Dao Reurng Episode 7

We have a casualty in funny ville that propels our leads to get closer together. But the development of one relationship slowly dissolves another. We have some nice moments in this episode though, where Reurng and Khun Palat realizes that one cannot succeed without the other.  

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Episode 7 Recap

The baddies toss Gamnan Term’s bloody body into the river, causing Reurng to scream out his name. Luckily Khun Palat has his hands firmly over her mouth. He tells her to remain steady and that Gamnan may still be breathing, they need to retrieve his body.

As they drag his body from the water, it is not to be, Reurng cries over the timing of it all, she and Gamnan are supposed to be fighting the baddies together, she’s not supposed to see him dead before her eyes.

Still furious, Reurng demands for the Director to go after Sia Gampon and his men, but Khun Palat chimes in that they can’t go after him without evidence, the townsfolk won’t believe them. Not to mention the law. Reurng wants to know what else they’re waiting for, another person to die under Sia Gampon’s hand? And this is the Director’s biggest concern, because if they’re going to simply accuse Sia Gampon without any concrete evidence, the next person at risk of dying is Khun Palat and Reurng herself. Furthermore, in order to capture a man of his caliber, they need to stay focus and use their brains.

Phoo Yai couldn’t help but commentate over the tragedy, the town has only buried people who have died due to old age, but they must now bury Gamnan under these unfortunate conditions. Wifey Wieng relents that perhaps Gamnan shouldn’t go on living too long because he doesn’t have any kin left. Sad. But nothing like comic under duress. New wifey Wai appears and is in competition to look the part, one of the wives chime in that she looks better than the first wife, heh.

Mer is gaining the upper hand with Wan as she trades barbs bite for bite. She wants to ride the motorcycle with him to the funeral and says his momma has ordered him to and he shouldn’t wish to disobey her orders because he’s on the shit list after what he pulled with choosing a new wife for his daddy. He succumbs under pressure.

At the funeral Sia Gampon rolls in, acting like the favorite person in town that he is. Khun Palat and Reurng exchange looks. Once alone, Reurng exclaims that she wishes she can shoot at him, the way that he has done to Gamnan Term. She is willing to go to jail or go to hell. Khun Palat reminds her again to be smart and patient- and that there is evidence that they can find against Sia Gampon because he’ll commit other crimes down the road. But this is not the answer that consoles Reurng, “so we’ll have to wait until something else horrible happens?” Khun Palat relents that they could start right after the funeral, perhaps Gamnan left some evidence behind?

This prompts Reurng to dig in the garbage, searching for the letter that Gamnan left behind but to no avail, her momma had already emptied the garbage. She kicks the grass with discouragement, as tis latest failure is her last straw. Khun Palat promises to help her himself and encourages her to call it a night.

“You should leave- you shouldn’t stay here. You will just end up dead,” Reurng says.

Khun Palat turns to her, “and how is it that a slip of a woman like you can stay here?”

“This is my home- I was born here and I will die here. But you are not.”

“And why should I leave?”

“Do you want to end up like Gamnan Term?” she questions. “Do you want to get shot? Get tossed into the water and be eliminated, like a ghost without relatives?”

“Dao Reurng..”

“Keep your ideals and take them home.”

She brushes pass him and he stares intently into the night.

More than anything, I think the death of Gamnan affected Reurng more than anyone else in town, and her dismissal of Khun Palat goes to show that she doesn’t want another good person that she has come to know, die in the hands of Sia Gampon. And it also shows a vulnerable side of Reurng to Khun Palat. So I really like this scene.

Reurng takes Little Pian to get his identification card renewed, and a familiar black truck rolls around. Even Little Pian notes that they’ve seen it before (heh) but Reurng says that these kinds of trucks are always on the streets. Oof, did it take seven episodes to fix Khun Palat’s truck? This town works really slowwwly.

Kamjorn hops out of the driver’s seat and reminds her that this is the truck she had utilized for her duck bed earlier, did she not remember?

One of Wan’s minions (I should probably start giving them names) is also renewing his “lost” card and both him and Little Pian overhear Kamjorn collecting his winnings from his coworker- that Khun Palat is moving out of town today. Like forever. They thought he would have lasted longer. They even spy Khun Palat rolling his suitcase out of the office.

