It’s here! If you’ve been waiting to see Tono and Nychaa since the Cupid series, your wait is not in vain. Duangjai Nai Montra and Broadcast Thai production premiered the first episode and you can feel the chemistry right off the bat, even when he’s glaring at her in anger most (if not all) of the time! But let’s see if Nychaa, as Praoploy can help melt that frozen look off his face (it’s a handsome face though!) You can read the brief synopsis if you need a refresher, now let’s get to the recap of episode 1, feel free to squeal with me.

EPISODE 1 RECAP

We open amidst a stormy night off the mysterious island called Mookdam Island (Black Pearl), there’s energy in the air, the water charged from the thunder and lightning above. Men on a small boat appear to be thieves in the night, trying to plunder an island known to be cursed. Like a pirate protecting his turf, Pachara’s (Tono Pakin) eyes glimmer in blue light as he punishes the thieves. Legend has it that people who enter Mookdam island never leave or disappears forever.

Praoploy awakens from a nightmare that gets her heart racing. A heart? A curse? What kind of nightmare is this, she wonders. Will the dreams she’s been having be the end of her? She seeks her doctor’s opinion, the man who has been treating her heart condition since she was little. He advises that she has to slowdown her work now, which sounds to Praoploy that she won’t have much time left. The doctor explains that although she’s at the top of the heart donor list, they haven’t been able to find one that matches. Praoploy reassures her doctor that it is no fault of his, it must be her fate to be born with the condition, but in no way would she let it define her. With a big smile, the usual face she puts out into the world during hard times, Praoploy asks if she could do something she’s always wanted to do: go to the sea.

Praoploy pays attention to an interesting news on the TV at the coffee shop. There is a report of a world class gemstone producer, Pachara Corporation, that will be undergoing a change management. The heir (which is like a carbon copy of his father) will be handling Pachara Corporation. Praoploy notes the beautiful picture of the Mookdam Island and is immediately intrigued. She picks up the phone to call her older brother Pon and plead her case about scuba diving. Your heart struggles beating by just sitting down! He almost wants to shake her over the phone. Praoploy relents that she exercises and swims daily, and that her doctor praises that everyone should be exercising like her. Pon doesn’t want to entertain the idea at all and gives her an impossible challenge, he says if she could make it snow on the Himalayans in Bangkok then he would let her go. Basically, a miracle needed to happen. But Praoploy is more creative than that.

She recreates snow by building a Himalayan desert made with sand in a fair, causing a stir on social media. She turns on the fan and the sand whips itself into the air, creating snow to flutter down on Bangkok (at least on the fair). She is too immersed on her achievement to notice a man in a dark cloak, staring at her. He’s not too happy to see her, but he doesn’t take his eyes off of her. When the railing on the fair tent collapses, Pachara covers her in time, nicking himself in the wrist. Before Praoploy could ask if he’s ok, the man vanishes into thin air. She doesn’t believe she’s seeing things, because the blood on her shirt was very real one moment, even though that vanishes with the man.

Wipu, the CEO of V Estate also watches the video that went viral about Praoploy, and says this is exactly who he needs. His executive assistant reminds him of a very important meeting today, there’s a new chairman at Pachara Corporation. Wipu tells her that he knows he’s become more successful than his father because of her help. The assistant appreciates the gratitude.

Meanwhile the power change commences, the media flock the company, ecstatic that they may get to see the new Chairman in person. Little did they know that there has always been one Chairman who’s faking his death every time he hits an old age. Pachara has a confidant that knows his immortal secret, that’s Sintu. They have an executive assistant who is trusted but isn’t aware of Pachara’s secret. Sintu praises Pachara for his foresight in picking people, the assistant never asks questions and is very loyal. Pachara remarks that he has only made one mistake during his two thousand years on this planet. Would you care to share what that is? No? Ok. Pachara tells Sintu to proceed with the fake death and that the next death will be real (or so help him god!) because SHE has returned.

Back to Wipu who wants to prove to the public that they care about the arts and people too. Pachara Corporation is their competitor of sorts (in winning over islanders’ hearts) because they criticize that V Estate doesn’t preserve the island the way Pachara Corp does. Wipu believes with the shift in power at PC, now is the opportunity to show people what they got. He hopes to do this by putting on an exhibition with traditional art and the reveal of the “Heart of Night”. He needs someone popular to draw attention and he thinks Praoploy is the perfect person for that job due to her recent viral video. The Heart of Night was thought to be 2000 years old, it’s a red gemstone that once derived from the lost Tarawatburam Kingdom.

