Revamp: The Undead Story 1×06 Review: Episode 6

As the Hunters prepare to make their move, Punn makes preparations of his own. This is going to be a long one, so buckle up.

The thing about Revamp is that this is an incredibly layered show with a lot of nuance. We’re getting fed tidbits of information in drips and drabs, so a lot of stuff doesn’t seem to make sense at first. Things are starting to come together, and I can only hope we’ll have a complete picture by the end.

Punn has been running hot and cold with Ramil since the beginning, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Both of them were keeping something huge from the other; both of them were playing roles. Only Ramil was working with all of the information. He knew Punn was a Hunter right from the start, but Punn only learned about the true extent of his abilities after the fact.

He literally just told Ramil that they couldn’t see each other anymore when he rocks up at the vampire gala to pull him aside. But there’s a difference between not wanting to be in a relationship with a guy you’re not really sure if you can trust, and standing back while said guy and his entire family get slaughtered. After all, we still don’t know why Punn left the Hunters in the first place. So it’s not that surprising that after Elise texts Punn, he gears up and goes to save his quasi-boyfriend.

Side note: Elise sending that text was odd. It’s possible that she was hoping Punn would “come to his senses” and rejoin them. But after seeing how quickly they surrounded Punn and Ramil, I suspect that it was all part of their plan. They knew Punn would try to save Ramil, and they used that to their advantage.

I loved the battle couple energy Punn and Ramil were giving off. Things are confusing between them, but they are very clearly all in. Punn being the one in the role of the protector, even though Ramil is the most powerful vampire around, was fantastic. And Ramil gave no thought to his own safety, he was so focused on Punn’s. (Seriously. Dude gets shot in the back and he’s like, “whatever”. Punn gets grazed on the arm and Ramil goes completely feral.)

Also, I know that people are ragging on the action scenes, but you have to remember that it’s not super common for Thai dramas to have this level of action. None of these guys are action stars. That said, Mark Ji needs more fight scenes because he ate that up and left no crumbs. That blade move? *fans self*

I actually love the fight scenes. They do such a good job of showing the personalities of the characters. Paul and Caster immediately drop the subterfuge as soon as they realize Punn is there. Mekhin gets stabbed by the person he’s healing, and he can’t even heal himself because he’s used too much of his power. Ciar just full-on dive bombs Elise in crow form. Methus and Mekhin have proven to be the better fighters, which makes sense given they were both soldiers. And Methus was likely a soldier in a time when hand-to-hand combat would have been a lot more common.

Eventually, Jett enters the fray. With Methus at gunpoint, he reiterates his plan to kill Ramil and everyone in his family as revenge for what happened at the orphanage. This is where Punn jumps in and starts talking way too much sense. He points out that it was impossible for Ramil to be responsible, because he only just got out of the painting. He also points out that he isn’t even entirely sure what happened, and that all of their recollections of the attack could be compromised because they were traumatized children. But Jett refuses to listen.

(Actually, he says that it doesn’t matter if they’re responsible or not, they’re still vampires. Methus counters by saying they’re no different than humans who hunt animals, which opens a whole ethical debate that I do not want to get into when I’m trying to talk about my gay vampire show. Although I do think it’s worth mentioning that Ramil’s entire bloodline specifically does not drink human blood. So far that we’ve seen, they’ve only killed in self-defense.)

Jett is truly such a fascinating character and as of right now, we still know so little about him. He says that he founded the Hunters, but I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. He was a teenage orphan. Where did he get the capital? Where did he develop the skills? Where did he even begin to research? No, someone else is behind this. But who? (Perhaps the as yet to be identified person in the hospital bed?)

Not to mention, we still haven’t seen what actually happened to Jett during the attack, but I suspect it has something to do with why he keeps seeing his teenage self when he goes to the church sanctuary. The prevailing theory that I’ve seen is that he is actually a vampire, and his crusade against the Jonoel family is about wiping out a rival rather than revenge. (We know there were rebel vampires. And there is a crossed-out name in Ramil’s family tree.)

Elise comes in to save Jett and shoots Ramil in the chest with her crossbow. We know that Ramil can only be killed by an instrument of pure silver, and I don’t think the Hunters are wealthy enough that they can just tip all of their weapons in a precious metal. But while it may not be enough to kill him, it’s certainly enough to incapacitate him. And based on the way the wound was looking later, I wonder if they dipped it in poison or something.

Injured and with few options, Methus suggests Ramil seek refuge in the painting while Methus and the others handle things at the hotel. This opens up so many lore possibilities that I’m salivating. Ramil can go back in the painting? Not only that, when they get in the painting, there’s a whole world! It’s not just the room where Ramil was imprisoned. It’s basically a little pocket universe where time passes differently. Like Narnia, but for vampires.

I have so many thoughts about the whole painting thing. People were wondering how Ramil could know what the world looked like if he was chained up in that room, and I think it’s a replica of what his home looked like a hundred years ago. The painting is titled The Vampire of Greenmore, and Ramil refers to the area as Greenmore when they arrive. It’s also apparently a magic forest, and I really want to know more about that.

With Ramil unable to use his healing ability for whatever reason (I think he’s too exhausted, but I don’t remember if they clearly explained why he couldn’t), Punn goes looking for something to ease his fever. Instead, he finds Lilith, who was still “trapped” in the painting with Ramil. Lilith, as the Mother of Demons, knows a whole lot of important information that she tells Punn with no hesitation, particularly the fact that only Punn’s blood will heal Ramil.

