Episodic Thoughts: “Triumph in the Skies 2” Episode 14

Triumph in the Skies 2 <衝上雲霄II>
TVB Series 2013

Cast: Francis Ng, Chilam Cheung, Myolie Wu, Fala Chen, Ron Ng, Kenneth Ma, Elena Kong, Him Law, Nancy Wu, Rebecca Zhu, Eliza Sam, and Kelly Fu.

Disclaimer: This is a watch as I write episodic thoughts and some information may not be accurate since this is memory based. Certain dialogue is reproduced with some creative license adopted. I apologize if there is any mistake. All opinion remains my own.

EPISODE 14

“I… am.. sorry”

I was predicting a Jayden-Summer-Isaac arc today, and I was totally and absolutely wrong! It is better! Sam-Summer! Finally, FINALLY a slight move on the whole plot thing. But first, of course, must suffer a little to get to the glorious middle.

The episode starts with Roy and Heather having a conversation waiting for a lift.

Pause.

Frankly I zoned out at this point. Basically the entire conversation can be summed up as follows:-

1. Heather and Tony have a faultless, soulless, loveless, childless (by choice) marriage. Which means it ain’t good because one of them will probably want passion at some point.

2. Roy agrees that he is in no position to judge her since he himself is in pretty messy mess sandwiched between 2 unsuspecting but equally as clingy girlfriends.

3. The conversation moves from lobby to lift to inside Heather’s place where, and I will stress here, Heather says Tony is at a pub with friends (except we all know he is probably at a pub with friends IN LONDON and not HK.. tsk… tsk…).

4. Roy brings up the whole bed creaking thing when Heather says she did not have sex with Tony because they both don’t want children (can’t anyone have sex without getting pregnant? What’s her point?) because marriage is dull, children should not be used to save a dull marriage. And so Tony to make Heather laugh jumps up and down on the bed, hence the creaking sound Roy heard.

5. No, Heather did not sleep with that Taiwanese gigolo.

6. Roy tells Heather he is ready to be her friend if she is willing to have him.

And so they did not have sex with one another, not yet, but the foundation is already laid for that eventual possibility.

Sorry but it was a yawn moment for me. I don’t get the connection of this scene to the rest, I find it such a momentum killer and I really couldn’t care less if they jump into bed or jump off the balcony, though I prefer the latter because then that’s the end of the yawn moments. After all I’ve already seen a Heather that is in that Silver Shackle Something Stupid series. And there at least Elena Kong was useful to the plot.

Continue.

Now this is where the real plot is!

LONDON!

Sam, drinking tea alone, looking mighty glum and sad and all that when Isaac appears, like a ray of sunshine and introduces.. SUMMER! Sam can’t help but stare at Summer and Summer looks a bit shy, not pissed off (that looks is exclusively for Jayden) but shy since she knows Sam is staring and Sam knowing she knows that he is staring, knowingly stop staring and looks away and Summer knows Sam knows that Summer knows that Sam is staring and therefore is shy and she too looks sorta awkward. And this is the time where Summer’s awkwardness and social ineptness is highly suitable except she isn’t so socially inept her, interestingly. Summer walks away I think when Isaac says “Doesn’t she look like Zoe?” and Sam disagrees and Isaac says “But every time I see her I see Zoe and she feels like family to me” and Sam, obviously masking his real deeper feelings says “She has her own style and personality, and a good one but I don’t think she is Zoe”.

Oh no, I do think Sam agrees with Isaac but in his own way, he is in denial. But oh how he stares. Francis Ng is supreme in this scene.

PPP class, Summer is brought in to talk about technicians and engineering stuff and everyone pays attention except Holly (remember the ghost picture? Ha! Ha!) now looks at her wide eyed and says “Isn’t that…. doesn’t she look like… but she is…”, sorta lost for words. Summer continues her talk and Jayden arrives and looks at her with pride and smiling and Summer sees him and avoids his gaze. When she later looks back, Jayden is gone and she looks disappointed.

