Spinsters and Casanovas – Reunited Episode 6

It is poetic justice that the person who broke up the friendship would be the person who eventually brings everyone together again.

We have come to learn that Linee, Maple and Nampeung admit profusely that they hate each other’s guts, that they can’t stand the notion of being in each other’s company. Yet behind closed doors and deep down in their hearts, they follow each other’s lives secretly, always curious to learn the other’s status updates. And in one particular climatic scene, they finally realize just how much they long to be friends, and how much they need each other more than anything.

Let’s talk about how this all came about in episode 6.

Nampeung’s celebrity status is falling apart. It’s a Must magazine (Maple’s company) had booked Nampeung for a photo shoot through her manager Toto. However, Maple’s spiteful subordinate leaked the information and a competitor magazine approached Manager Toto with more money and less shooting time. Thus, Toto, without confiding in neither the agency’s owner (Khun Peet) nor Nampeung herself, proceeds with taking the offer from the competitor and leaving It’s a Must magazine in the dust. This will not do. Maple, with her righteous anger confronts Khun Peet and Nampeung that they are underhanded and unprofessional. She had expected more from Khun Peet’s agency. Feeling distraught and put out by failing her former friend, Nampeung decides that she will cancel all photo shoot with the competitor and will pay the hefty agreement breach. Not only is this for her principles and conscience, Nampeung does this to appease her once-best-friend.

Yet that is the start of her downhill slide. Her contract breach impacts her other sponsors and potential acting/modeling opportunities. Everyone canceled on her! With no work and a bank account that is depleted, she looked to her fake boyfriend. Come to find, he’s really not that into her (or so she thinks) and her world as she knows it, is over. And she’s just so darn lonely. Nampeung has always been alone, since all of her family members are dead, but today, when the weight of the world and her failing career rests on her shoulders, everything just seems so grim and empty. With grand drama, she phones her only good friend left – Wilai – and reports that it was nice knowing her. Nampeung walks dejectedly and sadly out of the terrace, the wind blowing through her hair, and the edge just merely within reach..

With a panic Wilai gets reinforcements from the girls- Linee and Maple and along with their fake boyfriends- the group rushes to Nampeung’s condo. Even Peet disrupts his meeting to seek Nampeung. Once the condo door is opened by security, the group finds Nampeung nearly perched on the edge of the terrace, appearing as if she may jump any minute. Peet rushes to lift her on his shoulders and proceeds to dump her on the couch with anger.

“What the hell?” Nampeung stares at the group in confusion, they all look at her with glum. She throws a question at Peet, “What do YOU want now?” (After he has dismissed her so unfavorably many hours before.) “I’ve got nothing left to give you!”

Then Nampeung peers at her once best friends, “or are you here to gloat? Because I have nothing left, isn’t that right?”

They don’t answer.

“And you can’t come alone, can you? You must tout your boyfriends too. Why don’t you just invite the whole press while you’re at it?!” Nampueng spats.

Maple glares at her with anger, tears forcing their way out of her eyes.

Nampeung continues, “Why don’t you just tell everyone that this Nampeung is dirt now?!”

Maple responds by slapping Nampeung across the face.

Stung, Nampeung grasp her cheek and cries, “Maple! You have no right to do this to me!” She proceeds to push Maple back until Linee steps in and slaps Nampeung too.

“If you don’t stop losing your mind you’ll get more for sure!” Linee snipes.

“Do it! What are you waiting for?!” Nampeung provokes. “I’ve got nothing to lose.”

And a revelation.

Nampeung with eyes downcast finally states, “I’ve broken up our friendship. And I even caught Joe cheating on me.” She peers at them with empty humor, “And he chose his lover over me.”

“I thought you told us you left him?” Wilai interjects, shocked.

“I lied!” Nampeung admits, “I didn’t want to be wrong.. and I didn’t want you guys to be right. I’m ashamed that I’ve chosen badly, that I was mistaken. I didn’t want to be laughed at.”

But no one is laughing now. Not a dry eye in the room. Maple shakes her head no.

Nampeung seats herself on the couch and the tears fall, “I didn’t want to lose to you guys. You had such beautiful lives. You had everything. I wanted to be someone you admired. You guys have family who stands by your side..”

Peet shifts his feet. Feeling guilty that you didn’t stand by her side, Mister?!

“I didn’t have anyone. Not one. So my work is the only thing that demands respect for me and protects me..” she cries,  “but in the end, I’m still the loser! I’m terrible! No one needs me.” She turns to them, “do you realize how much I’ve envied you guys?”

Linee approaches her friend first and sits by her side, “Don’t envy me. My life isn’t what you think it is,” she touches her hand, “I’m not a woman as strong as I appear nor is my life as fulfilled as it seems. But I smile all the time because I didn’t want you guys to laugh at me.”

Nampeung holds her friend’s hand.

“Do you know that the first people I think about when I want to cry are you guys?” Linee looks at her friends.

Maple goes to sit on Nampeung’s other side, “do you guys know that I’m my grandma’s hopes and dreams? I won’t deny that I have it good. But sometimes I can’t help but wonder who I am and what it is I need in life. Do you ever feel like you’re the only person in this universe?”

Such a lonely prospect. Everyone nods.

“Without you guys, work is my only thing,” Linee says.

“Without you guys, I have no one to talk to,” Maple adds. “Do you know that when Wilai told me that you’ve broken up with Joe, I wanted to come to you. I wanted to so badly. I wanted to tell you that you still have me.”

Nampeung squeezes Maple’s hand for comfort.

Linee adds, “I wanted to go to you too, I wanted to be together again..”

“If only I had listened,” Nampeung admits, “If only I could have taken the blame, admit that I was mistaken – we wouldn’t have broken up, would we? I’m so sorry, I was wrong.” The tears fall and the voice shakes.

And for the first time, Nampeung has finally taken responsibility. The girls embrace each other: saddened by the wasted time, but elated for the friendship they now have.

It’s a universal need to want to appear a certain way to our friends when we’re younger, and suddenly, as time goes by and as we mature, the bullshit things don’t matter anymore and if we’re honest to each other, and stay together, we can overcome any obstacles.

I’m just so glad the girls are back together. It’s a lethal combination, that. The enemies or ill-wishers better proceed with caution.

Ah, such a tear jerking episode. And there’s more for episode 7 too – but the tears will signify for more fun down the road, right? Right?! Turns out, Nampeung didn’t want to throw herself off the condo’s roof, she was just getting fresh air and being dramatic, like the drama queen that she is. Lol.

I gotta say, I love all three couples, probably Maple-Krisda and Linee-Wayu moreso than Nampeung-Peet. Only because Khun Peet is a tightlipped Casanova who has his meddlesome mother, crazy ex-wife and troublesome daughter to worry about. I so want to see the day that Nampeung wins mom and daughter over though, and with the help of her girlfriends.

Sometimes the road is easier to walk on, when you’re not always walking on it alone. Better together, no?