Princess and I - Week 1, April 16-20 Episodes Recap

her across the border and put her on a private plane to Manila.

Esmeralda arrives home and is met by her daughter, Vicky, who asks who she’s carrying. Ariya is asleep on Esme’s shoulder, still wearing her Yangdonese princess clothes, with Behati’s handkerchief tucked into her back like a cape.

Isabel’s body was cremated, and the king empties her ashes into the river according to custom, vowing that he will always love her and will never lose hope that he will someday see their daughter again.

As time goes on and the princess is still not found, people begin to think that her body might have been carried away by wild beasts. The king doesn’t want to believe them, however, and makes a pilgrimage to a mountaintop monastery to consult the monks, but even they think that the princess might have gone on to another world. One, however, tells him that one day she will return as all things in the world return, and they will be reunited.

Esme calls Jin’s house to ask for the rest of her belongings, since she left Yangdon without them, but the maid who answers the call says she’s busy. While Esme talks on the phone, we see that she’s using a pay phone in a store. Outside, Vicky is playing with Ariya, waiting for her. Nearby, a man, Dinoy Maghirang (Dominic Ochoa), is buying green mangoes for his pregnant wife. Vicky sees a man selling balloons, and she runs after him with Ariya. Just then, there’s an explosion, with smoke and debris everywhere.

Esme finds Vicky crying– she’d lost the baby because she was so scared. We see that Ariya is also somewhere there, clutching Vicky’s doll, wandering around and crying her heart out. Dinoy, making his way through the fleeing crowd and the smoke, sees her and picks her up, just as debris crashes down on the place where he’d been standing…

Esme and Vicky try to look for the baby, but Esme gets hit by some debris and falls. Dinoy decides to just take the child out of danger, and carries Ariya away. He actually passes in front of Esme, who sees him vaguely and tries to reach out to him, but he doesn’t notice her. Vicky doesn’t notice him either, because she’s crying over her mother. So he brings the baby home to his pregnant wife, Stella, and their daughter Bianca, who’s a little older than Ariya (about Vicky’s age). Stella protests, but he tells her that the child saved his life… if he hadn’t picked her up, the debris would have fallen on him. Besides, he’s bringing her to the police station in the morning so that her parents could be located.

In Yangdon, Behati, speaking as if from her husband, tells Jin that her requested land has been granted to her for service rendered, and insinuates that she will receive more favors if she remains faithful and trustworthy. I wonder if Jin’s told her everything, though…

The police can’t locate the baby’s family, and tell Dinoy maybe he should bring the child to Social Welfare.

Maybe no one’s been looking hard enough, for we see Esme in the hospital, where she’d presumably been brought along with other victims of the bombing. When she regains consciousness, she finds Vicky at her beside, crying and apologizing for losing the baby. Aw, poor kid. She actually treated Ariya like a little sister.

Dinoy has approached a social worker, but she tells him that all the orphanages are full. Only a few of the children actually get adopted, and some of them end up running away. Although, since the child is still small, she might have a better chance at getting adopted. Dinoy asks about the adoption procedure, to Stella’s dismay, since it isn’t easy raising three children. He thinks he might as well adopt Ariya, since she’s a lucky child– why, she saved his life! Stella: That’s a child, not a puppy you can just pick up off the street!

In Yangdon, Kencho comes home tired, since he’s been working hard overseeing the irrigation project. On the pretext of tending to him, Behati tries to hint that, yunno, that should be the king’s job– where’s His Majesty, and why isn’t he doing his work? If he’s ineffective, why, he should be deposed– and as the head of the drukpah, Kencho could then be King in his stead! Kencho won’t hear of it, though– he’s loyal to his king, and states quite firmly that he doesn’t want to hear any talk about deposing him, least of all not from his wife. Behati backs down.

But not for long– she tries to work on the drukpah next, insinuating that the king seems distraught. Why, it’s been a month since the queen and the princess died– shouldn’t he have recovered by now? Is he really fit to rule? Why not… “Why not what, Behati?” the king asks from behind her. “Depose me?” Again Behati dissembles– of course not, your Majesty, certainly not. The king’s not easily fooled– it hasn’t been that long since his wife died, but it seems someone is already going after her crown. If she goes on talking like this, he’ll make sure she’ll never be able to speak again. Gulp. Behati shuts up and bows deeply as he leaves, but her eyes are malevolent.

Dinoy tries to convince his wife to keep Ariya, saying that when he saw that baby crying, he felt that she needed him– not because he felt sorry for her, all alone in the middle of that chaos during the bombing, but because she needed him and Stella. He understands how Stella feels — he’d promised her when they were married that she wouldn’t feel burdened. Stella answers that she does feel sorry for the child when she sees her, but she also feels afraid that they will run short. Yes, she could probably take care of the child, but she’s not sure if she will be able to love her. Dinoy answers that surely she can, because she was able to love him. It’s because he’s nice, she retorts, but sometimes he’s too much, too. Won’t she at least say it’s because he’s good-looking? he jokes, and she can’t help but smile.

