Put your boxing gloves on, this round packs a punch or two or three. It all leads to the road to marriage, and a handy diversion to get there. Do people still marry to show “responsibility” for their inexcusable (not to mention criminal actions)? Should you be forced to marry someone when they set out to rape you with the excuse that they really want you, and that other than the whole unwillingness part, you are supposedly suitable to each other in every way? Apparently grandma is still stuck in the 40s but thankfully everyone else concurs that that is cray, and the man belongs in jail or somewhere far away that he won’t harm Thai women. But what about women in other parts of the world? You have to save them too, Show! Save the planet from douchebags like Wuttha (and Penny too while we’re at it.)

What I am referring to is the bad guy, Wuttha, who gets Penny’s help in kidnapping Meunchanok from her father’s wedding. They go through quite the length – which requires Penny to steal her mother’s sim card, call Meunchanok and lie that Nah Phai got hit by a car, then hire a hitman to carry Meunchanok all the way to Wuttha’s hotel room. Wuttha doesn’t anticipate that his mom’s assistant had been watching the security camera at that time and she stealthily reports the circumstances to Luckanai. Our hero hails to her rescue at the nick of time, before Wuttha is able to compromise Meunchanok further, though he doesn’t realize Wuttha has been filming this. Meunchanok is unconscious this whole time and the secretary suggests they take her to the hospital.

Though when she wakes, her parents withhold the truth from her, and when she sees Luckanai, she gives him her standard sneer, because she doesn’t know that he rescued her for the thousandth time. But this sneer has an extra bite because during the wedding, she had shown up in a sexy, clingy, dress in the arms of Wuttha, and the jealous green monster came out of Luckanai. He’s always had the hots for her, but knowing that she’s being sarcastic with him by saying that she will always welcome Wuttha as the next closest person to her, that got him choosing to do a bad (though hot) lakorn hero move: they’re in the elevator and are spatting back and forth, the room thick with chemistry, Luckanai corners her against the wall and accuses her of using Wuttha as bait because she’s hurt and wants to exact revenge with him. This gets under her skin (because he’s right) and she spites that he’s full of himself and she’s doing this so he knows his place, but before she could finish, he crushes his lips to hers in a searing kiss. She fights back until she succumbs, and that is when he stops, earning a slap. See that? Slap kiss. Luckanai snarks that he’s willing to help coordinate her wedding with Wuttha in exchange for that kiss he just stole.

So yeah, their next encounter is on the icy side. But you can’t keep a compromise gossip at bay for long, not from the lack of trying on Luckanai’s part. Wuttha and mom decide they need to take the offensive on this and release the compromise video. Which brings us to the crazy suggestion from grandma. She’s willing to consider the wedding between Wuttha and her granddaughter – because, get this, he’s taking responsibility! And aside from the whole rape attempt, grandma thinks they are a perfect match! Dad and mom thinks she’s crazy but this puts Meunchanok in a precarious situation because she doesn’t know how to get out of it – how about “no”, that’s a complete sentence – she doesn’t want to marry Wuttha. So Luckanai tells her to trust him since he knows a way out of this: he lies to grandma that HE was the man in the video and he’s willing to take responsibility and marry Meunchanok. Everyone is shocked to hear this, but Meunchanok catchs on that he’s helping her and pretends to be mad that it was him.

And grandma sees red. She transforms into the Hulk and smashes Luckanai. Literally, she whooped his ass. That is because he stood there like a punching bag (or like Loki who got tossed over and over by the Hulk). Nobody stops her (dad is convinced this needs to happen in order for grandma to let Meunchanok off the hook to marry Wuttha) and this goes on sooo long. I almost cried for Nai, but then I started laughing. Seriously, this show is crazy. What’s sad is that she brings up his mom again, it’s like she’s blaming everything his mom had done, on him. Grandma had raised Luckanai’s mom as her own but one day she fell in love with someone that grandma considers as trash, had a baby, and left her. She says that since his mom doesn’t even love him, how could she? Ouch. I think grandma is still deeply hurt by what she considers as betrayal. So all that anger gets taken out on Luckanai. It’s both sad and funny to watch at the same time. The saddest part is watching Nok cry as she sees Nai getting the beat down of his life, by grandma no less.

That night Nok tends to Nai’s wound and they have a moment of sexy tenderness, but always to be derailed by the last awkward second. He says that everyone worries about her and that he worries about her too, and that if only she knows how much. He asks her if she would give him a chance to protect her, but she relents that he already did. We all know what he’s referring to. Nai tells her that he wants to protect her always, and this is when Kae sees them from across the porch. He places Nok’s hand against his heart and asks her to marry him. She asks dumbfoundedly if he meant “you and me”, and he does, unless she dislikes him. He gets even closer as their nose almost touch and wonders if she dislikes this. He kisses her forehead, and then touches his lips to hers, but as he proceeds to kiss her fully, Nok closes her mouth. Omg, what a rejection! How does one live with that? Nai pulls his face away. I guess he got his answer. He walks away, somewhat embarrassed and awkward, leaving Nok unsure of what to do. Questions that would go through my thick skull if I were Nok: Why didn’t I open my mouth? What the hell is wrong with me? Why is he so hot? Who here has an extra hand to slap ME?! Sending a rescue team to douse Nok (and us) with a bucket of ICED water.

