Split Screen: Mistakes Have Been Maid

Thanks for tuning into Split Screen. It’s your intro host Madelyn here, contemplating how relatable this week’s episodes are. I mean, who hasn’t accidentally found themselves working as a maid for their ex-boyfriend, or ambushed by villains at summer camp while the Pussycat Dolls look on in horror? These are the universal teenage experiences I have come to expect from Boys Over Flowers and My Hero Academia. But how will our heroes (both literal and non) handle these classic teenage conundrums? Let’s find out below!

(New to Split Screen? Catch up on the whole roller coaster ride here.)

Boys Over Flowers Episode 20 (up to minute 35)

M: I don’t think i’m exaggerating when I say this was the most tense episode of Boys Over Flowers to date.

E: This whole maid situation is a lot. It sure is a whole lot.

M: I’m enjoying it as plot arc, although I’m sure I’ll take that back in a week or two when we get to the fallout, but if you take a step back, it makes even less sense than the show usually does.

E: Oh no, it makes no sense. Jan-di has so many options that aren’t serving as a maid at her ex-boyfriend’s house, especially now that her brother is living with their parents again.

M: They tried to justify it. She feels obligated to accept the kindness from her sister figure and so sticks it out. I mean, she ended up there by chance after fainting on the street. Dark moment there, by the way.

E: I just feel like she could have called someone before that point. And I understand that the show has established that Jan-di is very prideful- has a lot of PRIDE if you will- but I just don’t believe that she wouldn’t stay with Ga-eul or even have Ji-hoo put her up for a night.

M: I think she tried to call Ga-eul.

E: But, I mean, she must know where Ga-eul lives.

M: Maybe she was walking there? it’s weird because it wasn’t so late at night that there weren’t half a dozen people to rush her immediately when she fainted.

E: I like how they just spawned out of nowhere, by the way.

M: Maybe unnie had her followed.

E: Unnie has her own tragic love story, we now know.

M: So predictable.

E: She was looking at a photo of a woman (who I guess was her younger self or something), but I thought we were actually going to get some lesbians in this show, even if they were Tragic Lesbians.

M: That crossed my mind for a minute too. Mostly because unnie changed her hair, so I didn’t recognize her at first.

E: That would have added some unexpectedness to her backstory while still keeping the “why she sympathizes with Jan-di” character trait.

M: The most unbelievable part of the episode was Jan-di trying to go sleep with the homeless at the train station. I buy all the maid nonsense, at least sort of, after Jan-di wakes up there, but her trying to sleep with the bums? No way.

E: Like, even if she didn’t want to bother anyone, she could have holed up at the clinic or something.

M: Or the porridge shop. Or the school. Or probably her old apartment. Or the skyview that has eighteen-month-old graffiti.

E: I would have screamed if she went to the skyview.

M: It would have been emotionally resonant! She could have seen the graffiti again.

E: When will they finally find and erase that graffiti? When will Jun-pyo be prosecuted for destruction of public property?

M: Not before Jae-kyung sees it.

E: If Jae-kyung sees it, I will scream. That Chekhov’s graffiti.

M: The whole maid plot is objectively pretty predictable, but it’s so charming I don’t mind.

E: Granny is pretty great.

M: I’m so glad we learned where Butler Lee went.

E: Yeah, I was worried about him. I didn’t want him to have been fired for Jun-pyo’s Batman antics. Instead he was just sentenced to their housekeeping school, because apparently Shinhwa has that.

M: I guess it’s where they usually train their maids. But look, Jun-pyo was me this episode, and yes, that makes Clickbait Boyfriend Jan-di.

E: You don’t need those walkie-talkies though, because your apartment is so cozy.

M: Cozy is everyone’s favorite euphemism for my apartment. Maybe I should get walkie-talkies.

E: You would literally have no use for them.

M: It would be cute. When I’m playing video games in here, I could radio and be like “bring me ice cream.” Just like Jun-pyo did this episode!

E: “Emergency! Need ice cream now! Stat! Over!”

