The Next Prince 1×03 Review: Episode 3

Prince Khanin is officially official. In what has surely been a whirlwind for Khanin, he arrives at the palace, meets his long-lost family, is thrown into a competition he’d never heard of essentially against his will, and is crowned prince. And in the background, there are still machinations happening.

I love a good fish out of water story, and I will never tire of the trope of unexpected royalty being confronted by the ridiculous royal protocol and etiquette they now have to adhere to. Khanin’s palace arrival, wherein he commits all sorts of social faux pas, was hysterical. I loved the scene where he bowed, and then so everyone else bowed lower. It was hilarious.

I hope they show him stumble more often as the show goes on. He is entirely out of his element, but there are scenes in this episode where he seems to be taking to his role as prince very easily. In all of the scenes where he’s in public, he seems to be the flawless heir. It’s only in private that he stumbles – continually using informal speech, stepping on Chakri’s feet when they’re dancing. This needs to be a struggle for him, as it would be for anyone unexpectedly thrust into such a different world.

Also, we were cheated out of a makeover montage. That was the perfect opportunity for one!

In regards to his relationship with Charan, I do not blame him at all for wanting a familiar face around him as he goes through this great upheaval. I’m sure it hurt him badly, hearing Charan tell him that now that his duty was finished, he was leaving. I bet he went through the same emotional journey that he did last week, when he thought Thatdanai had only raised him out of duty. And I do think that his manipulations to get Charan to stay were more him being a little brat than him abusing his newfound authority.

But he isn’t considering what Charan wants. I think we got a glimpse in this episode that Charan has been used as a tool of the Assavadevathin family for his entire life. The king mentioned in the first episode that he had “adopted” him. I don’t think that was anything formal, but more so taking him in as a ward. We learn in this episode that Charan’s family, Phithakthewa, were the royal guards before; however, it seems that the rest of the royal court believes Charan to be a simple art professor. Which means that any training he did was in secret.

Charan is doing his best to maintain boundaries between himself and Khanin, who insists on stomping all over them. Khanin keeps trying to get Charan to be informal with him, to forget about status, while at the same time using that status to ensure that Charan has to stay with him. It will be interesting to see how this affects their relationship going forward.

Especially when you contrast those scenes with all of their other scenes. The way Charan almost immediately went for the fake kiss so that they wouldn’t get spotted at the bar? (Don’t think I missed Khanin’s half-smile after, either.) How Charan dragged Khanin’s arms around his waist when they were getting on the motorcycle? (I don’t care how often that happens; I love that move.) Charan staying with Khanin while he grieves for Thatdanai, even after insisting that it wouldn’t be appropriate? These two are so entwined already.

The reunion with Khanin’s family was… how shall I say this… odd. Tharin is not behaving at all like someone who believed his son to be dead for 20 years only for him to show up in front of him. He didn’t even try to go for a hug! He makes no effort to get to know him, except maybe briefly at dinner when he asks if there’s anything in particular he wants to eat. It’s just very weird to me that he doesn’t seem to be trying at all. Weird and suspicious.

(That tight shot of his hand on Khanin’s arm threw up a red flag for me. I immediately thought of the scene last week where we first “met” our villain, and all we saw was their lower arm and hand. Or was it just about a father comforting his long-lost son?

But the king! Oh, let’s talk about the king. Last week, I said that the king was my top suspect for whoever went after Khanin, though at the time there was no evidence, just vibes. After this week… Well, it’s still mostly vibes, to be honest. There is just something about him that seems off.

First, there’s the whole thing with Thatdanai. When Charan revealed that the house had burned and a body had been found, my immediate thought was that Thatdanai had faked his death. (It seems Charan had this thought as well!) The king, however, instructs him to tell Khanin that the body was Thatdanai’s. If Khanin still has ties to his old life, he’ll never embrace his new life, aka he’ll never submit to his grandfather’s will. And I think it was extra cruel that he forced Charan to break the news to Khanin, all so he could be the one to comfort his grieving grandson.

(That will absolutely come back to bite him, mark my words.)

Then there’s the way they had their big family reunion in front of the royal court, instead of in private. That should be your first clue that there is more to this than meets the eye. It implies to me that this isn’t at all about Khanin as his grandson, as it is about Khanin as his heir. We saw it in the way he coldly dismisses Thatdanai’s sacrifice, as well. This is a man who views everyone else around him as tools that he can use.

