KinnPorsche: who is the mole, and why do his own people end up killing him?

KinnPorsche aired 14 episodes on Thailand's One 31 from April 2 to July 9, 2022, with Mile Phakphum Romsaithong as mafia heir Kinn and Apo Nattawin Wattanagitiphat as Porsche, the martial-arts champ hired as his bodyguard. The first episode topped iQIYI's charts in 191 territories, per Wikipedia, and the uncut La Forte version dropped on iQIYI an hour after each Thai broadcast.

Somewhere around the middle of the season, it becomes clear that someone close to Kinn is working against him. The show takes until episode 10 to say who, and it offers a lot of wrong answers first.

The suspects the show gives you

The hunt starts in episode 7, when Vegas (Bible Wichapas Sumettikul), Kinn's cousin and the minor family's heir, offers to help find the culprit in exchange for Porsche. That's the first sign of how this family does favors. From there, the suspicion moves around:

• Tawan (Naphat Vikairungroj): Kinn's ex, supposedly dead, turns up alive in episode 8 and asks for protection from the Italian mafia in episode 9.
• Porsche: He plants bugs in Tawan's room to keep tabs on him. Tawan reports it, and Kinn locks up his own bodyguard and boyfriend.
• Vegas: Kinn is convinced his cousin is the mastermind behind the Italians and sends Pete (Build Jakapan Puttha) to tail him.

Two of those three are on the right track. Tawan really is working against the family, and Vegas really is behind it. The person actually working against Kinn from inside his own staff isn't on the suspect list at all.

The mole is Ken

In episode 10, Pete goes undercover to expose Vegas and gets caught. The man who catches him is Ken (Nakhun "Perth" Screaigh), one of Kinn's bodyguards, who turns out to be a mole for Kun, Kinn's uncle and Vegas's father, and has been working with Vegas all along, according to Wikipedia's episode summaries.

Ken doesn't get long to enjoy the reveal. Episode 10 is the bloodiest hour of the series:

• Ken: Kun kills him.
• Tawan: It turns out he's in love with Vegas and has been plotting with him to bring down the main family. He kidnaps Porsche's little brother Porchay, and when he realizes Vegas has abandoned him, he shoots himself.
• Big (Nutthasid "Nodt" Panyagarm): Kinn's bodyguard, who spent the early episodes making Porsche's life miserable, dies saving him.

Kim rescues Porchay, and Pete ends the episode as Vegas's prisoner.

Both of the minor family's inside men are dead by the end of episode 10, and neither one was killed by the main family.

Why Kun kills his own mole

The show never spells out Kun's reasoning, so this part is my read. A mole is only worth something while nobody knows he's a mole. The moment Pete sees Ken standing with Vegas, Ken stops being a source and becomes a witness, and in this family witnesses don't tend to last.

Don't miss: KinnPorsche's Kim and Chay ending isn't the whole story — the novel gives them what the series wouldn't

Tawan's ending runs on the same logic, just more painfully. He was useful to Vegas while he could get inside Kinn's house. Once he'd done his part, Vegas abandoned him, and the man who thought he was Vegas's partner found out he'd been an asset. The minor family isn't sentimental about the people who work for it.

What the mole storyline sets up

Ken's death opens the door to the show's other big pairing. In episode 11, Vegas hides Pete away and keeps torturing him, and the two eventually begin to bond. That pairing eventually got its own book: the English edition of Daemi's novels includes a volume titled VegasPete Story.

The cast took the show on a Live Nation world tour that opened with two sold-out Bangkok nights in July 2022 and played Singapore, Seoul, Manila and Taipei before closing back in Bangkok in February 2023. Not bad for a series whose most important reveal was a bodyguard you'd probably forgotten the name of.

Previously we wrote: Crash Landing on You vs Queen of Tears: the newer one fixed the ending fans still argue about