That Summer 1×03 Review: Episode 3

In episode 3, we learn a little more of Lava’s backstory, and it’s just that heartbreaking. If anyone deserves a hug, it’s this kid.

First of all, I let myself get suckered in by the promo. What a tease! (I mean, we did get a kiss, but based on the context, I was expecting more than that. I should know by now not to make too many assumptions based on the promo.) Anyway, not important.

I really hope that at some point during this show, Lava gets the recognition he deserves. He has had multiple people tell him to his face that he doesn’t care about others. Episode 3 proves that he cares a lot about other people.

He takes Wave all over the island – presumably – to see if anyone recognizes him. The sketchy waiter returns and continues to act sketchy. Though he obviously knows who Wave is, he lies about having never seen him, but offers to take a picture, claiming that he will ask around. It’s likely that he sends the photo to Victor as proof that Wave survived the attack. Wave seems to realize that something is off about him, having clocked his odd reaction, and he maintains that the building they’re in looks familiar.

I’m curious as to how much of the flashes of memory Wave has retained. It doesn’t look like he truly remembers anything. When Lava wonders if the waiter is who attacked him, Wave can’t really answer. And when Lava makes a joke about someone hitting him with an oar, Wave doesn’t react.

This leads me to believe that nothing stuck after last week’s episode. I imagine it’s partly because he was high at the time, and also partly because it’s like trying to remember a dream. The longer you’re awake, the more the details of the dream fade. Sometimes, I can’t even remember what a dream was about, regardless of how vivid or detailed it was.

Lava keeps proving that he’s a decent human being by helping a random restaurant owner. When he and Wave are grabbing a meal, Lava gets wet due to a leak in the restaurant’s roof. The owner is extremely apologetic, talking about how he’s been meaning to repair the roof but doesn’t have the money, and Lava waves him off. Later, Wave catches Lava sketching a plan for renovating the restaurant. And then the two of them, plus Tum and Kratae, show up to help the owner paint and do repairs.

I lowkey love that this is Winny’s second role in a row where he’s a good artist (after Q in We Are). But also, this is such a good representation of Lava as a character. Here is some random person; Lava has no connection to him. He has no real reason to even think of him after they left the restaurant. But he spends time coming up with ideas for how to fix up the place, gathers his friends, and does the necessary work for free. The owner didn’t ask or expect it. Lava did it of his own free will.

If you didn’t already know that people’s perceptions of Lava are inaccurate, this should reframe the way you look at him. There aren’t many people who would go to all this effort for a stranger. And it makes me wonder what other incidents happened to make his mother essentially give up on him. (Based on the inciting incident in episode 1, I suspect that a lot of these were Lava trying to help and it blowing up in his face.)

While they’re there, the owner’s son shows up and demands money. An argument ensues, as the owner declares that he doesn’t have money, and Lava jumps in to chastise the son for not helping his father at all. I love Tum stepping in front of Lava when it looks like things are going to get physical, but I suspect one of the reasons Tum does this is because the son is dismissing Lava for being an outsider. Tum is local, so his intervening carries more weight.

Later, Lava and Wave are driving back from the beach when they’re run off the road by a suspicious truck. Both of them theorize that it’s the owner’s son, although it’s almost certainly someone working for Victor, trying to finish off Wave. They have no way of knowing this at this point, however, so their theory makes sense given their current information. Wave doesn’t understand why the son would want to kill them, which is when Lava flashes back to what happened to his father, and, y’all, I cried.

It turns out that Lava’s father died protecting Lava. Lava had witnessed some guy on a bike knock a woman over and kicked his bike to get him to stop. They were both taken to the police station, and the guy presumably lost his job. Angry about the situation he caused, he shows up with a gun to punish Lava, but Lava’s dad jumped in front of him to protect him.

A few things: First, the fact that Lava trying to help someone ended up with his father dying, and he still tries to help people he doesn’t know, says a lot about Lava as a person. He could very easily have washed his hands of everyone on the planet, gone “not my circus, not my monkeys”, and lived his life. But he still steps in to help a woman being harassed, to soothe a stranger suffering from seasickness, to help a restaurant owner turn around his failing business.

Second, knowing that Lava’s father died protecting him after Lava tried to help a stranger makes me wonder if Lava’s mother blames him for his death. He keeps intervening in situations where he could be hurt, and I wonder if she is legitimately worried that he will end up dead like his father. If that’s the case, though, she’s being a terrible person about it, as the excuse she gives Lava for sending him away is that his behavior is affecting his stepfather’s campaign. She doesn’t seem at all concerned for his safety, though I imagine she’ll claim that to be the reason so that we can redeem her as a parent.

Third, Lava almost certainly blames himself for his father’s death, which makes Peng throwing his father in his face that much more hurtful. Does Peng know what led up to his death? It sounds like he doesn’t talk to his sister all that much; he may know that Lava’s father died, but not how. If he does know, though, it seems pretty cruel to claim that Lava is nothing like his father, when his father was willing to sacrifice himself for Lava.

OK, I had more to say about that than I expected, so before this gets too long, let’s talk about Lava and Wave. I love the dynamic that they’re going for here. I’ve seen a couple of posts talking about how relatable Wave is as a character, because he doesn’t know anything about his life, but he knows he’s gay as hell.

I really like the way that they’re handling their relationship. Is Lava taking advantage? Yes, a little bit. We know, as the audience, that Wave likely doesn’t have any experience, as a closeted and sheltered prince. (Unless there was something going on with Victor, as many have theorized. But that did not look like the kiss of someone who knows what he’s doing.) However, Wave is not being at all subtle about his attraction to Lava, with the way he stares at him. So I can’t blame Lava for going for it.

Wave has told Lava more than once that he doesn’t like people touching him, and Lava continues to touch him: the hands on his waist, the sunscreen thing. Is this kind of bratty? Yes. But Wave has already proven that he’s capable of defending himself when he wants to. He’s absolutely allowing Lava to get this handsy with him, because he wants to, because he’s confused, for whatever reason.

I laughed at Lava braking the bike so that Wave had to put his arms around him. You’ve got to love when the characters make the tropes happen themselves. Their closeness in basically every one of their scenes just heightens the tension. The bathroom scene, with their bare chests touching? The kiss scene, with Lava putting Wave’s hands on his tattoo?

I’ve seen multiple people comment about how realistic Lava and Wave’s behavior is regarding the little things a person does when they’re sexually attracted to someone. This was in regards to Wave making as though to smell Lava’s underwear, which made me go, “Um… weird,” but is apparently not weird. (Not that I would know, given the asexuality and everything.) I definitely have wanted to smell like someone else before, so I do sort of get it. I like how, when they went to the beach, Wave ended up wearing Lava’s shirt on the way back. I think that’s another way of being close to someone, of being enveloped by their smell.

Peng and Wut continue to give me everything I need. I freaking love how ridiculously clingy Peng is, the way he’s always clutching Wut’s arm and getting in his space. Also, Peng wearing Wut’s glasses in bed? So cute!

This week, Peng reveals that someone suggested he run for village chief, a role that he’s mostly already filling, just not in an official capacity. We know that Peng is pretty insecure, particularly when it comes to his relationship with Wut. He doesn’t think he’s good enough for Wut; this was a conversation that they had in last week’s episode, and they have it again in this episode.

Wut is continually reassuring Peng that he’s happy to be with him no matter what. But anyone with insecurities knows that it’s almost never that easy. This will absolutely be something that comes back later.

My only complaint about this episode is that we have no idea what’s going on with the rest of the royal family. You cannot drop a coup on us and then peace out for an entire week! What is going on in Arantha?

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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