Dao Kiaw Duen Episode 9

Show, why so cute and intense at the same time? Revelations are made, adventures are in store. And there is light at the end of the tunnel, this addicting show, maintaining a consistent 10 point rating in Bangkok, feels like it will be closing out in the next couple of episodes. Boo. But I’d be crazy to say that I don’t want to see how this ends.

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Money is sexy. Or is it because Chai Jan is sexy? His mere presence got Siwa shaking in his boots, fearing that Chai Jan would rat him out to his dearly beloved, the fact that he’s been canoodling with her bestie. Shady. But Khunchai is too much of a gentleman to divulge such lurid details. Instead, he purposefully stayed to have a man-to-man conversation with Siwa.

Like the badass that he is, Khunchai practically stands chest to chest (or is it pecks to pecks heh) and intimidates the weaker fellow. Siwa threatens to contrive for Arn to hate Khunchai, and when the woman hates someone, that person’s life will be a living hell. Khunchai admonishes that Arn is not an idiot- to which Siwa retorts that if she’s smart, she’d have known about him and Rathee eons ago. Pfft.

‘The dumbest person,’ Khunchai begins, as he corners Siwa, ‘is someone who thinks they are the smartest.’ He’s referring to Siwa’s hired hand who tried to hurt Dao earlier. With a gleaming look, Khunchai threatens Siwa that if he lays so much as a finger on Dao, his life would be a living hell. Nice.

Dao complains about staying overnight for observation at the hospital. Her friends advise her to propose to Khunchai so she can have both a baby and a husband. Win win. But Dao is still adamant that she wants only the baby, no husband, no family, no couple’s life. Her friends relent that she can’t group Khunchai with the rest of her hot messes of ex boyfriends, besides Dao loves Khunchai, right? Wrong, Dao denies, she will show her friends that she does NOT love Khunchai. Uh huh. That’s her friend’s attitude, because they know her better than she knows herself.

Ying Nim is an awesome sidekick to Khunchai, who steers our comedic relief- Nanteenee- and teaches her a thing or two about being a real lady. She wouldn’t want to upset Mom, by trailing after a man right? Instead, Nan sneaks a call to Khun Pongjan for some assistance.

The coast is clear for Khunchai to see Dao, not that Nan could keep him from doing anything he wanted anyway. As much as he’s a momma’s boy, he’s a man’s man more. That’s why we like him, and that’s why Dao’s friends adore him. Lin is personally there to witness what this ‘I do NOT love Khunchai’ demonstration would look like. She challenges Dao to hug Khunchai and look deeply into his eyes, because this is the only way to prove her feelings. A nosebleed would indicate that she likes him. I like the way Lin’s mind works, however, a bodily fluid reaction just because you love someone? Sounds totally unhealthy. It’s no wonder Dao doesn’t want to like a man, who wants to walk around with a bloody nose anyway? Girl’s got to find a treatment for that.

So they commence the scene, Lin spying from the window. Khunchai walks into the room, having been told that he needed to console her. Dao throws her arms around him, and Lin begins the 10-second countdown. 1.2.3. Khunchai is stunned to silence and Dao is squeezing him. Ha. 4.5.6. Dao envisions pictures of dead bodies and blood to keep her temperature down. She succeeds. 7.8. But at 9 seconds, Khunchai’s arms embraces her back with a cajoling word, ‘no one can hurt you again, I promise.’ As he pulls her to face him, blood slowly trickles down her nose. He plants a kiss on her temple. Awww.

Dao is done for. She suddenly realizes what it means to see her nosebleeding. Khunchai is concerned for her health and tells her to stay at the hospital for a couple more days, but Dao could only tell him to stop being so nice to her. Makes things difficult for a girl who only wants a baby with no strings attached. But Khunchai asks her in return not to stop him. Dammit, Khunchai. Why so sweet? Unable to control her feelings, Dao starts to tear up and tries to leave. Khunchai stops her.

And that’s what Pongjan sees when he walks into Dao’s hospital ward: Dao is bleeding and Khunchai is appearing to be stopping her. Khun Pong barges in and punches Khunchai- and we get our explosive moment. We know Pongjan has been itching to punch Khunchai, which makes him more furious because Dao is protecting the man. ‘Do you love him that much?’ Pongjan spats. Dao denies it, and just when he is about to reveal her secret, Dao slaps him deliciously across the face. ‘I’m protecting him because he has NEVER hurt me! I am the one who is hurting myself.’ Everyone is reeled by her response: Khunchai, Pongjan and even myself.