M: “I’m hungry! Give me food!” That was a big mood.

 

E: My big mood was Jan-di and Ga-eul sighing in unison.

M: That’s the kind of content I come to Boys Over Flowers for.

E: Speaking of Ga-eul, the situation with Yi-jung and his childhood friend pottery teacher continues to develop. Very slowly.

M: Of course Ga-eul walked in on them. This has happened a lot more on this show lately, and normally it annoys me because surprise walk-ins are kind of lazy writing, but I’m glad it’s going throw some fuel to the fire of this love triangle so we can get it over with already.

E: I was okay with this one, because Ga-eul had like a legitimate, normal reason for going to the pottery place because of her class and the fact that she’s been there a lot the last few episodes. It’s more of a problem for me when a character just turns up somewhere they wouldn’t normally go and happens to see something at that exact time.

M: I hope the pottery teacher has more self-respect than to get with Yi-jung. He’s a mess.

E: I’m hoping it turns out that she doesn’t like him anymore- at least in a romantic sense. Like, obviously, her memories are important to her, but she didn’t go seeking him out before this which I’m interested to know more about.

M: Clearly they come from a different class of people. I think that is a big part of it.

E: But she was allowed to play with him all the time when they were kids. So it’s weird if they have too big a class gap.

M: Rich boys playing with the servant kids is a pretty normal trope.

E: I guess so. We just don’t know very much about childhood friend girl yet. As evidenced by the fact that I know Yi-jung said her name this episode, but I could not even hazard a guess.

M: I think the first syllable is Cha.

E: I think that’s her family name.

M: My prediction for this, getting a little ahead of myself, is that Yi-jung is going to throw himself at her way too fast, and she’s going to realize that this should not work.

E: He’s definitely going to mess it up somehow, because that’s the Yi-jung way lately.

M: That’s going to implode around the same time that the Chairwoman returns and everything at Casa Gu goes to hell.

E: Bang bang boom.

M: Exactly. I believe more strongly in the love of Jan-di and Jun-pyo every time that one of them tucks the other person into bed after falling asleep mid-conversation. That’s what love is, people.

E: Awwwwww

M: Do you think Mama Gu will return in the back half of the episode? Or will we get another half hour of antics first?

E: I think her return will be the stinger at the end.

M: This is going to be a disaster. Speaking of which, I cannot believe Jan-di just moved Grandpa in with Ji-hoo.

E: She didn’t even preface it, she was just like “yo, you got a spare room?” And when he did, that’s when she was like, “oh, it’s not for me, it’s for the granddad you don’t like.”

M: Joke’s going to be on all of them when Ji-hoo goes into the room and finds a corpse one of these days.

E: And then he’s accused of murder. Woo-bin must help him flee the country. That’s how Ji-hoo’s arc ends.

M: He flees to Paris, gets back with his model girlfriend, all is well.

E: Honestly, that’s my endgame prediction for Ji-hoo.

M: We’ve already made a lot of predictions, but do you have any more? Romantic or non.

E: Jae-kyung is going to find about about Jan-di being a maid sometime soon, but I could not even give a prediction about what her response will be.

M: She has to lose it at some point, right? Just absolutely fly off the handle.

E: I feel like that’s the only way she could go without being a totally unimpactful character. If she’s just like “oh, chill, okay,” at the end, then what was the point of all this drama?

M: I still think there’s going to have to be a major incident that makes Jun-pyo an unfit match for her. Whether that’s unnie running away to be with her long lost love or its Jun-pyo getting caught in bed with a maid is unclear.

E: Those are sure some things that could happen.

M: I just don’t know how they’re going to make this work. She’s too willingly oblivious!

E: I mean, what would be healthiest would be for Jun-pyo to just tell her straight out that she needs to go away forever (in nicer terms), but I don’t even know if that would entirely offset her persistence.

M: She’s going to turn evil. You know there is one last deadly trial for Jan-di to endure before she can be with Jun-pyo and it’s the Mama Gu/Jae-kyung tag-team.

