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Sigh ... the dreaded love triangle ...

This episode had so much potential to be as enjoyable as the previous 10 episodes. But it took a stupid, annoying turn by leaning into the dreaded 'love triangle' drama trope and spending far too much screen time on the pathetic and annoying Li Shi Can. I don't understand why so many drama writers think that a romance story needs to feature a 'love triangle'. Most of the really great romance dramas do NOT include a love triangle or if they do, it is only given the most brief appearance before being dismissed. Because the strength of a romance story is in the romance between the two leads. Not with contrived distraction from some character who is obviously NEVER going to win the girl (or guy, in the case of stories where the 3rd wheel is a female). So all the effort and screen time spent building up the character's candidacy as a potential love interest always feels like a giant waste of time. And the introduction of the Li Shi Can character is already going through the torturous dumb hoops that is so typical with this trope. On one hand, to bolster his potential candidacy as a love interest the show provides backstory about his positive interactions with the FL in the past and try to portray him as a good person who has overcome his own difficulties, blah, blah. But the show also has to hedge all that with the flaws that will ultimately provide justification for why the FL does not choose him and that's where the show gets tied up in knots with this kind of crap. Despite his charming good looks and apparent nice guy visage, there are cracks in Li Shi Can's facade already. Just as a starter, the basis for his obsession with Ruan Yu is so incredibly weak: Yes, she was nice to him when he was young, helping raise money among friends to buy him a guitar. But he does the cliche' SML thing of confusing a simple act of kindness with being a basis for romantic love. So that right there is simply pathetic. He otherwise has only scant interactions with Ruan Yu ever and has no real basis for love. Next, little things such as, after Si Si tries to commit suicide and it becomes unsafe for Ruan Yu to stay at her own home, he tries to convince her to come stay at HIS place -- but this is selfish and not thinking at all. If she went to his place, the paparazzi would surely find out and that would blow up everything even more and SHE would be the one put at more risk. Another awful thing he does in this episode is when he goes to visit Cen Si Si in the hospital he again and again triggers her psychopathy with the things he said. He basically taunts her with not only his refusal to admit that there is NO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIMSELF AND RUAN YU, he doubles down telling Si Si that he intends to pursue Ruan Yu. Regardless of whether these things are true or not, they are pouring gasoline on the fire burning up this mentally disturbed person. He should never have been allowed in that hospital room. He is selfish and irresponsible.

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Noble Idiocy.

The script all along has been frustrating when compared to the brilliant acting performances and overall production values. But to lean into tone of the worst, most annoying cheap drama tropes - the noble idiocy - as the final plot conflict is just sad and pathetic and a new low. You could see the seeds of it started late last episode and it just built up in such an obviously contrived and artificial way in this episode culminating with Saet Byul falling into the classic, "I'll sacrifice my love in order to make everyone else happy" idiocy. This is one of the most annoying, stupid tropes and the only reason I won't quite the show is because I've stuck it out this far and because it would be unfair to the great acting performances. Just so disappointing that the writers couldn't do better.

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More noble idiocy

This episode starts off with the outing of the 'fan' who sent the package and in theory should clear up that issue. But it takes a silly insane turn with more social media shenanigans and some really, truly piss-poor management decisions by Club President Bao that understandably infuriate Cheng. From that point the episode degenerates into cliche' 'Noble Idiocy' drama trope as Cheng goes into silent mode doing things secretly and not talking to anyone, including Yao. His wrist is obviously hurt and then, the episode culminates with him making decisions that directly result in the loss of Game 1 of their match against YQBC. The show teases something going on with Hierophant and at this point it looks like Cheng may have lost this game on purpose. Because the writers have clearly leaned into the noble idiocy trope heavily here - to the point of excluding the audience as well as his lover and team from knowing what's going on - it makes the show just annoying to watch because until they finally reveal what's going on there is almost no point. One could easily just skip ahead until things are revealed and not miss anything but a bunch of contrived angst and drama. But not knowing the exact timepoints to skip to forces us to watch. Sigh ... lazy writing.

