Synopsis
Om makes fun of Noh and gossips about Earn getting hammered at the party the night before. Apparently, when Noh asked for more drinks, the boys came back with the drinks for Noh but Earn stopped them. The boys insisted someone should drink the drinks, so Earn drinks them and gets drunk very quickly. Earn got drunk for Noh! Cute. But, where was Phun when all this was going down? Maybe he gets late to the party? Argh, I can’t remember because it has been several weeks since I watched Episode 3.
The boys recall the rest of the nights events, including drunk Noh dancing, and drunk Noh falling on the pool and dragging Channel (Hippo) with him. “So, how is Phun after the beating he took last night?” one of the boys asks. Apparently Noh punched and kicked Phun at the party while he was intoxicated. Why are we allowing a 15 year old to get intoxicated? Never mind.
Noh answers that he doesn’t know how Phun is doing after last night. Om interjects, “Didn’t you see anything when you were taking a shower together?”. Noh answers back, “I was drunk. It was all a blur”. OH MY GOD NOH! Stop being so naïve! Om quickly capitalizes on Noh’s mistake and proclaims to the rest of the group, “So they did take a shower together!”. I laughed very hard.
At the convent, the girls discover that Mo has a hickey. They joke that Mo went at it all night with Moan. Being “girls”, they make an analogy of making out all night and an all-day sale. Grace turns bitch mode on and proclaims something about people buying things only because they are cheap, but when the sale is over and the stocks are all gone, “that’d be the end of it”. Mo answers back with something that I will take the liberty to paraphrase: “Bitch, at least I get laid while you are drooling over the same guy that Jeed is going out with! Oh, and by the way, that guy thinks Jeed is prettier than you”. Later the girls have to explain to Yuri what is a hickey. “What do you do with Noh when you guys go out?”, the girls ask. According to Yuri, basically they do nothing girls don’t do with other girls, like shopping and eating. “Is Noh gay?”, the girls ponder. Yuri leaves. She is hurt people are making fun and saying Noh is gay.
We get a useless flashback of how Phun ended up cockblocking Earn. You know, how he exchange uniforms with Noh and ended up getting the water for Earn. Apparently the production thinks we need a flashback to remember something that happened 2 or 3 episodes ago? Meh.
Khom and Nueng fight. I am bored.
Jeed insist that Mo sits by Yuri. This season they are trying to make Jeed a nicer character, at least for now. Mo tries to cheer Yuri up. They have a conversation about how people can show up affection in different ways, so she shouldn’t compare the way Noh shows affection to how Moan shows affection. This is very true but Moan also LIVES with Mo. How can Yuri compare her relationship with Noh to Mo and Moan’s? Yuri can be very immature sometimes. Yuri wonders out loud if Noh may be gay. Mo tells her they can find out. How? What is Mo’s big plan? Oh, they dress up and go to Noh’s school to watch the boys in their natural environment. If this plan sounds stupid is because it is. And no, this was not in the book. This is fillers added by the producers to pad the show so they could get 36 episodes. Why did they added filler so early in the season? Your guess is as good as mine.
Jeed meets her man, Nueng, for dinner. He is so handsome here. I don’t know why but his soft talk, his dimples, and his hair cut, it all just work well here. Nueng sees Jeed applying makeup. When Nueng approaches Jeed from behind and whispers “You are already pretty”, it really sounds sexy and so hot. It is hard to picture him as the asshole he was in season 1. After discussing their status, Jeed tells him she wants more than just friendship. He invites her to the beach for the weekend. I will admit, I didn’t like him in season 1, but all of a sudden, in this particular scene, I am melting, just like Jeed. I know he is supposed to be in HS, but Palm Vittawat, who plays Nueng, was approximately 20 years old when this was filmed and he looked good. Don’t judge me! This is a no judgment zone.
After avoiding school security, teachers, and making a successful pit stop at the boys bathroom, the girls arrive at the gymnasium. They see the boys playing ball. Yuri notes that it is an all-boy school, so naturally the guys are very close. Mo observes two guys eating ice cream in what looks like a scene straight out of a shounen-ai novel. She is shocked, “a little too close”. Welcome to Friday College, where no one defies the world of BL. This is the “Fantasy Island” of gay teens. At least, I know it would have been for teen gay me.
Speaking of gay boys, the next scene introduces us to PerWin. Per is putting up posters for the upcoming music competition. Win offers to help. Per pushes back a little bit. He tells Win that he needs to get a girlfriend and stop chasing him around like a puppy. But Win is such a cute puppy! LOL I don’t want to spoil anything but this conversation here is hinting at the real relationship between these two. Per’s strange reaction to Win’s offer for help is explained in later episodes.
Noh sees Phun and he clumsily stumbles and almost falls down. Phun catches him. This trope is now known in BL as the Fall-Catch, which I guess comes to BL straight from Thai Lakorns. Until today, I didn’t know Love Sick had done this trope. In any event, we get another flashback to scenes that happened 2 episodes ago. Why do we need a flash back? Oh, to remind us that Noh hit Phun a couple of times playfully.