But no matter what, I can never hate Dao, she’s just a lonely soul, looking to fulfill her own life- and thinking that a baby would give her that. And she’s been denying the truth for so long, that the person who ends up hurt the most is herself. Dao cries by the window, admitting to Lin that she’s in love with Khunchai Jan. ‘And why did you say you didn’t love him earlier?’ Lin asks. ‘Why should I? Why should Khunchai Jan know how I feel about him?’ She won’t allow love to play its course with her.

That night Dao broods and thinks about her encounters with Khunchai, and if we forget just how great those were, we get to relive her memories.

Khunchai takes the next flight to Chiang Mai to seek consolation from his best man. Who has an inkling that Khunchai is hurt, it’s a habit Apichet knows too well.  But before Khunchai is able to tell his story, Apichet keeps getting a text message. Ha. Which only serves to remind Khunchai that his problem, amidst the nation’s problems, is slim in comparison. Who doesn’t love such a sensible guy?

Back to the drug lord plot. Things are getting to the breaking point, Apichet needs to stop them before the drug enters the country and all hell will break lose. We see Rathee’s father meeting with the two art students at his home. Hm. At the same time, Arn wants to see him, to no avail. Rathee offers to talk to her father for Arn- upon which, Arn says she came to ask him to investigate who her hubby’s been cheating with. Rathee immediately pales, as Arn looks pointedly at her (does she know?)

She doesn’t. Arn tells Rathee that she has a gut feeling that Siwa is cheating with someone other than Prakai Dao. Arn had only been threatening to divorce Siwa, she really doesn’t want to break up with him because she’s still in love with him. She’s convinced that Siwa truly loves her because no matter how she tries to deter him, he keeps coming back to make amends. Love is blind, yo. Arn makes a warning comment that Siwa’s lovers don’t know that they are just a side action; Siwa is not true to them. At the mention of this, Rathee drops her phone, and Arn warns her that a broken glass hurts, she’s experienced it before. Dang. Those play on words. Furthermore, Arn says that something that’s already broken, can’t be put back together again. Their friendship or humpty dumpty? Heh.

As for Dao, everywhere she turns she’s either reminded of love or Chai Jan’s face. Lol. She promises to evade him, for real. Best solution? Take off and don’t tell anyone. Not even her friends. Khun Pong calls Lin after realizing that Dao isn’t home, but only to learn that even her best friend doesn’t know. He feels badly for almost slipping her secret away and wants to apologize. Lin tells him that Dao won’t take it to heart, but he’s adamant that he wants to apologize. He sees brother Din instead and next thing we know, Dao gets a text message that her niece is sick.

Dao immediately phones back only to learn that it’s Din’s trick to get her to call him. They bicker until Din says that he knows his sister, her disappearance only means one thing: that she’s hurt. But he sagely advises her that she can run away from everything, but she can’t run away from her heart. Dao tells him that she loves him and not to tell anyone of her whereabouts. So Din returns to his seat by Pongjan and admits that Dao is in Chiang Mai, working, but in a very rural area and doesn’t have any reception. Lol. He’s all about telling the truth, but not the whole truth. He knows this because he talked to his sis few days ago, not moments ago. Heeh.

Back in Chiang Mai, Dao meets her young artist friends and they invite her to join them to an excursion- little did Dao know that she’s about to be immersed in some illegal drug dealings. They think it’s easier to have her tag along with them as to keep any curiosities at bay.

Khun Pong seems to think Ying Nim knows of Dao’s whereabouts in Chiang Mai, only to have her spite that P’Dao is in her P’Chai’s heart. Lol. And who is he to think that P’Dao loves him? He’s a womanizer, he doesn’t know how to love, blah blah blah. This irks Khun Pong to no end as he follows her to the car.  He pulls her against his chest and warns her not to speak or move, otherwise risk getting kissed. Hee. He admits that he used to be a womanizer, but he’s never coerced anyone. As he leans closer (she’s closing her eyes thinking he’d kiss her), Pongjan says a final word, ‘your brother may be better than me , but it doesn’t mean that he could love Khun Dao more than me. Love doesn’t rest on who’s better, but it rests on who’s good enough. And who knows, a man like me can be good enough for Khun Dao.’

But he goes and totally contradicts himself by kissing Ying Nim! What good enough man would kiss another woman to spite her? Oh Khun Pong, you have much to learn about your own feelings. He warns her not to say that he cannot love, because when he finally (that’s the key word) loves someone, he could die for her. When he leaves her, rubble in his wake, Ying Nim screams that she hates him.

