Mad Unicorn’s ending is, in typical rags-to-riches fashion, a thunderous uplifter for those who’ve enjoyed Santi’s story. But this glorified portrayal of startup culture feels quite dated and doesn’t really seem realistic at all in Mad Unicorn, despite being inspired by true events. The show tells the story of Thailand’s first unicorn company, a door-to-door delivery service that was born in the mind of a young man who started with nothing and only ever dreamed of having a kilogram of baht. Santi goes from working at a sand mine to getting scammed trying to sell condos and then partnering up with one of Thailand’s biggest companies, only for it to be a huge betrayal, because Kanin makes his son, Ken, the CEO of the company that was Santi’s brainchild. This leaves Santi with no option but to show his mentor, Kanin, that he can beat him and build an even better company from the ground-up. What follows is a messy fight of copied ideas and unethical practices. But Santi continues to keep growing his company with his team. However, the two companies get to prove themselves head-to-head when an online retailer named Mally, Thailand’s biggest, decides it can partner up with only one express courier service for the next year. This puts Thunder Express and Easy Express in direct competition with each other, leaving Santi desperate to do whatever he can to win the “11:11” challenge. How does he manage? And what happens with Xiaoyu? Let’s dive into Mad Unicorn’s ending to find out.
Spoiler Alert
How Does Santi Make It Onto The Plane?
Despite all odds against him and his company, Santi is able to keep his company alive till 11:11 only because Xiaoyu sells her shares to Alice Wang. Everything seems to be going okay for Santi, but every time they plan a new marketing campaign or do something new, Easy ends up copying them immediately. But Santi isn’t able to find the mole, and he trusts his core team, which is the real mistake, because it’s not one mole but two, and they turn out to be in his core team. Linux is the first mole that Ruijie discovers, because he follows her when she goes to mess with the conveyor belts. So far, she’d been feeding Ken information because he was helping with her mom’s hospital bills. It’s especially sad because Ruijie was always harsh on her, knowing she was the best of the lot and would be their ticket to success. Ken tells Linux to do him one last favor by offering up more for her mom when it comes to the point that Thunder still has more orders than Easy, despite them having copied all their tactics. Linux is forced to factory reset the belt mechanism, leaving them halted for good when there are still 5 hours remaining for deliveries.
Linux makes a huge dent in the Thunder Express system, but Santi isn’t one to give up easily, so he gets everybody to work manually. But when it feels impossible to make up for the lost time, he tells everyone to bring as many people on board and offers each new person on board 1000 baht for their assistance, as long as there isn’t a single package left in the warehouse. Santi tells Xiaoyu that he’ll sell his car to pay these people. This is how dedicated he is to making things work, or, well, you could say, to his baby. This plan works, but then the team learns that the trucks they’ve ordered have been canceled. All of this sabotage is done by Ken to slow them down so that he can win the Mally deal. But, as it goes, those who cheat can never succeed. Finally, Xiaoyu suggests they send some packages, i.e., 5 truckloads of them, via flight, because she’s got a fund for emergency situations such as this one. But this plan is messed up by both Ken and Kanin. They get the police to do sudden drug tests, and another mole is revealed when he hides the truck documents, leaving Santi to drive the final truck by himself. He ends up crashing the truck because someone comes in his way, plus he’s super anxious trying to make it to the airport by 10 pm. Then it starts to rain, but this is Thunder Express we’re talking about, so “come rain or shine or bruises on our face, we will deliver.” Finally, Santi makes it, and all the packages get on the flight, but Kanin is speaking with the CEO of the flight company to get all the packages taken off his flight. Unfortunately for him, Santi was one step ahead and didn’t reveal the actual flight number, but the wrong one, making Kanin the fool at the end. Finally, when Santi gets off and goes to make a delivery by himself, he ends up unconscious and in the hospital. He’s in some random hospital when he watches the live stream where Mally’s CEO announces who the delivery partner will be. Obviously, despite all that they’ve been through, it is Thunder who ends up getting chosen to be the delivery partner. Finally, Santi wins against all odds.
What Happens to Ken?
In a bizarre turn of events, Ken turns out to have regrets, and retires from all his positions in his dad’s companies. The whole problem for Ken was that he was under pressure because he was the son of a man who was basically exactly like Santi. I think you can see the parallels between Kanin and Santi pretty clearly, and we know that the former also started with nothing, but Ken was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, which made his dad believe that he was basically useless, despite him being the reason for Ken being the way he is. But seeing as nothing he tried worked against Thunder Express, Ken decides to leave his dad’s company and start afresh. I think this is for the best, because this will probably take the pressure off him and allow him to at least try to be a good person. On the other hand, Kanin can focus on other people like Santi, who actually have the drive to do their own thing.
Does Xiaoyu leave?
In Mad Unicorn’s ending, Santi gets a 30 billion baht investment, and this is in 2021, 6 years after he started his company, making Thunder Express Thailand’s first unicorn. He can finally pay Xiaoyu back, which would allow her to pay her dad’s debt off and also buy back her childhood home, which was a big dream of hers. We know that Santi was in love with Xiaoyu, and she caught feelings at some point too, but in a realistic turn of events (the only thing in the show that feels remotely authentic), Xiaoyu does end up going back 2 years after working with Thunder, gets married to Liam, and even has a kid with him, fulfilling her dream. But now she can take it one step further by not owing any more money to anybody. The show ends with Santi going on a TV show and expressing that he doesn’t need to say anything to his enemy because him seeing him on the show would be enough. Soon after, he’s seen sitting next to Kanin, his “enemy,” and taking the painting that never dries from him. I suppose this is Kanin retiring, and the painting is a reminder of where Santi came from, somewhere he couldn’t even afford cup noodles. A reminder to be creative always and keep going, even when nothing is going his way.
I feel like most of the show is heavily fictionalized, but we can still make assumptions about what comes next for Thunder Express. They would go on to become the most powerful local express delivery company in Thailand. Santi would make everyone proud, proving to those who didn’t believe in him that he made it. I guess this story is truly a reminder that if you’ve got nothing to lose, you will put in your all and make sure you succeed.
