REVIEW: Forgiveness, truth dominate Linlang’s “Ang Sagarang Finale” | ABS-CBN

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REVIEW: Forgiveness, truth dominate Linlang’s “Ang Sagarang Finale”

REVIEW: Forgiveness, truth dominate Linlang’s “Ang Sagarang Finale”

Mary Ann Bardinas

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Updated Jun 15, 2024 07:00 PM PHT

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Up to its “Ang Sagarang Finale,” Linlang: The Teleserye Version indeed never failed to bring us to the edge of our seats, bate our breaths, and stir our emotions as it delivered scorching, intense scenes in every episode.

The finale week commenced with Victor (Paulo Avelino) watching the other copies of the videos captured by the CCTV camera of one of Alex’s (JM de Guzman) neighbors, which were cut from the file that Alex and his lawyer submitted to the authorities as evidence. But aside from simply finding out that it was really Alex who was the real culprit behind the tragic death of Sylvia (Kaila Estrada), Victor was also able to verify that Olivia (Heaven Peralejo), his present wife, really went to their house that night and was caught running on the street as she was being chased by Alex.

As Juliana (Kim Chiu) irrationally refused to take their daughter, Abby (Heart Ramos), with her when she came back to Alex despite being assaulted by him physically, Victor couldn’t help but wonder what could be the real reason behind it. This compelled her to confess that she’d been doing everything she could in order to correct her mistakes by making Alex pay for all his crimes, as well as helping Victor find his wife and clearing his name from Sylvia’s murder. She also expressed remorse and apologies to Victor for betraying him.

Victor then suddenly received a text message from Olivia’s mobile number, telling him to stop looking for her since she’s safe and just healing from his and Juliana’s alleged “betrayal.” Unbeknownst to him, it was sent by Alex and his cousin, Matteo (Race Matias), who held Olivia as a captive in a secluded place after the former ran her over.

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Heeding to Juliana’s suggestion to check if Olivia in the town of Baquiran, where she suspected that Alex and Matteo possibly hid her after eavesdropping on their conversation the night before, Victor immediately went there. Juliana, on the other hand, also mustered the guts to spy on Matteo by coming to his office and installing a mini camera to find out the pass code to his vault. Unfortunately, she was caught by Matteo, who refused to be swayed by her pleas and persuasions to turn his back on Alex.

Luckily, Juliana was able to call Victor before being caught and tied by Matteo and he arrived just in time to rescue her. Before they left, she made sure to take the pieces of evidence that proved Alex’s real involvement in Sylvia’s death and Olivia’s disappearance, which Juliana discovered inside the vault.

For sure, a lot of viewers had gone livid towards Alex when he told the police that it was Amelia who really killed Sylvia, urging her to tell the truth and pinning the blame on her in his pursuit of turning things around. Of course, Amelia insisted that it was him who murdered his wife after Sylvia threatened to turn him in to the authorities and sent Victor to prison to pay for the crime in which he’s the true culprit.

Juliana and Victor managed to surrender the evidence to the police, while Alex quickly left the police station upon learning from Matteo what had happened. Alex proceeded to the house of Juliana’s grandma, Pilar (Ruby Ruiz), where Abby was staying as he probably considered harming them. Pilar might be able to call the police to have him arrested, but the latter was also too swift to take her as hostage. Fortunately, despite her age, Pilar was strong enough to push him away and escape from him while he sped off as the police fired at him.

Alex went to Amelia’s house in an attempt to ask for her help. She was obviously not keen to do so after what he did to her, but he gaslighted her anew by reiterating that it was her fault that he turned into the person who he is now. Just when he assumed that Amelia was indeed sincere in helping him, Alex eventually found himself being chased by the police and Victor, yet he managed to flee.

Matteo unexpectedly arrived at the scene and brought Alex to Emilio (Raymond Bagatsing), who vowed to help him with his predicament by organizing a boxing deathmatch for him and Victor. Alex was able to make his brother fall into their lair by appearing before him and Amelia, knowing for sure that Victor would certainly follow him.

Upon gaining his consciousness after someone punched him hard, Victor found himself inside a boxing ring with the audiences cheering as Emilio officially commenced his bout with Alex. The brothers exchanged powerful blows and kicks, as well as attempted to finish off one another with a steel pipe, but none of them won since Victor was able to knock Alex down and the former refused to whack him. Besides, the fight was interrupted by the surprise arrival of the police that got everyone panicking.

Emilio took advantage of the situation by taking Amelia as hostage, but she managed to get away from him and ran to Alex. Unfortunately, Emilio was able to shoot him at his back when they were about to flee. After Victor made sure that Juliana and Abby were already safe, he saved his brother as well despite all the nasty things that he went through because of him.

