Broken (of) Love EP 4

I think this series is the first time that I have been genuinely terrified and very much disappointed in a character that P'Faye has played. Arisa is such a glaring red flag that I had a bad feeling about her since the end of episode one. Normally for characters that have red flag behavior, I tend to choose to be color blind because they are breathtakingly gorgeous, but Alisa made me want to run for the hills.

Episode 4 starts with Arisa and Lalin in a bit of levity as Lalin is looking through childhood photo and finds her cute as Arisa is packing to move in with her. She gets sad as her parents and her seemingly happy life are mentioned. Then, Lalin suddenly realizes that she doesn’t know Arisa’s birthday. Arisa is not big with birthdays, not having celebrated it in years – and she’s not going to tell her the date. After the credits, it’s Arisa’s first meeting as a shareholder of W Empire – and we see that Weiling has 26% of the share and Arisa 25% now – but the largest shareholder in “Anonymous” with 29%. Arisa asks about the anonymous shareholder, as their stake may decide the management direction, but Weiling argues that this shareholder won’t interfere with management decisions, that authority is still hers, Aris is relieved as Weiling welcomes her into the company and the board – including Lalin – gives a round of applause. Lalin is still trying to find out Arisa’s birthday and tries to convince Ai to give it out. She just wants to surprise her because she seemed happy in the pictures from her childhood. But Ai claims that Arisa doesn’t like surprises. Lalin pleads with her to tell her and argues Ai would feel bad if Arisa had to spend her birthday alone. Ai claims she is still single but she long for those moments as well, so she give out the birthday date of her boss. Meanwhile, Arisa is visiting the commemorative plaque of her parents laying flowers at this place and claiming that her birthday is two weeks away and that she wishes her parents were there to congratulate her. She vows to bring back her family’s dignity, and will make sure that those who tore them apart suffer the deepest agony, just like she did. Then, Mek joins her and brings her the identity of the anonymous shareholder: it’s Ruwajee, the sister-in-law of Weiling who inherited the shares from her brother as he passed, but has distanced herself from W Empire, and lives alone without a husband or a family. And he notes that she has a gambling problem. Later, Arisa brings a drink and cookies to Lalin, then tells her to get up form her chair, sits down on it and proceeds to make her sit down in her lap, and puts a cookie inn her mouth, prompting her to nibble at the other end. Lalin does it, and Arisa takes the cookie out of her mouth and proceeds to kiss her. Arisa states that the pros of them working together is that Lalin can “charge her battery” with her any time she wants, and Lalin wants to charge it to the brim. Arisa wants to know more about the anonymous shareholder, but Lalin only tells her the stuff that Mek already reported, apart from the fact that she and Weiling never got along, and that Lalin misses her. Arisa proposes to meet her together, and Lalin thinks her aunt will like her like everyone else (except for her mother). They meet Ruwajee, who asks them how long they are together, which Lalin claims it’s “some time”, after her mother took her in again. She then asks whether she is also in the real estate business which Arisa confirms, then mentions that Weiling is particularly fond of her, she heard. Arisa claims she has to try harder and approach her with sincerity to prove that she truly loves her daughter, and Ruwajee finds it funny that she wants genuineness, and she wonders whether she was ever genuine toward her husband, but brushes it away as Lalin asks her what she means by that. She just claims she has done something in the past and now her daughter is paying for it, she’s anxious about everything when she should give her freedom. And she asks Arisa not to give in to her, as she’s the only hope for her niece’s happiness. Arisa claims that she can tell where Lalin gets her assertiveness from. Ruwajee wants them to stay for lunch, and Arisa claims as she is alone with Lalin, that approaching elders is her strong suit, except for her mother, Lalin adds. Weiling meanwhile gets a photo proving that Arisa talked to Michelle, the loan shark from last week, and Weiling knew that this woman couldn’t be trusted. Witcharn – her assistant – proposes to tell Lalin, but Weiling claims that she is so obsessed with Arisa that she wouldn’t believe them if they told her. They should rather find out what her plan is; and she vow to never let Arisa have the last laugh. Aris, Ruwajee and Lalin are playing a card game, and Lalin soon folds, but Arisa goes all in, which prompts Ruwajee to fold as well, Then, Arisa reveal that she bluffed and had nothing on her hand. And Arisa claims that sometime you needs to read the players to get a sense of which direction the game might take. Ruwajee starts to like Arisa, and wants to Lalin to bring her around more often, but Lalin claims only if it’s just for fun and not actual gambling. Lalin leave for the restroom prompting Ruwajee to admit that Lalin doesn’t like it when she is gambling, because she is generous and won’t back down. But she knows her own limits she claims, and Arisa understands her claiming that betting can make games much more exciting. Ruwajee claims that Lalin is just a gentle soul meaning no harm to anyone, and she deserves to be loved by nice person. She asks if Arisa could be that person and she confirms it and asks her not to worry. She argues that Lalin is the best thing that ever happened to her, and Ruwajee tells her not to worry about Weiling, but tell her if she does anything and promises to handle it for her. As they return, Weiling wants to know where they went, and Lalin clams she took Arisa to meet Aunt Ruwajee. Weiling wants to know how that is Arisa’s business, but Lalin tells her to be nice to her and claims it was just a visit. Weiling claims it’s nice to visit senior relatives, but she hopes