Yuri's Agape, or How Yuri on Ice is the Story of How Yuri Plisetsky Resolves the Crisis He Himself Created (part three)
Parts one and two here!
I was originally going to try to fit this into two parts, but episodes 10 through 12 deserve their own fenced off part of the telling no matter what angle you're taking on the series. And then this part ended up being as long as parts one and two combined.
Cut for length and images and spoilers through the finale:
For most sports anime, episode 10 would be considered a filler episode. There's no skating in it; the characters spend most of it hanging around taking selfies. But Yuri on Ice is not most sports anime. Episode 10 is where Things Got Weird.
It's in episode 10 where we learn, in a very fridge-horror way, that in telling the story almost exclusively from Yuuri's perspective we have been borderline lied to about probably everything to an unknowable degree all along. But it also gives us another headache: of all the characters in this series, why are we suddenly trusting VICTOR to be a faithful and impartial observer? Episode 10 not only switches perspective to Victor, it keeps the perspective a lot tighter than the other episodes tend to. Victor provides a lot more running commentary on the action -- especially over Yuri's story line, for which Victor is not present -- than Yuuri has tended to previously. Victor narrating his own breakfast would probably sound insane, so having him handle this much crucial plot development is probably not a lot better than Yuuri.
Yuri's adventure in Barcelona is so bonkers I almost want to accuse Victor of making it up, but that wouldn't be particularly useful. And of course, if Victor isn't making it up, that means Yuri eventually told him all this later and Victor is now telling us, which is a reading that I think there is evidence of. Just keep in mind that there are a lot of reasons to question Victor's version of events here. Let's start with Otabek.
The story is definitely pulling a fast one with Otabek Altin. Of the six people who make it into the Grand Prix Final, five are people the series has spent some time with: Yuuri and Yuri, Victor's rival/buddy Chris, Yuuri's rival/best friend Phichit, and JJ. You'll notice four of these five form narrative parallels. Well, JJ has a parallel in the sixth finalist.
JJ has been viewing Yuri as a rival since they first competed in Canada, but Yuri completely rejects him as such. JJ is a monster that Yuri wants to destroy. JJ, frankly, is too much for Yuri to handle at this point. And it's through JJ in a glancing encounter that the audience -- and Yuri -- is introduced to Otabek.
Victor treats us to a quick montage of podium shots at competitions Yuuri hasn't been in, thus explaining why the audience hasn't met this guy until now. He won silver and gold in his qualifying events for the GPF; additionally, he shared the podium with Victor at least once in the previous season. He has a brief appearance in the first episode.
You can tell I cheated and capped this from 10 because Victor's name is spelled correctly.
In short, this is a serious potential opponent who has been competing in this bracket for Kazakhstan -- which is as local to Russia as anything can be, if that makes any difference -- for at least a year. There is no reason for Yuri to not know who Otabek is; Otabek should be on his Potential Monster Threat list with JJ. And yet! Yuri does not know who Otabek is to such a degree that it's used as foreshadowing for the reveal about Yuuri's blackout of the GPF banquet last year!
Victor jumps around in his narration a lot, so I’m going to briefly run down Yuri's story line in this episode. Yuri has a terrifying fanclub who call themselves Yuri's Angels that Yuuri, at least according to Victor, for some reason follows on Instagram.
This fanclub is hunting Yuri down as he wanders Barcelona by himself, because Yuri suddenly has no goddamn responsible adults around. He is literally hiding in an alley and trying to figure out how to escape a pack of stalkers. Suddenly, a handsome stranger on a motorcycle presumably rented for this very purpose rides up from nowhere and rescues and/or kidnaps Yuri!
Why, it's Otabek!
Victor
Victor no
This is not cool or romantic, you are implying child endangerment and you should all be arrested. Like I said, take Victor with a grain of salt. He always brings plenty. ohhh burn
Otabek has taken Yuri to this lovely sunset to reveal that they actually met one another at a camp Yakov runs for potential child competitors five years ago. Yuri does not remember this at all, nor should he, really, but man oh man, Otabek remembers him.