The minion immediately rushes to share the news with his leader, who practically salivates from the excitement that he’ll no longer have any competition for Reurng. They advise him to hurry up and console Reurng while it’s still current.

Sia Gampon orders more trees to be chopped, he has a big order coming up. He doesn’t care how they do it, but they need to make the deadline. Without Gamnan, their work (I’m sure he means their dirty work) will be effortless. He doesn’t think anyone dares suspect the death of Gamnan, ‘cause yunno, he’s the big boss, yo.

Reurng takes her herd of ducks to the lake where they can bask in sunshine and drink lake water. She calls them each by their names and recall the moment she and Khun Palat came up with the names together, and in case we forget the scene, we are dearly reminded. She sobers with the thought, “who’s going to stay with us forever?” Aw, someone already misses our Khun Palat.

The trio arrives for their consolation, but of course instead of saying anything nice, they admonish that a person like Khun Palat couldn’t stand living in the countryside and being with a comely girl- while he- Wan, won’t ever leave her and they can live happily ever after. She shoos them away, annoyed as usual. Wan tells her he won’t get mad at her anymore, no matter what she says, because now he can breathe a sigh of relief that Khun Palat is gone. Gosh, no matter how stupid these trio acts, I find Kong so dang adorable. He really does embody Wan’s character so well.

They decide to suck up to his future mother in law instead. But like mother like daughter, lol, as she tries to kick them out of her food stand since they weren’t going to eat. Wan offers to be her son in law and that he has changed (since yesterday lol) and that he’s no longer a thug, he will prove it to her. They start by cleaning Reurng’s house. By the end of the day, they are crawling to Momma Bancheun in exhaustion.

In the background, it’s actually Kong singing the song, he has such a pleasant voice!

Reurng finally comes home and questions why her momma allowed dogs in the house, heh. Momma tells her not to be too mean to Wan today, he has been helpful. Wan gives her the puppy dog eyes but Reurng doesn’t fall under the spell, she says that they are pretending to be good but it won’t last long.

She transports her duckies back into their pen, even they are starting to grow on me. So cute. She tells them that even though they no longer have daddy to take care of them, they still have mommy. Reurng realizes what just came out of her mouth and corrects herself as “P’Reurng,” heh, not their mommy.

Wan and his minions bring her a meal and say that they don’t want her to be hurt or sick because he will get hurt or sick too. Reurng tells them to stop howling and barking around here because her duckies are eating. Wan asks her whether she sees the ducks more important than him? To which she exclaims, heck yes! Ha. Wan storms back to the food booth in anger, he says to Momma Bancheun that he won’t stand it anymore. Which only proves Reurng’s point, this boy’s good behavior won’t last very long.

By the time they arrive home, he’s weeping in despair (overly dramatic for comedic sake?) Even the minions wonder why he’s not used to Reurng referring to him as a dog by now. But they are convinced that the more a girl throws name-calling at you, the more she loves you. Where did they get this logic? Wan cries that even after Khun Palat left, he still has the duckies standing in his way, he’s ready to give up. Then the minions blurt, ‘why don’t you get rid of the duckies?’

Oh these boys, do they really think that by getting rid of something she loves, that she will love you?

The betting/gambling business is down as Nai Umpur has encouraged folks to steer towards legal work. Reurng learns from her supplier that the woodmill is hiring additional helpers and they are paying well, but Reurng relents that she doesn’t know many people who can do that. She ponders what this means and what Sia Gampon is up to.

The trio commences their duck theft endeavor. First Wan makes his minions ask to work at the restaurant as a measure of penance for acting up earlier. She doesn’t buy it and refuses. But the boys ask for her help instead, they want to compete in AF competition. Momma Bancheun wonders if the competition doesn’t evaluate on looks then? Correct. They start to sing to distract her from the cries of the duckies (in which Wan is trying to kidnap but it isn’t as easy as it looks.) Momma Bancheun exclaims that they should quit singing altogether, no one’s gonna want them. (One of them can really sing but he’s just pretending to sing horribly.)

