Team Must Be That Special.

Blue Hour Official MV (2020) | insp.

their love language

Lost in the Deep Blue

When we left our red- and blue-coded boys, they were exchanging their colors and emotions like it was easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Well...until they realized they caught feelings and questioned their entire lives, so now they are seeking comfort in their own colors trying to sort out those pesky emotions.

And they are struggling! After a night together where Team asked Win for exclusivity yet refused to commit to a defined relationship, both boys are lost (at sea, but trying to be an anchor for each other).

Team is devoid of color much like he was at the beginning of episode two after speaking to his mother, and Win is losing his color as well, which is difficult to do when his closet only features blue.

And the little blue Win does have left, he gives to Team before they leave the safe space.

*Win fixes the tie symbolizing order and submission while Team looks fully in the mirror representing his awareness of what Win is doing to him, yet Win does not look in the mirror until the end because he hasn't faced the truth of how much he truly cares for Team, which we heard in the preview for next week

Win's brother, Wan, is also struggling with the absence of color, but luckily he has Tul unknowingly providing him some blue (and support).

Team is also showing up in small ways to support Win that Win seems unaware of.

*the label on the tie and the bottom of Win's shoes are red

They won't see each other throughout the day (no practice) or that night (Win is going home, and Team is staying with Pharm), so neither can find their way back to their natural element.

*You might be thinking "they are just sitting in a different class" and "Win is outside, so trees are green," but this is the same classroom as the day before when they decided to sit in the red chairs (Manow talking in the red chairs while the green ones are in the background), and Team sits in the green when he is conflicted (the day he skipped classes).

*And Win sits in the blue unless he, too, is conflicted

Dean comes for Pharm, which leaves Team on his own. He is still reeling from the conversation he had with his mother and with Win the night before yet won't see Win at all, so he goes where he can find blue.

But his anxiety grows the longer he stays. He can't concentrate because everywhere he looks, he is reminded of all the things he wants to forget - Win's absence and Ton's incident.

Then we see the transition from Team's red into the blue through the pool rope as his anxiety and stress overwhelms him and he experiences a cramp

*Some of the ropes are colored this way while others are red and yellow. The colors serve a purpose. The red indicates that the wall is within a certain length, and most likely will be the shallow part of the pool, while the blue denotes the deeper portion of the pool. We haven't seen this transition from the red into the blue until Team becomes increasingly distraught because he is entering a deeper state of emotions

Which causes him to sink to the bottom.

Team is drowning in the deepest part of the pool

Everything Team has been trying to avoid is now dragging him down into this deep dark blue (depression). Win will save him from the pool, but Win can't save Team from the issues he keeps bottled up, and Win himself, through the previews, seems likely to become one of those issues.

I mean this with my whole being in the gentlest way possible, Team.

Between Us Series ep 3 text posts | 1

@ sunwoo’s sister, spare some height pls

Question…. How do you feel about Win Hitting Team in the face after he saves him?

I wasn’t a fan of that part and I don’t know if I’m comfortable seeing it on screen. I know it’s a mix of emotions he angry, nearly lost him, but ……. I don’t know. Hope you understand .

I understand, Anon! It's a polarizing scene, and people don't need to have a unanimous opinion of it.

I personally really liked it in the novel! It was a moment of raw anger and flawed humanity from a character who's been composed and responsible ever since he got through a rebellious phase that mainly consisted of skipping class and body modification to get attention from his parents. Literally the tamest rebellion in teenage history. The punch is also framed as a mistake, and something he clearly feels guilty about almost immediately, since he then yanks Team into a hug. The novel describes Win as shaking like a frightened animal, which just underscores for me how primally terrified he was. After all, he was alone when he walked into the building and saw Team at the bottom of the pool, probably seconds from death. If Win hadn't acted as fast as he did, he would have had to watch Team die.

