Obsession (TV5 - 2014) Episode 1 Recap

EPISODE 1 RECAP

 

In a hospital room, a doctor carefully removes bandages covering a woman’s face. We inter cut to a scene in a resort of another woman zip lining and screaming her heart out (of fear). When she reaches the end platform, the staff helps her out of the harness but she’s still not over her experience as she’s visibly shaking. 

A man offers his hand and helps her get off the platform asking if she’s okay but before she could answer him, she faints and he catches her. She quickly regains consciousness and the man introduces himself to her. He’s James Calderon (Martin Escudero) and he’s one of the owners of the zip line. She shakes his hand and says her name is Bernadette (Neri Naig). 

They talk about her fear of heights and she explains that she wanted to challenge herself to try something new before her birthday as advised by her dad. He starts hitting on her complete with a cheesy pick-up line asking if it’s working on her. By the look on her face, it does (barely).

A few days later at Mendoza Medical Clinic, Bernadette(a chemist) is presenting a new product she’s working on, to her boss Dr. Ramon Mendoza (Marvin Agustin) the same doctor we saw in the first scene. The product she’s presenting is a BB cream called the V cream that apparently is effective in making your skin noticeably fairer and blemish-free after only a week of usage.

Ramon gives her the budget she needs to continue her project with the condition that she needs to finish it within the 3 months or else, she’s fired. She works on it right away but she’s interrupted by James midway. 

He’s armed with balloons and he greets her a happy birthday. He invites her on a dinner date but she declines telling him she’s gonna go visit her dad in the cemetery and so he tags along calling him “Papa”(Father) which gets Bernadette to smile.

Meanwhile, Ramon is in his office talking to a picture of a beautiful woman on his monitor telling her how much he loves her and that he’s gonna find her eventually and when that day comes, he’ll forgive her and he’s never gonna let her go again.

Bernadette goes home with James where he meets her mom Eliza (Maureen Mauricio). They have dinner and mom asks James if he’s courting her daughter. Bernadette is shocked but James in turn asks mom for her blessing.

Outside her house, Bernadette is furious at James for what happened at dinner. He tells her that he only told the truth. He wants to court he because she likes her and wants to get to know her more. She cries and tells him that she’s not ready to love and get hurt again. He assures her that he won’t hurt her and asks for a chance to prove that. They hug as we flashback to 1994.

A young Bernadette is giving a speech, at her kindergarten graduation ceremony, about her dad. He’s the one who takes care of her because her mom is always busy with work, she considers dad as her hero. As her teacher is presenting her as the class’s first honor, suddenly her dad is having a heart attack and just as her mom arrives for the ceremony. 

Sadly, her dad passes away and we see how it affects Bernadette, she bangs her head on a wall as self-infliction, she losses sleep, she refuses to go out of the house and she’s constantly crying out for her dad. They go to a doctor and she’s diagnosed with PTSD. Mom is advised to always look after her especially if she’s having an episode. Cut back to present time. Bernadette is shaking and still crying as James tells her that he’s gonna take care of her. 

A few days later, they have lunch at James’ house with his family. It’s clear that they’re a tight-knit family as Bernadette observes them with a smile on her face commenting that if her dad was still alive, her family would be just like theirs. James’ mom Irene (Sheila Mae Rodriguez) tells her that she’s already a part of their family.

Bernadette and James spends the next few days as a happy couple on their honeymoon stage, with Bernadette having another go at zip lining and this time she’s screaming her heart out because she’s having fun. They make love and afterwards while James is asleep, Bernadette tells him that she loves him and it would kill her if they ever break up.

Inside his car, James is on the phone with a male friend telling him that he finally got what he wanted from Bernadette, he got her into bed. Introducing her to his family was just to prove that she’s one of those girls who falls for that kind of trick (ugh!). They talk about a woman named Sarah who’s away implying that he has a special relationship with her.

Bernadette looks at James Facebook page and she sees a status update posted by James’s younger sister Lucy (Franchesca Salcedo) about aforementioned Sarah now back in town, she wants to have a mini reunion. Sarah and James comments on the update make Bernadette uneasy.

This sends us to flashbacks with a narration from Bernadette about guys always leaving her when she gets clingy and possessive of them. She angrily confronts James the next day about the status updates which ends in James asking for a time-out in their relationship. This makes Bernadette cling to him even more. She apologizes to him profusely and he takes back what he said about them having a time-out.

Bernadette is regressing back to self-infliction, as her mom catches her once again banging her head against the wall. She blames herself for giving in to her jealousy that she almost lost James because of it. Her mom can only comfort her in silence.

James is at the resort while Bernadette calls him to meet. He’s clearly annoyed at her incessant begging so he reluctantly agrees. But, he still stood her up on their date, choosing instead to play pool with his dad Jaime (Richard Quan) at home. Bernadette calls him nonstop but as he’s not picking up, explaining to his parents that he wants to teach her a lesson, she cries and holds onto a rail bridge. I really thought that this is when she’s gonna attempt suicide but she doesn't.

She goes to his house instead and angrily confronts his mom if he’s cheating on her. Mom calms her down but Bernadette insists that he’s cheating. This gets James to angrily drag her outside, they have another fight as he tells her that they need space, she clings to him once again but it ends with him slamming the door in her face.

Bernadette gets a memo from her boss Ramon about her project already 3 weeks late and this is her last warning. She just crumples it out of anger. At home, she keeps calling James to no avail, he doesn't pick up and that just angers her more. Her mom tells her it’s time to go to the doctor but Bernadette insists that she’s not crazy. Her mom just wants to help her but she takes it as an insult and she walks out. She goes to her father’s grave and cries. Later that night, she attempts suicide at a footbridge.

      

At his clinic, Ramon is informed by another doctor about Bernadette’s attempted suicide. Luckily, she survived with no broken bones but her face is deformed and she’s classified as a psychiatrist case and currently confined in a basement of a hospital.

At home, Ramon reads Bernadette’s medical records aloud to his mother Regina (Elizabeth Oropesa). Bernadette is diagnosed as bipolar, manic-depressive, obsessive-possessive just to name a few. She became obsessed about being an over-achiever at everything. His mom asks how that makes her a perfect subject for their experiment.

 

He explains that she has something that their past (failed)subjects didn’t have and that is the desire to have ‘something that you can’t have’ – the obsession. In Bernadette’s case, her obsession is James Calderon.

Ramon visits Bernadette as he offers to help her; he can give her a chance to start again with a new face and a new life if he chooses to go with her calling himself as “The God of Second Chances” Hah!

She accepts thinking that this would make James love her again. She lies to her mom that she’s going to Canada because of a job offer but instead she goes to James’ rehabilitation center at an undisclosed location.

She starts her treatment right away; hypnotism, plastic surgery and all the works, to make her a new person with a new identity. James tells his mom that the procedure is successful and that this is start of the fulfillment of his promise to her; he’ll regain her life back for her.

We go back to the beginning of the series, as Ramon uncovers Bernadette’s new face. As he’s removing the bandages one by one, the scene is inter cut with a woman zip lining in James resort. This woman is confident and shows no fear, as she gets off the platform James’ extends her hand to help her but she rejects his gesture. This is Bernadette’s new identity, Vanessa Villareal (Bianca King).

COMMENTS

I like how this first episode went full circle; it was executed really well and the outcome didn't feel rushed, by the end I wanted more scenes. Sticking to a 45 minute running time is a really great choice in the show's part; shorter than 45 would force the writers to cram in the storylines but longer than 45 would just drag out the episode with fillers. A really great start to a promising show and I hope it stays that way until the end.

Screencaps Via TV5 Obsession