Note: This episode summary is originally written by yours truly, and the images used are for educational purposes. For readers, kindly attribute this text to this blog if you plan on using it anywhere - we do not tolerate plagiarism on this blog!
Klay is a careless nursing student who particarly flunks her Rizal Studies course. However, a special request from her professor, José R. Torres, will make her understand the significance of Philippine history.
On a rainy night, two guardia civils notice a white ghost-like figure near the top of a church. One of the guards recognizes her as Maria Clara.
The woman in convent clothes, Maria Clara, tearfully prays to the heavens before begging for her dead mother, along with the saints, to take her life. Finding no more purpose in her life, she continues to scream into the night, as her voice echoes in the background.
The scene shifts into a classroom in Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (a university in Intramuros, Manila) with Prof. Jose Torres closing the epilogue to Noli Me Tangere. Torres notices one of his students sleeping and approaches her. We finally meet our protagonist, Maria Clara Infantes, also called Klay - as Torres asks her why she was sleeping - to which she retorts that she only had her eyes closed, but was "listening the whole time".
When she sarcastically adds that she was "savoring" his discussion, Torres asks her about the ending of Noli Me Tangere. Finally having enough of Klay's frequent lates and absences, he tells her to make a book review of Noli and explain its relevance to contemporary issues. Once he approves of her review, she will present her essay to the class. Should she not comply, he will fail her in his class. When Klay chases him to explain herself, he seemingly disappears into smoke and dust.
We then see Klay working part-time at a fast-food chain while reading the second chapter of Noli entitled "Si Crisostomo Ibarra". She overhears her co-worker telling another that if they fail to sell products, the loss will be deducted from their wage.
At the same time, Klay's friend and fellow working student, Stacy, notices some customers who hadn't paid for their food yet. She asks her to chase them, but Klay fails as they flee in scooters. She hopelessly tears up before returning to her job. The manager then scolds her that although she is allowed to study while at work, she shouldn't neglect her duties. Klay apologizes, saying she has homework, but the manager refuses to hear her excuse and tells her that the bill will be deducted from her salary. Unfortunately for Klay, the men happened to be misers who ordered too many foods. - worth 2,000 pesos
Later that night, Klay's unluckiness continues when a trash bag she is disposing gets a hole and when Stacy informs her of the news of her salary deduction. Klay numbly wishes that karma would hit the runaway men, including Prof. Torres whom she calls "Professor Boomer". Stacy tells her that she won't be able to complete his task unless she doesn't sleep... again.
At home, Klay finds her mother still awake. She notices bruises near Narsing's left eye, realizing that her stepfather, Ronald, is yet again beating her up. Infuriated, Klay angrily knocks on his bedroom door before her mother had to pull her away. Narsing tells her that she merely tripped but Klay is unconvinced. Ronald comes out of the bedroom due to Klay's noise. She threatens to bring him to the barangay for breaking his promise to not abuse Narsing again. However, Ronald "asks" Narsing if he truly hurt her - a scared Narsing then defends him and scolds Klay for falsely accusing him, telling her to apologize to her stepfather.
Ronald exasperates that he doesn't deserve such accusation and points out how he was the one who took Klay in when her birth father did not. He then warns her that should it happen again, he will kick her out of the house. Klay, with tears building up in her eyes, tells him that that's precisely why she is a working student - to not be a burden on him.
Later, Klay quietly enters her room that she shares with her younger half-brother, Elias. She wipes her tears away before approaching him. Elias asks if she has burger, but she replies that she wasn't paid that day. After giving each other hugs, Klay asks Elias if their parents fought, to which he hesitantly says yes. He explains that Ronald got mad after Narsing used his money to pay his debts and suddenly punched her. Klay makes him promise to not become like his father and never hurt anyone, especially women. After exchanging good nights, both of them fall asleep.
Sometime after, Klay visits her birth father, Anton Villarama, to loan 12,000 pesos to pay her mother's debts. A maid named Lani meets with her on the gate because Anton is in the middle of a phone call. When Lani goes back inside to inform him of Klay's visit, she sneakily follows behind... and overhears her stepmother complaining that she is big enough to stand on her own. She also adds that they're wasting their money on her, being the daughter of his mistress, because she might even be using the money for drugs. Anton doesn't have enough cash on hand and will be sending the money to her through her bank account.
Hearing this, Klay goes back and pretends not to have overheard the conversation. The maid relays the information to her and offers to walk her back to the gate. However, Klay decides to confront Anton head-on. She asks for a private conversation with him, but her stepmother tells her to ask the question then and there so she can hear it. And so, Klay asks her father why he didn't marry Narsing when he impregnated her and when she gave birth to Klay.
Noticing the elephant in the room after her question, Klay dejectedly adds that she doesn't think about it too often, and that their family is doing well. She continues to lie, saying that her stepfather takes care of them, and simply wonders why Anton hadn't done anything for them. Anton, without skipping a beat, tells her that he doesn't love Narsing - her birth was simply a drunk accident... and a mistake. Despite this, he adds, he still accepted her. Her stepmother scolds Anton for running his mouth off and offers a meal for Klay, but she refuses. She thanks her father - rather, Sir Anton - for being honest and leaves shortly after, crying outside the gate.
