The Good Son (TV series)

The Good Son
Genre	Family drama Romance Melodrama Crime
Created by	Rondel P. Lindayag
Written by	Danica Mae S. Domingo David Franche Diuco Detrick Saberola Li Candelaria Hazel Madanguit Ma.Nica Romero
Directed by	Manny Q. Palo Andoy Ranay Jerome C. Pobocan
Creative director(s)	Johnny delos Santos
Starring	Joshua Garcia Jerome Ponce Nash Aguas McCoy de Leon Eula Valdez Mylene Dizon John Estrada Jeric Raval
Opening theme	"I'll Be There for You" by Jake Zyrus
Composer(s)	Martin Nievera Louie Ocampo
Country of origin	Philippines
Original language(s)	Filipino
No. of episodes	143 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Eleanor Martinez
Producer(s)	Arnel T. Nacario
Cinematography	Gary Tria Romy Vitug
Editor(s)	Marion Reyes
Running time	30–38 minutes
Production company(s)	Dreamscape Entertainment Television
Release
Original network	ABS-CBN
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Original release	September 25, 2017 (2017-09-25) – April 13, 2018 (2018-04-13)
External links
Website

The Good Son (formerly known as Kung Kailangan Mo Ako / Lit: If You Need Me),^[1] is a 2017 Philippine family drama television series starring Joshua Garcia, Jerome Ponce, McCoy de Leon, and Nash Aguas, with Eula Valdez, Mylene Dizon, John Estrada and Jeric Raval. The series premiered on ABS-CBN's Primetime Bida evening block and worldwide on The Filipino Channel from September 25, 2017 to April 13, 2018, replacing A Love to Last.^[2] The murder mystery addresses issues affecting family relationships such as infidelity, mental illness, particularly schizophrenia and pathological lying.

Plot

This mystery, family drama revolves around Victor Buenavidez (Albert Martinez), a good father to his sons, Enzo (Jerome Ponce) and Calvin (Nash Aguas), carrying a secret: another son, Joseph Reyes (later changed to Buenavidez) (Joshua Garcia). Joseph and his half brother Obet (McCoy de Leon) grow up fatherless, each from a different father. Victor returns to Joseph’s life and things are starting to get better for their family, then Victor dies suddenly in Joseph’s home. The two families collide, shocking their two sons and devastating Olivia Buenavidez (Eula Valdez), Victor’s widow. Olivia turns her anger on Raquel (Mylene Dizon), Joseph’s mother, and blames her for her husband’s untimely death.

The autopsy reveals poison in Victor’s system, his death turns into a homicide investigation. Olivia quickly points the blame on the Reyes family. Victor’s Will further complicates matters when Joseph and Raquel are named co-heirs with the first family, with Joseph receiving equal shares as his two other brothers, Enzo and Calvin. The will stipulates Joseph must complete his education in the same private school as his brothers, and upon graduating university, share in the management of the company with Enzo. Aside from a lump sum bequest, Raquel is also given a seat in the board.

The investigation intensifies as suspicions shift from Joseph and Raquel to Calvin and Olivia. While the siblings try to deal with the new family dynamics, Olivia continues to cast aspersions on the Reyes family, specifically Raquel and Joseph. Joseph pursues his own investigation and discovers leads which he provides the police, further angering Olivia.

As clashes between both families escalate in the school campus and the boardroom, the investigation leads to Dado Castillo (Jeric Raval), the Buenavidez family driver. Dado and Olivia grew up together despite the fact that Dado’s father was their servant. As children, Olivia leaned on Dado as her protector against her father’s harsh disciplinary upbringing. He falls in love with her but she marries Victor. In one moment of weakness, when Victor and Olivia’s marriage is under a lot of strain, Olivia and Dado spend the night together and Calvin is conceived. Victor learns the truth when Dado secretly leaks the DNA result on his desk bureau for him to find, information that sparked his and Olivia’s separation.

The discovery of their mother’s affair and Calvin’s paternity devastate the boys, while the lies and coverups intensifies. The coverup attempts lead to Chief investigator SPO1 Colminares’ murder by Dado, creating an enormous impact on Calvin’s mental state and he further regresses into Psychosis.

