When last we met our mythologically fated duo it was weeks ago because I wouldn’t pay to see the final episode sooner. Which is fine, because…. Well… Let’s just get into it.

Disappointingly, there is no Tiger Man

Instead we’ve got drug smuggling going on across the river. 

Tharn and Phaya get involved while solving the mystery of the dead worker. Tharn, ignoring Luang Por and everything else, wants to get the Doctor’s help. Why Tharn, why?

Phaya then immediately breaks and tells Tharn that the Doctor is the Naga. Why Phaya, why?

Not that it matters, since Tharn doesn’t believe Phaya. Because why would he?

Tharn’s grandmother knows that the doctor is evil. Because it’s SUPER obvious to anyone except Tharn. Yeah, I’m frustrated with the show. I’ll try not to let it color the entire recap. Anyway, she wants Phaya to protect Tharn.

Everyone winds up in the forest together

Tharn and Phaya are there investigating the drug smuggling. Our investigation team is also there investigating the drug smuggling. Yai and everyone else are trying to reach Tharn and Phaya to let them know they’re there with no luck.

Montree is also there doing the drug smuggling. He wants to kill Tharn and Phaya to cover everything up.

Even the Doctor is in the forest, trying to drop trees on Phaya.

Montree’s men open fire on Tharn and Phaya. And I’ll say this for The Sign, its gunfights are far more exciting than Pit Babe’s. 

But not in the writing, as the gunfight ends in a “no bullets” situation (familiar?) and Montree’s bodyguard just kicks Phaya and Tharn off a cliff. That’s a classic fantasy trope at least.

Then things get exciting for a minute

Tharn is hanging off the cliff and holding onto Phaya. Phaya forces him to let go to save himself. It doesn’t work, Tharn falls after him. But Naga magicc saves him. When he sees the Doctor he realizes that Phaya was telling the truth earlier. The Doctor threatens to kill everyone if Tharn doesn’t come with him. 

Don’t worry, we don’t lose Phaya in the penultimate episode. He’s rescued by, I think, his amulet. And then he and Tharn are in a cave together. Tharn is behaving strangely.

Oh good, Chart’s back

I guess I need to apologize to Tharn for doubting him because it turns out Chart is a good guy. He’s been infiltrating Montree’s organization. And then he gets caught while on the phone letting the Commander know that Phaya and Tharn were targeted by Montree.

We get a few minutes of “I hope this goes okay!” set-up that makes it obvious someone (Khem) is going to get shot. Tharn and Phaya get out of the cave and Yai finds them. Now everyone is involved in the epic gunfight. It goes from outdoors to indoors and from day to night. Chart goes in and out of being a hostage. Then he gets shot. Khem gets his fated bullet too.

Tharn is caught by Montree and his bodyguard. For some reason Montree is talking through gritted teeth. A Naga appears and kills the bodyguard! Then the black smoke wraps itself around Montree. Tharn asks the Naga/ Doctor/Chalothon not to kill Monstree so he can face justice. 

No worries, everyone is fine and we’re still talking about evidence

Yai reports that Khem and Chart will be fine. Oh good I was worried for 30 seconds there. Tharn won’t explain to the Commander what happened.

Montree is talking about whether they have evidence or not. Which, the whole huge gunfight in the forest? And that warehouse? Isn’t that evidence? 

The Commander and Montree have a debate about justice and karma that I think is the show trying to have a theme. We learn from the news that Montree will go to jail.

Phaya and Tharn have sexy time at grandma’s house. Phaya is talking so much about Tharn always being by his side that he’s definitely leaving any minute now. 

An Unsurprising Ending

Phaya wakes up and Tharn is gone. Shocking! Everyone is upset.

Phaya goes searching until he sees a whirlpool in the river, which IS cool. Once in the water he and the Doctor get into the same fight they’ve had for the last 12 episodes and apparently thousands of years. It ends the same way too, as Tharn takes a blade to the chest to protect Phaya.

Tharn begs the Doctor and Phaya to stop killing each other. Really Tharn? I take back the points I gave you for Chart. I take all your points.

Doctor/Chalothon vanishes with Tharn, supposedly to heal him. Phaya wakes up, having drowned and been unconscious for four days. Tharn is still missing. 

Enough time passes for Phaya to get scruffy. He’s still searching everywhere for Tharn. It’s the 15th night of the 11th waxing moon, does that mean it’s a year later? Tharn’s grandma tells him to give up. His team shows up to encourage him and tell him to give up.

Phaya walks away on his own. He gets to the hill and there’s Tharn! They embrace! 

Tharn explains he was busy persuading the Doctor/Chalothon to let him go and he finally agreed. We see a Naga down in the river. Tharn and Phaya embrace again.

The End.

That’s It!?

Yeah, I’m disappointed. After all that, off screen, Tharn chats up someone who once threatened to kill everyone he loved. Permission from the bad guy obtained, he came back to Phaya. 

How romantic.

It’s a climax of bad writing after episodes of unfocused and confused efforts. To pull off this story, the writer needed to fully develop a complicated relationship between Tharn, the Doctor, and their past-life-backstory.

Instead of that we got subplots and side characters spilling everywhere. There were cases of the week. There was Luang Por and his dire warnings. There was the forensic officer who ignored everyone. There was Dao and her flirtation with Phaya’s sister. There was Khem and Thongthai’s romance. There was Chart’s secret investigation. There was the Commander’s tragic history that tied into Tharn’s.

Because the production was strong they could make a lot of these scenes and moments look good and seem important – even though they weren’t.

Meanwhile, a huge chunk of their past life story was explained to Phaya by another character in one scene. And it was a pretty standard tragic love story. 

It’s like they poorly grafted a past-lives-love-story on top of a pre-existing police thriller story template.

I’m bitter that we never get to see Phaya protect Tharn. We never get to see Tharn and Phaya work together. We never got to actually see them change their fate.

I know it seems unfair to be more positive in my review for Pit Babe than The Sign, but Pit Babe was consistently ridiculous. The Sign had higher highs, but also lower lows. And at the end of Pit Babe at least everyone was working together. Even if their gunfight was lame.

Let’s end on a more positive note

I appreciate the ambition of their ideas and trying to do something more than the cookie-cutter plots of school/office BLs. While it was an uneven ride, there were a lot of fun and unique parts.

The show has gorgeous shots in interesting locations. We got to leave the Bangkok area and go north and learn about Thai culture and myths. I hope they got funding from the tourism board. 

Seriously these shots are beautiful.

Despite his character making little to no sense, rookie actor Babe Tanatat Phanviriyakool did his best and made Tharn likable. I also enjoyed seeing Billy Patchanon Ounsa-ard again. They both carried a lot of weight of the show.

There is a lot of talent to be excited about on this show. I would love to see that talent matched with a stronger story. I think it could make something amazing.