Episode 25 of the Thai TV show O-Negative (Episode 24) starts at the point where Foon tells Peun that she's pregnant. There is a lot of stuff packed into this episode, so this will be a long recap.
I've started this post with a video of แค่เธอรักฉัน (Just You Love Me) which is the main theme song of the show. This version, sung by Tata Young, was used in the movie the show is based on. The clips in it are from the movie, I found it interesting to see the scenes with different actors. From the repeated viewings I've done of the episodes to write these recaps, that song has been seared into my brain, so you may as well have to hear it as well.
Anyway, after Foon tells Peun she's pregnant he stands there shocked, not saying anything as he absorbs the news. She leaves him and returns to her house where her parents are concerned about her because of her earlier tantrum. When she comes home she ignores their questions and goes into her room where she sits on the floor and breaks down crying again. With the amount of blubbering she's been doing I'm starting to get worried she'll dehydrate. Be sure to drink plenty of water Foon.
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| At least Daddy Peun's advice isn't so stupid this time around |
Peun tells him it isn't so simple, that Foon won't agree to marry him. Both his dad and mom tell him it is too soon to know if she'll marry him or not. They tell him that both he and Foon need to calm down before they can really make that decision. Peun's dad also says he can talk to Foon's parents about a marriage. Actually, I think that's the route things would probably go, but Peun tells his father it is too soon for that.
His mother reminds him, "whatever happens between you two your child has done nothing wrong and has all the rights to be born into this world." Abortion is largely illegal in Thailand, a fact which will hang over much of what happens this episode.
We cut to that night, where we have a brief scene of Prim sitting on the back deck of her house and looking at a picture of her mother. She remembers her mom's advice that she should make friends first and then worry about dating.
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| I guess Art hasn't met a nice French girl |
When he is done writing the postcard he reaches into a box and pulls out an older postcard. It looks like the same type of card the vendor on the Bangkok/Kanchanaburi train sold. It is addressed to Prim, but was never sent.
We next see Prim outside of her house. She is looking at the postcard Art sent to O Group, She stands next to a taxi with a suitcase. She turns and looks wistfully over her shoulder back at her house. With the soundtrack dramatically blaring away, she gets in the cab and it drives off.
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| Foon asks Chompoo for a favor |
Concerned, Chompoo goes over to Foon's house to talk to her. She doesn't bring an abortion pill, so Foon says she'll buy it elsewhere. Chompoo says nobody will sell her the pill. When Chompoo asks how long Foon has been pregnant she says three months.
Three months! The interlude on the beach was three months ago? So all this drama with Foon, Prim and Peun has been going on that long? The time-line in this stretch of the story is pretty wonky. Some of it may just be Thai story telling conventions, but I suspect part of it is because the producers of the show had to stretch a 104 minute long movie into 26 hour long episodes, and things that worked when they were compressed stood out a little more in the longer treatment.
Anyway, back to Chompoo and Foon. Chompoo continues to argue against Foon getting an abortion saying, "the baby has done nothing wrong. Why do you want to kill it?" Foon says she doesn't want to trouble her friend. Chompoo points out that Peun is a boyfriend and not just a friend. Foon corrects her, saying it is about a friend, that it is about Prim.
Prim? Oh right, Prim and Foon are supposed to be best friends. Chompoo continues to plead with Foon to not get an abortion, but Foon is convinced that, right or wrong, it is the only way to solve the problem.
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| Prim plots to hit the road |
About this point it begins to dawn on me that this sequence -- running all the way back to the arguments of the previous episode -- is about Prim and Foon's friendship falling apart more than anything. That's why Peun has avoided any real condemnation for his dirtball antics. Starting with the hazing in Episode 1, this show has repeatedly stressed the importance of group friendship above all else. Art, Peun, Foon and Prim orbiting each other romantically has caused O Group to fall apart.
