Love Beyond Dreams - EP 2

The episode starts as Rann is recapping to herself – and to us – what happened in the premiere: she got harshly rejected by Lené, then, she went abroad for five years only to get a gift box from her, and she returned to Thailand, only to find out Lené had recently passed away, and may have been killed and Peem having something to do with it, mentioning someone else. And then, someone else killed Rann. Rann wants to find out who and prevent both murders from happening. After the credits, we start with Lené and Peem, roughly one year before the murders. They encounter some co-workers on the way to he office, and one drops her id card which Lené pick up, then lets fall onto the ground again telling her to pick it up herself. Pheem is laughing afterwards at the odd events, and Lené tells him to stop, but he argues she was ruthless and argues that the whole office will now gossip about her bad temper. She tells him to shut up if he still wants to chew his food. He calls her scary but isn’t really scared as he follows. She asks him what is on the schedule that day, but he argues that he’s not her secretary so how should he know, before telling her the schedule anyway: she has a revised contact to sign by midday, then a meeting with the planning team, and her dinner with Mr. Sarah got postponed to next week as he’s flying to Europe because his son got into trouble again. She wants to ask him if he needs any help, but Peem has taken care of it, he claims, the press has been completely silenced. She mentions the more he owes them, the better, the remarks that he can do it, after all – then wants to know what else. He mentions that he’s not her secretary, but her head bodyguard, and tells her he can’t make both jobs at once, and she should find a secretary. She tells him to find someone low maintenance who can keep their mouth shut, and he argues that if he finds her one, his workload will go down, right? But she argues finding her a secretary won’t be easy, because of the qualifications she requires, and he tells her, that she would need to be clockwork punctual, half an hour early even, she would need to follow every order of her no matter how irrational, and thinks some things she desires are just ridiculous, and Lené and that she would have to be perfectly self-disciplined, ready to work whenever she wants without complaints. And she needs to be dressed and made up well with her schedule already in hand, and ready to wait for her no matter what – after all, she tends to be irrational, and Peem confirms it by claiming that why he hasn’t been able to find her a secretary, and remarks that she must be pleasing to her eyes as well. While they are talking about that, we see Rann getting into her office wearing a red dress, and finally knocks on her door. Peem wants to know who will win this time, as he lets her in. Lené recognized her immediately, and Rann argues it has been a long time, but she wants to know what she’s doing there, and Rann mentions that she will be her secretary from now on and is looking forward to working with her. Peem tells her that she holds an MBA from the UK and has two years of experience working at world-class firms. He claims that she speak Thai as well as English and Spanish, and claims she has no issues with her working hours. He wants to mention her looks but just calls her the most qualified candidate and a perfect as her secretary. But Lené is not approving this she claims, to which Rann replies by telling her that her father has already signed her employment contract. Lené maintains that she is not approving thit, and claims she doesn’t need a secretary, bur Rann just ignores her and claims she will start working right away, and tells her of the same appointments she has for the day. But Lené wants to reiterate her key requirements for her secretary: to do all and be everything she wants her to be, and Rann is aware. Lené mentions that she doesn’t like her, but Rann calls that a personal preference and irrelevant for her job, and excuses herself to start her work. Peem finds it funny that Lené is unable to fight back, but she tells him to just shut up. Rann meets some colleagues – Punch, Itim and Vichy – at her desk who are curious about Lené’s new secretary, and they insinuate that no one in their right mind would want to be Lené’s secretary, arguing that the is as ruthless as a mob boss and is treating people like machines – but they are not gossiping, they are just curious, they claim. They quickly withdraw as Lené comes out of her office. Lené maintains that she doesn’t need a secretary and she never approved her, but Rann is stubborn claiming she signed a contract with her father and is not going to breach it, and claims that if she performs her duties, she doesn’t have any right to fire her either. Rann claims to herself that she didn’t think she would be as close to her again, but she can’t give up either. The next day, Lené is not coming to work on time, and Peem thinks she’s being messed with. Rann wants to know where Lené is, but all he can tell her is that she wanted to come in by herself and claims she didn’t need a bodyguard. She wants her not to quit as she arranges her stuff but she just wants to get the car keys. She drives home to her house find her asleep. She tries to wake her up by claiming she has a meeting which she has already rescheduled – but argues that she needs to get up, shower and get dressed – but Lené claims that she is not in the mood. They both drag on her covers, then Rann is startled as she finds Lené on top of her – and after an awkward minute she tells her that she isn’t going to do it. Rann tells her that’s why she rescheduled her meeting and wants to get up, but Lené pushes her down again and tells her not to call her by her formal name “Ledarin”, but Rann wants to know what she should call her instead – Lené? But after another awkward minute she tells het to get out of her sight – and Rann tells her to let go of her, so she can do exactly that. But she tells her she only has an hour to get ready as she leaves her bedroom. Later, Lené comes down to the living room still in her nightgown , and she wants to know if she needs to praise her for her patience as Rann is sitting on the couch working on a laptop. And she calls her extremely good, and will compensate her once she fires her, but Rann claims that won’t be happening that day. She claims that she doesn’t even have what it takes to get her to a meeting, and takes place next to her – but Rann argues that just because she isn’t going to the office that doesn’t mean she can’t join the meeting. And she hands her the laptop with the meeting software already started – and her employees shocked to find her in her nightgown. And Rann hands her the jacket she is wearing. After the meeting, she gives her the jacket back and tells her to call her Lené, she scolds the maid for smiling as she leaves the house and Rann smiles as well as she follows her. In the office, she scolds Rann for arranging the documents she needs to review so messily, and she wants to fix that by not putting them