As Joseph’s investigation leads him closer to the truth, Olivia pressures Dado to kill Joseph. When Dado is captured, he confesses to the assault and attempted murder of the Reyeses, the murder of SP01 Colmenares (Michael Rivero) and admits to poisoning Victor. The police are skeptical because they have concrete evidence that Dado had an accomplice who Colmenares struggled with before he died. Their suspicions come from hair samples obtained from Colmenares’ hands when he died. DNA tests conclude the hair strands are not Dado’s, but its DNA has an 89.7% chance that the hair belongs to his relative. Hazel (Loisa Andalio) is eliminated because she is adopted. While all these are happening, Olivia attempts to flee to America with her sons to start a new life. A departure hold is placed against her and they are detained just before they board. She is arrested for trying to abscond with company funds and Estafa charges are filed against her by BDG (“Buenavidez de Guzman Group”).

The departure hold affects Calvin the hardest as his mental state deteriorates even further and his schizophrenic personalities begin to emerge. He hears voices in his head, warnings that the truth will destroy him. Enzo’s concern for Calvin increases and promises to be there for his brother but he is conflicted when he discovers more lies from his mother, her embezzlement of BDG funds. He wants to reach out to Hazel but is torn between covering up his family’s secrets, or doing the right thing and get help for his brother. Calvin’s psychiatrist strongly recommends confinement in a psych facilities for his psychotic episodes.

At Olivia’s Estafa trial, the court hears testimony from Randy Villamanca, BDG’s former head of finance, attesting that he has been diverting company funds to Olivia’s offshore accounts under her specific instructions. But his testimony is questioned when the funds are missing from her secret offshore account. Just when it looks like Olivia’s careful lies unravel, the unthinkable happens when the court grants her a not guilty verdict for lack of evidence. Olivia's lawyers point out there is no evidence that proves Olivia received the funds. While Olivia dodges a bullet, Anthony (John Estrada) and Ernesto (Art Acuña) appeal the verdict. Strangely, Anthony instructs Villamanca to hide.

Despite Olivia’s courtroom triumphs, Calvin’s mental health quickly deteriorates, his paranoia pushes him to break into Anthony’s home. Anthony and Joseph catch him and after a violent altercation with Joseph, turn him over to authorities. This time, police focus on Calvin’s alibi, Justine (Alexa Ilacad), threatening her with possible charges of obstruction of justice. Not wanting to drag her into all this, Calvin admits the truth about the evening Colmenares was murdered. He is jailed overnight as an accomplice for murder and obstruction of justice but released on bail the next day.

Calvin breaks down at his pre-hearing, prompting a motion for a court appointed psychiatrist to determine if Calvin is competent to stand trial. Olivia finally admits to Enzo that Calvin poisoned his father to stop him from leaving their family. The next day, Calvin confesses the same truth to the court appointed psychiatrist. The explosive information sends the entire extended family reeling. Olivia looks to Dado and Arthur to fix her problems - two persons personally invested in Olivia’s triumph. Dado tells Olivia that he would testify that he stopped Calvin from serving the poison when he purposely spilled the contents of the glass. Meanwhile, Arthur, who has his own score to settle with Anthony, accepts Olivia’s payment to find the stolen company funds from Anthony and bring down his rival.

Later, Anthony becomes the new person of interest. Olivia tracks Villamanca hiding in a safe house arranged by Anthony Buenavidez, but escapes. Police investigators review CCTV footage and learn that Anthony and Victor had an argument in their office the evening of his death, after the birthday dinner and before Victor headed for the Reyes. Unfortunately, Anthony and Villamanca are missing. Joseph and Raquel struggle to comprehend the latest developments regarding Anthony and find it hard to believe that he killed Victor. But soon after Anthony is officially named a suspect in his brother’s murder, the police investigation goes into a tailspin when Anthony is found dead.^[3] Solving Victor’s death is far from over as twist after twist occur and persons or interest are murdered. A new lead investigator is brought in to bring a third eye into the investigation. Meanwhile, Dado attempts to take matters in his own hands and kidnaps Calvin, a situation that forces Olivia to join him in a remote rural island in the province outside Manila where they live as a family. Their disappearance alarms Matilda (Olivia’s mother) who subsequently has a stroke. There are no sightings of the trio, but Calvin calls Justine from time to time and tells her he is happy and peaceful in his new surroundings. Olivia’s unwillingness to seek help from the authorities raises suspicions with Enzo and Joseph.

