CUBIC (A SnarkCap) -- Episode 2
Shuk: This episode really establishes the dynamics between our couple: He thinks she can't do something, she proves him wrong and says something snarky, he rethinks her abilities, then underestimates her again. All accompanied by SA, MoS, TS, DM, and all our Cubicisms.
Trotwood: I just love how she talks to him the way no one else does, and he can't stop thinking about her because of it.
Kmuse: Who knew a necktie would be the catalyst between a genius high school student and her CEO mafia principal?
Trotwood: I just love how she talks to him the way no one else does, and he can't stop thinking about her because of it.
Kmuse: Who knew a necktie would be the catalyst between a genius high school student and her CEO mafia principal?
Episode 2: Does She Really Have a Gift?
We open with another scene of Nan and Loser Dad running from LLS’s men. This becomes a pattern. Nothing changes. Nan is sitting around. Loser dad has look of consternation and then fear when he realizes they have been spotted. They make a run for it—borrowing cars, sneaking out of bedroom windows, etc. I will just call them “On the Run Scenes” or OtRS for short.
Selfish Dad gets a poor motorist killed and kicks the body out of the car. I am starting to like the mafia crew and gun runners a lot more than this guy.
Nan makes so much noise, constantly shouting "Dad", I came to the conclusion that the BlackSuits were all deaf. And let's add felony Grand Theft Auto and 2nd Degree Murder to the fray.
Nan makes so much noise, constantly shouting "Dad", I came to the conclusion that the BlackSuits were all deaf. And let's add felony Grand Theft Auto and 2nd Degree Murder to the fray.
We see Nark in a delivery jumpsuit riding her bike through the city (where does she get this bike—from the company?). These shots alternate with Men on Stairs (MOS) shots of LLS, Jongsing, and men coming down. Where do these stairs lead? They do not seem to match the building that houses Chaibong group, but maybe that is just me. Also, she looks around when she arrives as if she’s never been there before. (Her hat just says "Freight")
Of course they meet at bottom of stairs surprising everyone. Open hostility between LLS and Nark because he feels the need to remind her that she has to make a payment every Sunday. Even Jongsing asks him why what she says bothers him when she’s just a crazy girl. LLS says if she weren’t connected to Nan, he’d cut off her fingers. Anger management issues? We have quite a bit of Stare Acting (SA) between Nark and LLS.
I'm confused since I can't tell if LLS's stare is confused upon meeting Nark at his building. I feel that the screen should flash emoji's behind LLS's back to indicate what his various stares are meant to represent.
I think we are expected to know based on the nuances of a flared nostril or something. Her delivery bike had the smallest wheel diameter of any bicycle I've seen outside a circus. Maybe she gets a better vehicle if the delivery service likes her job?
Of course they meet at bottom of stairs surprising everyone. Open hostility between LLS and Nark because he feels the need to remind her that she has to make a payment every Sunday. Even Jongsing asks him why what she says bothers him when she’s just a crazy girl. LLS says if she weren’t connected to Nan, he’d cut off her fingers. Anger management issues? We have quite a bit of Stare Acting (SA) between Nark and LLS.
I'm confused since I can't tell if LLS's stare is confused upon meeting Nark at his building. I feel that the screen should flash emoji's behind LLS's back to indicate what his various stares are meant to represent.
I think we are expected to know based on the nuances of a flared nostril or something. Her delivery bike had the smallest wheel diameter of any bicycle I've seen outside a circus. Maybe she gets a better vehicle if the delivery service likes her job?
Nark is serious about her job/paying off her debt, and she is busily hanging up maps all over her container apartment when Jongsing arrives with her school uniform (what else does this guy do? I bet his job description just says “everything”).When he sees the maps, he thinks she is planning her escape, but she explains that she needs to memorize all of these maps to make sure she doesn’t get lost and so she can do more deliveries faster.
Yes, because she is the Thai version of Michael Scofield from Prison Break (insert eye roll). For someone who is constantly working, she seems to have a lot of free time to do stuff like paper her walls with maps.
He seems impressed, but before he softens, he just tells her to make sure she is on time, to stay out of LLS’s way, and that he’ll see her tomorrow. He will see her tomorrow because LLS goes to her school every day. Why, you ask? Because he owns the school and is the principal. Really and truly. And Jongsing says this as if this were the most obvious thing in the world because that is what the heads of mafia conglomerates do in their spare time—become principals of high schools.
This is the point when I knew the scriptwriter was mainlining PCP.
Even now I can't think of the principal plot arc and not giggle manically.
