The Trainee 1×08 Review: “New Pair of Shoes”

Just as the core theme of last week’s episode was “communication”, it seems as though the theme for “New Pair of Shoes” was “unprofessionalism”. Because, wow, was there a lot of behavior going on in this episode that HR would not take too kindly to!

Last week, I read a post talking about how Judy and Ba-Mhee are being judged more harshly than Jane and Ryan and that it’s likely due to the fact that it’s a wlw couple. This is a fair criticism; female characters are often judged way more harshly than male characters who engage in the same (or even worse) behavior. In fact, I was very critical of Judy’s behavior in particular after last week. So I resolved this week to keep a more open mind.

But honestly, Judy blew through that goodwill in her first scene. You cannot convince me that her showing up at Ba-Mhee’s family restaurant was a coincidence. (“Oh, the client I was visiting on a Saturday just happened to recommend your family restaurant.” Sure, Jan.) While I applaud Ba-Mhee’s maturity in apologizing to Judy for her actions, the fact that Judy lets Ba-Mhee take the blame when Judy is just as guilty – if not more so, for being older, more experienced, and sober – is infuriating. Judy does not acknowledge that she kissed Ba-Mhee at all, and even teases Ba-Mhee that she can “make it up to her” by buying her several bowls of noodles.

It’s just very unprofessional of her. I think the idea is that she’s trying to take the pressure off of Ba-Mhee. The joking way that she suggests Ba-Mhee buy her noodles is clearly meant to be a, “See, it’s no big deal” kind of moment. But Judy was very in the wrong to go in for that second kiss, and as the older adult in that situation, she should have been the one apologizing. The fact that she didn’t actually really upsets me.

Tied into this is the way that Pah behaved. Now, I totally understand why Pah was acting the way that he was. He was one of the only people to see how Tae was after what happened; he knows just how badly Tae is hurting and trying to push through it. I’m unclear as to whether or not Pie and Ryan know the specifics, but for Pah, showing up at the set and seeing the three of them sitting together must have looked like Pie and Ryan were choosing sides, and they had chosen Ba-Mhee. (I don’t think this is what was happening at all, but I get why Pah would think that.) His friend is heartbroken, and to him, it looks like Ba-Mhee is not suffering the way Tae is. This is exactly how I would expect a college student to behave.

However, Pah was wrong to let that cross over into work. Being snarky with her during lunch is one thing; running her off was mean but understandable. But when she came to him asking for the product shots and he refused, he wasn’t just standing up for Tae, he was affecting Ba-Mhee and Ryan’s positions. He didn’t even let Ryan go get them himself, because he had to be petty at Ba-Mhee on Tae’s behalf. Now, as this is probably his first real job, he likely hasn’t learned how to keep personal issues out of a professional space. But he has to learn; this kind of stuff just isn’t cool.

I, on the other hand, appreciate that Ba-Mhee and Judy’s kiss has actual, real world consequences. And it’s pretty representative of the kind of drama that can ensue when there are personal entanglements at work. There’s a reason why some companies outright forbid employees from dating each other.

Moving on, I was incorrect in my prediction that Jane would be overly strict with Ryan as a way of trying to put some distance between the two of them after Ryan’s confession last week. It turns out, Jane becomes strict and overbearing when he’s being a jealous numpty! In an interesting turn of events, the company whose advertisement they are shooting is the very company Ryan’s friend works for. Ryan, naturally, spends his downtime on set hanging out with his friend, which Jane massively misinterprets. Jane channels his misconceptions into being ridiculously demanding of Ryan’s time.

It’s interesting to point out that his shift in behavior is noticed not only by Ryan, who is being run ragged all day with a variety of errands, but also Pie, who wonders what happened to make Jane so strict. She innocently asks Ryan if he did anything to make Jane angry, because after all, Ryan is the one dealing with the bulk of Jane’s anger. And then later, when the crew is done for the day, Jane accuses Ryan of not doing his job, which is insanity.

