Summaries (Spoilers, Obviously) and Comments

Note: I group summaries by story line, not in presentation order. If you want to know how the scenes actually played out in their official sequence, why not follow this link to the episode and watch for yourself?

Episode14 Summary

In the kitchen at Noh’s house, Phun is helping Noh preparing limes. Noh wants to know how Phun knows how to cut them. Phun replies that he’s more amazed that Noh doesn’t know how to cut them, then explains that he helps Pang in the kitchen. Noh would like to eat some of her cooking, but Phun warns him that it would make him sick. Noh takes a croissant and stuffs it in his mouth. Phun scolds him for eating so quickly, and reaches over to wipe the crumbs away from Noh’s mouth. That reminds him of the scene in the mall in the afternoon between Yuri and Noh. Noh begins to apologize but Phun tells him that he’s being like Phun was in the car a few nights ago after the live trials. There’s no need for Noh to apologize for seeing Yuri.

Knott calls Per who is still in the park talking with Win about what to do about Win’s father. Knott lets him know about the party at Noh’s. Per is reluctant to leave Win and invites him along. Win doesn’t want to go at first because he doesn’t know anyone except Noh, but agrees in the end.

Phun and Noh return to the main party with the limes. The boys want to know why Phun is there and he explains that he’s been kicked out of the house. Noh is worried about that, but Phun won’t say more and the boys tell him to lay off his questioning. Golf arrives and sits next to Noh. When he realizes that Phun is there, he asks if Noh has told him about Aim’s sex video. Noh has not. Golf says it would be a good time to tell Phun while Golf was there. Noh is not ready to make Phun upset. Per and Win arrive at the party and are stopped by p’An and p’Im, who dote over both of them. Win is a little hesitant to enter Noh’s house, so Per takes his hand and goes inside with him, which makes everyone giddy. (Sooo cute!).

Once everyone is finally settled, Ohm announced that it is time for the Truth Game – which is an awful lot like Spin the Bottle, only no kissing, and no option to get out of telling the truth by opting for a dare. The first spin lands on Khom who is asked about whether he is a virgin. (ahem). He says that he is. Forgetting the rule that you get ONE question at a time, the boys ask follow up questions about his girlfriend, not knowing that he is no longer with Jeed. He says that he doesn’t date girls to have sex with them (even though he has only had one girlfriend). They see that he’s upset having to talk about it and apologize for bringing it up.

The second question lands on Per who is asked how many girls at the Convents he’s had sex with. He says five, but Knott corrects him and they end up listing their names to help jog Per’s memory. Win is upset by this and leaves to be by himself. Ohm is up next and Per asks him to reveal the truth about his relationship with Mick. Ohm repeatedly says that they are just “brothers.”

Next up, the bottle lands on Phun who is asked by Ohm if he meant what he shouted in front of the F building the other day. He says that he meant it, which confuses Khom who hadn’t heard the rumor. Poon lets everyone know that it must be about when someone shouted “I like you, too” from the bleachers.  Phun’s question back to Ohm is about blowing a horn or blowing in a Breathalyzer. Ohm spins the bottle and Noh runs to the bathroom before the bottle can land on him.

Golf follows Noh to the upstairs bathroom. He starts to ask a few questions about Phun but Noh says that they are just friends. Golf respects Noh’s wish and changes the topic to his troubles with Mo. He wants to know how long he has to wait to get over her. He’s done everything he can think of and changed his personality for her. They talk about staying around to care for her and trying to make her smile, even if that smile will never be for him. Since that’s all that’s available, that should be enough. Golf excuses himself from the party.

Per later finds Win on the balcony and tries to talk to Win about why he is upset. In the end, Per reveals that he has been lying about his conquests and once he started lying he couldn’t take them back. He talks to girls but none of them will sleep with him. They return to the party to find that Ohm has stopped the truth game since the bottle kept landing on him.

To add some excitement to the room, Ohm starts going through Noh’s bag to see what mischief he can make. They find the CD with Aim’s videos on it and decide to play it. Noh comes downstairs from the bathroom, grabs the CD, and takes it to the kitchen where he breaks it. As he is contemplating Phun’s smile and what it means, Ohm has gone back to Noh’s bag and pulled out his phone. Phun unlocks it easily since he knows that Noh would be too lazy to set a difficult password to remember. Phun looks at Noh’s camera roll and finds the video of Aim. He plays it briefly and leaves.

Noh returns from the kitchen to find that Phun has left. Ohm explains that Phun was playing with Noh’s phone and left but doesn’t know why. Noh opens his phone and realizes that Phun has seen the video and rushes to Phun’s house. Outside the gate he calls Phun only to receive a text that Phun will talk with him later. Dejected, Noh returns to the party where everyone has fallen asleep.

Golf returns to his condo building. He tries to call Mo and when she doesn’t answer, he knocks on her door. He starts going back to his apartment when he catches Mo leaving the elevator. She tells him that she has had enough of Moan. She finally realized that he would never do even the simplest things for her when he wouldn’t change his Facebook profile to include a decent picture of her. Golf apologizes for kissing her the other week. She says she didn’t mind and kisses him.

