Love Through A Prism Ep 20 [FINAL]

I’m sad that this show wasn’t a bit longer as there were a lot of time skips in this episode. But I do think this was a rather clean way to wrap it up.

After years of being on an ‘art hiatus’ (so to speak), Lili finishes her first painting. Because it’s been so long, she has lost a bit of her edge, and it’s a bit frustrating to see but it’s only natural. But the fact she was able to finish it is still a great accomplishment to be happy about. And she knows with time and dedication, she’ll be able to refine her skills once more to create the art she can be proud of.

In the end, Shin and Lili had come to terms that neither of them can get married (to each other) because they both have unfinished business that needs to be taken care of. And that’s to pursue their dreams that were forced to be put on hold from them when the war broke out. I love and appreciate how in sync these two have always been, and the fact they are on the same wavelength made their decision to call off their engagement that much easier.

I absolutely love how supportive Shin is of Lili, just as she’s very supportive of him as well. Both of them want the best for each other, which means they don’t want the other to miss out on any opportunities. It doesn’t matter that both of them are super rusty for going on a hiatus for the past five years, they are ready to refine their skills once more, and resume pursuing their passion for the arts. But more than that, he was pressing her to return to London, not just to resume painting her favourite landscapes that inspires her, but also to return to Kit’s side. Now that’s fucking true love right now.

Once again Lili did need to persuade her mother to let her go to London. Only this time, she has a much stronger resolve to not abandon painting, and declared she’ll open up a kimono boutique in London so she can accomplish both things. Under those conditions and with the promise that both her skills as a painting and the kimono boutique becomes the world’s best and lead the happiest life she can, her mother granted her permission to return to London.

The first time skip is one year later, where Shin departs to Italy ahead of Lili. Six months after that, she returns to London, but her reunion with Kit is postponed because he was somewhere on the other-side of the world (gee go figure!), following true to his father’s footsteps before he had gotten married. During this time Lili joins Catherine’s business by sharing a boutique, where one section of the shop is dedicated to her selling her family’s kimonos, as promised with her mother as part of the resolve to return to London. I kind of had a feeling Catherine and Lili were going to collaborate one way or another with the Kimonos, but this turned out even better and endearing than I had imagined.

It’s not until six months later that finally Kit returns from his worldwide journey. The two of them have their long awaited reunion at the beach where they made their pinkie promise. And after six years of waiting, they finally confessed their feelings to each other. And thankfully for sanity’s sake, we actually got two kisses. The first was a sweet peck, the second was a more romantic one.

It goes without saying, this romance was definitely a slow-burn, to the point that I wasn’t sure if they were actually going to be able to convince me to really be rooting for Kit and Lili. For Kit, as early as Episode 6, you could clearly tell he did have strong feelings for her, but due various circumstances, it was understandable why it was a lot more challenging for him to come forward with his feelings than Lili. Some may say he was a coward, but he was thinking more about the pain he might inflict on Lili than the pain he’d feeling for not telling her that he loves her.

Lili on the other-hand, was much slower, and it certainly didn’t help that she was constantly putting her foot in her mouth. It was quite frankly infuriating, especially seeing her fail not once but TWO TIMES IN A ROW. YOU HAD ONE JOB GIRL. But the part that I struggled with the most in the first half was trying to identify whether Lili was in love, or was she still at the point of harbouring admiration towards Kit as an artist she looks up to.

The final two episodes however did a much better job of convincing me of their love though, probably because they were finally on the same page, and ready to be a lot more open about it. No more dallying and beating around the bush, just straight-forward talk. Although there were no “I love you”s, it’s not really in either of their character to say that. Instead, their love language is more through their shared passion for the arts, and of how without the other, the world is so boring and grey. As long as they have each other, their world will forever be colourful. And this was arguably the most romantic scene of the entire series, as it should be because we waited so long for it!

Finally last but not least, it was nice to see how the other characters were doing. Joffery has actually opened up a pub (which is named after himself, go figure). As promised, he really did fill up the entire place with all of their best artworks and even has little bits of their significant items which was a sweet and sentimental touch. Dorothy has since become a mother, and has three children of her own now. Peter is appears to be a successful businessman, and has even dropped by to visit Shin, who’s been pursuing his studies in Italy. Catherine has finally been able to follow her dream of opening up her own boutique, consisting of gowns and outfits she has designed herself. Even better that now she shares that space with Lili.

