Episode 5 recap

Get ready to know the Lim Household! But it’s not going to be pretty…

Episode 5

As Richard is about to turn off the kitchen lights, he sees Maya’s position (the ‘wtf’ look on his face is priceless by the way), then Maya sees him. He tells her that since she’s still up, he will leave her to turn off the lights. Without another word, he leaves and Maya continues on and gets herself a glass of water.

The sudden rattle of the door handle startles Maya. She begins to arm herself with a broom and before the ‘intruder’ can enter, Maya blocks his way finding himself squashed between the wall and the door. Maya repeatedly screams out for Manang Fe who is already on her way up to see what the fuss is all about. She tells Maya to stop and let go of the door as it is Luke on the receiving end of it.

It’s not the most pleasant way to introduce yourself but Maya being Maya proceeds anyway. However, to Luke, he doesn’t take it well as partly because she had interrupted him sneaking his way back into the house at a late hour. Richard comes thundering in and angrily asks where he has been. He asks but doesn’t intend to hear Luke’s explanation and automatically sends him to his room and takes away the keys to his car.

The next morning Maya is awaken by Nikki knowing full well what had happened the night before. She blames Maya and tells her to just concentrate on Abby. It’s a horrid way to start the day.

When Maya asks Manang Fe if whether she has heard anything from Luke or Richard that morning, Manang Fe just tells her that she hasn’t and Maya is not to ask them anything about it. Maya agrees which leads her to another topic: the whereabouts their mother is.

“Wala siya.”

The atmosphere for breakfast that morning is a solemn one. Maya can only speak to Abby and tells her to eat well so later they can draw the princepe and mahal na hari, a story which she has told her. By drawing them, both the king and prince will then be able to reconcile. There’s no exact link but this gets both Richard and Luke’s attention. It’s smart move and luckily a confused Abby goes with the flow. It doesn’t help though. The two go on their separate ways without bidding each other goodbye and Nikki follows.

“…ganito ba talaga dito sa bahay ninyo? Hindi pwede mag usap nang mahinahon?”

While Abby is in class, Maya is left to sort her school application. It turns out that she needs to email the requirements, and to do that she is required to scan them. She is hesitant to ask a favor from an already hot headed Richard so instead, Manang Fe excuses her from the house the Maya uses this opportunity to go to an internet café to use their scanner. While waiting for a computer, Maya notices Luke. She approaches him and asks why he is here (to which he replies to her to not disturb him, and since Joma drove her here, Joma can give him a ride back. He doesn’t budge and tells her to leave him alone.

 

As Maya arrives home, she meets Stephanie who she assumes to be “Mrs Lim”. Stephanie on the other hand doesn’t correct which could really help with misunderstandings. Maya of course lets her into the house. All I can say is that she makes herself REALLY at home and I really just want to add that, it is no wonder Richard isn’t attracted to you. 

Since coming from a province like San Nicholas Maya isn’t used to seeing people like Stephanie, with red hair and all dressed up, so Maya takes fascination in her. She tries to get a glimpse of Stephanie whenever she can.

Richard comes back home and asks Stephanie what she’s doing here. She makes her move but Richard makes it clear that there’s nothing going on between him and her. She doesn’t accept any of what Richard tells her and promises to come back when he’s in a better mood. Pfft.

As Maya and Abby are snacking in the kitchen, Luke arrives again, using the back door. Once again, Maya fails to receive a response regarding the incident between him and his dad.

At Richard’s office, Maya asks him whether Mrs Lim has mentioned anything to him. Crap. And that Maya thinks it is best that it came from her since she’s the nanay. Oh Crap!

“Get out.”

“Ha?”

“I said, get out!”

Maya makes her way to the Abby’s room thinking that whatever she does, Richard always appears to be always angry at her. She tells Abby that luckily, their mother appears to be nicer. With this statement, Abby, in her own fabulous way tells her that their mother is dead. She acts dead by putting both her hands up beside her head, closing her eyes and opening her mouth all at the same time. To me it looks like she has just been petrified but to Maya she does not have any clue what Abby is trying to tell her. Ignoring what she’s trying to say, Maya takes Abby out to say goodnight to her mum (Oh, boy) and Abby continues to scuffle on Maya’s arms.

As they come out of the room, Nikki, whose bedroom is next door, comes out overhearing Maya and Abby.

“What did you just say…bastos ka rin… how dare you say those things to her.”

Unable to take it any longer, Nikki storms out, Abby in the meantime, still trying to convey to Maya that their mum is dead. Maya turns to Abby saying that everyone in the house are always hot headed.

Luke, whose bedroom is on the other side of Abby’s comes out and says, “Kase, matagal na patay na si mummy.” And leaves.

Later that night, Doris and Sabel inform Maya all about the family (I do not know why she wasn’t told this earlier) in the kitchen with Manang over hearing everything. They tell her that it has been 5 years since the death of Mrs. Lim. She was travelling to another place when the plane crashed. From then on Richard doesn’t allow anyone to talk about it and he particularly doesn’t want the kids to talk about it and when it’s mentioned, he’ll get angry. It doesn’t make sense to Maya since they have the right to talk about their mother however Richard doesn’t want them to get hurt because it took them a long time to ‘recover’. But to Doris, in her opinion, Richard is still in the state of denial.

It’s no wonder the kids are messed up, really.

As Maya checks up on a sleeping Abby, she notices a drawing of a woman and a little girl holding hands with the woman having the same hairstyle as Maya, long hair swept on to one side of her face.

After Maya exits the room, she hears a soft weeping noise coming from Nikki’s room and then we cut to Nikki in bed looking at a picture of her mum.

Knocking and entering into Luke’s room who’s playing with his play station, Maya, in her own way lets him know that she understands what he is going through and she’s always around whenever he wants to talk with someone.

In the lounge room, we see Richard watching his wedding video clearly still very emotional at the sight of wife. Unable to continue on, he turns of the TV and as he opens the door, he runs into Maya who’s on her way to see him. She apologises about what happened earlier and it will never happen again.

After Richard leaves without saying anything back to her, Maya notices that the DVD player is still running. Attempting to turn it off, Maya instead turns the TV on.

“Gandang ganda pala ang asawa ni Ser.”

Comments:

I find it a little annoying with the fact that Maya entered the household without prior knowledge of the death of Richard’s wife. But I can see why it happened and how it had to happen. First of all, the fact that Maya didn’t get that bit of information was because it was a taboo subject (I’m ignoring Manang Fe’s not-so-subtle response) and second of all, it just goes to show how important acknowledging the mother’s death is to pave the way for everyone to move on.

That’s why Maya is such a perfect person to return the Lim family back to some sort of normality. It takes great guts and mental strength to work in that house and the thing about her is that she is genuinely and naturally a very good-hearted person. Who can hate somebody like that?

In this episode, we get the taboo subject up in the air, though it causes some anger and pain, it’s those emotions that need to be embraised for everyone to be a step closer to closure.