O-Negative (beach blanket bingo)

My Shelter at Home recapping chore brings us to Episode 4 of the Thai TV show O-Negative (Episode 3). I picked the above promotional poster to start this recap because I've been looking at it and wondering... is it my imagination, or is Art picking his nose in it? I don't think I actually want an answer to that question.

Anyway, this episode starts with Professor Buddy's class in the park drawing the scenery. Art and Peun are sitting together in one spot, Prim and Foon in another. Peun and Foon are texting like mad and, at the same time, Foon is still trying to keep their budding relationship secret from the others. I've got to say, the longer this plot line goes on the sillier it gets. I mean, Art and Peun are supposedly long time friends, in what universe do 20 years old guys who are friends not discuss the girls they are chasing?

Elsewhere Chompoo shows up wearing a school uniform instead of the regular clothes like the rest of the kids are wearing. She tells Prim and Foon that it would be too hard to explain to her parents -- that they would just think she was skipping classes if she wore regular clothes. Then Chompoo gets to her real problem. The school is having a Beach Hazing this weekend and she wants to go to it, but is worried her parents won't allow it. Wait - now she thinks hazing is fun?

The girls suggest asking Professor Buddy to help, but when she asks him he thinks that having Go, who was one of the Senior Drill Sargents, talk to her parents is a better choice. Chompoo is a bit skeptical of that idea, but she doesn't have a lot of options.

You're not the only one who is wondering about that

In the next scene Peun has gone home. His Mom and Dad are eating diner and the mysterious dorm room business resurfaces when she says that, had she known he was sleeping there that night, she would have cooked him food. So the kids are staying in dorms? Who knows, but trust me on this, that is going to be far from the biggest puzzle of this episode.

Later, when he's in his room, his Mom comes up to talk to him. Her and his Dad had looked at his drawings, and she is mainly curious of the picture of Prim. She asks if she is his girlfriend. He says no, just a friend. She's not exactly buying that, and when she finds out that Art drew the picture and Peun took it she seems even more confused.

After she leaves the kids get on group chat to discuss what their theme for the Beach Hazing will be. Eventually Foon notices that Peun has been quiet so she calls him and asks if he's mad at her. He confesses that he is bothered by her lying about coming to class together when she drove him. She gives him some song and dance about how it would reflect badly on her character if people knew they drove to school together.

I don't know about that. Korean and Chinese dramas are often chaste to comically ridiculous degrees, but I'm not getting that feeling  about Thai dramas at all (this is the first Thai drama I've watched). Would Peun actually buy that excuse? Well, he does in this story, although she mollifies him by offering to drive him to school again.

Go tells Chompoo's parents a bunch of BS

What the bus trip actually looks like

The next morning they all meet at the school to board the bus. Chompoo latches onto Go and talks him into convincing to her Mom to let her go on the trip. Go tells her Mom a bunch of BS about how well behaved the kids are, there will be no alcohol or drugs, and that the boys and girls will be separated. Apparently Chompoo's Mom is an idiot, because she believes Go and gives Chompoo permission to go on the Beach Hazing trip.

We see a bit of the bus ride and I feel sorry for the poor driver. The kids are wild, with Chompoo as possibly the most out of control as she happily dances in the aisle.

When they get to the beach, as soon as they get off the bus the Seniors revert to their Senior Drill Instructor mode and order them to drop their bags and line up. The freshman are upset because they thought hazing was over. You would think that the fact that the event was named the Beach Hazing might be  a clue, but not with this group of Einstiens.

They get even more nervous when the Seniors tell them to put blindfolds on. They get led to a spot where the Seniors stop them, deliver an ambiguous speech, and then tell them to take their blindfolds off. When they do the Freshman are impressed and touched by what they see. Chompoo is even moved to tears by it, although admittedly Chompoo blubbering isn't a rare sight.

The Freshman gaze in wonder at what they see...

So, what did the Freshman see?

Beats me. Incredibly, after lingering for a long time with several reaction shots, including a long pan where we are shown the backs of what they are looking at, we cut to a shot of the beach at night and we are never shown what the Senior's surprise was nor does anyone mention it again.

However, we do find out what is the O Group's theme. When they introduce themselves they're dressed as primitive tribesman, with spears, shields, face paint and, as an odd touch,covered with leaves and branches. The only other group spotted is dressed in pajamas as a theme.

We cut to O Group sitting together. Art shows up with a guitar. Violette Wautier, the actress who plays Prim, is a Thai singer so after a bit of Compoo comic relief she starts singing. Peun and Foon sit back to back slyly holding hands, but soon Prim has Peun join her in singing a duet. Peun gets into it a little bit too much and pretty soon the hand holding is done and Foon is looking distraught. Art doesn't look to thrilled by the development either.

Except for two people there are smiles all around

The singing is interrupted by the need to attend the ceremony of Announcing the Beach Hazing Royal Court. Naturally, this being a soap opera after all, Prim is chosen as the Queen and Peun as the King. Neither Art nor Foon is thrilled by this, and salt is further rubbed into the wound when the Seniors tell the Royal Couple to hold hands as they walk.

Foon gets so upset she leaves, telling Chompoo she is going to sleep. However, on the way back to their camp some Seniors spot her and call her over. One fellow is drooling over her and he challenges her to a drinking contest. Gee, I wonder what his intentions are? Apparently she is stupider than she looks, because she agrees to the contest and is soon guzzling down drinks. We end the episode with the Senior leering at her as she drinks.

[Episode 5]

The spider and the fly