Wandee Goodday 1×12 Review: Final Episode

Well, we made it! We’ve arrived at the final episode of Wandee Goodday, and thankfully, we made it through without any major surprises. Occasionally I’ve seen dramas just completely bungle the last episode or two, tainting what was otherwise a pretty decent show. But Wandee Goodday gave a completely satisfying and overwhelmingly happy ending.

The final episode picks up where episode 11 left off, with Dee arriving at Yak’s championship fight in dramatic fashion, and just as dramatically kissing him in front of everyone and their dog. I appreciate how far Yak has come in that department; he’s gone from being hesitant about even a fake relationship, for fear it would affect his boxing career, to kissing his sort-of boyfriend pretty much on live television.

During the match, Yak’s trauma keeps resurfacing, and for a while it looks like he’s not going to be able to pull out a victory. Dee sits down with him and tells him what his boss told him in the previous episode, about having treated Yak’s mother and how much she loved her sons. Yak was clearly still holding onto some guilt about not being able to be with his mother when she died. Hearing how proud she was of him and how much she talked about him and Yei makes him realize that the demon he’s been fighting is just himself. He is able to rally and defeat his opponent.

And of course, he gets to give a victory speech, where he thanks everyone (including his father and stepmother, which… I mean… that’s a choice, whatever) but most especially Dee. And because we live in the magical BL world where homophobia doesn’t exist (sometimes), a champion boxer can lift his boyfriend at center ring and everyone cheers for them. Maybe one day.

Because Yak and Dee have to be equal, Dee wins the scholarship to study abroad. This was pretty heavily implied in the teaser at the end of episode 11, so no one should have been all that surprised. And, it’s not like I don’t want Dee to succeed in his career, but I was kind of hoping that he would decline to stay in Thailand with Yak. I’ve said it multiple times throughout this series, but I really wanted Dee to, at some point, choose Yak the way Yak has loudly chosen Dee.

Luckily, we get such a moment after Dee is announced as the winner. (By the way, this is a weird hospital. I don’t understand their parties. I’m not sure if this is a cultural difference or if it’s simply a suspension of disbelief thing.) When he gets up to give his speech, there’s a little fakeout moment where it looks like he’s not going to mention Yak at all. But he has apparently recognized that he needed to do something huge after the way he’s kind of strung Yak along for four months, and so he bursts into song, asks Yak to be his boyfriend, and kisses him in front of everyone present.

That was, honestly, the moment I’d been waiting for. It was so, so important for me that Dee acknowledged – even privately – how much Yak had sacrificed for their relationship. I don’t think they were really equal in that regard, and I think Yak was simply too in love with Dee to care. That sort of stuff bothers me, though. And I’m still unsure as to why, when it was so obvious how much they both liked each other, they had to wait until after the scholarship to formally date.

Later on, Dee explains that he was hesitant to be open about his feelings with Yak because he worried about holding Yak back. I’m not sure why he thought that; maybe it was meant to hearken back to Yak’s hesitance at the fake dating in the first place. But I feel that as soon as he realized how deep Yak was in, he should have known that it wouldn’t matter whether or not he said anything. In fact, at that point, I think we can agree that the uncertainty was worse for Yak than the knowledge would have been.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Even though Dee did yet another fakeout by offering to put their relationship on hold – which Yak rightfully balked at and refused to even entertain – these two got their happily ever after. Both made solid strides in their career, both have overcome trauma (although I’m still side-eying Dee’s whole thing, that was weak), and both have firmly committed to being in a loving, honest relationship.

Oh, hey, speaking of loving, honest relationships, Wandee Goodday has given us our first official BL wedding post-marriage equality in Thailand. After their proposal in episode 8, Yei and Cher get a beautiful beach wedding in this final episode. (If they don’t go to the beach, is it really a BL?) It was a moment they totally deserved, and I’m so glad that we finally got to see an established, long-term couple get a happy ending.

I do think it was interesting that Yei was mortified when Yak was chanting, “Kiss! Kiss!”, considering it’s his wedding, but their moment was sweet. I’m just so happy for them.

Something I really love about this series is how important the other relationships were. It wasn’t just about the romance. Yak, Yei, and Cher were really the perfect family unit, and they accepted Dee into their rank without question. (Cher and Dee besties is a side plot I wish we’d gotten way more of.) On the flip side, Yak was so in awe of Dee’s grandmother – maybe even more than Dee! They slot into each other’s families so easily. It was very refreshing.

There were a couple of things of which I was not a fan, namely Ter and Taem’s unwanted and unnecessary relationship. Ter going from ambivalent towards Dee to totally obsessed with him to making heart eyes at Taem was just wrong. Not everyone needs to be paired off. It would have made more sense for Ter to stay single and truly figure himself out. Also, after what happened with Ohm, Taem absolutely needed someone decent. (Come on, Khwan was right there!)

I mentioned this in last week’s review, but as much as I love Kao finding someone who is on the same page as he is, I do wish that had been something that they explored for more than the final episode. Asexuality is severely underrepresented in BLs and this was a perfect opportunity that they squandered. I’m very appreciative of the representation, though, and hopefully, this will lead to other ace characters – with actual storylines – down the road.

On the whole, I greatly enjoyed Wandee Goodday. It was fun and sexy, and yes, a bit frustrating at times. But Great Sapol and Inn Sarin have such amazing chemistry. I’m really hoping that they get the chance to lead another BL at some point. (They officially have their own mascot now, so fingers crossed!) Likewise, Thor Thinnaphan and Fluke Nattanon really need their own series. They were so fantastic. I’m looking forward to seeing more of them in the future as well.

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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