Thanks for tuning into Split Screen! It’s your intro host Madelyn here, cutting a slice of cheesecake and settling in for some more comfort food TV viewing courtesy of Boys Over Flowers and My Hero Academia! This week, we’ve got slaps to the face, pokes in the eye, and metaphorical punches to the gut. Believe it or not, none of those come courtesy of the Five Second Killer, so you know this edition is going to be action packed!
New to Split Screen? Boy, do we have a treat for you. Catch up on all the craziness here.
Boys Over Flowers Episode 16 (from minute 33)
M: The back half of this episode felt completely disconnected from the front half.
E: It’s funny because you were saying at the start of last time’s discussion that you thought it would be better in the context of a full episode. I agree though, this really felt like a whole other episode from last time.
M: There was no sign of Jae-kyung, thank goodness.
E: They talked about her a little. She didn’t show up, but she was certainly a lurking presence.
M: I’m just glad I got a break from the Cool Girl for a bit.
E: Anyway, this entire half episode instead focused on the plan of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys as they attempted to bring Jan-di and Jun-pyo together. I don’t really know how it worked? But it sort of did?
M: Nancy and the Hardy Boyz knew that Jun-pyo didn’t need much of an excuse to hang out with Jan-di. They just needed something that would get Jan-di riled up, running around the city, and needing his help.
E: See, the issue I have there is I feel like she would even go to Woo-bin before she would go to Jun-pyo. I mean, he might have just said no, but she didn’t even take that step before going straight to a person who she is very mad at right now.
M: Sure, but I’m okay with saving the three minutes of screentime she would have used to call Woo-bin and have him say “I’m busy.” Also, Jan-di and Woo-bin have no relationship.
E: What do mean, he dipped her, they’re in love now.
M: Five Second Killa
E: Yeah, but this was peak Jan-di ridiculousness and Jun-pyo annoyed…ness this episode. I miss the fun episodes like this, I don’t know.
If you had to sum up this relationship in one picture
M: It was all ridiculous, but it was also completely in character. Plus, for seventy-five percent of it, we didn’t get too angsty and everything was looking bright.
E: And then we did a nosedive off a cliff.
M: First of all, is this is Yi-jung’s regular date routine? It was sort of a weird date.
E: They looked at lipstick then sprayed perfumes everywhere (don’t do that by the way thank you), then they went ice skating, then they went to a hotel. That’s a super normal date, I don’t know what you mean.
M: Aren’t they hungry?
E: He ordered a cheesecake, it’s not his fault it was stolen from them. What would Jan-di have done if this was real date and he just ordered another? Just continued to steal it?
M: I mean, Jun-pyo purchased it, so he just would have depleted Shinhwa Group’s expense account.
E: That’s not misuse of company funds at all!
M: No such thing.
E: But we got some nice Yule and whatever the couple name for Jan-di and Jun-pyo is moments for the first half of this half.
M: The fireworks were sweet, the jacket sharing was adorable, it was good stuff.
E: The fireworks were a lot. They were also very fake looking, but the snap and the English word for “climax” really made it.
M: It was so slick. That was slicker than the sensual nose boop.
E: I was with him on four of those five steps, I understood them, but the nose stroke was a little weird to me.
Somebody make this a meme somehow, it feels like a meme
M: I’m telling you, that’s the point. It makes you go “what the heck,” and then he pulls you in, dips you, and you’re so disoriented, bang, five second killa.
E: Bang bang boom, if you will.
M: BANG BANG BOOM! That’s what Jan-di thought was happening in the hotel room.
E: I can’t believe we didn’t get a slow version of Bang Bang Boom this episode with all the slow versions of songs we got.
M: Slowing down the piano track while Jan-di and Jun-pyo almost admitted that they miss each other was effective.
E: The whole scene with the cheesecake was really good work from both the actors I thought.
M: And the cheesecake! It was giving the performance of a lifetime.
E: Right, that cheesecake was “yes and”-ing all the way to the bank.
M: Give that cheesecake a spot in the credit sequence.