Wan successfully captures a duckie and takes off.

Reurng pays a visit to the police station to drop off something for the Director. Sergeant Men still suspects that she’s having a relationship with the director, and thinks he’s doing his due diligence by scolding her. When he delivers the goods to the Director’s desk, Sergeant Men says that once he becomes her step dad, she will be conformed into a good person. The director dismisses the Sergeant with a shake of his head. Inside the fried chicken package lies a note from Reurng indicating that a large truck is leaving the border.

Wan shows off a duckie he supposedly purchased and tells his momma that he wants to eat a particular duck dish. Oh noes. Ai Wan don’t be so cruel, you dolt. The mommies refuse but Mer raises her hand, wanting to please him.

In Bangkok, it’s Preuk’s last day to take care/play manager/assistant of Diva Rose. A fan walks up to her and asks to take a picture, but he tells her that Rose isn’t feeling well and to try next time. But Rose isn’t a diva to her fans (only to her companions?) and gives permission for a photo. As she gets up though, she stumbles, but Preuk’s strong arms catch her before she falls. Cute.

He gives her a piggyback ride to her condo, because yunno, she can’t walk, I should always use this excuse by the way. He tries to leave, but she asks him to prepare her one last meal because she’s starving. He laments that he’s not her slave but she says that she’s a woman and she’s hurt, even if he likes men (to which shocks him- she probably thinks he’s gay because he doesn’t pay her no mind ha.) He balks but too much of a nice guy to say no.

Her fridge is full of packaged food, but they’ve all expired. He evaluates the remaining items in her fridge, and whips up a creative home cooked meal. He mutters that she’s lucky he’s the son of Momma Bancheun.

While he is cooking, her cell phone keeps going off and then her home phone. With uncertainty he takes the call, it’s Khun Palat on the other end, hearing not so good things- a man taking his girl’s call and is in her condo to boot! Are you finally realizing that distance doesn’t always make the heart grow fonder?

Rose comes down in her bathrobe and Preuk stammers when he spots her adjusting her robe, thinking she’s naked underneath. He excuses himself and hightails out of her condo. Rose mutters that she isn’t about to rape him and enjoys her home cooked meal. Lucky duck.

Khun Palat looks in disbelief at the phone. It appears he’s in a hotel, perhaps a conference with the other ministries? But it weighs on his mind and he tries the phone one more time, he gets Rose. He asks after her, that he’s concerned about her, who’s going to take care of her (without her manager) and who’s going to drive her around.. Rose is touched and tells him to come back for her then. Because if he doesn’t, she may have to find a new driver for her and a new person to feed her. Which is not too far from the truth! Jin is immediately worried, but Rose says she was only joking and that he doesn’t need to worry.

Reurng is feeding her duckies when she realizes her little girl is missing “Jee-jaat” it was named due to its similarity to her (small but fierce.) Reurng panics and she seeks her mom (and Mer is here for a visit, she has brought a duck dish she made, omg). Mer says she doesn’t know where Wan got the female duck but he’s so nice to share the dish with Reurng and family. Reurng pales at this and learns that Wan and his gang stopped by earlier. She asks Mer to describe the duckie, small and white.. just like Jee-jaat. Momma Bancheun spits out what she was eating. Ai Wan, you are dead meat.

Oh but Ai Wan isn’t that cruel. He has jeet-jaat in his hands and is about to return it to Reurng. I’m impressed that for once, he has learned not to do anything stupid.

Next scene is a little confusing, apparently Khun Palat is back, he’s not gone gone, but just came out of nowhere! He’s trying to talk some sense in Reurng that ducks are food and jee-jaat is in heaven now. But Reurng relents that it’s not his time to go to heaven yet, it’s still small, and besides, he shouldn’t be Ai Wan’s meal! She wants to kill him, but Khun Palat reminds her that killing Ai Wan would only send her to jail (blah blah blah) and that the only person who will regret it the most is her mother and brother.

