The Trainee 1×05 Review: “Know More”

OK, taking stock first. Did everyone survive the delay this morning? I know it was hard, but we made it through! “Know More” was an episode with not a lot of plot movement but a lot of character and relationship development. There was a definitive shift between not only Ryan and Jane’s dynamic but also Judy and Ba-Mhee’s (which I honestly was not expecting so soon).

“Know More” starts with Ryan and Pie getting a new assignment from Jane: they are to come up with pitches for a client’s music video. Ryan unfortunately continues to struggle with the terminology. At this point, I feel like he should have given himself a crash course in the lingo (a “pitch” is a common enough thing in multiple industries that he should have known what it was). Then again, it’s not even been a week.

Elsewhere, Ba-Mhee is sent out to shadow Judy as she meets with clients. Ba-Mhee as a character can be highly annoying (her clingy behavior with Tae is still very off-putting), but you can count on her for on-point facial expressions. She sports some excellent ones in this episode.

I think what I found most interesting about “Know More” is how it manages to highlight the differences in these two dynamics. Ba-Mhee seems to be developing an almost hero-worship crush on Judy (understandably). In Ba-Mhee’s eyes, Judy is effortlessly cool and stylish. Her reaction when Judy is detailing the clients’ needs to Baimon indicates that she hadn’t read the subtleties of their interactions the way Judy had. Then there’s the patient way Judy explained how it was important to know what the client might want but also try and find a way to stand out.

(This is true, though. I can understand why Ba-Mhee thought a bottle of wine was a good gift, but these people are opening a restaurant. They have tons of wine.)

Actually, I thought this also nicely contrasted with Ba-Mhee and Tae’s relationship. This is the first episode where I really get the sense that Tae truly feels the same about Ba-Mhee. In previous episodes, it seemed more like he was just putting up with her. But when they show the flashback of them getting together, while it was played sweetly and they both remember it fondly, it seems very shallow. I think it’s meant to show how Ba-Mhee and Tae’s relationship is very stereotypically “high school”, whereas Ba-Mhee and Judy would be more “adult”.

On the other side, you have Jane and Ryan. Ryan’s feelings do not strike me as hero worship just because he isn’t super into this as a job. He’s not in awe of Jane’s prowess as a director because, to be frank, he hasn’t really seen it in action that much. For these two, Ryan is getting to see Jane in a different light than the vast majority of the other employees, who gossip about Jane behind his back. Ryan gets a Jane who is patient, kind, and humble, which is humanizing in a way that no one else has really seen.

You can tell that Jane is starting to have feelings for Ryan as well, for similar reasons. Everyone else judges Jane and has already made their minds up about him, but Ryan can see the hard work he does. Ryan wants to be helpful, whereas everyone else just passes off their work to Jane and then criticizes his shortcomings.

I feel I’m obligated to make yet another comment about the timeline. I’m pretty sure I mentioned this in my review for last week’s episode, but this is definitely a choice. Now, I actually really like that each episode is one day basically start to finish, as we get to see a lot about the work environment. This is pretty rare in a lot of these dramas. But holy jeez, it’s only been five days since these interns started. The HR violation in waiting that is Jane/Ryan needs to percolate for more than five days, be for real.

I am fully prepared for a slow burn. I’m not expecting anything seriously to happen until at least the second to last episode, but my money is on the finale. I saw someone online talk about how these two are moving glacially slow and I had to laugh in Western TV – because seriously, try putting up with “will they or won’t they” for something like 7 seasons only for one of them to leave the show with nothing happening and then they’re killed offscreen and you find out that there was something going on and they just never showed it because why would they it’s only the reason you’re watching the damn show and…

*deep breath*

OK, I’m better now.

I appreciate that Jane, at least, works to still keep a professional distance between them. Even as he invites Ryan to his place, he does his best to keep the conversation from getting too personal. When Ryan falls asleep, he doesn’t even move him to the couch – which would have been more comfortable for Ryan. He just covers him with a blanket.

Something else I want to talk about is Ryan as an individual. I’ve seen chatter in the fandom about how working with Jane is going to inspire Ryan to figure out what he wants to do. I’m starting to think that it’s more going to be about Ryan figuring out who he is. Because it’s very clear in “Know More” that Ryan is kind of a blank slate. When Pie was explaining to him that ideas can come from anywhere, she started asking him about his favorite movies, his interests, his hobbies. And Ryan, very obviously, has none.

It’s kind of heartbreaking. Pie asks him about his favorite movies, and he can’t come up with an answer. Later, he tells Jane that he only really likes action movies, but that’s because that’s what his family watches. And then you have someone like Jane, whose apartment reflects his interests – his vinyl collection, his bike, his selection of DVDs (lots of American television on those shelves, I noticed).

I think something that may be overlooked by the other characters is that Ryan’s lack of knowledge isn’t just limited to his internship under the assistant director. Unless it’s directly related to his family’s business, he doesn’t really seem to know anything, even about himself. So I really think that this show is going to be less about Ryan discovering that he wants to be an assistant director and more about Ryan discovering himself.

At least, I hope so. As someone in her 40s without any real career aspirations, it’s perfectly acceptable to not have everything figured out at 21. But it makes me sad that Ryan seems to only think about what he can do for other people and doesn’t spend that time doing stuff for himself.

We are already halfway through this series and I feel like we don’t have enough time for everything that I hope happens. (For example, given the tone of this show so far, I really need there to be some discussion about how inappropriate mentor/intern relationships would be – ethically and professionally.) Every episode feels so short!

Nonetheless, I am seriously enjoying this series, and I’m very excited for next week’s episode.

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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