The following day before class, Klay calls her mother and tells her to cash out the 12,000 pesos she received from Anton. Stacy meets with her, and Klay tells her about how she despises men. While walking to class, Stacy gives her a book report to copy because she knows she won't be able to finish her report on time. With this, she submits her essay to Prof. Torres.
The moment Torres reads the first few lines, he already knows that Klay didn't write the review on her own and copied it from his previous student. He accuses her of cheating, plagiarism, and thievery - leeching off of other people's hard work. He tells her that he would have expelled her from PLM if he didn't pity her parents. Because of this, he drops her from his subject on the spot, forcing her to take Rizal Studies for the third time.
Klay's frustration finally gives in to her fatigue. She begs him to not make her take the subject for the third time because despite her seemingly laziness in his subject, she is a diligent working student and passes her other subjects. She adds that she doesn't see the need to study his subject because she finds it unnecessary to help her with her course, nursing, and that reading Noli won't make her a skillful nurse in dressing wounds and administering IV fluids. Torres, hearing her rant, becomes offended. He tells her that what she meant to say is that the book is useless, the same book that contributed to giving light to the struggles of Filipinos. Klay angrily replies that she knows "struggle" very well, as someone who works 8 hours for a job that barely pays the minimum wage, has a neglectful father who doesn't want to acknowledge her, and a burden of a stepfather who beats up her mother.
Torres apologizes, but he tells her that's not what he meant. The problem is with people like Klay who doesn't want to learn the real history of the Philippines. Klay admits that she doesn't want to stay in the country and plans to move abroad the moment she graduates... so why should she care about Philippine history and Noli Me Tangere? For her, it is hard to love the Philippines when her "life is a constant struggle in this miserable country."
Finally feeling the weight off of her shoulders, Klay apologizes for the final time, begging for one final chance since she didn't have enough time to complete the previous assignment. Torres then hands her a copy of Noli Me Tangere, telling her that she should only submit her book review when she completely understands the novel. Even though she already has a copy, Torres gives her the visibly old book-bound copy of Noli, saying that she will learn more about history in that version of the novel because it will "take her to the world of Jose Rizal's novels". He then takes a call and leaves, but not before strangely saying farewell to Klay in Spanish - "buen viajes, Señorita Infantes".
That night, while Klay sleepily reads Noli Me Tangere and overhears a drunk Ronald and Narsing fighting yet again. She sees him slap her mother on the spot and threatens him - Narsing sends Ronald back to bed and allows Klay to tend to her wounds. She tells her that she knows she will make a good nurse one day, and Klay cheekily replies that she already has enough practice just by taking care of her.
Klay asks Narsing why she was named Maria Clara. Narsing explains that her mother and Klay's grandmother, Pilosopang Tasya, was a huge Rizal fanatic, which also explains her and her son's name, Narcisa and Elias respectively. While conversing, she notices her still wearing the heart-shaped gold earrings that she gave to her during her debut three years ago, because she cherished it so much. Klay promises that the moment she graduates from nursing, she will apply abroad and bring her and Elias abroad away from Ronald, but Narsing scolds her, saying that he is already like a father to her. Not only that, but he is Elias' biological father, so she doesn't want him to end up fatherless like Klay. Still, Klay insists, telling her that if you love someone, you shouldn't hurt them - but Narsing simply replies that they wouldn't leave the other behind either.
Klay returns to her room and finally breaks down after an entire week full of stress and problems. Like the usual, she wipes her tears, moves to the balcony (to not wake Elias), and resumes reading. However, her tiredness gets a hold of her, and she soon dozes off on the third chapter of Noli Me Tangere ("Ang Hapunan") - while the book drops from her hand.
Suddenly, a gust of glowing dust seems to blow in the wind around Klay, and pages of the book fly around her. In a flash, Klay disappears, seemingly absorbed into the book. The next morning, Narsing calls for Elias and Klay to wake up for school, but the latter is nowhere to be found.
On the other side of the world, Klay wakes up in an unrecognizable room with a strange lady in bed asking her who she is... in Old Tagalog and Spanish. As we've seen earlier, the lady is Maria Clara - and Klay has transported inside the world of Noli Me Tangere.
End of Episode 1.
Photos courtesy of GMA Drama. No copyright infringement intended.
Recap Notes:
- (NOLI ME TANGERE SPOILERS) If you haven't finished Noli yet, Klay's grandmother's name, Pilosopang Tasya, is a female version of Pilosopong Tasyo, which is a name of a character in Noli Me Tangere. Tasyo serves as the "old wise man" trope in the novel. Her mother Narsing is named after Sisa, the woman who went mad after the death of one of her children. Her brother Elias is named after the main protagonist's ally who appears later in the story.
- Although it is already obvious, Klay is named after the love interest. Whether or not these parallels will connect to Klay's destiny, we'll just have to wait and see.