But the moment she hears Ai Wan’s happy voice, she loses it and proceeds to choke him. Wan’s minions immediately rushes over to save their leader and hands over jee-jaat. Reurng relishes that jee-jaat isn’t dead and shows the alive duck to Khun Palat. They two are calling themselves mommy and daddy to the duck. Lol. And Ai Wan loses Reurng to both duck and man. They walk away like a happy family.

Reurng and Khun Palat take the ducks for a stroll on the dock. They walk easily into their pond for some sun basking and fresh water (the ducks not the humans.)

“I thought you were moving back to Bangkok? Or are you moving elsewhere?” she asks, peering up at him.

“I’ve mentioned before that I won’t leave until I can convince you to do good and be good,” he replies.

“But you are aware that it’s dangerous here-“

“Yes, I’m aware,” he interrupts, “but I would have left the first day the gunshot hit the telephone pole. I’m a minister, if I’m selfish and cowardly, how can I serve the public? It is dangerous to live here, but we could die anywhere. What matters is that we contribute to society- then we would have lived a valuable life.”

“But you still have a choice,” she admonishes.

“I have chosen. I won’t move anywhere until we can reveal Sia Gampon’s true colors to the townspeople.”

This pleases her ears as she smiles genuinely at him. Aww.

Back in Bangkok, Diva Rose’s fridge is empty, so she instinctively phones Namwarn, to her horror. She hangs up immediately and decides to call our handsome delivery guy.

He grimaces at the name on the caller ID and before she could utter a word, he let’s her have it, that he’s busy, he’s not here to tend to her (blah blah blah) and Rose looks tritely as if that wasn’t what she intended to say when she thought about him. She’s pissed that he would hang up on her before she could put a word in edgewise.

He gets another call from her. Heh. Her turn to talk, “do you think a woman like Sudawadee would beg you?” Instead, a woman like Sudawadee prefers to contrive to his more protective side, she smashes her things to the ground and pretends like she fell.

Worried, Preuk asks Boss Jantha for half a day off to see to his friend.

Boss Jantha peers at the newspaper, but an article causes her to furrow her brows. She phones her son about the dangers of Don Pattana and warns him to be careful. Because even Gamnan Term was being careful, he still ended up dead. She understands that he wants to do what he loves, but he should understand a mother’s stance too, he’s her own child. Khun Palat comforts his mom, then he asks her if Rose came by to see her at all? Momma tells him not to worry, she read in the paper that Rose is at home now. Does he want to inquire if Rose has been acting weird lately or what? Trying to catch a cheating girlfriend? Momma says things can change.. but he should just focus on work and not to worry about a thing.

But momma’s phone call doesn’t put him at ease because as Khun Palat walks into the police station, he overhears them talking about a newspaper clipping. Apparently the celeb in their hearts is secretly seeing someone else, there is a picture of Rose hugging another man. This doesn’t sit well with Khun Palat as his heart starts to slowly break. Well, it just sucks overall when you find out that your girlfriend is perhaps seeing someone else. But if he truly cared, he would have maybe talked to her about his suspicions, or try to win her back. Perhaps the love wasn’t all that deep to begin with? Just rhetorical questions..

Khun Palat reports about his conference to the Director. What’s interesting is that the Director says that Gamnan has been following this case too, the tree cutting. But he doesn’t like to work with the police force (could you blame the man?) and so the cops tend to not have any evidence to convict Sia Gampon. Director surmises that when Gamnan went out that day to gather evidence, he might have found something incriminatory. Then Khun Palat admonishes that if they could find what Gamnan left behind, it would help against the case of Sia Gampon.

Khun Palat decides to start immediately. He enters Gamnan’s dusty home to see if he could extract anything important about the case.

Meanwhile Reurng pays her monthly debt to Sia Gampon, who wonders how she’s making so much money now, and whether it had to do with alcohol, gambling etc. Reurng just goes along with it and says she will try to bring more money. Sia warns her to heed some caution and Reurng throws back that she’s always cautious, she hears that bad people die badly (lol) and she doesn’t want to be one of them. It’s almost like cursing that Sia (who is truly bad) will die a bad death. The Sia does not like that at all, ha.

She spots Khun Palat’s truck heading towards Sia Gampon’s territory (as she was leaving.) She follows him back.

Khun Palat arms himself and tells Reurng that he is heading to the spot where they killed Gamnan to see if there are any remaining evidences. He tried searching the old man’s home but to no avail. Reurng says he would turn into Gamnan if he tries to go back there. Of course, he says the worse thing to her, “a kid like you shouldn’t meddle with dangerous situations like this.” Reurng stops him, “even though you’re a government official, if you’re not familiar with the route, you can’t be effective. I know this place well, if you really want evidence, you need to follow ME.” Heh. Wait, didn’t they risk their lives together many times before? Khun Palat should know better by now to trust her capabilities. Goodness gracious, I am about fed up with hero’s thinking their heroines are only there to look pretty. His connotation offers no respect or trust, when you’d think it’s something that has been gained already. Pfft.

But off they go, because he knows she’s right. He would be lost in the woods without her.

Back in Bangkok, Pruek rushes to Rose’s aid, thinking that she has hurt herself. She’s waiting for him, ready to put on a show. She gets the attention that she needs, as he’s overly concerned and makes sure she’s fed and that she takes her medicine.

Reurng takes Khun Palat deep into the woods and he starts to notice that they are no longer in Sia Gampon’s territory. They are on government’s land. Reurng tells him that Sia Gampon has been illegally cutting down government’s trees. He wonders how she knows and Reurng admits that as she’s finding different areas to produce her alcohol, and having to change places all the time because Sergeant Men keeps trying to discover her, Reurng has witnessed Sia Gampon’s illegal endeavor. She forewarns him that Sia’s men have both guns and rifles. Khun Palat says need not fear because he has brought a gun too. Heh, Reurng is not impressed by his small hand gun.

Preuk feeds Rose and makes sure she takes her medicine. It seems she’s immediately better, her fever is gone, oh, those miraculous medicine. She tells him to shut the door when he leaves and heads upstairs for a nap. Preuk hasn’t quite caught on that he has been duped- despite knowing that she hadn’t taken medicine to keep her fever down.

Our duo makes it close to the lion’s den. Reurng makes Khun Palat test out his camera to ensure it works properly, so Khun Palat takes a few photos of her. Heh. Reurng hates taking pictures but she forces awkward smiles on her face. Khun Palat wonders why they are cutting down trees so far out and deep into the woods; Reurng relents that’s a way to keep the cops away. As they spy on the hordes of chopped trees, Khun Palat starts to take the incriminating pictures. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that the flash is turned on, and it alerts the guard dog, who makes a beeline for them.

Reurng and Khun Palat run for their lives until they come to the edge of a drop-off. The dog is snarling at them (although he looks quite harmless) and Reurng takes off her shirt to ward him off. A misstep causes her to tumble down the hill with Khun Palat, rolling on top of each other. Oof.

At the bottom of the hill, Khun Palat still has his arms around her and surmises that they’re safe now. He looks down at her chest (heh) as it’s the first time she’s bearing her arms (boxing outfit not withstanding). Self-conscious, she covers her arms across her chest and deems to get back up the hill to fetch her shirt. Like the gentleman he is, Khun Palat offers the shirt off his back. Some time later they spy a truck leading some men from across the border into the woods. Hm. Obviously illegal workers.

Rose seems to have gotten her nap in and comes meandering down the stairs. She notices her condo is spotless and beams. In the corner, Preuk sits and questions whether she was really sick or pretending to be sick. Rose admonishes that she was really sick, but before she could defend herself further, she receives a call about her next modeling assignment. Sounds like something causes her to pause and worry but she mentions over the phone that she will take care of it (we aren’t privy to the details.)

With a look at Preuk, she says she would stop calling him if he could do one last thing for her. He guesses perhaps she needs a ride? She just goes with it, but we know she has another ulterior motive.

Meanwhile in town, Phoo Yai announces that they are going to be opening the running for Gamnan’s position. He is volunteering to submit his own interest. Reurng and Khun Palat made it back to her food stall. Reurng is furious that Sia Gampon is robbing the nation right under their noses. Now they have the running for Gamnan’s role, and if Phoo Yai gets it, he’ll get the backing of Sia Gampon, which is like Sia Gampon earning more power and say in this village. Reung is determined to stop the baddies. What’s more interesting for her mom at this time though, is whose shirt is she wearing? Lol. Khun Palat just looks nonchalantly the other way.

