O-Negative (a failed intervention and a heap o' two-timing)

The last person Foon wants to see calling her

Episode 13 of the Thai TV show O-Negative (Episode 12) is the half way point of this series. Look at the bright side, you've got 13 more if these ridiculous recaps to wade through. At any rate, the episode picks up where the previous one ended. Art, Prim, Chompoo and Go are upstairs in the bar guzzling booze when Peun returns alone.

After he had told Foon he wasn't ready to date her, Foon, no doubt considering the sudden uptick of pictures of Peun and Prim together, asked him if he was seeing somebody else. He employed his usual first strategy when confronted with a difficult question -- he just stood there looking stupid and didn't say anything. Foon guessed what that meant and she told him to take the squids and stick them where the sun don't shine. Well, that's what she should have said. Instead she told him to take the squid to the rest of the gang. Then she turned and left as she tried to maintain her composure.

When he got to the bar alone the others wondered where Foon was and if she was OK. Peun then deployed his usual second strategy when faced with a dilemma -- he lied through his teeth saying he didn't know why she left. Art is looking increasingly disgusted by Peun's actions which just keep making a bad situation worse.

Prim decides to call Foon to see if she's OK. As you can imagine, Foon, who is crying her eyes out in her car, is less than thrilled to see Prim, of all people, pop up on her phone. She doesn't answer.

It's late, so they all head home. Peun says he'll  take Prim to her house. He can tell she is bothered by something, so he asks her what it is? She says that she's worried about Foon. That Foon seemed a little mad at her. Oh, sweet oblivious Prim, if you only knew.

Peun than asks Prim is she has given her mother the phone number of the psychologist he recommended. Yea Peun, put Prim's mind at ease by reminding her that her mom is nuttier than a fruitcake. That'll do the trick. Prim tells him she's just going to give her mom time. She says she thinks her mom is gradually getting better.

Prim's mom starts her trip around the bend

We flashback to the aftermath of Prim's dad's death. Prim's mother is disconsolate. Prim goes to get her some soup, but when she returns to it her mom has moved to her father's study where she's knocking back some whiskey. Prim offers to bring her the soup, but her mom says she'll wait to eat until Prim's now deceased dad joins them.

Prim tells her that dad's not with them anymore and Prim's mom says she knows -- that he's at work and will be back soon. It begins to sink into Prim just how delusional her mother has  become. She reacts with a mixture of sadness and horror to the dawning realization.

Her mom is continuing to drink heavily and Prim tries to slow her down. In the process they spill a bit of the drink on a drawing of her father's. Prim's mom is furious as she wipes up the spill saying how angry Prim's father is going to be. Prim is breaking down, in tears as she tries to tell her mom that her father is dead. This just enrages her mother even more.

We jump back to the present where Prim and Peun are walking as she tells the story. We then have a very odd scene. It is almost as if whoever wrote it hadn't seen the first 12 episodes. They've clearly established that Prim knows her mom's delusions kick in when she's been drinking, and prior to the trip to Art's house we've seen Prim try to talk her mom into not drinking.

That said, the scene continues by having Peun theorize that her mom's delusions start when she's been drinking and maybe Prim should talk to her about stopping drinking. When he says this Prim acts like it is a monumental insight that she had never considered. Ka-boing! That's some really goofy writing just to push the plot along.    

I guess that intervention didn't go according to plan

When Prim gets home her mom is working at a table with an empty bottle of wine next to her. She asks Prim to get her some more wine. Instead Prim tells her she is worried about her and asks her mom to stop drinking. Prim's mom says she appreciates the concern, but then goes and gets another bottle of wine and ends by reminding Prim to say goodnight to her dad before she goes to sleep.

Well, that didn't go too smoothly.

Prim confesses to Peun that her plan failed

We cut to Prim sitting in her room looking sad. Peun calls him and she says it didn't work. She tells him she doesn't know what to do next. Try and try again comes to mind, but apparently in this soap opera's universe once something fails it is never worth trying again.

Prim then starts softly crying and Peun tells her to go ahead and blubber away. He tells her that shedding tears removes excess manganese, a substance that is related to stress, from the blood. Google shows that this isn't just a Thai ol' wife's tale, but something supported by science.

As long as we're talking about girls bawling their eyes out, we may as well jump over to Foon who is laying in bed with tears in her eyes as she remembers all the happy times she and Peun had. Then she remembers all the times she saw Prim and Peun together and she starts sobbing even more. This is interrupted by Prim messaging her asking if she is OK, which doesn't make matters any better for her.

The results of a night of Prim's mom's social drinking

The next morning as Peun leaves for school he checks the mail and finds Prim's postcard. Her message to him is pretty generic. When he picks Prim up he asks how her mom is. She points towards the garbage where we see a pile of empty wine and booze bottles that her mom drank last night. Gadzooks! Talking to her dead husband will be the least of her problems when she gets done dissolving her liver with all the alcohol she's been guzzling down.

Peun reminds Prim about the postcard. She gets hers, but she doesn't read it right away. Instead she puts it in her purse to read later.

