Episode 5

My Stand-In Episode 5 brings us to Joe who’s heading to work after a sleepless night. As he departs, a debt collector shows up to see his mother. Later, Joe finds her cleaning the mess they’d made and admitting to a shortfall of 3 million Baht (over 80,000 USD). Neither wanting the other to worry, in the end, Joe determines to use his expertise to earn the cash.

Wut works with a new team but they aren’t as good as the Joe that Tong ran out of the business. Joe just happens in at that moment asking for more work so, they give him a try. Both Wut and Tong’s manager are dumbfounded – they’ve discovered a new Joe.

In Wut’s office, Joe signs the contract. It won’t be enough to pay all the debt, but it’s a start. Wut leaves him to handle the paperwork and close the door behind him. Alone, he’s able to  dig around Wut’s desk to find his former bank book. However, it’s connected to his old ID – but maybe he can get the money through an ATM?

Ming visits a seer to ask again about Joe. He’s given the same answer – that Joe is neither dead nor alive but doesn’t give a clue beyond that. If he wants something good, he must wait – but when it comes, will he be able to see it?

On set, Ming confronts Joe but Joe claims he’s busy and slides away as quickly as possible. Ming hangs around to watch the stunts but the first couple are a no-go. Once an unimpressed Ming walks away, Joe is able to do the stunt properly to a round of applause.

Afterwards, Wut and the manager tell him it’s okay to make mistakes the first time and Wut tells a story about his former stuntman who accidentally broke someone’s tooth. Tong’s manager eyeballs Joe’s back, noting he’d be a good stand-in for Tong in his upcoming movie. Joe declines and Wut thinks that’s the right idea, inviting him to chat at his place later.

Ming’s secretary, Jim, finds information about Joe, passing on that he’s signed on as a stuntman. What he’d seen wasn’t terribly impressive but he’d heard he got better later.

At Wut’s house, Joe asks about the twins but hears only one of them survived. Wut says no one in the office knew about it, so he wonders how Joe had heard there were two babies. Wut also notes that Joe lied about boxing lessons – what else is he hiding?

Joe manages to come up with plausible excuses for everything so Wut lets him go. Later, Joe takes the chance to ask about Wut’s previous employee called Joe. And Wut explains that he’d tried to fight for his friend after a work accident but they’d never found the body, making it more difficult.

Now, Wut says he’s looking after this Joe, already declining an ad shoot with Ming’s company, firmly recommending Joe avoid him. He’s the reason the first Joe died. But Wut has another job for him if he can wait a bit – one with his guy who’s a singer in Korea. Thinking of his mother, Joe asks to take the immediate job to pay the loan shark so Wut relents.

At the ad set, Wut tells Ming to take better care of this Joe, immediately getting Ming’s back up. While waiting, Ming invites Joe to hang out in his personal green room, but Joe says he’d rather be around lots of people, sidestepping him.

As they start the shoot, Joe can’t stop doing awkward fight poses while the other models are relaxed and slick. When Ming joins the set, Joe notices that his previous attraction to Ming has also come with this new body and he can’t keep his eyes off him. Joe overhears the team say that Ming only smiles when he’s opposite his brother-in-law, Tong.

When the others join the shoot, Ming selects Joe, who looks exceedingly uncomfortable, to stand with him creating a whole new vibe. When Jim approaches him later, Joe sends his apologies to Ming for his stumbles during the shoot but Jim invites him to dinner on Ming’s behalf.

At the restaurant, Joe has a flashback of a previous drunken dinner with Ming. Joe convinces them both to relax and drink, keeping both their glasses filled. After a few, Ming wonders why Wut personally escorted Joe to the set. Joe supposes it’s because he reminds Wut of his deceased junior, but Ming retorts – get lost and tell your boss that Joe is alive.

As he exits, Ming tells him to watch the way he talks about Joe, that people only like him because of the other Joe. Stoically, Joe says he knows, closing the door behind him. In the hallway, Joe checks Ming’s schedule on the phone he palmed, sending it back with the waitress, claiming he’d found it.

Back at the company, his boss tells him Wut has transferred Joe to the stunt team. He invites him out with the rest of the guys but Joe tells him he’s busy – he has to break into someone’s house – haha. On the way out, he runs into Sol, who just keeps on walking.

Breaking into his former apartment, he finds his ID and the broken mugs glued back together. Lost in memories, someone else enters – it’s Sol, wondering who dares enter this house.

The Episode Review

So, wow. Why is Sol entering Joe’s house – where Ming seems to be living? Are the two of them together now? Or do they both visit to hold vigil unbeknownst to each other? And better yet, what will Joe say to Sol now? Whom he hasn’t even met yet and with whom he’ll soon be working. That might put a kink in their project together.

New Joe, old triangle as Joe is tapped to work with both Ming and Sol on different projects. And even more so as Tong’s manager identifies him as a good stand-in for Tong. Man, this guy can’t seem to shake his old life – it figuratively clings onto him at every turn. The novel seems to reference fate – I guess this is Joe’s fate – to continue to be Joe and face the same trials from the exact same people. Could it be there’s something here for him to learn on a karmic level? What do you imagine the lesson is?

Have you fallen for My Stand-In? Let us all about it in the comments below. 

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