Originally posted by: twerping
For me, Episode 18 is the emotional equivalent of a gun being fired with the silencer on. There was an explosion, though the extent of the injury is still undiscovered.
After the episode ended last night, I was annoyed. At Ayesha and at Fahad. And then I slept on it. I am still annoyed. But now I can trace some of the ill judged decisions to other things shown in the past.
The breakfast scene was necessary...not only because we love Ayet breakfast scenes (because we do! they are adorable!), but it set the stage for things to come. The fact is that Basit and Ayesha's feelings about each other are not on the same page. Basit has exposed a very vulnerable side of himself to Ayesha because of the shock of grief. Ayesha has been there to support him. But that does not mean she has suddenly begun to feel that her place in Basit's heart is a strong one. We know she thinks that Basit does not care about her and now she thinks that Basit appreciates the support she offers. But she does not believe that he is interested in her inner life. In ep 17 couch scene, that she immediately turned to Sadia when he asked for some conversation, shows she thinks he will not find anything she has to say about herself or her own life interesting. Then the way she was looking at Basit while he had breakfast. It was like she pitied him, she is full of pity for him at this point and is ready to take care of him like a child. Her mothering came out again when she jumps up to pour out the juice for him. That is the only way she thinks she can offer him something he needs, through this kind of care. The pity in her eyes, I think Basit senses it. Makes him leave like that. She seems hurt he asks Karim to help him with the coat which means he doesn't need her. On his part, I think it was Basit trying to say you don't have to take care of me like that. An improvement on his earlier, "Yeh aapka kaam nahi hai".
Qudsia was the perfect mess I had wanted to see. What I did not expect was this insight into Bobby phupho's past. The chaotic way the family reacted to Zoya's elopement was fun to watch. Qudsia with her blamegame, Bano trying to solve it by going to the police, Qudsia drubbing her down with her fears of scandal, Ayesha's anger at Zoya, Bobby's blaming Qudsia. There was that one scene where Bobby is telling Qudsia that she had warned her about Zoya and you see Ayesha all angry about to cut Bobby down when Qudsia says something and Ayesha instead asks them both to stop arguing so she can think...that moment we see how blind Ayesha can be when it comes to her mother but we also see that Qudsia is on her way to some realisations of her own. I think Ayesha too by seeing Bobby and Qudsia's interactions will come to some realisations as well. But that is too early to tell.
As for Ayesha not telling Basit. I find this quite believable. We are of course not part of Ayesha's family and it is quite normal for us to judge them for what they are. But Ayesha is part of that family. We have seen how much she cares about them all, that she places great importance on the family's reputation, that she was ready to remain unmarried and support the family before Basit put a spanner in her plans. She has seen Basit look down on her family and it has hurt her. She wants to keep up an image of her family before him, even if it is a shabby one. After Amir's parents had left on the day they had come to see her, when Zoya was shouting at Basit about how they could barely make ends meet and how they were scolded if they had an extra roti in a meal, Ayesha immediately tried to shut her up. She doesn't want Basit's contempt. And in this case, there is also her fears about how he will react to the news of her sister running away since he does not have that great an opinion about women. He has told her in the past that he has no faith in women. In the car when he gave her that half-hearted apology, that he said it was impossible to please women, was something we see playing on Ayesha's mind later as well. She wants him to trust her and is afraid to deal with the possible reaction he might have. But at that moment, she perhaps needs help. She thinks of Fahad. This is a bit of a stretch for me but I guess it was necessary to resolve Zoya's matters quickly. Fahad provides her the resources that allows for them to locate Zoya. Otherwise it might have gotten stretched. But there was an alternative where Ayesha lied but there was no Fahad in the picture...this is if Zoya sent her nikah video to Bano directly and that way the sisters found out about her. Without Fahad's late night intervention. Basit could have still become angry at Ayesha for lying but I guess we will know more about this decision to insert Fahad into the picture in the next epi.
Ayesha lying to Basit was another total mess. She is really bad at lying. Which actually tells us something about her character. She is not used to this. She lies like a novice, stretches her lies out too much, has to invent other lies to cover up the first one. And she can barely meet Basit's eyes through the whole thing. When Basit calls her to sit beside him, you can see how deeply uncomfortable she is.
Basit in this whole episode was an absolute delight to watch. He brings flowers even after realising that Ayesha lied to him over the phone. Perhaps he felt, he needs to work on their relationship so that she trusts him with the truth. But seeing her with Fahad that way makes him angry. And Ayesha gets what she thinks to be another reminder that Basit does not care about her when he tells her he picked up the flowers on the way home and not that he had got them for her. But the various ways he tries to have Ayesha tell him the truth was lovely. You can see why he will lose it in the next epi. There are too many lies and cover ups floating around.
Fahad not telling the truth to Basit, I can understand that he had promised Ayesha to not reveal the matter to Basit, but he could have handled it better. Had he said, you should talk about this with your wife, Basit would have known there is something serious but that Ayesha cannot bring herself to share it with him. The fact that his own friend is lying to him because of Ayesha would only strengthen the feelings he holds about women.
Ayesha and Bano's anger at Zoya might be well-placed but it also showed how little empathy they have for Zoya's feelings. How could they not once say that Qudsia should not have forced her into that engagement with that man in his 40s. I mean does it really not matter? And this lack of understanding of Zoya's feelings, makes me think that the way Zoya has behaved in the past is because her feelings have never been taken seriously in the household. After all she is the youngest, so all the disciplining must have been even more focused on her. Some would have reacted by becoming more submissive. With Zoya she has grown to be uncaring about her family's opinions. But you also see how Zoya wants her family's affection. She is very happy after her wedding at first, but you see her slowly grow a bit pensive even while Amir continues to dance.
As for Amir, haha! What a mama's boy. But hopefully, by realising that he has to take care of Zoya, he will become a better man.
Anupamaa
Cricket
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