6/7 - Epi 291 ... Thappadwa Ve :)))

Friday 6th July

Quick update - first the precap ... who the *&^* wants to see Di going all hysterical, for Gods' sakes?!!! Show us the guy who just came back home after fifteen days in captivity, show us the girl who risked her life to save him ... who the heck is interested in Di and her hysterics??!!! Yeah, right her world just got blown apart, yadda yadda ... if she'd been the slightest bit observant, she would have remembered a lot of slips that Shyam had made all through, and connected them ... including finding her husband in her brother's room on more than one occasion ... she had it coming!!!

Second rant ... what the heck ... why did Arnav wait so long to give that thappad??!!! Why did Khushi have to plead with him to trust her? After NK said what she did was to get Shyam's trust, Arnav should not have needed any further proof ... not after hearing Shyam go on about how Khushi was the one leading a married man on ... when that was the one thing he knew was blatantly false! Why did he let Shyam insult Khushi for so long?!

Arnav's RTR did not get any miles subtracted today ... what he gained for giving the slaps, he lost for Khushi having to plead her case ...

Liked Payal and NK today ... Payal gave out the news of the engagement very succinctly and effectively ... NK gave out the explanation of why Khushi tried to gain Shyam's trust ... and without getting the pen-drive, they would not have had the motive for the kidnapping ... or known that Shyam was indeed behind it ...

Shyam got too much screen space today ... oh well, his last chance of being in the spotlight ... after this, he's out till he gets back in new improved, more villainous mode ... I'm actually waiting for it ... the alternative is watching weepy, hysterical Di being the centre of attraction ... boring!!!

I won my bet ... thappad happened today :)))

Episode was good on the whole, except for the last bit ... and it was never actually explained why Arnav made his decision. So Arnav has not come out with the whole truth yet ... now he's the one hiding secrets ... as to why he married Khushi, and that he actually knew of Shyam's treachery for almost as long as Khushi did, and did absolutely nothing about it. Yep, Arnav is in the dock now ...

Short update - mostly thoughts, will update more as they strike me ... and after reading the takes here, some changes in initial thoughts too ;) Thanks, Sandy, UJ, Opti, Su, for giving me different perspectives.

On first watch, I was completely :-o … WT* ??? That’s all? Slap and Get Out?! But nobody proved anything, it was just Creep’s word against Khushi’s and pffft, the big man delivered his verdict … what the heck did he have to wait for so long for?! Fell totally flat for me … I was hoping for Shyam to firmly put his foot in his mouth and get caught out … 

On re-watch though … has Shyam does exactly that? Expressions of the family seemed to indicate that they were not completely swayed by his blustering and bad-mouthing … and some of them know that what Shyam was saying was false … 

Akash knows that Payal was not trying to trap him, she was in fact backing off because of the social difference ... he had to in fact plead and beg her to marry him … and so does Arnav …

NK heard the paying guest truth for the first time, but he could put it together very well with what he had already seen, and he knows now the entire picture …and it confirmed for him what he had already seen ... Creepwa lusting after Khushi ... he now had the time perspective of how long it had been going on ...

Mami and Nani have seen Khushi worry for Arnav when he went missing, Anjali saw her love for Arnav, she was the first to point it out to Khushi … did they entirely believe Shyam when he claimed Khushi was running after him? Even if they weren’t sure, it’s a start … there is room for doubt in their minds ... and the first thought of questioning whether Shyam is indeed telling the truth and nothing but the truth ... if he could lie about this, he can lie about other things.

When Khushi told Anjali that she didn’t want to tell her about the engagement, I felt at that point that Anjali did not entirely disbelieve her … and neither did Arnav … besides, Arnav got the confirmation from Payal about Khushi’s engagement story … I felt that was when the scales tipped for him, he’d heard enough, and he knew that whatever Khushi was saying was the truth ... what she had been saying, and whatever she was now going to say ... 

But he also saw that was a huge blow for Anjali, which made a telling impact ... he was looking out for his sister at that point, that was why he started to take her away … 

And so did Shyam, which was why he forced Anjali to stay back … and went into fifth gear with his accusation … Shyam could not let Anjali leave, the other RM members were silent now, even Mami had stopped accusing Khushi and they were all silently listening to her, he had to have someone to shield him. Arnav was protective of Anjali seeing her condition ... Shyam, her husband, the one supposed to be most concerned about her health, who had always stepped in to stop other people from talking when the truth looked like coming out ... now was least concerned about his wife's condition ... and insistent on hearing the entire "truth" and having his say.

