Katia0415

Yes. And if you notice, even after they met again, Teh respected boundaries. He invited Oh to his play and made it clear he wanted to get back together, but didn’t push that hard. He also kept his distance at the wedding, despite the fact that you could tell he was bursting out of his skin to go talk to Oh. Instead, he let Oh Aew come to HIM, because he knew ultimately it was Oh’s decision, and he couldn’t force it. I thought it showed a lot of growth and maturity on Teh’s part. Had he reacted differently, Oh likely wouldn’t have taken him back. But Oh was always a very observant character, and I think he recognized that Teh had grown up and it was worth giving things another shot.

I agree with you, mostly. I would say that Teh did cheat, but cheating is a matter of degree. Kissing someone during an exercise and letting your emotions get the better of you later is fundamentally different from carrying out a full-blown sexual affair behind your partner’s back. I think it was very important that Teh face serious consequences. One of Teh’s biggest problems from the very beginning was his inability to truly communicate; sometimes he wanted to LOOK like he’s communicating, but he’ wasn’t, really. Oh always had to dig everything out of him, because Teh would never come to Oh with problems. I think what happened with Jai was a spillover from that. Teh kinda shut down after Oh started changing, his thoughts and desires got pent-up (I mean, it’s not normal for couples, especially men, to avoid intimacy for long periods of time - that in itself is a major red flag), and he saw Jai as an outlet for everything, instead of going to Oh and working through it together.

What I really loved about the finale was that scene when Teh and Oh meet up again; Teh is just absolutely bowled over (ironic, because he’s the famous one!) and Oh is trying so hard to stay professional and aloof, but it’s a matter of minutes before the walls come down and they’re talking just like they used to. This, of course, feeds into Bas’s conversation with Oh Aew. I think his main point was that if neither partner has moved on (and it was clear just from that reunion scene that neither had), they’ve had time to grow and reflect, and they still have strong feelings for each other, it’s better to go back and find out what could be with this person than wonder for the rest of your life what might’ve been. I liked the nuance of that message. It wasn’t, “Oh, Teh was terrible for cheating on you - how could you even THINK of taking him back?” Which is how a lot of friends might’ve reacted. Instead, it was, “Well, what do YOU want? Do you want to know what could be? The only way to do that is reunite and see.”

I loved that scene on the beach, but honestly I do hope, if they got married, that they’d give it a few years before tying the knot. They’ve got a lot of trust to rebuild. I do like to imagine Teh’s family when they get the news (his mother would be positively giddy, as it’s clear Oh is already practically family anyway), and I imagine them stopping by a convenience store on the way home from Hoon’s wedding, maybe even playing rock/paper/scissors for old times’ sake. But it was clear to me since episode 3 of the first part that those two would just be the type of people who became miserable apart; that proved to be very accurate. I’d say it was a satisfying ending!

I’m reserving full judgement until after the final episode airs, but I agree with you entirely on “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” What made ITSAY so compelling was its subtlety, making no one a villain, the character development, and most especially how Billkin and PP played off each other onscreen, no matter the scene. I particularly loved the subtleties of touch that were completely absent this season (I remember in the documentary when they were shooting the aquarium scene, the actors first did the kiss with subtlety and charm and then the director said, “No, don’t do it like that,” and I was thinking, “What? Their version looked so much better and true to the first half!”). And the real heart of the show was always Teh and Oh, and what made it magical was the trust between the actors that came through. The story was too splintered this time and the actors didn’t have nearly enough screen time together in my opinion - even when their characters are arguing, they do a great job and it works.

Unfortunately I think this is just kind of a
lesson the production company has to learn; change is not necessarily bad, but you don’t want to change the things that work. Leave the director and cinematographers in place, keep the writers. You can’t be surprised if fans are upset when you change the formula so much in the second half. While I think a lot of fans went way overboard with their criticism and expected fantasy instead of reality (which annoys me), when change is that radical, some discontent is not unexpected. And ultimately the goal of any TV production is to make money, so changing the formula that sold so well the first time is rather ill-advised.

