What is there not to like about a brooding hero and a likeable heroine?

Praoploy learns a little more about the mysterious man that captured her, although she’s not being held as a captive. He even entices her with an irresistible deal, but is she making a deal with the devil? I mean she sure thinks these islanders are rather fierce. We meet a new character in that of Wanda, who also makes a deal with Pon to help find Praoploy. Pachara gets closer to finding a treasure, one that might actually make his dreams come true, even if it is a morbid dream to most.

EPISODE 2 RECAP

As Pachara waits for Praoploy to come to, he thinks back on the life during Tarawatburam time and doesn’t believe she could be anyone else but Matira.

Prim and Wipu scour the area for Praoploy to no avail. Wipu questions what had happened prior to Praoploy’s disappearance, hoping to get some ideas on where else they could search for her. Prim recalls their terse conversation prior as she hasn’t been able to forget about it since.

Praoploy had noticed that Prim draws very well and asked why she hadn’t drawn very much. Prim replies that she had been the best artist in fourth grade, but their father had enrolled Praoploy with the best art teacher already and it would be too expensive for two kids. Prim says that she wanted to learn so badly but decided to drop it, and that was the end of that. Praoploy feels remorsed but Prim says there is no need to feel sorry now because it’s not like they could give the girl back her childhood. She adds that it is her destiny to take care of Praoploy, at least until one of them dies first. Damn.

Prim doesn’t share this with Wipu though, only that she doesn’t have a good feeling about Praoploy’s disappearance. They had parted ways on bad terms and Prim hadn’t gotten a chance to make it up to her sister. She wants to report her sister missing, but it hasn’t been 24 hours yet and there is no evidence of any wrongful kidnapping.

Praoploy wakes to find herself back at the strange man’s house. He tells her to eat and take her medicine, and even checks her pulse (albeit rather cutely). He prescribes her a naturopathic medicine which only means he knows of her heart condition. She surmises this also means that he didn’t grab the wrong person. Praoploy demands (in layman terms) why he would do this to her. Pachara makes it plain and clear that she should not try to run away again or exacerbate her condition. Praoploy wonders about the head gash she had given him earlier, but as she reaches for his forehead, he stops her.

He tells her that there’s a lot of things in this world that she wouldn’t believe (there goes that cryptic talk) since she hasn’t remembered her past life, she just needs to know that there’s no way she could escape him. He makes a promise though, “I won’t hurt you or put you in danger. It has been this way since we first met.” Praoploy couldn’t argue with that since he did save her a few times. He adds, “We’ll make a truce after you take your meal, I have an offer you can’t refuse.” Well now, he’s finally speaking in her language.

Prim and Wipu check into the exhibit next, but to find the archaeologist pouring over a relic. He says there are two relics in Tarawatburam time that has the power to control things. He’s in search for the missing second relic.

Praoploy makes a case with the housekeeper, Kala, that she should help her run away. Kala says there’s no way out of the island because the boss has removed the boats. Praoploy asks to use the cellphone instead but turns out Kala had only brought it so Praoploy could play games. There is no cell service. Lol.

V Estate meets with Sintu to negotiate for approval of land use. Pachara Corporation had endowed land ownership to the island’s inhabitants but still reserves the rights to rescind it if the land use doesn’t meet their terms and conditions. Wipu argues that times have changed and they’re simply trying to promote tourism which as a result would create more jobs. Sintu doesn’t agree that taking down natural resources and building resorts and golf courses is going to benefit the inhabitants directly. Wipu thinks Situ is making too much accusations and he would prefer to speak directly with the CEO. Sintu says he has been given the authority to make decisions, but Wipu thinks the CEO’s preference to avoid business dealings must mean one of two things: (1) he doesn’t care (2) he is not capable. Pachara walks in on time to hear this and relents that it is none of the above, it is more like V Estate is not even on his mind. Hahaha.

Pachara says that his company won’t rescind the documents as long as V Estate use the land with consideration. Wipu explains that he’s not a villain developer like in the movies, he just wants to open the conversation and act on the interest of the people. He has always admired Pachara Corp’s philosophy. Pachara, like a person who has lived too long, only relents that he has seen things and know the greed of the humans. He compares human tendencies to that of a curse, it is just as ruthless.

Speaking of the curse.. Aon finally comes to. We can hear an echo when she talks (to show that she’s possessed?) and she immediately rushes out to the beach. She falls to her knees and calls forth to the skies above, that everything in the past must we awaken. Oh this doesn’t sound good.

As the meeting ends, Wipu says that it’s not easy to meet a man like Pachara, who prefers to stay on the sideline. But since he has the opportunity, he invites Pachara to his resort grand opening. He thinks Pachara would be interested in a particular gemstone in his possession: the Heart of Knight.