Yuri Plisetsky, he says, at the age of ten, had the EYES OF A SOLDIER. Yuri expresses subdued surprise at this. Otabek is struck by Yuri's strength. Yuri has been called strong before -- Yuri knows he's strong -- but comparing him to a soldier is an entirely new context for that strength. JJ essentially called him a girl in the previous episode; he is apparently referred to as a fairy by the media. Yuri demands to know why Otabek brought him to this romantic sunset to begin with. They are competitors! RIVALS!
Otabek asks Yuri if they can be friends, too.
This is what Yuri has been clawing his way toward with Yuuri all season, but because Yuuri's personal motto is "go passive-aggressive or go crawl under a rock and die," Yuri's had no way to establish a foothold with him. Not that Yuri's made it easy for him, either, screaming at him in restrooms and threatening him in elevators and whatnot, but Yuri is a kid who desperately needs someone to reach out and not flinch. Everyone else in his life has been struggling against this; Otabek manages to do it in like ten minutes.
Otabek is also five years younger than Yuuri, so if Yuri is going to look for immediate support among his peers, Otabek is probably a more appropriate choice. Yuri and Otabek's relationship is never worded as particularly romantic, but the visuals in episode 10 frame it that way strongly. Again, consider the source.
On the other hand, this version of events makes perfect sense if it's Victor's best man speech at the wedding (including the "now back to where me and Yuuri were shopping" segues).
Yuri's plotline falls in with Victor's at this point as Yuuri and Victor are pressured into hijacking Yuri and Otebek's date, and they end up just inviting everyone (I don't know whether or not they invited JJ -- he finds them, but Barcelona seems like a small place in this episode). They all go out for dinner and end up in one of the narrative climaxes of the series.
There is so much going on in this scene that's easy to miss what's going on with Yuri, making his argument with Victor the next day feel like a tonal hairpin turn. It is a hard turn, but it doesn't come out of nowhere. Yuri starts the dinner scene in Barcelona angry and just gets angrier as it continues.
He's angry that Victor and Yuuri crashed his good time with his new friend, he's angry they bring everyone else -- Yuri can only handle recontextualizing one person at a time -- he's angry last year's GPF banquet comes up at all (though he's probably not that angry that Yuuri doesn't remember it), and he has to be at least somewhat alarmed that Victor starts showing Otabek pictures of Yuuri pole dancing. Like what kind of a date is this.
Then Chris and Phichit tag-team to sort of misunderstand Victor and Yuuri's rings and start loudly congratulating them on their marriage. Yuri acts like this might actually have been a total left field reveal for him, though he had to know there was something going on considering the circumstances under which he left Victor in Japan. And the fact all these year-old pictures are still on Victor’s phone.
But then Victor doubles down. Presumably out of some sort of revenge for letting Yuuri get away with the most vaguely worded round-about proposal to have ever been accepted, he announces that he actually intends to marry Yuuri after Yuuri wins the Grand Prix gold medal.
This is part of a montage of everyone making 'oh you did not' faces, but Yuri's the only one who looks genuinely pissed off.
As Yuuri's coach, Victor's expected to say he's confident that Yuuri will win in interviews and such, but this is a private party among friendly competitors who have not been engaging in trash talk. Considering the company and his own position among them, it would be... diplomatic for Victor to take more of a may-the-best-man-win approach to the GPF, while being friendly about his confidence in his own skater. He's throwing a gauntlet instead; he's so confident in Yuuri that he's casually staking his own future and personal life on it. And it isn't a joke! Victor never takes this challenge back.
Yuri is Victor's former rinkmate; he's credited as Yuri's choreographer every time Yuri performs Agape. To an already seething teenager, this implied lack of confidence in him is going to come across as a slap in the face. It was only a matter of time before Victor and Yuri had a full-on confrontation, but Victor's too focused on motivating Yuuri to realize to he's just invited the one that occurs the next morning.
I don't believe this is a traditional greeting in Spain.
For all of Victor's agency in the story, he is not typically a confrontational person. He is more likely to just say something cutting and walk away. And while Yuri is confrontational to a significant fault, he's being about as unfocused in this scene regarding the source of his anger as he was with Yuuri in the restroom in the first episode. This argument gets interpreted a lot of different ways because neither of them are really arguing. Yuri is spitting venom -- about Victor, about Victor's career, about Victor's age, about Yuuri. Victor answers with physical intimidation that borders on sexual. Asking "did you want to compete against me?" is tantamount to asking, are you jealous? Do you wish you were the one who meant as much to me as I mean to you?
