Welcome to the Open Thread, everyone! Thank you for joining me on this group watch of Someday Or One Day! 🥰 I’ll confess upfront that I have heart-eyes for Greg Hsu (also known as Greg Han) in this show, so I’m indulging my fangirl heart, in having him and his lovely smile headline our inaugural post. 😍

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT, before we begin:

1. We will be adopting a ZERO SPOILER POLICY for this Open Thread, except for events that have happened in the show, up to this point.

Because of Show’s twisty nature, we don’t want to spoil anyone’s watch experience with spoilers. The spoiler tags don’t work in email notifications, therefore, please take note that WE WILL NOT BE USING SPOILER TAGS FOR THIS OPEN THREAD. ANY AND ALL SPOILERS WILL BE REDACTED to protect first-time viewers in our midst (although, I’d appreciate it if you would save me the trouble of having to redact spoilers, heh 😅).

We need to protect the innocent! 😉

2. HOWEVER!! If you’d like to discuss spoilers from a rewatcher’s point of view, I’ve created a SPOILER ZONE for you, where you can discuss all the spoilers you’d like, without the need for spoiler warnings. You can find it here!

3. Discussions on this thread don’t have to close when newer threads open, just so you know! But as we progress through our group watch, please keep the discussions clear of spoilers from future episodes, so that future readers coming to this thread won’t be accidentally spoiled. Does that make sense?

Without further ado, here are my reactions to this set of episodes; have fun in the Open Thread, everyone! ❤️

My thoughts

Episode 1

What an excellent, surprising first episode! I feel like I appreciate this opening episode even more on this second viewing, than on my first.

Full disclosure that I’ve seen this show once before, about a year ago, so the details aren’t as faded from my memory as I would normally like, for a rewatch. However, in the interest of supporting this group watch, I’m going to apply selective drama amnesia (ha!), and basically pretend that this is the first time I’m watching this show.

(On that note, did you see my announcement at the top of the post, about us having a Zero Spoiler Policy for this Open Thread? There’s also a Spoiler Zone, if you’d like to discuss retrospective spoilers; details above!)

For the record, there are elements in this episode that I don’t love the execution of, like the cartoony tone of the colleagues at Yuxuan’s office, and the cartoony pet whisperer cum mystic. However, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a huge deal, because, first of all, the colleagues don’t feature much, in the rest of the show. When they show up, it’s usually a relatively quick drive-by sort of deal, so I’m pretty fine to just roll with it.

Secondly, these elements aren’t there just to take up screen time. They do serve a purpose.

From the exposition that we get through Yuxuan’s colleagues, we learn some important context about her: that her boyfriend Quansheng had died, 2 years ago; that even though Yuxuan appears to be fine and functional, she’s still actively in mourning, in her own way. She tries to be strong, but the wound is still very raw and very open, on the inside.

The pet mystic more or less confirms this (so she’s not as much of a quack as she first appears), and she even gives Yuxuan what feels like an important clue – the number 32 – towards seeing Quansheng again.

I feel that Show does a very effective job of demonstrating just how much Yuxuan loves and misses Quansheng. The way she literally thinks of him multiple times a day; the way she can’t keep it together, when a video of him accidentally plays in front of her; the way she still dreams about him regularly. He might be gone, but he’s everywhere, in her world, whether she’s awake or asleep.

The additional context that we get, that she had tried to stop him from going to Shanghai with her, and that he’d died in a plane crash, while on his way to join her in Shanghai, must make things so much worse for her to bear. Not only must she be haunted by the “what if,” of him going with her on the flight she had taken, which would have kept him safe, she must also be tormented by the thought that the last words she’d said to him, were harsh ones.

From the flashbacks that we see, Quansheng looks to have been a really sweet and loving boyfriend, even if he was prone to pranking Yuxuan and exasperating her. Putting that together with the circumstances under which they’d said goodbye, and I can see why Yuxuan is unable to move on with her life.

Of course, one of the big questions this episode, is, who is that guy whom she sees walk past the elevator? He looks just like Quansheng, except he looks older than the Quansheng that we see in the flashbacks. Given that it’s been only 2 years since the plane crash, why would Quansheng look visibly older..? And, if this is really Quansheng, why wouldn’t he show himself to Yuxuan, since, from the flashbacks, it’s clear that he loves her very much..?

The other question, is, is he a doppelgänger? After all, Show’s introduced the concept of doppelgängers, not only via the app that Yuxuan’s colleagues are working on, but also, there’s that excellent (EXCELLENT!) twist at the end of the episode, where we learn that the flashbacks to high school, which we’d assumed to be of Yuxuan and Quansheng in their younger days, are actually of a completely different set of people. Mind. Blown. 🤯

This may be my favorite twist ever, that I’ve watched on my screen. 🤩

We’re told that instead of Quansheng, the boy in the flashbacks, is named Li Ziwei, and the girl, who looks just like Yuxuan, is named Chen Yunru. Wow. Talk about turning everything on its head.

That changes everything, doesn’t it?

Where before, we’d thought that this incident at the record shop was part of Yuxuan’s memories, now we know that these memories must belong to a different set of people; Yuxuan’s and Quansheng’s doppelgängers, it looks like.

This begs the question of whether the guy that Yuxuan sees at the elevator, and then later, from the bus, is really Quansheng, or whether it’s really Li Ziwei, who only looks like Quansheng.