Rambles

So much drama. So little time. This episode follows chapter 36.1 in the book, which was one of my favorites as it was Ohm’s chapter. Yes, Phun and Noh had a big breakthrough, but unlike the series, the possibility that Noh had other friends who might be in same sex relationships came as a shocker. It opened up a lot of possibilities at the time and a great deal of hope that Phun and Noh would make it through one of the bigger challenges – would Noh’s friends still accept him once they found out he was dating a guy. It also started Phun down the path of breaking up with Aim. Thank God, because Noh certainly wasn’t going to do anything about that if he could help it.

For the most part, they followed the chapter, and while Golf wasn’t at the party in the novel, I’m glad he appeared here. He could have a conversation with Noh that wasn’t in the book, but that was necessary because unless Noh decided to talk to himself in that bathroom, we wouldn’t know what he was thinking.  Captain is a very expressive actor, but he isn’t that expressive.  The one change from the book that I missed was the absence of Ohm’s statement to Phun that he supported his relationship with Noh after Phun’s round, even if he may have been joking about it in the novel. Ohm’s blessing actually meant a lot. In the novel, Ohm also did all the spinning himself and could magically make the bottle land where he wanted it to every time – as if he were the type of boy who practiced these things – which made me like him like him all the more. I won’t cry over that loss. Because Na is an awesome Ohm even if the writers limited his character’s powers a little.

Yes, inserting a spin the bottle game into a teen romance story is a bit cliché at this point, but I liked the idea of the Truth game and what it said about the group collectively. They had to drop the “Dare” part of Truth or Dare, probably because those dares got out of control at some point. If we remember the punishments the boys were coming up with for poor Ngoi last season, I can see why everyone would opt for the truth anyway.

But Per lied! That was also a change-up from the novel. I had assumed that everyone was following Ohm’s command to tell the truth in the novel. At least Noh did. So Per isn’t the budding Lothario after all. Oh well, I guess keeping him free of a run-around nature might be helpful if he ever goes further with Win. He has nothing to lose but his reputation…Oh well.

I really wanted Khom to get more follow up questions. If he is dating girls he doesn’t want to have sex with, what is he dating them for? I know his answer was a proper one, but I kind of thought being sexually interested in the person you were dating, even if you were respecting the prohibition against pre-marital sex, was part of the whole dating process. What does Khom think dating is for when all is said and done? Anyway, I do like Khom and I hope there is something to do for him in the second half of the season. I thought it was a good touch to have his friends be unaware of his break-up with Jeed. He’s been busy working but they probably thought his absence from their clique was due to dates. I’m not quite certain where he fits in at Friday College anyway. Last season he was once in the music club playing a guitar, so he is a member, even though swimming keeps him busy most days. He’s also in Noh’s 11^th grade class clique, since it was the 11^th graders who coaxed him into asking Jeed for her number last season. I’m surprised none of those groups were aware of his struggles. But he’s back – now we need a story for him.

I thought it was a little strange to just end Moan’s role so abruptly. Yes, Mo and Moan weren’t going anywhere, and the series sorely needed to reduce its complexity and start closing out side stories. But I thought the conclusion was a bit of a letdown. The last straw for Mo was an unflattering Facebook post? I guess that’s how it goes. Eventually the cheating, physical abuse and arguing were part of the background, so it’s the little things that eat away at the core. Too bad we didn’t see that final fight. So to answer the question Jeed posed – motorcycle guy or car guy – Mo chose the car and that is that. I would have preferred that she stay single for a while as she is one of the stronger girls at the Convent, but she’s just hopped from one guy to another. The end.

Or is it the end? She looked down when Golf asked her if she had finally broken up with Moan. Maybe she hasn’t. Maybe it’s all a drunken dream that Golf is having. Maybe she didn’t just break up with him, she killed him and she’s just using Golf as an alibi.

Meh…I think it’s over. Probably.

Finally, Golf and Noh’s conversation of the lovelorn was about as beautiful a statement on the pleasures of longing and heartbreak that I think we’re going to get in the series.  I had to laugh a little a Golf, who has been a “bad boy” all of a week and he’s ready to give up the tactic. Everything they said, though, was a self-serving lie. A great hope against the despair that just being there and waiting will never be enough and belief that accepting one’s loss over and over again could will be a noble way to live. Neither of them knows how long forever can be, but then what else are they supposed to tell themselves? The funny thing about Noh is that he’s trying hard to become an unrequited lover when he doesn’t have to. Golf is just impatient. It really does get better. Thankfully Mo came along to show Golf how unstable a commitment to longing can be. And Noh’s lazy cell phone security set up will eventually show him that he doesn’t have to just accept responsibility for smiles that will never be meant for him all his life. It’s like they came out of their “heart to heart” prepared to suffer. The Sorrows of Young Golf may be keen (lord knows, I’ve felt that way), but they don’t lead to a noble end they convinced themselves is possible.

Up Next

New Opening Credits! A shower scene! Grace in a cage! And we figure out what they’re going to do about Primrose’s sudden departure.

Fearless Predictions

• I wasn’t actually joking. I think Mo might have killed Moan and Golf is just going to find that he’s been set up to play the patsy when the police arrive (probability: 38%)
• One of those Convent girls will sue Per for sullying her reputation on TV (probability: 65%)