ANGELICA Panganiban
After too many days of relative peace and quiet, with the characters played by Jodi Sta. Maria and Ian Veneracion planning their wedding, “Pangako Sa ’Yo” again “exploded” into high-strung conflict and shock on Tuesday, Jan. 12, when the presumedly dead Claudia Buenavista (Angelica Panganiban) appeared at the nuptials, and was recognized by her children, played by Daniel Padilla and Andrea Brillantes!
Oh, what a shocker that scene was—enough for its shock waves to put a sudden stop to the romantic and lovely proceedings!
Not only did Angelica’s character prevent her husband from marrying her archrival, but Amor Powers (Jodi) was forced to remember that she was supposed to be fiercely on the vengeance trail, not kissing and making up with the man who had been her faithless lover and allowed his wife to inflict such horrible and unbearable pain on her!
Conversely, even as Jodi’s character got her hate-full moxie back, Claudia (Angelica) also vowed to fight to the death for her husband and family!
At long last, the mano-a-mano, eyeball-to-eyeball battle royale between the two strong-willed women was back to full force, heat and vitriol—thanks to Claudia’s “miraculous” resurrection!
Many questions about her comeback from beyond the grave remain unanswered, but the series’ full force is now on its reintensified melodramatics—so all of the blanks will have to be filled later, if at all!
In any case, the shocking twist at the aborted wedding has succeeded in renewing viewers’ interest in the show and its expectedly high-octane, take-no-prisoners finale and denouement, which should be “exploding” sooner than later!
COCO Martin as Paloma
Instructively, “Pangako Sa’Yo” isn’t the only TV drama series that’s come up with attention-grabbing twists—to the max: On “Ang Probinsyano” just last Jan. 13, male lead Coco Martin’s macho cop character, Cardo, threw viewers for a loop by getting himself “made over”—as a sexy dame!
No, Cardo wasn’t finally doing a Caitlin Jenner, it was all part of the job—a complete transformation and disguise, so he could go incognito to find his twin’s widow (Bela Padilla) and crush the gang leaders who have enslaved her!
As of this writing, we still don’t know how he’s going to do all that. In the teleserye trade, however, all gambits are “game” as long as they keep viewers avidly watching!
What can competing drama series think up to top that?