The Trainee 1×09 Review: “The Chosen One”

This episode may well have been called “The Apology Tour” rather than “The Chosen One”, because so many characters make apologies for various reasons. Pah in particular spends a lot of his time this episode apologizing. This goes a long way toward growth and character development, and continues to put The Trainee head and shoulders above other series when it comes to communication.

“The Chosen One” proves that The Trainee is more of an ensemble show than perhaps we originally thought. Off and Gun are listed as mains with everyone else as supporting (although this is on MyDramaList, so it’s not like that’s an official source); however, the past few episodes have felt more like Ba-Mhee’s story than anything else. The episodes are still framed with Ryan waking up for the day, and usually end with Ryan as well, so it’s still ultimately meant to be Ryan’s story. It is, after all, called The Trainee as opposed to The Trainees.

But Pah and Ba-Mhee are very much front and center in this week’s episode. Pah is still being scolded over improperly filling out the invoices, and I am once again questioning why anyone had the intern do that in the first place. (Pah has been struggling over those since, like, episode 3, which was like his third day on the job.) The woman in Accounting also chastises him for his outfit, which gets him even further down on himself.

I see both of their points in the wardrobe discussion. My department’s dress code is very casual – I wear jeans and graphic t-shirts pretty much every day. In the summer I wear shorts. Yet I see people in other departments dressed in suits and blazers and heels; to them, I might seem unprofessional. But my job involves working a lot with dusty tapes, carrying boxes, and doing more manual tasks. I’m not doing that in dressy clothes. Pah, who often gets messy during work, wouldn’t be expected to dress the same way as interns in the other departments.

I am a little surprised Pah gets away with flip-flops, though. I feel like that would be a safety hazard, if nothing else, especially in props. But if his supervisors haven’t told him to change, it’s not the business of anyone in a totally different department.

Pah takes his hurt feelings and channels them into giving Ba-Mhee a hard time. I totally understand why he’s still being harsh with her; he considers Tae his best friend, and Pah is the one who dealt with the fallout of Ba-Mhee’s cheating the most. He’s wrong to take his frustration at himself out on her, but he’s not wrong for standing up for Tae. I still don’t like how they implied that Ba-Mhee kissing Judy was all Tae’s fault. But then, based on the trailer for next week’s episode, there’s a lot I don’t like about how they’ve handled their relationship.

Ba-Mhee is, of course, struggling. This is something that Pah has not seen, and perhaps he isn’t willing to. As we see in “The Chosen One”, the breakup with Tae is still fresh, and she spends a good deal of time crying. So it’s understandable that she snaps at Pah. Ba-Mhee has defined herself as Tae’s girlfriend for the past few years of her life, and she doesn’t really know what to do now that she isn’t dating him anymore. It’s a big thing, to suddenly lose your sense of self.

I appreciate that Ba-Mhee eventually comes to Pah to apologize; I also appreciate that Pah recognizes that he was wrong and apologizes as well. Honestly, I feel that Ba-Mhee was more in the wrong, but Pah should not have let his feelings bleed over into work. Both of them show a lot of maturity in acknowledging their poor behavior. This was an important scene, because at the end of the day, the interns are all friends.

Pah also gets an apology from the Accounting lady, who admits that Moo came to her and confessed that he hadn’t taught Pah how to do the invoices. (Then why was he doing them. Make it make sense.) I don’t know why she couldn’t be a little more lenient with an intern, who is only there for three months after all, but I do get why she wanted him to understand that things like invoices would still be his job, even in the props department.

My favorite Pah moment of the episode, though, is his conversation with Jo. Until now, no one really knew Jo’s role in the company. He seemed to float around and just be there at random points, injecting wisdom into every interaction. Today we learned that he’s actually the president of the company! And I think his conversation with Pah was very important because Pah seems to have been having a crisis of confidence in the past few episodes. And Jo, who is so much like Pah, reassuring him, was a very heartwarming scene. Jo got to such a high position by just being good at the job and not having any “fancy” schooling; it gives Pah hope.

Back to Ba-Mhee. It’s a new week. We’ve refreshed our opinion and are approaching Judy and Ba-Mhee with new eyes. I do think the scene with the spoons was cute. But I’m still not sure what Judy is thinking, and I don’t like that. Someone on Tumblr described her as a “black box”, in that they can’t get a read on her, and I agree. Heck, until she kissed Ba-Mhee back in episode 7, I didn’t think she was into Ba-Mhee at all.

