EP 103 - "Powerful Matters"
Kind of a middling episode. On the one hand, there's plenty of Darna in costume. But the one exciting scene is just when Mayor Zaldy injects himself with the Extra serum after he is cornered by Darna and all of his henchmen defeated. Zaldy "Hulks out" to about 20 feet tall, but instead of pressing his advantage (he can literally bat away Darna with one hand) by advancing and crushing the cops, he simply throws a bunch of debris at them and stomps away. **Why don't they go after him?** Instead, we see an off-camera shrinking of his shadow, and then he slinks away in ripped clothing. Later in the episode he contemplates what he'll do next, which gives them a chance to run some previous Noah fire-hands footage.
Meanwhile, Brian has captured Pineda (who is taken to the hospital after being shot) but has also found out that Uncle Ernie had some kind of involvement in his father death. As a result, he doesn't want to work with Ernie in the field anymore. Brian meets with Darna, and there's a nice hug but no kiss. And over at Regina's lair, all that happens is that she slaps Ali in the face for being too protective of her. He is such a simp.
Probably just watch this for the Zaldy Hulkout, so you're not confused as to why he's suddenly an Extra.
And by the way, with Zaldy becoming an Extra, civil society has pretty much broken down in Nueva Esperanza: I mean, *both* of its richest citizens are General Borgo; the mayor and his son are supervillains; so is the big social influencer/lawyer; and there is corruption in the police dept. It seems like the only crowd left which is normal are the restaurant folks and the hospital team. It seems like kind of a commentary on the Philippines that you can't trust authority, not even every sexy costumed woman. And it's gonna get worse....
Well, at least they fight in the hallways, instead of just talking about their feelings in them.
EP 104 - Deleted City
Regina goes over the edge here. She broadcasts citywide to everyone warning them that she was right about Mayor Zaldy and that she will punish corruption: "I will be your judge and I will be your executioner. I will decide who will live and who will die!" (I recognized the word "mabuhay" which means "live" or "alive) I am coming!" And then she transforms live on the stream, because why not. The people of Nueva Esperanza rush around closing their windows and locking up their stores and houses against the coming of Valentina.
The reporter brings Borgo's Super Extra serum to the hospital and Pineda takes it. (Why is there no guard on Pineda? Are all the cops out hunting for Valentina?) Then they take off in a car with Noah and Andre to meet Borgo and sexy Xandra. Pineda, who has suddenly grown a neatly trimmed beard when he was clean-shaven a few moments ago (???) discovers that he has telekinesis - his first effort is lifting a heavy trash bag so there is a little joke "Is that what my power is? To control trash?"
Vice Mayor Felizardo "Feli" Gizmundo takes over as mayor and gives a public speech. Valentina, in full costume, sends snakes amongst the crowd, and they scatter in fear. I guess she's got at least 140 species to choose from, so she can attack about that many people at once? Darna shows up and steps on all the snakes at super-speed. Valentina feels the pain of the snakes (why does she have that weakness, yet continues to send her snakes out?).
Then we see something really reckless: the police enter and there's about a dozen of them shooting at snakes on the floor. There's no regard whatsoever for the crowd which is around. Brian finds a police officer who is foaming at the mouth from a snakebite (this is the first direct injury from floor snakes in the whole series, I think!!) but the other cops keep shooting at close range all around him. Then there are a half-dozen EMTs on the scene, and the cops are *still* shooting snakes all around them, too! Seems really dangerous - why not cordon off the area first and make sure all civilians are safe? Maybe throw some gas bombs in to pacify the snakes instead of using live rounds?
Valentina confronts Darna outside the hall ("we meet again" for what, the sixth or seventh time?). Darna keeps trying to talk Regina down, but it doesn't work. They struggle against each other in the air (Valentina's hanging from something, but it's not clear what) both using their super strength - apparently at this point, Valentina's strength might be the equal of Darna's! Valentina does the dance of death with Darna, punching and kicking and snaking, until once again Darna is snared in her coils. Darna breaks free (again! she always does) and knocks Valentina down (again!).
Meanwhile, instead of shooting at Valentina, the cops are shooting at the snakes. I'm wondering, is Valentina also bulletproof like Darna? If not, why not take her down with a couple of well-placed shots instead of firing wildly? They almost can't miss! But they don't do that. Instead, Valentina creates yet another distraction by making sure a couple of fleeing bystanders in a van get bitten. So Brian and Darna have to stop to help them,
and Valentina gets away (again!).
Regina flees back to her lair, and returns to her snake-girl form. She continues to feel pain and gets weaker as Darna stomps on and punches snakes nearby. How the hell is Valentina going to try to win if this keeps happening? I don't know, but Janella walks away looking hot.
Catch this one! It repeats many of the themes we've already seen, but at least there is a solid fight scene.
Episode 105 - Borgo With an Army
The episode begins with Claudio overhearing a conversation about Regina in a restaurant. My question is: why are people still eating out in public if Valentina is still on the loose? It's been only one day and they already forgot about the danger? Meanwhile Regina proves this true by proclaiming to Ali, "I want Darna to feel so bad that she can't save everyone." Meanwhile, Brian attends the funeral of the cop who died of snakebite and listens to his grieving wife and daughter, and then sits in a restaurant with his friend toasting the life of the dead cop. Still, everyone's out in public despite the dangers of both Valentina and Zaldy-Hulk being on the loose.
Then suddenly, there's a break for an extended preview of something that "continues on to the new phase" (I translated that from Tagalog).
They show 360-degree showcases of a whole army of supervillains:
- Pineda in some kind of slimy cyborg costume-
-Siegfried the reporter in a black costume with lots of yellow trim
- a white-haired short woman (whom I think is Maisha) in a tight and sexy revealing brown costume with very nice cleavage. Wow!
- a long-haired man with eye beams of destruction (not sure who he is - Red 5, do you know?)
- Andre in a dark gray outfit showcasing his power of explosions
- Xandra in a shapely golden warrior Amazon style outfit (this actress always looks hot in everything)
- Noah in a tight grey veined costume shooting fire
- Zaldy in a muscular costume with raised veinage all over it
They are "Super Strong", "Super Dangerous", and "Super Lupet" (whatever that means - Google couldn't translate it).
Believe the hype for Borgo's Army of Super Soldiers!
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:
Zaldy skulks around a bit, which gives them a chance to recycle old footage about him.
Richard looks concerned, which gives them a chance to recycle old Andre footage.
Zaldy's assistant Maisha goes to Madame Victoria to get some help, only to find out that she is Borgo. So of course Borgo recruits both Maisha and Zaldy into his forces.
Meanwhile, Narda meets with Ali. Why she just can't follow him back to Regina, while flying overhead as Darna, I don't know.
Back at the ship, Borgo collects his army, and uses a symbolic logo to create 'uniforms' (as he calls them) for his Super Soldiers.
The uniforms appear, one by one, on eight black plastic mannequins in front of his recruits. Not sure why he needed that extra step instead of just having the suits form directly on his minions? Maybe they just need a bit of psyching up. Anyway, Pineda is a smart mouth and makes a joke about whether the suits are "environmentally friendly & recyclable". Do not annoy Borgo with 1990s humor, Pineda!
Alright, can't wait til next week to see all of these villains attack. Especially Dawn Chang/Maisha in that tight revealing costume - I wonder what her power will be? See her closeup below:
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