That said, part of the problem with the show is it has never quite sold the notion that these kids are really such great friends. Aside from the time they came together to help Prim when she went crazy and started tending to her ghost mom, they mainly interacted by either sneaking around flirting with each other, telling lies, or occasionally all getting together to knock back beers at Go's bar. They seem more like acquaintances than close friends.
We cut to Foon's home studio where Peun is sitting and waiting for her. I wonder why he is so sweaty when I realize all the moisture is actually from tears streaming down his face. Seesh Peun, pull yourself together. He tries to call Foon and gets no answer. Feh, such heart string pulling isn't going to work on me. If he knew Prim was in a taxi headed to the airport he'd be after her so fast he'd create a sonic boom.
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| Chompoo frantically tries to stop Foon |
Chompoo is near hysterical. All she can think of is to call Peun to see if he can help and intervene with Foon. I've got to say that Goy Arachaporn Pokinpakorn, the actress who plays Chompoo, did a fine job of showing Chompoo sinking ever deeper into panic and desperation in these scenes. Then again, in spite of being largely the comic relief in the show, I think she's arguably been the best actor of the ensemble.
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| Foon faces her decision |
When we return Foon comes out of the clinic and hugs the tearful Chompoo. Foon says to Chompoo, "I'm sorry. I couldn't do it. I'm sorry." Upon hearing that, Chompoo goes from being upset to being ecstatic. She tells Foon that she did good, and promises to help raise the baby.
Foon then tells Chompoo she wants to apologize to Prim. Peun just misses them at the clinic as they leave to find Prim. In the car Foon tries to call Prim but gets no answer. At the same time Peun calls Chompoo. She doesn't answer and when Foon asks who it was calling Chompoo lies and says it was an unknown number.
However, Peun calls again and Foon sees his picture as the caller ID on the phone. Foon gets mad when she sees who is calling. Chompoo tells her she called Peun because she didn't know what else to do to try to stop Foon. Chompoo then tries to get Foon to talk to Foon, but that infuriates Foon even more who grabs the phone to turn it off. The two struggle over the phone. Uh... you might want to watch the road Foon.
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| Remember kids - don't text and drive |
When Chompoo comes to Foon is draped over the driver's wheel. After a brief shot of Prim in the taxi looking at her plane ticket to Paris, we join Chompoo who is riding in an ambulance with the badly injured Foon who is unconscious, in a neck brace, and covered with blood.
Foon gets rushed to the Samrong General Hospital. Peun arrives as they take Foon out of the ambulance and wheel her into the emergency room. The doctors and nurses do all matter of emergency medical things, sticking tubes in her and what-not, as Chompoo and Peun watch in tears.
We jump to the airport where Prim is standing in front of the arrivals/departures board. She gets a group message from Chompoo saying that there is an urgent need for O-negative blood donors. She claims the blood type is rare. Wait a second - rare? When, all the way back in Episode 2, they formed the O Group because they all had that blood type Art mocked the idea because it was such a common blood type. He even joked that everybody else on the ferry probably also had it.
However, in looking it up O-negative blood is rather rare at about 7% of the population. I guess the error was in the earlier scene. Anyway, in her message Chompoo goes on to say it is for Foon, who is in the ICU.
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| Foon's hat trick: no driver's license, texting while driving and no seatbelt |
Later we see Prim take out her airplane ticket and throw it in the garbage. She missed her flight coming back to see how Foon and Chompoo were.
Even later they are all in the waiting room again. Peun walks over and sits down next to Prim. He starts going on about how it is all his fault and that he caused it all. I hate to defend Peun, but Foon's astoundingly crappy driving had something to do with it as well. He then asks Prim what he should do, because he messed up everything. Prim responds, "you have to make everything right then." Sadly, she doesn't follow that up with a couple of knuckle sandwiches.