E: I’ve lost hope of them updating the credit sequence at all which is sad to me.
M: It’s because Woo-bin did the theme. They can’t change it.
E: I don’t want them to change Almost Paradise, I just want them to have their better haircuts now.
M: That’s fair. The haircuts are so much better, I can’t get over it.
E: Back on track, everything is ruined when Mama Jun-pyo shows up again, ruining everything again, because some rando company man has a spy on Jun-pyo or something.
When it fully sinks in that your life has taken a turn somewhere
M: That was such bad form. Did none of the lackeys ever have to cover for Jun-pyo’s cheating father? He’s a powerful businessman, so you know he had mistresses.
E: He could have been a good guy, Madelyn, we know like nothing about Jun-pyo’s father except that he liked making exploitative family films.
M: That’s exactly why I’m saying he had a mistress. He and Chairmama were clearly a marriage of ambition. What if we find out that Chairmama was from a poor family?
E: It’d add something actually interesting to her character, so I’m for it.
M: For a while there, before the big time jump, she was developing a slightly nuanced personality. But lately, she’s just been a horrible villain.
E: I mean, she tried to slap Jan-di this episode and then did slap Jun-pyo.
M: She told Jan-di she was a loose woman! Like, who did she think Jan-di was there with before Jun-pyo came out?
E: They were there to pick up Jun-pyo, so I guess she just assumed.
M: She seemed surprised when he came out of the room though.
E: I think she maybe thought that Jan-di had followed him there, not that he knew she was there.
M: I see that. What a great moment when Jun-pyo came out of the hotel room looking for her.
E: My favorite moment was when they transitioned with an echoey “love is fire” from a fun date montage to Ji-hoo over the graves of his parents. That was a lot.
“Love is fire like the car crash that killed your family~”
M: When are they going to introduce Ji-hoo to Jae-kyung so that he can have someone to love?
E: He’s got to reconcile with his assassin grandfather first.
M: DID HE HAVE THEM KILLED???
E: I think he was just blaming himself metaphorically, but it would sure be a twist of he had actually murdered them.
M: New feature, Murder Watch: no evidence to the contrary.
E: Ji-hoo was good this episode though, in my opinion.
M: I was deeply worried that when he came to check on Jan-di at her house (which wasn’t her house, it was the clinic) he was going to go in for the kiss.
E: Again, I haven’t gotten that feeling since the show moved on from that, so I don’t have the same anxieties you do.
M: Part of the reason I was worried was because of how torn up Jun-pyo was about having to call Ji-hoo to take care of Jan-di.
E: That’s from always-jealous Jun-pyo’s perspective though.
M: Apart from that, I still think it was a nice character moment for him. He’s upset that he can never be the one to take care of her. But still, it put me in a high alert state of mind when Ji-hoo showed up. t’s not really because of anything the actor is doing or even that the show is doing explicitly to set it up. It just worries me because it doesn’t feel like we can have Chairmama continually blocking things for another nine episodes.
E: Fair, I’m feeling more and more like I’m not sure how the show is planning to fill its remaining time. This episode even ended on a weird sort of note with Jan-di taking over her parents’ jobs as they get saddled with more debt. That’s been such a long-running undercurrent, so maybe that debt will actually return as a plot point? That’s kind of what I’m thinking.
Emma, comforting Madelyn when she thinks about how Boys over Flowers is gonna end eventually
M: Jan-di has a really sad home life, when you think about it. Her parents aren’t going to work because what, they’re sad? Her mom didn’t seem actually sick, just upset.
E: I think she had a migraine.
M: From the sound of it, they hadn’t been going to work for several days. These are not people who are equipped to take care of Jan-di and Kang-san.
E: We already knew that though. It’s been clear from the get-go that her parents are not the most responsible of folks.
M: What plot threads do we have to play with? Obviously we have to get Jun-di (that doesn’t really work) together, and Yule too. Jun-pyo needs to somehow escape this Shinhwa group job. Ji-hoo needs either a love interest or a senior cat to take care of. Jan-di’s family’s financial situation needs some kind of resolution that isn’t just Shinhwa money from Jan-di’s marriage.
