Who do YOU think is the murderer?

 tierzab:

I am not 100% on Oat being a guilty party, but I did pick up on the subtle fact that he probably likes Bun.  Having read the book, the changes made to the online series is still some serious guess work.  For Pued's death, you do not need to have medical knowledge on where and how to inject a syringe. Generally speaking, when you are attacked from behind it is usually on the right side since a good majority of people are right handed. It is unusual to stab  someone in the shoulder with a syringe, so that tells me the person has no or very little first hand medical experience.  It usually goes in the neck since the carotid artery is a direct line to the heart and will kill someone quicker. Just my take on it.

While the shoulder thing is true, it should also be noted that they made a point that Jane and Natty were also injected with a syringe via the exact same spot on the shoulder as Pued. So for them to make a point of that, it likely isn’t a coincidence and there might be something / an explanation as to why that spot on the shoulder is always the “target” of the syringe.

I do still think that, for them to add Oat into the series and he is not in the book, likely indicates they have bigger plans for the character - besides him so far being just in the background and usually a bit of comedy relief. The guy they cast is also fairly known in the BL world, and he has been heavily utilized in promoting the show, despite being barely used in any significant way for the story arcs as of Episode 9. This seems like them setting him up to have being more important to the story as we approach the climax - possibly a “surprise twist.”

I will place my updated thoughts on this as of Episode 10 only from a series perspective without injecting the novel perspective because this latest episode really showed they’ve deviated enough from the novel (while keeping the basic story and trajectories intact) that I honestly don’t know where they’ll take it next episode.

Aem: I still don’t think he’s on the bad side here,  although the ending of Episode 10  tries to paint him as being in cahoots with Commander Tung (i.e. red herring). The scene cut after Aem (in civilian clothes) meets Tann on the road and then the cut to Bunn running after Tann tells Bunn he has to kill him to save Thad  - these make me believe there was some offscreen alliances formed among the three. We also don’t actually get to see “onscreen” where Bunn or Tann are shot on their bodies, just mainly from the angles of the shooters, so the shootings are definitely staged.

Por: while (as a mafia boss) he’s “bad”, I don’t think he killed Jane. I also think the scene cut where we don’t get to what he and Tann talked about will play an important part. I think Por has a hand in what Tann has done afterwards, perhaps even helping him out in order to flush out who really killed Pued.

So my money remains to be on (first suspect massive novel spoiler!) Rungthiva and Dr. Oat.

The former is the killer in the novel, but even without that knowledge, I see the show has given a lot of signs and clues  pointing in that direction, which to be fair is more than I can say for the novel which barely gave any foreshadowing or clues. So novel knowledge aside, as of Episode 10, the former is a prime suspect based just on how the show has laid it all out.

Dr. Oat - again, as I noted prior, someone who wasn’t in the novel that they added for the series, someone who they’ve utilized massively on promotions and PR for the show but who has so far been relegated to the background on the story itself, even less screentime or significant than Nam who isn’t even on the main credits. I feel he’ll have a more significant role to play in the last couple of episodes. Of course, I could still be wrong and they just hired MD (who plays Dr. Oat) for the added BL clout and marketing.

Also, I can’t repeat this enough LOL but I really love how well they’ve kept the novel’s base premise and story trajectory intact while changing enough to better fit a series/show format (i.e. changing the pace and structure) and to also keep even readers guessing what they plan to do next.

In the novel, Jane was killed by (massive spoilers, do not look if you really don‘t want to know) two people, Rungthiva and Pued, and the motivations were mentioned almost as an afterthought with little development, almost out of the blue (housing development corruption + Jane suspecting Pued was cheating on her with Rungthiva).

In the series, my prediction is they will retain the two killers angle, but it would only be one from the novel. Hence my guess as above noted above is Rungthiva + Oat. Oat is the perfect guy for his knowledge of drugs, medicine, etc. plus access to hospital records of Pued, etc. And so far I still can’t see show-Pued be the killer like he was in the novel (although novel-Pued did claim it was an accident). 

What I still haven‘t fully figured out is the motivation and ”what really happened that night.” They’ve done a good job of changing things up because clearly the main reason/motivation from the book would not apply here (except of course the idea the general idea of Rungthiva’s involvement in corruption, which they changed from an out of the blue  “housing development corruption” to a well-developed “prostitution ring corruption” storyline).