Suddenly thunder rumbles on the beach and a relic floats to the shore. The archaeologist and team drag it in, and he almost loses his mind. It’s the second relic he was searching for, one that is powerful enough to turn a heart into diamond. Meanwhile Prim finally confides in her older brother that Praoploy is missing.

Praoploy contemplates on how Pachara could heal so quickly. She wonders what kind of being he is, but next thing she knows, he appears before her. She smashes a bottle and points it at him, warning him not to come closer. He does, of course.

He says he has an interesting offer to make, it is something she’s been searching for her whole life: a heart. He just wants her to calm down and hear him out, besides, she already knows that the bottle can’t hurt him. Haha. Pachara gets all close to her and gauges her reaction. “I need a heart back,” he shares. “You’re looking for a heart so that you may continue to live. I am looking for a heart so that I may die.” Say whaaat, is her expression. “When I get that heart back, you’re the only person that could reverse the curse, so that blood will be coursing through my heart again. And until that day happens, my heart belongs with you.” He means business, but it sure sounds romantic.

Praoploy steps away and tries to explain that there’s more to finding a heart, she needs a heart that matches. She adds that no one wants what he wants (to die) and Pachara says he’s no average person. All’s she has to do is be open minded and try to rekindle the past memories, he will protect her with his life. That phrasing sounds familiar to Praoploy’s ears, but she chalks it up to dejavu. Praoploy takes the deal, realizing she has no other choice. She swears to the heavens and earth that if it is indeed true that she is who he says she is, then she would reverse the curse. If she breaks her promise, the sky can strike her then and there. Pachara seems assured so he says she is free to roam the island and hands her a history book that looked several hundred years old in case it could help jog her memory.

I like how Sintu asks all of the right questions. “Are you sure it’s her?” “What are you going to do now?” And “what makes you think it will work this time?” We then learn that in all other lifetimes Matira never looked as close to her old self as in this lifetime with Praoploy. Also in all of the other lifetimes, she had always chosen hatred and revenge over reversing the curse.

What is interesting this time around is that she doesn’t remember her past, perhaps this means something (yeah like you got the wrong girl.) But Sintu thinks that this might be a good thing that she doesn’t remember. He asks if their relationship had started with vengeance, to which Prachara says it started with love, but that changed. Sintu adds that in all other lifetimes, Matira had been the one to look for him, while this time around, Pachara had found Praoploy. He gives his boss food for thought, “if revenge can’t change her then why don’t you persuade her with love.” Sintu starts coughing and says that he’s old and he doesn’t know when/if he’ll get a chance to serve his boss in another lifetime.

We’re introduced to new characters, the Sherlock agency! Dad and daughter are not on the same page when it comes to being an investigator. Dad would only take on tough cases, while daughter will take on any cases that pay. Wanda (our second female lead) has been hired to investigate none other than Pon. As she snoops around she thinks that he is gay, since he’s all chummy with his colleague (another man). When she pretends to interview him by asking how he feels about gay love, Pon of course is an LGBT supporter. Wanda thinks this confirms her suspicions, but she accidentally drops her hat which contained a video recorder. Pon peers at her in suspicion.

Back on Mookdam Island, Praoploy meets three kids carrying coconuts. They are not friendly with her because they had been told by Kala that she’s the boss’ future wife and she’s about to take the man out of the island, which means the kids will be abandoned again. Praoploy asks them how she can get to the boat dock from here and they instruct her to walk through the woods and she’ll get there in no time, when in fact they’ve instructed her through a very dangerous part of the island instead.

She has started to get winded by the long walk through the woods when she meets a white snake. Just as it rears its head to bite her, Pachara teleports to her and fights the snake off. In a panic she wants to stop the snake poison from seeping into his skin – she thinks she needs to wrap his wound tightly. Pachara looks at her calmly like she’s watched too much tv but let her fuss over him anyway. She wraps a cloth (from Pachara’s shirt that he had torn off for her lol) and suggests they go to the hospital. He tries to assure her that he can’t die, but she’s like you’re not x-men. Yes, Praoploy does watch a lot of tv. He lets her carry him through the woods, he says he has an antidote at home.

Wanda calls her client to report about her findings (that Pon is gay) but he grabs her phone in time. He tells the client that she needs to stop stalking him and turns his annoyance at Wanda. He takes away her memory card, which causes her to reach into his pants pocket. Lol. He warns her that what she touches may not be the memory card. But she’s not afraid and reaches in there anyway. Pon declares he hates people like her who would do anything for money.

