Alright, omg -- really excited to write this, really excited to build off of some excellent thoughts from the family, particularly @bengiyo and @lurkingshan -- @bengiyo, you verbalized some questions I had about the timeline we were watching in 2/2, so I'll ask them again here. Be My Favorite, the dreaded episode 11, let's do this:
First off, I LOVED THIS EPISODE, despite the many open threads we have going on. What else would I expect from a GMMTV penultimate episode otherwise?
The poem scene -- Pear reading UCHANEE's "Khop Fa Khlip Thong" (we are SO lucky that the show creators cited the poem at the end of the episode), overlaid with Pisaeng and Kawi in their intimacy -- gorgeous. @placetneplacet's post here depicts this overlay beautifully.
I also think we got a lot of hints about the structure (cc @lurkingshan, structure-ish, ha) of this episode from the conversation between Pear's dad and Pisaeng's mom at the start of the episode. Through that conversation, and from the conversation revealed between Loong Crystal Ball and Kawi, we see and hear: that much of life is about leaving life alone to let it process and simmer as time goes on. Loong Crystal Ball gave Kawi the ability to right his wrongs, as he said in his own words -- but also, he chides Kawi to say, listen, a lot of life is about luck. There are things you can't change. Let it go, let it simmer.
Between the conversation with the parents, the conversation with Loong Crystal Ball, and then, then -- Pisaeng being refused medical information at the hospital, and Pisaeng's anger at Kawi's condition -- I take this episode to be partly about acceptance of a present the way it is, the way the present presents itself. That moral, that reality, about accepting things as the way they are, is a huge theme to this story. Pear's dad and Pisaeng's mom have got to accept that the loves that their children have found are the loves that these parents will need to accept. That, mom and dad, is a part of the life of a parent. In the end, you can't control EVERYTHING about the lives of your children.
And of course, the competing theme to an acceptance theme is: how do you change the present? How can you change HOW the present presents? How can you make the present for yourself -- and even for others -- a BETTER present?
It's not just Kawi's condition that serves as a metaphor here. We know Pisaeng will go to the past to begin addressing this in episode 12. We'll find out if Pisaeng can impact Kawi's health.
BUT, ALSO, VERY IMPORTANTLY: we also see commentary about LGBTQ+ rights here -- and how LGBTQ+ rights have MUCH improvement to do, despite Thailand's progressiveness (remember that same-sex marriage is still illegal in Thailand!).
Based on the timeline presented in 2/4, we can assume that we are in 2024 when Kawi is in the hospital. And Pisaeng is being refused by the doctor to receive sensitive health information about Kawi. Pisaeng is not considered to be Kawi's family -- in 2024 Thailand. Clearly, that's something that needs to be changed -- along with Pisaeng's micro-level desire to keep Kawi from getting sick, which we know may be an impossible task, as we learned from Kawi's dad.
As this episode started, I couldn't help but think back to the lessons we learned early in the series about truth and the philosophy of truth, from Nietzsche, from Einstein, from Orwell. I was thinking, we gotta harken back to some of those lessons -- and certainly, I think this episode touched upon this, specifically from the dystopian viewpoint that despite the excellent work in moving LGBTQ+ rights forward by people like Max, that Thailand is still held back by generations of cultural convention against equality. "On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense," indeed.
But to me, this episode also touched upon something far more simplistic, and I think I'm convinced about it by what we saw with all the parents in this episode -- Pear's dad, Pisaeng's mom, Pear's mom, and the glimpse of Kawi's dad. And as well, I'm thinking about the following vis à vis the seven-year timeline we saw with Pisaeng's and Kawi's relationship:
The work of being in a relationship, as Pear's dad said in episode 10, involves compromise and forgiveness. A relationship is like waves to a shore. The water moves forward, goes back, gets high in the tide, gets low in the tide. A relationship is akin to a living, breathing thing. It takes energy to tend to it. Two people need to go back and forth, forward and backwards, to tend to it, to help it grow. We see Pisaeng and Kawi very simply compromising on their sleeping habits by using two comforters in bed, for instance.
They're happy, certainly, but.... as @bengiyo mentioned, in this particular seven-year timeline, there's something going on. Kawi keeps eating, and is sitting at home, seemingly not working, or working as a freelancer -- and we don't know what's up with that, as the most recent alternate timeline had him working as a singer.
I'm gonna posit a clown theory that builds off of @lurkingshan's questions about what exactly is happening here.
I don't trust the trailer of episode 12, but I will go ahead and (probably inaccurately) predict that BOTH Pisaeng and Kawi will be living in back-in-time timelines. And in the confusing process of all of that, what lesson they might learn is -- this may very well be an INEFFICIENT way of managing their relationship. Because -- they could be doing that work of improving their relationship in the damn present, without the damn crystal ball, like the rest of us schmucks in real life who are dealing with hubbies and wifeys and all our partners in-between (it's been a long week with my temperamental toddler, LOL, tired mom here).
In other words: whether you have a crystal ball or not, whether you have the ability to go back and fix your past, your responsibility, when you are partnered with your love in a relationship, is to tend to the relationship. Present, past, future, whatever: you need to care for the relationship as lovingly as you love your partner, because that union will be what takes you through your life, when you find that loving partner.
I believe this was the message that Max was giving Kawi in episode 10 regarding sex, which is why I don't follow the theory of Kawi being ace. I believe what Max was saying was, a relationship needs equal engagement and balance, and compromise, and a curiosity about exploring oneself for the sake of your partner, and vice versa. I believe the end of the intimacy scene in episode 11 indicates that Kawi is not ace, but was hesitant about the unknown regarding sex (cc @grapejuicegay on the unknown, as ever!).
I know the narrative structure was a touch bouncy, and I will give all big ups to my dear friend @lurkingshan, because I agree with you that the structure of what the show is carrying at the moment is delicate at best. It needs some scaffolding. But, for my tastes, the EMPATHY of this show, and particularly of this episode -- the empathy that this show is about to hand to Pisaeng, to start doing the damn work for the relationship that Kawi's been doing for the past few episodes -- is carrying me. I think this show continues to be fabulous. And I'm really moved by the messages of the equity of love, and the importance it's placing on how love is work, love is the truth here, and how all of this is being treated lovingly, equally, and with compassion. I'm all for it.
P.S. I think Krist and Gawin are better than ever in this episode. Gawin is SLAYING. I appreciate Krist's acting work in the intimacy arena. Both of them are killing it.
(CCing the BMF fam for y'alls thoughts, in addition to Ben and Shan: @grapejuicegay, @crowie, @dribs-and-drabbles, @chickenstrangers, @rocketturtle4, @shortpplfedup and apologies to anyone I missed!)
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