Hello there, Split Screen readers! Intro host Madelyn here, buckling up for an unexpected detour to Europe…but in which show? Hint: this isn’t the episode where we finally meet Aoyama’s overseas family, alas. This time, we get a peek into Se-ri’s troubled past on Crash Landing on You, and a peek into a raging inferno on My Hero Academia. Ready for an array of barely relevant TV and film references all for the memes and a diatribe about child safety? Let’s go!
New to Split Screen? Catch up on all the action here!
Crash Landing on You Episode 4 (from minute 42)
M: It’s been a little while since we’ve done Split Screen, and I had forgotten just how good Crash Landing on You is.
E: Also how many characters there are. I think we checked in with almost all of them this half-episode too, so it really emphasized the sprawling nature of this epic.
M: Yeah, pretty much everyone got their moment, even the stinky insurance men.
E: That poor insurance guy. He’s doing his best.
M: We picked up with the South Korean Yoons and the ongoing fight for succession. Is this what Succession is about? Is this what it’s like?
E: I assume so. I’ve never watched it.
M: There’s more North Korea than I thought there would be.
E: You mean how long she’s staying there or just how much plot there is in there?
M: No, I meant on Succession.
E: Oh, I see, I understand.
M: I wonder why Daddy Yoon decided to go with the younger, bespectacled son.
E: His wife is the more capable one, that’s what I remembered.
M: We also learned, I think for the first time, that Se-ri is not legitimate, which really clarifies and also un-clarifies her relationship with the mom
E: Just her relationship with her family in general too. I mean, they all seem to hate each other, but we see why they maybe don’t really care about Se-ri. It’s also unclear exactly when she joined their family.
M: It also really casts a new light on their resentment of her inheriting the company. Of course the brothers would be pissed, because I assume she’s not only younger than they are, and a woman, but now she’s only their half-sister too.
Is this Succession?
E: I’m really curious where they’re going with Se-ri’s past too. It feels a little weird that they’re introducing it this far in to the show, and the Switzerland stuff is weird, period.
M: The flashbacks to the little girl on the beach must take place during the time that the family was trying to decide if they were going to keep her. I bet her bio mom is dead.
E: That makes sense to me.
M: They’re obviously building out a backstory that would justify her, as we saw in that stinger scene, wanting to jump off a giant Swiss bridge. Up to this point, that didn’t feel at all in character for this #girlboss, but now I’m starting to see how the pieces come together.
E: That scene was so oddly staged. Captain Ri in his nice turtleneck, just casually taking photos while a lady rants that she’s going away, looking over the drop, and he just seems very unconcerned about it.
M: He seemed concerned! I’m assuming he couldn’t hear her.
E: They should have put her a little farther away from them then.
M: Agreed, but that’s the director’s fault. I can suspend disbelief.
E: Suspend like that honestly terrifying bridge. I can’t imagine walking over that.
M: Yeah, wouldn’t be my first stop in Switzerland.
This is a woman who is capable of taking a good pic
E: But anyway, the stinger stuff is still very disconnected minus the photo that was taken that does firmly set it in the past.
M: The photo you mocked mercilessly when we saw it out of context.
E: He was just standing there. And she was like an awkward distance from him, just looking at him. It was a terrible photo. It looked like an album cover for a really folksy indie band.
M: That’s pretty brutal. He would be the pianist, she would be the vocalist. Something I admire about this show is that it is consistently amusing enough that it can do dumb nonsense like having the love triangle encounter each other thousands of miles away all at once in the past, and I’m like “yes, give me more, I love this.”
E: How long is this show again? Is it shorter than the other two.
M: It’s sixteen episodes, but I’m not sure if this is the full show or a season one. So yes, it’s shorter, but I’m not sure if it’s done.
E: I’m really curious how they’re going to spend that time. It can’t all be in North Korea, right? Like, the house of cards is falling down this episode. We don’t even see what happens with the real fiancee coming to visit him. We cut off at her arrival.
M: Yeah, it does seem like everything and everyone is closing in on Se-ri. The insurance guy is now convinced she’s in North Korea, the disinherited sons now have an incentive to find her and ensure she’s dead so that Mom will move on, the expat criminal is now at her house and will recognize her, the military colonel now knows she’s not a real spy…it’s not looking good for her continued stay in the North.
