CUBIC (A Snarkcap) -- Episode 7

Trot:  I don’t think the new strategy worked, although I did remember quite a bit without having to watch completely the second time. There was SO much stare acting (SA) and very long sequences of no dialogue where we listened to people’s theme songs (TS) in multiple variations, including a music box version.
Shuk: Now that the two of them are aware of each other. And are aware that the other is aware, does this mean any cute time? Yunno, without him getting arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Or that moral event horizon of sweet moments with your student.
Kmuse: Is it wrong to wish that we had a two year time jump during one of their epic starefests? I really wish she was at least 18 so I could get aboard this ship.

Even Jongsing has figured it out.

Fake Title: He’s a Goner

We open this episode where we left off. Jongsing is going through Mei Jin’s apartment looking for anything or anyone dangerous. She seems to be completely amused by his earnestness and blithely asks him to unzip her. Jongsing looks like he is about to have a brain aneurysm. She just smirks and laughingly asks him if he thinks she is pretty. Poor, Jongsing. He’s got all sorts of stuff going on in his head of which I don’t think she has any idea. To her, he’s just LLS’s stiff (so many places Jo would go with this comment) and boring right hand man, but I think Jongsing is full of passion and is just restraining because his friendship with LLS means more to him than Mei Jin.
What is sad is that if Jongsing told LLS about his feelings, I bet LLS would gladly hand her over. But Jongsing doesn't treat women like cattle which is why he is the best character of the show.

He gulps out that he had better leave and practically runs out of there. Mei Jin laughs after he is gone saying she was just testing his loyalty to LLS. Jongsing tells himself that he needs to keep his distance from her.
Silly MJ. Her happiness is right before her if she would only look beyond the man who doesn't love her.

Her laser eye is blinking "Take me now".

The next scene we get is of Chin Fu in his room in what seems to be an abandoned apartment building. His phone rings, and clearly it is from someone he doesn’t want to talk to. Cut to Young Wen on the phone. Yup. I was right. I know you are a murdering hitman, Chin Fu, but stay away from the crazy if you can! We proceed to get a full FOUR minutes of SA from the two of them—Chin Fu looking desperate, and the Yong Wen getting increasingly angry that CF is not picking up.
Young Wen needs to realize that even hired thugs need their personal shirtless bed staring moments. You know, to contemplate the important questions in life. Like where did my life go so wrong? Why can't I wear my fancy hat to bed without destroying its newsie brim? And why does my evil boss wear sweater vests that make him look like a total tool?

 

This only ends with Yong Wen calling someone else, and ordering this person to find Chin Fu and kill him, and Bai Ling overhearing this interchange. Chin Fu gets away partly because he’s a good fighter and partly because Yong Wen’s men were probably the worst players of hide-and-go-seek as kids on the planet.

Bai Ling pretends that she hears nothing and walks up to him asking to whom he is talking, but Yong Wen just says that he was making reservations for them for dinner to apologize for yelling at her the other day. She doesn’t look like she believes him, and we get more SA while they hug. Both of them seemingly suspicious of the other. Well that marriage went to hell rather quickly, didn’t it?

Was she really unaware of her Uncle and Husband's thuggish ways? I call foul on this plot point. She would have either been on board with the mafia lifestyle or headed out on her own way before she married a wannabe super villain.
If evil Yong Wen has Uncle Flock, who ought to know better, fooled . . .

We move back to the hospital with Jongsing and LLS discussing the search for the attempted assassin. Jongsing assures LLS that the assailant will be found, but LLS is concerned that they will only find a body because the person who ordered the hit will want the guy dead. Nark comes in for her shift, and Jongsing asks her to describe the attacker and if she’d be able to recognize him if she saw him again. She excitedly says of course but is disappointed when he admits that they haven’t found him yet.

 

Jongsing leaves now that Nark is there, and she has to remind LLS that she is here to work. He gives a document to her to work on but it’s all in Chinese, so he has to explain it to her. He gets her to come closer to him, so he can explain, and she starts quickly picking up on his explanations.
I approve of this less layered and softer staring LLS. Now, this is a man an underage girl can start to fall for.

