When last we left our fated duo, they were being college kids on vacation in a light-hearted drama. Which is good, because now we swing back into the angsty stuff.
But first, we start the episode on desserts! Madness!
We don’t get this dessert’s name, but it might be Thai Coconut Pudding with Corn in Pandanus Leaves Baskets.
Pharm is so distracted by Dean’s promise of sex that he’s dropping these desserts. He gets to class late, but no one teaches these classes anyway. He tells Manow and Team he’s flustered because of the upcoming meeting with the uncle he doesn’t know.
But the real problem is waiting for him. To take him grocery shopping. And talk about their future home together. Dean then moves on to sexy talk about financing Pharm’s future businesses. Dean’s lucky Pharm likes him so much.
So much so that when Dean suggests they move in together after graduation, Pharm cries. Dean suggests they marry in New York, where it’s legal and Pharm’s mom lives. Awww.
Pharm seems anxious about deciding everything, but Dean says they have time.
First comes financial talk, then comes condoms!
Pharm finds them in the grocery bags. Pharm is shy and Dean gives him lectures on safe sex. Sexy! Eventually, they get to the kissing.
Instead of a dissolve to visual sexual metaphor, we get flashbacks of In and Korn being sweet.
Post-sex Pharm is comparing Dean’s hands to his father’s as a joke. Sexy! Pharm likes Dean’s hands, and their size difference is undeniably cute. Later Pharm is in a shirt that says “Radiate Positivity” and Dean is checking if Pharm’s butt hurts. It’s good that he cares.
But this weird fun has to end, and Dean gets the flashbacks this time. He cries and Pharm hugs him. Find a partner who understands when you are flashing back to your shared past life.
Dean asks Pharm not to leave him and Pharm promises.
Things are going to get worse before they get better
Because now we’re in a Korn flashback. Korn’s Dad has been spying on him and wants him to be with a girl, any girl. He threatens In.
Korn’s younger brother checks on him. Neither want to work in their father’s illegal business and both want to protect each other. Korn’s brother encourages him to do what he wants and it seems like a positive, but the sad violin music says otherwise.
Back in the present, Pharm is nervous about meeting his cousin and uncle and Dean is comforting him. Then it turns out the cousin Pharm is waiting for is Sin, his neighbor. Sin has known since they met and has been the spy passing info to Pharm’s mom. He didn’t want to inhibit their sex life and could hear them while he smoked on the patio. That’s creepy Sin. He says more, I’ll skip it.
After they leave, Dean calls his friend who is Sin’s boyfriend. He learns from his friend that Sin’s last name is the same as Korn’s!
Pharm learns a whole lot about his family
First we get to see him get born though. It’s an interesting way to open an episode!
At dinner, Pharm learns his father hated Pharm’s grandfather so Pharm never learned about them. There was another brother who died at a young age. Sin didn’t know about that brother either.
Pharm’s uncle sadly says he has no brothers left. It’s so sad. I miss the silly college parts of this show.
We get a flashback to Korn with his two younger brothers. Pharm’s father is the youngest brother and his uncle the middle brother. We see that the two older brothers came up with the names for Pharm and his brother.
We also see that Korn’s father didn’t meet baby Pharm. He knew Pharm’s father hated him. But he gave Pharm’s uncle a present to pass on without saying it was from him.
It’s like Dean’s family, where the trauma of one generation doesn’t stop there. I can understand why Pharm wouldn’t know anything about them.
What doesn’t make a lot of sense to me is that suddenly Pharm is meeting them. Dean met his grandmother as part of his quest to understand their past. Pharm is doing this because he’s been told. I guess because grandpa is sick? It makes Pharm very passive in this part of the journey.
It also sets him up to be a character in a gothic horror story
Because sweet, innocent, oblivious Pharm is going to his uncle’s place to meet his sinister grandfather. Dean texts him that he’s coming too, and Pharm doesn’t react, even though it’s kind of surprising.
His uncle’s house is Heart’s house in Moonlight Chicken, cute.
While Pharm is free to wander the house aimlessly, Sin confronts his father. He knows Korn died by suicide. He suspects his father blocked him from getting more info on Korn for Dean.
His father tells him he didn’t want to upset his son with this history. Considering Sin is gay too, I get this reason.
Pharm, wandering around this house by himself, comes across a box containing pictures of Korn. There’s also the keychain that In gave Korn, and a gun. Pharm is hyperventilating and crying.
I don’t like seeing Pharm with a gun.
Things get very dark now
Pharm’s grandfather/Korn’s Dad is in a wheelchair and looks frail. He’s on the phone, but we only catch a little conversation that seems to be about In and Korn. He then sees the pictures of Korn on the ground Pharm left behind.
The uncle and Sin show up, and Sin says the housekeeper saw Pharm leaving with a gun. Pharm’s grandpa knows where he’s going. Sin calls Dean and catches him up.
We see flashbacks of In and Korn going to their place. That’s where Pharm is going now, in the rain. The door has a warning sign but Pharm has Korn’s old key and uses it to get in.
Dean finds him there and tries to calm him down but Pharm calls him a liar. It seems like he’s In now, yelling at Korn. He holds the gun to his chin. It’s awful.
And that’s how the episode ends.
I wonder if this last section would be stronger if the show had built up more potential danger. If we thought something terrible could really happen. But I’m also okay with it not being any darker. After the lightness of the college sections, seeing Pharm with a gun is enough.
It’s subtle, but I like how Pharm was set up for this conclusion. He’s the one who was more strongly affected by flashbacks earlier. Who tried to avoid looking into their past. Who sometimes seemed to slip into thinking of himself as being In, while Dean would remind him that he was Pharm. Furthermore, In is the one who had to see Korn die.
It makes sense that Pharm/In are the ones reacting this way.