E: I don’t want her to be evil!

M: It’s coming. They’ve gone out of their way to make her unsympathetic.

E: In one of the other remakes, I hope Jae-kyung is written more interestingly.

M: I’m really relieved they decided not to go the legitimate love triangle route, but it does mean she has to be pretty insipid, more and more so with every passing episode.

E: Ugh. That’s all I have to say on that. Ugh.

M: I just want to know how it ends! That’s all I want!

E: Only about nine weeks left!

 

My Hero Academia S3E3: “Kota”

M: Let’s just jump in straight into Lawsuit Watch!

E: Okay, but as much as the children were suffering, I love that training montage part. It’s just so fun. And it makes it feel like they’re all in the same space while Iida’s running around through everybody’s training. It just feels so lively. And UA now owes millions of dollars in damages.

M: I liked the sequence, I really did! It was creative! It showed a lot of good ideas about what would be excellent training for these mini-heroes. That said, you can’t have fourteen-year-olds shoving their hands into boiling water, attaching themselves to high voltage batteries, developing a binge eating disorder, etc.

E: One of the lines in the sub as Class B happens upon the training is “What is this hell?” Which I feel like is just a good summary.

M: Class B is not here to take this crap. They recognize that this is insane.

E: They haven’t been indoctrinated through trauma yet.

M: Seriously. These kids are going to have a lot of therapy to go through in about fifteen years.

E: We also got to meet the other two Pussycats.

M: Yes, we certainly did. Why can’t there be any heroes that seem competent?

E: Hey, they’ve got some super useful quirks though. Ragdoll said she can store information on 100 people, including location and weaknesses. Like, give me that overpowered nonsense.

M: I’m not saying they aren’t actually competent heroes. But why must everyone have this horrible cutesy schtick?

E: That’s the price of fame. You’ve gotta stay relevant so your team gets funding so you can save people.

M: Ugh. The hero-industrial complex. I’ll hang with Kota.

E: Kota probably doesn’t want to hang out with you.

M: That’s accurate. Rude that the kids have to cook their own food when Momo could belly button vomit a feast.

E: I don’t know if I would trust food that spawned from Momo in anything less than dire circumstances.

M: Why not? It’s just like poop.

E: Yeah. That is the issue.

M: Bakugo blowing up the grill was a nice character moment. On the other hand, there was some weird sexual tension while Todoroki was lighting the fire. Just weird beat. All the girls looked at him a little too long.

E: What? I mean, to be fair, he can pull that face disfiguring scar off pretty well.

M: He’s the Ventus to the League of Villains’ Vantias.

E: Dabi you mean?

M: Yeah. “My name’s Todoroki, but you can call me Toad.” Tsu screams in the distance.

E: I hate this. I hate you.

M: Meanwhile, Kirishima’s like, “who are all you people?” And Kitty girl is like, “I’ve got it all memorized!” Thus concludes my crossover fan-fic.

E: Well, thanks for sharing.

M: It’s not accurate, Todoroki would be Terra. No, Riku. Maybe Repliku.

E: Yeah, I get it. Because he was crafted.

M: I meant because he’s subtly bisexual, but yeah, that too.

E: Anyway, we got to learn a little bit more about Kota this episode, as the title implied. And we also got to see tiny Deku trying to breathe fire, so that was a bonus.

M: Chibi Deku is always welcome!

E: But man, hating quirks so much that you’d skip dinner is not a mood. Just take that curry.

M: I’m sure he ate it. I don’t like to eat while people give me a lecture either.

E: Instead, you gotta use your actions. So just shovel food into the other person’s mouth to show your support. I think that’s what Todoroki was trying to recommend.

M: Say ahhh!

E: And finally, of course, after letting the students wander off on their own, the worst happens. And it’s all Aizawa’s fault.

M: Did Aizawa plan this or did the Pussycat Dolls?

E: Does it matter?

M: You’re right. If he hadn’t been teaching his 2AM night class, all the kids could have been poisoned, instead of just most of them.