His TS starts playing because we don’t really need to hear what he is saying to her; what we need is nearly three minutes of watching him talk to her and stare at her as she stands by his side studying the document he is explaining. We even get him fake coughing after she catches him staring at her while she’s working on document alone, and she has to bring him juice. Are we really to assume she has learned enough Mandarin in a few minutes to review those documents? I’m shaking my head at him the way he’s always shaking his head at her. His TS keeps playing as we transition to . . .

How I feel about Nark's family.

Another needless on the run scene (OTRS) with Nan as we watch her sit, with a perfect manicure and perfect pedicure—how does she get these on the run from the mob?—while she flashbacks to seeing LLS and wondering who he is and if she will ever see him again. This goes on for a full two minutes with LLS’s TS. Sigh.
I know they will eventually circle back to Nark, but honestly, is it too much to ask that they both drown in the Han River during a freakish situation involving a tuk-tuk full of mangoes and a drunk elephant?

There are no words to accurately describe the level of boredom I have whenever these two come on screen.  

We go back to captive Meena who is pacing her room like an animal in a cage trying to figure out how she can get away when Puey In shows up. He comes in all flirtatious, but she is having none of it. She throws her water bottle at him and her newspapers, but he just laughs and clearly thinks she is just adorably flirting with him. He does not get that she’s really afraid of him, does he? He goes in for the attack and starts trying to kiss her while she tries to fight him off.
HKP might be a better player if he didn't try to blind his prey with those shirts.
Or if he asked them out on a date before kidnapping them from their family and locking them up like Rapunzel.Someone needs to go over Dating 101 with him.
He probably got dating advice from the same place LLS got his flirting advice.

Do you know how she gets him to stop? I can barely stop rolling my eyes long enough to type this: by talking about her body odor. Really, these mafia guys are so grossed out by regular bodily functions! Nan gets away by talking about pooping in her pants, and Meena stops her rape by saying that she hasn’t bathed since morning, and she should shower first. She even raises up her arms and dares him to smell her armpits. I can’t make this stuff up! Puey In immediately backs away from the armpit and allows her to go to the bathroom to bathe.

He's such a helpless goof I can't help but feel for him a lot of the time. He's clueless about Chaihong Group, women, and just about everything else.
 

Meena is now in the bathroom desperately trying to figure out a plan while Puey In starts to nap on her bed. Eventually, she calls out to him with wet hair in a seductive voice. She tricks him into thinking that she wants him to bathe with her and once he’s in the bathroom, she throws a towel over his head and proceeds to beat him with the plunger. Yup, you got that right. She beats him with a plunger and runs off. 
The idea that this guy is a fearsome gun-toting mafioso just makes me giggle every time. Also, I was amazed at how well her towel stood up to all that activity.
I know I should be cheering that Puey In is unable to carry out his dastardly deed...but man does this guy need a win. Maybe if he can get his act together they can marry and Meena can change his horrible taste in clothes. Stranger things have happened on this show.

She manages to get pretty far away but is nabbed again. I can’t believe that no one hears how loud she is screaming, but she gets taken back. And poor Puey In’s minions get yelled out for letting her escape and threatened if they let her escape again. But Puey In, you got beat up by a girl with a purple plunger! I guess they don’t know that. I feel bad for his minions. They don’t even get to do any Stares on Stairs in this gig.

We move to LLS in the hospital hosting Yong Wen and Bai Ling, who is feeding him soup. Yong Wen wants to know if LLS has any ideas about who might be trying to have him killed (of course you want to know, crazy traitor), but LLS is silent. Yong Wen thinks it’s Puey In, but LLS says that it could just as easily be San Gui to which Bai Ling swears that her uncle would never do such a thing as does Yong Wen. 

