Hey guys! It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s Likit Rak Day!
You know I was just thinking – while watching this – of the 3Zaap interview with Yaya Nadech this weekend. Yaya said she really struggled playing Princess Alice. There were times when she didn’t know how to portray the complicated emotions – like when she was crowned, people hate her, so is she supposed to act happy or angry or sad? Another interesting part is learning (me, not Yaya) that Anne Thong is a very strict and detail oriented producer. She sure has high expectations. There was a part where Anne would call up Nadech and ask him if he no longer wants to play Commander Dawin. Hot damn, I would feel nervous too! Nadech would panic and ask her if he did something wrong. Lol! She would also call up Yaya (who avoids her phone call until she couldn’t) and ask her why she would act a certain way in some scenes. I know she’s just trying to understand their thought process, but it can come off as being a little nerve wracking. No one likes getting a call from the boss. #bosslady
EPISODE 3 RECAP: A Man’s Women(sp) [A Man’s Woman]
Alice agrees to take the plunge and go through with the church wedding ceremony, but as they stand before God, she asks him if they are going through this for real. Too late for second thoughts because the officiant proceeds with the vow, we see Alice and Dawin speak out loud those holy matrimonial words as they promise to love and remain loyal until death do them part. The meaning and ritual left its impact on them, and although it’s a “fake” marriage, looks pretty darn real. Dawin leans in to kiss the bride, but a group of women warms the church flashing their camera phones. Dawin pulls her into him to block the camera, not wanting her picture to leak on social media. The general’s wife leads the charge of other soldiers’ wives, demanding to know who this woman is.
As they convene at the general’s home, Khun Ying drills Alice with questions, it’s not lost on her that they are seated about a foot apart. She wants to know how long they’ve dated (2 years), who her parents are (they’re dead), and as Khun Ying reaches over to grab her hands, Alice removes her hands away automatically. She sits tall, back rimrod straight, and addresses the questions with an air of royalty. She hasn’t quite shed her Princess persona yet. Khun Ying continues anyway and questions whether “Naree” doesn’t find it strange and hurtful that the Commander has been seeing her in secret for two years and now has set up a small wedding despite his title. Alice has an answer for every questions, she deems that she’s not hurt, in fact, because they are married for love, she respects the commander’s decision. Khun Ying retorts that it sounds more like she’s after his money. Dawin stares at Alice when she wouldn’t stop responding stubbornly and casually to the general’s wife.
He reminds her later that she’s Naree, not Princess Alice, who wouldn’t stand people to disrespect her. Dawin also adds that she should start acting like his wife in front of others too. Alice doesn’t think she did anything wrong by leaving first, but Dawin says as people who love each other, she should wait for him, maybe hold his hand and they can walk out together. Pfft. Alice argues that there are plenty of couples who don’t show pda. She orders him to worry about Khun Ying who thinks she’s a gold digger.
The general tells his wife that not even Dawin’s mom knows about the wedding, which makes Khun Ying convinced that Naree/Alice is out to get Dawin. She vows to make sure Dawin sees Naree for the gold digger that she is. I’m sorry, who are you again?
Prince Alan goes on a dirt bike race but as he takes a shortcut route, his bodyguard stops him, worried that he was taking off. But instead, that caused him to lose the race. Prince is not happy about that either.
Meanwhile Alice and Dawin arrive at his military humble abode. As he shows her around, she realizes that there’s only one bedroom in the house, which leaves a bit indignant, but Dawin has it all figured out. She will sleep in the room while he can sleep elsewhere in the home. Regarding security, he has his men surrounding the house at all times, along with security cameras. To ensure that they don’t get caught with the lie though, Dawin reminds Alice to up her game, since she contrived for him to be her husband and all. Lol. Alice tells him that it’s a piece of cake.
Prince Alan tries to read the bodyguard’s text messages to even out the fact that she made him lose the dirt bike race. As they tussle, he loses the towel wrapped around his hip and the bodyguard sees all of his glory, but she ends up laughing, which isn’t what any man expect when their junk is being advertised. The bodyguard manages to escape his wrath, and save Princess Alice’s secret marriage from being discovered (she had been swooning over Dawin and Alice’s wedding pics).
