When last we left our cursed student and the man who won’t help him, Khem realized his past-life love for Paran.
Paran will spend the next two episodes being a jerk
And protecting Khem. Paran is complicated.
He astral projects himself to the building that glitched around Khem earlier. This is Ramphueng’s realm. She can’t grab him, but she can sink him into the ground. Then, she sends black smoke at him that makes the symbols light up on his chest and blood come from his nose.
Thong and Ake to the rescue! They trick her and save Paran. Back in his body and in bad shape, he goes straight to Khem’s room to check on him. Khem is outside, horsing around with Jet.
So now Paran can no longer leave his body without Ramphueng dragging him into her realm.
Meanwhile, Khem’s mom says goodbye to his Dad. She believes Paran will protect Khem now.
She’s not wrong
Paran saves Khem from falling off a stool and agrees to let him stay until the semester break ends.
Khem and Jet tell Charn about the curse. Considering the week(?) he’s had, Charn has no trouble believing them. He even decides to stay behind. Paran has a full house.
Khem cuts his fingers, making what I think are Bai Sri offerings, thinking he’ll become Paran’s disciple. But unfortunately, he has impure thoughts, so he can’t.
Charn gets to be a disciple. He and Jet are sent into a forest to look for red paper and get chased by a warthog called Phrai. When they return, Paran gives now glasses-less Charn something he can’t see, and I can’t make out either. It’s to protect him, a rock or an amulet.
Jet wants to see Ake and Thong again. When he was young, he was always talking to ghosts and had no friends, so his Dad asked Paran to remove his sight. Now he has friends, and wants to go against his Dad. Paran agrees.
Jet and Charn want Khem to explain his “impure thoughts”
But even after he explains Kemmika/Pawat, Jet knows there’s more. Khem has feelings for Paran, unrelated to past lives.
Jet now has a ship. He tells Khem that Ake and Thong caught Paran keeping an eye on him. Khem doesn’t want to get his hopes up, and Charn is also worried. Paran has his duties, and Khem has the whole dying-in-less-than-sixth-months thing.
But Paran shows up at night, using a spell to keep everyone asleep while he rebandages Khem’s fingers. Khem wakes up and sees Paran leaving.
A challenger appears!
Prim. She’s known Paran since childhood. It’s rumored she’s his girlfriend.
Grandma Si is nosy and gives Khem a spell to discover Paran’s true feelings. To cast it, he stands in front of a door with white powder in his hands and chants. Then he blows the dust… into Paran’s face as he opens the door. Oops.
Khem gets to give Paran something like the BL sponge bath, wiping the powder off him. Unfortunately, he also has to hand over the spell.
But instead of seeing what happens next, we go to 2010
Poor Paran’s mother is weak and sickly. I get nostalgic for my childhood (which was… before 2010) as she tries to repair a cassette tape with a pencil.
Paran is a younger, sweeter Paran, who snuggles his Mom. She’s sure he’ll become a great shaman, but both are heartbroken that she won’t live to see it.
She says as a shaman, he can’t have a lover. What does that mean? I think she’s teasing him about loving her too much. But is this a Jedi Aren’t Allowed to Love type thing?
Anyway, flash forward. Mom is gone. Dad has betrothed Paran to Prim, so he can’t be a shaman. Grandpa is angry Dad is doing this because of his debts. Dad blames Grandpa’s magic for killing Mom. It’s a lot. Paran watches.
Later, Dad flees the country, and Grandpa Master Sek takes care of the debt. He tells Paran he can do what he wants and apologizes for what happened to Paran’s mom. He doesn’t ask for forgiveness.
Back to the present, and Paran makes Khem cry
They are not in love, it’s impossible, and he shouldn’t cause trouble. Khem apologizes and asks him to pretend it didn’t happen.
The next morning, Paran won’t even accept breakfast from Khem.
Grandma Si rescues Khem from having to be around Paran. They’re helping Earn, who has a baby with Big. She’s been lying in bed, saying Big’s name over and over, neglecting her baby, for two days. Her vital force is with Big, but his family won’t let him be with her.
While there, Khem sees Ramphueng standing near the baby.