Summer and Isaac and Sam together, Sam thanks Summer for the interesting talk and suddenly Holly appears and say to Isaac “I need your help. Some homework question” and Isaac looking a bit dumbfounded says “Well the teacher (Sam) is here! Ask him” and Holly drags him away as she says “No no, only you can answer my question” and Isaac is dragged away. Summer and Sam are left alone, both looking uncomfortable and shy. And Sam is staring.

Isaac isn’t too happy being dragged away and Holly says “Can’t you see it?” and Isaac asks “See what?” and Holly says “How your brother never stopped looking at Zoe lookalike” and Isaac doubles back and says “Wait! You know Zoe?” and Holly never answers him as she said “You should know what to do. You should let them be alone, work out whatever issues there is. This is like heaven sent! I mean how is that even possible that there is a Zoe lookalike? This is like fated for your brother. Like it is meant to be!” and she says so with such happiness and hope that we all know she wants to match Sam and Summer together. Isaac looks kinda like he understands. Holly continues “Moreover, this will help Sam to move on and to not have such guilt” and Isaac looks at Holly curiously as he says “Guilt? Why? Zoe died in brother’s arms, he was there when she left” and Holly looks confused now as she repeats “He did?” and Isaac says “Yeah, he told me himself”. Holly looks even more confused. And no, Isaac is not in love with Summer, yet.

Summer and Sam walking together, Sam again says thanks and Summer walks away as Sam says to her to visit PPP often and give more of such talks. As Summer turns her and her back to Sam, Sam’s expression changed from smiling to that of a certain sadness, longing, regrets maybe. Summer suddenly stops and looks at him with a softened expression as Sam stares at her intently and she says “Do you have something you want to say to me?” and Sam still stares at her as Summer says in a softened tone “Do you have something to say to Zoe?” and Sam looks shocked at it all and Summer continues gently “I will give you some time. You can assume I am Zoe, talk to me like I am her” and she looks at him and there was this longest pause ever as Sam stares and stares and Summer kinda give up when Sam talks softly and his entire expression changed from dead serious to this of regret, his eyes welling up with tears, his voice breaking as he says “I… am.. sorry” and Summer’s face softened even more and stares at him with compassion as Sam is now crying (not hysterically but for Sam to break down in front of a stranger or anyone at all is a huge leap of faith, so to speak, like he is baring his soul and he never ever loses control but this time, here he is, trying hard but still tears fall down his cheek) and says “Should I say… I forgive you?”. She isn’t emotionless but I feel her expression lacks even more compassion and frankly I am putting more description than what is on screen. Sam now sorta crying looks at Summer and says “But I can’t forgive myself… I am so very sorry…” and Summer, being practical as Sam would be in an ordinary day says quite curtly “If that is so, I can’t help you, only you can help yourself” and Sam now recovering says “Is that Ha Sun speaking or Zoe speaking” and Summer curtly but not malicious says “The two are the same”. Sam now recovers says earnestly “Thank you. And that is to Ha Sun. Thank you” and Summer finally walks away. Sam expression changes again, face still etched with regret and guilt as he looks at Summer’s back and that was like the longest ever a camera is fixed on an actor’s face, that is Francis as his Sam goes from sadness to understanding to acceptance and he then too walks away as life goes on.

Pause.

WHAT.A.FANTASTIC.SCENE! Beautifully acted by Francis, competently acted by Myolie except I wished she wasn’t so curt in the end but then Sam got his own medicine; that was how he was with Holly remember? So yes, it was appropriate. I love the changes in expression, the struggling to express the 3 words, the regret, the burden, the pain, everything and Francis has it all. Supreme acting. Lovingly paired and completed by Myolie. Myolie is less Myolie when she is with Francis, maybe because I was busy looking at Francis. As for the dialogue, moving, sad, beautiful. Summer must have got the “You look like Zoe” comments all the time which is why she instinctively know why Sam was staring at her and for her to give him that chance to say what he couldn’t say, it was very nice of Summer.

But… why the regret? Ahhhhh… you shall know after this sentence!

Continue. I mean after this sentence.

Holly is looking for the tri-angel, finds it and have a flashback moment.

FLASHBACK!

