Although now we have dueling cover stories, because the other two girls in the idol group plus the landlady all believe that Nabi-ya is a transwoman formerly known as Nick Moore. The landlady will probably never be seen again after they move to Korea, but are the other two girls going to go along with this new cover story?
I guess it depends on whether they want to portray Nabi-ya as trans or just an unlucky girl accident victim back in Korea. Neither one is true. And kind of mirrors Aphrodites mirror down to the car accident ruse.
Is a month in a sedated coma enough to grow longer hair? It could be that some surgical lines have healed and bandages are no longer required. the nose bandage could be a splint to hold it in place.
Realistically... probably not. I grew my hair out, and to get to the point where it was long enough to tie into a bun like that, it took me about 6 months. But I think it's an acceptable break from reality, as the new model already looks like a huge improvement.
So, just to wrap my head around this story...
I didn't notice at the time, but I believe this is the first indication that it takes place in America:
Well, there aren't that many characters yet. But just running down the roster...
Good catch.
It's interesting that Minji has access to a sketchy Doctor. So... does this indicate that she was already thinking she might need a surgeon to kidnap a person for her idol plans? It does suggest she was already thinking ahead to have at least the surgeon do a race change (if she had found a good female singer?).
It does seem like T-Panda is the only character with the resources to make this kidnapping happen. I could see Minji selling a cover story that Nabi needs the documentation or something and keeps the feminization in the dark, but kinda like Nikos in Mirror, I think it'll get really hard to fathom T-Panda being an "innocent" party the more he contributes to Nick's kidnapping.
I still feel awful for her, but also pissed that we're probably not going to get the conversation I've been waiting for where Andrew and Marina finally piece together what's been happening together. Marina is too hurt/angry to listen to him anymore, but for good reason, IMO.
Melissa finally made me turn against Marina. She seems like she is age regressing into a bratty spoiled teenager. I'm heartbroken.
This is literally what happened to a similar character in a previous story.
I'm with you except for the "isn't my fault" part. He slept with Nikos because he wanted to. He wasn't pressured or coerced, it wasn't necessary to keep up the disguise, and as far as I can tell, he wasn't drugged either. He got a romantic note from Nikos and his rational mind felt love for him. He put on a sexy dress, went to dinner, said yes to Nikos' marriage proposal, and had sex with him, all of his own volition. He cheated on Marina. That's on him.I (in the shoes of Andrew/Elena) wanted to break character and tell Marina, "Listen up WIFE! I'm tired of getting blamed for stuff that isn't my fault and not getting a chance to explain myself. I've sacrificed everything for you and your family. You need to either shut up and listen to me, or I'm leaving right now. I'll go to a US Consulate, get my identification verified via fingerprints or DNA, go back home to America, and let you and your crazy family deal with the shitty mess that Nikos got you all involved with.
I also agree she should be angry with Nikos, and perhaps she is but is not showing it at the moment. But as shitty as Nikos' behavior is, Andrew is ultimately the one who betrayed her, so it's appropriate for her to be most angry at him.
Andrew/Elena is under the influence of what was done to him. Andrew/Elena had their free will stripped away from them.
Andrew is the person who insisted on staying in character, on agreeing to the surgery (at least to Marinas knowledge) and ignored her when she signalled his own signal to him. And what did he do? He had sex with her uncle after insisting she should refer to him as her aunt.Melissa finally made me turn against Marina. She seems like she is age regressing into a bratty spoiled teenager. I'm heartbroken.
I (in the shoes of Andrew/Elena) wanted to break character and tell Marina, "Listen up WIFE! I'm tired of getting blamed for stuff that isn't my fault and not getting a chance to explain myself. I've sacrificed everything for you and your family. You need to either shut up and listen to me, or I'm leaving right now. I'll go to a US Consulate, get my identification verified via fingerprints or DNA, go back home to America, and let you and your crazy family deal with the shitty mess that Nikos got you all involved with.
He did lose himself. That is a side effect of what was done to him. Along with memory loss and concentration capacity.
Marina can have sex with James if she wants to. Is she going to look heroic for doing so? Not in my opinion. She'll come across as a petty slut. She isn't under the influence of any drugs. James hasn't been shown to be manipulating her like Nikos has been with Elena. Marina still has own free will left intact. If she sleeps with James, it will 100% be her choice to do so, unlike it was for Andrew, who barely knows who he is most of the time, has memory loss, difficulty concentrating, LOSS OF SELF, etc.
I feel like the "loss of self" was what happened after the trauma-induced amnesia that we still haven't seen yet, and Andrew regained his sense of self when he woke up the day of the dinner party. Right now he's method acting, which is a choice he made. He seems unable to drop the character, which is currently unexplained, but even after regaining his memories and becoming fully aware of this, Andrew seems to blame himself:
We can't trust Andrew's thoughts. They are impaired. Chapter 18 conflicts with any ability that Andrew would ever have to act as his true self without impaired judgement.
