Lah Ruk Sut Kop Fah – Episode 17

We are nearing the end, everyone, but there’s still so much to be done, and more “fin” moments to encounter!

Mattana and Kamin have met in the woods. But then, they hear the mercenaries and a familiar voice – it’s Hayman! He must have blundered into their path and is now being held.

Suddenly it’s dark outside. Have they been waiting until sunset? Who cares, they are keeping an eye of the bad guys. Hayman is on his knees in between them. Baldy is interrogating the young man, asking him where Kamin is.

Mattana describes the scene to Kamin, and together they come up with a strategy. They split up, and Mattana goes in first from the opposite side, yelling to distract the mercs. While they are looking in her direction, Kamin moves in. Idiot Hayman sees him and shouts his name, giving the captain away. But as the bad guys switch targets from Mattana to Kamin, Hayman grabs a bad guy and they all start fighting.

Mattana doesn’t know where to aim, as the men are all in a tangle of fistfighting and hand-to-hand blows. Kamin gets pushed hard enough to lose his footing. He falls backward and strikes the back of his head on a rock.

 

 

Baldy takes advantage of the downed man to aim his weapon at Kamin. Mattana protects him and tries to reason with the mercenary. He can’t kill Captain Kamin, son-in-law to General Witoon. Baldy sneers and calls her stupid. Everyone knows that fetus was sired by the Crown Prince, and not the loser guy on the ground.

When Kamin opens his eyes, he sees vague fuzzy shapes. Did the blow fix his eyes?? He sees Baldy turn and take aim at him, and he manages to dodge the bullet.

The bad guy that Hayman has under control breaks loose at the momentary distraction. After a  bit of gunfire between good guys and bad guys, the mercenaries run away into the night.

Right away, Mattana runs to Kamin, and he seems to focus on her face. She asks him, can you see? Do you see me? He admits nothing as Hayman runs over, and they both help him up and carry him down the hill.

In Raya, Prince Loser Makey is listening to General Witoon outline the plans to replace all important positions in the government with the general’s goons. Does Makey not realize he’s being set up as a stooge for his father-in–law?

The older man gives the prince some paperwork to sign. It’s the agreement to grant concessions to the foreigners to explore and mine the valuable deposits of black gems within the Rayan border.

 

 

Witoon explains all these changes are for the stability and the good of the country, but Makey flashes back to a conversation he had with Kamin.

In that long-ago-time, the captain explained to the crown prince their king’s plans to help Raya grow, but not at the cost of quick decisions that may possibly harm the country…

In the present time, he refuses to sign and hands the blank documents back, claiming that it’s the king’s decision and requires more thought. And since King Inthra is still alive, Makey will not approve anything this important. Nice save, Princey! There may be hope for you yet.

 

 

Witoon immediately complains to his sister, why isn’t the king dead yet? Crown Prince Makey doesn’t seem to be as easy to control as he thought, so their plans have gone awry.

Savitri offers to act as Regent and sign all those pesky decrees. The problem is female rulers can only make decisions for the citizens within the country’s borders. Only male rulers can handle foreign policy. It’s time for her to use the final solution; he hands her a small packet of poison and tells her to give it to the king so his suffering will end.

She is shocked; isn’t the current drug supposed to be a temporary paralysis? Without batting an eye, the general smoothly admits that he “may have been wrong about the temporary part”. No matter what, she’s too deep to stop now, so she must finish it.  He slaps the death packet into her hands and slithers away, leaving her wide-eyed in his wake. What an evil ass! Why not do it yourself then??

It’s a beautiful day at the Kiakamjorn home.  Kamin is curled up, sleeping. Mattana is sitting next to the bed, holding onto his hands as she looks at his face. Softly, she wonders aloud when he will finally wake up. The parents come in just as he starts to awaken.

His eyesight is fuzzy, but clearing. Mattana is ecstatic that he can see! But quickly he falls back into complete blindness. Darn it! Is he or isn’t he? She’s happy he seems okay. Dad lets him know that he is recuperating at the house and not the hospital in order to keep his location secret.

 

Dad helps him up and walks him to the bathroom. Mom thought Kamin was able to see, but Mattana decides she was mistaken. Dad promises that he will make sure the captain sees the best doctors that are available.

Meanwhile inside the bathroom, Kamin looks at the mirror and smiles. You jerk, you really can see! He guesses that the blunt trauma to the back of his head cured him.

At the Rayan refuge camp, Sinthorn gets the king’s poison antidote from Ajarn via Tagoon. He promises to do his utmost to get the cure to the king.

Later that night, he sneaks into the palace and slips the packet to Bulan. She is understandably nervous, but memorizes the instructions for Hareutai. Even if she follows it exactly, it will still be a slow recovery from the poison. They can only wait and hope.