E: And I’m just really curious how the show sustains itself from here. Does she just go back and then somehow return to the North later in the show? Does Captain Ri come with her to the South? Do we have a long arc of separation now? There’s a lot of choices.
M: I don’t know at all! I would be sad to leave my boys club in North Korea. Remember them trying to decipher the heart symbol? Come on.
A war council, I assume
E: The boys are in trouble in the next episode preview! I am distraught! They wouldn’t kill the boys, right?
M: I don’t think this show is going to go full Game of Thrones on us, but…I guess you never know.
E: They are harboring a South Korean. That seems bad for them.
M: The whole town is in on it now though. She basically told her gal pals that she is Se-ri of Se-ri’s Choice.
E: She should up the number sold now that she knows it’s on the market in North Korea. Estimated 30 million bottles now.
M: Someone bought those and then they made it to the black market though. I trust her books, even if her brother seems to be about to falsify them.
E: Count those resales, you know.
M: #girlboss, #gatekeep (literally she’s in North Korea) #gaslight…
E: …there are none.
M: It was a little childish when she got lost at the market.
E: I don’t know, if I was in a place I didn’t know, and there were no lights, and my friends had vanished, and if a military person suspected me I could be murdered, I also might just stand there and count.
M: Fair enough. She clearly has some abandonment issues to work through.
E: Also the director wanted to do the fast motion shot, what’s that thing called? Timelapse.
M: Do you think that Se-ri and Captain Ri are ready to embrace their feelings now, or will we dance around it a bit longer? He made her coffee!
He’s got the fancy coffee stuff
E: Well, we’ve got the fiancée on the scene now, and the neighboring friends are encouraging Se-ri to break his neck, so something goes wrong.
M: Well yeah, but when she’s parading around saying she’s going to steal him back, do we think that’s part of the act, or it’s real, or both?
E: I don’t know, man, that finger heart is serious.
M: I loved when the boys were like, “but you don’t like her, right?” And then…”you do!?!”
E: It was also specifically like, “while he’s involved with someone else.”
M: Captain Ri is that kind of man. A hussy.
E: Captain Ri is letting his sons down.
M: He bought her a scented candle, it’s getting serious.
E: What else happened in this episode? High class lady catfights.
M: The women of this show are in the stratosphere, the men have not evolved. Or rather, the women are in 3008, the men are in two thousand and late.
E: CGI watch for me, real dog, but a few rather obviously green screen backgrounds.
M: The bridge was quite good, and then they moved off the bridge, and suddenly it was soundstage.
E: I mean, it seemed like the bridge was at least actually in a natural area, but they couldn’t get mountains.
M: Alas. I liked that all of the actors had to show off their English this time around. Even as a plot point! And I’m psyched about fiancee’s high-society mom.
E: Yes, that’s a good piece of characterization to tell us what we need to know about this new character.
M: I wonder if she and Se-ri will eventually bond over their manipulative families. Se-ri and the fiancée I mean, not the mom.
E: Could be! Our k-dramas have been disappointing in their romantic rivals previously, so I’d like it if the fiancée was a good character.
M: I had really blocked out Jun-pyo’s fiancée until you said that. Moving right along, romance tracker?
E: Going good, but about to come crashing down!
M: That’s what I was thinking too! I hope the con-man and the Russian fiancée end up together.
E: I don’t know enough about this con-man. He’s kinda sleazy. He is a thief I guess.
M: I just think she could probably also be good at white collar crime.
E: Nothing like a white collar criminal couple.
My Hero Academia S5E8: “Match 3 Conclusion”
M: This was a good, engaging, fun episode, but it’s hard to watch the teachers allow this level of violence and danger.
E: Yeah, this one- and admittedly, it has been a minute since we watched the other ones- but this one did feel a scale above the other fights in terms of danger and death. Which does make me worried for Deku’s in particular.
M: Well, I’m concerned about Bakugo coming up too. That’s really the challenge: a few of these students have quirks that are objectively too dangerous to be using on other children. Todoroki’s fire in particular feels too dangerous, Bakugo is too dangerous, partially for personality reasons, but mostly because his power is literally sweat bombs–
E: Yeah, I was gonna say, you get Bakugos in normal sports too in the real world. They aren’t barred from playing for being a little angy.