that that’s all there is to it. Later alone, Arisa asks Lalin about Ruwajee’s relationships and Lalin reports that her father told her that she met someone while she was in Las Vegas, but her family didn’t accept the guy, and after that she remained single for life. Arisa finds it sad that she is single for at least half her life, and Lalin doesn’t even want to imagine if she could make it on her own. But she already has her, Arisa claims, and Lalin wants her to promise that they’ll grow old together. And Arisa promises it. Another day, Arisa invites Ruwajee alone to a game of chance and promises not to tell Lalin about it. They visit a gambling hall and start playing, but after a while Ruwajee runs out of money but Arisa gives her additional funds and claiming she just wants to a fun with her – winning or losing doesn’t matter to her. And she argues that no one is unfortunate their entire life. Ruwajee accepts the money. At the same time, Ai and Lalin are making a strawberry birthday cake for Arisa. Ai argues she didn’t even know she like a strawberry cake she thought she didn’t like any sweets at all, and Lalin claims not to really know her either. But Ai thinks that she may look tough, but she is a softie inside, and has become even softer after meeting her, to her surprise. Lalin wants to know whether the cake will turn out good, but Ai thinks what matters is the dedication. But she thinks a cake isn’t enough and she needs to impress her with something more special, and special item or venue, something that can’t be found elsewhere, and Lalin thinks it should be the place where they first met. Lalin is at home preparing the cakes as Arisa comes home and is wondering that she does in the kitchen. She lies that she’s here to find something to eat. She claims she want to make some pancakes. Arisa mentions the maids that will happily do it for her, and claims she is acting suspicious, but Lalin doesn’t want to bother the maids, and shifts the blame to Arisa, claiming she was gone all day working, and accusing her of being negligent towards her girlfriend. And she throws her out of the kitchen before she can find out what she actually doing there. 😊 Ai reports that the Cornerstone Hotel project with Petra moves forward as planned. Then, the doorbell rings and it’s the police looking for Arisa, as Michelle has been arrested for running a scamming business, Arisa admits that she was her investor but claims she had nothing to do with any scamming. And her attorney claims that this is a responsibility of the authorities and not her client. The police let her go, but warn her this should any connection to money laundering or her scammer network be found she will be summoned again. Outside, the press makes also alleges connections to money laundering or the scammer business, but Arisa claims to fully cooperate with the investigators and leaves it at that. To Lalin, she claims that she knows Michelle, but had no idea of the scamming business. Lalin clams that if she was not involved then no one can put the blame on her – but she claims that she had many past stories and asks her if there’s anything else she needs to know, and Arisa tells the truth that there are many more stories, can she handle it, she wonders. But Lalin argues that love is about embracing each other’s past mistakes, and that everyone has second chance always. At W Empire, Weiling asks her about the news and how did she explain herself. But Arisa argues that she didn’t do anything wrong, and she is cooperating with the investigators. Weiling argues that being involved with someone who did something illegal – not only will she be affected but also the companies she holds shares in. And what about Lalin, she asks, her reputation might also suffer. Arisa vows she won’t let it come to that. Weiling claims that soon Lalin will see the real Arisa. Arisa meets with Ruwajee, who tells her that she might suffer from the scamming accusations, and the results of the investigation may take some time, and might come too late. But at least she still has Lalin by her side, and this is important as her life is ruined she argues. And she relates that she studied in the USA and fell in love with a foreigner there, but her family looked down on him, so that in the end, they couldn’t make it. She was told to return to Thailand, and her parents did everything to block communication with him, only her brother told him goodbye on her behalf and consoled her. On the day he passed away, she learned that life isn’t always kind to them. From that day on, she had no one by her side, and was all alone. Arisa wants to know what about Weiling, she is still her sister-in-law, but she hates that b*tch, Ruwajee claims, as she was two-timing her brother. But she wants her not to tell Lalin about that, and she agrees. Later, she meets Lalin at the bar, which is empty – but for Lalin and a strawberry birthday cake. She knows how she found out her birthday and argues it could only have been Ai. But Lalin want Arisa not to blame Ai, as Lalin just wanted to surprise her. Arisa re-iterates that she not into birthdays or surprises, but Lalin wants to create good memories for her. And she hopes she can leave the bad things behind, or if not, at least share them with her. She wants to laugh and cry with her, but the surprise is not just that, she claims, and plays a song on the piano for her. Afterwards, she wants to be a new memory of her, and memory that will make her smile forever. Arisa thanks and kisses her. And to the tune of “Would you be mine?” (sung by Atom), the episode ends. ___ This week, Arisa’s revenge plans hit a snag as her main investor got arrested. She found a possible route to the majority shareholder, as the sister-in-law hates Weiling pretty much as much as her, but the legal troubles meant she couldn’t use this fact yet, and this trump card will go away as Ruwajee learns what Arisa is actually trying to do and what this will do with Lalin. But I liked it that the road to revenge isn’t just a four-lane motorway, and what she trying to do and why she wants to do it remain shrouded in mystery, keeping up the suspense and the drama.