While the bodyguard swoons over the pics, I SWOON over the next scene. As they arrive, neighbors are peering at them. Dawin warns her to act like a couple and Alice retorts quite sarcastically that he should just carry her inside in his arms and that would shut everyone up. Lol. Dawin tells her that it’s a brilliant idea and scoops her in his arms (much to her shock since she was only kidding!) He pastes a smile to the crowd, while Alice wraps her arms around his neck and hold on tight. She warns him that he better not drop her, otherwise he will die. I’m dead. I could watch this fake marriage all day.
One of the Dream Team’s wives (I’m sorry, I will get their names straight one of these days) spy them being lovey dove and interrogates her husband whether their marriage is real. She claims that so many females have wanted to snag the commander to no avail, why is it that this average looking woman managed to snag him? The soldier’s reaction to his wife’s comment is hilarious, we are talking about gorgeous Princess Alice here. The member thinks his wife hasn’t caught on and is about to leave, but wifey is furious that he would call her out on it and demands to know who Naree is.
Mona tells her son to investigate Alice’s whereabouts. She suspects that the general has someone “protecting” the prince in order to find out what he knows. She informs her son regarding the situation in Hrysos, that King Henry is currently investigating the murder attempt on Alice’s life and got in a fight with Prince Andre.
Muat Hee reports to Alice that all is well at Hrysos. Alice asks him to bring her the details of the people that supported Prince Andre in the attempted coup, and to her surprise, Muat hands her an envelope immediately. Apparently the commander had anticipated this. Alice looks at Dawin, impressed that he could read her mind. As Alice leaves, Muat Hee practically giggles at his leader about the romantic gesture he did earlier and tells Dawin that he’s his hero. Lol. You and me both, Muat! Muat adds that Jacey told him that the only person that Alice ever listens to is the king, so kudos to Dawin. He thinks back on their conversation during the time she ran away from the ceremony with a smile. Keke.
Alice wonders why the government all of a sudden wants to support her uncle. Come to find (through Kate) that the government received word from Andre/Mona that the throne is at stake because Princess Alice is dead. They think it might be true since they haven’t seen Alice in a long while and feel that it’s best to have someone governing the country, so they backed Prince Andre. Kate tries to confront her stepmom but only got chastised as being a child who shouldn’t meddle with adult’s affairs.
King Henry is glad to hear that Alice listened to Dawin (hehe) in that she didn’t bail on the plan but his granddaughter laments that she would have cooled off on her own anyway, even without Dawin warning her. Pfft. She inquires whether King Henry thinks her uncle and aunt are going to try something again. He doesn’t think so, but at least now they know who is on Prince Andre’s side. King Henry tells her that all is well here and that she should focus on hiding out and putting her trust in Commander Dawin. Alice promises to try her best, but pretending to be a commoner is harder than it looks. Grandpa relents that learning to be a normal citizen is valuable for her, she would be able to understand her own citizens through this mission. You can doooo it. I think grandpa is going to just camp out by the crown to ensure no one puts their hands on it.
Dawin prompts Alice to come up with her character’s background (Naree) so that it’s convincing. Alice tells him that she trusts he could come up with something, but Dawin wants her to be responsible for it too. Alice places a wager with Dawin (because everything is a competition between these two), that whomever wins would have to listen to the other person. Cue, hilarious misunderstanding. One of the wives overheard from the outside some noises that made her think they might be having some sexy time. Lol. When in fact, they were competing on who could workout the loudest? Hahaha, j/k. Alice wins and she crouches over the exhausted Dawin that she had been trained like a soldier too.
