Cooking Crush 1×08 Review: “Hard-Boiled Eggs for the Wishful Wishes”

In “Hard-Boiled Eggs for the Wishful Wishes”, both Ten and Prem are making strides towards the goals they gave themselves last week. Essentially, they want to prove that they can achieve their dreams and be in a successful relationship. However, with Ten doing his internship in Suphan Buri, the “successful relationship” part is still a work in progress.

Both of them are seriously missing the other. Prem can’t summon up much excitement that they were accepted into Super Monster Chef, because he can’t tell Ten the good news. And Ten is staring forlornly at their selfie while lamenting what a stupid decision it was to ask for space. I really like the parallel they did with Ten seeing Prem’s face in all of the hospital patients, the way Prem was seeing Ten everywhere in “Why’s This Salted Egg Spicy Salad So Sweet”. It will never not be funny (I couldn’t help but snort at Gun in that mustache), but it also shows that they’re on the same page with their feelings, even if they don’t see it.

Meanwhile, Dynamite and Fire are kind of on opposite pages. Fire has now realized that, yes, he does like Dynamite, while Dynamite is putting space between them because he thinks that’s what Fire wants. Dynamite’s first thought, upon learning that they were accepted into the contest, was to tell Fire, but he ultimately decided not to. And Fire, upon finding out that Dynamite had gone to Suphan Buri, lasted about .05 seconds before resolving to follow him.

Because it’s a BL drama, Metha and Fire just so happen to run into Prem, Dynamite, and Samsee at the temple in Suphan Buri, which is how Prem learns that Ten’s internship is in a nearby hospital. When Metha invites him along to see Ten, Prem refuses, saying that Ten should be concentrating on his work. That is, of course, the entire reason that Ten wanted the break in the first place.

Through a hilarious sequence featuring Metha and Fire running back and forth between the hospital and Samsee’s parent’s restaurant, Ten and Prem increasingly misunderstand the other. Ten thinks that Prem doesn’t miss him, even though he does, and Prem thinks that Ten blames him for their situation, even though he doesn’t. It culminates with an irate Prem suggesting that maybe they should just break up, and an exhausted Metha revealing that Ten couldn’t even formulate a response.

Luckily, Ten and Prem’s friends are smarter than the two of them, at least when it comes to their relationship. When Prem asks Metha to relay one more message so that Prem can apologize, Samsee gently suggests that Prem apologize in person. What a brilliant suggestion! Up until this point, Ten and Prem have been pretty good at communicating with each other. The problem now is that they’re not communicating with each other, they’re doing it through Ten’s friends. Once they can actually talk in person, they clear up the misunderstanding quickly and admit that, yes, they both missed each other very much.

Back at the physician housing where Ten has been staying, Prem discovers his oven mitt, which has been missing. Ten had found the mitt – torn again – when he was sneaking out of Prem’s house back in “That Jub Chai Stew Makes Me Spend More Time With You”, and took it with him to repair it again. Not only that, he designed cute little add-ons that can be attached to the mitt with Velcro. I really wish we’d gotten scenes of that, because I suspect those are custom-made, and I would have loved to see Ten sewing those together.

It’s the little things like that that I really love about Ten. We’ve seen throughout the series that he makes a lot of effort to do things for Prem, even when they’re outside his comfort zone. He meticulously repaired his beloved oven mitt. He woke up early to cook something for Prem and then tried to act like it was no big deal. The whole reason he wanted to become a doctor was to help people, and helping people isn’t just about the big moments. It’s about the minutiae of everyday life.

Speaking of helping people, let’s talk about Dr. Earn, the physician at the hospital who looks exactly like Ten’s dead mother. Earn takes Ten out for drinks, and he admits that he’s been sent to Suphan Buri to get his studies back on track; she gives him some advice. She tells him what it’s like to be a doctor in the country and how understaffed the hospital is, and how one time because she was so exhausted, she misdiagnosed a patient and that patient ended up dying. Later, she has an asthma attack, and in a scene eerily reminiscent of what happened to his mother, Ten has to carry her to the hospital.

We’re given no explanation for why Earn looks like Ten’s mother; it isn’t mentioned that she’s related in any way, so she’s likely just a doppelganger meant to have a specific purpose. I have two theories for this. First, she will end up dying, giving Ten a lesson that it’s impossible to save everyone. The second is that this incident will help him overcome the trauma of his mother’s death.

The first is unlikely. The tone of this show is too happy for someone to die, even someone we just met. Plus, Ten already knows you can’t save everyone, because of his mother’s death and the story that Earn told earlier in the episode. I think it’s much more likely that Earn’s existence – and her resemblance to Ten’s mother – is so that Ten can save her in the way he couldn’t save his mom. There’s no other reason for the situation to mirror his mother’s so exactly unless it’s meant to help him overcome the guilt he feels at being unable to save her.

Everything that’s going on with Earn also gives Prem the opportunity to comfort Ten in a way we really haven’t seen yet. It’s a nice parallel to earlier in the episode, when Ten bandages Prem’s knee. But also, most of the series has involved Prem being vulnerable and Ten being there to support him, so it’s nice to see the reverse. They both are very good at reassuring the other, but in heavier moments like this, it’s good to know that they can be there for each other. And so far they’ve overcome Ten’s father’s interference, so I’m hopeful that there won’t be any more bumps to worry about. Although with four episodes to go, that’s not a guarantee.

I’m still not one hundred percent sold on Fire and Dynamite, just because their scenes have been kind of choppy. Just like we don’t see Jane and Fire inexplicably get back together (only for then to immediately break up again), we don’t really see Fire coming to terms with his feelings for Dynamite. I do appreciate the scene with Fire’s mother, where he looks to be gearing up to come out to her, and she makes the comment that any girl would be lucky to have him. Death by a thousand cuts is something basically any queer person can relate to. But also, considering the way she went off on Jane when they first met, she wouldn’t like anyone that Fire brought home.

But the trailer for the next episode has a lot of Fire and Dynamite, and we get to see how they meet, so perhaps my opinion will change.

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