If I were to sum up this episode in one sentence: it would be yes, yes, he is.
By he, I mean Wipu, the real Matira. Pachara had indicated many times that in previous lifetimes, Matira had been the one to approach him. While he noted that this time around, things are a little bit different, we do know that Wipu had set up this whole revenge scheme from the getgo: procuring the heart of knight from Clarissa, hiring Praoploy as the artist, and bringing everyone together to torment Pachara.
But Pachara is actually very calm and accepting about all of this, which is the biggest surprise to Wipu. Pachara admits that he has relinquished all of his love and hatred between him and Matira. Even though Matira may still harbor these feelings, Pachara just wants forgiveness to exist between them. He says if he could find the real Matira, he would ask that they forgive each other. Pachara no longer cares if Matira kills him or curses him, in fact he would welcome it all, but he wants her to find forgiveness for Praoploy’s sake. He recently realized that Praoploy has lived through many lifetimes with the heart defect, and Pachara wants her suffering to end.
Wipu comments that it is quite meaningful that Pachara loves Praoploy more than he loves himself, but he questions how that would make Matira feel. He asks if this would make her resent Pachara even more or would she be willing to forgive him if she finds out that Pachara loves Prao more than he ever loved Matira. Wipu says this with a smile on his face, but this revealing episode shows us his other side, that he is at a boiling point with Pachara because he believes that Pachara must only have love for Matira. The “I will always love you” only lasted that lifetime two thousand years ago. While Wipu has to be reborn every lifetime, eventually realizing his fate and having to follow through with it. It’s a sad reality, as Pachara noted.
But vengeful Wipu/Matira hasn’t always been that way. Both of them, in their subsequent lifetimes, start out not actually remembering their past lifetime. Wipu had been like the old Matira, someone quite gentle and sweet, but has a bad family life. Wipu is the son of a mistress who eventually committed suicide. Prim had met him in college, pre-Matira, and he left quite the impression on her. But the tempting fate, in the form of Matira, lures him and takes over him, promising to make him stronger and a winner. Wipu remembers everything from his lifetime and thus, enacts the revenge scheme. (Matira back then had also taken the offer to be strong, to put her fate in someone else’s hands – in this case evil’s hands. It is easier to let someone else take the reins, when you’re conflicted and confused and tormented inside.)
The scheme started with Clarissa, whom Wipu had enticed to come to Thailand. He found out that she’s obsessed with the legend of the Heart of Knight, so he sends her a package that details the current Pachara and his immortality. Clarissa is convinced that she needs to meet Pachara to find out whether the legend is true. This explains why she knew the secret about Pachara’s immorality when she met him, and why she keeps pestering him to tell the story of WWII. That was the one unknown piece of history of the Heart of Knight that she has yet to uncover. In the dungeon where Wipu kept her, Clarissa was given the chance to ask questions that we were all curious about, and she finally uncovers that Wipu is indeed Matira. But like any side characters that know too much, Wipu silenced her before she managed to get out.
In order to play his cards right, he had to establish trust with Prim, so he could get to Pon and Praoploy through her. Wipu had commented that trust is easy to establish, but maintaining it requires some investments. That came in the form of taking a bullet for her, Prim is convinced Wipu is the love of her life. In this lifetime, Wipu is been given love but he prefers to focus on hatred. In fact, he received two loves, from Matinee and Prim, and one can argue that Matinee loves him unconditionally. Yet he pulls the same thing he claimed he hated; he betrayed their love.
There is also the case of Aon, who is still held captive and who witnessed the death of Clarissa. Her sister meets with Wanda and Pachara, and while she can’t remember the curse that Aon keeps going on about, she does recall the phrase that Aon uses frequently, that when an eclipse takes place once again, the curse must be washed otherwise karma will not end. Pachara thinks it’s a message from Janthra, and we all know that Sintu was the last person who had seen Janthra, so the fact that Pachara won’t see his man who is dying to see him, is driving me a little bonkers. Thankfully we have the two investigators, Sherlock dad and Wanda, who decipher that VPU typed in by Sintu on the ipad refers to WIPU.
The man in question does not know that Sintu is still alive. Another few surprising factor come into play, the appearance of two people: Matira’s dad and Ruthara. In this lifetime they are lawyer and detective hired by Clarissa’s dad (Ronald) to find Clarissa. Shockingly, they remember their past lifetime and are also in search of the real Matira. Working for Ronald has brought them to Pachara, because they know that Matira will be seeking Pachara. They don’t say why they are looking for Matira, and perhaps they don’t know that Wipu is Matira.
However, when Wipu laid eyes on them, he was shook. The memory of his father who started the dissention between Matira and Pachara made him angry. Ruthara had also let Pachara kill her father. Prao also recognizes them immediately, and Pachara tells Ruthara not to get her involved. Ruthara did question Prao that her relationship with Pachara could be a motive for Clarissa’s disappearance, but he was hoping to gauge her reaction. Pachara had told him earlier that she is not Matira. Prao indicated that she would be happy for Pachara no matter who he loves.
Meanwhile Pachara goes to see Matinee one last time, hoping he learns something new. And he does, Matinee undergoes psych help and she slowly mutter that she is NOT Matira. That well, leaves only one person to be Matira, and I am hoping Pachara was smarter to have already figured this out. The people that are related to Tarawatburam time are all coming together in one place, we either repeat the finale of each lifetimes or we do something different and break the chain.
To be honest, this episode was a bit lackluster to me. It felt like they had to find some filler scenes to create an episode to extend the finale. The biggest issue with this show is its slow pacing, and by creating more dialogue that we have already heard countless of times before, made it one of my least favorite episodes, when in fact, revealing who Matira is and how we can reverse this curse should be an exciting conclusion.
Tomorrow’s finale calls forth the important parties at the literal end of the cliff, let’s see who takes the plunge and whether the immortality curse truly requires Matira’s blessings or there’s another factor that can come to play. One thing is for sure, we will not be hanging on the cliff. Let’s also get to the more important matter, Pachara and Praoploy, and how we can give them one normal lifetime together.
