aceofteacups

Forgot something!

TLDR: I still think Thun is the mastermind and that the uncle is corrupt and was behind everything Phat's father was blamed for - and I still believe he's intended as the last victim.

Long version, brace yourself~

On the uncle:

I'm 90% sure the uncle was one of the real culprits behind the investment bank case, and I think he framed Phat's father and had him take the fall for all that; perhaps Phat's father was his accomplice or just a scapegoat, it's hard to say with so little evidence. Either way, I think he's meant to be the last victim... Now, it's not impossible, IMO, that the uncle is both behind the incident AND the mastermind behind the Nekros case, but I feel like it would make more sense if they were opposed forces, creature and creation, cause and consequence.

If Phat's uncle is both the culprit behind the incident from years ago and the killer trying to cover his tracks, why did he wait so long? Why did he use Kaye's comics as some sort of inspiration while creating a scapegoat? He must have had dozens of other options to tie loose ends since the original bank investment incident went down over a decade ago. Or did he suddenly and coincidentally find out some kid involved with one of the families who lost everything wrote a super-violent vigilante manga and decide to frame him? It seems too contrived for my taste, honestly, though it's not impossible.

So yeah, I'm going with the uncle being to blame in the past, and an intended victim in the near future. I do also believe he was the one who got Kitti to frame Kaye and end the case ASAP so no attention would be brought to the connection between the current killings and the investment case he was (at least in part) responsible for, and that the uncle either killed Nop or had one of his underlings do it.


On the "Nekros" killer's motive and inspiration:

The show has implied that the serial killer named Nekros by the media is a vigilante created by two different (but almost equally important) incidents.

1) The Thai bank investment case from over a decade ago. Hundreds of people were ruined, and others (including Phat's father) went down as culprits who caused this titanic and tragic loss of money. This has been made more or less clear by conversations between Phat and Kaye, Kaye's flashbacks, and what Thun implied to Kaye and Phat outside the police station, plus something Thun said to Kaye when he was posing as Asura at the bar.
2) The person who suffered from the fallout of the investment case read the manga Nekros. This is obviously non-skippable, as the real-life (in the show, duh!) killings are modeled after chapters of the comics. Whether it inspired the murders or is just being used as a way to frame the author, the fact remains that the similarities can't have been coincidental.

On the "Nekros" killer's identity:

If we assume that the two previous assumptions on "Nekros" are correct, there is an obvious list of suspects: those who lost money/family members/etc after the bank incident. To shorten the list, though, we might take Knox's Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction into account. These commandments are "rules" (written 98 years ago) on how to write a fair mystery story, aka a story that the reader (or spectator, or whatever the case may be) can solve while reading or watching, because they have the same clues as the in-world detective. The one I think is relevant here is this one:

"The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know."

Now, do we know that Mr. Kill follows this command, or any others, from Knox's list? We don't. It's possible they never even heard of them. Most detective stories, cop shows, murder mysteries, and the like follow over half of them instinctively, though - especially when writers don't want the public to complain that there weren't enough clues or that the plot was too filled with contrivances and tricks. :X But still, it's possible this one doesn't.

What happens if we pretend it does, though?

a) It would mean no one who made their first appearance after the first two, maybe three episodes should be the culprit. Characters introduced after that might not have gotten enough screentime to seem suspicious, and even if they did show up a lot since, watchers at home will probably still see them as late-comers and not original suspects.

b) It would mean the main characters whose POVs we were allowed to follow aren't guilty, either. (They aren't narrators, so the well-liked trope of unreliable narrators' wouldn't fit even if one of them was the mastermind, btw) It means that what we saw of Phat and Kaye must have been real to the characters, and makes it impossible for either or both of them to be behind "Nekros" UNLESS they don't know it themselves (aka, the DID theory is still a possibility. A faint one, in my opinion, since it's we've actually seen the cops frame Kaye in what seemed to be the only real dissociative episode he had; the other cases might just be blanks any antidepressants, anxiety meds and even sleeping meds can induce, especially if the user is under stress. Still, it's possible - perhaps Phat is the one with DID, though? I'd hate that. lol)

So, taking the commandment into account doesn't actually cause much trouble when it comes to Mr. Kill, but it does leave us with fewer suspects: the ones that were there basically from the start while ALSO having had to deal with the fallout of the investment incident AND read the Nekros manga before this all started. Unfortunately, we don't have much confirmation about that last one, but there are a few obvious main suspects that fit the first two.