I like that Ba-Mhee seems to realize that she needs to slow her roll with Judy. She is still viewing her relationship with Judy through the lens of her relationship with Tae; Judy is attentive where Tae was not, Judy is appreciative where Tae was not. I think it’s healthy that she wants to take some time and actually get to know Judy on her own, rather than as the anthesis to Tae.

But Judy’s response was weird. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks that. When Ba-Mhee admits to Judy that she wants to spend some time with her and get to know her, Judy doesn’t immediately respond. Naturally, Ba-Mhee backtracks, trying to cover by saying that if it’s not OK with her, that’s fine. Judy says, “I didn’t say I wasn’t OK with it.” Right, but she didn’t say that she was, either. I feel like Judy has never really given Ba-Mhee a direct answer in this sense. It gives me bad vibes. 

Now, onto Ryan and Jane. I died laughing at Ryan figuratively walking on air wearing his new shoes from Jane. I especially appreciated the contrast of how he felt versus what he actually looked like, which honestly had me cackling.

How much do I love these two? The answer is a lot. But I think they’re starting to tread water. It’s pretty clear that this slow burn will last until the very end, and for good reason. Jane surely does not want to do anything while Ryan is still his intern. However, there are still three episodes left, and Jane hasn’t communicated that with Ryan, so we’re starting to get some repeat plots.

In “The Chosen One”, we dealt again with Ryan’s jealousy. Like his experience with Joy, he is not paying attention to context clues. Namely, Jane is clearly uncomfortable with Nine. When Nine asks him out to eat, Jane makes eye contact with Ryan – with Baimon and Pie still in the room, though neither of them notice anything. And Jane even makes sure to suggest to Ryan that they get dinner instead – indicating that even though their plans have changed, he still wants to eat a meal with him.

Then Ryan listens to Baimon and Pie gossiping about Jane and Nine’s previous relationship. Pie’s immediate assumption is that they’re getting back together, because we know that she can’t read the room, either. Baimon quickly agrees, and Ryan just assumes that they’re correct. And we’re back to the cookie thing from episode 6, with Ryan making an assumption and getting upset even though Jane hasn’t done anything wrong.

As for Nine, respectthepetty on Tumblr has a great theory that Nine is that intern – the one Baimon mentioned before, who got poached by another company. But more than that, their theory is that Nine used an idea of Jane’s to get the job. Based on Nine and Jane’s interaction in “The Chosen One”, it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Baimon questioned why Nine would be reaching out to Jane now, when it’s been five years (also, ages don’t match up, isn’t Jane supposed to be like 29? Was he a 24-year-old intern?). If Nine needs Jane’s help with his company, it stands to reason he may have been relying on Jane’s help when they were interns.

Then, the accident. Jane immediately rushes to Ryan’s aid at the hospital after he and Pah crash Pah’s bike. He’s obviously afraid that Ryan has been seriously injured (he’s not), and channels his fear into anger. Again. He and Ryan then have a conversation that both is and isn’t about the accident, where once again they allow their emotions to cause a miscommunication. Ryan ends up even more upset, and Jane can’t truly express his feelings because a) he’s still worried about Ryan and b) Pah is, like, literally right there.

Still, we got an admission from Jane that there are feelings on his end! He’s been very demonstrative in his actions so far, but this is the first time he’s ever really voiced that Ryan’s feelings are not unreciprocated. The hug is a direct response to Jane saying, “Does it look like I don’t have feelings for you?” to which Ryan nods, because he still doesn’t think that Jane likes him. And Jane reminds him not to jump to conclusions – to ask if he wants to know something. So Ryan is finally starting to ask the right questions.

Also, “Behave, and I’ll tell you”? Hot.

We didn’t get a whole lot of Pie or Tae this episode, but I loved the scene at the beginning where all Pie wanted to do was have a cup of coffee in peace, and all the other interns came to her with their issues. Tae, on the other hand, apparently does not know how to take care of himself at all without Ba-Mhee there to do it, which is just sad, considering he is a fully grown adult. (I did love Pie’s confusion about him asking her how she did things. “I have hands? My legs work?”)

So now we have three episodes left. Jane and Ryan are, hopefully, finally on the same page, but I still don’t expect anything big to happen until the final episode. There is still a lot of stuff that needs to be resolved, like what Ryan wants to do for a career.

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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