And Team put Win in that position through his negligence. Even worse, Team doesn't even have the grace to even act apologetically after he regains consciousness. He's dismissive and almost petulant, and while that's his whole thing, it's just not the time for it. Of course, Team's clearly suffering from a host of mental traumas, so it makes sense for him to diminish nearly dying, but from Win's perspective, he's probably imagining previously unthinkable things: would CPR and potentially breaking a rib have killed him instead? Who do you call to take a corpse? How would he ever swim again? Sleep again? I'm not arguing the punch was deserved, only that Win's so far removed from rationality at that point, he's just trying to get Team to understand the severity of the situation they're in.

Imagine how Win feels seeing Team shrug off his near-death. That could easily make Win believe that this could happen again. If Team doesn't value his life, if he takes risks like this again, if Win's not there the next time, if he doesn't take this seriously—

Anyway, that's why it worked for me. Plus, after the punch, after the hug, Win takes Team not back to the dorms, not even to his own dorm room, but to his own family's home. Win drives Team's car, stops at a convenience store to get ice for Team's face and snacks for him as a treat, literally feeds him at home, lets Team shower on his own to respect his space, and at the end of it all, he falls asleep with Team safe in his arms. Because this is who he is at his core. He's the one who talks Team down from intimidating Alex, and he's the one who gives rational advice to Dean. So I like that the novel shows that the only way to make him lose it completely is Team dismissing his own brush with death. Is it romantic? No, of course not. Is it healthy? Also, no. But I don't want a character to make the right choices every step of the way. Their mistakes and how they try to make up for them enhance their complexity for me. I mean, if Win were a real person, I'd be like, "He punched you?" but he's fictional, so I just see that scene as fascinating to explore his mentality instead.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, it works for me because it's that version of Win.

The Win we've seen in the series isn't the same Win we see in the novel. Boun made the decision in December of last year while they were filming the post-drowning scene for the pilot teaser for Win not to punch Team, and it works so well. Because it's Boun's version of Win. Novel Win didn't have a meticulous, restrained conversation about consent with Team before he slept with him the first time. Novel Win didn't even hook up with Team a second time. There are a lot of overlaps with Novel Win and Series Win, and they're both written by LazySheep, but Hemp Rope is a novel she started around 2017, and she had to take her time and a lot of consideration to adapt the novel into a script with 2022 sensibilities and growth.

So I think Boun was right to change it because he knows what this version of Win would do. And I think it says a lot in favor of Sheep and New that they saw the wisdom in his decision and allowed him to do so for the main series as well. (They show him raise his fist but switch to a hug in the trailer, just like the pilot teaser.) When directors understand and value the input of their actors, I'm always deeply impressed and appreciative. Collaborative art can be some of the most powerful, and I think Boun was incredibly smart to show that Win did have the impulse but decided against it. I think that's just as powerful for this version of him.

Essentially, I appreciate the novel scene for what it is, and I like that the series has presented a different version of it with unique nuances influenced by an actor who loves his character tremendously. <3

OKAY SO

This scene is actually set between episodes 1 and 2 of Between Us

We know this because this happened BEFORE Team called off ‘sick’! Because later on in UWMA we get the moment where Team isn’t in Uni and Pharm gets his loud noise trigger - 

This means that the scene in Team’s bedroom where Win brings him food  ISN’T the first time they’d interacted since the swim camp! THEY’VE SHARED A CAR HOME TOGETHER AT LEAST ONCE before Win told Team ‘yo I did actually enjoy hooking up with you’ (which makes me wonder where did Team think he was dropping Win off if he didn’t realise they live in the same building?)

Now, we see this moment happens even little later on in UWMA; in the scene where Pharm meets Team with snacks after his swim practice, Team says that Dean left earlier in the evening:

This means that THIS SCENE:

Is happening at the SAME TIME as THIS SCENE:

(221107) cheek pinching wars 🤏

I'm so glad that the UWMA franchise decided to start with a different type of bang this time around.

Between Us EP.4