Yes, because she is the Thai version of Michael Scofield from Prison Break (insert eye roll). For someone who is constantly working, she seems to have a lot of free time to do stuff like paper her walls with maps.
He seems impressed, but before he softens, he just tells her to make sure she is on time, to stay out of LLS’s way, and that he’ll see her tomorrow. He will see her tomorrow because LLS goes to her school every day. Why, you ask? Because he owns the school and is the principal. Really and truly. And Jongsing says this as if this were the most obvious thing in the world because that is what the heads of mafia conglomerates do in their spare time—become principals of high schools.
This is the point when I knew the scriptwriter was mainlining PCP.
Even now I can't think of the principal plot arc and not giggle manically.
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| This is how many of us are reacting right about now. |
Because there aren’t enough characters yet, we are now introduced to Danny who is riding in the backseat of a car with Carlos. He’s Carlos’s son, and Carlos is talking to him about what he thinks of the new plan. We don’t find out about the plan, but it really isn’t important (seriously it’s not). Danny is concerned because he knows about Patrick, the policeman who has been tracking and trying to catch Carlos. His phone rings, and it’s Jongsing trying to go through him to get to his dad. At first, Carlos is still not interested, but seems intrigued when Danny tells him that Jongsing mentioned making a lot of money. How do we know? More Stare Acting (SA) while nodding and sorta smirking.
I might have spent a little bit of time wondering if this was the same guy that got her the job delivering packages. Then realized that he wasn't, but just looked kind of similar. Don't worry. I did all this wondering while they did another round of staring.
I guess that Thai / HK mafia gangs cannot function without putting juveniles in the cross-hairs. It seems to me Tilapia should not be impressed with an interested party contacting him through his son. As a sidenote, Tilapia's hair has that 1970's flip thing going on. I don't like it.
I might have spent a little bit of time wondering if this was the same guy that got her the job delivering packages. Then realized that he wasn't, but just looked kind of similar. Don't worry. I did all this wondering while they did another round of staring.
I guess that Thai / HK mafia gangs cannot function without putting juveniles in the cross-hairs. It seems to me Tilapia should not be impressed with an interested party contacting him through his son. As a sidenote, Tilapia's hair has that 1970's flip thing going on. I don't like it.
It worked for Marlo Thomas in That Girl. Do you think she was secretly selling weapons? Is that how she afforded that great apartment?
We need to introduce yet another character, so we are off to San Gui’s house and have to watch him in his terrible fake streaky grey hair job and impossible high backed white sofa being given tea by his sycophant godson. I can’t believe he buys what his godson, Lan Yong Wen, is selling because it’s completely abnormal how much LYW keeps saying how he isn’t worthy of everything San Gui gives him.
She is probably San Gui's flocking cordi.
The next day finds our heroine is getting ready for school with plenty of time, but then realizes she has to wear a tie, and she has no idea how to tie it. This makes her start running late, but in the nick of time she remembers what Jongsing told her. LLS goes to school every day. She bursts out of her container room (I can’t call it an apartment anymore because I don’t see a bathroom in it) running through the streets flailing her arms yelling for LLS to wait for her. No. really. She does this. (what was the director thinking?)
Very awkward running. I wonder how many times poor MintC had to film that. And for the record, I can't tie a tie, either.Regarding the tie situation. Doesn't anyone in this show have a cell phone? Google is your friend people. Especially when you have to do things like tieing a tie...or flocking a mustache.
We get cuts of this while we have another MoS scene, this time on an escalator, as LLS gets an update about the Nan situation from Jongsing. He reminds him to remind the men, again, that they must find her. By the time they get off those stairs and out of the building, Nark is there being held off by one of the henchmen. She’s all "great you remember me" (because he was on the kidnapping squad) and begs for a ride. Everyone is incredulous at her audacity. LLS refuses and then says she can get a ride but only in the trunk. No one thinks she will do it, but she is more relieved than anything and just gets in the trunk. LLS shakes his head. Jongsing gets in car smiling.
The disclaimer underneath the scenes of Nark getting in / out of the trunk reads "This Is Only A Show". As for screaming fangirls, I have never seen that in real life at any educational institution I belonged at. Does this really happen in Asian countries?
HAHAHA The fangirling (bursts into more famous mafia principal related laughter.)