Repeat of Zoe and Holly in Taipei (?) airport. Then Holly picking up her ticket and she saw…. OH NO! Zoe being taken to an ambulance!!! Holly called the hospital I think and asked about the lady being wheeled to hospital and the guy replied “I am sorry to inform you there was nothing we could do. She died” and Holly in shock.

PRESENT TIME.

Holly holds and stares at the tri-angel and she wonders out loud; “Zoe died alone so why Sam lied that she died in his arms?”

Pause.

Holly, good question. And I feel so sad for Zoe who probably knew she was dying so she gave the ticket to Holly. Holly by accepting the tri-angel seems to have accepted her role to making sure Sam, Zoe’s biggest worry is ok. Obviously Sam is not ok but he is that sort that will rather fall to his death than to scream for help. Not pride but rather of show of strength, that he can’t show he is weak. Maybe it is pride but an honourable pride because he doesn’t want anyone to worry but then by hiding away in London everyone knows Zoe’s death affected him a lot. They probably just don’t understand why and how much and now Holly knows his biggest secret; his regret that he did not say goodbye to Zoe.

Continue.

Holly finds herself understand Sam as she I think write to Daniel? I think so. Anyway she writes or says she has no right to question why Sam lied. Everyone has secrets. She too ran away for one year and didn’t want anyone to know where she is when Daniel died. So she is like Sam’s soul mate now. If this does not scream SAM IS THE ONE FOR YOU!!! I don’t know what.

PPP class, looking at planes, all students excited and they want Sam to fly to show them a thing or two flying tips but Sam says they have no time and right about then a plane flies past, doing a twist, a great show off and guess who is flying it? Yes, Jayden.

After the class, Sam is stopped by that Yat Mung girl and she asks a lot of questions which Sam says is beyond the scope of PPP. The girl says she already knows all the PPP stuff and Sam admits she is over qualified for the PPP thing. And she says she actually joined PPP not for the letter of recommendation but to be near her idol, HK’s first Chinese male captain that is Sam. She harbours a wish to be HK’s first female pilot (I think Zita took that honour? Is Zita the correct name? As in Michelle Ye in the first series) but she could not afford the course I think so being near her idol is now like god sent and Sam flubs his lines, doesn’t know how to react to this very open attempt to flirt with him and Holly walks by and saves him bt pushing the girl away for something. Holly smiles knowingly at a much relieved Sam.

At the pub, Tony and Sam and remember what Heather says? No wonder the marriage is in trouble because she doesn’t even know her husband is in LONDON!!! Anyway Tony asks Sam about recommendation for restaurants and all and Sam eagerly introduces a few places that Heather will like. But Tony isn’t taking Heather, he is taking his ex-girlfriend who just came back from Japan for dinner, she is called Jessica and Sam asks would Heather mind? Tony says he is just having dinner with an ex flame, nothing more and so he doesn’t want to tell Heather at all (trouble brewing here!). And Tony looks intently on Sam who is busy drinking I think and asks “You were married to Zoe for so long (a decade I believe). During that time, have you ever you know, cheated on her or wanted to?” and Sam looks at Tony and says “I never cheated on her but… yeah, I did wanted to cheat on her, just once…” and Tony looks at him like who who tell me!!! and Sam looks at him intently and says “That person was … Tony Ching”.

That was funny! But I fear for his marriage to Heather. Looks like a couple that hides a simple dinner with an ex-flame claiming we have nothing to hide will look like they have a lot to hide!

Anyway Roy and his “beach” girlfriend in the elevator.

Pause.

Urghhhh! I don’t feel like recapping this but for completion sakes, a short one…

Continue.

