DRAMAAAAAAAA

Li Puo's card was issued in 2002, which is a bit of artistic licence taken by the creators to imply that it enabled him to gain admission to university in 2005, shortly after the peak of the same government's "War on Drugs" that saw thousands of extrajudicial killings.

This access to education is being shown as a path for marginalized persons to pursue betterment of their lives, but Li Puo's was cut short in the bloody incident that led to his downfall.

Perhaps coincidentally, another GMMTV series airing at the same time also touched upon this, with Kongdech in Ticket to Heaven.

@nocturnalsoph already wrote on Kongdech's likely background in this post. The region where the Archdiocese of Thare and Nonseng is based in real life was also home to the Martyrs of Songkhon, seven Catholics who were summarily executed by local police in 1940 during the Franco-Thai war, when the state's distrust of foreign (French) influence was channelled through religious persecution, among other venues.

The state's distrust of the local populace continued into the 70s as the Communist insurgency spread in the area, leading several communities to be cut off from support of the Thai state and denied citizenship, an issue that persisted until 2005, when mounting concerns prompted the enactment of the aforementioned policy, and still hasn't been entirely addressed.

at the risk of sounding completely insane i have to address the prominence of the virgin mary in this episode. because she is quite literally everywhere, especially towards the end. these screenshots aren't even all of it. there are at least 4 separate shots exclusively focusing on statues or icons of her. she's hidden in the background of at least half a dozen more. she's shown visually in between barth and tanrak multiple times, or behind them, or over their shoulder. and most importantly of all, the entire episode kind of centres around tanrak's rosary beads - the rosary being a series of prayers offered to mary for her intercession, primarily made up of 'hail mary's. she, quite literally, is everywhere.

at first i didn't get it. but they kept showing her, and there had to be a reason. and then i thought back to the way tanrak clung to his rosary and prayed when he and barth were almost caught together, and that made all the seemingly random appearances of the virgin mary make so much sense to me. because it made me think of our lady of montevergine.

our lady of montevergine itself is an icon of the virgin mary in montevergine, italy. but i'm not talking about the icon, but rather the legend that is associated with her: in 1250, two men were going on a pilgrimage to visit the shrine where our lady of montevergine was kept. however, locals saw these two young men holding hands and kissing and attacked them, stripping them bare and tying them to a tree deep in the forest. in their desperation and on the verge of freezing to death, the two men prayed to mary to save them - and, seeing their love and devotion, she did. cut them loose, and sent a ray of sunlight to melt the snow that surrounded them. kept them from harm as they made their way back to the village, where they told everyone of mary's miracle.

of course, it's not the same situation as what tanrak is going through. but is it really that different? i imagine the way tanrak felt in that moment - hearing the father's footstep's approaching, knowing he was going to get caught and that it was going to be bad - wasn't too dissimilar to the way those men felt back in 1250. maybe the stakes weren't quite so high, but that doesn't mean the fear wasn't. it doesn't make the danger any less real.

all i could think about watching this episode after making that connection was tanrak - desperate and panicked and scared and in love - reaching out for mother mary's help, just like those men almost a thousand years ago. and mother mary reaching back. mother mary watching over them, standing behind, in between. keeping watch. turning father arnon away. keeping them safe. cutting their bonds. casting the light on the things that need to be seen. guiding their path - past, present and future. even reaching out for barth, who doesn't believe. over and over and over, she's there. in the background and in the foreground, on her own and standing right by their side. deliberately and unequivocally the centre of this episode.

# A MOOD 😭

I don't think... I can ever let you go. Then it can't be helped, I'll just have to make you happy.

I’ll finally be able to apply for an international airline. So Lion and I can fly at the same level. Woo!