TL;DR Version:
It’s 4 years later and Pat and Pran are living their lives separately, Pran somewhere far away. At a High School reunion, they see each other but don’t interact. But it’s a big misdirect because they’ve been a couple this entire time and only a few people know. Back at their parent’s houses, we see that the parents are aware of but ignoring the relationship.
Recap:
It’s 4 years later, and a shirtless Pat is brushing his teeth and yearning for Pran. Pran is somewhere else, shirtless, alone, yearning, brushing his teeth.
Pran is now working somewhere where he speaks in English with his coworkers. Pat is with Wai and Korn, who are in business together. Pat keeps thinking about Pran while hanging out with their old friends. He tells Wai and Korn about working with his father and how Pa is working on a movie. They reminisce about old times. While Wai and Korn talk about their relationships, Pat is quiet.
Pat goes back to his old dorm to help Pa move and stops to take a picture of the doormat outside Pran’s place. Ink is helping Pa move, and Pat learns from her about a High School Reunion for their class.
At the reunion, Pat eats with old friends and talks again about his work with his father. Pran shows up and there are a lot of longing looks between the two of them. Then there’s some kind of strange reunion game that involves projecting pictures of High School Pat and Pran on the screen so they can look sad and wistful. Afterward Pran plays guitar while Pat is on drums, and they smile at each other. During a group shot, they stand awkwardly together. Then, as they leave, on the stairs they look at each other again. Pat walks off leaving Pran alone.
Back in his apartment, Pat is chatting on the phone with someone, only to open the door and reveal that it’s Pran. He yanks him in, revealing this has all been a giant misdirect.
In their boxers, in bed, they enjoy some PPL together. It turns out that in the last episode, they came up with a plan, to pretend to break up in front of the families and at school. Only Wai, Korn, Pa, and Ink knew. Their parents’ attitudes didn’t change and kept hating each other. Pran eventually went to Singapore for work, which is why Pat was so glum earlier. He took that picture of the doormat and sent it to Pran.
This was how they took Uncle Tong’s advice, they couldn’t change the world around them but they could refuse to let it change them.
Pat and Pran go to Wai and Korn’s bar. Wai and Korn are not a couple but they have fun pretending they might be. Then they go have dumplings. Pran has brought a gift for Pat’s dad. Neither of them has been to their parent’s homes in a while.
At Pat’s family home, Pa notices Pran is back and Pat’s parents get quiet. They know Pat is about to arrive. Pat shows up with the gift that he presents without saying who it is from. His father ignores it until alone at the dinner table, when he has a drink.
In Pran’s home, Pran asks about his guitar, worried his mom has gotten rid of it. His mom leaves it on the bed for him without saying anything. He finds it and picks it up and sings Pat and his song. Across the way, Pat hears it and comes over to flirt and sing together. His parents hear him sneaking out and agree to ignore it. Pran’s parents then hear the two of them singing and also ignore it.
Pat has to go to his own bed for the night and Pran throws him a tin can again. They flirt as we get flashbacks of them as kids.
Later, at Pat’s apartment, we see them flirting and competing and kissing and chasing and getting touchy-feely with each other before the door closes on them.
Thoughts:
I hate misdirects like this as part of the plot, especially with romances. It’s one thing to not know what the bad guy is plotting, it’s another thing to be left out on what the main characters are really doing to create some kind of suspense. Worse than that, the show deliberately makes it seem like they aren’t together for half this episode. I knew about the misdirect, so I wasn’t sad so much as just waiting to get past it.
From the popularity of the Korean Reply series, I know that not all people feel like I do. There’s an audience that gets some kind of pleasure when it gets revealed that they were only being given half the information and this is what is really happening. I understand this is a trope that is just Not For Me.
But at the same time, while I appreciate how Uncle Tong’s advice was worked into the story, it felt unsatisfying. They start the show lying about their relationship and they end the show lying about their relationship, only it’s an open secret now. And in the end, because of their refusal to break up, the people around them are slowly changing. That’s a nice message.
Yet, I’d rather they cut down the first half of the show and have another episode here at the end to see them deciding what to do, living with Uncle Tong’s advice, and what happens with their parents ultimately. Is everyone going to keep pretending they really aren’t in a relationship indefinitely? When they’re forty? I think I assume by then the parents will have gotten over it, but having to assume that is going to happen is part of why I’m unsatisfied.
All this makes it sound like I didn’t like the show when I really liked big chunks of it. Truthfully though, this last episode knocks it into “unlikely I’d rewatch” territory. But it doesn’t knock it out of “likely I’d recommend” territory. It was a strong show with strong characters and the story is flawed but strong even if it’s not to my tastes. Anyone looking for a well done Thai BL should check this one out.