 Liners is just constantly horrible, but because it’s packaged with a smile and a basic apology, we’re supposed to be happy it happens.

First this woman joked that she didn’t think Faifa knew how to love, and then she admitted that she knew he was unhappy for years (yet did nothing about it). It turns out, she wasn’t even the one who had the idea to talk it out with Faifa; that was Gun, who only found out Faifa was still not OK from Wine.

Look, I expect this to happen. Doesn’t mean I’m going to be happy about it.

There’s only one episode left, and it’s hard to believe. We’ve been with these characters for six months now, and it’s hard to imagine a Sunday without them. But I’m excited to see everyone’s happily ever afters next week!

P.S. When did Po get a partner?!?!

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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