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?

Episode 16 Summary

Per wakes up the morning after he has had his conversation with Win’s mom and remembers what Win’s father said about staying away and how the situation was Per’s fault. Win is at his window trying to get Per’s attention, but Per closes his curtains.

Before school in the morning, Win, Mick and Noh are at the same table. Noh notices that Phun is sullen and asks Mick for a post-it note. He writes a note to Phun reminding him to “smile.” Noh asks Mick if he can buy his box of Ovaltine, which Mick gives to Noh. Noh promises to give him extra time for lessons with Ohm. Noh approaches Phun and Fi, and after distracting Fi, hands Phun the Ovaltine. Later, Phun texts Noh that he is smiling now.

Mick leaves the table to find Ohm who is “wandering around aimlessly” (Really?). While he’s scolding Mick and warning him not to be late for class, he is hit on the head with a soccer ball and falls to the ground. James arrives to comfort Ohm since he is the one who kicked the ball, which makes Mick seethe. Mick goes to get some first aid help while James puts a glass with ice on Ohm’s bruise. Mick returns with a cloth and says that Ohm’s injury requires a warm compress, not ice. He breathes into the cloth to heat it up and applies it to Ohm’s head. James puts his hand on the compress as well. Eventually Mick gets fed up and leaves Ohm and James alone, but Ohm cries out that his head still hurts, hoping that Mick will come back.

Per also walks by the table with Noh, Win and Mick in the morning. Win asks Per if he’s finished with his homework and if not, offers his so that Per can copy it. Per ignores that offer. Later in class, a biology teacher provides a lesson plan on ecology and the types of relationships in the environment. She asks the class to divide themselves into teams of eight. Win asks to join Per’s group but Per protests that there are already eight in his group and that he wants his group to be normal. Win leaves but Mark offers Win a slot in his group. As part of the assignment, two members from each team are asked to act out the relationship in front of the class. Fairy and Marshmallow act out “conflict” by fighting with each other. Win and Mark act out mutualism by dancing with each other in front of the class. Per and his partner (points given if you know his name) act out parasitism, which Per explains is when someone just takes and takes from another without concern for the other parties feelings or health.  Later at lunch, Win asks if he can sit with Per, who slides his water glass across the table and tells Win that the seats are full. Win leaves to sit by himself, where he is joined by Mark. Mark offers to share his lunch with Win as he has purchased too much food.

Bomb has finally made good on his threat to release the sex tape and it is now circulating at Friday College and the Convent. At the Convent, the headmistress is meeting with Aim’s mother about what to do about the tape as it is a serious problem for the school. Aim’s mother asks what she can do and we assume she either pays off the headmistress not to expel Aim or something else. Aim’s mother exits the office, where Aim is sitting outside waiting. She tells Aim coldly that she has taken care of her problem and leaves. In the cafeteria the girls discuss Aim and an online “Convent Wars” website that has a page devoted to Jeed vs. Grace. They are trying to figure out who put that website up as it contains information only a school insider would know. Aim enters and everyone is awkward, but Nong Nan lets Aim sit at her table. Mo changes the topic of discussion to the hot weather they are having. Later Yuri meets Aim in the hallway and tells her she doesn’t believe that Aim did the sex tape intentionally and says that she will still be Aim’s friend. She offers her an encouraging “fighting” cheer.

At Friday College during a class break, a group of boys in Phun’s class gathers in the back of the room to watch Aim’s sex video, which puts Phun in a down mood again. Fi asks again what is wrong and Phun decides to ask Fi what he would do if he were in love with two people – one who makes him smile and the other who he wants to make smile. Fi tells him to choose the one who makes him smile. He leaves the classroom to search for Noh.