I don’t think I need to explain why this is wildly unprofessional but I will anyway. I’ve mostly approved of Jane’s handling of the dynamic between him and Ryan, because I think he’s doing his best to keep things at an appropriate level. Ryan sleeping over at Jane’s in episode 5 is not exactly above board, but I think he did an OK job of keeping his distance by mostly sticking to work-related conversation topics. (Look, I was a personal assistant at one point, OK? I think I have a very skewed opinion of “professional distance”.) But Jane being confused about his reaction to Ryan’s confession does not give him the right to take it out on Ryan. 

Now that that’s out of the way, wow did I really love a lot about “New Pair of Shoes”. First off, I love how Ryan spends all of Saturday morning hallucinating Jane after his accidental confession. And I love even more that we find out later that Jane did the same thing.

And then later in the episode, when they’re blocking the romantic scene? The tension in that scene was just fabulous. Once again, their hands are doing a lot of talking even when they’re not actually saying anything. Ryan clenches his fists a lot when he’s nervous, and Jane is gripping the edge of his seat like he’s holding on for dear life. (Also, I love Baimon teasing Jane for his red ears.) 

The confrontation scene was done really well. I kind of hate that Ryan just lets him off the hook for his behavior when he finds out he was jealous, but I’m impressed that Ryan had the emotional intelligence to realize that’s what was going on. And I’m proud of Ryan’s newfound confidence. He’s now able to stand up for himself; the Ryan from episode 1 would never have been able to confront Jane about his behavior.

We can argue back and forth about whether or not Jane giving Ryan a gift is unprofessional. (Again, I was a personal assistant; I was given gifts. They were never weird or anything – in fact, I still have one of them, more than 15 years later.) I think we’re starting to skirt the line a bit, but considering this now makes two episodes where Ryan’s shoes have caused him issues on set, I think Jane giving him new shoes still falls on the side of “appropriate”. It also shows how Jane is paying attention to Ryan and anticipating his needs.

These two are absolutely on the same page; it just sucks that, you know, Jane is Ryan’s boss.

I also love how it’s clear that the interns have become legitimate friends. Rather than cancel his and Ba-Mhee’s anniversary reservation, Tae invites Pah instead. (I’m not sure how Pie ended up there; let’s assume Pah asked her.) I have two theories: 1) Tae doesn’t have any other friends outside of Ba-Mhee and the interns, 2) Pah was there with him when he saw Ba-Mhee and Judy kissing and wouldn’t wonder why Tae was so down on his anniversary. I love how Pah and Pie were trying to cheer Tae up by insisting that the delicious food wasn’t to blame for what happened, so he should eat. (Also, Pie spitting her food back onto her spoon after putting her foot in her mouth? Priceless.)

As a side note, I love how protective Pah is being over Tae. He’s being a very good friend right now when it looks like Tae doesn’t have many. And the scene where Pah convinces him to go cry it out in the recording booth? Well, as heartbreaking as it was to witness Tae breaking down, the juxtaposition of him insisting that he’s fine with him sobbing was low-key hilarious.

I actually thought Tae and Ba-Mhee’s breakup was handled extremely well; they were both very mature, realizing that they weren’t right for each other and agreeing to end things. However, I greatly dislike that this was all put on Tae’s shoulders. I do think that Ba-Mhee cheating was at least partially understandable, but she doesn’t seem to have ever communicated to Tae that she was feeling overlooked and unappreciated. Tae recognized this on his own, but only after it was too late. A little communication would go a long way. Maybe they were always going to break up, but maybe they could have worked through it.

And I just saw today that the episode count on MyDramaList has been upped to 12, which makes a lot more sense. (It was originally 10, which is not unheard of but not common for GMMTV BLs.) But it also does seem to indicate that we may have a bit longer to go before we get a kiss between Ryan and Jane! It’s OK, though, I’m seriously enjoying the journey we’re taking to get there.

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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