Tiến Bromance | Episode 9 [Review]

Last episode, Tai realized that Tiến wasn’t to blame for the murder of his friend. At that moment, as if by magic, Tiến appears behind him and the two embrace. Everything Tai has assumed is proven wrong by the magic of remembering what he should have known the entire time. And as the two share their happily ever after, a woman, we all know watches from the trees. Not Hong, but Phong and she is not happy with this happily ever after, not one bit. 

– Edited by TheFNGee

Episode Summary

Beginning a little bit prior, we watch as Tiến searches the warehouse. Tai sits outside the school, despondently holding the letter as he’s reading it again, seeing the bloody scrawl from his friend (that she couldn’t have had time to write before bleeding out). And magically, Tiến is there. Only this time, when the two embrace, Phong is grabbed by Nghia and pulled behind a tree. Why is that needed? We don’t find out they never explain redoing that scene.

Instead, we get to see Tai introduce to Tiến to Do who justifiably freaks out seeing the man he assumes killed his dad. Tai explains that they were wrong about Tiến and that Tiến is going to find the murderer for them.  Do is skeptical, but he eventually calms down.  

The scene shifts to Nghia, now apparently no longer respecting Tiến as his superior by having his feet up on his desk. Tiến is shocked by this but plays it off by ordering him to continue the search for Hong and her goons. Nghia storms off, not happy with the decision. At this point, the pacing for the episode is a bit confusing cause it keeps cutting away from scenes just as I was getting used to the shift. It does it again as Tiến brings Do to school as if he’s Do’s dad. As a song plays, we watch a montage of gay-dad moments between Tiến, Tai, and Do. It’s super cute and is needed here to undercut the weirdness of the episode up to this point. 

The montage also shows the passage of time we can assume is at least a month. It shows Tiến and Tai growing closer, sharing kisses when Do is sleeping, which is again lovely to see. I could get used to this, but this is Tiến Bromance, so I know better. Once again, they do jump-cuts from the happy couple to the annoyed Nghia, who is now smoking in Tiến’s home, which is a huge sign of disrespect. And my only assumption is to show Nghia’s growing discontent with his boss, though there is no reason given as to why this is. 

Now engaged, Tiến asks Tai to take Do and leave with him, but Tai declines. The next day a beautiful luxury car driven by Phong appears in front of him, and Tai gets inside. This scene is very telling of the woman who has secretly watched the man she is infatuated with pursuing another man as he is made to sit in the back seat with her in front. She tells a web of lies that make absolutely no sense, and of course, Tai believes every one of them. This had me scratching my head because what she said didn’t make sense. If you have a near-fatal heart condition, how can you have sex as much as she implies? Let alone be engaged to the man who spent the last five years hunting for you? 

Tai does what Tai does every time and instead of asking Tiến why he just silently pouts. Now, this next scene had me rather perplexed for a variety of reasons. Tai and Tiến are on the rich side of town for no apparent reason. Tai breaks up with Tiến while Phong looks on from her home? Which makes me wonder why they are breaking up here? Why did Tiến allow himself to be brought here if he didn’t feel safe here? The writing of the latter half of the episode falls flat, and this is the crescendo of it. 

My Thoughts on This Drama 

As a fan of the series up until Episode 6, I didn’t have the highest expectations for this episode. However, it did surprise me. The first half was really, really good. We have long since accepted Tai has no common sense, and the concept of actually thinking through the funeral scene would have saved him and us a lot of angst. But to see it displayed was just ironic. The director clearly has an eye for creating a mood by manipulation, as each scene did its job in making me feel things, whether it’s joy or sadness. 

But I didn’t understand the weird edits from one moment to the next. At times giving the impression scenes were happening at the same time, but having Tiến in both scenes meant they weren’t, which just made it more confusing. The scene with Phong and Tai in the car just cemented the stereotype that women in BL are only there to ruin gay’s happiness, which is a tired trope. The fact that Tai swallows the lies she tells is either telling of him not trusting Tiến or just him just being gullible. I’m gonna go with both. The break-up scene was emotionless to me as Tai’s words made little sense, and Tiến just letting it happen was so out of character for him. 

If this had been better edited and better written, it could Have been the best episode of the new five, but it wasn’t.

 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars [See our Review Guide]