Boys Before Flowers, episode 17
- This episode had so much potential, but some story points were set up in a really amateurish way. I totally laughed at things I shouldn’t have laughed at.
- Maybe the problem isn’t that the odd episodes suck. Maybe it’s that Monday episodes suck.
- Ji Hoo/Jandi is starting to be really convincing lately. (Or…Jun Pyo/Jandi are just driving me absolutely batty.)
- I really don’t give a flying hoot about Yi Jung’s backstory.
When you put off doing a recap for days like you do a school paper, it’s time to give up. No recap for episode 17, just thoughts on Jun Pyo/Jandi vs. Ji Hoo/Jandi.
Thoughts on episode 17
For the majority of the series thus far, I’ve always felt that I was being “forced” to like the Ji Hoo/Jandi pairing because I felt like I kind of had to, owing to the fact that I did so for all the other live action versions. If this story were a standalone story and Ji Hoo/Jandi were just any other pairing in a Kdrama, I’d probably really, really, really not root for them because Jun Pyo/Jandi is (was?) so much more fun. Hyunjoong was SO unnatural and ungraceful with his acting when the series first started out and in contrast to Hyesung’s overly loud, shouty, exaggeratedly comedic performance, the pairing was pretty unbearable.
But now there’s a decided shift. One, there’s more development in the friendship between the characters, and two — the more important factor — Hyunjoong’s acting is so much more believable now. I mean, Hyunjoong is nowhere near being pro, but instead of, let’s say, “forced ‘subtle’ eye movement,” it’s more like “at-ease eye flicker towards subject.”
Compared to Jun Pyo, Ji Hoo is very specific with his attentiveness to Jandi. Both of them got Jandi the pair of shoes she wanted, both without Jandi’s knowledge beforehand. But the thing is — Ji Hoo picked up the pair of shoes and thought Jandi might like them, Jun Pyo picked them up because he saw that Jandi did like them. Jun Pyo is eager to please when it comes to Geum Jandi, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s aware of her. I’m not saying that Jun Pyo doesn’t understand or know the girl he loves, it’s just that his attentiveness is more the result of direct expression from Jandi’s part. If she didn’t look like she was happy with something, he proooobably wouldn’t have noticed.
But, as is standard with the show — Ji Hoo and Jandi will never be and I will spend the remaining episodes wondering why Jandi thinks Jun Pyo is worthy of her physical and mental exhaustion.
Also — I dunno how many freaking times they’re gonna feel the need to show scenes where Jun Pyo sees Jandi, Jandi sees Jun Pyo seeing her, and then watches him “ignore” her. WTFFFFF once was enough. And it didn’t even make sense to insert that scene in this episode because the last time I checked, Jandi was passed out from pain/exhaustion and she didn’t know Ji Hoo was making a move on her hand. Jun Pyo needs to stop being a baby.