The nosy neighbor proceeds to tell everyone about last night, they even congregate in front of the commander’s house and the moment they see Alice, they rush to her side like a bunch of paparazzi’s. How annoying. Alice closes the window on them. Haha. When Dawin drives up, the neighbors scatter but not before he realizes what’s up. He tells Alice that she is acting strange by closing the window, this will prompt them to be even more curious, especially when she’s new in town and is closing herself off. Next thing they know, the general’s wife is knocking at their door. Omg, in what world do these people live in? And Dawin thinks it safe to place her in the Nosiest Neighborhood? These people make it their job to know everyone’s business.
Khun Ying stops by to warn them to keep their private activities to themselves and not bother the neighbors. Alice thinks it must have to do with their workout last night and promises to keep it down, which only serves to offend Khun Ying’s sensibilities even more. She instructs the commander to teach his wife manners – and by this point I hope Alice would keeping telling her off. But Alice soon learns what the implications are but isn’t horrified by what others think. Dawin wants her to work on being less princessy for the time being and hands her a character description of Naree to study. In the document, Dawin lists items about Naree that she needed to adhere to especially the last item.
- Speak respectfully and use common words.
- Sacrifice. Share. Forgive.
- Be useful to people around you.
- Get along well with others, especially people in this neighborhood. Don’t look down on them.
This list sounds more like things you teach your child than a character background, hell, I’m still working on #2.
Meanwhile Dawin wonders who the likeliest culprit is. He spots a note under his door, it’s from Alice, who writes simply that she has read the document and she can do it. See, she’s already got #1 accomplished. I would have had much choicer words for Dawin, but then again, she did ask him to write up her background.
Alice couldn’t sleep that night so she decides to sweat it out with some weight lifting. Dawin hears the racket and thinks maybe they have an intruder.
The following day, Dawin puts up their cute wedding photos (I had been wondering when he would do that) and basically tells Alice she’ll need to stay home today since he has an urgent training to teach (despite declining initially). Alice tells him not to worry, she’s ALL grown up now, she can take care of herself and has excellent memory (in regards to the character description/instructions/how to be a nice human).
Alan attempts to get information about Alice from the bodyguard through a video game, the loser must answer every question. When Alan tries to get Alice’s whereabouts, the bodyguard tells him that she only knows what everyone knows: that Alice is back in the kingdom.
The Nosy Wives Cavalry invites Alice to join them in a day of shopping in Bangkok. They surmise that being a soldier’s wife, one must make oneself useful. Alice wonders how shopping is making oneself useful. Lol. The general’s wife laments that they are helping to pick out supplies for the less fortunate. Alice thinks back on Dawin’s advice earlier – in that she should befriend the other wives and make sure they don’t suspect her, otherwise their mission will fail – so Alice agrees to tag along. She signs a message to the Dream Team that’s watching her via security cam, but only her personal bodyguard, Jacey understands it. She tells the guys that she and the Princess have learned the sign language, to use in the event of an emergency. Alice has signed that she’s heading out and will be ok. One of the soldiers gets a text from his wife that they are about to do something that he doesn’t need to know. Which of course freaks them all out.
On the car ride to the city, the wives try to ask Alice about who she is and how she came to marry the commander, but Alice feigns sleep. Smart girl. Upon arriving at the market she distracts their questions by bringing up Khun Ying’s ring and the story behind how it was acquired. Long story short, she’s genius at deflecting. Khun Ying is adamant about visiting her home today and Alice tries to find a way out when suddenly, someone snatched the lady’s purse away. Alice chases the perpetrator onto a boat. The younger wife attempts to follow closely but Alice is too fast for her, but she does tell Dawin about the situation. Dawin instructs the wife to meet at the boat’s destination while he hauls ass to Alice.
Alice successful retrieves the bag and catches the perpetrator for the police, unfortunately they mistaken her for the culprit herself and prompts her to remove her hat. A crowd has formed around the interrogation. The cop removes the hat when she refuses and several camera phone snaps pictures of her, much to her frustration. Thankfully Khun Ying and Pew come to her defense and tell the police that she belongs with them. Well, aw.
Another double aw. Reporters start to swarm the place and while Alice raises her hand to block her face, Dawin sweeps in and pulls her close. Swoooon.
