Love Sick Season 2 Episode 5

Om and the Music club are upset that Noh has abandoned them and left them in the middle of the process of selecting acts for the band competition. We get a shameless ad for a refreshing beverage. BL series are still doing these, in case you wonder. The guys are all going to Hua Hin with the girls. This is that trip that they talk about in the first episode. The girls get in the car and Phun and Noh exchange glances.

I never make comments about Noh being sexy because well, he is in high school and Captain was 16 when this was filmed, but I have to admit that the way Captain is dressed here, with the tank top and camo shorts reminds me of a guy that I had a crush on when I was in college. And that guy was very sexy. That guy is a doctor nowadays. He has a daughter. He is still hot. I digress.

The gang makes it to the hotel. Yuri and Noh sit in the lobby. Phun and Aim argue about whether the girls are staying in the same room or if each couple gets a room. By each couple, I mean “couple” (Aim/Phun and Yuri/Noh) and not the REAL couple (Phun and Noh). Apparently, Aim and Yuri want to get laid. At this point, they will have more luck getting laid if they just sleep in the same roomBased on his reaction, I honestly don’t think Phun wants to get laid with Noh as much as he is avoiding having sex with Aim, so he really insists that they should not stay in the same room. In the end, he loses his battle. During the argument, we learn that Aim wanted to go to the beach with Phun alone, but she couldn’t turn Yuri down and Yuri wanted to come with Noh. We also learn that Aim has her doubts about Phun. She asks him if he has feelings for someone else. He doesn’t answer.

I like how Phun and Aim are the ones who get to decide if Yuri and Noh are going to sleep together. I guess it is because Phun is paying or because Aim invited them? Yuri overhears Phun and Noh talk about sharing a room together. Yuri says, “I guess Aim wants to share the room with Phun”. She says this is normal because they already have done it. Yuri wonders out loud about Phun and Noh. No, just kidding, she has no idea, but she should because those two have definitely done it. I have seen the goldfish in Phun’s room, and goldfish don’t lie. Goldfish = sex in Thai BLs.

Yuri wonders about her and Noh. Yuri asks Noh if he finds her disgusting. Noh says that he just wants to be a gentleman and doesn’t want to take advantage of Yuri. However, Yuri insists. She tells Noh that she gets jealous when her friends talk about “it” (sex). She thinks that when couples are doing “it”, it means they are in love. The fact that Noh hasn’t done it yet with her, means to Yuri that Noh doesn’t love her. She tells Noh, “You have never loved me”. I love Yuri but she can be a bit overtly dramatic. She cries and goes to her room. Aim consoles her.

Later that evening, the gang goes to the boardwalk. Well, I am not sure if it is the boardwalk, but the place reminds me of the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland. Yuri plans a special night with Noh. She asks Phun for help., which leaves Aim and Yuri alone. AWKWARD! After Phun leaves with Yuri, Noh has no idea what to do alone with Aim. I mean, the only thing that Aim and Noh have in common is that they both like Phun and that they both have had Phun’s eggplant. Other than that, I am drawing a blank. These two really have nothing in common at all. Oh, well, I guess they are both friends with Yuri? But how close are Aim and Yuri? I have always wondered about that too… Sorry, I am digressing again.

Yuri buys candles and some praying flower garlands [Note: I guess these garlands are blessed and it is a “sin” or curse to break them like she will do later. Did she doom her relationship?] Phun is bewildered. I am too. Frankly, Yuri should just ask Phun how he got Noh in bed. If I recall correctly, it involved lots of alcohol, a few lies about needing a fake boyfriend, and a love confession. I feel bad for her. Yuri is so innocent.

The gang gets back to the hotel and Yuri sends Noh on a walk, so she can get the room ready for them. Once Noh leaves, Yuri gets to work and we see her pushing the beds close together, lighting up candles, and praying away the sin she is about to commit. I guess in Thailand premarital sex is sinful too. [Note: See my other note about this in the analysis below]

Phun sees Noh sitting outside. Noh confesses that he does not want to sleep with Yuri. Phun mentions that Aims also wants to sleep with him but he tried to talk her out of it. Noh asks him if he wants to sleep with her, to which Phun replies, “No, but it doesn’t mean I want to sleep with you”. Noh smiles. I smile because I know that’s a big fat lie. We all know Phun wants a piece of Noh’s little ass. LOL

Noh says something profound, “It’s a terrible feeling not knowing where the line between us is, isn’t it?”. Phun wonders out loud if what they are doing is a sin.

Phun decides to take a nap outside. Why? I don’t know. He asks Noh to wake him up before he goes upstairs, but Noh falls asleep. As soon as Noh closes his eyes, Phun opens his and looks at Noh. When White opens his eyes to look at Captain, oh lordy, I nearly fainted. White looks so HOT here.

