GusBew, army of two pawns in a warzone: at the end, who’s really at fault when all we want is to feel whole and be loved? (Episode 10)
Let’s end this story arc, shall we?
Hello! It’s moonchild here, gathering energy to finally start writing this because I hate to leave this unfinished and because I need my brain to leave me alone, at least until something else appears. To be honest, I could just write a small post giving my general opinion about what I thought about the finale of War of Managers, what part of my expectations it fulfilled and what I think the production team could’ve done better but a part of me thinks that it wouldn’t be fair for those that enjoy reading this kind of posts and engage with them; so, I will stop being lazy and give you guys my full thoughts about this.
Starting with me being a responsible adult, allow me to lay down the usual disclaimers: everything that you guys will be reading in this post is the result of my observations into very specific parts of the episode, frame by frame repetitive viewing and me getting to the most plausible conclusion after taking all in, meaning that most of the things will be on the speculative territory, others in (maybe) theory territory and some can (or so I think) be proven by in-dialogues and scenes arrangements, so take things with a grain of salt, ok?
Just like I did on previous posts, I will not make divisions into theme segments but rather in two parts, the first half and the second half of the episode respectively. Also, this post will bear a “talk” from my side to what went through my head while I was watching the episode.
Let’s do this.
First half – It’s just a give and take situation, don’t fret
The episode starts with an article, with the headline “happily ever after” and one of the calls that caught my attention was the one saying that GusBew were filming their new series on Gem TV, inspired by their story and I was like “what story? The real story where their relationship started as a lie orchestrated by their managers? The real story where they tricked their managers so they could be free of them?”, because that’s the first thing that crossed my mind considering everything that happened in the past four episodes, but I decided to go with the route of the story of how they met, their first impressions of each other, how their “romantic feelings” began and stuff like that (in the same article, it was said that GusBew would be doing a tour through Asia and the places chosen for that were an indicative of how big famous they were in the industry. Tokyo Dome, Olympic Stadium? Those are big ass places, and those two places together can house more than 110.000 people alone, imagine the others; GusBew were having the time of their life), before another article being shown, stating that GusBew had built a house together, using the model both of them had built before and had plans of moving in there after their tour ended; this was basically a way of the show saying that their lives after PlaToon were pretty good and showed no signs of slowing down.
At this moment I was like “oh, the show is showing us that they are happy but how do you want me to root for them when it was revealed that Bew was the one responsible for all the confusion that happened in the past three episodes?”. Your girl was having a crisis here.
Then we see Bew holding a picture frame, saying the words “good luck, mom” and I was like “Bew, please, let this woman goooooooooo”, before he put the frame in one of the boxes in front of him and went to get the box that he prevented Gus from opening on episode 1. As soon as he opened the box and it was revealed that it contained excerpts of articles of PP, where he was winning awards and I, not gonna lie, got a bit confused as to why he was keeping those things in a box (I know that Bew saw PP as some sort of inspiration, because dude had basically everything Bew wanted, including the Greatest Y Award but he seemed very protective of that box) but decided to let it slide because it could’ve be just a fan keeping things that reminded them of the person they admired, something that can be perfectly normal, in certain circumstances, before saying “our dream is almost coming true, Gus”, followed by “but my dream hasn’t come true”, referring to the Greatest Y Award. Gus comes into the living room carrying some boxes and tells Bew that they should leave and tries to carry other boxes, but Bew reminds him that there are people responsible for that to help them and they leave; we are then showed that the box where Bew put the picture frame was labeled as “throw away” and that left me speechless for a few seconds because it was such a heartless moment coming from him that seemed almost displaced.
Don’t get me wrong, I was somewhat happy for him to leave such toxic people behind but to throw away something like that was unexpected.
Anyways, after the intro, we see GusBew being interviewed by Priang, host of the show “Fun Gossip” and she asks about the model that they built and turned into their house, their coming out as a couple and then a bit of what was their relationship when they met, with Gus saying that they met for the first time 4-5 years prior, when he went to pick up Bew at the airport because neither of their managers were free. Priang then asks Bew if he fell in love with Gus at that moment and Bew explained that when they met none of them knew how to act (because they were practically strangers) but after Gus started talking, they began to relax and he was impressed with that a little, and Gus asks “just a little?” before saying that Bew was cute, smart and that he knew from the very start that Bew’s future would be great but didn’t imagined that their future would be together.