Girl says she wants to join Skylette as air stewardess so they can be together often and Roy panics and Heather sees how Roy tries to worm himself out of that and she leaves and my note is written in capital with 2 lines underlined underneath “BORING”. Indeed. Anyway Heather says maybe he should see a fortune teller to ask him which girl who will be Mrs Roy one day and he drags Heather along and so before a fortune teller guest starred by the funny Koo Ming Wah! Fortune teller tells Roy 2 girls are not destined to be his, he is destined to have many many women problems so neither girl is suitable. Roy is disappointed and asks in a panic tone then how, what to do?! And Heather is told that she is in similar situation. She is married but the relationship is rocky and destined to fail unless she takes some initiative to save the marriage. Heather says what if she doesn’t want to be the one to take any initiative? Fortune teller says then her marriage is doomed. Heather isn’t too happy to hear that. Then fortune teller says almost to himself that these days young people don’t know how to appreciate things. In the past we cling on to old stuff but now we don’t know how to appreciate old stuff. Just because it is broken we throw out the old, and bring in the new, new TV, new electronics, new everything and disregarding the fact the old stuff. In the car, Roy shows himself as superstitious and all as he believes the fortune teller and he looks at Heather about her problem with Tony and Heather decides to take the initiative as she says “I think I will pay Tony a visit”. Ahhhhhh… doomed.

LONDON.

A short recap on the PPP class where Sam or Jayden or both say to the students the winning group can fly if they can submit some report within certain time. So 2 groups fighting for the spots – Hero, Jim Jim, Holly and the rest that does not matter in one group and Yat Mung and the others that is of no importance, one group.

Holly looking for something, checks through Yat Mung’s stuff when Yat Mung arrives and scolds her for looking at her things as Holly says she lost her notebook and being room mates, can Yat Mung let her copy her notes and Yat Mung says no.

Pause.

Holly acts like she is chummy with Yat Mung but Yat Mung looks like she hates Holly.

Continue.

Study group with the guys, missing Holly. Hero curtly says Holly will be the doom of their hopes to fly since she is missing, lazy, etc and Jim Jim defends Holly and goes out to look for her.

Pause.

The group is like united on the surface but the words used is so curt, I think underneath it all, they’re not united at all. Of course TVB doesn’t mean it that way.

Continue.

Jim Jim sees Holly looking through trash and Holly panicking says she lost her notes and Jim Jim was very gentle when he says to her to that there is always a little failure on the way to success and his brother told him that (he really respects his brother!) and Holly agrees and cheerfully says well, she will do a new one! And she wants to take photos of the planes as reference but one gwailo says place is closed and she needs to come back with an instructor to enter but does she listen? Nope. She climbs the gate, Jim Jim tries to stop her but in the end he joins in and Hero sees them and Hero scolds Holly that this will get her expelled and the group in trouble and Holly says don’t blame Jim Jim but blame her alone. Jim Jim says he is at fault too since they’re a group and he should share the blame and in the Hero himself agrees that they’re a group.

Wow, so united when minutes earlier Hero dissed Holly!

Anyway they climbed, ran around looking at planes and Holly arrives back at the dorm with her camera happy with the pictures. They arrive back at study room to find two groups at a shouting match, where Yat Mung’s team accuse Holly’s team (or rather Hero’s team since he is by voting appointed captain of that team much earlier) of deleting the report in Yat Mung’s laptop, which is denied and to be fair then, they too must delete their report and do again.

SAY WHAT?!

She blames it on Holly since Holly was acting strange around her table but everyone in Hero’s group believes Holly but argument continued as Holly says “Why would I do that?!” and Jim Jim and Hero speak up for her that if she did delete all those into, why bother to sneak into the plane hangar and take photos and all that? Anyway argument continues and Sam and Jayden walk in and Jayden, first time ever, SHOUTS LOUDLY “QUIET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and Sam says sternly “You’re all adults, act like one!!” and Yat Mung explains what is going on and Jayden shuts them up when he says “Any evidence? Any evidence at all that Holly or someone deleted the file in your laptop? No? Then don’t make such accusations! Don’t be loud!”

Pause.

Jayden shouted but I didn’t get the last line.

Continue.

Sam says they should be calm and find a solution instead of fighting and accusing one another and Jayden asks if they understand and they say yes and he scolded if they know, why then stand around?! After they left, he speaks to Holly and asks her out for a drink to reduce her fear (after being attacked that way) but she says no and leaves. Jayden frets a bit.