Noh opens his eyes, and he smiles while looking at Phun fake sleeping. Phun rubs his… hand. I said HAND, his HAND, he rubs his hand with Noh’s. He stops short of trying to hold his hand.

Back inside, the girls are waiting for the boys: we see Yuri who fell asleep in the bed waiting for Noh to come back and Aim is in bed waiting for Phun.

Mo and Moan

Mo’s aunt shows up at her place unannounced. Apparently, she has a key to the apartment. She finds the place is a mess. While cleaning the place up, she finds a pair of Moan’s underwear. She is upset. “You can’t have a boyfriend. I need to get one first!” Oh, I like her, she got spunk.

Mo goes down to Moan’s apartment and complains to him that he left his underwear at her place. They have a fight and Mo leaves. However, she soon realizes that she has left her key at Moan’s apartment. She decides to ask Golf for help. Golf lets her spend the night at his place. Mo cries. She lays in bed with Golf. Golf says he will sleep in the sofa. Moan doesn’t want that. They sleep together. In this scene the sound mixing is off: the music is so loud, you can barely hear them talk. We see Golf thinking of whether he should put his hand around Mo or not. In the end, he doesn’t.

Ending quote: “Sometimes doing the right thing means going against your own desires“

Analysis

Let’s first get this out of the way: Captain wears a Captain America shirt throughout this entire episode. I think it is great and I always thought it was a great choice and something you will not see in American TV without having to deal with royalties and all that.

There is a couple of things I like about this episode. First, I love the idea of having the gang go to a hotel together. These are the kinds of experiences that build up friendships and either make or break couples. I think Yuri is expecting her relationship with Noh to be strengthened by this trip, while Aim is hoping that her relationship with Phun will be fixed. Aim is clearly feeling that Phun has become distant and she already suspects that Phun likes someone else. Second, I like how Phun and Noh talk openly about their relationship. I especially loved Noh’s line, “It’s a terrible feeling not knowing where the line between us is, isn’t it?”. Noh is struggling here with the question of whether they are friends or more than friends.

At the epicenter of this episode is the topic of pre-marital sex. To some characters like Yuri, it is a sin, but it is also something that can bring them closer together [NOTE: Thanks to my friend Nolan from pealesview.com, who pointed out that she was asking for forgiveness because she broke the praying wreaths/garlands to get the rose petals out, not because she thought she was about to have sex with Noh and needed forgiveness for that. I now recall that seeing this episode for the first time, I understood this scene a bit different: I thought she was doing some type of love spell for which she needed the roses from the garlands but at that point I didn’t realize she had asked for forgiveness. So, I read the scene differently the first time I watched it and the second time and in both I was wrong]. To some characters like Phun, it is a double edge sword. To Phun, who no longer wants to have sex with Aim, it is a chore. For Mo, being sexually active with Moan is something she is ashamed of and doesn’t want her aunt to find out about. I don’t know if this episode is intended as a morality play, but there certainly is an element of that, as we see some of the consequences of pre-marital sex. In the case of Aim and Phun and Mo and Moan, being sexually active does not help them be happier in their relationships, which contradicts Yuri’s statement about sex bringing couples closer together.

Yuri prays and asks for forgiveness for the sin she is about to commit, while Phun asks Noh if he thinks that what they are “doing” is a sin. Taken in this context, the ending quote, “Sometimes doing the right thing means going against your own desires”, is really a warning about the dangers of pre-marital sex. The right “thing” probably refers to the decision of not having sex. All the characters here made the “right” decision by not having sex: Phun didn’t have sex with Aim or Noh, Noh didn’t have sex with Yuri, and Golf and Mo didn’t have sex even though they slept on the same bed. I say “right” and not right because I think that talking about this in a show aimed at teenagers is just a bit too proselytizing for me.

You may look at Phun’s reticence to having sex with Aim as a sign that he is coming out of the closet, however I think Phun is torn between his feelings for Noh and his duty to be a good boyfriend to Aim. Phun actively tries to avoid sleeping in the same room with Aim because he doesn’t want to have sex with her anymore. This is not because Phun is now gay and doesn’t want to have sex with a woman, but because I think he feels that he is insincere. How do I know this? Well, I don’t. I am not just making stuff up though. The series provides us some hints. I think that when Phun tells Noh that he “doesn’t want to have sex with Aim but that this doesn’t mean he wants to have sex with [Noh] either”, I think he is telling the truth. He is basically saying that the reason he doesn’t want to have sex with Aim is not because he is thinking of Noh, but because he is no longer interested in Aim. It is a subtle difference, but one that I think is crucial because it sets Phun as the “good” guy in the relationship. In most Thai BL, the girlfriend is evil or unworthy of her boyfriend, which is why the boyfriend ends up with another guy.

Overall, this is one of my favorite episodes of Season 2. The chemistry between Captain and White is good, the episode has good pacing, the cinematography is good, and the script is among the most grounded and the most queer-centered we have seen thus far in Love Sick.