Split Screen: You Have the Right to Remain Silent

Things are looking particularly split on this week’s episode of Split Screen. On Boys Over Flowers, things are finally looking rosy (get it?) for Jan-di and Jun-pyo, and our OTP Yule (AKA Yi-jung and Ga-eul) wreaked romantic vengeance on Ga-eul’s garbage ex. But on My Hero Academia, Deku looks poised to throw away all of his hard work in the Child Cruelty Olympics because he’s an idiot who can’t follow simple instructions! But with a snap of your fingers (in this case, literally), everything can change. Thanks for tuning in with us, readers. Let’s jump back into this narrative craziness.

(New to Split Screen? You’ve come to the right place! Check out our previous entries here.)

Boys Over Flowers Episode 10 (up to minute 33)

M: I’m really disappointed we didn’t get just one episode to enjoy Jan-di and Jun-pyo finally being together before it all went to hell.

E: Yeah, the family stuff happened a lot sooner and a lot suddener than I thought it would. I mean I know they brought the mom up again last episode, but still I thought there would be more lead-up.

M: It was a pretty harsh tonal shift.

E: From a super weird contest to win a free phone to Jan-di’s death warrant.

M: Also from the double date shenanigans and family fun of last episode to this week’s incredible downer. I really thought this was going to be a Christmas episode too! Apparently it’s Valentine’s Day!

E: I didn’t feel like a ton of time had passed, so I’m not sure if we just had no idea what time of year it was in previous episodes or if there’s some other Valentine’s Day.

M: There is a Korean holiday in November that’s very similar to Valentine’s Day, but since they referred to this as Valentine’s over and over again, and since it’s seemed really wintry for quite a while, that seems implausible to me.

E: Yeah, so I guess we were just totally mistaken about the time of year. It’s still winter!

M: I feel cheated out of my Christmas episode, honestly.

E: Yeah, they just totally skipped it. I feel like there could have been some good drama there.

M: Speaking of good drama, or drama that hurts my heart, things aren’t looking for good for our favorite B-couple Yule.

E: Yeah, as soon as I saw her with the bag, I was like “oh, this is not going to go well.”

M: I knew the saxophone performance had to be just a show, but I was hoping that maybe Yi-jung would be the one that came around and realized he had feelings for Ga-eul.

E: She handled it decently.

M: He definitely picked up his playboy ways from his father, right?

E: Yes, we discovered last time (via screenshot) that professor man was indeed his old man. Heh. So, I feel like that’s where that’s coming from.

M: Hopefully the next few episodes will allow him to resolve things with his dad so that he can live monogamously ever after with Ga-eul.

E: No Christmas shenanigans for Yule though, it’s such a missed opportunity.

M: I’m upset. I’m also upset that he took her chocolate regardless. Even when she was storming out with some shred of dignity, he’s like “gimme the sweets.”

E: I mean, she went to the trouble. I think it’s more rude to refuse chocolate? I’m basing this on my knowledge of Japanese customs from romance anime, so take that with a grain of salt.

M: I took some small solace from the fact that Yi-jung’s ladies were at least pleasant and nice. I thought they were going to make fun of Ga-eul.

E: No, they were just legitimately concerned about how long she’d been in the cold. It’s nice. I guess because they’re not in a committed relationship with him either? So competition doesn’t really matter.

M: We’ve seen so much of Shinhwa’s mean girls…unrelated, how old are these women?

E: I don’t know, how old is F4?

M: They’ve got to be going into senior year now, right? Starting senior year in the spring?

E: I assume so? I don’t know, Ji-hoo appear to live by himself. We know nothing about Woo-bin. He could be forty.

M: Ji-hoo lives alone because everyone he’s ever loved has died or moved to Paris.

E: Don’t make me feel bad for Ji-hoo, he ate Jan-di’s chocolate.

M: He literally ate Jun-pyo’s face.

E: Right in front of him!

M: Another relief: Jan-di agonizing over Jun-pyo’s chocolates was just because she was planning something ten times better.

E: Yeah, I don’t know exactly what those cookies were, but they were awesome. They were the awesomest.

M: Where are my face cookies?

E: Ask CBB.

M: We’re past the “beating up the same person” phase, surely I’m owed personalized face cookies.

E: I say you demand them.

M: He won’t dress up as Waluigi, so I don’t think we’re there yet.

E: Man. What a lame.