With the antidote in mind, Praoploy attempts to keep going, they make it to the beach but she’s already short of breath. Pachara suggests they take a breather; besides he doesn’t look like a person close to death. Haha. Praoploy thanks him for helping her to which he questions why she broke her promise and try to run away. Praoploy argues that she wasn’t trying to run away, mm hm. Pachara begs her to stop making a run for it because he’s getting tired from fighting snakes.

Wanda gets a call from her dad to meet his client since he came down with food poisoning and needs to stay at the hospital. Guess who’s the client? When they both realize that Pon hired the Sherlock duo, he’d rather find someone else. Wanda says she’s ready to work today if he would give her a chance, instead of wasting time by finding another investigator. Desperate, Pon decides he’ll give her a week.

Praoploy rests her head against Pachara’s arm from exhaustion. He orders her heart not give out until the curse is reversed. Praoploy wonders if he’s worried about her or the nonsense curse, but she’s too sleepy to hear his answer and falls asleep on his arm. He just looks at her and stays there for a good long while. He even smiles! What a rare find, this smile of his.

We see later that he carries her to bed and tucks her in. On his way out he notices her journal. Well propriety doesn’t stop him since he’s a 2000 years old immortal, so decides to read her journal.

He smiles at her bucket list:

  • Swim with the whales
  • Go hiking
  • Watch the sunset and sleep on the beach while stargazing
  • Meet her true love
  • Have her first kiss

WELL all legit things. He thinks about what Sintu says, that he ought to consider changing the hatred between them into love. But Pachara surmises that his love for her dissipated 2000 years ago and he can never love her again.

Is that a challenge?

I feel kind of bad for Prim, she gets blamed for not taking care of her sister. But Prim takes it personal when it comes from Pon, who had always been the one to order her around even when she’s never asked for his help or financial support. Pon says it’s her job to take care of her sister. Pon wasn’t happy to hear that Wipu hasn’t even seen the security cameras himself. So Pon and Wanda decide to go sleuthing around the island. While asking around, Pon learns that the villagers think highly of Wipu because he’s always finding creative ways to create jobs and opportunities for them.

Speaking of which, Sintu reports to Pachara that Wipu is meeting with island elders again. The boss tells Sintu to handle the matter, because he has a more important matter to tend to. Sintu asks if that means she remembers the past, but Pachara says she will soon (what is he planning?!), and he says it with a smile. Sintu is delighted, it’s been awhile since he has seen the old tiger’s smile.

Praoploy asks Pachara if he has seen her journal. He denies it but mentions she’s childish to keep a journal at her age. Hey now, there is no age limit to write your bucket list. Praoploy asks about his snake bite and Pachara assures her that he’s x-men hahaha.

He takes her out and gives her a task of cleaning oysters. Then he hands over a black pearl but Praoploy thinks it looks like a marble, lol. The kids ask to see it but accidentally drops it into the sea. Praoploy doesn’t want them to get in trouble so she takes the blame and is punished with cleaning all of the oysters. Even though the boys didn’t fess up, they feel bad enough to help her. Through them, Praoploy learns that Pachara has adopted a lot of kids who were abandoned by their parents, and that they all share the last name “Mooknin”. The kids admit to her that they didn’t tell the truth because they were afraid Pachara would hate them.

When Pachara calls her to his side, he tells her that he knows she wasn’t responsible, but it was a teaching moment for the kids. Praoploy is annoyed having to be the medium, but most importantly she hopes he hasn’t deceived the kids by kidnapping them here just as he did to her.

Pachara warns her to worry about herself, she has a bigger mission to complete tomorrow. He’s going to take her to a place she used to live, the past world. Ahhhhh.

COMMENTS

I really do like where we are going here. Like Einstein said, to do the same thing over and over again is insanity. Why not take Sintu’s idea about doing something different this time around? Since every other encounter with Matira in her previous lifetimes resulted in her suicide instead of reversing the curse, why not change the very method of persuasion? The only problem is, they’ve got the wrong girl. While the new thought process may help Pachara change his own mindset about falling in love with Matira again, it doesn’t change the fact that the real Matira is still vengeful. I am interested to see where show will take it from here.

Pachara really does give off that brooding hero, doesn’t he? Well, he is 2000 years old and he’s just over it, over living in this world. But what is he dying for? Besides dying for the sake of dying? We can make a guess that the world he’s living in isn’t worth living, and people he cares about, like Sintu can grow old and die, leaving him perpetually alone again. It’s the old age argument of existing as the only immortal being in the world. Perhaps by changing his mindset about Matira or Praoploy, he will realize there is someone worth living for. I’m also curious about why/how Plaoploy gets these visions in her head. If she’s not Matira, why is she able to see these things? And what happened 2000 years ago that changed the love into resentment?

All good things. Until next week my friends!