Later that night, however, Stella is awakened by Ariya crying, and gets out of bed to pick her up and comfort her, although a bit sharply, telling her to stop crying and go back to sleep.

In Yangdon, the king wakes up and sits up in bed, calling his daughter’s name. He gets out of bed and goes to the window…

..and in the Philippines, Ariya’s sobs begin to stop, as she stares up at Stella, who smiles down at her. Dinoy wakes up to see her smiling and dancing around rocking the baby, and asks if the child is okay. Yes, she says, and she agrees to give it a try for him. He thanks her gratefully.

The social worker agrees to grant Dinoy a trial period to keep the baby. Stella reminds him it’s just a trial period– she thinks he’s more excited about adopting the child than about the child she’s carrying. Of course he’s excited about their baby! Dinoy says immediately.

Jin sends Esme the rest of her belongings as well as the money she promised. There’s no mention of Ariya in the accompanying letter, which makes Esme realize that Jin doesn’t care about the child. Her mother advises her to not look for the child anymore then– she’s been granted a new life, so she should start fresh.

In Yangdon, Pratchit visits Jin and asks about the child, because he keeps dreaming of her; Jin tells him it’s better if they just forget about it, after all, she’s gone. Pratchit doesn’t look at all happy about it.

Dinoy tells Bianca that the baby will be her sister, because they’re going to adopt her.

King Anand still holds firm to his belief that Ariya is still alive. But as the possibility of finding her gets fainter and fainter with each passing day, he fears that his body and mind will get tired of waiting for her. He watches kites flying in the field, so like the one he’d flown before with Isabel…

…and as the camera pans to the sky and back down, we get a time skip– it’s a park somewhere in Metro Manila, and a little girl is selling ice candy from the ice box she’s carrying. She comes upon a couple of older boys playing a roleta game– essentially you bet where the vendor’s wheel stops, like roulette, for a small amount, and if you guess right you win a chick with dyed feathers. The boys have been losing, and bemoan their bad luck. She butts right in, saying she’s lucky. So the boys give her a dare– they’ll stake a bet for her, and if she wins, they’ll buy her wares– if not, she’ll give them free ice candy. She wins, of course. But then on her way home she’s distracted by a kite caught on a wall in some ruins, and while she gets it, the boys sneak up on her icebox and help themselves to some ice candy, just to get back at her. Worse, her mom sees them doing it, and bawls her out. The woman is Stella, so the child must be Ariya, now called Mikay.

In Yangdon, people gossip about how the king hasn’t forgotten Isabel and isn’t interested in marrying again, so he possibly can’t have another heir– maybe he should just choose his successor? Meanwhile, Behati’s son Jao is now ready to enter the royal academy…

While Stella scolds Mikay about losing some of her wares, and tells her she can’t bring the pink chick she won inside the house, her two children, dressed in the latest trendy clothes, make faces at Mikay. Stella’s training them to enter beauty pageants, since her ultimate ambition is for them to become beauty queens. We now notice she’s walking with a limp, but she still tries her best to show Bianca and Dindi how to walk, speak, and answer questions with memorized answers. LOL. Bianca falters over the words, but gets a little help from Mikay, who’s got them down pat. Dindi asks why Mikay can’t join them, but Bianca says she’s not fit to be a beauty queen because she’s not pretty like them. (Oh, the irony that her foster sisters are training to be fake princesses not knowing that Mikay is a real princess.) Dinoy comes home at that point with some espasol, telling them to share, but Bianca makes some argument that ends up with Mikay volunteering to give them her share just to keep the peace.

At the king’s birthday, Behati tries to take some of the limelight for her son, saying that Jao wishes to offer a performance on the flute for the king. But Jao stops halfway– he’s forgotten and made a mistake. His mom stares at him, and he puts the flute back to his lips… but then he stops altogether.

Over dinner, Dinoy tells his family his boss gave him a day off, so they’re going to a carnival. Bianca immediately says Mikay shouldn’t go, because she was bad that day– she let other kids steal her wares. Then she jeers at Mikay for crying, so the latter pretends to go get some more rice so that no one could see her tears fall, and when she returns to the table she’s smiling again. Ah, poor baby.

Jao apologizes to his mother for making a mistake and letting her down, but she just gets angry at him– his failure caused shame to her, and even if he’s sorry for it, that won’t change what already happened. Ugh.

Later, Dinoy tells Stella to discipline Bianca for picking on Mikay, but Stella gets angry at him for taking Mikay’s side, because, yunno, she’s not even their kid. He should discipline Mikay, and get rid of that chick.

Jao sadly takes his flute outside and plays the tune he’d botched, without a mistake this time. While he’s playing, the king comes outside, hears him, and listens to him, then applauds and smiles at him when he finishes.

Mikay asks Dinoy to let her go with them to the carnival, saying she’s sorry for what happened– she didn’t intend to let her wares get stolen. He says gently that she doesn’t even need to go vending(oh,so it was probably Stella’s idea tomake