Bulan has a message for Sinthorn from Haruetai, but sorry, it’s not a personal note for him. Instead, it’s a promise to Kamin that she will do her best to protect the king.

 

 

All of this bodes well for our kingdom, But wait! Someone is observing them from a distance using night vision binoculars. It’s our scary cray-cray Mintra who snarls a smile of victory at the now-exposed rebels. She wants to follow Sinthorn back to the rebel camp, but it’s too dark to chase him.

Instead, she squeals to the queen and the General, who pull Bulan in for questioning. Things look bad for her, until she adopts an innocent look and turn the tables. She states that she caught Mintra on numerous occasions trying to get close to the Prince. Her efforts to keep the Prince for Haruetai earned the anger of Mintra, who is trying to slander her.

Hareutai shows up and gives Bulan an alibi for her whereabouts. And puts suspicion on Mintra for seducing Prince Makey. Good guys 1, Crazy biatch 0.

In Thailand, Mattana is happily carrying fruits to share, but has to pull Kamin back from the pool. He nearly falls in while slowly blinking  his eyes as if to clear them. Matt leads him to a nearby gazebo, where Kamin comments on the good-looking oranges. Looking?? He backpedals and says they smell pretty. She prepares a few and feeds him, while doing a bit of flirting. We can see his eyesight is improving but still fuzzy.

Their conversation takes a more serious turn when he wonders how Raya is going. There’s only news that the Queen is taking over more duties due to the King’s illness. Kamin wistfully wishes he was back home, and Mattana takes the opening to chide him for taking responsibility of Hareutai’s baby. Does he really love Haruetai?

No answer. He decides to head back inside but the moment he turns around, Mattana throws her arms around his waist and backhugs. She just wants him to stay in Thailand, with her. In a low voice, Kamin asks a fearful question. What if he never regains his sight? But Mattana is steadfast. If that happens, she will stay by his side and protect him forever. He twists around and they tightly hug. Mom and Dad watch the two of them from a window.

It’s mealtime at the Rayan palace, and Haruetai has set up a good supper. Poor baby Makey needs an additional person to wash and dry his hands before eating. He is happy with the flowers and fragrances, as Haruetai explains the significance. He frowns a little at her dig at foreign imports of perfumes, but eventually asks her to accompany him until he falls asleep that night.

He suddenly realizes how that sounded to this woman he previously assaulted, and promises she can trust him to never do that sort of thing again. She hesitantly agrees, and they share the dinner.

Mattana is tucking Kamin in for the night as they exchange goofy smiles. She pretends to leave his bedroom, but sneaks back to keep watch on him. He retaliates by “blindly” strippng off his shirt, complaining about the room temperature. He mumbles that Rayans sleep in the nude. She freaks out and bolts before he pulls off his pants. But we still get to enjoy the fanservice! And his smile.

The next morning Hayman stops by with a Rayan update. We get told that Saitarn Village was indeed burned to the ground, but the villagers had already hidden themselves. The only casualty was our beloved Ajarn. They are still waiting on news of the king’s health.

The two men discuss Kamin. Dad says the young man is still blind, and Mattana is happy that he is there. Dad plans to meet with some of his friends in the Thai military to see if anything could be done.

Of course, Kamin is nearby, eavesdropping and hearing every word.

The Rayan queen is staring at her sleeping husband and remembering her brother’s demand to finally kill him. Can she do it? Based on her little girl whiny feelings, it’s certainly possible.

At this moment, Haruetai arrives with his breakfast soup. The queen wonders out loud if the young woman had ever done anything she regrets. She replies that yes she had, and the best way to not feel guilty is to not do the bad things.

The queens dashes a tear away and heads out of the room to pick up the new “medicine”. Haruetai has just a few precious minutes to administer the antidote, and swiftly wakes him up to drink it.

 

Oh look, a visit to our sad mercenary group. Dad is trying to jog Akanee’s faulty memory, but the poor boy just keeps shaking his head. All he wants is his lovely Mali, to the point of violence.

Meanwhile, Mali herself is using violence to leave and find him. They reach each other and hug, although she threatens to punch him afterwards for taking liberties.

Haruetai is heading back to the palace and receives a paper airplane message that supposedly is from Sinthorn, asking her to meet him at the farm shack tonight. Is it him, or an evil impostor? She shows it to Bulan, who recommends that she doesn’t go there.

A female figure makes her way to the farm shack, where Mintra is waiting. It was a trap! However, they sprung it on the wrong woman. It’s Bulan under the head covering.

Bulan dives right into a verbal fight. How dare Mintra bite the hand that feeds her, and show disloyalty in this manner? Mintra barks back and accuses Mintra of spying for the traitors, and the proof is her showing up tonight.

