Recap: Voltes V: Legacy, Episode 20 – Tragic Past
The Armstrong Bros are packing for their move to CBF. Steve and Little Jon notice Big Bert is very happy this morning. He tells them about the girl he met last night that he knows will become his girlfriend. Little Jon points out that Kuya Bert seems to be moving too fast. Bert turns the tables on Steve and his crush on Jamie who Bert says Steve can pursue now that Eva is gone.
Little Jon says he wishes Mama Armstrong were here to be as happy as Steve and Big Bert are.
Meanwhile, Spc. Apable is secretly taking photos of Steve kind of like how Steve secretly took photos of Jamie!
Back at CBF, Eva pops up and tells Jamie that she’s changed her mind. She decided to leave because there was someone who really annoyed her. But the reason she’s returned is so she can prevent that person from having peace of mind and prevent her from flirting with her boyfriend.
Jamie knows she’s talking about her and points out Steve is happy that he is single now. “So ano babalikan mo?”
Eva is annoyed again.
Later, Eva runs into Steve holding some flowers. She asks if they are for her, much to Steve’s surprise who says he thought she was gone. The door to the room next to them opens and it is Jamie who walks out.
Eva grabs the flowers from Steve’s hand and thanks him for welcoming her back, all as a display for Jamie to see. Jamie excuses herself and Eva asks Steve for a real Welcome back.
Steve welcomes her back and says he’s glad she’s changed her mind. Eva goes to hug Steve, but he pushes her away. He reminds her that they are no longer together which he believes is right for the both of them. Eva shoves the flowers she knows are for Jamie back at Steve.
Steve says the flowers are a way for thanking Jamie for not leaving him after his mother died. He asks Eva where she was at that time when he needed her. And now she just waltzes back like they’re still together?
Steve hands Eva the flowers back to her: “Sympathy flowers for your dead sense of empathy.”
Elsewhere, Mark is training with his Volt Machine. Dr. Smith wonders why he’s training alone. Major Kelly suggests he’s just blowing off some steam. Dr. Smith says he really considers Mark like a son. Just then, Dr. Smith gets an important call about the investigation into Mama Gordon.
Dr. Smith calls Mark over and happily tells him that Mama Gordon didn’t abandon him or his father. Mark hesitates to believe that, but Dr. Smith has the whole story.
Mama Gordon is out picking medicinal leaves in the middle of the night. Two tanods come across her and say she should have had someone accompany her after a recent attack by a forest dog in the area. Mama Gordon says she couldn’t ask Papa Gordon to come since he’s sick and she didn’t want to disturb Mark’s sleep.
The tanods say she should’ve gone out during the day, but Mama Gordon needed the leaves for her sick husband. She also has her husband’s gun, so she assures the tanods that she will be fine. They understand and leave her be.
But as Mama Gordon walks home, a pack of asong gubat growl toward her. She points the gun at them and shoots, but she quickly runs out of ammo and the dogs attack her.
Mark asks Dr. Smith if this is all true or if he just made it up so he wouldn’t be mad at his mother anymore. They never even found his mother’s body.
Dr. Smith says he has no reason to lie to him. He explains that many years later after Papa Gordon had died and Mark no longer lived in the area, a skeleton of a woman was found and that is believed to be Mama Gordon’s.
Dr. Smith gives Mark the report to read himself and says Mama Gordon is not a pabayang mother. In fact, she is a caring and strong and loving mother like Mama Armstrong who would do anything and everything for her family.
Dr. Smith comforts a visibly emotional and relieved Mark.
That evening, the Armstrong Bros visit their parents’ graves so they can talk about how it sucks Eva is back and Steve won’t be able to go after Jamie. Mark approaches them. Little Jon snaps at him and says he’s probably here to start trouble.
Mark says to just relax. He’s actually here to apologize for what he said about Mama Armstrong. He admits that he was jealous that they had a wonderful mother that he never had growing up. But now that he knows Mama Gordon also sacrificed her life for her family, he knows he was wrong to feel that way.
Mark says he is no longer inggit towards them. He apologizes again and hopes they can be okay now. He holds his hand out to them.
Little Jon asks his brothers if they will make peace with Kuya Frenemy. Big Bert encourages his brother and Steve takes Mark hand for a shake. Bert playfully grabs Mark’s arm and Little Jon hugs him.
Mark sets flowers down for Mama Armstrong.
Meanwhile, the latest Beastfighter Gardo is ready to go.
Episode Thoughts
Why the show seems to be rushing through everything. Can’t even wait an episode or two before moving on to a conclusion to stories?
Like, I thought double the episodes would allow them to add more depth and pace things better than just directly adapting the anime. And the way the first two weeks were so slow, I thought that’s what they were doing.
They slow walked the first two weeks and now they’ve sped through these last two weeks? Arguably, there was more stuff in Episodes 11-20 that deserved more time than stuff they dragged on in the first ten episodes.
The pacing is really all over the place now. And I think after one month of the show, we can safely say that.
Because for example, I get that Mark’s story in the original anime may have taken one episode or two at most. But that’s why this teleserye format is different. We can ease into big reveals rather than just have our two biggest Martieseses Jamie and Dr. Smith blurt everything out. There is definitely a way to be able to peel back stories, especially about one like Mark’s past, so that it can be emotionally satisfying. Instead, it comes across as an info dump.
And with this being a huge part of why Mark is the way he is, it really diminished the impact. So now he and the Armstrong Bros are immediately friends? We barely saw why they hated each other in the first place and now everything is okay. Not satisfying.
It was however kinda funny how Dr. Smith was very happy to basically tell Mark that his mother died from being attacked by wild dogs. Lol Like, it’s better? than her abandoning the family. But also still not happy news, you know? lol
But again, the way he just tells him the news like it was explaining why they had adobo instead of sinigang for dinner just felt underwhelming.
Then you have the annoying love triangle stuff which again, just gives more reason to make Steve look like an asshole. I mean, my goodness, both Eva and Steve are at fault for their horrible relationship. But Steve was first with his stalker crush on Jamie WHILE he was still with Eva. The way he played the victim with Eva in this episode was gross.
Eva deserved that talking down to from Jamie, but not from Steve. Jamie has done nothing to her. Steve has done everything TO her. Just a mess of a story all around. And even more annoying that it’s probably gotten the most focus out of any plot thread so far.
Overall, a weak episode only because of the nonsense with Steve, Eva and Jamie. But also because of the underwhelming way they’ve basically resolved Mark’s character AND the conflict he has with the brothers. It’s an oversimplification of stories that should have gotten better development.
Voltes V: Legacy Episode 20 is available on GMA Network’s official YouTube channel:
However, it is restricted to the Philippines only. Hopefully it will be made available worldwide soon!
I’ve seen people talk about how people worldwide should subscribe to GMA Pinoy TV in order to watch the series. I’d recommend that if you are interested in watching lots of Filipino programming. But if you only want to watch Voltes V: Legacy, I don’t think it’d be a good investment. Especially since you can’t watch the series on demand anyway. GMA Pinoy TV is a linear, premium TV channel on most cable and satellite systems.
Share:
Related posts ..
2 thoughts on “Recap: Voltes V: Legacy, Episode 20 – “Hindi na ako makapaghintay pa!””
Share your thoughts!Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Steve is an asshole, simple as that.
Can’t disagree!