M: I would put Soften on the too dangerous list as well. The show seems to want me to believe that his power makes things mass-less too, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense. It still should have really hurt to have a full wiggly building fall on you.
E: I think this is something that’s just a suspension of disbelief partially, a necessary one. It’d be a really different show if it got really into the nitty-gritty of “explosions hurt.”
M: I guess I have two responses to that. One: the show was super concerned about Deku potentially ruining his hand, but it seemed to me like Todoroki and Tetsutetsu were in similar levels of danger of permanent disfigurement in this episode and nobody seemed to bat an eye.
Owie!
E: I was gonna say that Deku’s arm and this situation are a scale above in seriousness, and I do agree, it felt a little off that no one was concerned. Like even in the sports festival with Todoroki and Deku, people started getting concerned by the end of it, right? So that does feel a bit off, I agree.
M: And then also, while I completely agree that it would be a very different show if the teachers were at all concerned for student safety in class–
E: I really think this is an outlier from usual behavior. I think the show usually does demonstrate concern, at least after the fact.
M: Okay, fair enough. My point was, the first years, and maybe this is something that gets taught later on, but these kids have hero licenses, and they are acting with willful disregard for human life and safety in these training exercises. It seems like a bad lesson to encourage them to handle villains this way. In what scenario will they be so isolated from civilians that this kind of strategy would be viable?
E: That has been their only real-life situations so far. They’ve always been isolated from civilians and in life-threatening danger. So it is easy to see where Tetsutetsu’s statement of “you’ve gotta put your life on the line in training” comes from.
M: Still, there would be consequences for softening the pavement of an entire city block, even if people weren’t there at the time. Or, like, how is the Todoroki family contributing to global warming?
E: That second question is beyond the scope of the show, and I don’t want it to be in the scope.
M: It was a joke. Probably the ice blasts balance it out, even if Bakugo thinks they’re dumb.
E: Anyway, there must be something set up for property damage, it’s not like villains care, so presumably there’s some system, and I don’t really need to know that bureaucracy to be honest. Well, maybe I do, but.
Emma, struggling to decide how much worldbuilding she wants from My Hero
M: I can put my suspension of disbelief hat back on now, it was just striking to watch all four of them half-dead at the end and for Todoroki to literally say he was going to burn himself alive.
E: I agree that this was a little outside the realm of believability with the teachers being totally chill with it. Or at least Vlad King, I don’t think we saw Aizawa in this episode.
M: Aizawa took a bathroom break. He would have put a stop to this.
E: You’re right, he just picked the wrong time to use the restroom.
M: Anyway, putting aside the child endangerment, fun episode! This would have been very fun if someone was actually a villain and there were stakes that justified this level of risk.
E: Iida doesn’t get the focus as much as other characters these days, but every time he does, I’m reminded that he’s good, and I like him.
M: He’s probably even thicker now that he’s leveled up.
E: He’s good and I like him except when he’s yanking his engines out of his legs.
M: I loved the Han Solo-esque “you’re a stick in the mud!” “I get that a lot.” Very “I love you.” “I know.”
E: Wow, rarepair shipping here. Can’t wait for Madelyn’s Star Wars AU featuring Iida and the spinny boy.
M: Gyrate.
E: Oh right, I forgot all of their quirks are so badly named.
M: Iida can do the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.
E: Did you have to look up that reference?
M: I remembered about two thirds of the words of the quote.
E: I would have had to look it up too, it’s okay.
M: I did get some vibes from Shoji and Pony. I could support that.
At this point, I remember very little about this episode. This is Pony.
E: I dig it.
M: Like, when he caught the horn coming for his back, that was chemistry. They are so in-sync.
E: Nothing like murder to set the sparks going.
M: That’s what Mr. and Mrs. Smith is about, right?
E: I assume so, I’ve never actually seen it, just the poster.
M: Maybe they can pull a Brad and Angelina and adopt the rest of the students.
E: I’m gonna have to make, like, fake movie posters for this post.
M: They are supposed to be remaking Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Donald Glover, not that anyone cares, but throw a Community screencap here as well. Deku as Kickpuncher, okay carry on.
(EDITOR EMMA: Sorry, I didn’t do either of these)
E: Wiggly Woggly power, whatever it’s actually called, is pretty OP.