E: Only those five are the survivors, and they must truly train themselves up in order to get revenge. Act 2. My Hero Academia.

M: I knew when the kids got sent off on a spooky expedition by themselves…I mean, have these people ever seen a horror movie?

E: Tests of courage are pretty traditional at summer camps in Japan, I believe, but yeah, especially with us having seen the villains earlier in the episode chilling out on a cliff, you kind of knew what was coming.

M: Tradition or not, you have to keep these baby heroes safe!

E: Well, they tried! They limited the amount of people who knew the location, they even changed the location last minute in order to throw anyone off, and they didn’t bring the shining beacon of “trouble come this way please” named All-Might. So attempts were made.

M: Counterpoint: they took a charter bus. Who takes a charter bus if they aren’t going on a field trip?

E: I mean, the field trip part I assume was unable to be hidden because of needing parent permission. I think it was mostly the location they were trying to camouflage.

M: I just think it’s foolish to believe that no villain could track them. It would have been a better bet to be super obvious but have really beefy security.

E: Hmmm. I don’t know if I agree with that.

M: More security than like, six people, at least.

E: At some point though, the more security you have, the more obvious you are and you end up in that not-so-sweet spot where you’re not covert and nor do you have enough security.

M: I guess so, but leaving the kids unsupervised seems like a bad idea even if there’s no outside villain threat.

E: Fair enough.

M: Anyway, Kota is going to get…oh my god ,I almost said Norted, but I mean Nomu-ed.

E: Oh yeah? He did seem to be in a bad spot. Speaking of being unsupervised.

M: I’m mostly kidding, but a tiny Nomu could be cute and an asset for the heroes once they domesticate it.

E: That’s a lot. That’s a lot right there.

M: Would you rather Deku become a maid for All-Might?

E: Noooooooo. No no no no.

M: So we’ve already kind of done Lawsuit Watch. UA wins by a mile, and that’s even accounting for the weird domestic slavery Jan-di has found herself in.

E: I was gonna say that for a maid situation, there was a lot less potential for lawsuits than I had been expecting. But yeah, the situation itself is a bit weird legalwise.

M: Yeah, the sexual harassment has been minimal so far. Yay Jun-pyo!

E: Character development!

M: He’s come a long way.

E: So are you ready for next time’s episode title?

M: You know I’m ready!

E: Okay, season 3 episode 4 is called “My Hero”

M: So, the school burned down?

E: I already told you, they’re all dead, the five in remedial classes are now revenge seeking vigilantes. It’s a reboot, okay?

M: What’s the point of predictions then?

E: Just go for it.

M: Okay, prediction one: Aizawa ends up saving Kota, creating the first ever Eraser Head fan.

E:

M: Prediction two: Todoroki once again saves the day, looking weirdly buff.

E:

M: There were just a couple of weird muscly arm shots this episode.

E: I honestly didn’t notice, but I believe you.

M: Go back and get a screenshot. It wasn’t as bad as Naked Deku last time, but it was like, “okay, beefcake. Iida’s the thicc one, calm it down.”

E: Okay….okay….. (EDITOR EMMA: I think she’s talking about this.)

M: Prediction three: The Kit Kats are useless, as all pro heroes are.

E:

M: Prediction four: I’m trying to think who could survive poison gas. I guess Momo better hope she ate enough to spawn a least a dozen gas masks real quick.

E:

M: Finally, prediction five: this attack marks the end of training camp. All the kids get back home safely, but Kota is abducted, thus kicking off the origin story of the greatest villain of all time.

E:

–

Hey everybody! Thanks for checking in to Split Screen. We’re watching the My Hero Academia dub on Funimation and Boys Over Flowers on Netflix, so catch up with us if you’re not watching along already. We’re looking for replacement suggestions for Boys Over Flowers too, so drop us your ideas!

Next time! Jan-di continues her life as a maid, but perhaps not for as long as you might think. Meanwhile, Deku faces his greatest challenge yet- well, sort of. Emma has a bone to pick. Tune in next week!