We jump to Foon's house. Her eyes are swollen from weeping all night and she is trying a cold compress to make them look more normal. Her mom starts pestering her why she was crying the night before, but Foon's dad stops her mom from asking. When Foon leaves he points out to her mom that it is probably just boy problems.

Who could the scoundrel that broke Foon's heart possibly be?

We cut to a restaurant where Foon, who's wearing sunglasses, is waiting for the rest of O Group to join her for breakfast. When they arrive Chompoo makes fun of the sunglasses as a disguise and takes them off Foon. They notice her eyes are puffy from the night before. Chompoo and Prim realize she's been crying and ask her who did this to her. Peun looks nervous and Art, who also knows what's going on, tries to fade into the background.

The girls guess Ong-art, but Foon, staring straight at Peun angrily says no, it was a different jerk. She adds, as she continues to glare at Peun, that the asshole was seeing two girls at the same time. Further, he and this girl go every where together, take pictures together and even text message those pictures to her.

Hilariously, in spite of Foon glaring at Peun the entire time, neither Chompoo nor Prim can figure out who the two-timing guy is. They ask her who he is and Foon says Peun knows him well. They then start grilling Peun about the mystery guy's identity. Peun, who's covered in flop sweat at this point, can only answer "umm... err... well... uhh..." as his eyeballs frantically dodge around looking for an escape route.

Foon finally let's him off the hook by lying and saying it was a high school sweetheart. Strikes me that would bring us back to Ong-art, but the two girls are satisfied by that. Foon then says, as Peun sadly listens, that she is over the weasel and is writing the guy off as a complete scumbag. The girls then head off to art appreciation taught by Professor Napaporn while Art hangs back a bit and consoles Peun with his usual 'just wait and do nothing' advice.

In the class Art and Chompoo have fallen asleep. Prim is paying attention, Foon is looking sad and angsty while Peun is gawking at her from the back row. The lecture is about Salvador Dali's painting The Great Masturbator. Professor Napaporn alludes to the sexual nature of the work and at its hints of a meditation on infidelity. Peun picks up his phone and messages "I'm sorry" to Foon.

Foon drinking, crying and painting up a storm

Later that night we jump to Foon's room where she is weeping as she drinks wine and paints something. Perhaps if she gets drunk enough Prim's dad will visit her to sit for a portrait? Anyway, she gets more and more overwrought as she paints until she ends up wildly slapping paint onto the canvas. Eventually she ends up screaming and knocking the canvas over.

Her parents hear that, wonder what's going on, and end up shrugging their shoulders and deciding that whatever it is, it will pass in time. Although not shown, I like to imagine they then turned up the volume of their TV to drown out her screaming and sobbing.

She calls Peun and, through her tears, tells him she is drunk and can't take it anymore. She asks him to come over. Concerned, he agrees to visit her.

Later, back in Foon's room she hears a knock on the door. She happily runs to it, throws it open with a smile only to see Prim standing there. Prim? That's the same question Foon has and Prim tells her that she knows Foon was upset earlier in the day, and that she knows Foon couldn't get over it that fast. Prim than tells Foon that they'll always be friends. I'm not sure I would bet on that considering the real situation, but Foon seems to buy it.

They hug and Prim tells Foon about tears shedding stress causing manganese. When Foon asks her where she learned that Prim tells her from Peun. Foon doesn't like hearing that. They decide to go out and get some food because Foon has not been eating. They leave her room and when they get to the bottom of the stairs who should be standing there but Peun. Peun?

This is nowhere near as awkward as it should be

It turns out that Prim was with Peun when Foon called him. So, if I have this straight, Peun brought Prim, the girl he is trying to cheat with, to console Foon, the girl he is trying to cheat on. Some how, instead of this all leading to a huge three-way brawl, Prim's good-natured obliviousness ends up cheering Foon up. I've got to admit I am having a bit of trouble parsing that result.

After their late night snack Prim and Foon are back, at least for the moment, to being best of friends. Foon drives them home, dropping Prim off first. When she's alone in the car with Peun she tells him that she can see why he likes Prim. Then she asks him if he's asked Prim to be his girlfriend yet. He says no, that he doesn't think Prim likes him (in Asian dramas to confess you like somebody is to say you have feelings for them).

Foon pushes him to ask Prim, but Peun starts laying it on thickly about how he liked this one girl, even asked her to be his girlfriend, but it turned into a disaster. Oh Peun, if you weren't such a BS artist we might buy that line. It does work on Foon though, she pulls the car over, unbuckles her seatbelt, leans over and starts kissing him.

We jump to Prim's room. Again, she is a bit difficult read. It isn't clear how much she knows or guesses about Peun and Foon, but it seems that she is seeing Peun more and more as a potential boyfriend. She takes out the postcard he had written on the train. He is laying it on thick to her, talking about how her smile made the trip worth it. He ends it by saying he'll wait for her. She smiles as she reads that.

[Episode 14]

Peun's BS seems to work its magic