‘Closure’ incomplete
ROSALES.Left holding the bag.
More than the usual number of viewers watched the final telecast of “My Legal Wife” last Friday, June 13, to see how the popular drama series would resolve the complex-compound marital and extramarital conflicts it had set in motion.
Would aggrieved wife Monica (played by Angel Locsin) definitely, definitively and permanently divest herself of her loving but faithless spouse, Adrian (Jericho Rosales)? How would he react—and, what would his inamorata, Nicole, have to say on the matter?!
Well, at the end of the exceptionally emotionally charged concluding telecast, all three protagonists and/or antagonists had their heartfelt say and made their dramatic moves—but, they weren’t definitive enough for some viewers—us included.
Monica did bid Adrian goodbye as she left for the States—but, she also left him her ring, which she (more than) hinted she would return to reclaim—whenever the time was right and ripe! —How’s that for plot and thematic “closure”—with the door kept “slightly” open to accommodate future changes of mind—and heart?
Some viewers who approve of such “open-ended” conclusions will point out that life’s like that; there are no absolutes when it comes to love. —Wow, that’s so—European!
What about Nicole, who was expected to make life difficult for Adrian and Monica up to the bitter end? Amazingly, she was rendered much more cooperative and even feelingly apologetic when she left her child by Adrian in a locked vehicle—and Monica had to rescue the kid from a potentially tragic fate!
Yes, Monica kept Nicole from having Adrian all to herself—but, how could she continue to bear a grudge against her rival when Monica had saved her child’s life?!
Thus did the show’s final telecast handily coopt Nicole’s anger and jealousy, and instantly transform it into remorse and abject apology—an extremely sudden emotional about-face that actress Maja Salvador wasn’t able to sufficiently manage.
Relatively left in the lurch by all of these penultimate and ultimate developments and conclusions was Adrian, the faithless, window-shopping spouse and lover who thought he could have it all—but was left holding the bag both thematically and emotionally, because the series was clearly canted in favor of its female characters.
Monica was able to feelingly “represent” all wounded and betrayed wives, while Nicole gave voice to the point of view of queridas and inamoratas and their derided ilk.
But, aside from an “angry” interlude when Adrian complained about his rights as a father being violated by Monica’s decision to take their kids with her as she tried to get a fresh start abroad, he was pretty much limited to glumly, manfully taking whatever his two lady loves dished out—which was a lot!