M: 
E: Yes, that’s his power. Weeble Wobble the World.
M: He and Sugar Rush could probably make a mean jello salad.
E: I don’t know if I like that. Wouldn’t it harden again in your stomach eventually? Would that cause problems?
M: That’s why I said mean.
E: Ah, the double meaning. The perfect prank.
M: That’s why Aizawa was in the bathroom!
E: Oh no.
M: Anyway, some good fight choreo this time, some good roasts of Tail Man. When is he ever going to be competent? Are we setting up Gen Studies Boy to take his spot?
E: He did some cool stuff this time. He hit people with his tail, he spun his tail so fast in the cement.
M: That didn’t make any sense.
E: But he did it.
M: The tie is a weird scoring set up now. Is Deku going to be defending the lead, or striving to tie overall?
E: This is getting into prediction territory I guess, but I really don’t think Bakugo’s team will lose. He’s already had his humility lessons, I don’t think he needs another yet.
M: Maybe they could tie so it’s a toss-up at the end. That feels lame, but it would set up the final showdown.
E: Yeah, hard to say.
M: Well, is it time for Lawsuit Watch? I mean…
Watching the lawsuits pour in
E: I will just say I remain wary and nervous about the Endeavor and Todoroki stuff. I don’t love…uh, “abuse made me awaken my true powers” or some such…
M: I know, I don’t love that Todoroki getting stronger means embracing his genetic anger management issues. That seems bad.
E: Hopefully that’s walked back a bit, because he was not able to control it at all. But we’ll see! Really seems like that’s gonna continue to be a plot thread this season, so.
M: Could be interesting if Shoto continues to lean into that and almost hurts himself (as he basically did here) and has to learn from Endeavor that anger isn’t the real path to power: it’s an ice cold core.
E: We’ll see, we’ll see. Lawsuit time.
M: I’m trying to think if there was anything on Crash Landing. The photo was pretty bad.
E: I’ll sue over that bad photo.
M: As always, there are some illegal imports.
E: One of the brothers is possibly plotting forgery and/or murder, so. But that’s still plotting, can’t charge him yet, no proof.
M: Thanks Phoenix.
E: Evidence is everything in a court of law! You’re just throwing wild speculation! Rips off my wig and throws it.
M: Meanwhile, the children are really testing UA’s liability insurance. Go Beyond!
E: They seemed fine at the end. Iida just had two possibly broken limbs, it’s fine.
M: So it’s a draw. Same level of danger.
E: That photo was really bad.
M: Realism Watch?
E: We already had this discussion at the top of this segment, I guess.
M: I don’t believe either of these is as realistic as my Iida fan-fic, so.
E: True.
M: He would love C-3PO.
E: He would! He would get along well with droids in general, I think.
M: Okay, time to make some predictions. We did some bonus ones already, but I guess I usually start. Prediction One: The Lizard Guy is actually some kind of bird lizard, like a dinosaur, and his power is to control his scales. So he can use them as feathers or as weapons.
E: 🦖🔪
M: Your turn!
E: My prediction is that Monoma is so loud and annoying in the background that the Class B team just decides they should lose so that he’ll stop laughing maniacally from across the battlefield.
M: 
📣😆😵😵😵😵😂
E: Next up!
M: This would be way too repetitive with season one, plus derivative of Jujutsu Kaisen, but it would be cool to have a real crisis take place during the pivotal moment of Deku’s match so we never find out which class reigns supreme. Twice appears and starts doing commentary and no one notices for a while…actually maybe Toga first. They’re like, “weird, the commentary is now not biased, just inappropriate for a teacher to be saying about Deku,” and then Twice takes over the mic.
Good luck with the emojis.
E: 🎤💖😕 📣📣📣 😨
Okay, uh, my last prediction is that we have a brief moment with All Might trying to tell Deku something about his weird dream, but then it’s Deku’s turn up, and he has to go, and the pivotal information goes unheard for another twelve episodes.
M: 🦶😴🗣️⏰
💡
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Thanks for following along on Split Screen! We are watching the My Hero Academia dub on Hulu (also on Crunchyroll) and Crash Landing on You on Netflix. Make sure you’re following along. Or, feel free to pull ahead. We know we’re slow. And by we, I mean me. Editor Emma.