“Pangako Sa’yo’s” third episode is excessively sweet and romantic, that to say it’s just an okay episode would be an utter understatement. If this is a standalone movie, there’s no doubt of its capacity to send its audience crippling to the overwhelming sense of ‘kilig’. A night of many firsts, #PSYAngPagsinta teems with irresistable charm and sweetness that would surely make you drool for love and feel like you’re in a dream.
The episode opens with Eduardo watching Amor molding a clay pot, and once again we’re indulged to Ian Veneracion’s angelic stares. There’s no telling whether such moment is real or going to last, because the moment Juris’ version of “Panaginip” starts playing in the background, the scene makes us feel like everything happening is just a dream.
Gladly, it isn’t, as we learn Eduardo is just stopping by to let Amor’s family know he’s heading back to Manila, after getting assured everybody affected by the Buena Mines waste leak has been attended. As they walk along the way, Eduardo cites his previous romantic relationship—Natalie, whom he was set to marry but ran away on the day of their wedding.
Recognizing regret and grief in his tone, Amor wittily remarks “it’s her loss!”, dropping Eduardo’s being a pantasya ng bayan, as the reason why, only to be caught off guard when Eduardo asks her if she’s one of those many women fantasizing him. Cut to Claudia, who has taken the service of a tarot reader, for her to be sure, that it’s indeed Eduardo she’s going to marry, we see her draw ominous cards that point to a woman set to take Eduardo from her.
This sends her rushing back to Eduardo, who ironically, has his attention now fixed on Amor. The inauspicious reading starts taking toll on Claudia that after their first dinner together, she asks the inattentive Eduardo—whose thoughts apparently, are only of Amor—if he really wants whatever is happening and set to happen between them, or if he’s happy with her.
But what has really pulled him from the thoughts of Amor is Claudia’s asking: “Ano bang gusto mong mangyari sa buhay mo?”, a question he fails answering to because before he could actually do, a snatcher runs them by, taking something from Claudia (a purse, maybe). Eduardo races after the snatcher, but is only stunned with horror when the latter points him a knife, before running away.
The near death experience awakens something in Eduardo and makes him look further inside, deep into his emotions. For the first time he realizes how his life has been empty, until someone came and started filling it—Amor.
With the advice of Diego, his brother, his realizations brings him back to Amor, and in what could be the most magical scene of this episode, we see Eduardo kiss Amor for the first time.
It’s hard to dismiss all these fatal doses of kilig as merely a filler for whatever emotional disasters set to unfold for Amor in the next episodes (you know what I’m saying, original PSY fans), and it’s depressing as early as now to think that these are gonna end whether or like it or not. From the political depths of the past two episodes, #PSYAngPagsinta, is actually a breath of fresh air. I know it’s only been three episodes, but it really feels good that we get to have a full new episode with almost only sweetness and kilig sprinkled all over it.
Thanks to frequent playing of the song “Panaginip” and that sense of kilig gets magnified to numerous fatal folds, which is quite fitting because sooner or later these are all gonna end, like a dream that is never meant to last. (Sigh).
Having said all that, #PSYAngPagtingin is another one solid outing that is never less of the greatness of the past two episodes. It’s a ripple along the show’s currently lazy momentum, but one that’s too memorably sweet to dismiss.
The preview for the next episode show’s Eduardo’s mother finally taking more aggressive advances to secure Claudia and her son’s marriage. I say this development is good. I mean, it still has to pick up pace even if that means we’re never getting to see that screaming chemistry between Amor and Eduardo, again.
