In Love Forever: 1x03.
This is by far the sweetest, most romantic episode of In Love Forever yet, and it’s fascinating how the sweetness comes from how the majority of the episode kind of mirrors the flashbacks scenes that have been unfolding as their own little story after the main part of the episode finishes. It’s still Runch and Neen after their shared decision to go through with the divorce, it should still have all the bitterness of a couple that still deeply loves one another (even if Neen has no certainty about Runch’s love – I would say she does by the end of the episode) being forced into divorce by an outside influence outside their control. And yet, for most of it, the two main characters feel like they’ve entered a protective bubble far removed from their normal circumstances where their love can exist without the outside pressure that Runch’s mum exerts on their relationship. In Neen’s grandparents’ house in the countryside, with their phones out of reach, living a life that is different from their normal routines, it becomes obvious that they love each other but that they are deeply in love – and a year into their marriage, three years into officially being together, can still surprise each other with things they didn’t previously know, that make them even more in love.
Talking about bitterness – with all the fluff, all the happiness that carries the episode – it almost fades by the end of it, but it is difficult not to sometimes still feel it in the back of your throat, like an unexploded bomb quietly ticking away underneath. This is true especially with how the episode begins, and there’s something about Runch here, leading up to their trip, that shows pretty clearly already that this happiness won’t last. A character that constantly falls back into ignoring problems because they are too big to solve or would require radical decisions they’re not ready to make can be frustrating to watch, even if all of her actions come from either love or devotion to her mother. I’m torn about whether I believe that she knows exactly what her mother is trying to do the moment she walks into her house and finds her sitting there with Meilin, or if she is naive about Kingkamol’s motives, not realising the great lengths she will go to to rid herself of Neen, still maintaining an image of her in her head that sees her mother as protective but not vicious. She must realise, the moment she walks in and finds her almost jittery with excitement, that she has been lured home as a ploy (proving Neen’s immediate reaction upon receiving her message, “I bet the old hag is faking it”, true), that her mother does not in fact require her to take her to the hospital, and her high blood pressure, if anything, is due to finally having come up with a plot that will truly hurt Neen in a way that sticks. It’s the whole way the scene unfolds: the excited introduction of Meilin as the childhood friend who used to play with her (long enough ago that Runch doesn’t seem to remember her very vividly, while she has left such a big impression on the younger woman), the attempts to connect them through their shared careers (which Meilin has chosen because of Runch, because Runch is her idol among other things), Meilin’s wide-eyed excitement at seeing her and the way she receives her career guidance, and her phone number. Runch does strike me as the kind of person that would be unaware of someone having a crush on her – I think if Neen hadn’t been so forward and clear about her intentions, Runch would have been very much in the dark and never made the first move – but she should be able to read her mother well enough to see what she is planning. She’s also very well aware how jealous Neen is – remember her reaction at the coffee shop, and that was just a friendly interaction with a regular barista – and knows to keep Meilin’s whole existence a secret up to the point where she has to explain it. It’s kind of defensible based on the fact that from Runch’s perspective, she’s just helping an old childhood friend get settled in her career and she knows that bringing it up would upset both Neen and the very, very brief period of peace they’ve achieved since Neen managed to take full revenge on Kingkamol, but it’s also the actions of someone who has spent a lot of energy and effort on controlling what information Neen has about her life (remember how long she kept her struggles at work a secret).
Talking about bitterness – with all the fluff, all the happiness that carries the episode – it almost fades by the end of it, but it is difficult not to sometimes still feel it in the back of your throat, like an unexploded bomb quietly ticking away underneath. This is true especially with how the episode begins, and there’s something about Runch here, leading up to their trip, that shows pretty clearly already that this happiness won’t last. A character that constantly falls back into ignoring problems because they are too big to solve or would require radical decisions they’re not ready to make can be frustrating to watch, even if all of her actions come from either love or devotion to her mother. I’m torn about whether I believe that she knows exactly what her mother is trying to do the moment she walks into her house and finds her sitting there with Meilin, or if she is naive about Kingkamol’s motives, not realising the great lengths she will go to to rid herself of Neen, still maintaining an image of her in her head that sees her mother as protective but not vicious. She must realise, the moment she walks in and finds her almost jittery with excitement, that she has been lured home as a ploy (proving Neen’s immediate reaction upon receiving her message, “I bet the old hag is faking it”, true), that her mother does not in fact require her to take her to the hospital, and her high blood pressure, if anything, is due to finally having come up with a plot that will truly hurt Neen in a way that sticks. It’s the whole way the scene unfolds: the excited introduction of Meilin as the childhood friend who used to play with her (long enough ago that Runch doesn’t seem to remember her very vividly, while she has left such a big impression on the younger woman), the attempts to connect them through their shared careers (which Meilin has chosen because of Runch, because Runch is her idol among other things), Meilin’s wide-eyed excitement at seeing her and the way she receives her career guidance, and her phone number. Runch does strike me as the kind of person that would be unaware of someone having a crush on her – I think if Neen hadn’t been so forward and clear about her intentions, Runch would have been very much in the dark and never made the first move – but she should be able to read her mother well enough to see what she is planning. She’s also very well aware how jealous Neen is – remember her reaction at the coffee shop, and that was just a friendly interaction with a regular barista – and knows to keep Meilin’s whole existence a secret up to the point where she has to explain it. It’s kind of defensible based on the fact that from Runch’s perspective, she’s just helping an old childhood friend get settled in her career and she knows that bringing it up would upset both Neen and the very, very brief period of peace they’ve achieved since Neen managed to take full revenge on Kingkamol, but it’s also the actions of someone who has spent a lot of energy and effort on controlling what information Neen has about her life (remember how long she kept her struggles at work a secret).