Wipu meets with Pon and Praoploy, inviting her to his resort, Paradise Cliff Beach on Petch Island (Gemstone Island which is near Mookdam Island) and to his exhibition. Pon won’t allow her to go unless their youngest sister accompanies her, Prim. Praoploy says they can forget about it then, there’s no way Prim would join her. But surprisingly, at the mention of Krabi, Prim agrees immediately. As it turns out, Wipu is her crush from college. She tells Praoploy that meeting Wipu changed her, and she started to see the meaning of life. Praoploy feels sorry for dragging Prim everywhere and making her sacrifice her time because of her heart condition. In the past, Prim needed to be with Praoploy to look after her. Prim says that she’s never hated Ploy, she just hated her own life at the time. The two sisters peer at the beautiful sunset of Petch Island and Praoploy notes the paradox of the sunset, it can be very beautiful and sad at the same time.

At dinner Wipu marvels at Praoploy’s ability to eat spicy food, when she is so demure. She too is the paradox. Prim notices how Wipu pays attention to her older sister and when he is out of earshot, Prim asks Ploy if she notices it. Ploy says with a smile that what she does notice is her own sister super into Wipu. Prim doesn’t deny it. Ploy leaves the table for a quiet walk alone, and notices a man at the top of the cliff. She thinks that he will jump to his death. She pleads for him not to do that, because even a person that is near death still wants to live. To her shock, he does a dive right into the pits of the sea. Praoploy faints and when she wakes, she’s laying on the cobblestone with her sister.

The following morning the two sisters visit the exhibit with Wipu, and at the same time Pachara goes deep sea diving around the lost kingdom (or ruined kingdom) of Tarawatburam. Praoploy immerses herself with the remains of the lost kingdom story, about how legends have said that the kingdom disappeared along with a curse. There was a fighter who’s heart turned into a gemstone and lived on to be immortal, while the rest of his kingdom is destroyed. Prim doesn’t want to believe it but Wipu says that they found the heart of knight gemstone, and Praoploy would be the one to showcase that during the exhibition. When Praoploy sees images of the gemstone, she starts to get flashes of images in her head again– images of herself and that same man. Everything turns black and she passes out again.

Pon tells everyone over the phone that his sister is in no condition to continue this and he wants her sent back to the hospital in Bangkok. In tears Praoploy tells her brother not to force her to go back. This is the first time she’s been out in the world, be by the water, feel the sunlight on her face. She doesn’t know how much time she has left, and wants to do this before she can’t anymore. The emotional pleading in her voice undoes him and with a coarse voice he allows it and says he’ll be on his way soon.

Back at the resort, Wipu sets up dinner on the beach and says it would be great if she could stay in his resort for a while. He does a magic trick and procures a single white rose for her. Prim sees this and approaches her sister. Ploy feels that Wipu is like this with everyone, not just her, but more importantly, she knows that her little sister is interested so there’s no way she would touch that hahaha. Prim smiles and makes a claim “he’s mine.” Ploy tells her to be around them at all times then.

Wipu takes the girls on a boat trip around the island. Praoploy sees a green island and wants to know if they could venture there. Wipu tells her that it’s a private island called Mookdam and according to rumors, no one can enter of their own accord nor leave. As they’re driving the boat back, Praoploy sees that same man who helped her in the city. But like before, he vanishes into thin air.

 

The executive assistant, by the name of Matinee, summons Wipu back to his actual job, instead of playing with his friends. Prim and Ploy could feel the hostility from the woman and Prim says she’s acting like his mother. Lol.

Praoploy wants to go on a walk (what she really wanted to do is find that scuba diving shop), so she tells Prim to head to the resort first. When she finds the scuba diving shop, she feels something creepy following her – but you know, it’s only Pachara- hiding in the shadows like a creepy person. He finally faces her without vanishing this time. She recognizes him as THAT man, “are you a scuba diving instructor?” she asks.

He peers intensely at her and wonders what’s her game this time, he takes out an ancient knife, which naturally scares her. “Let’s end this story, shall we?”

He is SO serious! Girl is trying to get a scuba diving lesson!

“Who are you?” she stumbles back.

“You ought to know exactly who I am!” he bellows and grabs her arm tightly.

She tells him to let her go, he doesn’t until Sintu appears. “Not right now,” Sintu advises. “She doesn’t even know who she is.” Lmao.