He tells the reporters that they can’t photograph her, although they’ve already made it live on tv, with Alice’s face partially blocked by Dawin. Safely in the car, Dawin scolds Alice for leaving the house without telling him, catching a culprit and the fact that if he didn’t come and rescue her in time, she’d be investigated by the police and her face splattered all over the news, with the baddies on her tail again. What would she do then? Alice suggests that he should ask her what happened first before jumping to conclusions. When he does ask she’s all, I’m too lazy to recount it because it’ll sound like excuses. Hahaha.
Alice decides she’ll summarize it for him, she agreed to leave the house because she was following his rules: trying not to be inconspicuous. If she declined the invite, they’d be even more suspicious. In terms of catching the culprit, she did it because the money was for an orphanage, which of course makes Dawin feels a little bad, but he says she shouldn’t have risked it anyway. Alice adds that by making Khun Ying like her, i.e. saving her purse, it would only benefit their mission. Besides, Alice is willing to take responsibility if her actions of helping someone results in a failed mission. Well look at our Princess.
Dawin notices blood on her shirt and broaches no qualms for tending to her wound. As he gently treats her, Alice relents that the next time she leaves the house she would report to him first for her own safety. Dawin goes all professional and thanks her for her cooperation, lol. She apologizes for leaving without telling him, and he bows conceding that he too spoke too harshly towards her, but he did it because he didn’t want her to be in danger. Nadech is exceptionally handsome in this scene, and Alice couldn’t take her eyes off of him.
Kate pays a visit to her dad wondering why he would spread rumors of a dead Alice, but Andre doesn’t think anything wrong of it when it brings the government to his camp. Kate asks why he would think Alice is dead, unless he somehow knew that Alice was in danger. Andre doesn’t like what his daughter is implying but Kate just wants to hear him confess the truth. Andre tells her to stay in her lane and don’t try to offer an opinion. In tears (and I’m sure she’s tired of hearing it), Kate says that she’s not an idiot. Meanwhile Alan tells his mom that he’s getting close in finding Alice’s whereabouts.
Alan’s bodyguard reports this to Dawin who shuffles his people around to ensure coverage with a new understanding: Prince Alan is aware that Alice is alive which means he is a potential culprit. Khun Ying invites Alice to join her in the soldier’s housewife charity event in giving back to an orphanage. Dawin provides his permission but asks to join since tomorrow is his day off.
They take an evening stroll along the beach; Alice says that he didn’t need to join her tomorrow. To which Dawin adds another rule to the list (well a rule is a much more accurate description of the make-Alice-a-commoner list prescribed previously) that she can’t be out of his eyesight from now on, since they no longer know whether the baddies are aware of her whereabouts. This is one rule I can get behind. He demonstrates this by stopping her and bending over to remove a branch out of her way. And she gives him this cute little smile, kya!
At the orphanage, Dawin treats the little kids like little soldiers lol. Alice reminds him to smile a little and he totally does when she makes a mistake. He demonstrates to Alice the proper way to prepare noodle soup for the kids. Meanwhile Pew tries to snap a picture of Alice with an excuse that she wants to upload her pic to facebook so proper credit is given to her. Dawin tells her to stop but someone else wants a group photo. How to get out of this one? Well, saved by a fire in the orphanage, which seems like a really cruel distraction. Two kids are still stuck inside so Dawin goes in to rescue one of them, while Alice goes in after the second (only Dawin doesn’t know this). As he surfaces outside with one kid, he realizes that Alice is nowhere to be found. Since no one offers up an explanation, Dawin comes to his own conclusion that she must still be inside.
Alice is surrounded by fire on all sides, trying to get to the kid in the back. Dawin soaks a towel and makes his way in. We hear King Henry’s voiceover that he had placed his trust in Dawin’s father, and now he places his trust in Dawin. We see Dawin fighting the fire (where is the fire department?!) and then Alice drenches a bed sheet to take down fire in her path as she makes it to the kid. The voiceover continues that a leader of a nation is willing to sacrifice its life to protect its people. Alice is an heir who is ready to sacrifice herself, and has its nation support. As she collects the boy, thick debris knocks her down. Dawin finally spots her unconscious on the ground. AND like a freakin’ hero that he is, Dawin straps the boy on his back and carries Alice in the front, promising not to let anything happen to her.