The only ones notably absent from this class reunion were Kit and Lili, both off god knows to the cave full of lilies that Kit had promised to take her to. It was even more magical that she could have imagined, and now the two spend their lives travelling the world,panting various landscapes and portraits. For Kit, his art has evolved into not just sketching plants, animals and insects, but now he even does portraits of people too. Something he had picked doing while fighting for his survival.

However there was one person who we didn’t actually get an update on their survival from the war, and that was Richard. I kind of wished we knew whether or not he had survived, but based on the way Kit had described it being better that everyone had thought he was dead, it sounds like his brother didn’t make it out alive.

Final Thoughts

Well I really enjoyed watching this! I can’t believe I actually managed to finish watching and writing up all the remaining entries within a span of 48 hours. There was no stopping, something just clicked and I was off to the races. It just goes to show the best way to enjoy this series, is binge it.

I will say though, there were at times when I felt like the themes of the story were fighting each other for the spotlight. Notably in the first half, there would be moments where it felt like romance was taking up too much time as opposed to Lili’s pursuit in her studies. Whereas in the second half, the opposite problem occurred, where romance progression was more or less dragging at this point, and it’s not till the final two episodes when you really start to feel the payoff for it.

In fact, I’d even go as far to say, this story was more about a group of artists pursuing their dreams, and overcoming various obstacles that they have no control over. The ups and downs takes everyone on a journey of finding out what they truly want to do with their lives, and for Lili and Shin in particular, Kit played an enormous role in that, just as Lili did for him. Romance progression on the other-hand, was a mixed bag for me. There were points early where I was struggling to be sold on Kit and (more specifically) Lili were actually in love with each other. It would be best to describe as a messy one, because off the top of my head, the two most romantic moments of the show was when they had briefly danced together at the ball, and the finale when they freaking finally confess their love to each other.

It also didn’t help that Lili was absolutely infuriating with how stubborn she was when it comes to just laying out her feelings. Kit honestly needed to communicate better, but I’m giving him more of a leeway given the situation he was dealing with. In his heart, he felt it’d be better to keep his feelings to himself when he didn’t know whether he was going to survive this war. But truth to be told, I don’t harbour much feelings towards Lili and Kit as a couple. They were fine, but I wished we had the opportunity to actually see them actually make improvements their poor or rather complete failure of communication with each other, as that was the main cause for things to be repeatedly dragged out. Perhaps if they did, then I’d be more invested in their love story

There were also instances where I wished there had been more believable build up to certain developments. I understand why Kit decided to take on his responsibilities as an aristocrat, but the idea of him abruptly jumping into the role of a diplomat was honestly pushing the logic of it. So when they were talking about him being involved in diplomacy for the war, I honestly didn’t think he’d take on that role. However, while the foundations for Kit to take on this role was flimsy at best, we did at the very least, see Kit come out of this as not only more maturer, but somewhat a better communicator (though old habits die hard when the way he just disappears to places without a word).

I also had mixed feelings about the way they chose to have Lili obtain first place in the critique competition. I didn’t particularly like the fact she was given a special treatment regardless of the fact the theme was “Freedom”. Because you can’t say one thing for her, and not the same for the rest of the students who had to personally submit their assignment on time. Kit submitting it the next morning should’ve been disqualified. If they were going to insist this, I would have much preferred Kit either rushing to meet the deadline when she had already given up on it, or some other set up that would’ve made it more acceptable.

As for character development, I’d say Kit was probably the one with the most character growth. He’s not the type of character that is going to widely appeal to everyone. More often than not, he’s wearing a stoic face, and the most we ever get to see him smile in the final two episodes, which is honestly sad. I think that’s why a part of me wished there had been a few more episodes, just so that we could see Lili and Kit spend more time together, but considering the format, the way they wrapped it up made sense. It felt like a proper ending of a movie, something which I’ve described this series to be like before. An episodic film.

