#tw ghost

So let's begin.

Unlike Singha, who's far too busy studying Thup (who I'll definitely call Incense along this post bc I think it's funny, beware [that's the literal translation of his nickname, btw, bro's name's fucking incense]) and does not yet believe in The Horrors™ that he's seeing, we, as the audience, who are completely focused on the way that black t-shirt sits on Pavel's titties extremely series supernatural investigation going on here, Murdered: Soul Suspect style, can notice some strange stuff that should've definitely caught his attention as well.

PS: Aspects of the murders are mentioned by the order in which we discover them during the episode.

1 - Seven [7]

Now, I'd like to preface this with the disclaimer that I've never killed anyone in my entire life. Biggest creature I've ever killed was a fish and not a very big one, at that.

So I have no personal experience with murder but 1 thing I can imagine is that killing a person is not that easy.

They run, they scream, they fight back... It's a whole thing.

"But, Dante (that's my name, hi), they were drugged!!", I hear you saying, "They couldn't fight back!!"

And sure, that is true (and I'll come back to that later, dw), but that's still 7 fucking people. That's huge. You don't exactly kill 7 people unless you intend to kill 1) as many people as possible; 2) 7 fucking people.

So we can assume 7 was deliberate.

The question is "why?"

Well, my history teacher, Goddess Bless Him in Death, used to say the most important numbers in the world are only 3.

3 - of the Holy Trinity, the 3 Bodies of Buddha, of the Separation of Powers; of Democracy (minimal number to reach a consensus), the 3 Poisons, Jesus' Resurrection after 3 Days...

5 - 5 Senses; 5 Pillars of Islam; 5 Stages of Grief; Pentagrams (a 5 pointed star, drawn using 5 lines and with a pentagon its centre), 5 Nights at Freddy's...

And, you guessed it, 7 - 7 Sacraments; 7 World Wonders, 7 Continents; the Sabbath (the 7th day of the week); 7 Colours of the Rainbow; the Diatonic Scale (7 notes); 7 Seas; the fact 7 itself is often considered an important number, in some cultures bringing luck and in others bad luck...

Of course, this does not mean these are set in stone rules for everything and things do very much need to analysed within their context but it is still curious that 7 was chosen as the number of deaths.

I mean... One thing that comes to mind, as someone who grew up Catholic, are the 7 Deadly Sins (which do differ depending on who we decide to site on this but I'm gonna go with the most popular list):

Gluttony

Lust

Greed

Sloth

Wrath

Envy

Pride

Which could imply murder as punishment: 1 person for each sin OR murder as a way to express a self-loathing - bc the killer cannot kill themself to free themself of their own crimes they're taking it out on others.

Inversely, it could be related to the 7 Heavenly Virtues, which are an even bigger can of worms when it comes to listing them so I'm just gonna name them as they appear in my Catechism book:

Temperance

Chastity

Charity

Diligence

Patience

Kindness

Humility

Which could possibly come in handy in the same sense of 1 person per virtue but then maybe to extract some sort of power out of them, idk.

Nevertheless, these are the thoughts of a Southern European. Thailand, as we all know is not very Catholic (good for them).

So what's an important 7 for them?

Well, idk much about Buddhism (though I am learning) but 1 that I find interesting here are the 7 Factors of Awakening (simply speaking the state of enlightenment and freedom that is the goal of those who practice Buddhism teachings):

Mindfulness (of reality and the teachings)

Investigation (of the nature of reality)

Energy/Effort

Rapture/Happiness

Tranquility (body and mind)

Concentration/Focus

Equanimity

Which, again, with the same logic of power, could be the reason behind the murders: 1 sacrifice per factor in order to "achieve" it.

This would also tie in nicely with the obviously Buddhist symbology shown throughout the ep, with Thup praying and the statue of a Yaksha, nature spirits (did we all notice the ginormous fucking tree???) which according to what I know of Thai beliefs, are understood as guardians, specifically used in Buddhist temples, inside Sing's house.

But, oh well... If it doesn't mean anything else (which it very well might) then, at the very least, it's a very obviously suspicious number of people and draws attention to the fact these murders were decidedly calculated.

2 - Hanging

As @heavensgateiowa pointed out in this post (which was what drew my attention to this), there's a lot of imagery regarding necks and collars and, for this reason and the whole trouble the killer must've gone to pick 7 people killed in different times and bring them all to an abandoned mall to hang them on a tree, I'm fairly sure the hanging has to mean something.

Could be a sign of punishment, as traditionally lots of executions were done via hanging. Public hanging, no less. Or, in a somehwat similar line, a warning sign or a display of power the killer is trying to show.

