We start off the episode with Lily rushing into a high-rise condominium, frantically searching for her son, whose name is yet to be revealed, but only constantly referring to him as her “son” to anyone who she could ask. Then, we get a shot of a woman in her car driving and on her smartphone, wondering about the whereabouts of Lily’s son. In the next sequence, we then see Lily enter their high-rise condominium and see a letter on top of one of their desks with the inscription “Mama” written on top of it. To her horror, Lily then sees her son on the ledge of the balcony of their condo; he is wearing a hooded jacket, whose face cannot be seen, and he is walking towards the very edge of the ledge, clearly not in the proper state of mind, and entertaining the thought of suicide! Before he actually jumped off the ledge to end his life, time froze as we saw Lily approaching her son, and before we knew what would really happen if he ended his life or not, the scene ended. Wow! Talk about starting the first episode with a cliffhanger! This was engaging.
We then get a flashback sequence of six months to the current events of Lily and her troubled son in much more normal times, but something is brewing. As the old saying goes, sometimes money is the root of all evil. As we see the stepmother of Lily, Aurora, discussing the extortion money of 40 million pesos that Violet, who is revealed to be the half-sister of Lily, is demanding that she receive that from their late father in an instant or consequences will arise once more. There! Right there and then, they introduced us to what appears to be the primary antagonist, or in this case, troublemaker, in Lily’s extended family. Scene ends.
We are then taken to a two-story house wherein we see the scheming half-sister Violet discussing with her boyfriend (Julian) what would happen if they were not able to extort the 40 million pesos out of Lily from what appears to be a part of the total inheritance from her late father that she did not receive at all. Their scheming goes from talking like thieves among themselves to meandering about the political ambitions of the manipulative boyfriend of Violet, who is clearly the enabler here, and pulling the strings in the moves being made by Violet to extort once more money from her own flesh and blood.
It goes back and forth; now, the next scene takes us to Lily, her uncle, Felino, and her stepmother, Aurora, weighing their options, with Lily declaring with one brave and bold statement, “If she wants war, then war it is!” This scene-stealing moment proves that Lily has mettle, and when push comes to shove, she will protect herself and her family from threats, even if they are coming from her own stepsister. Suddenly shifting in mood, Lily then gets informed by one of their household helpers that the reporter from an unnamed media outlet is there to conduct an exclusive interview with her right there in the living room of their house. Lily lays down the dos and don’ts of the one-on-one interview with the reporter, who is a bit stunned by it but proceeds to keep it strictly business, meaning don’t ask what you aren’t supposed to and only focus on the foundation of her late father and nothing more. During the interview, Lily discusses the very humble beginnings of her late father.
We then go back to a flashback scene from decades ago in the year 1976, narrating the legend of a young, poor, and ambitious man (Young Leopoldo), who turns out to be the late father of Lily, and how he has been doing odd jobs since the age of 12 in order to earn money and help his father in any way he can financially. Right here and then, they show us at a young age that Lily’s late father had a lot of heart and that no matter what hardships he faced in life, he did his best. Throughout the conversation with the reporter, Lily talks about some things her late father taught her about life. In response to another question from the reporter, Lily says that her real mother, Carmen Chua, was her late father’s strength and that even though her late father lost his mother when he was young, it was Carmen Chua who cared for him and kept pushing him forward, so he didn’t lose his way.
We then go to another household and get a first-person view of Violet spewing venom and hatred toward Lily before turning off the television.
Then, another first-person view, again from another household, but this time the atmosphere and feelings are more gentle, calm, and less tense. Here we see the financially poorest and yet most low-key half-sister in Dahlia, who is living a modest life and whose stepmother does not know that she is, in fact, another half-sister of the famed Chua sisters. Discussions follow, with what appears to be a suitor or a close male friend going into the details of the technicalities of what qualifies her to be a real Chua, with birth issues and whatnot.
Next scene, we see Aurora trying to reason out with Violet that the money she is asking for is way too much, and judging by her history with handling money, it has been dismal! Shortly, Violet’s non-stop and merciless quarreling with her own flesh and blood really remind everyone how awful Violet is. Next up is Lily talking over the smartphone with her uncle (Felino) about how she has no intention of being intimidated into submission and will prevent herself from getting pinned in a corner again.
Here comes Lily’s important other (Redmond), trying to calm the situation and remind Lily that there is always a better way out of scenarios such as this. Although clearly, Lily’s important other does not realize how dangerous the situation is, or he is intentionally playing blind, this is something he should not be directly involved in. While eating at the dining table for a late lunch, here comes the youngest child (Andrew) of Lily to join them for their late lunch, and Lily wonders where her oldest son Petersen is, only to see him in his bed, wasted, looking unkept, and basically being a druggie. Although it is unclear the exact reasons for his worried mother, Lily, I mean, Lily can’t get a break here—one problem after another. Pardon my French, that is a shi*load of problems for any one person to handle and solve.
In the next scene, we meet Dahlia, the other half-sister we don’t know much about. She works in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry and seems happy there. In the next shot, Dahlia and her boyfriend (Elvin) are talking to their mutual friends about whether she should tell her stepmother that she is in fact a Chua. Dahlia, being a kind person and like a real-life daughter to Belinda, decides not to tell her stepmother because she doesn’t want to hurt her feelings or appear ungrateful for all the love she has given her. The conversation soon turns to Dahlia and her boyfriend’s wedding plans and whether they should get married.
Next scene, we are taken into the house of Violet, who is upset by the excessive amount spent on her extension card by Kayla, who is the daughter of her boyfriend, Julian, who is less than respectful in answering her question but is feisty, arrogant, and full of attitude. Naturally, arguments are in store with Julian over his daughter’s bitchy attitude toward her, but money is excessively spent by Violet as well on luxury items that they can do without. Turns out they’re not so discreet talking about Kayla in their bedroom. When, in fact, Kayla was all along listening outside their bedroom. Surprise! Surprise! A surprised Violet opens the door to see Kayla nonchalantly listening all along and walks away. Attitude! Feisty as F! But it’s cool nonetheless for viewers at home.
In the next scene, we see Petersen and Andrew talking, but their chat quickly turns ugly with his disrespectful attitude toward his own older brother. Andrew. Their father (Redmond) comes in and senses the rising tension between the two of his boys, only for Andrew to cover up again for Petersen, denying that there is anything wrong going on. He was clearly afraid of him.
Next in sequence, we see Dahlia with her stepmother, Belinda, who suggests to her that they need a new housekeeper to help around the house. Discussions turn to Dahlia’s boyfriend, Elvin, about them perhaps getting married already, but that discussion quickly turns into pain for her stepmom, with her grimacing in pain as soon as she sends Dahlia to get her a condiment in the kitchen. Clearly, she has a medical condition or disease that she is hiding from Dahlia.
In what turns out to be the final scene of the first episode, we see Violet, Felino, and Aurora quarreling with each other. Clearly, Felino and Aurora are trying to understand the true motive behind Violet’s extortion plan with the 40 million pesos. Yelling, quarreling, and arguments ensue, and here comes Lily into the equation. With the exchange of words and points of view, things are getting nasty. Is this going to be a showdown between the two stepsisters?
