When last we left our fated lovers their past lives were starting to intrude. Moving forward, they don’t continue to intrude so much as Dean seeks them out.

We see Dean make a decision in real time

Dean wakes up from an In-Korn kissing flashback, crying. He’s in a mood from then on.

Win wants to know if Dean is having bad dreams. Dean asks him about whether it’s worth it to find out the truth if it’ll affect his relationship. Win reassures Dean that his relationship is solid and he doesn’t need to be afraid. 

Win gets MVP for the episode.

Dean finds Pharm in the library and choses that as the location for a love confession. Pharm is shy, and then says he loves him back.

Pharm sees Dean is stressed, but Dean won’t tell him anything. After leaving Pharm, Dean goes to his friend’s restaurant.

I appreciate seeing how Dean is struggling and how big this is for him, but what took me 5 minutes to write was 20 minutes of screen time. It’s a lot of serious looks and silence, and there’s still more to come. 

Dean learns the truth about In and Korn

Sin is waiting for Dean with his bad wig and a manila envelope. In between long pauses and staring, Dean explains to Sin about the dreams, finding Pharm, and his feeling that he’s Korn. 

Sin has a photo of Korn and In, but Korn has been torn away. He informs Dean that In died by suicide one month after the photo was taken. Dean, because he had Korn’s memories, never realized that In also died that day.

But wait, there’s more! That we know but Dean doesn’t! In is Dean’s grandmother’s brother. 

Dean cries as he drives and is pissed at Korn. Both for dying by suicide and the trauma that left on both In and Pharm. 

He goes to Pharm’s, looking worse than earlier. He promises to explain but for now just uses Pharm as a big pillow. Which is terribly cute.

We leave the angst behind and get some dessert!

Pharm’s turn for some melancholy flashbacks that upset him in the night. Dean comforts Pharm until he settles down.

We signal an end to the angst with the return of the accursed “comedy” xylophone music as Pharm accidentally answers Dean’s phone. Then Dean answers Pharm’s. Then Dean gets a shirt from Sin next door. So now literally everyone knows they spent the night together.

Pharm is making a dessert, Cha mongkut, and gives some interesting history as he cooks. 

Dean offers to tell Pharm what upset him last night, but Pharm doesn’t want to be sad so puts him off. He’s never used lotus petals for a dessert before and yet he remembers In seeing it. He’s sad sometimes, but thinks it’s better to let it go. 

An odd moment with an aggressive Dean

Pharm’s efforts to lighten the mood make Dean weirdly hot and heavy. Pharm has to shove him away. Dean apologizes and seems to feel terrible. Pharm gives him a dessert and tells him to not do it again.

I’m not really sure how to read this moment. Intimacy between new partners can be awkward and people make mistakes. Dean is more aggressive than Pharm but respects him. I’m not sure why that would need to be illustrated here though.

Or are we supposed to think that Korn is in some way responsible? Earlier we did see Korn giving In serious kisses. Or is it to show, one again, how Pharm and Dean are different from In and Korn? Since In didn’t push Korn away?

It’s an interesting moment but I wish I understood what they were trying to do.

On his own, Dean continues to explore their past lives

Dean goes home to his siblings being siblings. Dean is Dean though, and demands to meet his maternal grandmother that day. Since he was raised by his paternal grandmother, he’s never met his other grandmother. 

At his grandmother’s place, Dean has Korn’s memories of dropping In there and seeing him with his sister and niece. That sister is the grandmother Dean is about to meet.

The grandmother is overwhelmed to be meeting her grandson for the first time. Because his mother got pregnant with him young and his father’s family didn’t like her there was trouble in the family. Poor Dean’s grandmother/In’s sister. She repeatedly suffered because of different generations fighting. 

And then Dean pulls out the dessert

Grandma is overwhelmed to see the dessert, wrapped in a special way with lotus petals. She’s the one who shared her cooking with In, so she’s the one that used to wrap them that way. 

She doesn’t connect it right away, who would. She asks Dean who made it. Dean says his love, so his grandmother says to bring his girlfriend. Dean corrects her that it’s his boyfriend.

Poor Grandma still has trauma, and is afraid that Dean is going to die like her beloved brother.

Dean promises he won’t hurt himself. He confuses his grandmother, apologizing for Korn and feeling that he caused In’s death. Grandma says that it’s not Korn’s fault and In made his own choices. Dean says that Korn lives in him and wants to say he’s sorry.

Grandma accepts what Dean says, to his surprise. She says that her grandson wouldn’t lie. She asks about In and thanks Dean for loving In and finding him. She welcomes him back and Dean promises not to go anywhere.

We get a cute Win/Team scene

We get just a smidge of Win and Team’s story at the end here. Team can’t sleep and goes down to Win’s room. He makes himself at home and Win doesn’t seem to mind. There’s some sweet flirting and if you want more of their story there’s Between Us. 

The slowness of episode 9 aside, there’s a lot of great stuff here

Once again, big points for using food not just to sell Thai desserts, but to move the plot forward.

Grandma isn’t the only one to take Dean and Pharm’s past life stuff seriously. Sorn and Sin accept it easily as well and just want to support them. It’s nice, and such a contrast to what we know of the older generations.

It’s so interesting how the past lives overlap with the present. All other past life shows I’ve seen, the past lives were too long ago for anyone from that time to remain. Because it was relatively recent, we see that time hasn’t healed the pain of losing In and Korn. It’s not surprising that Dean/In’s family had more conflict a generation later. These things don’t just stop on their own.

And the show takes the time to show it. It’s so nice to see a “grandma” actress have a real role, with a past and deep emotions, instead of just existing to support the lead couple. She had to go through so many emotions in that one scene and her acting is great. It may be one of my favorite non-romantic scenes in this series. 

Pharm and Dean remain so different but respectful of each other. Dean wavers a little, but ultimately wants to face their past head on. Pharm would rather avoid it. They seem to know this about each other and don’t push.

But we know that Pharm is still traumatized by In’s past, and he can’t ignore it forever. Until we meet again!