Episode 10 – The One with all the Chiseling

Episode 10 – The One with all the Chiseling

Aired in the UAE on 27^th February 2012

So finally Arben and Sharina come face to face.  Sharina recognizes Arben, “Ikaw,” you.  Arben is cluesless, “Ako?”   “Yes, you,” insists Sharina.  She tells him he’s the guy in the picture save for the long hair and well, Arben now sports some facial hair.

Arben still does not even recognize Sharina.  She doubts herself, thinks of another reason for him being there and who he is.  Maybe he’s the new sculptor Mang Tino recommends?  “Ano nga pala pangalan mo?” Sharina asks him his name.

“Benjie,” he replies with a smile. 

“Ako si Sharina.” She shakes his hand and smiles back.  Then she asks one more question, “Ah Benjie, may gusto pa sana akong itanong sa iyo.  May pagkakataon ban a nandun ka, nandoon din ako, sa isang lugar.  Yung sa may bangin sa Baguio?”  If there was a time that he was in the same place she too was, like that ravine in Baguio.

“Baguio?” Benjie doesn’t even seem to know what, much less where, that is.  “Wala akong maalala.” Benjie doesn’t recall anything.

Sharina pushes, “Sigurado ka?” wanting to be certain. 

Benjie is certain, “wala kasi ako maalala.”  He has never seen her before.

Rico and Baddie friend follow the man with the new i-phone.  Baddie friend comes up to him and asks for a light.  He pretends to have some trouble with it, thereby getting much more attention from the man.  Rico gets his chance to nick the cellphone from the guy’s pocket.  They leave as the guy goes over to his parked car.  When he feels for his phone, it is no longer there.  He looks around looking for the man who just asked for a light, baddie friend and calls to him who by now is running away with Rico. “Hoy mga magnanakaw!  Cellphone ko ibalik nyo!”  He shouts at them to return his cell phone but they are already on their way.

Sharina shows Benjie the workshop.  Sharina asks again. “Sigurado ka ba na hindi pa tayo nagkikita.”  Whether Benjie is certain that they have never met before.    Benjie is silent, seem to think but shakes his head.  Disappointed, Sharina tells him she’ll be inside  and to just call her if he needs anything.  Benjie picks a mallet and looks at it.

At the Police Station, Junic’s parents and Monica are shown the CCTV footage of a gunman shooting at Junic.  The man has some markings on his shoulder blades almost up the back of his neck.  Monica tells Junic’s mom that at that time, she was talking to Junic [Dapat kse kung di kausap si Junic on duty, baka nakapag-handa pa sha at di sha napatay, kaya kasalanan mo rin Monica!]

The Police tells them that at that moment, people in their department are doing some recreations of the tattoo to see what it could be which could help them identity who the gunman is. 

Arben curiously looks and touches things in the workshop.  He removes his black leather jacket and we can see that he seems to have the same tattoo as the shooter in the CCTV footage. [But we know it wasn’t Arben who shot Junic, not even the bad Benjie, because it was Gimo, right?  So is Gimo a fallen angel too?]

Sharina looks at Arlan’s portrait and says to herself, “Parang kamukha talaga.  Mahaba lang ang buhok.”  She covers part of Arlan’s long hair in the picture, “Kailangan gupitan.”  Then exclaims again, “Kamukha talaga!”  Telling herself that Arlan and Benjie look alike, save for Arlan’s long hair.  If cut, it is one and the same face, indeed.

Arben gets a chisel.  “Sabi nya manlililok ako.  Baka naman kilala nya ako.”  Referring to Sharina who called him a sculptor and thinking that maybe Sharina does know him to be one.  He starts hammering a piece of the stand.  “Baka naman, manlililok nga ako.”  Thinking that maybe he is indeed a sculptor.  After a few attempts he claims, “Madali lang pala.”  He thinks it’s easy to do.  He chisels an arm and cuts if off.  In his panic, he hides it under some sawdusts and finds another statue to mutilate whilst pretending to be busy at work.  [Oh dear.  Arben acts a bit of a doofoos here.  Problem is, while it is supposed to be funny and light, he comes off as totally stupid!  I prefer him as the silent Arlan.]

Junic’s parents and Monica walk home hopeful that they find more information about the tattooed gunman soon and bring him to justice.  Junic’s mom asks how Monica is coping and she admits it’s not getting any easier coping with their loss.  Until now, she tells them she misses Junic so much. 

Junic’s father blames himself for his son’s death.  He shares that Junic had wanted to be an engineer but they didn’t have money to send him to college.  Instead he ended up working as a security guard which cost him his life.  “Kaya kasalanan ko kung bakit siya namatay.”  The father felt his failure to send Junic to school pushed him to his early death.

Monica visits Junic’s tomb and tells him about the lead from the police.  She tells him as time passes, it does not get easier as some people say it will.  In fact she just misses him more. “Ba’t ganoon?  Sabi nila, habang tumatagal nawawala ang sakit pero sa akin, habang tumataggal mas lalo kita name-miss.”  She continues lamenting about how Junic had been the one person she would go to for her own problems and now without him, who will that person be?  Junic is watching Monica and tells her, “Kaya mo yan Monica.  Nandito ako.”  He tries to give her strength and comfort, assuring her he is just there for her like before, as always but she doesn’t hear.

