It's not my favorite...

The main couple is very cute, and the gay side couple is too! The problem is... This whole plot with the doctors and the girl who is constantly crossing boundaries she shouldn't. I can't stand it. As someone belonging to the LGBT+ community, it plays on all of my fears. I'm glad the one doctor is standing up for himself, but I mean honestly! They're acting like children! Only in a much more harmful way! I tried ignoring this plot at first but the writers seem determined to have us pay attention to it, considering the amount of screentime they dedicate to it. It just gives me very bad vibes to the point that it makes it difficult for me to enjoy the rest of the show. In addition, I understand that the theme of being watched is an important and deliberate part of this show, but that combined with this borderline offensive plotline with the doctor has me Stressing. This may just be me, but the idea of strangers following me around and posting pictures/assumptions they make about my life on a public social media account? Horrid.That said, the Phu/Kao scenes in this episode are adorable and I love them. I find them to be the most interesting couple at this point. Gui/Solo is cute as well but I find their characters to be somewhat stagnant and uninteresting - I wish the late-night meetups for warm milk at the coffee shop had gone on longer, allowing them to develop a more complex relationship over time. I'm going to keep watching out of curiosity and for the sake of Phu/Kao, but my expectations for this series are very low.

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A metaphor for depression?

cw: discussion of canonical suicide attempti actually think it is! it's been messing with me, this whole time, how drastic the change seems to be when monos meet their probes - it changes their whole personality, not just the fact that they can see colors. just being able to see colors wouldn't lead people to kidnapping. but being depressed your whole life and then finding someone who can fix it? yeah, i think that could. the "hospital" and the way it was talked about and the medication and everything was very reminiscent of a psychiatric hospital to me. yeon woo thinking of himself as a monster and trying to kill himself also resonates with symptoms of depression - which would, i believe, be exacerbated in a world where one person could cure that depression.i'm tentatively hopeful about the ending of this show.

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too many flashbacks but so freaking cute

a show this short probably shouldn't have any flashbacks and i lament the time that's lost being dedicated to them here, buuuuuuut i'm loving this show!!! love seeing some straight honesty at the end there and so excited for the next episode! i'm super curious about whether this show will have large scale metaphorical implications. the color rush almost seems like a drug, the way the main character responds to it, and the way he describes the de-coloring feels like depression (potentially not unrelated to drugs in the form of medication and artificial brain chemicals). the lens of depression is an interesting one because we often lament that in real life, love doesn't cure depression - but what if it did? what if you /needed/ one person to be happy? excited to see how it addresses this power dynamic in future episodes!

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An ending that outdid the rest of the show

Spoilers ahead Wow this episode was so much better than nearly all the episodes leading up to it. That scene at the dinner table where Pai started crying was so freaking good. I have hardly cared about these characters for the last 3-4 episodes, but I could really feel his pain there. Of watching his parents move on from taking the best part of his life away like it was nothing, for trying to force himself to do the same. I did enjoy seeing Pai's character development in his ability to stand up for himself to his parents. I don't fully agree with how it supposedly came about (Itt's unreasonably "tough love") and believe that part of the show could have done with some clearer communication, but on this episode alone, the character development was nice to see. From Itt as well, his decision to go talk to Pai's parents was really mature and showed a lot of growth, I think, compared to the passive-aggressive ways in which he's always dealt with issues in the past. It was so cool to see that moment at the end where he said something like "I did everything to make you who I wanted you to be, but I never stayed by your side" - I really loved that. And it captures even the way they first met, when Itt would help Pai and then disappear. Those scenes felt a little bit unrealistic, but from a symbolic perspective, that's a really neat little detail. I really liked that Pai's parents were shown consulting someone about Pai's stress (though I wish there was more info given about who they were consulting and some background in general about them because the scene felt a bit out of pace/randomly thrown in there). I'm not sure I buy the whole "we were just worried about you" thing and honestly I think the episode would have been more compelling if they'd presented it as parents having to confront and overcome their own homophobia for the sake of their son. That was a bit disappointing, but not entirely unexpected in this kind of a show. One thing that really threw me off about this show as a whole was the way Itt's mother's death was dealt with. I don't know that I've seen the death of such a close loved one in a show like this before, but I was expecting a lot more from that. I am sure they didn't want to make it too depressing, but it almost felt like a trivial plot point when the show just continued to focus exclusively on the romance and quickly brushed past any feelings of grief Itt was experiencing. I know that didn't happen in this episode, but it does make a lot of what happened here feel overly dramatic in comparison.On the other hand: the discussion of safe sex and STDs is really wholesome and was addressed in a way more thoughtful way than I could have hoped for, really, so kudos to the writers for that. Honestly, Pure and Folk's relationship carried this show in many ways. I've never seen a relationship like that in a show before and I love that Pure isn't just dismissed because of his past. I love that he isn't entirely let off the hook either, and that Folk always holds him accountable for his actions. This show was massively frustrating to me the whole time I was watching it, and some of that is just personal preference and my not loving slow pacing, but part of it was that these characters really had significant flaws. I love that they grew from them here, I just wish that growth had come a little bit sooner and been explored even more. As frustrating as this show has been for me, I am glad I watched all the way through to the end!

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Disappointing

I'm sorry but for a show that might be excused a few plotholes due to the number of episodes being cut, this episode spends way too much time panning over various characters just smiling, or just frowning, or just thinking.Spoilers ahead:"Who's superior depends on whether the rule is written in their favor."I am glad with the philosophical direction the show took in this conclusion, even if it does feel both too good to be true and predictable in many ways.Pom's character made me crazy this episode, saying the kids should decide the entire fate of the future (kids! dude chill!) while still withholding vital information from them until forced to do otherwise.Future Grace having a tendency towards hoarding power in the same way the director did is such! A fascinating idea to explore! But they introduced it way, way too late in the game, unfortunately, and then just did away with it entirely.I can't believe they bailed on the most enjoyable part of the show: the friendships between the Gifted Class kids. I guess we are told at some point by Pang that they're his friends (again? still?) but we don't see them being friends or even being together except when they're working to achieve their goal. It's such an odd shift from when Pang was doing everything for the sake of his friends, to now have the friendships exist only for the sake of winning. And then that is presented as a win? I don't get it.Namtarn appearing... Ugh. I wanted to be happy because I love her! But man, did they have to do it /that/ way? So very half-hearted that it really just left me feeling empty about the whole thing.I don't think I'm being as coherent here as I would have liked, I'm just... really, genuinely disappointed. 5/10 is the best score I can justify giving this episode.

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