1) Kaye. His family was ruined by the investment case, his mother died, his father is sick, he lost pretty much everything. A + point would be that he wrote the actual comics, which is the most obvious hint towards him ever (vide the cops from the show). As a - point, we've seen his POV a lot and there isn't much suspicious there other than some memory loss that can be related to stress, trauma or anxiety, unless we infer that he has DID or another equally complicated disorder.

2) Kaye's father. A - point would be that he's apparently in a coma, and that being fake is quite cheesy and silly. It's not impossible, but it doesn't seem to suit the tone of the show IMO.

3) Another one of Kaye's relatives, like his mom that somehow might still be alive or whatever, would not fit the 'fair game' approach to solving this mystery. I'll ignore it when trying to solve the show.

4) Phat. His father went down as the main guilty party. He might be trying to expose the truth if his dad was framed, or trying to get revenge on people who also deserved a share of the guilt and got away scot free, and thinking of Kaye as his unwitting inspiration and accomplice. A - point is that, like with Kaye, we've seen his POV a lot, and it's even less suspicious than Kaye's. If he was actually involved, there should be at least one good hint, no matter how tiny, that most of the public would be able to catch. It's not impossible that hint is there, but I haven't found it and haven't seen anyone else in this board discuss that, either.

5) Praew. She has the same reasons Phat would have. We haven't seen her POV that often, which would leave more space to suspect her. A - point might be that she's seemingly reckless, while the "Nekros" mastermind seems very careful and into planning. Another - point is that she's tiny and skinny, but this is only really a - if she ever committed/commits a certain type of murder without Kim as an accomplice. As long as he was around, all the brutal actions that required blunt force could have been done by him. Was the death of that person-trafficker after Kim died particularly forceful? It might not have been. So, again, not impossible, just not extremely likely. (But still more in tone with the show than Kaye's father.) I'd still rather see her as someone manipulated into helping by the mastermind, especially after almost dying last time.

6) Thun. He implied some past involvement with the bank case, and since he's around the same age as our main duo, a close relative might have lost money like Kaye's father or even gone to jail as responsible for some part of the scheme, like Phat's father. It's currently unclear. Is it completely irrelevant and a red herring? Will it be explained now in the last two episodes of the show? Anything that takes significant time this close to the end must be important. A + point for Thun as the mastermind is the whole creepy situation in which he lured Kaye to the bar with the promise of the lost Nekros chapters and confessed to being a fan. Another + is how he openly antagonizes Phat - like someone who blames the son for the crimes of the father, perhaps? And of course, a last + might be how he's been using Praew... In fact, as a reporter, it is quite easy for him to learn things he wasn't supposed to know, but he would also have the social talents necessary to manipulate both Kim and, most likely Praew, who clearly has a vgilante-positive view of things. The only - I can think of is that he's quite obvious to those watching at this point --- but still, since the characters in the show don't suspect him, it doesn't mean much.

7) Any other rando involved with the Thai bank investment case is out since they were not introduced in the beginning of the series; any early character that might have been involved without the public's knowledge are still FAINTLY possible, but, again, would not constitute 'fair game' so I'd rather not waste my time on trying to solve the unsolvable.

Out of these 7 (???) possibilities, 8 if you decided to count Phat's uncle despite part 1 of what I wrote, Thun is by far the most suspicious one by + symbols alone; or, as a famous poet might put it, "the sussiest baka."

The least annoying ending is Thun IMO. :X

I think Kaye's dad faking a coma is too ridiculous for the tone of the show; and the uncle is a good possibility, but I have convinced myself that he's THE WHOLE REASON "Nekros" even exists as a serial killer in their world, because I think he was the one who was actually responsible for the bank incident and that he let Phat's father take the fall... But that's a long story D:

Anyway, Kaye having DID and being the killer would piss me off the very most out of all of them. Just having DID and having been manipulated is fine, but both makes annoys me sooooo much for real people with DID who constantly get pathologized as criminals in real life, and I just _hope_ GMMTV wouldn't do that in 2026.

Yay, I'm gonna add you!

spi-cy marmelade lol

Thats exactly what I think, yes.