Bulan sneers that if the good general knows that Mintra has it out for his daughter, things would not go well with the younger upstart. She grandly walks away, until Mintra grabs a handy tree branch and smashes it down onto Bulan’s head. Straddling the older woman, she grins maniacally as she slowly chokes Bulan. Yes, she’s crazy. But she’s already slept with the prince, and is looking forward to being Queen. Her face gets uglier as Bulan gasps for air. Nothing will stop her from ruling Raya! Choking isn’t fast enough, so she grabs the piece of wood and smashes Bulan over again while laughing. Oh yeah, she nuts. And a murderer.

Haruetai wakes up in her bedroom, wondering how she slept through the secret meeting. It turns out Bulan secretly drugged her, as she suspected it was a trap from the beginning. By the time she is downstairs, her mother is griping at her. Bulan has disappeared, and there’s nobody at their house that can stir the servants to make breakfast for everyone.

Hareutai runs to the barn, just in time to see Bulan’s lifeless body carried out. Dad says there will be a thorough investigation, but you know the general is just happy she’s gone. He asks he daughter about it, since she is the last person known to have seen Bulan alive.  Hareutai tells a small lie. but it helps protect herself from scrutiny.

Mattana has some technicians discussing how a downstairs bedroom can be converted into a room suitable for a blind man. Her mother stops by, concerned over the bustle. When Mattana explains her action, Mom wonders out loud whether Kamin is willing to stay at their house. But Mattana is perfectly willing to chain him down, if it will protect him, as long as he can’t see.

A potential argument between mother and daughter is averted when Kamin shows up with his walking stick. Mattana immediately leads him back to the center of the house for some dessert.

They are walking through the foyer when Kamin stops and makes a request. A short time later, Mattana is at the piano singing the Rayan lullaby while Kamin looks at her. Yep, looks.  I’m surprised she didn’t notice his focus.  Oh wait! she does.

But he smoothly backpedals. He remembers her beautiful face from when he could see and he’s picturing her in his mind at the piano. She is satisfied with the answer. Oh, Kamin, why won’t you tell her?

She promises to play the piano everyday, forever.  He gently chides her that one knows what the future holds. She’s confident that humans can steer their own fortunes, and decides she won’t sing anymore. But Kamin kisses her hand and asks for forgiveness. She gives in and heads back to the ivory keys.

Later she tucks him into be and silently whispers “I love you.” Which, he can see, even if she makes no sound. Once she leaves his bedroom, he sits up and whispers out loud. “I love you, too. But this life is completely pledged to Raya already.” He immediately starts exercising. With a shirt on, darn it, but at least it’s a singlet so we get shoulders if not abs.

There’s exercising in Raya as well, but it’s poor King Inthra. Hasreutai is working on his arms and legs to save his flexibility and what little muscle tone is left.

Mattana is leading Kamin through the rear garden when she gets a phone call. She asks Kamin to stay for a moment while she talks to Hayman. He takes the opportunity to use the pergola and trees like an physical agility obstacle course.

In the king’s bedroom, our heroine manages to get the monarch to stand, albeit shakily, on his two legs. The antidote is working, and the king is getting stronger.

The queen is stone-faced in her chambers, remembering a conversation she had with her brother.  General Witoon pushes her to deliver the fatal poison to the king and get it over with. He offers to find someone else to do it, if she’s too spineless to do it.  She snaps hack that a king should never die at the hands of a commoner, and promises to find the right time to terminate his reign.  Time is running out for our monarch.

A short time later, the mercenary speaks in a stilted and strange royal vernacular, requesting an audience with the queen. She tells him to just speak normally. He offers her a gift. The black gem rings all over his fingers flash when he makes his obeisance. He happily admits to Savitri that General Witoon sold the precious Raya-only gemstones to him. He impulsively decides to give them to her.  Can you imagine her thoughts, getting her own country’s precious commodities, at the hands of a grubby little merc? Yeah, Queenie, your actions caused this.

The mercenary now shows up at the general’s office. General Wittoon is angry that he told the queen where he got the gemstones from, and brusquely exits his office.  The merc leader is puzzled, but there’s more pressing news. His precious, idiot son still hasn’t regained his memory. And he still hasn’t killed Kamin.

In the queen’s chambers, Savitri wants some answers from her brother regarding the jewelry. He admits knowing about the illegal mining, but says it’s for the good of the country. After all, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and the money brought in helps fuel the crossover.

Mattana is looking for Kamin, but he’s not in his room. She opens the door to the study, to find him reading the newspaper and Google Fu-ing news about Raya.  Un-oh, Kamin, she knows you have been lying to her.  She shuts the door, but he realizes someone was there. He hurries back to his room to find her waiting.  He pretends to bump around the room, but she uses a bowl of water against his reaction speed. Busted!