One thing that I know is that, usually, when a ship describe how they met and they say something along those lines (except the couple thing), the fans would swoon and call it destiny or something like that, but I couldn’t stop thinking how fake those words seemed after knowing everything that I knew. Like, I believe that their relationship was not exactly easy when they met, after all Gus said before that they used to fight at the beginning, but the feeling of fakeness was there because of the flowery feeling they were putting into that story, framing as the encounter of two soulmates. It’s kinda hard to explain this feeling in a way that would make sense but my exact thoughts at this part were “cool story, bro, but after the recent happenings, all of that sounds weird”.
Continuing, Priang, for some reason, mentions PlaToon as the possible reason of GusBew being together in the present, considering that they only met because of their managers and because of that also fell in love, and Bew agrees, saying that if it wasn’t for them, him and Gus wouldn’t be there today, and then said that they didn’t have the chance to talk with them yet, as PlaToon were busy with their new stars, and they were busy with the tour. A quick talk about the fact that Thailand is still refusing to legalize same sex marriage (because why not expose their country one more time, in the same media it tries to use as soft power?), how in today's age, people don’t really care about gender (that’s a can of worms I will not open here, because that topic deserves a more serious space of discussion and how some people from the queer community don’t really like that mindset, etc.), how GusBew would feel if only one of them got nominated to the Y Galaxy Awards, with they saying that no matter who got the award, it would be to their house so it was fine, also that both supported each other’s achievements and would be happy no matter what happened.
Jumping the scene where Priang had the conversation with Bew about talking with Toon again because “they had gone through so much together” (sweetie, no matter how long you spend with someone, if that person is toxic, dump their ass and move on with your life), the scene where Gus celebrated Bew’s birthday with him and gave him the news of his nomination, with Bew saying that that birthday was the happiest because he was with Gus, and the scene where Toon saw the picture frame on the “throw away” box, reminisced about the day she and Bew made the non-legally binding contract between them (my opinion about that did not change because even if the idea for the mock contract came from Bew, she was aware of the consequences of not doing a legal contract and decided to move forward with the situation the way it was, when she was supposed to know better), said that it wouldn’t be fun if she let it go – answering to Pla’s words about her letting it go because Bew didn’t seem to care about her anymore. I was surprised hearing those words coming from him, when only an episode before, or a few months back, he was the one not willing to leave the situation alone – and received a knowing look from Pla.
We head to the award ceremony day where we were finally officially introduced to the Y-IDOL cast and seeing MostAchi in the middle of them made my day, seriously (I know their story is only one story arc away and we won’t have a lot of them in Y-IDOL, because the focus of the story is KlaPeak but seeing my babies after a year of waiting was really overwhelming); I was fairly surprised to not see Nott there, as he had also being nominated for an award there but maybe he just decided that making small talk just for the media to have something to talk about was not something he had patience for, something that I understand very well.
After the rehearsal for their speeches after being introduced, where Bew imagined PlaToon watching him alongside Gus, we head to GusBew talking about what had happened and Gus expressing that he knew what had gone through Bew’s head when he had been on the stage and Bew said that it felt weird because on the year prior no one knew who they were, no one cared about them except their managers, who kept encouraging them and now that they were successful, those same people were not there to see them. Gus then tries to make Bew feel better, saying for him no to think too much and they if he saw PlaToon, he could go talk with them and, if he didn’t want that, he still had Gus. After this, they are interrupted by PlaToon and Yo coming into their changing room and this is where the meat of the episode really is concentrated:
- First, it is revealed that all of Bew’s panic attack were staged (called it!) and this was found out by Toon because Bew’s account was connected to her iPad and every search he did, she could see. Basically, Bew was trying to find a way to escape a situation if he got cornered;
- Bew started explaining that his revenge plan was born on the night he found out about their plan to fool him, where he got into Toon’s twitter account, messaged the detective girl – without knowing who she was – to make himself look pitiful, the prey and more famous. He basically said that he went on fully knowing the image he was about to pass with that situation;
- When Gus asks about the clip of their rehearsal, when the bottle fell down, and the news about him being alcoholic, saying that those two situations happened before Bew found out about their plan, it was revealed that Toon was the one responsible for that, because according to Bew, when he got into Toon’s twitter account, that clip had already been sent to the detective girl and Toon confessed that she did it as revenge for Pla revealing that she was also part of his plan to make Gus sleep with Bew (I mean, she was more concerned about getting revenge for something she willingly accepted to participate, instead of using that energy to gain back Bew’s trust. How am I supposed to feel sympathetic about her situation when her behavior is less than stellar?);
- Toon asks Bew about his decision to leak his own clip, wanting to know if he was sure that his fame wasn’t going to drop and Bew said Pla’s signature phrase “no risk, no fame”.