I think the most rewarding part about Kit’s character development is probably the moment he started putting other’s well beings above his own interest. This began the moment Richard told him about the seemingly inevitable war in the horizons. Kit understood right then and there that he had to grow up, and running away from his responsibilities was simply not an option. That’s why he was forced to make a lot of difficult decisions, many of which he could not easily share with his friends, especially Lili. The only person he did actually open up to was in-fact Shin. Perhaps it’s because he knew the guy was level-headed enough to understand, and he also knew that Shin cared deeply for Lili, so he could trust that he’d look out for her in this moment of uncertainty.

But while this may have been an unpopular decision, Kit’s choice to not confess to Lili was something I understood. He knew what he was going into, and he didn’t want to selfishly impose her with his feelings when he knows he might not even make it out alive. However I was disappointed to see him regress into his old bad habits when it comes to disappearing without a word. At the very least, he should’ve properly said goodbye to all of his friends properly.

Lili on the other-hand, boy they really tested my patience with her. I really didn’t like the fact they made her fail confessing twice, and that being two episodes back to back. I would have much preferred if she ended up shouting it to him when his boat was already going away, but loud enough that he did get to hear it. If anything, as much his heart was already breaking to have to leave her behind, it could’ve served as further determination for him to survive, especially given the hellish fight for survival after washing up on enemy shores.

As a whole, I must confess that Lili’s character was at times a mixed bag for me. One on hand she’s super charming and lovable, and I admire her passion and grit for getting better. On the other, I really started running out of patience when she’d continuously lash out instead of saying what she had come all this way to say. But if there’s any legitimate excuses for it, it’s more so a consistent flaw in her character, a bad habit to break so to speak. And we see that pan out when she lashes out at Kit, smacking him three times when she finally reunites with him in Yokohama after four years of grieving his apparent death. It is apparent though that she has matured significantly since their reunion in Yokohama. At this point, she was pretty much used to Kit’s habit of wandering wherever art calls him.

But if you ask me who’s my favourite character is in this series, it actually ends up being Shin. I absolutely adore his character, and the second lead syndrome is real. He is the perfect example of a true friend, through thick and thin. I truely appreciated that they didn’t make him solely revolve around Lili, but have Kit play an important part to. The friendship between them ended up being one of the greatest highlights in the show. Shin and Kit just have this artistic understanding with each other that I know Peter and Kit lacks. And that’s what they value in their art, to instill eternity into a memory by giving it form. They are the best bros.

I also greatly admire how good of a friend Shin was to Lili as well. He had feelings for Lili for a long time, but not once did he ever let that get in the way of what he felt was best for her. He was never selfish nor insecure about it. And it truly speaks volumes of the amount of love and respect he has towards Kit as well to not be fazed by that. But it certainly helps that he and Lili have a true mutual understanding with each other about each other’s passion for the art. That’s why they readily supported each other in pursuing their dreams that had been postponed by the war.

What I also loved about Shin though, was that he wasn’t going to pursue his dream unless Lili did too. He didn’t want to leave her on her own, nor did he feel it would be fair to. In many respects, they really were a great fit if they did go forward marriage, because they are on the same wavelength as each other, allowing them to intimately understand each other’s passion for the arts.

As for the other characters, they were very charming. Joffrey definitely got the short end of the stick, being the clown of the group, but credit to him, he actually made his dream of owning a pub come true. Dorothy also had a relatively minimal role, but she served as a good friend for Lili, one who was ready to lend an ear or help out whenever she needed it. Peter though incredibly intuitive was a complicated guy who had to grapple with his shortcomings. And finally Catherine, who came out to be the biggest surprise. I wasn’t expecting to like her as much as I did upon her first meeting, but I’m absolutely here for the lifelong friendship that has been formed between her and Lili.

Overall, despite my gripes about the way they went about certain things, I do think this was a great show. I enjoyed it, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think the drawn out conflicts and occasional pathetic lack of communication didn’t bog the story down at times. Surprisingly, despite this being a romance, I honestly didn’t care much for it. As I said earlier, I never seriously grew invested in Kit’s and Lili’s romance, so instead I simply enjoyed the story about the characters pursuing their passions in the art. And that was good enough for me.

Final Verdict: 8/10