I don’t like the way he’s manipulating Khanin. And I still think it’s odd that if preserving his legacy was his concern, why did he let Thatdanai raise Khanin for 20 years? In a country halfway across the world? This makes me very suspicious about the initial attack, when Khanin’s mother was killed. I hope we find out more about that, because I imagine that will provide important context.

Not to mention, this man was playing chess against himself. I feel like in every film I’ve ever seen, that’s such a villain-coded thing to do. He makes a move that puts the game into checkmate, but who is his opponent?

(Side note: I’m on the fence as to Charan’s motivations for going behind the king’s back to find Thatdanai. It’s either a) loyalty to a fellow soldier, b) for Khanin’s sake, or c) he suspects something. Or all of the above.)

I hate how everyone assumes that Khanin will gladly compete in a competition he has never heard about. I know Thatdanai trained him to be a fencer for this sole purpose, and probably mentioned the competition in one of his bedtime stories about Emmaly. But it’s very different hearing about something that happens in a country thousands of miles away from you, and being expected to participate in it. No one asks what he wants. They pluck him out of the only life he’s ever known and plop him down in a new one, and they tell him, “This is what you’re doing, cool cool?”

The Phuchongphisut are still being set up by the narrative to be the villains. Rachata is the only one who questions Khanin’s legitimacy, and this is meant to make him look suspicious. After all, we know that Khanin is the true heir, so anyone who doesn’t is not to be trusted. Except it makes total sense that Rachata would be suspicious! They all thought Khanin was dead, and all of a sudden he’s not only alive but he’s here, in the royal palace. 

It also makes sense that he would question a DNA test that the king just happens to produce, particularly because it just shows a DNA strand and “99.99% match” and doesn’t show the two samples that were compared. Again, we know that Khanin is the true heir. But also, we’ve been with Khanin the entire time. When were the DNA samples taken?

Later, when it’s the other three family heads having tea together, Rachata is still the only suspicious one. And while it may be because his family is the only one with something to lose – remember, Ramil was the de facto next heir by default – it doesn’t make him wrong. This whole thing is suspect as hell, and he’s not wrong to question it.

Khanin, of course, decides to compete in the competition. Otherwise, you know, we have no plot. However, he’s not doing it for his new family, but his old one. He recognizes that only with power can you truly make anything happen, and he desperately wants to find out what happened to Thatdanai.

That brings us to Ava, who should absolutely be queen. Now that there’s going to be a competition, she uses the opportunity to declare herself a candidate. Basically, everyone is against this, even her father, because misogyny is alive and well even in fictional kingdoms. Ava points out that while it may be tradition, nothing in the rules expressly prohibits women from competing, and she should be allowed to prove her worth the same as any of the male heirs. Khanin agrees, which prompts the king to agree, and just like that Ava is allowed to compete.

Now Ramil will be forced into a competition he thought he wouldn’t need to participate in, against opponents that he clearly has no respect for. We saw in his “friendly” duel with Ava last week that he doesn’t see her as real competition, perhaps because he’s never had to. But he also is dismissive of Khanin, which makes less sense, because he presumably doesn’t know anything about Khanin. He has no idea how Khanin was raised, or if he’s been trained. Again, all of this is Ramil being set up to be a villain. He may be a douchebag, but we don’t know that he’s evil. At least, not yet.

I’ve seen a couple people express their desire for Ava to win, and while I hope that she does, her win doesn’t do much for her. After all, it’s the winner’s father who becomes the next monarch, not the winner themselves. And judging by the way Ava’s father reacted to her decision to compete, I don’t expect he’d do much to relax their regressive gender norms. (Of course, it’s possible he doesn’t want her to compete because he doesn’t want to be king, in which case I don’t really blame him.)

There is so much going on in this show, it’s almost impossible to be concise! And that’s without even taking into account the continued excellence in production value. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the costumes this week were insane! The attention to detail on these outfits is something to behold. I hope there are awards in Thailand for this sort of thing, and I hope the costume designers win all of them. It’s truly a beautiful show to watch.

Despite the amount of stuff that’s happened, we’ve been moving kind of slowly so far. Depending on how long it took for Charan and Khanin to get to Emmaly, it’s at most been about a week since the first episode. But given that the competition is set for three months in the future, I expect we’ll get some time skips, perhaps in the form of a training montage. (We know that Khanin’s fencing is good for the rest of the world, but not necessarily up to snuff by Emmaly’s standards.)

As there is still at least one more couple to be introduced (two if Ava and her fencing coach are actually an item, as hinted in the trailer), and a ton of questions that need answers, I think the plot will start moving along in the next few episodes.

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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