M: Happy Halloween, everyone.

E: At least we got to see how pleased Jun-pyo was with the face cookies. Which she claimed she made for someone else and messed up on, and they just somehow turned out into his face. Good cover, Jan-di.

M: Crazy how that happens. We got another example of Jun-pyo’s super strength this episode too.

E: I mean, we already knew he was strong from the flour, fire bike incident when he murdered someone with the fire extinguisher and also carried Jan-di out of there.

M: I forgot about that!

E: Yeah, he put all her weight into his biceps. He’s a Muscle Man He probably could have won this had Mama Jun-pyo not coincidentally shown up.

M: Fifty seven minutes. That’s insane.

E: I’m really impressed with the girlfriend who was carrying her boyfriend on her back. Are you in that stage of your relationship yet?

M [after consultation]: Yes to me lifting CBB, no to CBB doing Madelyn-weighted squats for a free mobile phone.

E: Fair enough.

M: It was crushing to have Mama Jun-pyo, whose surname isn’t Gu by the way, which threw me off, walk in.

E: We actually know nothing about Jun-pyo’s father, as far as I can remember.

M: Yeah, that’s kind of bizarre.

E: Like, we don’t know whether he’s even alive or not? I assume they’re not divorced? But I don’t know.

M: No one has ever mentioned him at all. It’s a Lane situation.

E: So, he’ll show up in season 2 for a whole second?

M: He was there the whole time! Honestly, is his father Butler Lee?

E: PLOT TWIST

M: Anyway, I’m gonna gloss over the Ji-hoo and Jun-pyo scene except to say 1. Please stop taking Jan-di’s stuff and trying to woo her by pretending to help your friend. 2. Weren’t these guys trying to murder each other like last week? And 3. Please avoid the ponytail-glasses look in the future.

E: I did appreciate that they acknowledged how creepy Ji-hoo can be sometimes when Jun-pyo was scared seeing him just standing in the window. He is kinda like a ghost.

M: Maybe he is. For real.

E: PLOT TWIST

M: Which brings us to the scene that you almost saved for next time: Mama Gu, even though that’s not her name, meets the Geums.

E: To call Jan-di a weed, threaten to poison her, and then offer them 3 million dollars as “go away” money.

M: Why do rich people on TV always talk about poor people in these atrociously insensitive metaphors?

E: Because they feel smart and superior using metaphors, assuming these base common folk won’t understand them.

M: I just don’t get it. It seems like it could only work against getting these people to submit.

E: I mean, I think she thinks they’ll just freeze in front of that much money.

M: Also, the Geums really have no idea that maybe they shouldn’t mention that Jun-pyo slept over? And made smelly kimchi?

E: I don’t know. I guess they assume that Jun-pyo asks for permission before he does things. Because they don’t know him.

M: But they said it to his mom like it was news to her. Sometimes they behave with a little bit of tact and discretion and then in the next scene they completely regress.

E: I do think that Mama Jan-di sort of elbowed Laundry Dad when he mentioned that? So, there’s a bit of self-awareness. She at least elbowed him at some point during the conversation.

M: Do you think Jan-di is going to sign?

E: Not this episode, at least.

M: You really think that Lady Catherine is going to leave without a signed paper?

E: I think so, she’ll leave with a threat and a time limit.

M: On that grim note: Romance Tracker?

E: Well, our relationships are looking kind of rough right now, for different reasons.

M: That’s putting it mildly.

E: I think there will be some conversation between Jan-di and Jun-pyo about the whole hush money thing, but not sure how it’ll go yet. I feel like one of them is gonna be swayed into the “signing it” side.

M: Okay, here’s my admittedly out of the box theory: Jan-di is going to refuse to sign, ala Lizzy Bennett’s refusal to tell Lady Catherine she won’t marry Mr. Darcy. Her family will eventually support her because Jun-pyo is worth way more than 3 million (AKA 10,000 pounds a year plus Pemberley, if we’re continuing the allusion). That puts them and, more likely, their business in danger. So, Ji-hoo will swoop in, at Jun-pyo’s request, to date Jan-di, protecting her because she’s upper class by association.

E: No.

M: Why not?

E: I don’t want it. Give me Woo-bin.

M: That would be an excellent use of Woo-bin.

E: Non-romantic prediction?

M: Everything is romance at this point. Except wait, who the heck was that guy in the porridge shop?