Is that a nostril flare of distrust I see? Oh wait. Maybe LLS just has an itch on the end of his nose and doesn't want to scratch it in public.

When they leave, she says to Yong Wen that he shouldn’t keep saying things about Puey In without evidence, but he reminds her of Puey In’s behavior before, and she says nothing. They pass Nark on her way in to see LLS, and Yong Wen looks at her suspiciously which wipes Nark’s friendly greeting from her face.

 

We next go to LLS’s hospital room and watch LLS pretend to read while Nark is furiously working on a project. She goes through the whole ripping out paper and balling it up and crazily tapping on the keys of her calculator to show us how busy and concentrated she is. Finally, she gets the results she wants and cheers out loud. LLS asks her what she is so excited about. She’s figured out a way to save him a LOT of money on his electricity bill by having his workers readjust when and how they turn on the air conditioners. She offers to sell him her idea to pay off some of her debt.
This is actually a very valid way to save money. I listened to a podcast on John D. Rockefeller. He switched his oil cans and used one less drop of solder per can which saved him hundreds of thousands of dollars in his day. That would equate to millions in today's economy. In a more modern analogy... if you had one less Starbucks coffee each week you would be a lot more well off financially. The money is in the tiny details.
Luckily, I only have Chai Tea Lattes at Starbucks. [completely missing the point]

He clearly finds her amusing and doesn’t even bother pretending to read so can watch her as she goes back to working on something else. When she notices that he’s watching her, she nervously asks why. He says that he just remembered that he wanted to tell her that she had to translate some new documents by tomorrow. She is dismayed for tomorrow is the New Year, so she has a lot of deliveries for her other job. He insists that she has to see her tomorrow. She asks if she can give him the work in two days instead, but he says no. He’s being discharged, so she needs to show up with the documents by 7. Sounds like a date to me, folks.

At least it is a work-related date and not one thought up using anything school related. I know I am sounding like a broken record but it is still icky. Is it too late to have Nark switch schools for some reason? Maybe there is a school specifically for future brides of mafioso? Or maybe one for wannabe newsie interns? I would literally take any excuse at face value at this point.
 
She goes back to calculating how early she will need to get up to finish her deliveries by 7 (3 AM), so she says she is going to get going so she can start on translations tonight. (clearly, she isn't thinking this appointment is a date) He gets up and reaches out to touch her face. She flinches and closes her eyes, thinking he is going to hit her. Instead, he just tries to rub off the ink marks she has on her face (but we all know it’s just an excuse to touch her). He reminds her again that she needs to show up tomorrow night. She laughs at his seriousness, teasing him by saying he acts like he won’t sleep if he doesn’t see her. Ding Ding Ding! We have a winning answer. To which he agrees, but instead of thinking what we are all thinking, she just thinks he is joking and that he just wants her to work more.
His flirtation skills need a loooooooooooooooooooot of work.

She leaves annoyed and sees Jongsing on her way out. She angrily tells him about her new task. He is noncommittal but clearly interested in this turn of events. His interest continues because when he shows up in the hospital room, LLS is SA out the window listening to music with a smile on his face. The music we hear is actually a music box version of his TS. Jongsing smiles seeing him smiling and comments, when LLS turns around, that the mafia kingpin seems to be so relaxed lately. LLS gets back in bed and says that it must be because he has been able to rest and not work so much. Jongsing takes this to mean that they should make sure they get him time to rest more even after LLS gets out of the hospital.

Aw... Helicopter Mom Jongsing gives me so many happy feels.
It's always nice to see JS smile. And amusing to see LLS "Deer In the Headlights" look.
 