She starts smacking him around. How dare he lie to her! She runs, he chases, and finally catches up with her in the garden. He quietly tells her, no matter what, he has to return to Raya. He was afraid she would try to force him to stay.

Mattana snorts. What kind of bone-headed answer is that? She didn’t want him to return blind and helpless, because she worries about him. But she knows him well enough that he loves his country more than his own life, and would choose Raya over her everyday. Plus, she played a part in the country’s chaos as well, so of course she was willing to help Raya any way she could.

That was also his fear, because he was worried for her, that she might join the fighting, too. And didn’t want her to take risks. She harrumphs and turns to leave, but he backhugs her to a standstill.

He begs her to not act childishly. She retorts that if he is just a childish burden in his life, he should just abandon her and go his own way. She shrugs off his arms and walks away.

At the Prattana Temple in Raya, Hareutai prays for Bulan’s spirit.  When she is done, she spots a shadowy figure. It’s Sinthorn! Why did he chance a daytime meeting? He wanted to warn Hareutai that she is now a target for assassination; the death of Bulan clearly shows that someone is aware she is working for rebel forces.

She tells him that the king has recovered a lot of his movement. Sinthorn promises to get the information back to base and start the process to wrest the country back.

It’s now the dead of night in Thailand, and Kamin is sneaking out of the house.  Clearly he’s not good at it, because Mattana pulls up in an SUV and offers him a ride to the border. He orders her back, she smiles and tells him to stop his arrogance. With her contacts, she can get a wanted man like him back into his country.

Queen Savitri is pacing in her quarters. She finally comes to a halt, her decision made. As she leaves her chambers, she meets up with Mintra in the hallway. The crazywoman offers to feed the king, but the queen will feed him with the soup she cooked.

Mintra heads to the general’s office, and snoops through everything, even the trash. She finds a suspicious envelope in the dustbin. It’s a clear bag of powder! Looks like the queen is still on the Bright Side of the Force.  But Mintra now knows she’s a traitor.

In the king’s bedroom, he is standing and trying to work on his own strengthening. Unfortunately, he falls.  The prince walks by, but he is able to climb back in and pretend to sleep. Makey tucks his blankets, and apologizes for his mother’s behavior. But he still upset that Dad loves Kamin more than him, and offered him the throne.  Now, without Kamin, and whether he wants it, the throne is his. He will reign in despair, marked with all the wrong and suffering that has gone on.  He runs out, tears in his eyes, before his father can react to his son’s words.

King Inthra tries to stand again, intent on reaching his son, but just then Haruetai slips in. Then a doctor figure slips in; it’s no doctor, though, it’s Sinthorn! The king wants to convene the council and take back his throne, but Sinthorn stops him. General Witoon has control of the Council and the Military. The king’s life is in danger, and they need to skedaddle out of the castle and escape to safety. There they will wait for Kamin.

The Queen! She has the tray in her hands and starts climbing the stairs to her husband’s room. A sound makes her back down and hide.  It’s the trio carefully descending.  The queen stops them. The king can walk! Haruetai provided the antidote! They are escaping! The queen is shocked! Treason!

After a split second, Queen Savitri slumps down and offers her life for all the bad stuff she’s done. But Kind Inthra knows that his first love was a festering wound in her heart, ad he kneels to apologize for all his wrongdoings,.

Mintra has lost no time in tracking down the general and gleefully throwing the queen under the bus as a traitor. She pledges loyalty to Witoon and promises more juicy information.  Once she leaves, though, Witoon knows he will trust no woman.

At the base of the stairs, Savitri admits her hatred of her husband. But she can’t kill him because she loves him too. They forgive each other. Yay!  But the clock is ticking, folks, and they gotta do something.

Kamin and Mattana arrive at a small airport near the border. There’s a plane fueled and ready.  The only problem for Kamin, the scheduled and licensed pilot is…. Mattana!

FINAL COMMENT

Finally, we get some real moment in the overall story.  The beach frolicking was nice, but we have a country to rescue, people!

The queens finally realizes her mistake, after bringing the country almost to the brink of annihilation. I took an idiot mercenary leader and a bunch of ugly rings tp show her that her brother did not actually have her nation’s best interests in mind. Hopefully, she can help stop his shenanigans, and allow cooler hearts to prevail.

I cheered when Mattana acknowledged Kamin’s dedication to saving Raya.  You can’t be a warrior’s woman and not understand a warrior’s heart. Still, after seeing him blown up and thinking he’s dead, she’s entitled to a few stolen, sweet moments.  It’s going to be tough to convince him that it’s in his best interests to let her fly him into Raya. Surely he won’t do anything to her, right? Right?

Three more episodes to go! You would be crazy not to catch them!  LOL

Advertisement