E: I’d like some sort of arc for Jae-kyung that’s not just “oh man, throw her in the river” or something. Like, I don’t want her to be just a “competition to get out of the way” character.
M: I don’t really think that Jun-pyo is even going to entertain any kind of romantic involvement with her. I was worried for a while that it was going to be a bona fide love triangle where he had some kind of feelings for her.
E: Again, I’ve never gotten that feeling.
M: We need to find a way to pair her up with Ji-hoo and then they’ll both want out of the engagement. Maybe her family will let her call it off?
E: Her family seems much more easy-going, so that makes…sense. Maybe.
M: Ji-hoo has money, still a good match.
E: Also, what about the Gu-Geum Dolls?
Jan-di uses Hide!
M: What?
E: For the ship name!
M: I like it, especially because she gave him a doll!
E: I’m a genius!
M: I think that covered our predictions. Any closing thoughts?
E: Arc for Woo-bin!!!
M: Maybe in the spin-off.
My Hero Academia S2E20: Listen Up! A Tale from the Past
E: So, a bit of a fragmented episode this time.
M: Seriously! It felt like two totally different halves.
E: It was bookended by the “past” stuff, so it kind of held together, but it did feel a little non-cohesive.
M: The episode title didn’t do a super job capturing the full picture.
E: The tale from the past was from a more distant past than I think you anticipated.
M: Why didn’t All-Might give him all the important information? Does he want this kid to die?
E: Well, he didn’t want to tell Deku that he’s going to die.
M: Uh, he’s obviously pretty sick.
E: Yeah, but even if you can recognize that logically, he’s still working as a hero, and he’s Deku’s ideal and mentor, so of course Deku would never be like “gotta be ready for my hero to die at any time” on his own. And that’s a hard thing to tell someone you care about to be ready for. Right?
“Yeah, so, you’re actually gonna fight that horrifying evil alone because I’ll be dead, ha ha, alright, go back to class.” -All-Might probably
M: I guess. I just thought we were going to hear the story about how he effed himself up.
E: Instead we got a bit more of an understanding about All For One and One For All. I’m a bit torn on the decision to introduce this requirement for passing on One For All- it being an intentional act. Like the choice to do that does free up the story a little for different kinds of Quirks and enemies without it being like a world-ending thing. But it might have been interesting if that was something Deku always had to worry about too.
M: But see, that leaves him too open to stupid villain stuff. I leave hair all over my apartment just by living. It leaves open too much chance for someone following him around to just grab a hair off his shirt bumping into him and then becoming another All-Might. You know?
E: Yeah, that’s fair.
M: I like the idea of him having to worry about it in combat, but it’s not worth the daily life anxiety we’d all have as viewers.
E: The fact that a holder can force it on someone is an interesting possibility.
M: For real. Through a chocolate bar, apparently.
You have to do it while wearing this face though
E: So, essentially, to sum up the titular tale from the past, All For One is a seemingly-immortal villain who can steal and transfer Quirks from one person to another, and One For All is a Quirk that he passed on to his younger brother where it merged with his own latent Quirk to pass on Quirks and became this superpower.
M: I like the idea of a bunch of people basically having recessive quirks that they don’t know about. That was a neat touch.
E: I’m sure a bunch of people in the world do have entirely useless Quirks. Like, you would think that some of the Quirkless population probably actually just has something silly.
M: Yeah, but I want to meet those people. Speaking of something silly, the recaps of everyone’s intern experiences!
E: Mineta hates women, Bakugo’s hair is ruined, what else?
M: Bakugo got the Boys Over Flowers cut. The Ji-hoo.
E: We also saw a bit of Stain’s influence extending over the UA students as well as the villains. With Yung Norty himself now in the class. We’ve seen his yellow eyes.
M: That was incredible.
E: But I do think it’s interesting that Stain’s made such an impression when he’s so evil.