Pete is waiting in his class for Earn who is absent. When Earn arrives Pete asks if he is o.k. and still mad at Pete. Earn sighs and says that he is mad at himself but still won’t tell Pete what is wrong. A group of boys start loudly gossiping about Aim and Phun breaking up. The retell the story of Phun shouting to someone that he liked them on the bleachers and start announcing that Phun is gay. Remembering that day, Earn leaves to find Noh. Pete tries to stop him but Earn says that he is going to do what he should have done long ago. The race is on to see who can get to Noh first – Phun or Earn.

Earn finds him first in the school auditorium, preparing for the Live Band finals the following night. Noh is tired from moving things all day and Earn offers to help if Noh needs it. Earn finally blurts out the question he has had all along: does he stand a chance at winning Noh’s heart? Initially Noh denies being able to understand what Earn is talking about, but after Earn starts confessing what it is he likes about Noh even though Earn knows he’s not actually gay himself, Noh finally responds. Noh is flattered that Earn likes him but will only ever think of Earn as a friend. Earn thanks Noh for not giving him hope and for the clarity that comes from knowing the truth. He now knows how to treat Noh going forward and offers to help him whenever he needs it. The dialog ends when Ohm announces that Noh needs to stop flirting with Earn now that Phun is in the auditorium.

Phun witnesses the scene from afar and as Earn departs, he tries to comfort Earn. Phun offers to wait for Noh until the work is done preparing the auditorium, but Noh warns him that he won’t be done until 2:00am. Phun says he will go home to take a rest so that he will look good on-stage. Ohm calls Noh over to work on an amplifier.  After Noh sends everyone home and closes the auditorium for the night, he finds that Phun is actually waiting for him with some snacks. In the car ride on the way home, Phun chides Noh for being on his phone. Before Noh exits the car, Phun grabs Noh’s hand and tells him to watch carefully the next night. After they separate, both Phun and Noh are seen staring at their hands and smiling about their recent connection.

Rambles

Third wheels, third hands, interlopers, bounders, trespassers…well they do make the drama world go round and it was nice to have an episode devoted to them. Noh, of course, has been the third wheel all along for Phun and Aim. But Earn (who is really a fourth wheel between Phun/Noh/Yuri) and now Mark and James, too, played that role in the episode. It’s all about them this time. I’m surprised Golf didn’t show up to declare his victory once again. Earn and Aim are on their way out of their triangles, simplifying Phun and Noh’s relationship immeasurably.*(see “Note”)

Beyond the third wheels, Episode 16 saw a continuation of the lifeline theme from the previous episode as Yuri came to comfort Aim, Aim’s mother bribed her out of trouble, James and Mick fought over the right to comfort Ohm, Noh sent a timely box of Ovaltine, Mark offered Win and seat, Pete tried to save Earn from himself, and so on. Per looks like he’s finished with Win for now and Phun has decided not to offer forgiveness to Aim after all. Heck, he didn’t even call her to see how she was holding up.  Beyond what I think is the complete hypocrisy of the convent girls rallying around Aim while shunning Jeed, don’t have much more to write about lifelines.

With all that going on, I’ve decided to write about something else: the secrets that friends and lovers have been keeping from each other that tied a few of the stories together thematically. Let’s start with Earn, who decided to finally express his feelings for Noh clearly. He had tried that a few episodes back, when he was supposed to meet Noh at the bleachers to present him a gift, only to be forestalled by Phun. This time, he finally got to Noh a few steps ahead of Phun, even though it was just to hear his fate spoken directly. I don’t know if it would have worked better for him to have initiated that talk earlier – like say in Season 1, when he asked Noh to the movies. It probably would have saved him a lot of anguish. But he heard it for himself and now he can start to get his house back in order. It wasn’t the outcome that Earn/Noh shippers wanted, but gives their boy a chance to have a better adventure. (We hope).

