The Next Prince 1×12 Review: Episode 12

In an action-packed episode, the three heirs enter the woods for the archery competition, Thatdanai makes his presence known, and we finally learn the Big Bad behind it all.

First off, apologies for not reviewing last week’s episode. I’ve had a busy week! It started last Thursday with Stranger Things: The First Shadow on Broadway and ended yesterday with the BossNoeul NYC fan meeting. Last Saturday, instead of watching The Next Prince, I was heading to United Palace to see The Heart Killers America tour.

Anyway, I may mention some things from episode 11 in this review of episode 12, if they end up being relevant. But as usual with this show, there is a lot to unpack, and I have a lot to say about it.

The second task in the competition is archery, which as previously mentioned is Ava’s strength. They’ve set up a kind of obstacle course that many people declared was like The Hunger Games. And considering what happened, that’s not an off-base comparison. They’re sent off into the woods to shoot at four different kinds of targets: traditional targets plus CGI animals taken from the crests of the three competing clans. While the heirs compete, everyone else watches on a giant screen in Wasin’s palace.

I have a lot of issues with point distribution for these targets; it looks like each one was valued the same, which I think is ridiculous. Some of them were clearly easier to hit than others. But, not important in the grand scheme of things. 

Just when the competition ends – with Ava as the victor – the signal on the screen is lost. No one knows what’s going on, but everyone suspects that something is amiss. While they all scramble to figure out what’s happening, smoke bombs go off in the woods, and someone starts shooting arrows at the kids. Not just arrows, though – their own arrows. As Ramil remarks, someone is trying to make it look like the heirs turned on each other. I’m not sure what the goal with that was; I don’t know that anyone would have believed the kids capable of that, but perhaps it was just to sow general discord.

Ava is injured in the attack, and the three work together in order to escape the woods, with Ramil carrying Ava on his back. I didn’t notice at the time, but I’ve seen multiple people point out that when the arrows started shooting, neither Khanin nor Ava looked at Ramil until he put his weapon down and made it clear he intended to help.

It echoes back to last week, when Ramil gave that heartfelt answer about stopping domestic violence – something both Ava and Khanin know Ramil personally experiences – and neither of them seemed to care. All in all, it just seems that there is a general lack of concern when it comes to Ramil, even though all three of them have had someone try to kill them in the past few months. 

Eventually, the kids are found by Charan and quickly joined by Mira and Paytai. Back at the palace, Thatdanai has made his presence known in a big way, bringing all of the evidence necessary to reveal the perpetrator, which he presents to the king.

It turns out that the person behind all the attacks is none other than… Prince Wasin. That was a pretty common theory I saw bandied about that I actually dismissed a few episodes ago, because I thought there wasn’t enough evidence to support it. I didn’t think we’d seen enough of Wasin to be able to know either way, whereas we were being shown a lot of evidence that the king was responsible.

Well, I was wrong. I don’t think it was as obvious as many people have been claiming. But looking back on his behavior, I definitely do see more shade than I originally thought, so I understand how people clocked it earlier.

I’ve been saying the whole time that the Bhuchongphisut were too obviously villain-coded to be the villains, and yet I didn’t follow my own thought process when it came to the king. I mean, clearly the king is a capital V Villain – we’ve seen multiple instances throughout the series that show he does not care at all for the greater population, or even his own family. However, he isn’t guilty of what I’ve been accusing him of since the start.

Also, I’m mad at Wasin because he lied and I got all caught up in a theory based on his lies. In episode 8, when Khanin first visited Meenanakarin, Wasin mentioned that his son would have been about Khanin’s age. And I spiraled into a tinfoil theory that maybe Khanin was actually Wasin’s son. But it looks like Wasin never had a son.

When his wife died, he told everyone that she died of preeclampsia, even though she actually died of lung cancer. She may or may not have been pregnant when she died, but Wasin telling everyone that was two-fold. One, it garners more sympathy. If she were pregnant when she died, he lost his wife and his child. Two, it allays suspicion. No one would suspect him because he outwardly has no reason.

In truth, he actually has a really good reason, and I’m not the only person who would have happily supported him committing regicide – if he weren’t trying to take down the kids as well. Wasin’s wife developed lung cancer from the pollution in the Assavadevathin mines, which we’ve established disproportionately affects the people in Meenanakarin. Wasin went first to the king, then to Rachata and Chana for help, and though all three of them initially agreed, they were only concerned about profit and not the people.

It’s way more callous than even that. Wasin and his wife weren’t even asking for the mines to be shut down, just for the pollution to be mitigated somehow. Which is a completely reasonable ask. There are obviously ways to do that without affecting the economic output of the mines. But the king didn’t even try. So he has been knowingly poisoning people in his country for decades.

So yes, the king is evil. I don’t blame Wasin for wanting to take him down. And with no heir, he would have no hope of changing the country “the right way” and being able to pass laws that would help. (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this or not, but seriously, is adoption not a thing? Is that another ridiculous tradition in this ridiculous country? All heirs must be blood or nothing doing?) Therefore, he felt his only recourse was to instigate a rebellion.

