silent: Episode 8

silent has become one of my favorite series of 2022 (and my favorite non-BL). I haven’t been this excited for Friday nights since Melisa Joan Hart was casting sparkle-spark spells on Sabrina The Teenage Witch. After a week of no Sou, Aoba, or Nana I was very happy to welcome them back into my home last night. 

This week’s episode picks up where episode 7 left off with Aoba still in Sou’s loving embrace (lucky little duck). He confesses to her that it’s not that he can’t speak, but that he’s embarrassed because he cannot hear himself – and so he only does it in front of his family (and Minato). Sadly Minato was absent from this week’s episode. 

Instead, this episode was heavily focused on Nana (Kaho) and her relationship with Haruo Masaki (Kazama Shunsuke) – the man teaching Aoba sign language.  Real Talk Moment: It should surprise no one that started this series because of Ren Meguro. He’s my favorite Snow Man and I’ve been crushing on him ever since Keita Hatsukoi (My Love Mix-Up). For this reason, I was not sure if I would even care about the lives of any of the outer characters (except for Sato Arata’s Tabata Riku – he’s another Man Crush). 

However, I have fallen in love with each and every one of these characters. Screenwriter Ubukata Miku has done an amazing job of making every single one of these characters interesting and intricate – especially Nana. Starting as someone I thought would be comic relief, she’s one of the most layered characters in the series. She befriended Haruo in a lecture when he would assist her with note-taking. They became friends and she eventually taught him how to sign. It upset her when he started teaching other people because she felt used – which explains why she was so upset with Sou for teaching Aoba. 

But (in my opinion) Haruo wasn’t using her. It’s so clear he had feelings for her (another parallel in the relationship with Sou). It’s been eight years since the two have seen one another and Nana comes back to him because she knows he is the one teaching Aoba – but she doesn’t do it out of jealousy or anger. She does it (I think) as a mea culpa. Haruo seems happy, but also maybe skeptical. 

Aoba and Hikaru visit their mother and she tells her of her relationship with Sou. Her mother seems happy that she is happy. At dinner, tells Sou that he’s not with him because she feels sorry for him, or because she thinks he needs her help – or even that she has nothing to offer him like that. She’s with him because she wants to be. Period. End of Story. Also, if he wants an out, all he needs to do is tell her. 

After a meeting with Moe, Sou decides to return to his family home. His mother has missed him and is afraid the family will forget how to sign if they don’t do it regularly. From what I’ve seen of his mother, Sakura (Shinohara Ryoko), she’s damaged (clearly). I’m not sure if she blames herself for what happened to Sou or if she’s just the overly protective type, but there are some layers there and I am interested in seeing how they’re peeled back during next week’s episode. Confession: I have watched only a handful of hetero dramas, but if they follow the same formula as a BL – next week is going to be a tear-jerker. The episode before the finale is always the “cursed” episode where something happens that makes it look like our main ship is going to sink. I hope not, but if it does Mintao+So 4EVER!

More silent soon so….

Stay Tuned.