I have an enormous theory I'm going to post rn. Perhaps you'd like to take a look?

I wrote such a long reply I got embarassed and had second thoughts about sending it. I both agreed with parts of your theory and presented other theories, and I dunno if you'd be interested or not @_@ If you wanna read, lemme know and I'll tell you. lol

I agree about the bromance people in general. I come here to theorize and read other people's thoughts, but there's a lot of YT-comment-level shipping and not enough about the plot :/ Anyway, I'm here if you wanna talk about suspects and all that.

I'm still on team Thun. He hasn't appeared as much lately and no one in-world seems to think he's involved, so he must be involved. [?] Nothing else can explain that scene fanboying Kaye at the bar after drawing him in by using the name Asura. @_@

I also think he was killed under the uncle's orders because the uncle was behind the framing job, BUT -

Phat told Kitti and all those other cops that were surrounding him and Kaye about Nop having evidence. They were arrested a few minutes later, but if Kitti or one of the others got the info about Nop's evidence out, the real person behind the frame job might have been able to get to Nop between him meeting the uncle and going to the special ops like the uncle claims he told Nop to do.

Is Nat Nop? I think either the uncle is corrupt and was the one behind the framing, so he got rid of Nop and the evidence OR Kitti got the info about Nop having evidence out (Phat told him about it) and the real person behind the frame got rid of Nop. It wasn't Nekros/Asura.

Everything. And I could've sworn Asura's voice in the promo for episode 9 is Thun's.

That's the Scream Gambit, if you get my reference. If not, ignore me. :X

It's 200% Thun imo, but I'm biased because I've never suspected anyone else for real (my only plausible second possibility was Kaye's dissociated other personality, but after we actually saw the frame job it seems less likely than ever. And I am and always have been team 'if kaye has DID, all his personalities are innocent and pookie' lol)

But Lil' Jane, it only comes out once a week :O Or do you rewatch it a lot?

Nop went to the uncle like Phat told him to, and the uncle SAID he told him to take the evidence to special ops. Either:

a) that's a lie and the uncle killed him/had him killed by someone under his command and took the evidence, because the uncle was the one behind Kitti's corruption/the framing operation.
b) it's the truth. But since Phat told everyone in that scene (Kitti and the other cops after Kaye) Nop had evidence and was taking it to his uncle, Kitti or one of the others might have been able to get that out to whoever was behind the framing.

Either way, there's still hope Nop made a copy of the video in case someone got to him, and it still exists somewhere to be discovered next episode.

Right? It's like they never watched a cop show lol

But maybe he made copies and we just don't know it yet.

It's a very common thing in mysteries and thrillers. :( Someone has evidence or something that could crack the case to tell the cops/lawyers/higher-ups? They'll never make it there alive.

Hopefully he/him and Phat/the uncle if he isn't corrupt (I think he is) made copies of the video so his death won't be in vain.

I only watched My Golden Blood with him :X

I sure am glad the bad cops in this clearly learned their shooting at the Storm Troopers academy!

I know this is my third cheeky comment about this episode, but this is seriously the silliest episode yet. I can't even make myself try to be funny about the telegraphed character death (there were legit 3 death flags for him this episode, come on); or about Phat telling everyone Nop had the video; or the fact that no one made a copy of said video and sent it to, say, one or all of the three reporters they know, since a reporter in a coma having it is still better than no one having it; or how Kaye turned on his cellphone despite being told not to and got found ten seconds later. They should've worked harder on the police part of this drama, and also removed a couple of convenient coincidences and fake-outs while at it.

The characters' backgrounds are well-built, the main actors are good, the secondary actors did their job, the serial killer part is on the nose but not offensively silly... They could've elevated this to more than a murder-flavored bromance with more care and research. IMO, with the way it turned out, it's just not a well-written attempt at a cop show, a mystery, or a thriller, and it makes me kinda sad.

Why do cops in Thai dramas constantly try to frame people for serial killer incidents when they haven't actually stopped the murderers, and they can do it again and ruin their case? I get it if they somehow know who the killer is and that person is out of the game somehow (dead, abroad, under someone's thumb, in an asylum, wtv)... But when he is as free as a bird and can strike back, doesn't that mean the police have to cover it up and/or investigate EVERYTHING again? Wouldn't it make the organization seem extra-incompetent?