M: He’s got principles. Yeah, he’s a murderer, but if he was using other methods, say phantom thievery for example, everyone would love him.
E: Yeah, just like in your game right now, right?
M: We have 10% support, thank you very much.
E: We also had a very short Basic Training exercise for the students in which Deku landed flat on his face. And also, not quite Lawsuit Watch, but stole Bakugo’s copyrighted moves. And could totally be sued.
M: It did not pass the “confusingly similar” test.
Pictured: Izuku crushed by the weight of his crime
E: Anything else of note for you this episode or should we actually go to Lawsuit Watch?
M: I think it’s uncool that the kids are basically required to spend their vacation at training camp? After everything this group has been through, they can’t have a month off with their families to lick their wounds?
E: It’s not the whole summer. I think it’s a week-long training camp, he said.
M: He made it sound like it was a month-long thing.
E: Maybe I’m wrong then, I thought he said a week.
M: I guess we’ll find out.
E: But it’s like being on a sports team. They can’t really afford to entirely take a month off, even if they didn’t have a formal camp, you’d think they’d have strict exercise regimes and homework.
M: Yeah, I know, but what if they want to go to USJ?
E: I don’t think any of them will be vacationing there any time soon.
M: Sigh. Well, I think the time has come: Lawsuit Watch?
E: I mean, identity theft is not a joke, Deku.
M: Millions of people suffer every year.
E: Uh, Yi-jung could sue the hotel for subpar room service, I guess.
M: Jun-pyo was physically assaulted.
E: Can you sue someone for assault or just prosecute them?
M: I think maybe you could also bring some kind of pain and suffering civil case?
E: That seems right.
M: Nothing too strong on the Shinhwa Academy front. I don’t know what the hazards policy is, but maybe Deku has a case for that loose pipe he slipped on.
E: It wasn’t a loose pipe, he just missed it.
M: It was slippery. You can’t prove it wasn’t.
E: There we go, that’s much more defensible.
Me and Madelyn. Who’s who? You pick.
M: Okay, I am ready for next week’s title.
E: “Gear up for Final Exams”
M: Why are they doing this?
E: We’re closing in on some better ones. The first half of Season 3 has some decent ones.
M: I just mean, why has it suddenly become a dude-bro writing these?
E: He just keeps ordering you to do things. Listen Up! Gear Up!
M: Okay, prediction one: I think UA finals are going to be very similar to my acting school finals in that people are just in the halls at weird hours with weird props doing yoga stuff or screaming.
E: 
M: Prediction two: Mineta will do weirdly well on the exams because he joins a study group with Momo. Wow, we did not talk about the locker room incident.
E: Stabbed in the eye like he deserves.
M: That was a good use of Mineta. It was funny. It was a high school boy thing to do. I enjoyed it.
E: ( ͡°_ʖ ~)
M: Oh no. Not the wink.
E: Get it, because she poked out his eye.
M: Ooooof. Prediction three: Iida will not do as well as expected, and as a result, he’ll stress eat. You know what that means.
E: 
M: Oh man, I can’t stop myself.
E: Come on, we’ve gone like ten installments without this. Talk about All-Might’s butt instead.
M: All-Might’s shapely ass? It was plush!
E: The true power of One For All
M: Prediction four: Deku’s glutes start looking bodacious as he ups the percentage of power he can use.
E: 
wow I hate myself
M: Perfect. Finally, prediction five: All-Might will pass everyone first try, Aizawa is a real hard-ass. Not like All-Might, metaphorically.
E: 
M: That’s fair. That’s fair.
–
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into Split Screen! If you want to catch up with our merry adventures, we’re watching the My Hero Academia dub on Hulu and the Boys Over Flowers sub on Netflix! We’re pretty sure you can find them on other services too.
Next time! It’s a full-blown study session on My Hero Academia as final exams approach (giving Emma anxiety about her last semester of college) and things continue to go REALLY POORLY for Jan-di on Boys Over Flowers. Get it? Cuz she’s poor.