#charn jet

I like how they have slowly introduced Charn’s talents.  He obviously has the gift of premonition, but they let us see it twice in trivial circumstances in episode 7.  It is good storytelling to lay the groundwork for him having more important premonitions like at the end of episode 8.  Both Jet and Charn were reborn into people with these kind of gifts to help Khem survive (also, obviously, the master). I just love how the friendships are as important as the romantic partner here.  

Ok, so on to the relationship stuff. Same minor spoiler for the book that I talked about last week (how Jet and Charn get together):

The shots of Jin and Jet replacing each other as the promise is made in the library and of Da and Jin crying and holding hands flashing to the current moment and Charn and Jet holding hands…it’s all just so very good. 

Charn is the very grounded, down to earth, logical character.  He can seem like a Debbie downer, but he is really just trying to keep up with all the new things he is learning and focus on the most important thing, keeping Khem alive. He also has one of my favorite traits, he is truly intellectually curious.  Charn is thrown into this world that doesn’t follow any of the rules he knows.  Many (maybe most) would be fearful or defensive, and/or straight up reject any new information, but he accepts it and tries to learn as best he can.  As a scientist, I love people that are genuinely curious about the world and are open to new things when experiences prove their previous assumptions wrong.  Those people are a joy to work with. 

I also like that they make it clear that Charn is naturally good at meditation, while Jet is likely not.  It makes sense for their characters.

We see Charn struggle with the realization of their past connection and I’ve seen some say that he is rejecting it.  But I don’t think that is exactly what is happening.  I think there are two things going on.

First, as I mentioned, his whole world view has significantly changed in a very short period of time.  He is taking in a lot of info at once, and every day he learns something new and big.  He just learned about Khem’s curse and past life.  Now he finds out he is tied Khem’s story in a very personal way he never imagined. That is a lot to take in, and being a logical sort of person, he wants to think through it all and what it means. (Though he may not have time to…)

Second, he is now trying to figure out how he feels and what feelings he considers valid.  This is an interesting thing to think about in regards to reincarnation stories.  How much of your current feelings are due to your life/experiences in the present vs those of the past.  Or does it not matter?  If you loved someone in your past life, are those feelings valid in this life?  Or do only feelings generated in the here and now matter?  Charn clearly felt drawn to Jet and Khem in a way that didn’t have a logical reason.  Now he has that reason but isn’t sure what he thinks about these feelings that came from experiences he doesn’t fully remember.  It is also super interesting to me that he is the only one of the 3 (maybe 4? who knows if Peem realizes this or not) that now knows that all 4 of them are tied together in this way.

When I read Khemjira (like a year ago?), I really liked the idea of Charn and Jet being a couple because I felt like they really balanced each other out so perfectly.  But most of the book went by and nothing really happened.  Then we get to the end and they, at the same time, have a long flashback to their previous lives that info dumps everything about Khem and them being a couple.  Included in that flashback is that they don’t get a happy ending but a tragic one where they don’t get to stay together. 

So when Charn and Jet proceed to be a couple (after Jet gives Charn the run-around for years!) their relationship seems to come more from the feelings of their past lives rather than the current one. (Honestly, the resolution of their relationship is the one part of the book I don’t like)

The series is pulling both romances from the bonus chapters into the main story which has been great.  But it also has been doing something else.  The romances, especially Charn and Jet’s, are less dependent on the feelings of the previous lives and have more of a foundation in the current lives. The initial pull towards each other comes from their previous connection and that is important, and there definitely is some spill over of feelings.  But I do think the series has given us real moments where we can see the characters gravitate towards each other due to actions in this life, particularly with Charn and Jet.

On Jet’s side, he has seen Charn step into a fight he wasn’t involved in and take a punch to protect Jet.  He’s seen him step up and be willing to help, even use gifts he doesn’t understand to help Khem and ultimately commits to staying and helping Khem in the long term, even if it puts his life at risk (which is a big deal for Jet).  Or when Charn returned to shield Jet in ep. 7. And we have seen that there has been physical attraction from the beginning (pulling down his shirt, when Charn was wet, ect. ). 

On Charn’s side, there are not as many defined moments, but I think there still are some and the dance scene in Ep. 7 is the most important one.  Charn is a thinker, he’s plodding, and so he has a hard time letting go, living in and enjoying the moment.  In the dance scene, Jet helps him have fun and just be joyful.  In general, I think Charn is charmed by Jet (example - see the laundry scene when Charn walks up on Khem and Jet dancing) and his ability to fully express himself without worrying about others. Plus, I think Charn is impressed with how ride or die Jet is for Khem (I would be anyway).

Jet is the opposite of Charn in that he doesn’t think things through, he trusts his gut and emotions more and lives in the moment.  He doesn’t tend to think of the long term consequences.  Although I was surprised by how far they went in ep 7, thinking about it, it makes sense that Jet would just go with what he was feeling in the moment.  On Charn’s side, I think the dance scene did confirm for him that some of the feelings are from this life, it’s not all from the past, and he was willing to follow Jet’s lead. 

(Side note, the love scene was so, so good in my opinion.  I absolutely adore it when there is laughter in love scenes because in the best cases it should be a fun and joyful experience even in all its awkwardness.  So the glasses part of it just made it for me. And the messy hair because sex is a bit messy). 

Charn needs someone to help him live in the moment and Jet needs someone who will keep him grounded and thinking about the future (at least sometimes), which is why I think they fit so perfectly.  And why I thought it sucked in the book that Jet keeps Charn hanging for sooo long. It felt very unsatisfactory. It looks like in the next episode they are doing a flip of the previous life where Da was the reticent one while Jin wanted to open (with the people they trusted anyway).  In this life it looks like Jet with be the reticent one while Charn will want to be more open.  But I am hopeful that it won’t last too long, especially if they see all of their past lives in the next episode.

We see in the preview that something happens to Charn (and Jet actually).  I won’t go into the details about what happened other than to say that in the novel, this is where Charn and Jet see their past lives in full.  In the series, they have shown us pieces of this, but we have yet to see how Jin and Da’s story resolves.  I think this was on purpose because they are saving it for this moment.  So I think in ep 11 we will get

Flash back to Jin and Da (probably the last one of the series)

We see what happened to them

We get a Jin and Da kiss.  (I think they have been holding this back for the most dramatic moment which would be here.  I would note that they defiantly could do more than a kiss and it would fit the plot, though maybe not the tone of episode 11. Either way, I don’t think we should get our hopes up for more).

I think doing it this way maximizes the drama of the story and the screenwriters/director have been very intentional and skillful in how they have been using flashbacks throughout the series.