Last Twilight 1×04 Review: Episode 4

Day is starting to come out of his shell, reaching out to his friends and even going out for the evening. Meanwhile, Mhok helps Porjai get out of an unpleasant situation in episode 4 of Last Twilight.

I feel like I spend most of these reviews ruminating on Mhok and Day’s relationship. Understandable, considering that’s what the show is about. But I do want to spend some time talking about Mhok and Porjai’s relationship, so this week I’ll start there.

I really love these two. They’re exes but they’re still really close. I’ve gotten the sense that Porjai thinks Mhok was an idiot for breaking up with her for her own good. That said, she has clearly moved on, and Mhok respects that she’s moved on. When she announced her engagement last week, he was appropriately celebratory. (Porjai is also a great wingwoman, asking Day if he had a thing for Mhok when he not-so-sneakily tried to figure out if they were dating.)

I couldn’t watch this episode live because I was in the office today, but I saw the pictures GMMTV was tweeting, and I saw one of Porjai with her hand on her stomach, and I knew she was going to be pregnant. (Abortion is legal in Thailand, but possibly not while this was filming, and as Porjai isn’t a main character, I don’t expect them to go into that deep of a storyline with her.) Mhok being ready and willing to take care of her says a lot about him as an individual as well as their relationship.

One thing I worry about is that Mhok’s temper and tendency to rush in fists swinging is going to come back and bite him again. He’s already gotten in two fights, and yes they were with Porjai’s cheating boyfriend, but we’ve seen that he kind of zones out and loses control when he’s fighting. Porjai mentions in this episode that she’s worried that he’ll end up back in prison. It makes me wonder if that’s foreshadowing, and that something will happen before the end of the season.

This really wants you to be aware of the fact that Mhok is attractive. Throughout the entire episode, everyone keeps telling Day how good-looking Mhok is. First, we have Porjai trying to work out how Day feels by asking what he thinks of Mhok’s voice. Then Gee basically tells Day that Mhok is a snack, and later at the badminton group party literally everyone is talking about how hot he is. This ties into Day asking Mhok in episode 1 if he’s hot, and Mhok in episode 2 asking if Day wants to know what he looks like.

So as a result, Day waits until Mhok is asleep and then he does the fingerspan thing that Mhok did in episode 2. And that entire scene is just ‘pull-my-blanket-up-over-my-head’ swoonworthy. From the careful way Day feels his way to Mhok’s face to the fact that he put in his eyedrops so that his vision would be at its best. He did the fingerspan thing but then he moved closer. And then Mhok’s little smirk, because of course he was awake. That scene is just devastating in the best way.

If you know me in real life, you’ll know that I am a romantic. What I love is the kind of peak period drama bs that a lot of Western shows don’t really focus on. I will watch and even enjoy racier shows (see: Only Friends, KinnPorsche), but I die for a good, tender moment that’s more about general intimacy than sexuality. That’s why I am LIVING for Last Twilight.

Because touch is such an important thing for Day, as someone who’s lost his sight, touch is a big focus of his relationship with Mhok. It’s a big part of how he gets through the day in general, but in particular, we’re really narrowing in on the way he and Mhok touch. Episode 4 especially wants us to pay attention to these moments.

Let’s talk about that hand scene. Is best hand acting an awards category? Because it should be, and Jimmy and Sea should win it. It’s funny because when Day mentions it, I think he is just making conversation. I don’t think he was trying to be flirty, so when Mhok takes it in that direction, it surprises Day. (There is a scene like this in Puppy Honey between Pick and Rome, where Pick is similarly unaware of how his actions are coming across when he makes Rome repeatedly feel his hands to compare.)

I don’t think Day is unaware of his burgeoning feelings, nor do I think he doesn’t know how to flirt. In fact, I think he’s fully aware and trying not to let himself go there. But I do think it’s funny that he made a point to tease Mhok about how he must be single because he has no tenderness at all, and then Mhok comes back with the most yearning, tender scene I have seen in my entire life. Seriously, this is up there with that scene in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice.

What I really like is how much they focus on the realizations. We are allowed to linger on the moments. You can literally see the italicized oh moments as they happen. 

Aside from the hand scene, there is also the moment when Mhok guides Day’s hand to the radio controls in the car, which segues nicely into a love song where the lyrics mimic the two of them so closely Mhok gets spooked and turns it off. Only to later sing the same song at the bar when Day pushes him to get on stage. (By the way, I don’t think there were enough pride flags in that scene. Maybe they should have had a couple more.) There’s also the jasmine scene from the beginning of the episode, and every time Day says they’re friends.

But I think, other than the hand scene, the most important oh moment was when they were at the bar getting their photo taken, and Mhok put his hand on Day’s waist. I mean, when you think about it, it’s such a natural pose when you’re taking a photo. Most friends who are getting their picture taken would put their arms around each other. But the way Mhok does it, it’s clearly meant to be something more than that. It’s a light touch, and it’s on his waist instead of on his shoulder. That is actually the moment that inspires Day to want to know what Mhok looks like.

We can also see Mhok’s influence as Day starts to get more confident moving around. You can see the panic on his face when he runs into Gee. It’s hard to tell why Day went back and told her what was happening. I’d wager it was partly because she was genuinely hurt that he wasn’t telling her why he dropped off the face of the Earth and partly because he knew eventually it was going to come out, unless he wanted to stay shut up in his house for the rest of his life.

I saw some people remark that it seemed unrealistic that Gee was so forgiving after having been so angry with him, but I think it makes sense. He went through something really traumatic and his life was completely upended. Most people may not be able to understand exactly what that’s like, but they’ll recognize that it’s something big and difficult to come back from.

The scene where he reunites with some of his friends is also painfully realistic. First, they are falling all over themselves to help him, and thankfully they back off when he tells them that he’ll ask if he needs help. Then they start with the invasive questions, like how he watches porn now that he can’t see. He takes these in stride, going through the evening and using humor to diffuse what could become tense situations, which seems like something he would not have done just two episodes ago.

Little by little, Day is acclimating to his changing circumstances, and that’s largely in part due to Mhok’s influence. Because Mhok took the time to look and see what Day needed to be comfortable. We can see this just as easily as we can see these two inching closer to each other.

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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