Meanwhile, Charn makes an important discovery
While meditating, he sees Khemmika’s friends Jin and Da flirting. Da has glasses. Jin does not. This is important. They decide to tell Khemmika about their relationship after Pawat returns from the War. Uh-oh.
Charn is Da. Jin is Jet.
In the present, Jet has fallen asleep, sitting up and meditating. Charn thinks it’s adorable
Khem and Grandma Si visit Big. He’s got a pregnant wife who isn’t Earn. He tells Khem that being a horrible man is an inevitable part of getting older. He’ll understand.
But Grandma Si gets Earn’s life force and returns it, so that’s fixed. Everything is great, time to leave. When they’re gone, Earn stares at her baby, and we see Ramphueng.
Now, Khem tells Grandma Si about Ramphueng. And Earn and the baby have gone missing in the minute since they left them.
Paran is called in on the case
He gets to Big’s place soon after Earn. All Earn wants is to know if Big still loves her, and he can’t/won’t answer. Khem and Grandma Si show up, thinking it’s Ramphueng. But Paran says she’s not there. This is all Earn.
Earn holds the baby in the air as a car comes towards them, but everything kinda freezes. Then Big gets the baby, and Earn collapses.
Paran gets to lecture people who deserve it, Big and Earn. Then Khem thinks Paran saved the baby, so Paran tells him to stop nagging. Paran, chill.
Grandma Si doesn’t tell Khem who saved the baby, but we see her talk to Ramphueng. She still has that much humanity left.
Khem is really letting go now, for real
He sees Earn and Big’s situation as a lesson in letting go. I think Earn and Big have other problems, but fine. Jet is sad, and Charn supports him.
Charn has his reasons. He dreams about Jin and Da, sobbing at Khemmika’s funeral, blaming themselves for making her lonely. Jet wakes up to Charn’s mumbling apologies and Jin’s name. The name means nothing to Jet, but he strokes Charn’s head. Then feels weird about it.
Paran thinks Khem is still trying to be nice to him, but he isn’t. It’s awkward.
Perfect time for Prim and her father to arrive. Father Prim apologizes for unspecified past offenses, which Paran denies happened. Prim’s students are putting on a play commemorating the Holy Man’s Rebellion, and she wants Paran to perform a ritual.
Meanwhile, Prim’s brother Pong, last seen being self-sacrificing in The Rebound, is here to hit on Khem. It’s aggressive, and Khem isn’t into it. Neither is Paran, who scolds Pong.
Jet spies on all of it, because Jet is All Of Us.
Prim has her eye on Paran, maybe
As she and her family drive away, there’s talk of loving “him” and winning “his” heart. And they tease Pong about his interests.
Jet and Charn continue to debate the Khem/Paran situation. I get Charn, but also the icks as Charn considers Pong. Give him a moment, Charn. Jet feels the past life stuff matters, which reminds Charn of their past life issues. So he brings up that Prim is a present life issue.
Is there a reason the shot lingers on the old sewing box?
Khem overhears Paran scolding Ake and Thong for spying on Prim’s Dad. Ake and Thong report that Prim is serious, and her Dad wants a grandkid. Paran says Prim means well, and it’s nothing that needs to be stopped.
Khem looks sad and thinks about how this is a present life commitment.
I’m waiting for the full story on Prim
She and Paran were once engaged, and she wants to start a family, but we haven’t seen her directly say she wants to marry Paran. The show clearly wants us to think that, and it could be the case. It could also be that Paran knows the person she wants to marry, and she wants his help and blessings. We’ll see.
Paran’s clothes are amazing, and he’s still so cool in multiple senses of the word, but he was Bad Boyfriend Material here. I look forward to seeing him warm up, and he had better make it up to Khem later. Will we get to see him cry? That’d be nice.
Those banana leaf Nagas were also amazing.
Ramphueng saving the baby is interesting, but is the show heading towards her redemption? Right now, I don’t think so, but I’m curious what end she’ll get. A better rebirth?
After everything with Yod and the past life revelations, these episodes felt quiet. But plenty still happened. Charn is in the group and learning magic. Jet can see ghosts again.
And now that we’ve had some quiet, it’s time for things to get exciting. From the previews, it looks like we’re getting bugs. Fun!
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