Badong and the police officers were able to recover the lifeless body of Olivia at the shed where Alex and Matteo kept her, which absolutely devastated Victor. Alex was also filled with frustration upon finding out that he was already a cripple after the bullet struck his spine. He might have perceived himself as a loser, but Amelia consoled him by assuring him that she would stay by his side no matter what.

They might not be able to rekindle the romantic relationship they used to have, but Juliana and Victor chose to keep the cordial bond between them for the sake of their daughter. Both of them was able to cope from all the traumatizing events, with Victor regaining his stellar boxing career and Juliana selling the house she used to share with Alex and to focusing on self-love at the moment. While Juliana was eternally indebted to Victor for everything that he had done for her, he also expressed how grateful he was to her for hurting him, which motivated him to be a better version of himself.

Valuable takeaways, notable performances

As we all know, Linlang was initially broadcast on Prime Video, through which it was well-received. And once ABS-CBN began airing it across its online and TV platforms, those who weren’t able to see it on the said global streaming platform had fully understood what the hype was all about. It’s because the primetime drama never failed to deliver intense, scorching scenes every weeknight.

We may have already seen a lot of “kabit seryes” over the years, but we can all agree that Linlang still stood out, primarily because of how its stars – from the main to the supporting cast – were so effective in their respective roles.

As what Gen Zs call it, Kim Chiu totally “ate” in portraying Juliana, the woman who made the viewers both love and hate her so much. From taking on endearing characters, she astounded us with how she truly slayed this mature and bida-kontrabida role. There might be times when she got into our nerves, but we also found ourselves sympathizing with her.

Her two leading men, Paulo Avelino and JM de Guzman, also delivered notable performances as brothers-slash-rivals, Victor and Alex. While Paulo seemingly received a lot of love from the viewers because of his portrayal of a kind, dutiful, and loyal man to his family, it’s the other way around for JM, who did a great job in making us hate him as the gaslighting, abusive, and manipulative man to everyone around him, particularly to the women in his life. For sure, there were a lot of times that he earned our gigil due to his misdeeds.

While we’re used to seeing her play affectionate and amusing roles, we got to see a different side of Maricel Soriano through her character Amelia, who was so blinded by her love for her son Alex and hatred on Victor, as well as of her yearning to be looked up to by other people.

Aside from the Diamond Star, veteran thespians Ruby Ruiz and Jaime Fabregas endeared us with their respective characters, too, as the doting Lola Pilar to Juliana and Kate (Anji Salvacion) and as the loving Lolo Badong to Olivia (Heaven Peralejo). Both of them might be softies towards their grandchildren, yet they were able to give them and even others searing real talk based on their wisdom.

Despite their limited appearances, both Kaila Estrada and Heaven Peralejo gave lasting impressions to the viewers through their respective performances. Kaila received loads of praises for her commendable portrayal of Sylvia, who did a lot of foolish things in pursuit of saving her marriage with Alex. Heaven also impressed many with her depiction of Olivia, who became Victor’s second shot in love.

Raymond Bagatsing and Race Matias also deserved to be recognized for their portrayals of secondary antagonists Emilio and Matteo, as well as young stars Hanna Lexie and Heart Ramos for their promising stints as Abby. Meanwhile, up-and-coming artists Anji Salvacion and Kice So were also able to prove that they’re worthy of the slots given to them.

And just like any series, Linlang did not only provide us with remarkable scenes and striking linyahans throughout its run – thanks to top-caliber directors FM Reyes and JojoSaguin, as well as to their brilliant pool of writers headed by David Diuco – but also valuable lessons on life and love.

This reminded us that karma, either good or bad, is indeed real and the universe has its wondrous ways of bringing back to us all that we’ve done and given out to the world. We must never allow our greed, anger, and selfishness get the best of us because those would really derail us and leave us regretting in the end.

We may have committed mistakes, but we should not dwell on them. Just like what Victor advised Juliana, we should consider them as lessons learned and our guides in rebuilding ourselves and giving ourselves a fresh start.

And lastly, the world may turn its back into us, but there are either one or few people who would always choose to stay by our sides no matter what due to their unconditional love for us. At the same time, there are also people who would opt to forgive and look past the offenses that we inflicted on them, so we better not put the kindness they’d shown us to waste.

Here are some of the tweets posted by Kapamilyanetizens on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the “Ang Sagarang Finale” week of Linlang:

Congratulations on the successful and momentous run, Team Linlang!

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