I was okay with the family keeping quiet - they did need to give them both a hearing … neither had proof to back up their claims, it was one’s word against the other, and for the Raizada family, it was obviously more difficult to believe Khushi over a man who’d been a well-loved and respected part of the family for the last three years and had never put a foot wrong … 

Also, like Opti and I said yesterday ... for Arnav it was like looking in a mirror, these were all accusations he had leveled at Khushi himself, and hearing them from Shyam would have been a shocker, bringing home to him how badly he had misjudged her and how badly he had treated her, knowing them now to be false.

Creepwa's long spiel was dragged ... but it was needed ... not just for him to spew all his venom, but also for the family to see the ugliness of the man behind the mask emerging ... how he could stoop to level such disgusting charges against two women of the family ... without a shred of proof ... and when each member of the house knew some facts which were completely contrary to what VLR was saying. When VLR levelled the charge against Payal about her wanting to marry into a rich family hence her quiet, Mami, who had always accused her of doing exactly that, was silent, and Akash looked incredulous because he knew that accusation was false, and so did Arnav. When VLR accused Khushi of wanting to bring Arnav down, Khushi admitted it up front and NK was quick to clarify that Khushi had done it only to win his trust ... also confirming that NK knew of this and it was part of Khushi's plan ...

I will add here ... whatever Khushi said, this time she had someone or the other to back her up in different parts of her story ... Payal confirmed her story about Shyam being the PG and her fiance, NK confirmed that she had tried to win Shyam's trust, and the reason for it ... Arnav himself knew that Shyam was lying about not being in love with Khusi, and Khushi being the one chasing him ... Mami knew that Khushi had been hunting frantically for Arnav, even putting herself in danger ... and again, Nani and Anjali have seen Khushi's love and worry for her husband ...
But then again, they have all also seen Shyam's worry and care for his wife ... so which one of these is a lie? However, the big difference ... the holes Shyam tried to poke in Khushi's story can be proved to be false, but Shyam's own story will not stand up to any probing at all ... he claims that Khushi was pursuing him, but no one in the RM has seen any evidence of that, except for those two instances of Anjali seeing Shyam and Khushi together ... and those too were during the time period that Khushi admitted to trying to win Shyam's trust, and NK confirmed that part.

Payal was good ... her testimony was needed and she did it very well ... but the family's reactions were muted ... they should have been much more dramatic ...

Khushi started her accusations by prefacing them with an apology to Anjali, that what she was going to say would hurt her ... when Payal told about the engagement, Khushi again apologised for her quiet ... and repeated Creepwa's words back to Anjali ... it was she, Khushi who had kept quiet ... hum sab jaante hue anjaan bane rahe ...

Whatever Shyam was saying he did ... kept quiet while Khushi was throwing herself at him, was actually applicable the other way around ... Khushi kept quiet while Shyam made advances, kept ignoring him, hoping he would get the hint and back off ... making the whole situation worse ... 

And finally … when Khushi made that plea to Arnav ... please look into my eyes, and then make your decision … at first watch, I didn’t like it … what happened to all that trust, that atoot vishwas and all that jazz? :( :-o

But on reflection … after reading Sandy's post ... this was déjà vu of the airport scene … when she begged Arnav to believe her, he asked her for proof, and she was trying desperately to supply proof, to produce a witness … and she couldn’t. Now she laid out all the facts on the table, including the damaging ones that yes, she told Shyam she wanted to bring down Arnav, but only to win Shyam’s trust … she even got close to a man she hated, because she needed to find Arnav (loved NK for backing her up there and saying that Khushi lied to Shyam to deceive him) … she does not have a shred of proof, she only has her word … and he can see the truth in her eyes … again déjà vu to the Sethi brothers time, when she said a person can always be caught out in lies when they don’t meet the eyes … 

And she said her piece ... gave him all the facts, her side of the story ... and then left it up to him ... I have no proof this time, all I have is the truth ... I have told you everything I know ... the rest is your call. 

And Big Boss delivers his verdict … in not one, but two tight slaps … one for his sister, one for his wife … placing Khushi at the same level as Anjali … the two most important people in his life ... loved Khushi's tearful, almost disbelieving look and the beginning of the smallest smile when he said that ... :">

And finally doing what he should have done much earlier ... throwing Shyam out of the house.

But picture baaki hai mere dost … there are still more revelations to come … the biggest one … Arnav has known about Shyam’s kameena ways almost as long as Khushi has, and also kept quiet in front of the family and Di. Why did he not say a word about that, when it would have been the clincher?  Would it have been too much of a shock for Anjali to realize that her brother knew her husband was a kameena, and did absolutely nothing about it? Except to marry the girl concerned? Now I can see the rift between Anjali and Arhi develop … and with due reason … Anjali is the wronged wife – she had the right to know, she has the right to decide Shyam’s punishment.