When last we left our thief and debt collector, the debt collector overcame his debt and convinced the thief to go straight. Everything was perfect. Then Grandma collapsed.
Grandma doesn’t have insurance, so this will be expensive
Joker finds his surgeon father at the hospital and asks for help. In front of others, his father says he’s not his son.
Jack learns from Save that his investments are down. Evil Boss arrives to act concerned about Grandma, and Jack asks for his job back. Evil Boss wants Jack to be his adopted son and marry someone (Rose) for the business. At first, Jack resists, but eventually, he gives in.
Jack’s investments are fine. Save is helping Evil Boss so he’ll treat Hope better. Save also tells Evil Boss about Joker.
At least we get a sweet scene
An upset Jack tells a concerned Joker he’s working for Evil Boss again (leaving out important details). Joker is upset and so am I. Joker thinks Jack betrayed their promise. Jack being Jack, wants Joker to have a good life and decent job even if he doesn’t.
Jack wants to know if Joker would accept him as a crime lord. Joker says he’d be his lowly employee. Romantic! And we get a hug.
1 week later, Joker can’t get a decent job
Meanwhile, Jack meets the Four Horsemen, rich sadistic people who run everything. They wear black and gold and laugh at poor people’s suffering. It’s not subtle.
They force Evil Boss to play Monopoly for real stakes. Evil Boss loses badly, which makes him push Jack harder to marry Rose.
Jack escorts Rose to meet with poor kids in the neighborhood. She seems genuine but clueless, and Jack scolds her for her ignorance. Joker is there, doing low-paid labor he could get with a criminal record.
Later, she asks Jack if he has a lover and about Joker. Jack claims Joker’s a homeless guy clinging to his grandma.
Rose announces they are giving grants to local business
Joker thinks it’s all lies and throws bread at Rose. Jack intercepts the projectile, and men drag Joker away. Save tells Evil Boss. Evil Boss tells Jack to get rid of Joker.
At home, Joker tells Jack he heard what he said about him because of Tattoo’s spy-car-toy. Jack tells Joker they aren’t anything to each other and to leave Rose alone. Aww, first Joker broke Jack’s heart, now Jack is breaking Joker’s heart.
Jack reports to Evil Boss that Joker will stay away from him. Joker goes to the hospital and tells Grandma he messed things up. She reassures him that everyone messes up. Both our guys cry in bed. Awww.
Rose has another suitor, Lompran, son of a Four Horseman
He’s nuts. Rose doesn’t want to marry him, and Lompran turns it into a game with Jack.
The game requires no skill. Whoever has the most money wins. So it’s a simulation of reality. The important part is that Jack wins by choosing to let a thief into his home.
He then uses his win to save Tattoo’s mom from losing a kidney because she also played Lompran’s game.
Joker is disgusted by these games
Even though he saved her kidney, men are after Tattoo’s mom for her money. Joker stands between her and a gun until Jack shows up and rescues them. Joker yells at him about playing with people’s lives. He hurts his hand and Jack tries to tend his wound, but Joker says it doesn’t hurt as much as what Jack did to them. Well said.
Joker makes dumplings and brings some to Grandma. She heard from the nurse’s gossip that his dad is a doctor. She believes his dad doesn’t hate him. Because parents.
But his dad is a jerk. He won’t eat the dumplings or listen to Joker talk about Grandma’s importance to him. Dad says once a thief, always a thief. Joker blows up and blames him. His dad kicks him out.
Joker is upset, but can’t reach Jack. Instead, he gets a video from Hoi of Rose and Jack dancing. Not comforting.
But Dad gets hungry enough to eat the dumplings and visit Grandma. She lays it on thick about how great Joker is. When Joker’s Dad plays the “it’s complicated” card Grandma plays the “I’m old and dying” card. She says separation in death is better than estrangement while still living.
Jack has barely seen Grandma and has no idea what’s going on
When he learns the doctor rearranged his schedule to do Granda’s surgery, he thinks it’s thanks to Rose. Then he thinks it’s Evil Boss. To be fair, Grandma was vague about how it happened.
Evil Boss discovers the doctor told Grandma to stop taking his medications. He throws them out in a weirdly menacing way.
Grandma gets the surgery but things are tense between Jack and Joker. Jack tries to improve things with PPL and talks to Joker like he didn’t push him away earlier. He claims he only meant for Joker to stay away from Rose.
Joker can’t stop bringing up Rose and thinks relying on her and Evil Boss is bad. I agree.
Grandma interrupts some near skinship. Then she wants to play a game. So many games.
It’s a truth game, and Jack reveals everything
Including how he feels in debt to them for the help they’ve given Grandma.
Grandma is upset Jack did everything on his own. She also tells him Joker was the one who spoke to the doctor. Then she pushes the guys to share a bed.
There’s some blanket aggression until Jack apologizes and accepts the blame for everything. Joker doesn’t want to accept his thanks and says it’s all for Grandma.
Jack spoons him and smiles. Joker also smiles and doesn’t push him away too hard.
Grandma smiles too. Thanks, Grandma!
It’s clunky but I get what it’s doing
I was upset with Jack’s noble idiocy in episode 7, but in episode 8 I could see he was afraid for Joker but not trying to cut him out of his life. Jack is desperate, and naive, and takes everything on himself. (He and Min need to talk.) Noble idiocy is baked into his character. The first half of the show was mainly about Joker’s growth. This is the beginning of Jack learning to stop being a noble idiot.
I also think he knew he made a mistake, but couldn’t admit it until forced. The show could have made that clearer.
I’m still confused that Jacked warned Grandma about the medication but didn’t connect the dots right away. Why include that scene then? It’s stuff like this that makes the writing feel clunky.
But I appreciate what it’s trying to do and the point being made about desperate people. Tattoo, his mom, Save, and even Hope, their poverty makes it easy for those with money to take advantage of them. We even saw that Evil Boss can be pushed around by those with more money.
I suspect Save will change sides along with Hope. Rose won’t turn out to be any more evil than Aran. I’m not sure about Evil Boss and Ms Nang.
Given the length of these episodes though, we deserve more Aran and Tattoo.
Mostly I’m happy Joker and Jack’s relationship stays solid through hard times. More spooning! More hugs!
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