‘Battle of the mothers’ unreels on ‘Budoy’

ANDERSON. Is it a case of rare possibility—or plausibility?

To date, the continuing drama on “Budoy” has focused on the mentally challenged title character’s travails, vivifying the oppression, discrimination and lack of understanding and love experienced by the disabled in general and retardates in particular, in a relatively unenlightened country like ours.

Recently, however, the series’ story has taken on a new and even more dramatically heightened turn, as the focus of its central conflict veers away from Budoy, and pits his surrogate mother (played by Janice de Belen) against his birth mother (ZsaZsa Padilla).

This is a surprising turn of events for some viewers, because up to this time, the two women have been exceedingly nice to each other, both bent on making the son they “share” happy, despite his disability.

Unexpected rift

So, what has caused the unexpected rift? Janice’s character is digging too deeply into Budoy’s past before she entered his life, and ZsaZsa’s husband (Tirso Cruz III) and his mother (Barbara Perez) are afraid that their complicity in his kidnapping will be found out! So, the seeds of fear and envy are planted in ZsaZsa’s mind, Perez’s character sics a restraining order against Janice—and prepare for all heck and hell to break loose as the two moms and  grandma do their righteous best—and vitriolic worst!

The “battle of the mothers” promises to be a melodramatic lulu, because it’s positively Shakeperean and even biblical in its seminal conflict. One mother on the warpath is stunning enough — but, here we have two and a half, so — watch out!

In addition, the fact that the maternal conflict is being emoted by superior thespians like Padilla, De Belen and Perez adds greater depth and scope to the seminal skirmish. We can hardly wait to see the thespic mano-a-mano square-off unreel, complete with melodramatic lightning and thunder, emotional floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides, “volcanic” take-no-prisoners performances — the works!

A pertinent sidelight to this epic struggle is the fact that it’s also shaping up as a battle of the social and economic classes, with Janice representing the poor and heretofore helpless and hopeless, and ZsaZsa the rich, educated and therefore powerful. We expect that, after the smoke has cleared on their battlefield, the poor will vanquish the rich — or at least convince them to belatedly have a heart!

Superior seniors

In the midst of this clash and clangor, where does that leave Budoy? He could get lost in all of the maternal hue and cry, so actor Gerald Anderson  has to be at the top of his thespic game to keep up with his superior seniors.

Happily, however, Budoy has a new development to his story that can keep viewers interested in him, even as the female characters around him scale the Olympian heights of molodrama: Just before Janice and ZsaZsa got on each other’s nerves, Budoy “accidentally” experienced a zap of “normal” intelligence and speech that suggests that his brain may be in the process of development and evolution. We leave it up to the trained brain specialists to state if this isn’t just a rare possibility but a plausibility, since this is what drama needs to be realistic and believable.

But, it is a dramatic development that’s full of possibilities, including Budoy eventually stepping in to resolve the internecine conflict that is shattering the hearts and lives of the people he most loves.