Preuk drops Rose off at her modeling location but she asks him to help her carry some of her shoes inside. The moment two gay men who are coordinating the shooting take a good look at Preuk, they salivate. They flock to him like bees to honey and wonder who he could be. Rose immediately explains that he’s her manager- to which the gay men gasp and ask to have a sexy photo-shoot of Rose and manager together. To make matters worse for Preuk though, Rose whispers to the two gay men that Preuk is actually playing for their team, which causes the men to disdain him immediately. There were only interested in men, not another gay man.

Once alone, Preuk glares at Rose and snipes that she’s been duping him all along. She has used his emotions to play against him. Who does she think he is? Rose tries to explain that it was necessary- but Preuk retorts that it’s a problem she caused, so she could deal with it herself. He will NOT do this kind of work with her. He storms out and she follows.

Phoo Yai and gang are prancing and announcing to the folks in the market place that he’s running to be Gamnan. Wan’s minions spot Reurng and they make a beeline for her, instigating her to hurry up and marry Wan before he becomes a Gamnan’s son and is too lofty for her. Momma Bancheun chimes in that whether he is Gamnan’s son or the prime minister’s son, she wouldn’t allow her daughter to marry him. Haha.

Looks to be that the town Phoo Yais’ will elect the next Gamnan in one month’s time.

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Comments:

Be careful what you wish for, right? I finally got the scenes that I wanted- Reurng showed her vulnerable side by telling Khun Palat to leave town because she can’t fathom seeing another person die, much less a person whom she’s starting to develop some feelings for. And Khun Palat (although making it seem like he’s hightailing outta there) is actually opening a box of worms with his own relationship, finding clues that he can be replaced and that people change. He turns to something that needs him more than anything, a town that is regressive with an evil head honcho. We can tell that Jin/Khun Palat hasn’t committed himself fully to his city relationship because yeah she might not be the right person, but once work brings him to meet the right person, there is no way he would walk away from that (despite telling himself and others that he would walk away once his work is done.) The set up for a romantic story arc is slowly in the works.

And it’s also working its magic on Preuk and Rose, who are quite cute despite all of their predictable scenes. I don’t care, I like it. More than anything, the two complement each other well, and he doesn’t let her get away with anything. Which in effect, teaches her a thing or two about the consequences of being such a diva.

But you know, we’re not really watching a romcom or a romantic centered drama so I’ve come to prepare my mind not to expect anything romantic, sizzling, etc coming from our main leads. The chemistry just isn’t there to have one, I see that Khun Palat is into it, the gazing, smiling etc, but our Dao Reurng always has her eyes on the prize- the big picture. When she is thinking about Khun Palat, she’s thinking more in terms of how much he has changed her, but not one of the romantic sense. Which for some odd reason, I’m starting to be ok with it. Yaya can have chemistry with other actors then. I supposed for a while I keep holding out hope that I will be on board this ship, based on Por’s chemistry with Ploy in a similar backdrop to this drama. But I’ll be ok because I’m more curious now on how the whole story will come together. Separately, I do like Dao Reurng and Khun Palat.

I’m also still holding out hope that Ai Wan would have his character arc. I mean, this guy only worries about winning over Dao Reung day in and day out. Since he’s such a prominent character in this drama with significant screen time, I’m hoping the writer/director would throw him a bone. Because otherwise, it would be such a waste of a fun character that can potentially be a beloved character.

When you think about the whole town, it is no wonder Sia Gampon has gotten away with so much crime. The town only has Gamnan (who is now dead), the director (who can’t do anything without a local thug’s help) and Dao Reurng, who comes off as being a thug but is more patriotic and brave than anyone else, and finally Khun Palat, a total stranger who in a matter of two months, has made an impact with the most important player. So can a measly two people stop the big bad wolf from blowing down the whole town? Well, if the three little pigs can, they can too.