At that point the doctor comes out and says Foon has made it safely through whatever medical procedures they did. Foon's parents, Chompoo and Peun all rush into Foon's room. Prim stays back at the door. Foon's rich parents must be paying top dollar for her care, because I notice the nurses took the extra effort to apply makeup to Foon. It is important that one look their best while cutely convalescing.
Peun blabbers to barely conscious Foon that it is all his fault and that he now loves her. Prim, with a single tear rolling down her cheek, quietly says to herself, "I'm leaving, Foon." She turns and walks away.
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| Prim finds Art in Paris |
He wonders who she came with and she tells him she came alone. He asks if she is on a vacation and she says no. He asks her what she's planning to do and she confesses she doesn't know. He closes his stand to take Prim sightseeing. First they go to his studio to drop off her luggage. It is a small loft he shares with the Thai photographer he works with. He again asks her what her plans are and she says she doesn't know, that she just wants to forget. He doesn't press her for an explanation.
He takes her to the Place Vendôme. He asks her if the others know she came to visit him. She tells him no, that she only told Ms. Duang about her trip. Art guesses that something happened. She only will tell him, "yes, sort of." He presses her to tell him what happened. Prim replies that she doesn't know where to start. He says, "what if you start with the climax? The climax that would absolutely shock me." She tells him Foon had a miscarriage. Art is shocked by that news. He wonders who the father is, guessing it was Ong-art. Prim tells him no, it was Peun.
It's raining by the time Art walks Prim to the room she's staying at. When they get there Art starts to leave, but sees that she's just standing at the door. He ask her why and she says she didn't get in touch with the landlord in time to get the key, so she'll just wait for somebody to go in or come out so she can get in. Art tells her that Paris isn't like Bangkok. That it's a security door and nobody will leave her in without a key. They decide she'll have to spend the night in Art's loft.
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| Maybe Mamma Foon will be the one that clocks Peun to shut him up |
He keeps groveling and she keeps saying "get out." Finally, she musters enough strength to pull her hand free from his grasp and take a swing at him. Her parents step between them and tell Peun to leave as she cries, "Get him out. Get him out." He finally takes the none too subtle hint and leaves.
Peun is sitting in the hall of the hospital when the director of the show really lathers on the schmaltz. As Peun is sitting there a fellow rolls out his wife in a wheelchair. She's a new mom holding a baby. Peun emotes up a storm.
Meanwhile, back in the hospital room Foon's mom is telling her, "the baby is not with you anymore." This is the first Foon has heard of the miscarriage and all she can say is, "Nobody wants to be with me, mom" as she slowly disintegrates.
In Paris Prim and Art are walking back to his studio. Prim, not used to the Paris weather, is cold. He takes off his coat and puts it around her shoulders. Underneath it he's wearing the t-shirt she had bought him. When they get back to his studio she comments that she never saw him wear it before. He says he wears it all the time, just not when she's around.
Later he's fallen asleep and she's still awake. Let's see... Prim had a twelve hour flight from Bangkok, wandered around Paris looking for Art, went sightseeing with him, got locked out of her room and returned to his loft late at night. Does this girl ever sleep?
Anyway, she looks at his pictures and his books. She finds a box with postcards in it. Most of them are to postcards that were sent to Art. She smiles because he kept them. Then she finds the postcard which she recognizes is from the Bangkok/Kanchanaburi train.
She turns it over and sees that it is addressed to her. In the card he tells her that, aside from Peun, she was only the second person he ever brought to his house. He doesn't have many friends.
He apologizes for bossing her around, saying he didn't really know how to act, and that he didn't want her to get bored. He says he hopes she'll visit again.
He goes on to say, "Actually, I want you to move in and stay here with me. I just want to see your smile when I wake up." He talks about what happy moments these were and ends by saying, "these are the moments that I get to learn what it is like to love someone more than just a friend." Prim is taken aback, realizing she is reading a love letter to her that Art wrote to himself, never really meaning to send.
[Episode 26]
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| The scales fall from Prim's oblivious eyes |
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