A Soldier’s Heart indeed treated its avid viewers to an unusual yet satisfying conclusion on its highly anticipated final two episodes of the series, “The Final Breath” and “The Final Salute”, last week. Thus, for this episode of Kapamilya React, we tapped a few of our beloved Kapamilya viewers to share their reactions and views on the truly nail-biting and tear-jerking ending.
REVIEW: A Soldier’s Heart offers powerful, stirring finale that gripped viewers
As the soldiers took on their mission to capture Saal Alhuraji (Sid Lucero) and his men, we found ourselves completely hooked with everything that happened in the last episodes. We witnessed a slew of intense clashes between the troop and the Moro fighters that ensued to a lot of deaths from both groups, along with reconciliations of those who had grudges with one another.
Aside from the thrilling gunfights, we also caught ourselves brokenhearted and crying, particularly on that part when Private First Class Alex Marasigan (a.k.a. Hakeem Alhuraji) came face-to-face with his biological brother Saal and attempted to persuade him to surrender, join forces with him, and live a brand new life.
However, just when we thought that we’re going to expect a happy ending, we saw the two valiant lead characters die as Alex was accidentally killed by Saal when he tried to cover his foster brother Elmer Marasigan (Vin Abrenica) from being shot by him. In return, Saal was fatally shot by Alex’s comrades.
On their very last breath, Saal and Alex implied that they’d already mended their rift and reconciled as they tightly held each other’s hand. A Soldier’s Heart indeed succeeded in giving us an utterly heart-rending moment through this, especially when the lullaby Saal used to sing to Hakeem when they were still kids played.
The hearty conversation between loving moms Minda (Mickey Ferriols) and Yasmin (Irma Adlawan), as well as the flashbacks of the memories that Alex’s buddies had with him, also shattered our hearts.
Apart from the remarkable scenes, the Kapamilya reactors heaped praises to the dramatic chops of each actor, as they’re able to elicit the right emotions needed in particular scenes that absolutely stirred us and made us empathize with them. They also noted how the series seamlessly incorporated the topics of LGBTQIA+ and of the Moros throughout the show, as well as effectively paid tribute to our soldiers.
Our beloved Kapamilyas also shared their takeaways from the finale, reiterating one of the most notable lines of Saal: “Walang kapayapaan kung walang kamatayan!” and implying how the brothers attested to the oft-quoted adage “blood is thicker than water.”
It may not be the finale we’d been probably expecting, but it was still satisfying for the majority of the ardent viewers since the rest of the characters had a happy ending.
A Soldier’s Heart may have already ended, but we hope that the learnings it wanted to imbue to us may remain in our hearts and minds for a long time. Saludo!