Could be a part of a ritual as well.

They could be playing real life hangman and all of them suck ass and lost the damn game...

Or could be entirely something else.

Idk. We'll see. I don't have much to say here.

3 - Stiching

Or stitch the bodies of 7 fucking people so deliberately for no fucking reason.

So, as Jack the Ripper would probably say: let's take this apart.

Mouth

It might be the most obvious conclusion to take here: these people knew/learned something and whoever ended their lives is trying very hard to keep whatever that knowledge is a fucking mystery.

This works on multiple levels, I believe.

1st and foremost it adds to the personal satisfaction of the killer. Sewing the victims' mouths shut is the last nail in the "speak now, bitch" of whoever did it.

2ndly it works as a signal. Whoever else, if anyone else (living, I mean), knows the information that is being kept secret, it sends a very clear message to them: Keep your fucking mouth shut.

And lastly, and perhaps most interestingly: it prevents their ghosts from speaking.

See: in the scene where our brother Incense is tripping balls inside Sing's office, the ghost that approaches him looks just like the victims: eyes sewn, mouth sewn.

That we all know.

What might've escaped us is that, unlike the Hanger Squad Captain, Mr. Beltman, this ghost doesn't try to dominate Thup or harm him. She simply comes slowly close and gently puts her hand on his shoulder.

AND, this is where it gets good, she tries to speak. We visibly see her lips move and we can even hear some faint whispers and odd wet flesh sounds.

Except, of course, they're sewn shut.

Nevertheless, that doesn't erase what I think it's her intention: she's trying to help Thup in some capacity. She's trying to tell him something about what happened.

Whether that's the potential secret, the responsible for her death, the reason behind all of this or a Secret Fourth Thing™, idk, but I think what us and Incense will have to learn along this series is to let go of our preconceived notions that ghosts are evil by default. Some of them are trying to help.

Eyes

The eyes are trickier, I think.

Of course it could work like the 1st reason I gave for the mouth if we assume the hypothetical secret is something the victims saw.

Still, I always like to take it one step further. Therefore my thought was: what if the victims are all supernatural seers? What if everyone that was killed was like Thup? What if the ghosts are trying to warn him he's in danger??

Of course, this would beg the question "why?" Why kill seers? What did they do? Or what didn't they do? Or what did they see or hear through ghosts that cannot be known??

It's probably a stretch, I admit, but it's at least worth considering, even if I don't have a reason right now as to why this might be the case.

Red

And lastly on this: the thread. Thick, red thread.

Is it red for blood? Or danger? Is it symbolism for the red string of fate? Were they always gonna die like this? Was this destined to happen? Is it a sick and twisted move of the killer telling their victims they cannot escape their deaths?

We don't know... But it's peculiar, at the very least.

4 - Drugging

Quite possibly the least exciting aspect of this case but not bc it isn't interesting, simply bc there are more interesting things (there's fucking ghosts involved, guys, come on). Nevertheless, still relevant.

I have no experience drugging people (except for rotating blunts, there I am absolutely guilty) but I'm pretty confident when I say it's probably easier to drug someone you know. Or, at least, someone who has any reason to trust you, regardless if that's because you're close or you're an authority figure to that person.

This thought, I think, should at least plant in our minds the seed of doubt on whether or not the killer knows the victims or has any easy way to get to them. Think maybe someone with a job where they handle consumables like a cook or a bartender. Or someone that's well known within a community like a mailman or a taxi driver. Or someone who's an authority to people like a cop or a monk.

Or, perhaps, this is just a strategy adopted out of convenience and, mayhaps experience. Which leads us to:

5 - Repetition

We haven't seen the scene yet so it's harder to speculate but the preview of episode 2 does mention similar events happening from time to time (in time spans of 5 years it seems, with one occurence 5 years ago in Sisaket, where our beloved Incense is from).

This could possibly indicate a serial killer with a particular and possibly personal timing or maybe even a cult with a specific form of worship or sacrifice that is ciclical and that, pun fully intended, circles back to so many characters pointing towards occultism and rituals.

Conclusion

So what do we know? Frankly: jackshit. It could be anything atp, we're too early on to set anything in stone yet, I believe. But it's still interesting to look at the clues and try to make some educated guesses about where this could be going.

Feel free to add stuff I missed and that could be interesting to figure this out or call me out if I got anything wrong or you wanna add better context to the Buddhist and Thai cultural stuff or if you just wanna comment on anything I've said, I'd love to hear y'all's opinions on this!