Let’s Make a Trip
In episode 2 of Analog Squad, we see Pond hiring some actors to act as his phony family in front of his parents. Pond had left home years ago and never visited his parents, not once in thirty years. The only reason Pond returned to the village was to bid his estranged father goodbye and give him a chance to meet with his family. However, the old man recovers towards the end, and Pond immediately makes a decision to return to Bangkok now that his father isn’t going to die.
Pond’s father is hurt after learning that his son has made plans and still refuses to talk to him. Even though she knows how stubborn Pond is, Lily tries to change his mind and asks her to stay a couple more days. If you’re not going to stay for your father, do it for your mother, Lily suggests. The reason why Lily is sympathetic towards Pond’s father is because she’s dealing with a similar predicament.
One of the flashbacks reveals that Lily has stage one cancer, which, if not treated in time, would pose a serious life risk. Pond’s mother also tries to convince him of the same, as she was expecting to spend some time with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. However, Pond makes it clear that he has a job to return to and can’t stay that long. Bung also wants to leave as soon as possible, as she’s constantly blaming herself for duping an old couple.
Lily, however, assures Pond’s mother, Sodai, that she will stay a couple more days. Unlike others, Lily realizes that even if all of this is a lie, Pond’s parents will always remember them as real family. Lily argues that staying a couple extra days is the least they could do for them. Pond knows there is no point in arguing with Lily as she would never change her mind, and thus agrees to extend his stay.
From what we’ve seen so far, it appears that Lily is the one controlling things, not Pond. Lily advises Ken to act like a medical student and not a call center employee, while Bung is told to maintain her farce as Mag so Pond’s family doesn’t get suspicious. Lily also advises Bung to wear long skirts and jeans that cover her knees, just in case Pond’s mother brings up the scar again.
The next few days, Bung, Ken, and Lily bond with Pond’s parents while he sits outside just waiting to return to Bangkok. Once the doctors clear Pond’s father, he convinces everyone to take a vacation on the island he used to visit. This was a surprise, as Pond’s father had maintained that he would never visit the island again. Pond had begged him on multiple occasions, but his pleas always fell on deaf ears.
But is there any specific reason as to why Pond’s father never visited the island? In the present, Sodai tells everyone that when Pond’s father was a boy, his boat capsized in the middle of the ocean, making him fearful of speedboats and water. Thus, the only reason why Pond’s father wanted to visit the island was to feel more alive and spend time with his son, and grandkids.
Unfortunately, Pond still refuses to sit down and share a conversation with his father. Unlike Lilly, Pond isn’t a big fan of taking family vacations and believes she and the kids are getting attached to her parents for no reason. The show treats us with something we’ve been waiting for since the start. Pond finally sits down with his father and shares a few laughs. This is short-lived, as Pond loses his cool when his father asks him to return home.
At this point, we also learn that Pond was arrested thirty years ago, and it had something to do with his father. Things take a tragic turn when Bung receives a message on her pager informing her that her father was in a car accident. The message shakes Bung to the core, and she immediately tries to leave, but to her dismay, the last boat off the island has already left.
The Episode Review
Netflix’s Analog Squad just keeps getting better and better with every passing episode. In the second episode, dubbed “ Let’s Make a Trip,” we see Pond unwillingly taking an unavoidable vacation with his parents. The audience was hoping that maybe this would be the episode where we would finally learn about what made Pond leave his parents behind and move to Bangkok, but we’re only treated with the fragments of the story.
It’s possible that the next episodes, and the ones after it, will explore every character’s individual story. For instance, Ken’s tumultuous childhood because of her mother’s profession as a nude model or Bung’s love for her father.
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