But then.. how does that explain the cake? Circumstantially, it seems that it was he who had left that cake for Yuxuan at her client’s office, for her birthday. If this is merely the doppelgänger, how would he have known that it was Yuxuan’s birthday, and that this was her favorite cake? Scratch that, how would he even know about Yuxuan’s existence..?

And then Yuxuan finds the photo on the internet, when using the app to search for Quansheng’s doppelgänger. That’s not her in the photo, since she doesn’t ever remember taking this photo, but.. is that Quansheng’s doppelgänger, or might that be Quansheng himself..?

So many delicious, confusing questions! 🤩

Episode 2

One of the main things that makes Show so interesting, is how we’re being served up various nuggets of information that are supposed to coexist in this drama world, but yet, appear to be at odds with one another.

Trying (and trying!) to make sense of how these nuggets of information fit together, is one of watching this show’s joys.

We’ve established that Yuxuan and Yunru are two different people, and now, with the timeline becoming clearer, it also appears to be the case, that Wang Quansheng and Li Ziwei are two different people as well.

But then, Show gives us little things that suggest that Quansheng and Ziwei are somehow connected, like the way they have the exact same attitude towards the third birthday wish, and use the exact same words, to express it. What is this magic, exactly, right? How would they think the same thing, and say the same thing, if they existed in different timelines? Did they.. know each other, perhaps?

And, if Quansheng really didn’t survive that plane crash, then this means that the person whom Yuxuan saw, would be Li Ziwei. And his age matches the timeline too, since he looks older than Wang Quansheng had looked, in the flashbacks.

BUT – and this is a biggie – how would he know of Yuxuan’s existence, and how would he know her preference in cake, and why would he go to the trouble of delivering a birthday cake to her..? It’s enough to make your head spin, really.

The other main draw that I find, in watching this show, is getting to know our characters. The more I get to know them, the more invested I feel, in their stories.

For example, I really feel for Yuxuan. The more I understand of her grief and her struggle to move on with her life, now that the love of her life is gone, the sorrier I feel, for her. Her regrets, mixed in with her love for him, make for a potent combination, and I honestly wouldn’t know what to tell her, as a friend.

And then there’s Yunru, who has her own set of cares and struggles. First of all, it looks like she’s being taken for granted at home.

She takes care of her mother and brother, which looks to be a thankless task, and then to make it all worse, it seems that her parents are getting a divorce, and only care about who will get custody of their son – with no apparent regard for Yunru herself.

Dang. That’s gotta hurt. It’s no wonder Yunru always looks like she’s got a lot on her mind.

Then there’s the friendship between Ziwei and Junjie. I do love that little backstory, of how Ziwei had extended his friendship so easily, to Junjie, at a time in his life when Junjie had felt marginalized. Ziwei didn’t care that Junjie had a hearing issue. In fact, he delighted in playing with Junjie’s hearing aid – and that had made the other kids see Junjie differently too. It’s no wonder that Junjie thinks of Ziwei as his best friend in the world.

Which is why it’s gotta hurt so bad, when Yunru, whom Junjie clearly likes, appears to like Ziwei instead. I mean, that birthday scene was so cheerful and lovely – until Yunru indicated that she wanted Ziwei to send her home, rather than Junjie.

OUCH. Poor Junjie. On the one hand, it’s his best buddy whom he thinks the world of, and on the other, it’s Yunru, on whom he has this big crush. What’s a guy to do? Junjie shrugs it off like it’s no big deal, and leaves on his own, but I can just imagine just how painful and confusing this must be, for him. 💔

And, I can imagine how awkward it must be, for Ziwei. I completely believe him when he says that he wouldn’t think of pursuing a girl that his friend liked. I also appreciate how upfront he is about this, to Yunru. He’s definitely not risking a misunderstanding with her, and he is careful not to lead her on. I think that’s upstanding of him, though I also feel rather bad for Yunru, who probably feels mortified at this clarification.

The fact that Uncle, in the present timeline, lets us know that Yunru died, presumably not too long after this point in time, makes her entire story land with an added layer of pathos.

In fact, when Yunru gets home on her birthday and finds her mom and brother gone, and starts wandering the streets in tears in the middle of the night, I half expected this to be the moment she died. PHEW that she didn’t die. 😅

ALSO. Who’s the person who sent Yuxuan that Walkman with that specific cassette? It’s the exact album that Ziwei and Yunru have been listening to in the past timeline, and it’s also the song on which Yuxuan’s memories of Quansheng hinge. Who sent her that cassette, and why?

In the bus, as she listens to the music – and presumably wakes up in Yunru’s body – the person sitting behind her looks suspiciously like Cake Dude. The profile and the glasses look very similar. Is Cake Dude following Yuxuan..? If he is, why?

So many questions, all up in the air.

Now that Yuxuan appears to be waking up in Yunru’s body, and is coming face to face with Ziwei, perhaps she’ll be able to get some answers? Or maybe.. just more questions. 😅

How surreal it must be for her, though, to see Quansheng’s face in front of her. Incidentally, I thought I’d mention that in the last text message that she sends to Quansheng’s phone, just before she falls asleep and then wakes up in Yunru’s body, is that she wants to see him. The last three words of her text, “想见你,” (literally, “want to see you”) is the Chinese title of this show.

Wait.. does this have some kind of link to the words engraved on the inside of her ring..? “Only if you ask to see me”?? But.. that doesn’t really make any sense, in the context of everything that we’ve been told..?

Maybe we all need a some bandages to our heads, like Yuxuan/Yunru has on, in these screenshots. 😝😅