Second half – at the end of the ball, all the masks fall
- Continuing his explanation about releasing his own clip, Bew says that he knew that people would pity him no matter what but after the leak there were mixed positive and negative views, so he used PP’s help to balance the scale on his favor (hence why PP went to the rehearsal room where they were), so he could also get PP’s FC support (as a BTS ARMY, I know how a big fandom’s support can help somebody else’s image) and get things on the right track;
- Bew also says that he intended to, besides gaining sympathy from the FC’s, make PlaToon fight more and use that situation as an excuse to get free from Toon, and Gus realizes that Bew being “angry” after the clip going viral was just an act to make things more believable;
- Yo then asks for popcorn, as the situation was getting fun and Gus asks about his involvement on his prison, making Yo get up from the couch and telling Bew to continuing telling the story. We are then shown a conversation that happened between Bew and Yo, where a frustrated Yo told Bew about not having his hard work recognized and having to see other people having it easy just because they were famous (clearly talking about Gus here), and having difficulties dealing with his life, gaining sympathy from Bew, that said that he wanted to help him but was asking for Yo’s help;
- Gus asks why Bew did that and Bew explains that he didn’t think well about that and that he thought that if he did it, Pla would be suspicious of Toon (it happened) and fight even more (that also happened), making Gus ask if Toon was not involved in that situation and Toon telling that the night she called him, she thought he had been the one responsible for spreading the clip, so she wanted to go see him. But then she saw him leaving to go see Yo, followed him and saw Yo leaving the party;
- After Gus question him if he called the police, Bew apologizes and says that he never imagine that would have drugs on the party, and that he only wanted a picture of him getting dragged out of the house. Gus, distraught, reminds Bew that he went to jail and then to court because of that and questioned what would’ve happened if he didn’t win the case. Bew then says that when he found out that Gus had gone to jail because of him, he felt really bad and worked quickly to find evidence to get him out;
- Pla tells Bew that ever since the clip went viral, Toon had been suspecting him but didn’t do anything because she loved Bew (my thoughts about this also remain the same, so I won’t dwell on it again) and Toon says that she gave many chances for Bew to confess and if he didn’t want to talk in front of Gus, he could’ve talked directly to her. Pla say that Bew could at least say “sorry” (Pla, YOU didn’t apologize to him about the plan and are really lecturing Bew to do that to Toon? The audacity of this person is astonishing), instead of remaining silent, accusing him of not saying anything because he wanted to win the award he was nominated for;
- Bew then tells Pla that fairness is not in stake there because not even Pla had been fair to him, and he was getting back at them, so now things were even. Pla asks Bew if he didn’t regret doing what he did and Bew reminds Pla that it had been him who said that in that industry, the more fake and the more feisty, the more people would like, so he made it feisty. Toon says that Pla’s words didn’t mean that Bew had to betray all of them like that (the alienation that these people try to pull on Bew is borderline sad sometimes. Because they are judging Bew for retaliating to something that they did to him) and Bew rightfully reminds Toon about the things they did, saying that Toon used to say that she loved him and still did what she did, so the things he did were because he loved himself and loved Gus;
- When Toon says that no one can close her mouth, Bew asks her if she was going to expose him to everyone and confidently says that no one would believe her because she did not have any evidence to back up her claims. Yo then plays a recording made on the night he went to see Bew, where he said that PlaToon were pressuring him to say who had been responsible for the leaked clip and Bew told Yo to not say to anyone that it had been him; when Bew accuses him of betraying him, Yo tells him that Toon gave him more money than Bew did, so he couldn’t help it;
- A fight then ensues, with Gus accusing Yo of being fake and taking money from two people at the same time and Yo tells that Gus is no different from him because he also fake for money (I mean, Gus is an actor, is literally in the job description to fake for money) and shows that he never really forgave Gus for having being chosen by Pla instead of him (I kinda talked about that as one of the possibilities as to why he had lured Gus to that house in the first place), that Gus created scenes about the concert and made him being scolded by his boss every day; Gus then tells Yo that the reason his life is the way it is is because Yo thinks too low and that he should grow up, instead of making revenges like a child, and that his life being miserable is no excuse for Yo to behave like that, before telling Bew the same, that him being hurt is no excuse;
- Then we have Bew alternating from looking confident and preparing himself to go to the stage and receive the award, getting scared because Toon showed that she was making a live on her IG account showing everything that Bew had said, apologizing to Gus and saying that when he said that he wanted to get away from Toon and be with him he was telling the truth (a callback to their conversation the morning after Bew found out about the plan), that he loved him very much, so much that he forgot to think about everyone’s feelings and then apologizing to Pla, saying that he didn’t think it would become such big deal and at last apologizing to Toon, calling her mom, saying that she knew he wasn’t like that and that he didn’t mean it. While all of this was happening, I was finding very hard to actually believe in what Bew was saying, simply because of how he was behaving, especially towards Toon that was the one that prompted the sudden change in Bew’s behavior after showing the live she was doing and her being the one holding the phone; my suspicions were confirmed when Toon leaned to make Bew stand up and Bew used the opportunity to snatch the phone from her; a smarter person would’ve see that move from miles away, I know I did and I’m not that smart;