Per and Win are a mess and based on what I know about the next episodes, it isn’t going to go much better for poor Mawin any time soon. It’s frustrating. I thought it was important that the first flahsback Per had in the morning was the blame that Win’s father tried to place on him, since some of what he is doing is motivated by the knowledge that Win’s father hits him in part because of Per. I just didn’t expect Per to accept Win’s mother’s point-of-view so completely as Per seems to have lost all sympathy for Win and seems to be acting like he has been betrayed to justify his animosity. Win hasn’t done anything wrong from what I can tell and considering Win has probably done Per’s homework for him on a number of occasions, if I were his friend, I’d tell Per to knock off the “I’m the victim of a parasite” act. Yes, Win has been keeping his feelings a secret, just like Earn kept his secret for too long, But I haven’t seen much evidence that Win was actually trying to do anything but keep a secret. When he had the opportunity to tell Per in previous episodes, both times he stopped himself. Win could probably try to explain that to Per to ease the tension a little, but it’s kind of difficult to do that when Per keeps the curtains closed.

Oh, well, it’s only been 24 unfortunate hours in their friendship. Let’s wait and see if Per comes around and returns to the boy who was willing to stand up to Win’s father and not the one who slouches when Win’s mother called that bluff. Given that he’s aware now that he is considered part of the problem in Win’s house, visibly supporting Win wasn’t going to work anyway. As sad as this situation is, they needed time to formulate a better plan. I hope Mark helps them reshuffle the deck and draw better cards.

Onto Phun…I guess we can be glad that he decided to choose Noh after talking with Fi. I mean, he asked Noh to give him time in the last episode, but he didn’t exactly mention that he was deciding between Aim and Noh. I understand – forgiving Aim to start their relationship anew would mean that he would have to cut off the relationship with Noh. It is so very Phun to make that kind of decision without telling anyone that he’s making it, operating under the assumption that everyone will be thrilled with that outcome. Noh was unaware that Phun was still choosing, and of course, he hasn’t bothered to call Aim to see if she even wants to continue their relationship. Yes, she said she loved Phun and is now facing the wrath of Bomb for that.  But maybe someone should ask her what she wants before assuming that she wants to patch things up with Mr. Perfect. Does Phun really make her happy? He seems to think that he does.

I guess it’s a good thing that Phun didn’t tell Noh that he had finally decided to choose him and that there was a chance that Phun would have dumped him to go back to Aim. Noh may not be ready to be chosen that way anyway and would be peeved to find out that he no longer has a choice in the matter. Some secrets are best kept secret. Instead, it looks like Phun has decided to court Noh properly this time. Starting over with a gift of food and in the next episode a little song, and without the silly games for Pang’s amusement. Convenient product placements aside, it has to be a bit annoying to Earn fans that Phun not only is feeding Noh the same snacks Earn did, but is planning to mimic his serenade as well to start the process of winning Noh’s heart once and for all.

Up Next

Is MarWin is better than PerWin? And Aim is the adult in the room. Plus Jeed goes postal.

Fearless predictions:

• Mark will turn out to be seducing Win because he wants to be a policeman and thinks dating a policeman’s son will give him an in when joining the force (probability: 32%)
• If Ohm lets James touch him one more time, that bruise on his forehead will mysteriously move to his left eye (probability: 95%)
• 20 years from now Noh will be suffering from diabetes and morbid obesity from all of these junky snacks Phun (and Earn) feeds him (probability: 82%)

Note:

*Actually we can measure the simplification of the relationship complexity. There are four triangles in that rats nest: Phun-Noh-Earn, Noh-Phun-Aim, Yuri-Noh-Earn, Yuri-Noh-Phun. Each triangle contributes 180⁰ to the mess for a total relationship complication score of 720⁰. Absent Earn and Aim, those corresponding triangles collapse to segments which are measured at 0⁰, since segments have no angles. Ergo: 720⁰ – (3×180)⁰ = 180⁰, as only Yuri-Noh-Phun is left at the moment. We have lost 540⁰ of confusion. But we’ve added James and Mark to their respective triangles, so overall, the overall net relationship complication reduction for the episode is only –(180⁰) Look it up! It’s Euclidian!