Mo and Yuri stand close by listening and observing Noh and Phun. Yuri mentions how she knew Noh would be at the gym because he is masculine and loves playing soccer. Mo gives her the same look I would have given her if she said that in front of me.
Phun confirms Noh’s worst fears: that he is still waiting for a payback for all the punches he got from Noh. He reaches to his pocket and we see his hand shape into a fist. The girls think Phun is about to punch Noh. Noh grimaces. Phun opens his fist to show that he has a dog tag. It’s the same dog tag that Earn had given to Noh but Phun had made Noh return it. Noh wonders why he is getting that from Phun when it should be Aim that gets it. The entire scene is framed within a heart shaped topiary. Yuri starts crying as she realizes that Phun and Noh probably have something going on.
We get contrasting scenes of Khom looking for a job at the mall and Jeed and Nueng buying stuff. Tons of stuff. I totally get now why the girls all want a Friday College boy. They do have money. Jeed has found her sugar daddy and ATM machine.
Earn interrupts Phun and Noh. Phun chooses to leave. I am surprised that Phun left Earn with Noh alone. Earn offers Noh his dog tag. Noh tells Earn he already got one from Phun. The girls, who are still observing from behind the bushes, are happy to see that handing out dog tags is so common. They think all guys do it. Being its Friday College, this is probably true.
Khom finds a job.
We see a very sweet scene of Noh reminiscing about the gift he got from Phun. He smiles as he clasps with one hand the dog tag he got from Phun. A quick flashback reminds us of what happened less than 10 minutes ago.
Quote at end of episode: “It doesn’t matter how others view you as long as you believe in yourself”
Analysis
When I first watched this episode, I thought it was a terrible episode. I still think it is not a great episode, but I no longer think it is the worst episode ever. I think this episode suffers from several issues: the main story barely moves along, we get little insight into the characters lives, and too much time is wasted following Jeed and Nueng around while they go on a shopping spree. On top of that, Grace ruins every scene she is in. Yes, the actress who plays her overacts but the real problem is the character who is just terrible as a human being. Who wants to spend any time with her?
The editing of this episode also seems a bit amateurish at times. On top of that, a lot of the outside scenes have terrible sound (and this episode had a lot of outside scenes). This episode also tries hard for us to care about Khom and Jeed. Khom was a great character, until they decided that Khom was going to be heart broken of over Jeed. Why is he heart broken over Jeed? They dated for a short time and she treated him like crap.
On a positive note, I loved the scenes with Om and the gang teasing Noh. This was something that Love Sick did very well. The teasing seemed almost adlibbed and improvised. The punch lines always delivered effectively. It made me laughed and this episode was no exception.
Yuri shows for the first time that she is conscious of the possibility that Noh may be gay. In season 1, she was a little concerned when Noh told her he showered with Om naked, but here she even cries when she sees Phun give the dog tags to Noh! Clearly, she is becoming more and more concerned that Noh is gay. She complains to Mo that Noh doesn’t seem to be interested in her. I think a lot of woman who unknowingly date gay men probably go through the same thing. I genuinely feel for them. Being loved and desired is an important part of the human experience.
In the book, Noh spends the entire day thinking that Phun would want to beat him up as pay back for how much Noh punched and kicked Phun when he was drunk the night before. I don’t think the episode made this clear. I think P’Andy’s decision of not having us being able to hear Noh’s internal monologue weaken Love Sick, but in this episode it was critical and without that knowledge, we are left pretty confused as to why Noh is so scared of Phun.
We know that the ending quote usually makes reference to the overarching theme of the episode. In this case, the ending quote alludes to how it doesn’t matter how other people see you, as long as you believe in yourself. The entire episode is about people who are not what they appear. Mo and Yuri dress up to go to Friday College and they trick the teacher into thinking Mo is a mom. People see them different from who they are. Noh sees Phun as trying to get even with him for what happened the night before. Yuri sees Noh as straight even though we know he is not. But who cares how people see Noh? As long as Noh believes in himself, it doesn’t matter. Does this mean that if he sees himself as straight, he will be straight? I don’t know, but that ending quote could certainly be interpreted that way.
I should not end this blog without pointing out that the scene between Per and Win is important because it sets the tone for that relationship. You will see later that Per’s strange reaction can be explained by how he feels about Win. I really enjoyed this couple’s story, thought I felt I didn’t have closure with them. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but the ending leaves things too open for my tastes.
The final scene showing Noh smiling and looking at the dog tag was very sweet. It reminded me how amazing this show was. Captain may not be the best actor here, but he is competent and I honestly love these little moments when he lets us see how much Noh cares about Phun. It is lovely.
So, overall this was one of the weakest episodes of Love Sick Season 2 and perhaps one of the weakest episodes in the entire franchise. I am rating it accordingly below.
Favorite Line of the episode: Anytime Yuri says that Noh is not gay.
Favorite moment: Noh clenching the dog tag and smiling thinking about Phun.
Rating of this episode if Jeed and Grace had no scenes:
Rating of this episode with Jeed and Grace:
The looking glass 