I am so happy that we saw Lilith again. After episode 2, where we see how Ramil was trapped in the painting, I found myself wondering what had happened to her. She said she would trap herself in the painting with him, as penance for being forced to curse him in the first place. Yet she was nowhere to be seen. Now we find out that she was still stuck in the painting. But wasn’t Ramil’s curse broken?

Turns out, no, it wasn’t. And isn’t that just delicious context to drop on us after six episodes. Lilith tells Punn that she told Ramil how to break his curse because she never expected it to actually happen. It does seem odd that she would be compelled to curse him but only for a century. They’re immortal. What’s a hundred years to a vampire? Punn cutting his finger on the glass and saying his name in the first episode only got Ramil out of the painting. For the curse to truly be broken, it needed to be True Love.

Episode 6 proves that when Punn “confessed” to Ramil back in episode 4, that wasn’t really him. Ramil knows that Punn is his fated one, and it now seems obvious that he used his compulsion to speed things along. When you look back at the shower scene in episode 5, Ramil seems to try to do it again, but Punn now knows what to look for and stops him. This is why he’s so angry with Ramil for using those abilities on Pokpong later.

This is not something that occurred to me when I first watched the episode, and it’s only after, when I sat down to think about it, that I realized what was going on. After Ramil has attacked Punn and then healed him, Punn’s first words are telling Ramil that he loves him. Later, Ramil says that he’d been waiting to hear those words from Punn. But Punn already said them, so what does that mean? It means Punn didn’t actually say it. Not for real.

But now it is real. Punn is saying it of his own volition, because Ramil is in no state to use his compulsion. Punn says it because he means it. And Lilith knows it to be the case, because we see her vanish from the painting. She’s no longer trapped. (I actually think she may responsible for the world inside the painting. She was stuck in there for so long. She probably got bored and was like, “OK, what else is out here.”)

Revamp is a show that needs to be watched repeatedly. After every episode, I get the itch to rewatch all the earlier episodes with the newly added context. It’s so fun.

Now, we have to talk about what happened in the forest. I honestly think it’s heartbreaking that Ramil went to so much effort to protect Punn from himself, and it ended up being in vain. We know that injured vampires can’t control themselves, that even Ramil and the others will be overcome by bloodlust. We saw this in the first episode, when Methus went after Punn. But we also know that only Punn’s blood will heal Ramil.

Punn tries to make it easier; he cuts his own hand (why is it always the hand? That’s, like, the worst place to cut) and fills a goblet. But when Ramil discovers what he’s doing, he forces Punn outside so that Ramil won’t hurt him. The scene where they were both fighting against the door was incredible; there was a lot of raw emotion between the two of them, as they’re both so desperate to save the other but they’re incompatible goals. Ramil keeps Punn safe to his own detriment, and vice versa.

And then the unthinkable happens. Despite doing everything he can to assure Punn that he’ll protect him, in the end, Ramil can’t overcome his nature. He attacks Punn and feeds from him, but Punn is eventually able to snap Ramil out of it. The absolute horror on Ramil’s face when he realizes what he’s done is amazing, and so is the panic in his voice when Punn seemingly dies from his wounds.

It’s not 100% clear, but I am fairly positive Punn does die here. Ramil is too frantic for him to have simply passed out, and after Ramil heals him, Punn gasps awake, the way someone who hasn’t been breathing would. Given the way these two have always mirrored each other, I’d wager Ramil was a lot worse off from the crossbow than he was letting on. Only Punn’s blood could heal him, and then only he could heal Punn.

You know what else Revamp does really well? Foreshadowing. Punn’s nosebleeds always hinted at something bigger, and then we find out it’s a signal that Ramil has been manipulating his mind. When they’re at the claw machine, Punn gives Ramil two coins, and then later gives him two chances. In episode 5, during the “breakup” scene, Punn tells Ramil that even he can’t overcome his instincts, and then Ramil attacks him in the woods.

After everything, the episode ends with Pokpong finding Punn’s murder basement, which is hardly surprising given how not hidden it was.

Now, I find it very hard to believe that, with all they went through in this episode in particular, Ramil and Punn will have any more misunderstandings. (They had better not. We have bigger things to worry about!) So now it’s time to sit and focus on what we can expect in the remaining four episodes.

For starters, there are still holes in the backstory. It may not be important to the plot, but I really want to know what happened that caused Punn to break from the rest of the Hunters. Was it only because of Pokpong, or was there something else? And I do hope we get an unbiased account of what happened at the orphanage ten years ago. Perhaps one that explains why Jett randomly hallucinates himself as a teenager. (Is that even himself as a teenager? That’s one of the theories.)

There is also the matter of the rebel vampires that Ramil mentioned all the way back in episode 2. Given how purposeful everything has been so far, I doubt that they would bring that up once and then never again. Also, Lilith’s role is now muddied. When we first saw her, she claimed that she was being compelled to curse Ramil, but in this episode she speaks as though she wanted to do it. (Though, to be fair, both could be true.) And I’m curious as to the identity of the scratched-out name in Ramil’s family history.

This show has got such a hold on me that it’s insane. I find myself randomly thinking about theories as I go about my day and having to make notes on my phone so that I don’t forget them before I get home. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve rewatched it, trying to pick up story threads. I’m so excited for the next episode.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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