This has an equally difficult bookend near the very end, but Yuri lashing out at Yuuri in the very beginning is probably a better point of comparison. Yuri behaves like this when his expectations of other people betray him. He walked away from Yuuri when Yuuri acted cowed. Victor isn't going to be cowed by Yuri. Yuri is a child, he is behaving horribly, and Victor isn't impressed. Yuri's body language suggests he's backing down before he manages to goad Victor to the point of grabbing him; it’s is a small triumph in itself, because it's so incredibly out of character for Victor to crack like this. Once Yuri's won that much ground, he can keep talking, and Victor is frozen and fake-smiling until Yuri tells him to let go. And then it's over.
Victor is wearing Yuuri's coat, and when Yuri walks away it's revealed he's wearing the tee shirt he bought in Hasetsu. Before he leaves, Yuri says the beach here reminds him of Japan, and Victor agrees. This clash isn't about Yuuri, but it's steeped in the influence he's had on both of them. Victor's narration suggests here that he believes Yuri has learned something about life and love from Yuuri, which is an odd observation for him to have in the moment. Like his being able to tell the story about Otabek, it makes more sense if his thoughts in this episode are something retrospective. In any case, they end here. The audience is closed off from Victor by other people's impressions of him again for the rest of the story.
Everyone is feeling pretty rough going into the competition. Yuri's JJ problem has not away -- in fact, JJ and his insane jump program is now everyone's problem -- and Yuri doesn't appear to have let off as much steam at Victor as he needed to. He shoots Yuuri a particularly ugly glare during the short program warm up.
Yuuri scores solidly but lower for this round than he usually does, and he spends the rest of the day second guessing Victor's reactions to the other routines and making horrible decisions on other people's behalf without telling them. He isn't quite the hurdle today that Yuri was expecting him to be, but it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway.
For the Agape program, Yuri reveals that since the competition in Moscow, he has somehow ascended to godhood. The narrative explanation comes not from Yuri himself but from his ballet coach, who explains in an interview voice-over that Yuri has realized that the concept of agape isn't something that can be restricted to a single person; it includes everyone in his life. There's a quick set of cuts to his some of his teammates, his coaches, his grandfather, Yuuri, Victor, Yuuko, and Otabek. This is a remarkable revelation for him to have had off-screen and have spelled out by someone else.
Yuri himself gives no narration because he says his mind goes blank here as he's performing. When Victor was first trying to make Yuri understand the program, he expressed confusion over Yuri not knowing what he was supposed to think about to invoke a sense of unconditional love; why would he need to think about anything?
Yuri breaks Victor's world record for the short program score. Yuuri perfected Eros by coming into his own sexuality, and Yuri has finally perfected Agape by realizing how many people in his life love him. Ironically many of those same people are ones he intends to destroy here.
Having done all the damage he can today, Yuri actually seeks out and sits with Yuuri and Victor in the stands to watch the rest of the short programs.
He does it like a jerk and possibly just to flaunt the fact that he's cheering on Otabek, but that is a pretty harmless thing to be a jerk about. Yuuri and Victor are sitting with a couple of other people, but they're clearly the ones he's chosen to huddle with. JJ may have had a point about Yuri only being comfortable supporting his competition when he's safely in the lead, but there isn't anything inherently bad about that, either. Openly gloating about Otabek scoring higher than Yuuri isn't great, but he has no idea what Yuuri is planning. Nobody does! Making an effort to be on friendly terms with Yuuri turns out to be unfortunately eventful for everyone. The day ends with Yuri in first place and Yuuri in fourth.
Yuuri doesn't come to the warm-up the next day, so Yuri doesn't see him or Victor until the free skate. A lot happens in the meantime that he doesn't know about. This is where everything becomes debatable, as Yuuri, Victor, and Yuri's unspoken motivations all crash into each other headlong.
Yuuri's free skate routine, Yuri on Ice, is ostensibly a commentary on his career as a competitive skater, but it's also been recognized as a meta-commentary on the plot of the show. Both are largely the same story anyway, but over the course of the series he's never performed it perfectly, and it’s continued to evolve along his relationship with Victor. He's decided that this Grand Prix Final is the last time he's going to perform it, so it's no shock that here in the last episode he finally nails it. He nails it so completely that he breaks Victor's record for the free skate score. Yuri said that Victor Nikiforov is dead, but he didn't know the knife was going to have two hands on it.