- We then find out that the live video was hidden, meaning that no one outside those that were in the room actually knew what was going on – and exposing Bew in the process, giving the impression that he wasn’t exactly sorry for what he did – and Toon tells to Bew that if he really feel sorry, and not because he got caught, he should leave the industry all together and she would erase the clip but if he pretended that he doesn’t care and went to the stage to receive the award like nothing had happened, she would make the video public. Bew then tells Toon that the award was his dream and begged for her to let him, at least, receive the award and he would do whatever she wanted, asking if Toon would be mean to him and destroy his future, with Toon saying that Bew was the one destroying his future;
- Bew then, again, apologizes to Gus, and says that he really love him, that he wants to really be with him, to be able to love him in front and behind the cameras, that he was wrong for being the reason he was sent to jail and for not telling him about the plan, and asked if Gus loved him but Gus told him that he didn’t love that Bew, the Bew that wanted the award and didn’t care about anyone, not even his own dignity, and that if Bew wanted to be the best but have no one to be happy with him, it was up to him;
- On the stage, Bew started his speech and after thanking his FC, he talked about how grateful he was for having Toon by his side, Pla and Gus, before apologizing to Gus and deciding to talk about the confusion about the situation between them and the managers and explaining a bit about the issues. In the middle of his confession, Toon interrupted him after getting on the stage and told Bew that he didn’t need to confess because it was okay, as they had made a contract to bind them as mother and son, to take care of each other, without an end, before hugging.
- Bew then decided to take a break from the industry, saying that he would come back if he had any work, but if he enjoyed selling papaya salad, he wouldn’t probably return, with Toon saying that he was born to be an actor. Toon then asks him if he really thought that she would expose him and when Bew denies, she asks why he decided to confess and he said that it was because he felt bad and that no matter how fake the industry was, her love for him was never fake;
- At the airport, while waiting for his flight to go back to his hometown, Bew is approached by Kitty, who wishes him a safe flight, and then a small group of fans appears behind her, and Kitty apologizes for not being able to gather more people (the show’s subtle way of telling that his FC size had decreased after everything had been exposed) and asks Bew to take a group picture, which they do. After the group picture being taken, Bew thanks the fans and apologizes for disappointing them, receiving a “it’s ok” as an answer from the fans, before asking to take a picture of them all as a memory and then we hear a voice asking if he could take the picture too, revealed to be from Gus.
- Bew takes the picture of Gus with the fans, and when Gus steps forward and gets close to him, he thanks Gus and says that he didn’t think Gus would go there, making Gus say that he had to, because when Bew came to the city he was the one that picked him and now that Bew was returning, he should see him off. Bew then asks how Gus knew he was leaving on that day and Gus tells him that it was Toon, before saying that he was still angry but he loved Bew more, that he thought that Bew had learned his lesson, and Bew said that maybe he didn’t learned anything at all because he chose not to leave the industry but confessed what he did on stage, and he could probably be doing that to create a scene or gain sympathy, because in the end he just wanted people to love him and for that he was just selfish;
- Gus then tells Bew that everyone that enters that industry want people to love them, accept them and all they needed to make sure is that the things they did for themselves wasn’t hurting anyone, and Bew says that he hurt Gus (honey, he hurt you too, remember that) and that Gus must hate him. Gus asks Bew who decides that being an actor meant needing to have everything, says that actors are humans too, that humans have two sides, and everything boiled down if you could see those sides and how much. Bew asks if after seeing all of his sides, Gus would still choose to love him and, instead of a verbal answer, Gus pats him in the head for a few seconds, smiles at Bew and then Bew is seeing leaving Gus and the fans behind, ready to go back to his hometown;
- The last thing we see is the chat message between GusBew, where Gus tells Bew to go back home when he feels better and send Bew a photo of his, leaving us with the notion that both of them were open to the possibility of getting back together one day.
GusBew and their open ending
Before I start talking about what I think about GusBew ending and the ending of their story arc overall, I wanna say that the reason it took me so long to write this post is because I was really trying to find the energy and disposition to write something coherent and not just trash WOM because even if the negative points took some of the excitement I was having for it, is still presented a good story, with elements to be taken in consideration. That being said, I did not hate WOM but didn’t love it to death either, and will try to be as objective as possible.