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This episode had the basics for a higher rating…

This episode had the basics for a higher rating but I'm knocking off a couple of points because the writers are clearly and obviously leaning into the classic 'misunderstanding' trope to create dramatic tension. Cheng is being all angry and silent and mysterious and in classic, stereotypical fashion, this leads Yao to stew in her own thoughts and jump to negative conclusions and now is doubting their relationship. All because the writers have contrived to have Cheng give her the silent treatment for some unknown reason. Sure, it will turn out to be some important reason why he's acting this way but it's all contrivance just to get us viewers all concerned and anxious about their romance ... for absolutely no real reason. It's obvious audience manipulation and feels pretty cheap and contrived.

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Once again the writers really fumble simple question of right and wrong.

I know that this will get buried in most viewer's minds, overshadowed by the romantic cliffhanger ending of the episode, but I'm annoyed again at the lack of clarity about right and wrong shown by the writer. Earlier in the series, the show completely whitewashed just how serious of a crime it was that Lu Yue committed when he smashed a whiskey bottle against the back of a player's head. In real life, that's assault with a dangerous weapon and attempted murder and gets you prison time. In this show, it got him a suspension and then eventually open-armed forgiveness and hugs by his teammates. Now, in this episode, Tong Yao is aggressively cornered and threatened by Tai Lun, physically restrained against her will, with no one around to help her. So she did the only move she had to free herself of the situation by biting him on the wrist and forcing him to release her. Later, instead of considering WHY she bit him and what her true options were, Si Cheng mindlessly punishes her by locking her out of the base. And he only 'forgives' her when she promises to call Si Cheng for help in the future. But this is absurd. She HAS THE RIGHT TO DEFEND HERSELF. She can't count on Cheng or any of her teammates being around to help her 100% of the time. The show paints this as if she was wrong and Cheng is teaching her the 'right thing'. But it's just stupid. Cheng is completely wrong here.

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The elephant in the room

Okay, so, a lot of this episode goes as expected. Tong Yao gets suspended for a match and so Lu Yue substitutes in at the mid-lan chair. And while he makes a lot of mistakes that make things difficult for his teammates, the ZGDX team still pulls out the win. Yao is sad. Especially because Si Cheng ignores her, seemingly angry with her. Then finally, in the closing minutes of the episode Cheng and Yao have a talk by themselves about the issue. And this is where, well, the writing kinda stunk it up again. Cheng gets in Yao's face, demanding answers to vague questions and mostly filling the air with the monologue that goes all over the place. He clearly contradicts his own points multiple times during all this. From the very beginning he starts by enumerating how his reputation is harmed and then insists he only cares about her -- but if so, why are you listing how you have been harmed? There are numerous other inconsistencies all over his monologue. It feels like a bad high school debate speech. I mean, the gimmick of demanding she respond to his incredibly vague question with an important and meaningful answer within 7 minutes is just completely arbitrary BS. There is absolutely no 'team leadership' reason for such a gimmick. It's just a stupid contrivance for show purposes. It's all delivered with the expected, 'harsh team captain' tone by Cheng so I can't blame the character or the actor. The writer just had him saying really dumb things. And one of the things really struck me. At one point late in the dialog, he asks her aggressively, "You clearly were only protecting your teammates, so why were you treated like this?" And of course the real answer - the elephant in the room - does not get mentioned. The REAL reason she is being "treated like this" is because of HIS FAMILY. It's painfully obvious that she was targeted on purpose by his mother because she was mad at Si Cheng for rejecting Su Luo. And it's probable that Si Cheng knows this. So while it is true that, yes, Tong Yao should - as a celebrity e-sports star - not have pushed that girl away. But the deeper, hard cold truth is also that the real blame for what happened belongs to Lu Si Cheng's family issues. And I think he knows it. And so behind all the stupid bluster of his (badly written) speech, he almost certainly feels guilty for having put her into this position.

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