E: Oh yeah! Subplot with bowtie manger man! I’m down.

M:I just have no idea where that’s going, but it’s definitely going somewhere.

E: I predict he’ll keep offering bigger and bigger fish as payment.

M: Sure. That seems appropriate for this show.

E:

My Hero Academia S2E7: Victory or Defeat

 

M: I’m still really pissed about the manufactured conflict in the fight with Shinso.

E: Yeah. I feel like if the author wanted Deku to struggle with it, they shouldn’t have shown him talking to Ojiro for an hour. Or Shinso would have had to say something way worse than “monkey.”

M: To be fair, we see in flashback that they really only talked for like five minutes. But still, the relevant information could be conveyed in about ten seconds. “Don’t talk to Shinso. Especially when he asks questions. Or, in the English dub, when he sort of commands things that could be phrased as questions.”

E: I’m pretty sure in the sub, he ends most of his sentences with like “right?” or “you know?” hence turning statements into questions. I don’t know why they didn’t translate it that way.

M: That shouldn’t count. Any improv team could tell you that adding “right” or “you know” at the end doesn’t make a statement a question.

E: It’s asking for a response though. So it’s better than just the literal sentences that clearly end with a period that the dub offers.

M: Again: Tape-Man, this is what you are for.

E: You know what, Tape Man did his best. And if it he hadn’t been fighting Todoroki- angry Todoroki- he might have won. Okay?

M: If I answer that, will I be brainwashed?

E: …..

M: …..

E:

M: Alright, just broke a finger. Typing is hard but I’m back.

E: Like, I see what the point of the Shinso fight was, but it didn’t get set-up in a way where what needed to happen made sense.

M: We get to see the One-For-All spirit guardians, cool.

E: Talk about Avatar connections, right?

M: For real. But I feel like, for once, that whole sequence moved way too fast.

E: The sequence with the spirits?

M: No, the whole brainwashing.

E: Yeah, I totally agree. I feel like the battle would have been more interesting if Deku didn’t fall for the first taunt, and Shinso just happened on something particularly hurtful in trying to goad him. It needed to take longer. But oh well.

M: The whole thing took, in real time, maybe thirty seconds? A minute if Deku was walking super slow. Speaking of which, why didn’t Shinso have Deku run out of the ring?

E: For the drama.

M: Classic villain mistake, just saying.

E: Hey.

M: Dude needs to fight those tendencies a little harder.

E: That’s literally the whole….whatever.

M: They chant like “nice try” at TapeMan after his bout, but that was only marginally shorter than the Deku fight, and frankly, Tape Man performed much more impressively than Deku. Yet he gets this patronizing chant.

E: I think everybody was a little thrown off by “sudden glacier!”

M: Sure, I get that. But what a lame opening match. Deku walks away, there’s some wind, and then a lame school yard fight.

E: He tried hitting him in the broken fingers though, that was a good move

M: I thought, based on Deku’s reaction after the flip, that he had maybe killed Shinso.

E: Oops! I guess I slammed him into the ground too hard!

M: He seemed out-of-proportion shocked.

E: Yeah, I think the execution of this fight is one of the weaker points of this tournament (and…honestly the series), but I appreciate that it’s pointed out that despite him starting as quirkless, Deku is pretty dang well-off now compared to a lot of people.

M: I think we agree, the fight served its narrative purpose. It’s just disappointing that people had to go so out-of-character to get there.

E: Yeah, I feel like it could have been fixed by Ojiro just not saying anything to Deku. Like Todoroki pulled him aside for too long to talk him or something, so he didn’t know what he was getting in to. But, as soon as he knew, Deku should be smart enough to adjust to that.

M: Oh well. Maybe in the remake.

E: Live ACTION.

M: Way too many grotesque broken limbs for live action.

E: No, they’re making a live action movie.

M: Ruh roh.

E: Yup.

M: For this episodes B-plot, which we already mostly talked about, how about that icy goodness?

E: So much icy goodness. Too much icy goodness. That’s gonna delay the timing for the matches by a bit. The ground will be soaked.

M: Where’s Evaporator Man when you need him.

E: What a stupid power that would be.

M: Pulling water out of surfaces. That’s not useless.

E: Oh, I guess he could pull water out of people.

M: #bloodbending

E: Not really bloodbending, just dehydration.

