#pomchanon

1. the chanonpom reunion 

i feel like it was obvious to fairly everyone that this reunion was out of character. first of all, chanon keeps manifesting out of nowhere with absolutely no explanation other than the fact that he has a car. how did he know that pom ‘colluded’ with the director? how did he know he’s there? if we assume that he was working with the director in order to take his revenge on pom as we learn later in the episode (which is also out of character but we’ll get to that later), it’s still completely dumbfounding that the director has pulled so many strings in the background to orchestrate meetings such as this.

next we come to the problem of there being absolutely no expression on pom’s face when he sees chanon. does he already know that chanon is alive? how does he know that? last we saw, pom had no clue that chanon was alive and mourned him deeply. now, we see him see chanon and tell him to “go back,” to go away as this is none of his business. from what we know about chanon and pom, we know that they haven’t seen each other since they were in high school. chanon knew pom was a teacher, but pom almost certainly didn’t know chanon was alive - so this reaction is such an... understatement? here is the person who he wiped the memories of, literally coming back from the dead, and that’s his only reaction...? even chanon’s reaction as chanon (disregarding his apparent revenge he wants to take) is more realistic than pom’s reaction here. all in all, the reunion felt very flat and unrealistic considering that we, the audience, know that pom and chanon haven’t seen each other in so long. again, maybe this will be talked about later in the show, but so far - no sense made.

2. pom at the beginning of this episode

this is actually fairly true to pom. as someone who is almost thirty and has been manipulated by the director since he was in high school, he must be feeling absolutely hopeless and defeated, trying to fool himself into believing that he is free when he’s being controlled by the director. but pom, as has been established in the gifted, has never been one to teach his students this. here, he’s trying to protect pom, but he would have never told him to throw in the towel and stop fighting for what is right. much like chanon, he is tired, but the fact that he’s saying this to pang seems... very out of character. 

consider this. this is from episode 12 (part 4) of the gifted, and this is when he’s just been told about pang and wave’s plan to stop the director. here, it becomes clear that he would never collude with the director voluntarily, nor would he ever tell his students to stop fighting. before this, he wishes them good luck and gives them advice. his number one priority are his students, and he wants to teach them and make sure they don’t get expelled or hurt in any way or form, but he had perfect opportunity to stop them here - and didn’t. 

exactly why this is also completely out of character. he would never agree to willingly erase his student’s memories. it has been established time and time again that his priority are his students, and he would never collude with the director in order to harm them in any way. this becomes apparent later in the episode too, when pang gets put into direct life-threatening danger, that he would not stand for it and is prepared to sacrifice himself for them.

3. chanon’s side of the chanonpom argument 

and this is the part of the episode where i call BULLSHIT. while it is... natural for chanon to be bitter that pom did that to him, let’s remember who this man really is. he’s not a casual acquaintance, neither is he someone who got caught in the crossfire. chanon was ready to sacrifice everything for pom, he was ready to let his own name be dragged through the mud to protect pom and to expose the director’s abusive and dangerous actions. 

look at him. he says that this is the director’s fault. teenage chanon says that what happened is not something pom has to take responsibility for alone. and then teenage pom was manipulated by the director into doing this to his best friend - and you think adult chanon wouldn’t realise it was the same thing? that it was the director’s manipulation that caused pom to wipe his memories? yes, pom needs to atone for his actions, but it is not his fault alone. and the fact that adult chanon doesn’t recognise that is very out of character to me, especially considering the following.

he was ready. he was ready to sacrifice everything for pom. shipping lenses aside, he was ready to sacrifice his own name so that his best friend wouldn’t have to atone for what he did. teenage chanon made this choice - a child who still had so many years left, so much to look forward to, was so devoted that he pledged his entire life to darkness just so his best friend didn’t have to deal with it. and you’re telling me that adult chanon would be so bitter about losing ten years of his life that he would stage an entire revenge plot that included the director, the very person he was working to overthrow, and stab his best friend in the neck with a deadly virus? when his teenage self was already about to throw it all away for said best friend already? it doesn’t make any canonical sense at all.

and... he did. teenage chanon was ready. and adult chanon would have been too.

4. pom’s side of the chanonpom argument 

this was the bit that was incredibly out of character for pom. first of all, how does he know so much about chanon’s life now? also... while i understand that he could be feeling this, seeing as he was under supot’s control for so long, he would have never said this to chanon. especially after he remembered what he did to him and he felt so bad about what he was manipulated into doing to him that he made himself forget. 

remember this? remember when he recalled everything that chanon had done for him and how terrible he felt that he broke down in tears in front of two of his students, on his knees, and apologised to him? you’re telling me that this same pom would hurl such insults and accusations into chanon’s face? this man has been through so much trauma, so much pain, and the fact that he was manipulated into doing this to his own best friend has eaten away at him for so long. in the following scenes he is extremely resigned and hurt. he has never forgiven himself for any of it - which is why it’s natural to expect that he would never stop apologising to chanon... instead of talking about whose life is worse.

this is what tipped me off that either the tgg writers really went wrong with this episode or this is all a ruse. because although pom must be feeling absolutely terrible and trapped because of supot manipulating him for all these years - he would never say this. why would he never say this? as has been established before, pom loves his students. they are his first priority. he cares about them to death and even if he had the choice, i doubt he would switch schools to teach because he genuinely loves teaching the gifted and helping them work on their potentials. remember - this is the same pom who offered pang and wave advice on how they should avoid the director. remember - this is the same pom who stood up for korn to darin and asked her if she really cared about the students. remember - this is the same pom who literally sacrifices himself for pang later in this episode. 

in the end... what is pom’s core desire?

and what is chanon’s?

and so pom would never throw chanon or his students to the wayside. and chanon would never throw betray pom and take revenge on him by colluding with the director. neither of them would commit half the actions or say half the things they said in this episode. we have to remember that these two went through thick and thin together, were the first two to try and overthrow the gifted program. one of them was ready to sacrifice everything for the other. honestly i refuse to accept that things will stay like this for them.

so how can chanonpom still win? well... the virus that chanon stabbed into pom’s neck has different equations on it to see which one is fake and which one is real. reminder: chanon’s potential is being able to solve equations and do complicated maths questions at a fairly fast rate... and that’s all i’m going to say.