He proceeds to give LLS an update on the search for Nan, but LLS isn’t even paying attention.  Jongsing finally asks him if he is still interested in Nan, but LLS merely says to keep looking; he isn’t worried because they have the younger sister captive. This just gives Jongsing an opportunity to talk about Nark, which gets LLS’s attention. Jongsing thinks that they should let Nark go since she saved LLS’s life and his life is worth far more than the money her father owes. Of course, this dissipates the good mood LLS was in. Jongsing argues that Nark is a good girl and should be rewarded, but LLS just says he’ll think about it. When Jongsing leaves, LLS says to himself that he can’t let her go, and Jongsing wonders to himself if LLS has fallen for that girl.
I think he literally forgot that she is technically his juvenile detainee with a heavy lien above her head and probably no thoughts of staying near him once that debt is paid. For a fairly smart guy, he can be fairly dumb.

I have a feeling that LLS is planning on giving her the reward of himself........after she is of a legal and consenting age of course.
Of course.

The next scene alternates between Nark hurrying from one place to another with her packages in full 1890s garb on her clown bicycle (she really does work like a dog) and LLS getting ready to leave the hospital. He calls his secretary at Chaihong Group and orders a dinner for two. See? It’s a date. He seems to be really excited—well as excited as LLS ever gets.

Nostril flares of excitement are 100% present.

He really does have ginormous feet.

Do you think his toes are as hairy as his knuckles? Asking for a friend. >.>

Later the Chaihong Group secretary comes upon flowers and a present that are meant for Mei Jin and has a minor freak out that they haven’t been sent already. She asks one of the assistants, but all of the messengers are already out. It’s such a busy time with deliveries and traffic because of the holiday. Of course, Nark shows up at that point with a delivery, so the secretary asks her to deliver the flowers and present to Mei Jin. At first, Nark declines because she has other deliveries, and she has to be back to meet the boss by a certain time. The secretary convinces her that she should deliver these because of LLS’s relationship with Mei Jin, and he’ll be mad if it isn’t done, so she accepts.

I actually paused where Mei Jin was doing her photo shoot. Why did they not block the area behind her? It was full of random people which would end up in her photos. I have this mental image of a random tourist sporting a fanny pack photobombing her sexy shots. Now I am imagining Uncle Flock accidentally walking behind while looking for some good steps. Intent on finding the perfect spot for contemplative stair staring. OK. It is way too late and my imagination is taking me to odd, yet hilarious, places.... Also, there is not enough flock in this episode so it had to be added somewhere.
Your mind can be a scary scary place, KMuse. I just thought that the LLS minions will let stranger tourists invade the space, but block the three MJ fans watching the proceedings.
 

Nark shows up at a photoshoot and delivers the presents to Mei Jin who looks fairly bored by them, which surprises Nark. Mei Jin tells Nark that every year, LLS sends the same thing and probably doesn’t even know what’s in the box because he has his secretary pick it. Nark tells her that next year, she will get him to pick something out himself. This makes Mei Jin laugh and tell her that LLS doesn’t give people presents, so if he does that person would have to be really special. She asks Nark how she came to work for LLS, and Nark tells her about her father’s debt, so Mei Jin gives her a big tip. Nark is super happy and says that Mei Jin is not only beautiful but kind.
I really like their relationship. Too bad things probably have to go catty once Mei Jin figures out LLS's feelings. Mei Jin looks at her and tells her that she is pretty, too (Finally! Somebody acknowledges this). She even offers to have Mei Jin come be in one of her photoshoots, to which Nark agrees excitedly because she thinks about the kind of paycheck she might get out of it.
 

When LLS gets back to Chaihong group, the staff is out in full force applauding. I would be applauding as well since Puey In would be in charge if LLS had kicked the bucket. If anything deserves applause, it would be that. He doesn’t seem to be interested in any of them though. When he gets to his room, he checks to make sure that dinner has been ordered and asks about Nark. Too bad for the secretary because she tells him that Nark was here but went back out to deliver the present to Mei Jin. LLS yells at her never to do that again because no one but him is allowed to tell Nark to do anything. He is really angry, and she slinks out of there. He seems as mad at Nark for listening to someone else as he is at the secretary for sending her on that delivery. He even calls Mei Jin to see if Nark is still with her. She thinks he is calling to see if she liked the present, but he immediately hangs up on her as soon as he finds out that Nark left her over an hour ago.