Holly walks past Yat Mung who is openly criticising Holly with another student and both go as far as to say Jayden is on her side and implying she is with Jayden so she gets special treatment. Holly defends herself, in a cheerful sort of way and deflected the accusations by asking the male student maybe he is jealous of Jayden’s attention to her? Oh no, he is in love with Jayden. She will be sure to tell Jayden whens he sees him. She says she can’t stop them for making wrong assumptions about her but Yat Mung is convinced Jayden is the one who deleted her file because she saw Jayden outside the room suspiciously.

Pause.

Strange accusation. And what happens next is totally out of character for Jayden and I like to believe this following scene did not happen at all.

Continue.

Jayden calls Holly and says he wants to see her and if she comes to see him at a pub, he will tell her a tip about the exams. She rushes there, no tip except she is asked by Jayden to drink 2 glasses of wine and still no tip and in the end Jayden asks her who helps her by deleting the rival group’s report? And Holly is shocked to hear Jayden confessing that he was the guy and Holly angrily says Jayden has hurt her reputation and there is no way she can clear her name now! Jayden is cool and all and Holly about to leave when Jayden says this is his tip about the exams; “Go back and ask your smart friends what cadet is tested on?” and Holly exasperated say “That’s a tip?!” and she leaves huffing and puffing and Jayden looking smug.

Next episode? Probably all about Jayden-Holly-Isaac-Summer.

Right now I am extremely baffled why Jayden acted the way he did. Why did he delete Yat Mung’s report? I never thought he would be so unfair. And all those tips after tips to Holly giving her an unfair advantage even if the tips are cryptic. I don’t get this Jayden, so out of character and all I hope is Jayden is not twisted into non-Jayden just so to fit into Holly’s world or something.

I am still reeling from the Sam-Summer scene and the sadness of it all. But most of all, Francis Ng who shows he is “da man” in acting for this series. Everyone else, even Chilam pales. Chilam is 2nd best, but because his role suddenly got screwed in the last scene hurt him a lot. I hated the last scene’s revelation. Jayden better have a good reason for doing what he did. Maybe to test the unity of the students perhaps? How they will react if lost something? Blame and fall or unite and conquer perhaps? I hope!!

Others were usual, not much to say. I am still not liking Holly and I still feel Fala is inadequate. A great example is this episode with Sam-Zoe story as opposed to Holly-Daniel story, both about loss, pain and regrets. But I feel for Sam and I felt nothing for Holly. And it is down to the actors and the way they handle the role. Francis was subtle and yet every emotions is on his face when he saw Summer. Fala looks in pain and yet she can’t even squeeze out a tear or two. Francis’ eyes were full of tears, brimming with tears. That’s the difference. One draws in the audience, the other repels. Maybe I am biased; I am not a fan of Francis Ng but I truly appreciate his fine acting and I am so happy he is in this series because I haven’t seen such masterful performance of such a complex moment since.. a long long time. Most are above Fala’s level but not at Francis’ level.

Myolie is ok but she could have done so much more by doing little, like how Francis did.

Elena Kong I feel is in a standard character that I thought I have seen somewhere else and her story with Roy is boring. I find them such a nuisance because it hurts the momentum. And I really don’t care if they have sex together or marry one another.

Ron Ng continues steadily as the must have guy in every episode, Isaac.

The PPP students are mostly forgettable but I am excited to see how Him Law does with his Jim Jim who is probably the most human and interesting of PPP group. The rest are just not my cup of tea.

As for Kenneth, cute, handsome but I hate his Roy. I don’t mean Roy himself but the fact Roy is just busy going for one woman and then another. What about his career?!

No Nancy tonight, no happy-fruit that is Eliza tonight. The show is now moving towards less aviation and more relationships heavy. I am not looking forward to Jayden-Holly because I know after episodes and episodes of their lovey-dovey, she will realise she is in the end in love with Sam.

But what a revelation eh; that Zoe died alone, Sam lives with regret and he lies to everyone and Isaac acting so normally all these while is because he thought Zoe died without regrets and Sam though sad at the lost of his wife did not know how deep was that lost.

I feel for Sam. I really do.

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This Episodic Thoughts was written by Funn Lim, a Contributing Writer at JayneStars.com, and was originally posted at http://p2e-tits2.blogspot.com/.