What happens next is OMG. Ying Nim pulls over and sends a text message to her anonymous friend, an angry red face to depict her feelings. But she hears the sound of an iphone receiving a message. Turns out, Khun Pong dropped his cellphone in her car. The irony! The poetic justice! The revelation! But no, show is only teasing us! Nan comes in time to distract Ying Nim that Mom is hurt. While Ying Nim rushes inside, Nan rummages through Ying Nim’s car and saves Khun Pong from his reveal. Due to this, he agrees on a deal with Nan, that he would help her end up with Khunchai. He warns her not to look at his phone, it’s personal. Dammit, Show!

Apichet is apprised of the conditions of the pending excursion, his spy (the female officer) reports that Dao is coming along. He tells her to watch Dao’s back. Upon hearing this, Khunchai is concerned about his Dao, but Apichet tells him not to stress out because he knows who’s behind this- the big, bad, drug lord- he’s just waiting to compile enough evidence to convict him.

I knew Show wouldn’t introduce random characters without giving them some purpose, in this case, the art students. They are here to tie in our final showdown of the drug trafficking plot of this story.

Dao agrees to join the art students on an excursion to an undeveloped town where she meets orphaned children that the art students are sponsoring due to their professor’s recent death. Drugs masquerade as pallets of woodened boxes that appears to be sustenance. Dao is touched by the student’s compassion and compliments them, not realizing that she’s only a pawn to their drug trafficking scheme.

Outside of the house two kids play tug of war over an action figure doll. Dao learns that one of them gets rewarded with a doll after he’s done some ‘work,’ which stirs her curiosity as to why little children are ‘selling’ things on the street. The undercover cop keeps an eye on Dao to ensure her safety. Dao resolves the conflict by offering to take custody over the doll and tell them a story.

At our metropolis city of Bangkok, Nanteenee awaits for Khun Pongjan and scolds herself from her itch to peer at the contents of his cellphone. (She had rescued it from the wraths of Khun Ying Nim.) But Khun Pongjan need not worry over her curiosity, because if it doesn’t have anything to do with Chai Jan, she has no interest in those affairs, including the reasons as to why Khun Pongjan’s cellphone would even be in the confines of Ying Nim’s car. Nan reminds Khun Pongjan that he best hold his tail end of the bargain otherwise she will tattle on Khunchai that he’s getting cozy with Ying Nim- because Khunchai protects those he loves and if he learns that his beloved cousin is within breathing distance to Khun Pongjan, he ain’t gonna be happy. Also, Nan vows to be one of the person whom Khunchai protects.

But we know whom Khunchai has come to feel protective over: Dao. He flashes back to when Apichet reported to him regarding Dao’s excursion, and the only way to tamper down his concern is to book the next flight to Chiang Mai. The person in question is thinking about him too, because as she tells a story about action figures to the children, she couldn’t help but recall the times where Khunchai took her to visit his ‘children.’ Aw. Much to her surprise, as if her thoughts conjured him up, Dao finds him standing before her. Show doesn’t mess around! Ha! He pulls her in for a kiss, which shocks her to the core, and he tells her that she can’t run away from him- that he’s in her heart and that she’s always thinking about him, despite telling him that she can’t love anymore. He knows she is in love with him. Damn. Furthermore, if she can admit that she loves him, he would give his heart and.. sperm. Lol! Good gawd, she’s probably dreaming again, isn’t she? Sigh. Stop jerking me around, Show!

Dao wakes up from her stimulating dream, a full moon greeting her, and she thinks about him again. So sweet. A colony of fireflies lure her out of the house. In that moment she spies the students moving two wooden boxes to the forest, and she trails after them.

They arrive at a well-lit house and Dao eavesdrop, learning that they are part of a drug dealing gang. The drug lord shows himself- Rathee’s father- and states that their customer wants to evaluate the potency of the drugs for a potential larger order. He’s concerned about how they will traffic the drugs under the police’s nose and surmises that they may have to utilize the children. Damn. Dao realizes what they are referring as she flashes back to the scene she witnessed between the two children’s tug of war. The drug lord promises more money for their education if they are successful this time around. The plot commences tomorrow! (Dao is smart enough to take photographs of this meet up.) As she tries to walk away though, she steps on a branch, alerting them of her position. Luckily the undercover police fires a gunshot to distract the baddies. Later that night the undercover cop snags the SD card memory from Dao’s camera.

The following morning Dao rounds up the children and boards them on a bus. She lies to the two students that she will be taking the children on a field trip to town, and they allow her to, in a guise to deal with the situation later. The children ask Dao to take them to their new parents and Dao offers to be their mom, but what about daddy? Dao offers to be both to them, however the children admonish that their daddy needs to be a man.

