Slay – GMA Episodes 45-48 Streaming-to-Linear TV Comparison + Final Thoughts

So the GMA version ended up having an entire episode’s worth of new content to wrap itself up, essentially adding an alternate ending to what the Viu version had offered. I don’t know that it really added anything to the experience, even if it added just a tiny bit to the overall story.

Rewinding back to GMA Episode 45, it finishes up Viu Episode 38 and pulls a scene from Episode 39, moving things around more.

The episode then inserts a new scene with Mama Lourdes visiting Papa Charlie in the hospital. She says this is Charlie’s karma for what he did to her friend. And the one regret she has is that she should have taken Yana away from him and possibly could have given her a better life.

Charlie begs for forgiveness and acknowledges how he has destroyed his daughter’s life. He begs her not to further ruin her life by telling her he killed her mother. He knows he is going to hell, but he would like Yana to at least know he loves her.

He starts to flatline and Lourdes hurries out of the room, dropping her handkerchief on the floor.

Interesting that Charlie wasn’t as critical as they made him appear in the Viu version. But he died basically because of his massive guilt, induced by Lourdes lol

GMA Episode 46 continues with Viu Episode 39. And to continue with the GMA-exclusive storyline, we get a new scene where Sugar cries after Yana blames her for her father’s death. Sugar sees her mother’s handkerchief on the floor.

Moving into Viu Episode 40, the final episode, the new GMA scene is of Sugar bluntly asking her mother if she killed Charlie Chua. Lourdes denies anything and then just cries. Sugar threatens to call Yana and Lourdes screams. Roldan comes in to break it up and tells Lourdes to tell her the truth.

Roldan drops the bombshell that they are not Sugar’s biological parents. Sugar asks where all this is coming from all of a sudden. But Roldan explains Yana’s mother is Sugar’s biological mother. And then Lourdes spills about Charlie murdering his wife/Sugar’s mother.

The GMA episode edits out Hector visiting Sugar while she sleeps, apologizing to her. Then cliffhangers the episode with Hector confessing to murdering Zach.

Sugar saving Yana from getting run over (again! Lol) when she is running to Gabo does take on a different meaning now that we know they are half-sisters. But still, the whole GMA-exclusive Chua plot thread was completely unnecessary and I think actually pulls the show down rather than add something to it compared to the Viu version.

Next big change is the GMA version completely removes the gay undertones between Liv and Sugar and the lesbian wedding cake lol

And then GMA Episode 47 ends where the entire Viu version of the series ends. Which is Liv in church still professing her love for Zach after she realizes it was her that put the eye drops in his water, seemingly killing him.

BUT! There’s still one more GMA episode left!

GMA Episode 48 basically plays like an alternate ending for anyone who watched the Viu version first. If you ended your Slay journey with the Viu episodes, then it should be satisfying enough with that. You’re not missing out on anything if you didn’t watch the GMA ending. Or really the GMA version as a whole.

This TV episode begins with Kirby learning that Zach could not have died with only one small bottle of eye drops and that he was actually full of more. When he tells Juro, he is sure that someone other than Hector also filled Zach’s water bottle.

The episode recaps the motives for each of the Slaydies to kill Zach. But Juro settles on, correctly, Amelie. After learning from Luke that Amelie had given everyone in the gym the same water bottle, Juro confronts Amelie who comes clean.

She wanted to get back at Zach for destroying her life with the sex videos. And so she used Luke’s bottle to dump eye drops in before switching it with Zach’s.

Juro points out her father is in jail for something she did. But Amelie says that is his karma for what he did to her and Marga. Amelie then turns it around on Juro and says he would do the same thing. That is, kill the people who abused them. Juro pauses for a moment, silently agreeing. He declares the case is closed and now finally they can all move on.

“Nagbayad na ang mga may kasalanan. Lahat sila. At tayong mga biktima, pwede na tayong matahimik.”

The episode also adds a bit more with the whole Sugar and Yana are sisters plot thread. And it also reveals that it was Roldan, Sugar’s father, who tried to run Yana over. Which I think we all knew. It was either him or the obvious Marga. But it would be more interesting if it was Sugar’s father. However, they didn’t really do anything with that until this one last reveal. So it didn’t even matter either way.

Just like this whole episode basically. I know it would probably be taken completely differently if you only watched the GMA version. Perhaps it would make that experience more complete.

For me who watched the Viu version first and have compared the two, this episode essentially felt like an alternate ending. But also just a way to bring Gabbi Garcia back and giving her something to do after she had to basically leave the show for other commitments. I believe the story would’ve been different had she not had to go and do Big Brother or Encantadia or whatever else she had to do while Slay was still in production.

Even the scenes felt like they were newly filmed after the fact. Just a different feel from the previous episodes.

That said, Amelie being partly responsible for Zach’s death is fine as a plot point. It would’ve just been better had Amelie not been sidelined for 1/3 of the series.

So, overall, the GMA version had some things better than the Viu version. Pacing was better with the TV version for most of the series. That changed in these last couple of episodes when things got a bit too haphazard.

The GMA-exclusive plot threads didn’t really add much to the story as a whole. Especially when the payoff was not as interesting or explosive as it could’ve been.

I will go back to feeling like the Viu version was a rough draft and the GMA version was the final draft sent in for grading. Both probably get a “B” from me. Take the best aspects of both versions into one? Then it would be an “A”.

But overall, Slay was a fun series. It was something different from the norm. Though the GMA version probably added more teleserye-isms than needed or relevant.

The GMA version might have been more polished in most technical aspects. The Viu version was tighter from a narrative standpoint.