However, I was confused when Charan mentioned that Wasin was behind the rebels. Because I couldn’t help but think, “What rebels?” Yes, we’ve seen that there’s unrest. Protests have been increasing, and at least one of them has gotten out of hand. But protests are not a rebellion, and a bunch of university students marching and singing aren’t mounting an armed overthrow of the government. Are there more armed rebels than those who have been unsuccessfully going after the heirs? Is this something that I just totally didn’t pick up on? (Prior to this episode, I mean. Vedish goes undercover in Meenanakarin and learns that Wasin is stocking up on weapons, so clearly there are rebels.)

Something else I remain confused about is the blasted timeline of this show. When Thatdanai shows up at the palace, we learn via flashbacks that he was approached by Tharin to investigate whoever kept going after Khanin. So I have to ask, when did Tharin learn that Thatdanai was alive? And where he was? Because it looks like Thatdanai has been investigating since even before Vedish found him, which makes no sense.

The other clans all attempt to flee Meenanakarin separately. Charan takes Khanin to their designated meeting spot, the pier, where they are soon joined by the king, Tharin, Chakri, and Wirun. I assume they’re waiting for a ship or some other kind of sea rescue, but Wasin catches up with them before their backup arrives.

He makes a classic villain mistake and starts monologuing, explaining his reasoning behind everything. And as I said, it’s hard to find fault with his explanation. He wastes so much time talking that Thatdanai and Vedish arrive, and one of them is able to shoot the gun out of his hand. Khanin and Thatdanai have a very touching, long-overdue, and short-lived reunion. And for a moment, it seems as though the Assavadevathin have the upper hand. At least until Wirun declares that he has been working with Wasin the entire time. Because Wasin’s wife was Wirun’s sister.

Not going to lie, I had been wondering just how Wasin learned that Khanin was still alive ever since it was revealed that he was behind it all. So having an “inside man” makes sense.

A lot of other open threads are nicely tied up in this episode. It turns out that Joe, the coach who poisoned Khanin, was actually working for Wasin, which means it must have been Wirun who got him out of the dungeons without anyone sounding the alarm. Though it was Rachata who maneuvered to get him there, he likely had no idea what the real plan was. I do think he just intended to either sabotage Khanin’s chances or spy on him. I don’t think he wanted to kill him.

However, we learn that when Joe failed in his mission, Wasin went to Rachata for help. Which means that Rachata actually was behind the attempt on Ramil’s life. He used it as an excuse to try and go after the king, but in the end he chickened out. So Wasin had to resort to yet another backup plan. (And I’m still wondering about that moment between Rachata and Paytai, where it’s implied that Paytai knew about the ambush.)

At this point, a lot of things happen in a very short amount of time. Wirun shoots the king. Wasin announces that the king has the same lung cancer that killed his wife and hundreds if not thousands of other Emmalians (which I can’t remember if we knew or not). Wasin also reveals that the king was behind Charan’s mother’s death – which is something I suspected. But Charan’s instinct is still to protect the king – or rather, Khanin.

It doesn’t stop there. Wirun goes to shoot again, presumably to kill and not wound the king, but is shot by Thatdanai. Which is when Wasin shoots at Khanin, causing Vedish to shoot Wasin. And everyone was holding their breath for an extended moment, because Charan naturally moved to protect Khanin when the gun went off, and for a while it looked as though he was shot.

But it turns out that Charan isn’t the only one who wants to protect Khanin, and as we pull back, we discover that Charki is the one who has been shot. The episode ends with his fate unknown. The preview for next week’s episode makes it look as though Khanin is visiting Chakri’s grave, but I think that’s a fakeout. There’s a voiceover of Khanin saying he’s been wanting to visit Chakri, and a shot of him at a grave, and I suspect that he’s visiting Chakri in the hospital, and the grave is actually his mother’s. Because, you know, he’s shown absolutely no curiosity about his mother up until this point.

The episode ends with our major antagonists dead – and one grievously wounded, because you can’t tell me the king isn’t up to something after literally everything – and yet still two episodes to go. Those who have read the book have reported that the series of events is out of order, and that the confrontation doesn’t happen until after the fencing match. So hopefully there’s a good reason as to why they took out the main antagonist early.

This episode was a lot. I’ve been saying for a while that the main plot has been dragging, and they made up for it in spades with this. They basically speedran everything in less than an hour. There are still some things I’m curious about – Charan’s mother, hell, Khanin’s mother (if it was an ambush, how did the king know to send Thatdanai to rescue Khanin?), and why the king didn’t want anyone to know Thatdanai was alive – but honestly I think most of my lingering questions have been suitably answered.

Now, with one leg of the competition left, I suspect that Khanin will win the fencing tournament. For one, I don’t think anyone expects him to, given that it’s been commented on repeatedly that his technique wasn’t up to Emmalian standards quite yet. For another, it would mean that each of the heirs won a challenge, and that there would be no clear winner of the competition. Because let’s be real, none of these men deserve to be king.

Maybe Tharin. But only because so far he’s the only one we haven’t seen actively put profit over people.

Truthfully, though, I expect the dissolution of the monarchy. Nothing about this country is worth preserving except its people. All of the heirs have reason to hate the system, and again, none of these men deserve to lead. But I am very curious to see how they stretch two more episodes, given that our antagonists are dead.

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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