105 episodes and consistent rating performance.
On February 24, 2023, GMA’s historical-portal drama ‘Maria Clara at Ibarra’ concluded after airing for 4 months, with a total of 105 episodes. The primetime series was touted as the network’s mega-serye of 2022.
It starred Dennis Trillo, Julie Anne San Jose, Barbie Forteza, and David Licauco. The story itself begins with the Gen Z character of Klay (Barbie Forteza) entering the fictional world of Jose Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and later on, El Filibusterismo, all courtesy of her Rizal Studies teacher Professor Torres (Lou Veloso). There, she interacted with the characters like Crisostomo Ibarra (Dennis Trillo), Maria Clara (Julie Anne San Jose), and Fidel (David Licauco).
Through literally living in the book, Klay was able to understand the struggles of the past, with many of them continuing as societal issues of the day. But she wasn’t the only one to gain insights from the series.
On social media, clips from the show helped propel its story and market it to the young audience, particularly to the Gen Z people. There have also been instances where scenes from the show were used as visual aid for classes on the Jose Rizal novels.
Theories on the story (which Klay have basically altered with her existence) have also kept on coming, further keeping the interest of the audience.
True enough, the show’s finale hashtag ‘#MCIEnding Yarn’ have been on the Twitter trends list from Friday up until today.
[Spoiler alert]
With that, let’s talk about the finale episode.
Episode 105 saw Klay graduate her nursing course at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM). Her father then appears, which she had barely known due to her being an illegitimate child. As for Mr. Torres, he continued to be a bookkeeper and let other students experience novels. In the same episode, he enters another novel ‘Mga Ibong Mandaragit‘ by Amado V. Hernandez with another bookkeeper.
Anyway, after seven years, their lives have changed. Mr. Torres retired from service, while Klay pursued being in the medical profession in the Philippines, instead of her initial plans of going abroad. Upon her return to visit PLM and Mr. Torres, she knew the fact that the professor had left the job and finally met the grandson named Barry (first mentioned in episode 85). To her surprise, Barry looks exactly like Crisostomo Ibarra from the book. Furthermore, Barry is married to Clarice, who then resembles her book bestfriend Maria Clara. The meeting then turns emotional as Klay thanks the multiverse for letting the two have a happy ending, at least in the real world that she lives in.
Towards the end of the episode, Klay remembers her closeness with and love for Fidel, Ibarra’s bestfriend in the book. While in a medical mission, Klay meets a firefly that leads her to the middle of the forest, onky to discover a paper that read ‘Figuras Cabalisticas’. She later meets a person that resembles Fidel. Whether that was him or not, is up to one’s interpretation.
‘Maria Clara at Ibarra’ may have already ended, but definitely the show’s impact will remain in the near future, at the very least. Foremost, it increased the interest for, or even reintroduced, not just Rizal’s novels, but also Filipino dramas for many.
The successul 21-week-run of the show should also boost the confidence of networks or producers that there is indeed a market for these types of stories. While outrageous (in terms of expense, perhaps), the benefits — especially the social impact — that was reaped by MCI, and will be gained for future series in the same breadth, outweighs everything else.
Congratulations and babu, Maria Clara at Ibarra!