When LLS arrives at school, it’s clearly he’s a superstar. The girls line up like he’s the newest member of EXO, taking pics and screaming. Of course, our disheveled I-just-ran-through-town-and-rode-to-school-in-the-trunk-of-a-luxury-sedan Nark does not have these feels. She ends up still having to walk into class late. Guess who’s in her class? Of course, it’s Danny. He harasses her about her tie and wants to know if she’s LLS’s mistress since she got out of his car this morning. I was wondering whether anyone was going to comment about that—but no one thinks it odd that she was in the trunk. The two of them get in trouble for talking and have to stand in front of the class. Later, Danny offers to buy her lunch to apologize for getting her into trouble, and of course she says yes (it is free food and all). Danny does what he becomes known for, dancing while he talks to her. Yes, he literally breaks into boyband dancing at the drop of a hat. She looks at him weirdly, but he’s offering to pay for lunch, so why not.
HAHAHA The fangirling (bursts into more famous mafia principal related laughter.)
When LLS arrives at school, it’s clearly he’s a superstar. The girls line up like he’s the newest member of EXO, taking pics and screaming. Of course, our disheveled I-just-ran-through-town-and-rode-to-school-in-the-trunk-of-a-luxury-sedan Nark does not have these feels. She ends up still having to walk into class late. Guess who’s in her class? Of course, it’s Danny. He harasses her about her tie and wants to know if she’s LLS’s mistress since she got out of his car this morning. I was wondering whether anyone was going to comment about that—but no one thinks it odd that she was in the trunk. The two of them get in trouble for talking and have to stand in front of the class. Later, Danny offers to buy her lunch to apologize for getting her into trouble, and of course she says yes (it is free food and all). Danny does what he becomes known for, dancing while he talks to her. Yes, he literally breaks into boyband dancing at the drop of a hat. She looks at him weirdly, but he’s offering to pay for lunch, so why not.
It is at this point that Danny lost all his cool points. Introducing yourself via dance is not cool unless you are a character in a musical.
I was laughing at the discontinuity. The camera pans to show that there were about 4 students between the two of them. How did they end up side-by-side for the conversations that got them into trouble? The Amazing Time-Space Chair?
I was laughing at the discontinuity. The camera pans to show that there were about 4 students between the two of them. How did they end up side-by-side for the conversations that got them into trouble? The Amazing Time-Space Chair?
They clearly bond because by the time they are watching some other kids playing soccer later, they have a whole fan dance/chant thing worked out. Nark admits to Danny over lunch that she owes LLS money. He’s surprised that LLS hasn’t killed her because he knows that LLS is mafia disguised as a legit businessman and principal (I laugh every time I hear that. Every time). She, too easily, gets out of him that his dad is a crime lord, too.
The best secrets-that- aren't-secrets.While they’re having lunch together LLS shows up. Nark, thinking he’s there to harass her unloads some snark, but he tells her he’s not here to talk to her but to talk to Danny. He has an invitation for his father to an event. What is notable about this scene is that Danny and Nark appear to be the only people at the school not completely enamored by LLS. He walks through school with his bodyguards—to keep his fans back. Seriously, it’s the truth.
I will ask again. How can grown mafioso use children as communication between other mafioso? Might as well have one kid text the other and save paper.
Danny gives his dad the invitation but doesn’t want him to go. Danny really can’t stand LLS for some reason. Their conversation is interrupted by a phone call from a client about an arms deal that Carlos guarantees. Danny wants him to cancel the deal because he knows that Patrick is close and has set up checkpoints everywhere. However, Carlos says he has to complete this deal because it’s fairly small and if he doesn’t he’ll lose his reputation. We actually get to see Patrick at a random checkpoint. They haven’t found anything, which gives him a chance to do some SA and vow to catch Carlos.
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| He really looks like MCP in this scene. |
Lin Puey In shows up at LLS’s office merely to taunt him about Carlos, saying that he would’ve gotten the arms dealer’s business by now, so LLS should just hand over the leadership to him. LLS basically treats him like a mosquito and brushes him aside, twisting his arm painfully when LPI grabs him. (Hong Kong Puey needs to tone down the stripes a bit) Jongsing comes in afterwards with good news: Carlos has agreed to meet. However, this doesn’t seem to make LLS happy. (I thought he maybe had a happy eyeblink?) He immediately is concerned about who they can get to negotiate with him, and Jongsing has a surprising recommendation: Nark. Of course, LLS thinks he is crazy, but Jongsing has been doing research on her and her background (as LLS asked) and has found out that her father has sent her to negotiate for him in the past, and she has been surprisingly successful. LLS still has serious doubts, but if there is one thing he believes in is Jongsing, so he agrees to let Jongsing handle it. Another great Vest Sighting (VS), but I don't understand these ties. It's like they are stuck on.
