Major spoilers in the review

Initially, I had planned a massive recap and review of all thirteen (13) episodes of the Thai BL drama, 2gether The Series (“2gether”) after the show’s final broadcast which, going by the current schedule, will be in two weeks.

But as luck would have it, I felt strongly enough about episode 11 of 2gether to put my thoughts down in writing.

Episode 11 begins with our leads, Sarawat and Tine attending their music club’s volunteer tree-planting trip, where Sarawat is faced with constant appearances and interruptions engineered by Mil, his love rival who, for some reason only known to the scriptwriters, keeps turning up like a bad penny to hit on Tine.

For his part, Tine who has begun to recognize the depth of his feelings for Sarawat is troubled by several mishaps, including the loss of the bracelet gifted to him by Sarawat at the start of their relationship. These incidents cause Tine to fear the possible early end of their budding relationship.

Tine’s attempt to search for the missing bracelet, in the dead of the night, causes misunderstandings when Sarawat, who mistakenly believes that Tine is missing, goes on a panicked night search and rescue mission. Eventually, Sarawat discovers Tine who, in the course of his night escapade, managed to sprain his ankle and was rendered temporarily immobile.

With the resolution of this mishap, Sarawat and Tine gain a quiet moment to themselves in somewhat of a romantic setting where Sarawat is finally able to confess to Tine his true feelings as well as debut the much-vaunted love song he wrote for Tine after their first encounter in middle school.

As a bonus, viewers also get to see the true lovesick face of the always cool and calm Sarawat when he was reunited with his crush Tine and his hidden reactions over the entire courtship period. Additionally, there is also the added treat of a reciprocal love confession from Tine, the execution of which, to me, is the highlight of this episode.   

For me, 2gether started on a high. You can read my initial thoughts on the series here.

It provided the shot of saccharine young love that I had sorely missed and for a while, up to about episode 8 or 9, where the leads were still in the throes of the thrilling push and pull that characterizes young college relationships, I was thoroughly engaged in the story.

However, following the confession of love and the commencement of Tine and Sarawat’s established relationship I begun to find that there is such a thing as too much sugar in a rom-com.

The total absence of believable conflict in 2gether has caused the abundant sweet domestic moments to be less rewarding and more mundane.

Episode 11 offers plenty of screenshot worthy “ooh” and “aah” moments and other than the occasional irritation resulting from Mil’s unwanted appearances the episode offers nothing more.

And this is the source of my frustration.

For about two and a half episodes now, which is significant time in a thirteen-episode drama we have seen a lot of domestic bliss and very little progress in terms of story line.

The love confession, which is the huge reveal in Episode 11 despite being sweet, did not quite pack the punch it should have because at this point did anyone really doubt Sarawat’s feelings? The same could also be said about Tine’s confession. That too was also stating the obvious.

Additionally, the build up to the conflict in this episode i.e. the buzzing of Mil around our couple and the “mishaps” that kept occurring, in my personal opinion, seemed rather contrived and lackluster and actually served to dampen the chemistry between the leads.

Further, and I think most importantly, for me episode 11 crystallized what had been bothering me about the episodes following the confirmation of our lead couple’s relationship.

In my view, there has been an ongoing erasure of Tine’s initial characterization and I barely recognized this indecisive version of Tine who appeared in Episode 11.

Up until he confirmed his relationship with Sarawat, Tine was the slightly corny, yet adorable Mr. chic. A stupidly brave, decisive, cute and plucky character that gave as good as he got.

In this Episode, Tine could only be described as passive and indecisive, being pulled this way and that by Mil and Sarawat and as a result was a lot less interesting as a character.

In general Episode 11 failed to create the excitement that one should normally feel as we approach the climax of the show. Perhaps it is best that the series is coming to an end because should this uninspired script-writing persist it may ruin a good thing.

High-point: Sarawat’s confession scene and backstory.

Low-point: Mil. Mil. Mil.

Source: [1]

Did you watch Episode 11? How did you feel about it?

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