My Romance Scammer 1×06 Review: Episode 6

This episode is definitely the calm before the storm for Tim and Pai. One last moment of peace before everything hits the fan. But for Yu and North, this episode is about starting over on even footing.

We’ll start with Yu and North. Their relationship is much less complicated, as they haven’t known each other very long, the deception was discovered much earlier, and the “scam” was much less involved. Yu declared in last week’s episode that he was determined to prove to North that he could be trusted. However, given Yu’s unconditional upbringing, he doesn’t really know what that looks like, so he calls Tim for advice.

I love Tim and Yu’s relationship. Tim is annoyed by Yu’s presence, as his existence has thrown a grenade into Tim’s life that he’s just waiting to explode. But he consistently takes Yu’s calls and offers advice. Prior to this episode, his help was largely self-serving: if Yu is discovered, Tim could be found out as well. Once he roped Prem into helping Yu, it could be argued that he had done enough.

So the advice he gives to Yu in this episode is something entirely different. I don’t know if it’s care for Yu, or care for North, or if Tim is just the kind of person who wants to help people. (We still know very little about what Tim is like outside of this scam. He’s hiding so much of himself because he thinks it will be less appealing to Pai.) Whatever the reason, he actually gives Yu the excellent advice of coming fully clean. It’s a shame he probably won’t be able to take his own advice, but we’ll get to that later.

Yu takes his advice and opens up completely. Admittedly, I was concerned when I saw Oom, but I was relieved when it turned out she was there to help Yu tell his story. (Now, is she his actual aunt, or is he calling her Aunt the way it is so common in many Asian countries? I really need to learn Thai.) And when it looks like North isn’t receptive to the confession, Oom steps in and gives him some background on Yu’s childhood.

We already knew that Yu had very little chance of being anything but a con when we met his mother in episode 3. But seeing more evidence of it was heartbreaking. It wasn’t just that she taught him not to trust other people; he couldn’t even trust himself.

Even knowing this, North still struggles to trust Yu. This is completely understandable. We found out in this episode that Yu jostled the rope bridge, causing North to fall into the water. Now, we know that he went hiking with the intention of finding someone rich. But we also know that Yu didn’t know who North was until they signed the marriage certificate. So I had assumed that Yu accidentally stumbled into this, but now I’m wondering if he was able to determine that North was rich, even if he didn’t know how rich.

I’m also still speculating as to how much Yu knows about what Tim does or is doing. When Yu was about to tell North that Tim was helping him, North cut him off. I’m sure this was partly due to the fact that the reveal about Tim has to be a big bombshell, and it won’t be if North finds out first. But I also wonder if that was meant to indicate that Yu knows that Tim was scamming Pai.

In a last-ditch effort, Yu returns the bulk of the money North gave him, minus the million that his mother stole, which he also promises to pay back. He also takes North to get a divorce. The scene where he picks up Oom and Pure to act as witnesses was hysterical. (As was the fact that it wasn’t until after that Pure asked who Oom was.) And as a final act, he gives back the doll that North gave him, while admitting that that was the moment he fell in love with him.

Divorce final, truths all out in the open, Yu and North reconnect in a big way. I tend to have a bone to pick with director New Siwaj about the direction of love scenes, because he often uses wide shots when he shouldn’t, but he also can use tight shots when he shouldn’t. In this case, it’s just personal because I really wanted to see North with his legs wrapped around Yu, and we didn’t get that, so I’m annoyed.

That said, I am loving Yu and North way more than I thought. I believe I’ve mentioned that this is Ohm and Poon’s first show as a pair, and I think their chemistry is fantastic. I love getting to see Ohm in less stoic roles; here he gets to be goofy and charming and actually use his facial muscles. These two have an excellent dynamic, and I think Yu and North as a couple have a good chance of succeeding now that there are no lies between them.

And then we move to Pai and Tim, who are skating on thin ice and don’t even realize it. Tim has decided to give up his scam and marry Pai “for real”, and it certainly seems that way. The scene of them trying on their suits was adorable. Their pre-wedding interview was sweet. We also get a flashback where Tim sees Pai on stage at an event, and I am curious as to where that fits in the timeline. Was this before or after they met?

I genuinely love post-clarity engaged TimPai. Mark and Junior are so fantastic. Their affection looks effortless, and established couples are a pretty rare thing in BLs. So I really like getting to see them be domestic and happy, like that scene near the end where Tim interrupted Pai’s skincare routine. Naturally, all of this bliss is going to make the reveal that much more painful. But it will also make their eventual reconciliation that much sweeter, to know that they are capable of this.

I appreciate that Tim is going to a lot of effort to legitimately marry Pai. He’s broken up with his four (FOUR!) sugar mamas, which resulted in him being slapped, kicked, and having his nipples twisted. (The slaps were warranted, but I cackled at the nipple twisting.) I love how he broke up with them all in the same restaurant, one after the other, like he was setting up interviews.

The only one that didn’t go poorly was Airy, which seems to have been the one he was most worried about. She was kind and understanding and even let him keep the gifts he kept offering to return. I thought it was sweet that she knew immediately that he had met someone. (She also happens to be the one leading the pack to bust up the wedding in the preview for next week’s episode, so I’m very curious as to what she learned that got her so angry.)

But I feel like Tim has to know that he can’t keep up the charade long term. His entire backstory is a fabrication. He calls his mother and tells her about Pai, saying that she will love him. But Pai can’t meet Tim’s mother when he already thinks that Oom is his mother. How does Tim expect that to work?

Also, he claims he has a job he doesn’t have. We see him in this episode submit his application to be certified as an architect, which will of course be important as they move forward with the gated housing project. That is something that would be checked before they could start, which makes me wonder if Kuea already suspects that something is not right. This is partially because it’s My Romance Scammer, and he has just been playing those kinds of roles lately. But also, I just get that vibe.

I love the scene where Pai makes Tim promise that he won’t be jealous of Kuea, which cuts to Tim being extremely jealous of Kuea. (I am a huge fan of when that happens in shows. I don’t care how often it happens. I will never not find it funny.) Though Pai insists that Tim has nothing to fear from Kuea, I’m not so sure. The face he makes when Pai hands him his wedding invitation is not the face of someone who is happy for his longtime friend. Whether it’s because he’s in love with Pai or because he knows Tim is not on the up-and-up, we don’t know yet. But I suspect he will be behind the sugar mamas crashing the wedding in next week’s episode.

While I’m not looking forward to the cataclysm that is coming, I am very much looking forward to seeing the real Tim. What we see now is still mostly the persona he constructed specifically to appeal to Pai. And Pai clearly fell in love with that persona. But the real Tim slips out occasionally – like him being jealous of Kuea – and Pai is also attracted to those qualities. Which gives me hope for the future because it means that Pai and Tim can be happy once the truth comes out. Though clearly there will be a lot of work to do before they get a happily ever after.

This show has me in a chokehold. It’s genuinely one of the highlights of my week. And though I’m sure I will cringe through the entirety of the big reveal, I’m excited to see the aftermath.

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.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary