sam!

cha siyoung is such a fascinating bundle of contradictions. he strongly believes in his own steadfast loyalty and morality while constantly making decisions that isolate him from others and center his success alone. he wants to have friends but not brothers but has so little capacity for empathy. he’s dedicated to winning, not justice, and yet he always thinks he’s doing the right thing. (i believe that siyoung truly thought he could reveal the girl’s body someday and catch a “copycat killer” and everything would be okay! insane) life is a game that siyoung can beat as long as he precisely follows its rules. he doesn’t seem to view other people as real - even his father is this godlike tyrannical figure that haunts his every decision. the only exception is taejoo - who in siyoung’s mind, quite irritatingly doesn’t seem to understand his place in the world. taejoo is flawed and emotional and impulsive but often the most clever person in the room and the only one who cares about others. and so siyoung is at once infuriated and enamored by him. taejoo is the sole element that could challenge siyoung’s understanding of the world, the “rules” of his game. if only siyoung could let himself break them.

i love the scarecrow for being a very serious, well-written serial killer mystery but still making sure to devote at least 10% of every episode to toxic yaoi

thinking about how industry chooses not to show a sex scene between yasmin & harper… industry has no qualms about showing graphic sex, but in this show, it’s almost always transactional. it’s cloaked in power and pain and greed. the vulnerability required only means the revelation of weaknesses to be exploited later. but in this moment yasmin & harper have finally dropped all pretenses. they’re not quite equals but they see each other and they choose, over and over, to love each other. and maybe they did officially get together offscreen, or it will be shown in future episodes, but this moment was about the romance, at least for now. industry didn’t need to show anything more than them holding each other, existing together, being happy and honest with one another for once. no transactions made, no goods or services exchanged.

very funny to me that the judge returns showrunners actively cut out parts of the romance between hanyoung and sehee from the webtoon, directed ji sung to keep his eyes open during the kiss scene & overall make the whole moment extremely dry, to have practically the whole finale dedicated to the ~charged~ philosophical debate between hanyoung & shinjin

the judge returns should be popular for the ship wars alone. just to start i can think of at least six credible pairings for lee han-young

okay so kang shin-jin took lee han-young on a dinner date to his favorite restaurant… to introduce han-young to his mother figure… who notices how close they seem and says “please take care of him” … shin-jin’s closest ally is constantly like hey, this guy is Not On Our Side but then shin-jin invites han-young further into his plans anyways... “how far does your trust in me go” … all of which could mean nothing

pretty sure that zosia never explicitly said that the hive was not spying on carol in her house… only that the liquor cabinet sensor wasn’t placed by them

just realized yohan killed everyone who hurt taejoong…

thinking about the racetrack sequence and how yohan’s entire energy changes once he realized taejoong’s identity. originally with the betting on the prisoners, yohan is focused on entertaining the men who received “avatars” — yohan is, at best, an employee to them, just one with really good fodder for blackmail. these two men are clearly not as smart or capable as yohan, but they’re wealthy, psychotic hedonists who will cheer at the “art” yohan creates. but their laughter is thoughtless, their conversation is empty… yohan’s performance as an excited host feels hollow because his guests don’t really get it, or get him. but when yohan realizes who taejoong is, and that taejoong fooled them all with the motorbike switch, you can see yohan’s face cycle between panic and anger and joy. his eyes have life again. he knows that the game he built is practically destroyed — but it is also the most real fun he’s had in a long time. yohan finally met someone in his league, who doesn’t just blindly root for the violence but could comprehend the art that was created. who could counter it with a “sculpture” of his own. yohan created a masterpiece in search of a true patron — and even at the cost of yohan’s own success, that patron might just be taejoong.