So, the fact that GusBew had an open ending was the biggest positive point WOM had, because it actually presented something realistic according to what happened during the past 4 episodes, without shoving into our faces them being happy without showing exactly how they got there (this was actually one of my main issues with NS, how we didn’t get to see NottPun resolve their issues and ended up just with the notice of them being together and a million questions as to how that happened). Gus and Bew betrayed each other’s trust, hurt each other, albeit for different reasons, and the wounds that both caused were still too fresh for them to just ignore them and continue to push forward a relationship that was bound to fail in the future, so the best decision would be for them to stay apart for a while, analyze what had happened between them, weight the possibilities, reflect on their actions, and see if it was worth for them to try again. The fact that Gus did not gave Bew an answer at the airport, after him saying that even if he still loved Bew, he was still angry and he needed to validate that anger and let it subside, to think with a clear head and make a rational decision about him and Bew.
Yes, the message he sent Bew was basically him saying that his arms were open when Bew decided to come back but, at the end, it was a decision made after their time apart and I appreciate that; honestly, I don’t think that I ever got happy for a couple for not ending up together and, if I did, I don’t remember about it.
The other positive point of WOM was the fact that we were shown Bew facing the consequences of his actions, even if people seemed too eager to have him back (this could be read as commentary of how easily some people forgive some actors when they do something and seem to just push their past actions under the rug. I’m someone that is willing to give people a second chance, when I deem that the person was really sorry, so this can be just a bad reading on my part), with him not winning the award when he seemed to be a sure winner and losing fans. Bew was also aware that those were a result of his actions and was ready to accept them as they were, a punishment for him and a form of penitence.
This is where my positive points end and we enter the negative ones, with the biggest one being how this episode framed Bew as being the biggest asshole of the four of them, with PlaToon and Gus judging him like he had committed a serious crime and none of them were directly responsible for the outcome of that situation. Because, while Bew had made some fucked up decisions, and I’m not justifying his actions, those same actions were a reaction to what the managers and Gus did to him and one of them even refused to acknowledge how damaging that plan had been to Bew, justifying with a bullshit excuse that it was how the industry worked. They were giving Bew moral lessons, saying that Bew didn’t need to hurt everyone else just because he was hurt but forgot that they were the reason Bew got hurt in the first place; the ONLY person that seemed to really take that into account, even if it was during a reproach, was Gus, the ONLY one that seemed to have some sort of compassion for Bew, and he had been the most hurt about that entire situation, alongside Bew.
And the managers? NEVER received a punishment for their actions and even got out of that situation with new stars, that were part of the biggest reality show at the moment. They manipulated their former stars, created plans that broke an almost 5 years relationship for the sake of one series, preferring to waste time fighting with each other and using their former stars as ammunition instead of fixing the shit they did to the people they were supposed to take care. At the end, Bew cleared their image, got the biggest hit and PlaToon walked free of everything.
I won’t talk about Yo or Kitty because both were just pawns used by Bew to fulfill his goal, and don’t really have much guilt to be exposed, so I’ll let them slide.
Just like happened with some unexplained behavior from Nott, we have the reason of Gus accepting the plan of his manager left out and I still need to know why he didn’t protest to it! Was he curious about what would feel to have sex with Bew (not “with a man” because Gus is bisexual in my head canon and I won’t accept contrary opinions on that matter), did he used that plan as an excuse to act on his feelings for Bew? Cheewin, can you please stop leaving important bit of information out of the series and start exploring them? Four episodes of more than an hour and NONE of them gave me that answer, I’m tired of that, legit.
Anyways, if you guys asked me if I would rewatch WOM, my answer would be “no”, and not because it wasn’t interesting but because the way the story had its structure presented simply did not appealed to me the way NS did, even with the amount of problems that I have with the first arc. Overall, the note I would give would be 8.5/10 (for NS, that I did not evaluate numerically, it would be a 9/10 or an 8.8/10, higher than WOM). It was interesting to know more about GusBew, see them as more than just secondary couple of somebody else’s story, to see their layers, how volatile they can be and how they navigate the world and the industry surrounding them; yes, I am happy that they didn’t end up together but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t like to see them together one day, when all their issues got resolved between them, because they deserve to be happy and away from any toxic people or environment.
I don’t know if I will continue these posts for Y-IDOL, that already started and I didn’t even watch it yet because this week my head had been occupied with LITA (as always, no surprise here) but if I do, we will see each other around. For GusBew, I wish them all the best and to see them again someday.