Mandate and its 8 Episode Titles
!!!! HUGE SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW AHEAD !!!!
I was watching this cast and crew Reaction of Mandate EP 7 with Director Prin Kiratirattanalak, producers Moo Polpat and Jong Pongnarin and actors Ben Bunyapol and Akk Akarat. One of many fun facts Director Prin shared is that they hoped the audience had fun/seen through their intentions with each episode titles because they were carefully selected from dialogues of each episodes very intentionally to represent best the theme of their respective eps.
And then I realised when fixing the subs, I had completely forgotten to add the translated titles to each opening intros, so here's a post to compile the translated titles as well as the dialogues they were from in each respective episodes.
Episode 1: หิมะตกที่ภูเฉลิม (hì-má dtòk têe poo chà-lěum); translation: Snow falls at Phu Chalerm
This title is taken from what Nong said when seeing his Dad, head canvasser of Nititham Party, having drinks and being all chummy with the son of the leader of Wiwat Siam Party, Nititham's rival.
Thailand is also a tropical country that never snows so this was a pretty snarky and sarcastic remark from Nong at how incredulous and unbelievable it is to see two rival parties being all close and friendly like that. It's a phrase that captures the impossibility of an event which I personally find it foreshadowing well how Nong was so adamant on hating politics and saying that he'll never be a politician at the beginning of the episode, and then saying he's decided to run for MP at the end of the episode, hence depicting a very "snow falling in Phu Chalerm" kind of moment
Episode 2: ผมโครตเกลียดเกมแบบนี้เลย (pǒm kôht glìat gem bàep née loei); translation: I really hate this kind of game.
This title is taken from what Nong said to Vee during their meal together, after he was grilled by Vee's dad at the Party's meeting.
Episode 3: กระแส หรือ กระสุน (grà-săe rǔe grà-sǔn); translation: Trend or Ammunition
This title is a wordplay between the words กระแส (grà-săe) which means trends, wave or public sentiment /opinions and กระสุน (grà-sǔn) which means bullet or ammunition.
The title comes from Ni's line when she said "We've got no ammunition/bullet (re: something to hit or attack the other party) and the trend doesn't come (re: public sentiment isn't on their side)."
Episode 4: การเมือง มันก็เรื่องบันเทิงอย่างนึง (gaan meuang man gôr rêuang ban-teung yàang neung); translation: Politics is also a kind of entertainment.
The title is a direct quote from Vee who consoles Nong after their koojin stint has gone viral but Nong still feels bad about bringing his comatosed his sister on stage to win public's opinion, fearing that his act is no less different than of politicians who treat politics as some kind of entertainment for show.
Episode 5: อย่ามองโลกในแง่ดีนักสิ (yàa mong lôk nai ngâe dee nák sì); literal translation: Don't look at the world so optimistically.
The title is another direct quote from Vee. Vee said this in response to Jump's comment about how Ms Trirat is attacking Pheu Kwam Wang Party so they don't need to be so tense watching the debate. But as expected, Trirat's insistence on talking about the corruption case of Phasakorn father was also an indirect attack on Wiwat Siam Party's close ties and ambiguity on whether they'd form the government with Pheu Kwam Wang.
I'm not sure if it was intentional (probably is) that it's specifically Vee who said this to Jump (but also there's a lot of dialogues between them in the first few eps) but I think it'd be fascinating if we can draw this line as somewhat foreshadowing of how Vee proposed using Jump as scapegoat in Nong's drug scandal.
Episode 6: ไม่ต้องเป็นนักการเมืองตลอดเวลาก็ได้ (mâi dtông pen nák gaan meuang dtà-lòt wee-laa gôr dâi); translation: You don't have to be a politician all the time.
This one I'm actually not quite sure and I might be wrong (so cmiiw) because the title wasn't that close to any of the dialogues in the episode. The closest I could recall would be something in the vein of how Jump reacted when Ni told Vee to stroke Nong's ego or say something in a persuasive manner to bring him back.
But this title actually reminds me more of the long confrontation between Nong and his junior Nat who believes Nong has changed. After a year into his Minister position, Nong is no longer the same Doc that we see in campaign elections arc, he's gradually been worn down by the dirty world of politics, making deals he hate, slowly becoming the kind of person he hated most (as titled in EP 2).
Episode 7: หมอทำอะไรไม่ได้แล้ว (mŏr tam à-rai mâi dâi láew); translation: Doc(tor), can't do anything anymore.
THIS. THIS SPECIFIC TITLE IS THE REASON FOR THIS POST. In the reaction for EP 7, Director Prin spoke about how this line was chosen as the title because of the double meaning it had.
According to Director Prin, 'หมอทำอะไรไม่ได้แล้ว' is a line that is usually said by a doctor to the family members whenever there's nothing left that they could do (to help/for the patient). But in this case, the line was used by Vee's dad to tell the Doctor that he can't do anything more. This was just such an excellent use of a dialogue that I didn't pick up in my watches but I only knew it after the director had explained it to us in the reaction for EP 7.
Episode 8: ไม่ไว้วางใจ (mâi wái waang jai); translation: No Confidence
'ไม่ไว้วางใจ' can be literally translated as mistrust, distrust or no confidence. In the show, it is often most used in the context of the no-confidence debate or no-confidence parliamentary vote, which was the main event of the finale episode.
I also enjoyed the double meaning it had on the theme of the episode which is the mutual mistrust/distrust between our two main characters Nong and Vee, even after they had gotten together. And the way that physically manifested into Vee's literal no-confidence vote in Nong on the day of the parliamentary vote. absolute peak tv writing this year for me.
There were a lot of interesting discussions that they had in the Reaction Video for EP 7 (they have bad engsubs but still understandable 🫶), so I highly recommend my small village of Mandate watchers on here to take some time if anyone still enjoy dissecting the show like myself. There's quite a lot of discussion on how much Nong has changed as a character from EP 1 to EP 7 and acknowledgement on how politics can change a person, how "bad" Nong is at this point in the story, how he used his sister, his friends... And Akk being like "See Phasakorn isn't the worst guy in this series 😏"