The bus incurs flat tires (courtesy of the art students) but Dao is determined to get the children out of there, despite the driver indicating it would take until morning should she walk to town. A van pulls over, it’s Khunchai to the rescue! Dao’s not fantasizing this time. She makes the driver pinch her just to make sure. It’s really him! ROFL!

They both have lots to tell, he’s here to take her back, she wants him to take the children along- so they convene by the van to catch each other up to speed.  Dao is surprised that the news is unsurprising to Khunchai’s ears, he remarks that he has known, Apichet (who’s currently investigating this case) had been the one to apprise him of her whereabouts. Dao is glad for his interference because she refuses for the two art students to utilize the children to further their drug trafficking. Little did the two know that the art student’s cohort sees them chatting and learns of her boyfriend’s intentions. She packs her bag and intends to high tail out of there. He badgers her on how she came tot his conclusion- that they are drug dealers and are taking advantage of the children. Oh shit! Good for the baddies, but bad for our leads!

Meanwhile Dao and Khunchai decide to play as if nothing had happened. She would take the children back and he would report to Apichet, intending to pick her up later. Khunchai climbs into his van (No!!!!) while Dao is left to tend to the children- who all determines that Khunchai will be their father. Ha!  Pohn (one of the art students) distracts Dao by indicating something has happened to Pim (his girlfriend.) The undercover cop spies the baddies’ hideout where she sees Nai (the second art student) reporting to the drug lord that someone has discovered their secret.

It’s Dao of course, who gets smashed in the back of the head. They recover her camera bag and carry her unconscious body through the forest. Her eyes slowly open however, when they put her down for a break. They worry on whether the big boss would silence their P’Dao but that they can’t let her go because they would go to jail, allowing for the big boss to determine her fate. Dao has heard enough, she uses her skilled black belt degree in Tae Kwon Do to knock them down.

Dao races through the forest but trips on a tree. She stumbles along further as Khunchai appears and covers his hands over her mouth. (How’d he know? Where’d he come from? Whatever, I’m glad he did?!) They hide from the two who has been chasing after her. But unlucky for them, the drug lord’s minions aim a gun at them. Well if they’re going to be found, at least they’ll weather the dangers together! Khunchai threatens he baddies that the cops have been alerted and they’re on their way. Dao advises them to turn over a new leaf, there’s still time, but the baddie doesn’t want to hear any of it. As he points the gun at Dao, Khunchai skillfully removes it from him and kicks the rest of the baddies’ asses. Dao doesn’t stand prettily as she too fights them back. Nice tag team! (Ok, but I must admit the tree climbing part was a little over the top, even for a black belt!) Khunchai takes a bullet in the arm for Dao, while she takes the last minion down.

As if matters aren’t already difficult enough, they step on an animal trap and get hoisted in the air. They remain virtually silent as the baddie comes after them, but doesn’t notice that they are hanging in the air, until Khunchai’s blood trickles down his face. In this matter of life and death situation, Khunchai tells the baddie to shoot him instead. No need though, because the undercover cop comes to the rescue and kills the baddie, then fighting off the remaining hired hands as well. Dao is shocked to see the girl she’s known to be the art student’s friend, as a professional good guy. Her backups arrive.

The two art students pack their bags and plan to high tail out of there, but they get circumvent by the police force instead. Pim calls out to her boyfriend who got arrested, and he tells her to live a good life, that once he is released from jail, he would be the one to find her.

Dao bandages up Khunchai, who remarks that it is unfortunate to see students who are lacking, get caught up and immersed with the drug lord’s mess. He’s referring to the fact that these kids lack in love and guidance from their parents, who gave birth to them and abandoned them. Dao says that everyone has their reasons, but Khunchai retorts that it doesn’t justify their behaviors. People choose to have children, but the children do not choose to be orphans. Dao looks soberly at him and asks him the million dollar question.. ‘if I have a child, my child would not go lacking, can you become my baby’s daddy?’ Omg.. ‘Come again?’ he asks. ‘Oh, I meant the children in this village. I’d like to sponsor them- be their mother- would you like to contribute to society and help me with this charity?’

Dao spots the captain (female cop) and tells her that she has pictures that they can use as evidence of the drug trafficking. The cop gives her good news bad news, Dao’s camera has been damaged by the students, but that she has already made copies of the SD files from Dao’s camera. Meanwhile the drug lord packs his bags but gets apprehended by Apichet for questioning.

