The Trainee 1×12 Review: “Internship Diary”

With “Internship Diary”, The Trainee comes to an end. This final episode was quiet and understated, much like the rest of the series, focusing on the growth of the characters rather than anything flashy or dramatic. (Well…) Even though it featured a time skip, which I usually hate, I felt like it made sense in the context of this series. It was important to show us how the future turned out for these characters.

I feel like it’s going to be hard for me to just review “Internship Diary” on its own, because I also want to look back on the series as a whole. But I’ll do my best.

This episode picks up where we left off last week, with Jane realizing that Nine stole Ryan’s idea and used it for his own company. This is, by the way, probably illegal, but no one mentions that at all. That really bothered me.

Jane leaves essentially without a word after Baimon comes to him with the news, and it turns out he went to Nine’s office to yell at him for stealing. Nine was just like, “Whatevs, you weren’t using it,” which is so not the point. Even unused ideas belong to a company, and him using it – it even had the Good Pick logo on it! – is super unethical. It does, at least, remind Jane of all the things he disliked about Nine and why they broke up in the first place.

An issue for me in this episode was that, after so many episodes of having stellar communication, Jane fails abysmally at talking to Ryan. He leaves the office without a word, doesn’t respond to any of Ryan’s texts, and quits the company without saying anything to anyone. He appears on the last night of Ryan’s internship to drive him home, and they talk then. But by then, Jane has basically completely upended his life.

Listen. I know they literally just started dating. And Jane shouldn’t alter his life or his career goals for a relationship that’s barely one week old. (Or however long it’s been; the timeline on this show is super wonky.) However, I am miffed that he ghosted Ryan for days, and when he finally does show up, it’s to tell Ryan that he’s leaving the next day. Ryan is an absolute doll, though, and tells Jane that he’ll support him in whatever he decides to do.

And they do all of this with Pah passed out drunk in the backseat. Legends.

Something I did appreciate was the fact that Ba-Mhee and Tae are still committed to working on the problems in their relationship. When she went to get him for the party and he was still working (on the last day of his internship? What work would they give the intern on their last day?), I was worried that they were slipping back into old habits. So it was nice to see that he chose to put aside work and go with her to the party.

Also, I love the friendship between the interns. I don’t think I’ve talked about that recently, because I’ve been so focused on some of the bigger storyline stuff. Pie and Ba-Mhee, especially, have a fantastic relationship. Their drunk sobbing confession about how they would basically kill for each other was golden. And I appreciate how they were all trying to cheer Ryan up when Jane was incommunicado. 

Now, for the time skip. I really loved getting to see everyone as adults, settled in their careers. And can I just say, props to makeup and wardrobe for managing to make Gun look like a college student and like an adult in the same episode. Also, props for styling Gun’s hair at all. I feel like they never style his hair, and they really should.

With regards to where everyone is in their careers: I am unsurprised that Ba-Mhee and Tae still apparently work together, although I really wish that wasn’t the case. (It may not be, but that’s the impression that I got.) I couldn’t tell if Pie was a full director or an assistant director, but I liked getting to see her be confident again. And we don’t get to see much of Pah in his work, but knowing that he’s working on foreign films like he wanted makes me very happy. Jane is a full director. And Ryan, of course, finding his niche and loving what he does is the best part of this.

I very much love that they are all still friends. They still use their intern group chat. They still get together and hang out. Ryan calls Pie to complain about work. Pah buys Ryan and Pie souvenirs from Japan. Tae even proposes to Ba-Mhee at a group dinner, so they can all celebrate the moment together. It warms my heart that they are so good to each other.

What we also find out, post time-skip, is that Jane and Ryan have not spoken to each other at all for the entire five years. Basically, Jane went away to get his Masters, then worked in Hong Kong for awhile, and during that time, they never were in contact. That really bothers me. Jane explains, later, that he worried any contact at all would have him caving and returning home. But it’s so unnecessarily dramatic, especially since it follows the scene in the car, where Ryan promises to support Jane and they kiss.

Seriously. If Pat and Pran from Bad Buddy could survive Pran being in Singapore, Jane and Ryan could certainly survive the long distance as well. Ryan could have visited. Jane could have visited. There was no good reason to have them not speak, except for the dramatic reveal that was their reunion.

I am torn on their reunion. I sort of wanted a kiss, but I was talking about this episode with a friend of mine, and she actually liked that it was quiet. “Internship Diary” was focused on everyone’s growth, and naturally the relationships would have grown with them. After having time to think about it, I agree that a kiss (however much I wanted one) wouldn’t have made sense with who Jane and Ryan now are, and where their relationship stands. After all, they haven’t seen each other or even spoken in years. 

Besides, these two were never big or dramatic. Their moments throughout the series have been small and intimate, and so was their reunion. The two of them sat across from each other in a café, admitting that their feelings haven’t changed, as their clasped hands get closer together, was actually pretty perfect. Gently holding hands as they watch the gang celebrate Ba-Mhee and Tae’s engagement? Amazing. The fact that five years and different jobs later and they’re still getting caught being affectionate at work? I love it.

In the end, I still love these two as a couple. They burned quietly, they burned slowly, but they burned.

By the way, Jane getting the shovel talk from Tae, of all people? Brilliant.

One last thing: Jane returning to Good Pick years later really hit me hard. The nostalgia in going back to a place you used to know like the back of your hand and seeing how it’s changed is something that will always make me cry. The girl at the front desk doesn’t know who he is. Some of his old coworkers – like Moo – are no longer there. Him and Baimon hugging is where I finally did start crying. Him sitting there remembering when he was an intern made me very emotional. And I loved that he used the slide for what may have been the first time.

Now I feel like I can talk about the show as a whole. In general, I really loved this show. It was well-written and well-acted. The cinematography was fantastic, as was the editing, the transitions, and the use of color. This is definitely one of GMMTV’s better shows.

I also feel like I’ve done it a disservice continually misclassifying it as a BL. (Not that there’s anything wrong with BLs, obviously, or that they can’t be amazing.) This was clearly an ensemble show that just had a main BL pairing, even though the focus was not on romance. The romance was secondary to the plot, which was about a group of interns in an office setting.

I think GMMTV is trying something where they use established BL pairs to help get eyes on a show that might otherwise escape notice. (Peaceful Property: On Sale, the most recent series for Tay and New, seems to be the same.) As I was expecting more of a BL series, the romance being understated kind of annoyed me at times. What we got was great, but I can’t deny I was expecting a bit more.

The focus of the show was on the ensemble, but there were some storylines that I felt had too much development and some that had too little. Jane’s insecurities, the fact that rejection early in his career had stymied his growth so much, should absolutely have been something that was introduced before episode 9. Even if they didn’t spend a lot of time on it at first, I think throwing that in when the series was almost over was insane. That was such a good plot, and it explained so much about him as a character and the way he interacted with his interns.

The Judy/Ba-Mhee/Tae plot went on too long. Now, I don’t think that Ba-Mhee ultimately returning to Tae (even if I seriously disagree with that decision narratively) makes her relationship with Judy pointless. Discovering that you may be bisexual, even if you end up with someone of the opposite sex, is never pointless. However, the fact that they chose to have Ba-Mhee and Tae get back together and then proceeded to completely ignore the fact that anything happened between her and Judy is absolutely ridiculous. There was no acknowledgment whatsoever!

Those aside, as I said, this show was phenomenal. Definitely one of my favorites. It was well worth the watch, and I loved getting to experience it with everyone week by week.

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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