Earlier in the episode, watching JJ's routine, Yuuri comments to himself that there is nothing as compelling as a tale that never ends. And while he's skating, he tells us that he doesn't want his story to end either. But it has to, because he's convinced himself that making Victor stay on as his coach is killing Victor in spirit, and Victor's real place is back on the ice himself. So Yuuri, and Yuri on Ice, and YURI!!! on Ice, will end here.
During the brief time the audience got to see Victor's perspective, however, we learned the opposite was true: Victor was being crushed by the weight of living up to his own reputation. He was having to reinvent himself in the absence of anything or anyone to inspire him so often that there was no real Victor there anymore. But through a crazy chain of events that began with Yuri attacking Yuuri in a restroom in Sochi last year, Victor managed to break out of the endless loop of competitive seasons and reinvent himself for himself. He's found new life in being someone else's strength.
With his decision to retire, Yuuri has condemned Victor to the previous status quo, joining the rest of the chorus of characters we've met begging and ordering Victor to go back. Victor can probably reclaim both the records that Yuri and Yuuri have broken in Barcelona, but there won't be any meaning in it. Yuuri believes he’s doing this for Victor’s own good, but he won't listen to or change his mind for him.
This is the Victor that steps out and demands that Yakov and Yuri listen to him before Yuri goes out for his free skate routine. It can't wait. It has to be now. He tells them he's coming back to Russia.
For all Yuri's anger and resentment the last time he and Victor spoke privately, Yuri doesn't look happy that Victor has finally given in to his demands from eight months ago. Victor was talking about marriage two days ago. Something has obviously happened with Yuuri, and that's the first thing he asks: what does this mean for Yuuri? Is he retiring?
Victor says what Yuuri does now is a decision Yuuri plans to make when the Grand Prix Final is over. There's obviously something he's not saying, and he doesn't say it. Yuri gets this:
Victor instead whispers to him to not to forget why he came here. This is intercut with Otabek’s free skate, which is set to a rock opera version of the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony 9. It’s not the more obvious Ode to Joy segment, but you don’t use the Ninth Symphony accidentally in an OST consisting entirely of original music otherwise.
This is a plea for the future. Yuuri has rejected it and denied it to Victor -- this is most likely the end in some sense for both of them -- but the future is all Yuri has. This is his first Grand Prix Final as a senior competitor. He wants to be the new Victor Nikiforov. But for all of Victor's accomplishments, for all the trouble he's caused, for all the pain he's specifically put Yuri through this year, this is all Victor has to show for it. No matter what happens now, Yuri has his own future. He only has to step toward it.
Victor cannot plead on behalf of the future to Yuuri. But it's possible that Yuri can.
Yuri on Ice isn't the last program of the Grand Prix Final; Yuri's free skate is. Yuri is going to have the last word.
Yuri does not produce the performance that he does for Yuuri's sake. That is specifically the idea that Victor is urging him to reject. This story has been about love from the start, but it's also repeatedly shown that you can't save other people from themselves. You can help them, you can support them, and you can love them. You can reach out and not flinch. But in the end, they have to make the decision to not reject the future on their own. Yuri's dream from the start was to win the gold medal here in his first year, making history in men's single skating, and that's the dream he's going to chase down right to the bitter end.
And while he does so, he puts a footnote on the meta-narrative. He tells us, the audience, what his feelings actually were all along. He never hated Yuuri. He has admired him passionately, from his most flawed to his very best. He's prepared to face the future without him, but he doesn't want to. Yuri wants Yuuri to come with him.
But in the end, the only person who can make that decision is Yuuri.
Yuri wins the gold medal with a final score that beats Yuuri's by .12 points. He's won. But which of them ended up with the gold isn't what makes up Yuuri's mind to ask Victor to stay. Through the power that sports anime tends to give you, Yuri gets through to Yuuri with his determination to claw forward. You can never just go back to the way things were before; you can only stop where you are or go forward.
We call everything on the ice love, and love wins. But sometimes love will want to murder you with an ice skate.
