Player Finale - Uncut

The final episode begins exactly where episode 11 ended: with Pun and Ploy being attacked by mafia henchmen. After the credits, we see that Jay and Prang are also walking towards the “butterfly spot” – but they don’t find Pun and Ploy there. Then, Phetai joins them. They all are there to witness the reunion of Ploy and Pun – but are startled when they hear gunfire. Meanwhile, Pun and Ploy are fleeing via a staircase with the shooter in hot pursuit shooting at them. Phetai encounters a second shooter and it looks that he’s about to be shot- until Joy and Prang attack the shooter find behind; in the resulting brawl, Phetai manages to get his gun, but as someone else is shooting in the building, they leave this henchman be and proceed downstairs as well. Pun suggests to split up as the killer is presumably after her, but Ploy is not willing to let her go alone. Outside, they hide behind a pillar as the shooter looks for them. They, Ploy asks Pun to never lie to her again if they make it though this, and Pun adds to that that no matter how angry she gets, she never must sleep with anyone ever again. Ploy (correctly) admits that she didn’t sleep with anyone else, but Pun saw the mark she had on her body and imagined her whole body was covered with marks. Ploy then detailed that it almost happened but she couldn’t go through with it as she kept thinking about Pun. Pun states that almost isn’t good enough to prevent her from being jealous, but Ploy remarks that if she hasn’t lied to her that day, at which point Pun intersects that Ploy lied as well. Is she seriously picking a fight with her right now, Pun asks. But Ploy wanted to get this out in the open before she died. Pun remarks that if she thinks she’s about to die, she should say something nice – and then, they tell each other they love each other, ending this bonkers exchange as they try reach Ploy’s car while the henchman starts to shoot at them again. But the killer stands in their way and points the gun at their car. Ploy promises Pun that’s she’ll be okay then she hits the gas pedal and tries to drive past him. They only get a few meters past him as he shoot the car before they stop at the roadside, the henchman closing in fast – but then, the police arrives on scene and arrests the henchman. It is only then when Ploy realizes that their car was hit by bullets – and so is Ploy, quickly losing consciousness as she call her her butterfly while pleading for Pun to hold her hand. We close the scene with the police calling for an ambulance. We flash to two years later, as Pun awakes on her desk in a New York office; and her off-commentary details the she still thinks about Ploy, and dreams about her all the time – in face, all her dreams are about Ploy. She often sneaks away from the rush of life to sit alone and to take in the tranquility, she puts on hear headphones and listens to the same old songs, the one she always plays when she misses the girl with the nice scent. And she puts her thoughts freely into art, it would be nice if she was here. She continues as she takes a bottle of orange juice out of the fridge that being alone in her apartment feels cold and lonely, and she misses the warm kitchen and the person who would hug her from behind as they cooked together. I is hard to believe that so much time had passed already, so many things have changed. Then Phetai calls her to mention he’s staying at his girlfriend’s Anne. He tell her not to overthink and cry alone, and they end the conversation. She then mentions that Phetai is dating her new chef at the Thai restaurant, and she mentions that her life in New York turned out with her career progressing and her having finally gotten the Green Card. But the longing never fades, she states while ready the “Player” novel. The next day, she looks at the butterfly earring Ploy got her, as her dad calls and asks her when she will visit Thailand again – she rarely does her off-commentary mentions, and her father reminds her of the thing that happened two years ago and tells her not to keep silent anymore, and the off-com adds that she never told her family about the loan or the mafia, not until Prang learned that Ploy had been shot, and she get scolded pretty badly for it, she remembers as she picks up the perfume Ploy mixed for her. Then, her are back on some rooftop with a band playing the theme from “Player”, and Pun sitting beside them drawing, and thinking back of the time she sat there two years ago until hope showed up again. But now, she sits there alone again, wishing Ploy was with her. Then, Ploy calls – ending this charade of make-believe that she had died – and asks her if she thinks of someone. We flash back to two years ago when Ploy was brought to the hospital with Pun begging her not to leave her as she’s carried into the ER. Prang, Jay and Phetai arrive shortly thereafter. They’re waiting for news, and finally a nurse tells them that Ploy is fine, the bullet having missed her vital organs; but she needs some time to recover. Phetai later explains that the henchman managed to escape when their boss was arrested and out for revenge, but that he hadn’t thought they would follow him to Thailand, and admits that all is his fault. Then, as Phetai leaves the room to answer a phone call, Ploy awakes, and Prang and Jay are getting