So I’m really excited to know “who” and “why” in the series. The show runners knew what they were doing on how to engage readers of the novel and make it still an entirely new experience.

Tan said that *Phong* and Por were his only remaining family members and that the first had betrayed them both (or something like that). Did I miss something when watching the episodes?

The statement of “remaining family members” referred to Pued and Por, not Phong and Por.

When Tann said he couldn’t kill the “two of them“ because they were his only remaining two family members, he meant he could never kill Pued and Por.

If he meant to include Phong as a family member, he would have said “you three are my only remaining family” because Pued is also his brother.

Here are exact subtitles (assuming the translation is accurate, though I hear him say “song” in the sentence around family members, “song” being Thai for two).

—-

Tann: I really didn’t kill Pued!

Por: I won’t believe you!

Tann: Why would I kill Pued? If I wanted to kill someone in revenge,  please remember, Brother, it would be you.

Por: Then why didn’t you kill me?

Tann: I would have killed you long ago if I could, Brother! But no matter how much I want to kill you,  I can‘t do it. Even though Phong betrayed me, I couldn’t really kill him, Brother. (Pause) Besides, you two are my family members. The only two family members left in my life. I’d never do that,

—-

It is understandably a confusing sequence of sentences, but that pause makes all the difference.

He means that he couldn’t kill Phong even when he was betrayed as a reference to the ”if I wanted to kill someone in revenge” line (i.e. he couldn’t bring himself to be a killer even if he had been betrayed and wanted revenge). He’s talking about his over-all / general lack of capacity/stomach to kill people (which is aligned to his personality in the novel).

Then he pauses and ”switches gears” to say “you two are my only remaining family.” His train of thought has switched back to Por accusing him of killing Pued.

If he meant Phong to refer to Phong as another family member, like I noted, Tann would have said “you three are my remaining family.” But he said “two,“ and since it’s been established Por and Pued are his brothers, then those are the only two he’s referring to.

In the book, Tann only had two (half) brothers as far as I remember, Por and Pued (transliterated as Paul and Pert in the English version of the novel).

So far, it looks the same way in the series unless they changed it - but I highly doubt that because throwing in another as-yet unseen character so late in the series doesn’t seem likely.

That said, it’s possible that this Phong could be that masked guy with the chains who has come back and allied himself with the congressman, but even if it were Phong, it’s unlikely he is yet another brother in the family.

At this point, my guess is masked guy is either one of the policemen or Dr. Oat.

"If he meant to include Phong as a family member, he would have said “you three are my only remaining family” because Pued is also his brother."

But Pued is dead, and Tan is speaking in the present...... The only "two" alive at the present moment are Por and this Phong person, who thus may be a family member.... So perhaps Tan is speaking about Por and Phong....

On the other hand, Por says that That brought Phong to them (and so he should be punished), so that might seem to exclude Phong being a family member....

There is a contradiction, nevertheless, between Tan speaking in the present and the fact that Pued is dead, i.e. in the past. So who are the "only two family members left in (his) life" (i.e. in the present) now that Pued is no longer there (i.e. in the past)?

Well, I mean, obviously Tan and Bun are not dead. I mean, if they were, that would defeat the whole point of this series for us BL fans who adore MaxTul. Pretty dead obvious, ain't it.....!!

This is obviously a planned deception in front of Commander Tung, who is suddenly there after the supposed deaths of Bun and Tan, in order to ensure that they died.......

[...] this third policeman who is clearly in cahoots with the Commander... 

I think we finally found our masked shooter. I'm also like 99% sure it's the same guy in the denim jacket that caught Tan and brought him to the house to meet the commander. He stopped Tat and Nam from leaving, just as the masked guy did when Nam tried to escape last time. It makes sense that it would be someone from the police force, and it was indeed very suspicious how he and the chief looked at each other when the women got caught.

As for Jane's sister, she really blew her cover this time, with how she reacted when inspector M came to get the girls from her hotel. She also tried to casually say she knew Tan killed Pued when the inspector came by the first time, even though she was the one who helped bail him out of jail.

I'm really glad that Inspector M finally got to working with Tan and Bun, rather than against them. I have been waiting for this for so long. Just glad to see he's no longer putting up with the corruption in the force. The moment he stepped out of the car, I knew he was gonna help them stage the whole thing.

Honestly, episode 10 really narrowed down the list of suspects. I still have no idea as to why the killer did what they did, but it's getting close now.