The cinematography, I tell ya, it’s stupendous. I could take a hundred screenshots.
Oh the firefighters are outside fending the fire lol, they’re like, that special agent got this! Dawin places Alice on the ground and begs for her to wake. We flashback to all of the walks she had to do alone. His face blurs out of vision.
Meanwhile a new prince (Prince Will) is introduced – he’s paying a visit to Hrysos and Mona has her eyes on him for Princess Kate. He learns through Kate that Alice is missing and the last place she’s been to is Thailand. Will tells Kate that if she or Alan goes missing, he would do everything to find them, since they are his beloved friends. We flashback to the moment Will and Kate meet (notice the coincidence in naming convention, Will and Kate!! Anne Thong seems like a really big royal family fan lol). He’s a bit of a sweet talker; it’s evident that Kate takes to his kind words (since everyone is mean to her). She did not know he was a prince when they first met, she thought he was a paparazzi sneaking pictures of her. They were later introduced by Alan, and then at a gallery event sometime later, she sees her own photos showcased. Will tells Kate that he has several more gorgeous photos of her from that day. But like anything in Kate’s life, it usually ends in disappointment; Will showcases his first inspiration, speaking so highly of it that Kate thinks he’s talking about her, when in fact, it is of Alice instead. But of course. Cue Alice making an entrance, bringing Kate to misty eyed tears. I would not be surprised if Kate turns out to be the real culprit.
Through a phonecall with his dad, we learn that Will is on a mission to Hrysos for a reason, sounds like they are desperate reasons, and he needs to find Alice asap. He reassures dad that once he finds Alice, he knows exactly what to do, then he gives us an evil eye. In a meeting with the resort investors, they are concerned regarding a rumor that his country is struggling financially. Will also reassures them that there are no such concerns.
Kate thinks back on that one fine dinner celebrating King Henry’s birthday (and what a surprise! Grandpa speaks perfect English!) We see that Alice gets to make a toast and Alan notes that Grandpa only cares about Alice anyway. Kate tells him to stop complaining and try to do good. Alan retorts that Kate is a prime example of an uber do-gooder and look where that’s got her. Ouch. Back during present time, Kate’s face is so unreadable that it’s hard to tell if she hates Alice. But it would be unreal to not envy Alice even if a little, though it’s no fault of Alice that she’s a favorite.
Alan finds out that Muat Pan got switched out by someone else. Then Will makes an appearance in Thailand, traveling so fast like a freakin ghost. One that no one is happy to see.
COMMENTS:
I really quite enjoyed this episode, and the story so far, but it’s made even better because of Nadech Yaya. I mean, have you seen the man? He’s oozing macho-ness like he’s eating nails for breakfast. Speaking of food, during the 3Zaap show, Yaya mentioned that Nadech was so strict with his diet that he wouldn’t eat carbs. Another tidbit related to this lakorn on the show pertains to their frequent collaboration, and that they always try to find ways to make it fresh. I think the one thing that they continue to bring to us (fans) is their resilient chemistry, always lit, always on fire.
I’m hoping the nosiness from the neighbors dies down a bit, but I suppose if the nosiness brings about more forced romantic interactions, I’m all for it. Haha. Though their interactions today, in the car, on the beach and even during the charity event, were all so gentle and sweet and natural, I can’t stand it. Which takes me to a final insight (at least for today) which Yaya brings up during the interview: that due to their status difference, Alice will be the one who initiates the romantic move. Since Dawin knows his place and is very duty bound, he can only feel what he feels inside, while Alice would need to show her consent before Dawin makes his move. Now that’s something I’m looking forward to! The restraint love from Dawin, with the fearless and untethered love from Alice.