Monica leaves and Junic calls after her, “Monica!” But of course she doesn’t hear him.  Junic looks up and sees his sundo who asks him whether he is ready to leave yet.  “Gusto mo na ba umalis?”  But Junic tells him not yet, he isn’t ready yet.  Then asks who he is, “Teka, sino ka ba talaga?”  The sundo tells him what he is and even introduces himself, “Ako si Mikal.” 

Junic asks what Mikal is going to do if he, Junic, isn’t ready to leave yet.  Mikal the sundo tells Junic that sundos cannot force the dead to leave if they don’t want to, save for those “itim na sundo” ,the black fiery smoke that takes the baddies at the time of their deaths, who take the dead instantly down to hell.  Junic deduces so if the black sundo takes the baddies to hell, he is going to heaven?  The sundo replies, maybe.  [Well I guess there is the purgatory and heaven to consider if you get a white sundo.  Still a lot better than the black one!]

Mikal tells Junic he’s coming back for him when he is ready and leaves despite Junic calling on him to stay.

Sharina looks at Arlan’s picture then looks at Benjie.  Benjie pretends to be busy and maybe he does not see the lurking Sharina but Desa arrives and asks her friend whether she has any plans to show up at the food shop where she is still an employee and Sharina shushes her.  Desa asks what she is doing and Sharina shows her Arlan’s photo and then points to Benjie.  Desa marvels at the resemblance. 

Sharina wonders about the man she saw who saved her from getting raped and the man she saw and saved her in the bus accident who looks like Arlan’s photo and now Benjie, their new sculptor who also looks like the man she saw and Arlan. 

Desa wonders, “Merong bang tatlong lalaking ganyan ang hitsura?” whether it is possible to have three different men look so much alike.  [Baka triplets! Hehehehe]

Sharina tells her loyal friend, “alam mo, nililito mo ako,  that Desa is only confusing her more.

Desa teases her friend, “isa lang ang sigurado ko, type mo yung manlililok mo.”  She tells Sharina that for sure, Sharina fancies her new sculptor.  Sharina chides her, “Ano ba, huwag ka maingay.”  Don’t speak so loud but smiles at the thought.

Elsa finally sees her daughter and asks Ginella where she’s been as she’d been waiting for her to come all this time.  Ginella tells her mother that she was in another interview that seems to have the same conclusion, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

Elsa assures her daughter that if her plan works, Ginella will definitely have a job.  She plans to tell the parish priest that the real image of Sto. Rosario had been stolen and when that is revealed, Sharina’s shop will lose credibility.  It will lose customers, go bankrupt and close down.  Then they will re-open the workshop into a beauty parlor that Elsa will manage with Ginella as her assistant.

Arben still hard at pretending to be a sculptor.  Sharina gives him water with ice.  He gulps them with a smile, telling her he really likes cold water.  “Sarap, ang lamig!”  Sharina laughs at how he seems to be drinking water for the first time and asks him if he wants some more.  “Gusto mo pa ba?”

She tries to smell him and asks if he’s using some kind of perfume but Arben denies this. “Pabango?  Wala, wala akong pabango.”

Sharina tries to get to know more about him, asking him if he’s from around here as she remembers Mang Tino telling her he’s from the province.  “May pamilya ka dito?”  Sharina wants to know if he has family in Manila.  Arben enumerates his newfound family members, Lola Inday, Pepay and Rico.  Sharina comments that he seems close to his family and she’s happy that he does have family in Manila.  Arben agrees, “Oo, mababait sila,” saying that his family are good.

She asks if he’d been a sculptor for quite a while now and he admits he is new to this. “Bagong, bago pa lang.”  Very, very new to sculpting.  [Yeah, more like a few hours new, actually.]

Father is instructing some workers in the church to prepare and replace the replica with the real image for the procession.  Elsa and Ginella are there in the pretense of hearing mass when actually they want to tell the priest about the real image being stolen from Sharina’s, what used to be Lily’s workshop.

Elsa begins by pretending to admire the replica, saying how it looked so much like the real one.  Ginella seconds the statement but adds, “Sayang lang nawala.”  Revealing their intent.  Father asks what they’re exactly saying and Elsa pretends not to know and instead asks whether Sharina hasn’t told the priest anything yet,”Di pa ba nasasabi ni Sharina sa inyo?”

Sharina asks Benjie is he’d like some more water but sees something protruding out of his pocket.  It looks like a hand of one of the images.  She asks him what it is and it falls to the ground.  As Sharina stoops down to examine it, the panicked Benjie trips on a chisel and tumbles over falling on his back.  His and Sharina’s face as inches away from one another.  Both seem to recall a previous experience with their faces this close together. 

ABANGAN -  Father confronts Sharina about the stolen statue.  Arben recalls who he really is, “Ako si Arlan, isa akong sugo.”