in order of urgency as they are now, and Lené realizes just then that the are in that order, and tells Run to get out. Later, Rann doesn’t have a pen ready for her but her tablet with a stylus not taking notes. And later, she already prepared her car to get to the warehouse, Peem is already waiting for her and the documents she needs to review are in the car. She is always one step ahead, she claims, because she doesn’t want to lose her job. Her colleagues want to know what is her secret for dealing with Lené as she is absolutely slaying it, but Rann just claims to do her work as usual. And we flashback to two years ago, when she was talking on her laptop to a friend – Gen – who wanted to know when she will return to Thailand, but she argued it was not time yet. Gen claimed she left suddenly when she got her scholarship and claimed she needed to prepare herself for Lené, and she asks her why didn’t they make it official once and for all, and what happened on Graduation Day. Rann promises to tell her everything, but Gen claims she can’t even handle her own problems, so she will stay out of hers. But she got the info on people who used to work with Lené, and claims she is demanding, hard to work with, and mean, anyone who crosses her immediately gets fired, and she doesn’t socialize with anyone. And Rann tells her colleagues that she simply prepared in advance, and to herself thinks two lifetimes in advance. At night, they return to her house, and Lené wants to go in but Rann holds her back, and asks her if there anything to improve in her working style, vowing to adapt it there’s anything not to her liking. Lené asks her if she realized that Lené doesn’t like it, and Rann responds by telling her she knows she’s been watching for every mistake she might make for days now. Lené wants to know why she came back and what she wants, but Rann just asks her if she’s doing her job well – good enough to be by her side instead of Peem. Lené wants to know if she’s eying Peem’s position now, and does she even know who he is, but Rann throws the question right back at her. She claims to have returned to Thailand because the compensation is high, and if she wants to get her money’s worth, she should use her however she likes. She claims not to be worried about her and she never will be, and she won’t get what she wants. I to herself, Rann claims that she aware of that. Lené is distraught and wants to know why Rann came back, and argues with herself that she pushed her away so hard, so why come back to let Lené hurt her again. But Rann claims to herself that she won’t give up – because she can’t. Lené sees that Rann walks home and calls someone to do her a favor … … and as Rann is walking home, Peem pulls up beside her, wanting to take her home at Lené’s orders. Rann realizes that he lives in the same house as Lené, and he claims that she’s starting to get interested in her now, and wants to continue the conversation in the car. She reluctantly gets in and asks him if she really lives in the same house as Lené, and he claims he knows why Lené has such a soft spot for her, and admits they have lived in the same house for years, but he never saw her have a soft spot for anyone, claiming that Lené’s last secretary didn’t even last a week. He saw with her own eyes how she tears people apart, but with her she’s like a child playing house, he argues. Rann argues that it’s not true, and Peem if fine if she doesn’t believe him and want to get back to talking about each other. Rann claims there is no “each other”, but Peem claims she doesn’t like him. And we get another flashback of the job interview Rann had with Lené’s father, and she wanted to know why he hired her, arguing that there must be countless people more qualified to be Lené’s secretary. And her father admits that she is right, but of all the applicants she’s the one with the most time to take care of his daughter, because she doesn’t have any family. He is sure she can focus solely on his daughter and will make it worth her while. She wanted to know whether she will be expected to do anything beyond her secretarial duties, and argues that the salary is a bit too high for a secretary. And her father argues that his daughter is strong-willed and has been spoiled since she was little and doesn’t listen to his advice. All he can do is worry from afar, and he tells her to want to know what his daughter is up to, and hires her to give a report on everything she does. And she signed the contract admitting to herself that this would bring her much closer to Lené than she thought. Then, the father introduced her to Peem, whom she remembered from the funeral. And Rann admits she doesn’t like him, with Peem claiming he has no idea what he did to make her hate him, but there is not much he can do about it. But he is still glad to have her on the team, arguing that it isn’t often he gets to see the “high and mighty” Lené look so flustered, and admitting that it was hard for him not to laugh every time she was with her. She wants to know if he thinks this is funny, but her claims to need entertainment once in a while in his stressful job. When he applied, he claims to have no idea that it meant to be a full-time bodyguard glued to her hip, and to live under her roof as well. The next day, Rann is moving into Lené’s house as well, at her father’s request, she claims. She claims she never even allowed her to set foot in the house that she owns, but Rann claims to be doing just what she was assigned to do. She tells her to stop messing with her private life and to mind her own business, but Rann argues that she doesn’t meddle with her business and everything she does is strictly for work. And if she didn’t act so childish and refused to get up for work, she wouldn’t have to resort to this, and argues that it’s Lené who is blurring the line between work and personal things. She tells her to get out of her sight for the third time, and argues it’s only been four years, has she forgotten already? But Rann is glad that Lené still remember how long it has been. Lené admits that she has been her P’Le, but that it’s not the case anymore, and tells her to make sure to remember that. She kicked her out of her life once before, she argues, and can surely do it again. And with that, she leaves, and we see that Peem witnessed the conversation. And that is where the episode ends – apart from a coda with Lené lying in her bed thinking about Rann and their moments in this episode. ___ I found the tonal shift from solemn drama to very broad comedy for the first 35 minutes quite jarring. But at the end, the episode focused again on Rann’s mission to save Lené at any cost, and it is clear why she moving in with her – to protect her from Peem whom she identifies as the biggest known threat to her life. I’m fairly sure the show will recontextualize his actions down the line, and that the real threat to Lené’s life comes from somewhere else. I must admit that I was bored for the first half-hour with these fairly silly office shenanigans vaguely reminiscent of the much better “Gap”. But I will tune in again next week.