So Nark's father is another man who believes in child labor. [smh]
LLS’s long suffering henchmen are sent to Nark’s classroom to go get her. She does the whole “where are you taking me” thing, and they carry her down the hall while she screams bloody murder. It’s funny how embarrassed they are. (For her? Or because they are in this Lakorn?) (Both) They take her to LLS’s building for her to hear the proposal. She thinks they are crazy, too. She even thinks that Jongsing should do it, but they know about her deals for her father. She claims that was luck, but Jongsing seems to know better. LLS offers her a million in Hong Kong dollars, and she also asks for a residence card so she can work more there. They agree, but LLS adds that if she doesn’t get this deal, she dies, which already at this point I don’t believe. He hasn’t killed anyone yet. He’s the unkillingest mafia guy I’ve seen.
Where was Nark when idiot Dad decided to borrow all this money and gamble his daughter away? Just because he allowed her to be part of his business dealings is not a selling point in my opinion.
Lazy, greedy murderer, that's her dad.
Lazy, greedy murderer, that's her dad.
Anyway, she agrees and asks for just one more thing. He can barely keep from rolling his eyes but agrees to listen through gritted teeth. If she gets the deal, he has to literally give her two thumbs up and tell her she’s awesome. I’m cracking up. This will be great to see. Both he and Jongsing think she has lost her mind, but she just wants him to have to say something nice to her since he insults her all the time, which I think is fair.
Does he really insult her, though? He voices his opinion that she's way too young to be shouldering her father's debt. And that she has a mouth on her. Both of which are true.
She’s got five hours to study all the stuff, which she starts, but she also starts getting tired. When Jongsing shows up to check on her, she has fallen asleep, which infuriates him. However, she argues that what he has given her isn’t enough. She wants personal information about Carlos—what he likes, who his enemies are, etc. Jongsing says what she is asking for has nothing to do with their deal, but she insists that they need to do it her way if they expect her to negotiate with Carlos.
Does he really insult her, though? He voices his opinion that she's way too young to be shouldering her father's debt. And that she has a mouth on her. Both of which are true.
I agree with Nark. When you are negotiating at a disadvantage, knowledge of your opponent is vital. Maybe she can find him some hairdressing ideas too.
Jongsing and the henchmen drive her over to meet LLS, so they can all go into the event together. LLS is anxiously waiting on, you guessed it, STAIRS for some convenient MoS shots, and he does look handsome in his tux, so much so that Nark comments on it. He’s just annoyed because they need to be on their way and berates her about her tie (since she still hasn’t figured out how to tie it properly). She spends much of the time in elevator trying to tie it. She sneaks peaks at LLS’s tie, but he’s wearing a bow tie, so she looks at our fav henchmen, trying to emulate their ties. They see her peaking, but no one says anything. LLS finally gets so annoyed that he tells her to hold still and watch. He’ll only teach her once. Then we proceed to watch him tie her tie to their theme song (TS)—the entire song –while there is a lot of SA by all. Henchmen are amused. Jongsing is interested, but they quickly wipe the smiles off their faces when LLS turns back around.
When they enter into the area—girlfriend is there and so are San Gui and Lan Yong Wen who are all amazed that LLS would bring this girl—and she looks especially young amongst all the fancy dress still in her school uniform (they couldn’t have bought her an outfit even a business suit?). Carlos is amused and then annoyed. She tries to convince him by telling her story and then small talk. He likes her and thinks she is smart and will probably be better than him someday but not now. It isn’t until she mentions Patrick and how she thinks she can help get the weapons past the checkpoints that he looks intrigued. She needs the discount on her debt and her ID papers. She says because of this, they are both like dogs needing help.
The ep ends with LLS losing his patience waiting and watching without being able to hear what is going on; he and Jongsing go in to interrupt.
Favorite Line of Episode:
“He has to check every day. He is the owner of the school. He is also the principal.” Jongsing about Lin Lan Ser"Hey, don't yell at me about this stupid necktie. Do you know, it's the cause of societal problems?" - Nark yelling at LLS when he tells her to fix her necktie.
Comments
We are starting to dig into what little plot there is, get ready for the long haul. I still don't understand how adults can treat those below the age of consent in such a shameful manner. But, then, maybe I'm dwelling way too deeply into the storyline.
I'm thinking that maybe the reason why she starts dressing like a 19th-century street waif is because that was pre-child labor laws.
The moment they brought out Lin Lan Ser the principal, they lost all credibility. I refuse to delve to deeply into the plot and I am now in it for all the intense stares.