the doctor as Pun is asking Ploy how she’s feeling, and Ploy jokes that since she’s met her she’s been to the hospital so many times. Pun asks whether she’s a bad luck charm, and Ploy replies that she’s a troublemaker, and Pun apologizes for getting her hurt, but Ploy argues that maybe it was worth it to see Pun at her side. Outside, Ploy and Phetai’s parents arrive, and her mother accuses him of being responsible for Ploy getting hurt, that if something worse had happened to her, how could she live with that and states that she can’t lose another child, not again – with Ploy witnessing the first time she genuinely cares for her, and Phetai admitting that it’s all his fault. Ploy’s mother brings her her favorite food – the one she didn’t make when she was a child – to the hospital, and Ploy just starts bawling. She asks if it hurts and Ploy confirms it: her mother adds that she sorry and hugs her. Pun tells Ploy that she needs to stay in the hospital for another week, but she has cleared a whole month for her, taking a leave from her New York work – for her and fer Prang and Jay’s wedding which was been moves up after the shooting as they didn’t want to wait any longer. We quickly move on to the exchange of the wedding vows, where Jay claims that once she knew of her own feelings she didn’t want to wait even a second, and Prang feels safe when she looks into her eyes. Then, Ploy pronounces them married, and everybody cheers, and encourages them to kiss, which of course they do. After the ceremony, Ploy asks Pun whether she’ll return to NYC the next day, and Put confirms it claiming that the “Big Apple” is her dream city; she once gave up everything to be with her, but doesn’t want Ploy to do that for her. But she wants to try a long-distance relationship and believe their love is strong enough to survive. Afterwards, Ploy recounts, they lived in two world for nearly two years, with Ploy only occasionally visiting New York and most of the time video chatting, which wasn’t easy because of the 10-hour time difference, and they missed each other… … as the flashback ends and we return to Pun and Ploy’s phone call on a NYC rooftop. Ploy thinks it’s getting hard to be apart every day and long-distance just isn’t working anymore, and they should end things there – but she doesn’t mean the relationship. Then, she also appears on the rooftop and they fall into each other’s arms. Pun is still upset at the “ending things” comment, but Ploy wants take her to a restaurant first. They visit a restaurant – not Phetai’s – and Pun want to know whether the “ending things” comment was just teasing, but Ploy maintains she meant every word of it, but she doesn’t want to break up with her. She feeds her the dish, and Pun thinks it’s good, they Ploy wants to know what she thinks of the restaurant, and she thinks it’s nice. She’s was thinking of asking her to help decorate in – and she admits that it’s her restaurant … … and we get another flashback of Ploy talking to her manager, asking her what she thinks about her moving to New York, and she tells her to go, her happiness being over there. Ploy searched for a restaurant to buy every time she visited Pun, and talked to Phetai about it. Pun doesn’t want her to give up her career, but Ploy claims she’s done with her career as an actress and brand ambassador and ready to start over – and she doesn’t need anything in her life except for her. Her dream is simply to be with Pun, she only wants her. The closing narration by Pun and Ploy says: “Many times, life feels like walking a long, dark road. It make up afraid, afraid of the wrong step, afraid of falling. Because we think we’re walking it alone. And the shadows around us feel empty. In the end, that fear keeps us from moving forward. But what if in those shadows, there’s someone else walking, too, walking alongside us, seeing us? Or maybe to keep walking through life all we really need is to believe, believe that someone will stand by us sincerely, and that we deserve that sincerity, believe that we’re allowed to make mistakes, allowed to fall. Because there will always be someone who reaches out and catches us.” And the show ends with Pun and Ploy running into each other again at their restaurant (as they did in episode 2), with a shot of another butterfly collage, and finally with Pun running into Ploy’s arms and them kissing each other in front of a NYC backdrop. ____ It was an okay ending to an overall good show. The finale wasted much time with the two-year long-distance relationship and the “death scare” – which I didn’t believe for a second of the eight minutes that Ploy was “gone”, and of course also had to put Jay and Prang’s wedding in there. But as soon as Pun left for NYC, the show could only end in two ways – with either Pun or Ploy moving. I didn’t need a redemption arc for Ploy’s mother, or with mentioning her parents again, who apparently did not attend the Jay / Prang wedding and were only an afterthought throughout the series, but would have liked for Pun’s friends or Min (who was only namedropped) to have another appearance. As a total, I’m giving “Player” a 7.5/10 rating or a “B- / C+” in US letter grades, I was confused in the beginning and a little meh on the finale, but episode 4 to 11, I really liked.

This was such an amazing series and very underrated