Praoploy runs away but nearly collapses out of exhaustion. A local village person helps her and provides a glass of water. She introduces herself as Aon and wonders if Praoploy is a celebrity. Aon leads Ploy to a relief/distraction from her ailments. She takes her to a demonstration by her older sister, a shaman, and advises to get a special token and that it would help her. Before we know it, the clouds form and lightning strike the fake statue (allegedly from Tarawatburam time). Aon was hurt by the strike and blacks out, as they cart her to the ambulance, a dark spirit possesses her, she grabs on to Ploy’s arm and utter the same words reminiscent of what the man said, “You cannot escape me, everything will go back to the way it once was.”

That gives her the creeps, but she recalls the man’s cryptic words earlier that she ought to know exactly who he is. Praoploy contemplates the strange things happening to her recently. Wipu asks her to explain but Praoploy says she will convert them to inspiration for her art. Wipu admits that she can indeed inspire many, in fact, he’s inspired by her too. Uncomfortable, Ploy tells him not to take her too seriously. She doesn’t stay with one thing, but she would focus her energy on creating the best work for him. Ploy excuses herself to meander around (alone). Wipu smiles at her sheepishly, bruh she’s not into you. He does tell her to take a look at their night show during her walk, tourists eat it up, and he thinks she would enjoy it too.

As night falls, Praoploy goes to experience the show. She sees people doing a fire dance, and suddenly she starts getting visions of herself and the man again. Pachara appears in the dark cloak, watching her reaction.

She spots him and starts to follow, but meets an old man by the stairs instead. As she helps him up, the old man morphs into Pachara and as soon as Praoploy lays her eyes on his spellbinding blue ones, she faints. Pachara smirks and lifts her into his arms.

She wakes in a rustic room that is not her own. That man appears again, this time with a silk shirt (swoony).

“What is this about?” she asks calmly.

“You know exactly what this is about,” he utters, coming closer. “In this lifetime I won’t ever let you go..Until we end this.”

“End this?” she parrots. But then starts laughing. “I think you got the wrong girl.” She then asks, “Is this like Jam Loey Rak?” LMAO, you can read my brief review on Jam Loey Rai, a very popular lakorn in its heydays. “Did my younger sister deceive your younger brother in my name?”

She starts walking away from him. “We’re separate people it’s really not right to kidnap me like this. I won’t fall in love with you in the end either.” HAHAHA.

He calls out her name, “Matira.”

“Well that’s not me,” she manages to say.

She tries to make a run for it, but he’s you know, a powerful immortal.

He hands the knife to her again, nonchalantly. “Since it started with this knife, you can end it with this knife.”

Praoploy tries to reason with him and asks if he could give her a concise backstory as to what she did. His reply isn’t the cliff notes she was looking for, because he goes into the curse, the kingdom’s collapse, how he lived in pain for 2000 years, all so very calmly like he’s telling a bedtime story. It’s all gibberish to her ears though.

He says she swore in front of something sacred, that she would remember everything and torment him for the rest of her lifetime. So how could she not understand what he’s saying?

She thinks he might not be right in the head and tells him she knows some pretty great psychiatrists. But that’s met with an unsheathed knife. He holds it out to her but hilariously, she knocks him over the head with a vase and dashes off.

There is a maid named Kala who wants to be Pachara’s wife and doesn’t like that he’s keeping a girl in the house. The fisherman who’s interested in her says that the girl already took off around the island.

But Praoploy doesn’t get very far of course. As she collapses from exhaustion, Pachara catches her before she falls. And that my friends, is the end of episode 1.

COMMENTS

That last ten minutes was something, wasn’t it? Hilarious and wow they look so good together. He’s always looking at her like he’s gonna have her for breakfast. I mean, he doesn’t like her and he’s a little confused about her. For one, she’s supposed to be the bitch that cursed him, but this lifetime, the woman is anything but.. and secondly, she doesn’t even recall what she has done! Pachara was hoping to end this immortality once and for all, so what will it take?

Praoploy is the sweetest! Girl just wanna go scuba diving! Be at the sea before her heart gives out. These men in her life just makes it more difficult, even if they care about her health.

That was a good first episode to introduce us to the world that is Duangjai Nai Montra. I love how they teased Jam Loey Rak, only she might end up falling in love with him anyway, because after all we’re watching a lakorn y’all, and Broadcast has a mortgage to pay.

And yes, this is my official recapping project, so you can count on them after each episode– which is Weds-Thurs on channel 3. I’m looking forward to tomorrow! The teaser shows them on Mookdam Island and Sintu asking his boss if he’s sure that she’s Matira. And if hatred ain’t gonna cut it, why don’t he try sweeping her off her feet instead? Yes, now we’re talking. Then we see our second female lead telling Pon that he needs to hire her so she could find his sister.