At any rate, the option to marry Nai is on Nok, dad tells her that if she wants to marry Nai, he agrees with it. Just saying. The gossipmongers are still at it, leaving Nok to feel miserable and she closes herself off in her room. Nai encourages her to face her struggles because what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Well some of us take that literally, as in the case of Nai jumping through fire and moving mountains to love Nok. He even feeds her and talks to her like a child, but she kind of likes that.

The next morning Nok is ready to face the world, she’s got her war paint on (makeup) and her red dress. Though she didn’t expect to see Kae trying to warn Nai against marrying her. Kae says that he should be fair by treating Nok like he treated her, especially when Nok has hurt him worse than she has. Lol. Like love is fair? This only fuels Nok to make her decision about redeeming her image with the public: she’s going to marry Nai. Under her breath she vows to make sure Kae would never have her dad or Luckanai in her life.

Nai pulls her aside to talk in private after she gave her answer. He calls her out on her game, that she’s only marrying him so she could beat Kae (he seems to always know what she’s up to, is he sure he’s not clairvoyant too?) He knows she’s only doing this because she’s still suspicious of him and Kae’s relationship. But to win big, you gotta have the highest stakes. Nai advises her that she can’t have a war with her household because even if she wins, she’s not gonna be happy. Nok welcomes him to play a round with her (I thought we’re on round 8 hehe) and Nai says that he does want to win, but he will ensure that it’s not just a game. He questions whether she thinks that their game will end at the wedding alter? Dun dun dun. She challenges him that if he wins, he can have everything. But if he loses, it would be like living in hell and he will leave empty handed.

Well there we have it, our wedding is on the horizon, with these two going tit for tat, but I can’t help but to think that their wager sounds more like an excuse to actually marry each other, as twisted as that sounds. Though they put on a front, like it’s gonna be so bad to marry one another, when they’re just dying to prove each other wrong and maybe be happy?

Another big occurrence in this episode is Mom meeting Khun Nim (Nai’s mom) as a cleaning lady after so many years apart. Khun Nim doesn’t look so good, she’s coughing a lot (maybe it’s a cancer diagnosis) but she’s adamant that she can’t see Nok again because it’s all his fault she ended up like this. Say what? Mom tells Khun Nim that her son isn’t in bad shape like before (dude he was a kid before!) and he’s going to get married soon. This seems to spark an interest in Khun Nim. Mom later takes Khun Nim to Nai’s place of work. Though she tears up seeing her handsome grown up son, she refuses to meet him. Mom gets her to meet with Nok though, explaining to Nok that Khun Nim wants to know how the recycling works. So Nok shows her around and to Khun Nim’s panic, Nai shows up.. and will he recognize her? We see Khun Nim turning away, hoping he doesn’t come any closer.

Yikes Khun Nim, why did you stay away for so many years? I wonder if she thinks she’s going to die or she just wants him to have a better life? I don’t think a child wants to lose his mother over material possessions. But I’ll hold my judgment until Show work this piece out.

Mom (Nok’s mom) is really awesome. She crashes her ex husband’s wedding, which could turn out to be one super awkward and drunk moment, but instead turns out to be a poignant toast for her ex husband. She starts by joking about how on their first date (at a movie theater) he would pick up trash after everyone leaves, and even prompts her to do the same. He wasn’t ashamed, it wasn’t beneath him. It showed her his true essence, and that he is also a good dad, picking up after her who would get too busy with her socialite activities. This reminds me of his talk with Nok before his wedding, dad admitting his shortcomings, that he’s not a good dad, and he doesn’t protect her feelings. But he says that he will never stop being her father and that everything that is his, will become hers too. These two parents, though they are flawed and aren’t the best parents, they always come through when it counts. Like dad leaving his new wife at their wedding night because his daughter is in the hospital.

I’ve always wondered about the context, backstory of Nai and Nok’s childhood relationship though, and how the falling out happened. I’ve been waiting for Show to tackle that, because it would explain Nok’s behavior towards Nai or why Nai would love her and put up with so much of her rejection. Even I would throw in the towel much earlier. I want to be on this love train with them because they are so hot and sexy together, but I also need a story to help me understand. As it stands right now, Nai is doing everything in his power (he schemes too) to have her so he could show her how much he loves her – while he’s willing to take any beat down or rejection thrown his way – and Nok is just a character who hates being played by lowly schemers and wants to be the champ at all cost, and would even marry for the trophy. Hey, it could be worse, so many marriage of convenience plot has two people marry for money or something, why not a trophy? Oh Show, you do make me grasp at straws though. Which is a very hard thing to do when you’re wearing boxing gloves.