I realized we are over halfway through Only Friends now, and that I have only talked about Mew once in my write ups. WhichâŚmakes sense for me, all things considered, until now heâs kind of been a blah character in my eyes. And I am leaning in to and really appreciating how intentional that is beginning to feel on behalf of Jojo and co.Â
When you think about it, until literally halfway through the show we have known almost nothing about Mew besides the fact that he is the table keeper for his friends, he is a hotel management student, and heâs a virgin. If you asked me to list any other facts about Mewâs life or his role in life, I would not have been able to answer much of anything.Â
And thatâs because Mew isnât really anything. Personally, I feel like Mew thinks he has a strong sense of self and the second that something comes along to question that, all those illusions he has of himself start crumbling. When I look at Mewâs character, and I mean start getting in to the nitty gritty of Mewâs character, I donât think Mew has any idea who he is. Which, for a show about college students is fucking brilliant. I thought I knew who I was in college, and then I graduated and promptly became queer and trans. I thought I knew what career I wanted, and then I ended up going to grad school for something outside of my initial plans. I know @waitmyturtles mentioned something similar about trying on different personalities in college in her Episode 7 Review.Â
Think about Mewâs apartment, it was his motherâs old place. He took it over after she moved out. He didnât choose this place, we canât be certain this is the type of apartment or the location that Mew would actively decide to be in. When he brings Top home the first night they meet, Top comments on the place:
âYour room is nice, it suits youâÂ
To which Mew replies âItâs my Momâs old room. I decorated it using ideas from the internetâÂ
Which says to me that Mewâs own personality, his own interests werenât even involved in the creation of his own personal space. He decorated it based on inspiration from what other people had done to their own places. And Mewâs apartment fascinates me further, as a color-coder in BL kinda person. Because Mewâs apartment is all over the place in its decoration.Â
On one wall we have striped wallpaper, in orange hues.
On another we have light blue walls with white and golden patterning. A yellow couch, a blue bookshelf.Â
In his room he has a wall that is painted a solid green
And I canât quite get a good image of it, but the opposite wall in his room is painted a dark turquoise with white patterning, which is different from Rayâs house, but still evokes a similar visual point of comparison.
Even Mew himself, when we first meet him is alllllll over the place with his colors. He has lines all over his shirt, with squares of different colors. His second look of the show is a solid light blue shirt over top of a striped shirt with orange, green, yellow.
His bed sheets are similarly stripes with dark gray, green, yellow, and orange.
Which is to say, at the beginning of our time with Mew, it is hard to pin down who he is as a person. He doesnât have a color, he doesnât have a pattern, to associate with his character. He fluctuates between rich, saturated colors and light, washed out pastels.Â
When I think of Mew, I think of all the outfits heâs worn that have a strong green tint to them, but honestly, looking back through his wardrobe, Mew has a broad range of colors he chooses from.Â
(Now, I recognize that all of this could be because the costuming department does not actually care about color coding, and that the eclectic styling of Mewâs apartment was just how it already was. And thatâs fine, but Iâm here so Iâm gonna overanalyze it.)
All this to say that, Mewâs colors, Mews home, Mewâs pattern choices are all very disparate. All this to say that as a result I am now assuming that Mew does not know who he is, and neither do we. He could go any number of ways. Mew could go orange, yellow, green, blue. He could be complicated (with complex patterns) or straight forward (with solid colors). But none of us know at the beginning of this show quite where he will go.Â
Truthfully, the only aspect of Mew that I have seen be steadfast throughout the show, is Mewâs moral superiority complex. Everything else is mutable. Mew has throughout most of the show, regarded himself as a good person. He doesnât drink much, he doesnât dance much, he doesnât sleep around at all, and that somehow in his mind, grants Mew the opportunity to talk down to his friends.Â
Heâs not an alcoholic like Ray who he has no problem lecturing in the bathroom about how he is going to be dead by 30, despite knowing that Ray is/was suicidal. Heâs not a slut like Boston, who is far too obsessed with Mewâs virginity, etc. etc. etc. Mew fucks with Top, deciding that he is going to wait to have sex with him for awhile. And that is his right, but Mew doesnât say heâs waiting because he isnât comfortable with sex. He tells Boston and Cheum that he is waiting to have sex with Top to make sure that Top is serious about their relationship. Because if Top is serious about dating Mew without sex being involved, that means that Mew is worthy of the top tier because he is top tier, and not because he is an easy lay that Top can use for bragging rights (bagging a virgin).Â
And I would have previously entertained a conversation around whether or not that is true, but unfortunately for any dissenters to my read of Mew, now that Mew has decided to #embracethenasty, there is no convincing me out of my observation that Mew does not know who he is.Â
Why? Because the second that Mew starts retaliating against Top, the second he decides to ruin Topâs life, to stoop low, to be the lesser personâŚMew starts dressing like Ray. I am certainly not the first person to notice this, it has been circulating in multiple different forms across my tumblr page, but.