Rathee sobs and begs Arn for help, she is more concerned that she’s destitute since her house, car and cash have been confiscated by the police. Arn questions whether she knew what her father was up to? However Rathee denies it, which got Arn speaking mystically that Rathee likes to do things she shouldn’t be doing. Are we still talking about her drug lord father or Siwa? Arn wants the truth from Rathee, if she’d like further assistance. She asks Rathee point blank whether she’s been cheating with Siwa. Rathee denies it, they are friends after all. But Arn uses a scare tactic, that Rathee should know her well: once she loves a person, she loves with all of her heart. But once she hates that person, she could do anything to punish him/her. Rathee panics and says that she would stay at a hotel instead.

Rathee dresses inconspicuously and gets mouthy with the owner of the hotel, who calls her minion to teach Rathee a lesson. She walks away with a bruised face. She discovers from the news that her father has been arrested and the police garnered more evidence from Prakai Dao. Rathee sees red.

Dao and Khunchai look at each other from across the table, overlooking a sparkling pool. He tells her that she can confide in him if there’s something that’s troubling her. Dao thinks about the conversation where her besties remind her not to compare Khunchai to her loser ex-boyfriends. She then thinks about the time he protected her and is willing to sacrifice himself. If she could have a child, she would like for him to be its father. Certainly there’s more meaning to that simple desire than just the desire to have a child itself? Dao says to him, ‘I’d like to change my personal perspective, please don’t question me about it, can you answer three questions?’

Khunchai smiles and nods his head.

‘Question #1, do you want children?’ He agrees.

‘Question#2, if you marry, can you promise not to hurt your wife? Make her regret things? To provide happiness to your wife and children for the rest of your life?’ He keeps it real, he can’t promise it. No one wants their married life to fail, but one can’t control the future or control things that happen to them. But what he can say is that he will make every day a good day. He will love and take are of his wife and child, as much as one man can do. Whatever the future brings. Aw.

‘Last question, do you have a woman you’d like to marry yet?’ He does. There’s only one problem, she told him that she doesn’t love him. Heh.

Dao looks away, he leans over. ‘Khun Dao, I just have one question to ask you.’ But just as he is about to ask, Khun Pongjan appears. Obviously she’s safe and fine from the incident and is peeved that Khun Pongjan came to interrupt them. The poor guy says ‘just pretend I’m not here..’ and they do, lol. Khunchai doesn’t care, he’ll ask the question in front of Pongjan. ‘When you said you didn’t love me that time, do you really mean it?’ Everybody wants to know the answer to that.

The moment of truth..

“I don’t want to say anything right now.’ She tells him to go home and rest. Dammit Dao, you’re killing me! Khun Pongjan smiles as Khunchai leaves, but not for long, because Dao says that they need to talk. He starts by apologizing for the close call- that he almost unveiled her secret to Khunchai. Dao doesn’t mind though. Khun Pongjan confesses his feelings, that ever since she was gone, it made him realize how much he is concerned about her. He’s willing to do anything for her. He may not be good or perfect like Khunchai but he will give them (her and their future baby) a good life: thus he wants to marry her.

Dao makes it very clear to him: she doesn’t love him. And she CANNOT love him because she already loves Khunchai Jan. Ouch. It hits him, ‘is this what you wanted to say to me?’ He wonders why she didn’t make this confession in front of Khunchai and instead she told him to go, giving Pongjan hope. Dao says that she didn’t want to hurt him, and does she think that saying it now will spare him the pain? Dao apologizes, and Pongjan tries again to plead his case.  She thanks him for his good feelings, but she tells him to go ask himself whether he truly loves her or whether he just wants to beat Khunchai. Pongjan throws her another food for thought, ‘you might not love Khunchai either, you just want his sperm.’ But Dao has a firm answer this time, ‘my sperm acquisition sperm is over.’ And the truth finally sinks in.

Dao returns to her condo to find the doors ajar. She quietly steps in and grabs her baseball bat. She raises it to hit the perpetrator.. and we’re out!

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Excellent episode. I like a story that moves, and our leads understanding their feelings. It isn’t the type of love and realization that hits them during the last second of the show. Bravo for that. The cinematography continues to amaze me, and I’m so glad the director stopped his liberties on the video editing. The acting is spot on and even Pongjan has improved tremendously.

Lots of food for thoughts in this episode as well. It’s a turning point for Dao who has been determined to lead a single life with a baby, screw the world. However, she’s starting to realize that sometimes it isn’t best flying solo. When you raise another human being, you have to consider what is best for them, not always what is best for you.

In the last ten minutes of the show, we can easily see the writer’s argument. Through Dao’s journey, the writer proves (from different perspectives) that one’s true desires isn’t always on surface level, that one needs to look deeply within one’s heart to find what it is one truly wants. And at the end of the day, what does one really need?

Until next week, my friends!