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It's been ages since I did a full episode analysis, but I have always found the most frustrating and emotionally taxing episodes the most rich for discussion, and man, was this one a doozie! So here's my two cents! š
Today's episode centered around the theme of TIME, with each of the three protagonists focused on one aspect of it. Ishwari, longing for the days when she was needed by her children and the center of their world, tries to escape into the past, while a restless Sona struggles to lead her and Dev's relationship into the future by giving it legitimacy in the eyes of the world. Overwhelmed by the impossible choice of whether to step into the future with Sona or honour the past with his mother, Dev fights to stay in the present, unwilling to risk his new found and unprecedented happiness, desperately holding on to a fleeting moment that is slipping through his fingers.
Ishwari, despite her gentle perceptiveness, was guilty of one major thing in today's episode: she made the entire confrontation with Dev about herself. Rather than Dev's happiness, she thought about the risk to her own identity. Given that she has a good ideal of what Dev is trying to tell her, seeing him struggle to find the right words, watching him hesitate, could she not have met him half way? When a parent sees their child fearfully attempting a new endeavour, don't they rush to hold their hand, guide them, and give them strength? Not Ishwari. On the one hand, she has held Dev entirely responsible for the fate of their family since he was a child, and on the other laments that he has grown old enough to have secrets from her. In the process, Dev is torn apart because while their family's well-being depends on Dev being an adult, Ishwari's identity depends on him remaining her child. She has never known herself, understood herself, as anything but a mother.
In all of this, Mamaji is a refreshing voice of reason. Every emotional anchor Ishwari clings to is based in another person, be it her husband, or Dev's waning dependence on her. Mamaji tries to remind her of who she was before these relationships defined her. He encourages her to rediscover the little girl who rushed to play outside, but now, all these years later, Ishwari actually fears leaving the confines that she has known for so long. Instead of trying to find new purpose for the next stage of her life, her immediate reaction when the future calls, both to her and Dev, is to retreat further back into the past, taking Dev with her. Their past may hold purpose, meaning and self-worth for her, but she neglects to consider that for Dev it holds nothing but misery, guilt, and helplessness. I can only imagine his horror at the image of his mother sitting over that stove when his primary motivation all this time has been the burning desire to free her from it.
Is it really a surprise in all this that Dev resists changing the status quo? Sona is the first purely positive thing that has ever come into his life, and he doesn't quite know how to handle that. He's so confident about losing money because he knows intimately, the step-by-step of earning it, but unlike his professional success, Sona's love and his current happiness is not really something he earned in a way that he can account for; it just happened and he terrified to risk it because he has no idea how to get it back, if lost. What he is unable to see is how much more their relationship could be beyond this indimidating hurdle. He wants to hold on to this beautiful present in their relationship for as long as possible because, while he doesn't want to go back into the past, he can't see what is next. In a way Sona is right -- he is unsure, but not about his feelings for her, about what upheavals this revelation might bring to their thus far blissful union.
And that is where Sona holds the key for all three of them: a vision for the future in which their relationships don't compete with, but complete each other. The scene where Ishwari hugged the picture of her and Dev, that happened to be a gift from Sona, said it all. Sona has always been and will always be a silent healer and advocate for this mother-son relationship and catalyst for its evolution. The only problem? She is reluctant to overstep Dev's wishes and use this key to unlock their future. Because of her (admittedly justifiable) insecurities about her place in his life, she gives him sole rights to make the first move. This has been a repeated trait/flaw in Sona's character: she is a big dreamer, but plays it safe when it comes to execution. It was the case when she was in love with Dev, but couldn't confess her feelings, and it is the case now. Even in the promos, we see Sona pleading with Dev to let her speak to Ishwari, but backing down when he refuses, despite her history of being able to pacify Ishwari's anger and insecurity.
All three of these characters are attempting to control time: Ishwari, in trying to turn it back, Dev in trying to freeze a single moment, and Sona in her impatience to move forward, but time stops for nobody, and as long as they fail to respect that, things will continue to spiral out of control. So, will Sona be emboldened to overstep Dev in fighting for her future? Will Dev trust Sona's vision enough to take a leap of faith from the warm, safe present? Will Ishwari learn that she can find renewed purpose in the future, instead of escaping to the past?
Only TIME will tell! š
CID