Mew doesnât know who he is, Mew doesnât know how he fits in to the world now that he has decided to make Topâs life a living hell. I am not convinced Mew is capable of seeing himself as a bad person, because he isnât a slut or an addict or a cheater. [As an aside here, this is Mewâs thinking, not my own personal beliefs on what makes someone a good or bad person]. So, of course, if he wanted to become a bad person. If he wanted to play at being as toxic and terrible as the people around him, it makes sense Mew would don the wardrobe of his âbest friendâ, Ray. Ray, who Mew looks down on for being an alcoholic, for not valuing his life. Who Mew has told time and time again to love himself, and to quit drinking and doing drugs, as if that is going to cure Rayâs addiction. And who in under five minutes just took a blowtorch to everyoneâs relationships.Â
Why? Because Mew is so self-righteous that he looks down on others around him. Mew isnât ready or willing to look at and acknowledge the nasty, flawed parts of himself, so he adorns the nasty, flawed parts of others, to abstract himself from his own behavior. He uses Rayâs clothing, Nickâs methodology, and Bostonâs personality to retaliate at the people he feels wronged by.Â
Mew uses Boston against himself, wielding Bostonâs sexual prowess, his willingness to fuck, his Hunter charm to get himself in to Gapâs apartment. He uses Nickâs methodology to steal the video of Boston and lords the knowledge over Bostonâs head (like Nick did to Top), and again, he is wearing Rayâs clothing. But while Mew is trying to be a chameleon in his behavior, his appearance, his strategy to get back at Top, Mewâs own flavor of flaw starts becoming ever more clear.Â
Mew has a superiority complex.
It is absolutely, unbelievable shitty and vile to threaten to out Boston to his father. To treat Bostonâs privacy and safety with such disdain. Boston records others and he keeps those images as evidence, so Mew steals Bostonâs MO. Mew takes the recording of Boston, looks Boston in the eye, and makes Boston think that he is going to hold on to that for evidence.
Now, right before this, Mew does actually draw a comparison point between himself and Boston.Â
âYou and I have something in common.â he says
âWeâre both gullibleâÂ
Mew makes Boston beg. And after he has made Boston sweat sufficiently, he throws the flashdrive on the ground. He says: âIâm kidding. No matter how much I hate you, I wonât do it. Because I donât betray my friend like you did.Â
âThen Iâd be just as filthy as you are.â
While Mew is able to identify a potential flaw of his own, being gullible isnât a fundamental aspect of Mewâs personality or character, being gullible isnât who Mew is. Itâs a flaw that he is pointing out only because he is still reeling from allowing himself to be fooled by Top and Boston. Itâs a flaw that he is point out so that he can weaponize his superiority complex.Â
In other words: âYou and I have something in common, but I am better than you because I donât betray my friendsâÂ
As if he didnât just threaten to publicize Bostonâs sex life to his father, the implications of which could have a national impact.
And while it is ultimately unsurprising that Mew channels Ray in doing all of this, it is interesting. Interesting because Mew is using Ray. Mew not only knows that Ray is capable of fucking up his own life, and the lives of the people around him, he also knows that Ray is the least liked by both Boston and Top. Bostonâs distaste for Ray is subtle, as his obsession with Top and Mew has been more at the forefront of his interactions with his friends. But we have seen from the very beginning of this show that Boston does nothing to care for Ray. Boston is assigned to take care of Ray and make sure he is safe when heâs been drinking too much. Boston literally never once helps Ray when heâs drunk. Boston sees Ray and Sand crossed, cuddling, and generally having a good time, and Boston goes and airs Rayâs dirty laundry. Ray is the first person to confront Boston about cuckolding Mew.Â
So wearing clothing that is reminiscent of Ray when Mew goes to Bostonâs house to threaten him is a flavorful undertone for how Mew is hoping Boston will see him.Â
At the points in which Top and Mew interact during the episode, Mew is not dressed like Ray, but he sure as shit does lord Ray over Top just to fuck with him. When Top comes to apologize to Mew, Mew asks Ray to find a new designer, literally asking Ray to replace Top. When Ray helps treat Mewâs injury after the group fight, Mew decides to use Ray as a rebound. To use Rayâs feelings for him as a way to experiment, once again, with the type of person he wants to be and the type of person he wants to be with. We end the episode with Ray and Mew dancing together at the bar, Mew dressed in a very Ray style
Because Mew is trying Ray on for size, trying his fashion, his company, his lifestyle (as we see from the promo for next week) and that is prone to make RayMew crash and burn, because Ray is self-destructive enough as is, and I donât think Mew is going to do well with treating himself with Rayâs level of self-care.
Mew doesnât know who he is, Mew doesnât know what he wants, the only thing Mew knows is that heâs better than everyone around him, and he can only stoop as low as them is by pretending he is them, rather than facing the fact that he's just as terribly human as the rest of the group.
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