It should come as no surprise that the ending of Master of the House is predictable, grim, and formulaic. You’ll be similarly unsurprised to learn that its sole recurring bit of symbolism is as obvious as you suspected. But Episode 7 of the Thai Netflix series contrives, in its way, something of a happy conclusion, at least for the people who more or less deserve one. But given the themes, it’s hard to imagine it lasting long.
As a murder mystery, there’s an argument that the show is needlessly convoluted, but there’s little deeper meaning to unpack. Still, let’s break down what happened and why just so everyone’s on the same page.
Who Killed Roongroj?
As mentioned, Master of the House is a murder mystery revolving around the death of Roongroj, an extremely wealthy diamond tycoon whose sons, Phupat and Mavin, are psychos who both stand to inherit a fortune.
Naturally, the brothers are the prime suspects. But the show is framed from the perspective of Kaimook, a young woman who was hired as a maid and married Roongroj right before his death. She also turns out to be his killer.
Naturally, Kaimook has engineered things – with the help of all the other mistreated servants – to frame Phupet for the deaths of both his father and brother. Kaimook has dotted every I and crossed every T. She has video evidence of Roongroj signing his assets over to her and can incriminate Phupat for everything.
Why Did Kaimook Want Revenge?
Kaimook’s motive is simple enough – she and the other servants, especially an older maid named Dao, were horribly mistreated by Roongroj and his family.
The demeaning rituals began as soon as she came to interview for the job, and only worsened. Roongroj was a sicko who believed that his wealth and power gave him the right to treat people – especially women – like his personal property. His overtures led to the suicide of Dao, and Kaimook was heading down a similar path after earning the patriarch’s attention by being good at her job and interested in the butterflies he reared.
The first step of Kaimook’s plan was convincing Roongroj to marry her. With both of his sons out for his fortune, Kaimook made Roongroj believe that she could sire him a manipulable heir who wouldn’t grow up and try to kill him. The irony, of course, is that Phupat and Mavin were the way they were precisely because Roongroj had pitted them against each other their entire lives.
What Do The Butterflies Mean?
Roongroj’s obsession with butterflies works as a handy metaphor for his tendency to own and control things he finds beautiful. They’re representative of freedom and agency being caged, character being reduced to exterior beauty.
The freedom of the household staff inevitably dovetails with the freedom of the butterflies. This isn’t exactly rocket science.
A Happy Ending?
With Roongroj, Phupat, and Mavin all dead, Kaimook gets her wish. In a symbolic gesture, the servants take over the house, now masterless and free to live their lives as they choose. On that level, Master of the House has a happy ending.
Is this a happy ending, though? On the surface, it seems like one, but Animal Farm started that way too. An idyllic utopia of true equals is a hard thing to come by, and it seems inevitable that hierarchies and prejudices will begin to emerge in time. You can replace all the family portraits you like, but depressingly, it seems to be human nature to assemble ourselves into haves and have-nots, into the powerful and the powerless, and our capacity for awfulness seems to be controlled only by our capacity for getting away with it.
The servants may well, eventually, become the very thing they despised, and form the very system they toppled. But with a bit of luck, we won’t have to sit through another season of it.
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