Again, I don’t think it’s been awful (the characters’ actions and reactions are logical, realistic, the story makes sense, and I particularly liked the poetry of the breakup), but I agree that it lost some of the magic because they changed a lot of the things that made it work. I’ll still watch the last episode tomorrow and make my final judgement then, but it’s definitely true that the second half isn’t as good as the first. Nadao needs to put the dream team (PP, Billkin, Boss) back together. Anything those three work together on is golden.

I don’t think they did, or at least not as much as Twitter et al would have you believe. You can throw tantrums on social media, but view counts don’t lie.

I’m a little harder on Teh than you. His insistence that it would never have occurred to him to break up with Oh, even after what happened with Jai, really rubbed me the wrong way. At the same time, I feel like the writers very intentionally made the cheating a bit gray and extremely mild. It could have been way more clear-cut and could have gone farther, longer, and been mutual; it wasn’t and it didn’t. I agree that Jai was extraordinarily manipulative, and we shouldn’t overlook that. Teh also paid an enormous (and poetic) price for what he did. The minute he achieves his dream and is sitting there with a contract, he’s lost everything. After he made light of the homophobia in the industry that Oh faced, he has to reckon with the fact that succeeding will mean he has to hide who he is - something he fought so hard for in the first half. His relationship of three years has been destroyed, and everyone he knows has (understandably) taken Oh’s side. At least he doesn’t make excuses anymore by the end; he understands this is his fault, he’s the one that screwed up. I’m big into taking responsibility, so this went a long way for me.

I’m going to watch the last episode before I write it all off. For all its faults, it’s undeniably well-written, engaging, and superbly acted.

Fair, but I’d point out the conversations, the dinner, the lying, the buildup of tension throughout the episode. It wasn’t as though he just went off and did something to relieve sexual tension; a sort of relationship, feelings and all, accompanied it. That’s why I say it was uncharacteristically emotional.

As someone who is a bit older than the target demo, I have to say I think the end of ep 3 was a really bad choice for several reasons.

First of all, I get it - gay men cheat. They cheat more than any other demographic - it’s just the way it is. However, most of that cheating tends to be physical, not emotional. The thing that got me was the emotional level of all this.

Additionally, this was so out of character for Teh that I feel it insulted the audience’s intelligence. Teh was the one who cut up his textbooks for Oh Aew. He gave up his uni place, his afternoons, and even sleep in the second season to make Oh Aew happy. Just last episode he was in tears at the thought that Oh might leave him. This was such a 180 that it seemed nonsensical.

Third, I can’t understand why a cast and crew with a huge queer presence would decide to go down a path like this, during pride month no less. The beauty of the series so far was its realism, but also how it communicated the tenderness and strength of emotions no matter the gender. This was a very abrupt departure from all that - all of a sudden, Teh is a user and cheater? Really? And I can’t help wondering how exactly this idea made it from script to screen. It’s so bad - so, so uncharacteristically bad. The fallout on Twitter in particular is horrendous. I mean, just from a practical stance, as a production company, you might want to drive fans a little crazy, but you don’t want to infuriate them. Your bottom line and reputation will take a hit. And from what I’ve seen on social media, Nadao’s bottom line is definitely taking a hit from this.

Finally, I can’t help but wonder: how was this allowed to happen? Were the consequences really that unforeseen? It’s difficult for me to believe that, despite all the people working on the show, from the actors to the writers to the crew and producers, nobody raised a red flag about this. I mean, if you want to create tension you can still do it by staying ethical. Have Teh develop feelings but take a break with Oh before he does anything. Or have Teh turn away (a la s01e03) when Jai tries to do something. Have them split up and spend two episodes missing each other! But stay true and don’t turn beloved characters into villains. There were so many better options; I’m just astounded that the worst one possible was the one that made it into the show.