I will attempt to recap some key points to understand today's episode and all the drama post-leap.
Abhi and Akshu :
Pre-confession abhi didn't really think about how ak would fit into his family or anything like that. Everyone in his family told him ak wouldn't fit, but he didn't listen. He fell in love because she was self-sacrificing and cared for everyone. Her love for everyone was reflected in her music, which is what abhi fell in love with. Then post confession ak's self-sacrificing nature was already too much for abhi. He felt like everyone else would always be her priority instead of him.
After marriage, two issues were brought up. One that abhira don't have enough trust and communication between them and two that ak wasn't a good fit for birla house.
First Leap
The first issue was more about abhi feeling like he loved ak more than she did. So when the first leap happened, the bigger issue, at least from his end, was that. For ak she felt like abhi never trusted her or her love. After abhi got to know that ak also loved and missed him, he wanted to get back together. He then promised to fix his issue of trust. But even then, while they were fixing issue 1, issue 2 was in the background, with abhi repeatedly saying you can't fit into my family. That second chance always seemed iffy because they didn't address issue 2 openly. After second chance you do see abhi and ak communicating more and trusting each other more, but it's really not shown enough cause they rushed into the next leap.
Now, the second issue that ak didn't fit into birla fam was talked about from the beginning. Before marriage birla house was shown to be just people living under one roof and not really like a family. Ak always wanted a family, because her own family was basically gifted to arohi. So just after marriage her realizing that birla house is not a family was a big shock. Then in classic akshu manner she started slowly changing things for the better. But no one wanted that, including Manjari. She supported ak initially but still kept telling her not to stir the pot. The whole issue with ak being widely different was shown again and again. Cue manjari anniversary or neil's truth or even anisha issue. After the first leap when abhi's insecurities were more or less taken care of, this issue became even bigger but no one discussed it, cause second chance. The whole thing with babies and neil's death just became a big slap in the face for abhi. Because it wasn't that he blamed ak for neil's death. But everyone else did. He said very clearly that he was wrong to bring her back into his family because she is bad for his family. I don't think abhi has once said that ak is bad for him or that he shouldn't love ak. He still stands by his love for her, but he thinks he shouldn't have her be with his family.
Birla fam is super toxic and shallow. How can you expect these people to ever understand ak. On the other side, ak is always with her family jap. How do you keep someone like that from getting into bad situations with toxic people? Arohi works in birla house cause she is a birla. But ak is just ak, not goenka or birla.
Abhi thought ak was like his mom, who was technically miserable in the birla house. But obviously ak was shown from the beginning to have more stubbornness and fire than that. She always tried to stand up for whats right, unlike manjari.
Second Leap
After second leap abhi is just lost. He has no idea how to get both his love and his family to work together. His whole situation was summarized when he broke down in Goenka house after he realized ak was lost.
Ak is angry at Abhi because he didn't pick up her calls. She has no issue with anything that happened after Neil's death. No issue with everyone saying she killed Niel, no issue with divorce, no issue with the violence, nothing. I think she thinks that everyone was just shocked and mourning, and so whatever happened, happened. In some ways, she may have even accepted the guilt of her bad decision-making. But then with abhir, she tried to simply contact abhi multiple times and he left her to hang. During those seven months, ak only stayed away because abhi wasn't accepting her. It's stupid yeah, but think about how much they meet when they are in Udaipur even when they are trying to stay away. After abhir's birth, she realized that nav had been with her during that very difficult phase and she owed him. So she gifted nav a family with herself and abhir. She never wanted any contact with goenka because of their contact with birlas. It wouldn't have made sense for abhir's truth to remain secret if she had actually contacted them.
Right now, ak has no idea what abhi went through after she left. She thinks he ignored her out of anger. But in reality, he ignored her because, literally, even her name would cause Manjari to faint. Abhi has no idea what ak went through either. He thinks she called him to apologize or talk about their relationship or something. None of which he was in the mind space for at the time. Should he have at least listened to her? Yes. But it's not like he is the only one she can call if she is in trouble. He expected her to wait for him. He expected things would eventually calm down and then maybe they could find a way to be together. Her announcement of marriage destroyed all hope and destroyed Abhi.
Manjari
Finally, Manjari, cause I think her reactions are the weirdest because of how she was initially portrayed. In her mind, ak was never a daughter or even a person. She thought of ak as only a tool to make abhi happy. Post first leap we know this because she didn't even thank ak for her sacrifice like harsh did. Even before, she always had an issue with ak doing anything by herself. Admittedly ak makes a lot of stupid decisions, but manjari thinks she is a bad wife and bahu because she can't keep the balance in birla fam. Post-second leap, I think she has gone crazy. The guilt of Neil's life is mixed with the guilt of his death and which she blames on ak. Finally, I think part of her anger is that ak left and got married. First leap also manjari felt like ak left abhi. Second leap, I think she is sure that ak will always leave abhi and then he will be miserable. Now birla fam is fine because ak isn't there. Nothing is going wrong, because no one is there to question things. Shefali's domestic abuse shows that. No one is there to try to figure things out. Even abhi just asked her once and then forgot about it.
I hope all of this is clearly shown in the show, but obviously, it won't be and we will be left to interpret things ourselves.
Fan Fictions
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