M: Even worse. #hydrateordie

E: Todoroki reiterated his desire to only use ice again to his fiery father, while angrily walking. I think the arms and legs on the same side were supposed to show how angrily he was walking.

M: It just made him look stupid.

E: Or maybe, it’s because he doesn’t want his right side at all associated with his left side, so he moves them separately.

M: That’s a solid theory.

E: That’s my headcanon now.

M: Is Tape Man going to get booted from the hero course because of this loss? I hope not.

E: Like we said, he put up a solid effort, and if it had been anybody but pissed off Todoroki, he probably might have won. Maybe.

M: So, what you’re saying is that Shinso will take like Mineta or maybe Invisigirl’s place?

E: I don’t know. But yeah, there are class 1-A students who didn’t even make this round, so Tape Man’s safe. Not to mention the many class 1-B students who didn’t make it.

M: Are there any that didn’t make the second round? Invisigirl, I think.

E: Hmmm, no, Invisible Girl was in the cavalry battle. I’d have to check, I can’t recall all twenty in the cavalry battle off the top of my head.

M: n00b.

E: I know. I’m not a real fan.

M: I’m glad he got a nice heart-warming moment at the end, because I was afraid that was the moment he chose villainy.

E: Tape-Man???? Not Tape-Man!!!!!

M: No! Shinso.

E: Oh, that makes more sense. No, the whole point of his being there is because he doesn’t want to be a villain, even though he could be a good one.

M: I know, but you know what might turn you into a villain anyway? Having All-Might’s little boy body slam you in front of thousands of people.

E: Fair enough, you’re right.

M: Lawsuit Watch?

E: Uh….Well….I’m honestly not totally sure. I feel like you could sue this weird company giving out free phones. They didn’t appear to sign any sort of liability waiver.

M: Yeah, that’s definitely the most dangerous activity that occurred.

E: I guess extortion too? Is extortion the right term?

M: Or bribery?

E: Oh yeah, and getting encased by a glacier.

M: Oh, the kids have for sure signed waivers.

E: You’re right. Boys Over Flowers takes it. For the first time in a while!

M: I mean, there were literal death threats, so…

E: Hard to top literal death threats.

M: By the owner of your school, basically.

E: Plenty of lawsuits to be had, but no successful lawsuits, in my opinion.

M: That’s the truth.

E: You ready for the next episode title?

M: You told me it would be lame.

E: Season 2 Episode 9 is called “Battle on, Challengers!”

M: You gotta be kidding me.

E: NOPE! It gets worse, don’t worry.

M: Okay. Prediction one: we don’t get to Todoroki and Deku’s battle. I think it will focus on other people.

E: Well, I think there are six more to go in the first round?

M: That makes sense, round of sixteen.

E: So it’d be some real quick pacing to get to Todoroki.

M: I think there’s a very small chance we end with a shot of them in the ring. Probably not though.

E:

M: Man, what about the League of Villains?

E: They’re chilling, with some popcorn.

M: Solid, good enough explanation for me.

E: Even villains like a good round of watching children beat each other up

M: Villain Chillin’. Okay, prediction two: Deku realizes he’s had a quirk all along: determining emotions from behind at five hundred feet away.

E: I say you can tell when someone seems sad from the slope of their shoulder so whatever. But

M: Maybe it’s super vision.

E:

M: Prediction three: Aizawa starts his own hero school with more equitable recruiting practices.

E: Stick it to the man.

M: Nobody cares what you think, Aizawa, but like, word.

E: Poor Mummy Man.

M: I’ve been saying this stuff the whole time.

E: You’re allowed to make fun of Aizawa, everyone does it.

M: Prediction four: …who’s Bakugo fighting?

E: Uraraka.

M: Oooh, that’s tough. I wanted to say that he was going to seriously hurt whoever he was up against…Yeah, no, still going with that.

E:

M: Because there’s no way Bakugo’s eliminated now.

E: Hmmm……

M: Stop that.

E: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…….

M: Final prediction: All-Might bets his life savings on Deku and loses big.

E:

–

Emma here! As always, thanks for following along on our adventure through Boys Over Flowers and My Hero Academia. We’re watching BOF on Netflix and the MHA dub on Hulu, so you can watch the episodes with us if you’d like!

Next time! We see whether Jan-di will sell her soul (or, you know, her relationship) for 3 million and the sports festival continues to heat up. Let’s go!

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