He still annoys me with his treatment of MJ.
 

Nark, in the meantime, goes by his other office to deliver her documents. She waits for a while at the same time that he waits in his rooms for her. Finally, she leaves to go home, figuring she missed him because she was late. She, exhausted, shows up in her container/apartment only to find LLS waiting in the dark for her. **Cough cough... Stalker**

He is furious that she disobeyed his orders. She’s contrite and sorry that she missed him. He tells her to not take any orders from anyone else but him. She gives him a present which stops him mid yell, wishing him a happy new year.
Ever since that "Thank you for not killing me", she hasn't really been afraid or fazed no matter how angry or loud he gets. I think that throws him off a lot, too.

She gives him the ugliest watch I have ever seen, saying it was all she can afford, but that she wanted to replace the watch she took before. He takes it and turns from her, remembering the taxi ride to the hospital when he was shot and how she used his watch to pay the driver. He actually smiles, but straightens his face when he turns around. She also thanks him, which startles him. She thanks him for waiting for her. No one has ever waited for her before, including her family, so it never occurred to her that he would wait for her. This is so sad. She has been so neglected by that family of hers.
We all kind of knew it from the first episode where she was abandoned to an unknown fate by a dad who figured she could handle anything. But, still, it's has to be hard to know that, within your own family, your worth is so little. [sniff]

This story and her sad gratefulness seem to completely fizzle out his anger, and he leaves . . . telling her that her present is on the bed. When he arrives at his car, we see Nark chasing him down. She wants to thank him for the gift (a Rubiks cube) because she really likes it. Right then (of course), fireworks go off. No really. There are actually fireworks. I’m assuming for the New Year. We get the complete songs for both and a complete chorus while we watch them watch the fireworks.They watch them for a bit; both of them really enjoying them.  You have to wonder if LLS has had any fun since his mother's suicide. Nark wishes him good night in Thai, English, and Chinese. He genuinely smiles at her and wishes her goodnight, too. Both of their TS play throughout this bit. 

The goofy looks they give each other are cute.

Next we get alternating shots of Nark working intensely on that Rubiks cube with LLS in the Robe with his slippered feet up on his ottoman sipping tea from a plain, but quite fetching, white tea cup. She’s focused on that Rubiks cube, but we all know that he is thinking of her. We have to know this because we have to listen to a piano version of his TS the ENTIRE time.

He looks quite regal in The Robe. And she looks quite cute without all that Newsie attire.
 

Next morning on the commute to school, LLS and Jongsing are sitting in the back seat. (whatever happened to Jongsing or Nark being the driver?) Is LLS looking for someone? Nark shows up alongside the car and waves, but LLS looks to Jongsing first before looking back outside at her. Is that a smile he’s trying to hide? Nark has other problems though because she is too obsessed with that Rubiks cube. She works on it in class, and the episode closes with the teacher calling on her, but she not hearing because she is working on the cube.

Favorite Line:

“What’s wrong? Why are you acting like an ant on fire?” LLS to Nark when he sees her cheering about the project she just finished

"Are you calling me or the kid?  So hard to understand." Mei Jin after LLS hangs up on her when stalking searching for Nark.

"He sent someone to kill me?!" Chin Fu after a group of thugs tried to kill him. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

"From here on out, do NOT use  purple plungers in my house!"

Comments:

I'm starting to rethink the size of LLS's tea cups. I always thought they were really small, but they may just look really small because his hands are so big.
I can't stop looking for the hair on his knuckles after you mentioned it last recap. Some things you just can't unsee.

I'm just glad the two are finally a bit aware of each other, despite the jailbait feel. She's happy to see him, he's happy to see her, and we are happy to see interact.

As for our baddies, I wonder if it's the turtleneck that makes YW irritable and unstable. Maybe there would be less evil in the world if there was less layering?

"Hospital Minion 7 to Lin Dad. Duckling has left the nest. Repeat, Duckling has left the nest..."