Slay – GMA Episodes 35-44 Streaming-to-Linear TV Comparison

We’re almost ready to wrap up our time with Slay. And after this chunk of GMA episodes, I’m kinda glad. The TV-exclusive plot thread is not shaping out the way I expected it would.

So, let’s start where we left off. The rest of GMA Episode 34 continues into Viu Episode 29 which GMA Episode 35 picks up before moving into Episode 30.

GMA Episode 35 includes this card:

To make clear that Marga and Byron’s sexcapades happened two years ago, if it wasn’t obvious just by watching lol

Now the funniest edit so far is that the GMA episode cuts out the McDonalds ad with Ysabel Ortega/Yana enjoying some Chicken McDo while studying lol

GMA Episode 35 makes the interesting change of having Leona do a clip show recap in her head of her hooking up with Hector and then fighting with Marga at the art show. Like, it’s really not needed here. But I guess they wanted to fill the time?

Another change is moving a scene of Inspectors Georgia and Kirby to the end of the GMA episode. I initially thought they had cut it out, but they just moved it to the end to be this one’s cliffhanger.

GMA Episode 36 continues through Viu Episode 30. But it removes the scene of Sugar confronting Amelie on her jog when Inspector Georgia drags them into the precinct. It’s too bad because it was a fun scene.

The GMA version then inserts a scene of Mama Lourdes asking Sugar about Yana’s name and her family. Sugar tells her about the Chuas and it starts to click for Lourdes.

GMA version switches some scenes around again before moving on to Viu Episode 31 and ending its episode cliffhanger with Sugar confronting Marga. A good spot to do so.

GMA Episode 37 goes through Viu Episode 31, also switching scenes around and ending on the cliffhanger of Liv slapping Sugar as she and police go looking for Hector.

GMA Episode 38 continues through the end of Viu Episode 32 and starts Viu Episode 33 removing the BingoPlus ad with Sugar/Mikee Quintos lol And ending with the cliffhanger of Inspector Georgia telling Liv she has the means and motive to have killed Zach.

GMA Episode 39 then finishes Viu Episode 33 and finally! Both versions now match up at their episodes’ end! But it’s not going to repeated apparently until the final episode lol

GMA Episode 40 and Viu Episode 34 start by switching some scenes around and removing the Oishi chips ad. The GMA episode then inserts a new scene with Sugar and her parents. Sugar insists they cannot give up getting justice for Byron. But Lourdes repeats her warning to stay away from her so-called friends, especially Yana without explaining why.

But after Sugar leaves, Roldan asks Lourdes if she is sure that Yana is the daughter of her former employer “who was killed by her husband?”

OH?! That definitely adds a HUGE new element to the story and to most likely Charlie Chua. Perhaps him getting shot in the end was deserved lolol But in relation to the main plot thread of the series? I dunno.

GMA Episode 41 finishes off Viu Episode 34 before continuing into Episode 35 with no cuts. GMA Episode 42 picks it up through to the end of Viu Episode 35.

GMA Episode 42 continues with Viu Episode 36 and ends on the cliffhanger of whether or not Amelie jumps from her balcony.

GMA Episode 43 begins with Hector saving Amelie and then inserts a new scene where Sugar learns Lourdes used to be Yana’s yaya. Yana says she had been meaning to reach out to her since remembering Yaya Lourdes had been the one who raised her. Sugar says it’s no wonder why they became friends since they were raised by the same woman.

Yana asks Lourdes if she has any stories of her late mother. But Lourdes avoids any talk of such things saying she and her husband have to hurry back to the province.

While Viu Episode 36 ends with the perfect cliffhanger of Juro revealing Zach was one of the boys abused by the pedos, the GMA episode continues straight through the sequence in Viu Episode 37 where Juro finally remembers when he was abused as well.

After removing the Salonpas ad with Sugar (lol), GMA Episode 43 inserts a scene with Sugar and her mother.

Sugar asks Lourdes why she was “sungit” with Yana before and why she wasn’t happy to see her former “alaga”. Sugar asks if she had gotten into trouble with Yana’s parents.

Lourdes flashes back. She found the medicine bottle of the drugs that Charlie had been feeding Hilda. Charlie began choking Lourdes until she kneed his balls.

Roldan stops Sugar’s questioning and throws her off. After Sugar leaves, Roldan tells Lourdes to stop being so obvious. But Lourdes is afraid that Charlie might come after her and kill her next if he found her.

Lourdes remembers Charlie getting wife Hilda to drink the drugs that she eventually overdosed on. It was made to look like Hilda was depressed and committed suicide. Even though Lourdes knew the truth, she had been accused of being a “magnanakaw”. She flashes back to running into Marga and her remembering Lourdes as that.

The GMA episode then continues to Juro confronting Ninong Lenard. The GMA version, both at the end of Episode 43 and beginning of Episode 44 sadly edits out a lot of Juro unleashing his anger. That’s too bad.

GMA Episode 44 continues into Viu Episode 38. And this is the first time I think where I feel the GMA editing is much messier than the Viu edit. No quick cuts. Just fade to blacks which, I will assume might be commercial breaks? But I’m not sure. Watching the uploaded episode though without commercials, it feels awkward and breaks the pace of the episode.

I also now realize that I wasn’t paying attention to the Viu episodes and the Yana and Charlie scenes as it originally did include Charlie apologizing to the wife he murdered. But vaguely. And if you weren’t paying attention, like I wasn’t, then you would’ve missed it. (Which I did.)

The GMA episode expands on that scene by including a flashback to the day Charlie drugged his wife. So basically, Charlie killed his wife so they could get out of debt? Lol WTF. That’s really stupid. And honestly, it has zero relevance to the entire series. Unless it will change who killed Zach.

So GMA Episode 44 aired on Monday, June 9th. This final week on TV will have the show go all five days instead of only Monday-Thursday. So GMA Episodes 45 to 48 will finish up Viu Episodes 38 to 40.

To round it up to this point, sad that they cut out stuff from Juro’s confrontation with Lenard. But otherwise all the Viu content is in the GMA version. The GMA version continues moving scenes around. But what was once improved pacing, now actually ruins the pacing.

And the biggest change is the addition of the GMA exclusive plot thread. What started out as simply Who are Sugar’s biological parents?, it’s now Charlie Chua murdered his wife and Mama Lourdes knows about it. WTF? So strange.

Honestly, I was going to say the GMA version was a bit better because of its pacing. But now, depending on how this Chua story relates to the endgame (or not), I will go back to saying Viu is the better version. But we’ll see.