While authorities continue to search for them, BDG struggles financially as stockholders try to pull out. Nonetheless, Raquel convinces them to give her franchise concept a chance to work. In two months, the company is back on its feet. The franchise model takes off, saving BDG from bankruptcy, once again gaining the confidence from its stockholders. Ernesto successfully sells the idle agricultural land that had weighed heavily on the company’s neck, selling it profitably under a rezoned commercial property, further adding financial value to the company. In just two months, BDG’s financial hemorrhage caused by Olivia’s siphoning stopped under Raquel’s and Ernesto’s able guardianship. BDG is back on its feet, emerging even richer than before. But just as the company recovers, another tragedy strikes while the company celebrates a thanksgiving dinner with their clients and employees.

Back at the Island, Olivia and Calvin escape from Dado, immediately contacting Enzo. Entangled in her web of lies, she refuses to go to the police, a covert maneuver to impede exposure. Instead, they rush into the company thanksgiving party, where Dado, who had been following them, unleashes his fury at the crowd, shooting innocent guests. Raquel attempts to bring Calvin to safety, ending up at the rooftop of the building. Both Enzo and Joseph try to disarm Dado but he overcomes the two brothers. As Raquel and Olivia run to help their sons, Dado pushes Raquel over the edge of the building. Joseph tries to hold on to Raquel but her hand slips and she falls to her death. Dado escapes with Calvin.

When the authorities pursue both Dado and Calvin at the ferry boat, a furious Arthur catches up and shoots him. Dado falls into the ocean, his body is never retrieved and Calvin wanders away. Always the chronic liar, Olivia uses her self-inflicted wounds to describe abuse under the hands of Dado, a story the authorities and Enzo don’t believe. Enzo suspects his mother knows the truth about his father’s murder, and that Dado holds that secret over her head. Joseph has similar suspicions and reports it to the police: all of them at the rooftop heard Dado threaten to expose the truth about Olivia if she and Calvin didn’t go with him.

Raquel’s death places a tremendous strain on Joseph and Obet’s psyche. Consumed with guilt over his failure to save her, Joseph’s anger clouds his good heart. Obet is filled with rage at the Buenavidezes, towards his brother and is led further astray by his father, fueling their desire for revenge. Enzo recognizes his mother’s lies as the root of it all, and asks her how any resolution could occur if she can’t face the truth. He wonders if protecting his family is the right thing to do.

Finale

Raquel’s death triggers a series of events that further pits the families against each other. Without Raquel’s moral compass, particularly for her wayward son, Obet, the two boys are consumed with anger, cast adrift in an ocean of revenge, currents controlled by a mentally ill Olivia. Grandfather Matias is helpless and his efforts to guide them is in vain. Joseph has an ugly physical confrontation with Olivia when she expresses her intention to return to BDG, contrasting behavior from the usual gentle and kind hearted Joseph. Likewise, Obet continues on his trajectory towards his father’s criminal path. Aside from purchasing a hand gun, Obet physically harasses and violently assaults Olivia outside her home. Things all come to a head when he threatens to push Matilda from the top of the hospital exit stairwell, leading to his arrest. Although the fiscal throws out the case for lack of probable cause, Arthur decides he has nothing to lose by revealing to the authorities his own bombshell statement: he colluded with Olivia to interfere with the investigation, that Olivia engaged his services not once but twice: first time was to lie about Raquel and implicate her in Victor’s death which he refused, and the second time was to obtain evidence that she could use against Anthony in which he got paid. A pathological liar, Olivia admits to the meetings but quickly asserts that Arthur was extorting her.

Meanwhile, the Reyeses and the Buenavidezes receive threatening anonymous notes and suspect it is coming from Dado. Panicked over what Dado can divulge to all, Olivia searches for him. Still missing and without his medication, Calvin begins to lose touch with reality, his mind going back to the trauma of his father’s death. He speaks of being wrongfully blamed for the poisoning, where in fact he claims there were two people who worked together to kill his father.

Tired of his mother’s lies and the never ending hate, Enzo decides he will fight for the only thing he has: his father’s legacy. Embarking on his own investigation, he starts in Anthony’s home searching for any paper trail that would lead him to his uncle’s last steps and shed light on what really happened to him, and why. Finding the truth and exposing it could permanently destroy his family or heal it.

Joseph, on the other hand, is close to unmasking the perpetrators. His idea to send anonymous notes to Olivia works. Panicked and fearful of exposure by Dado, she is followed by Joseph and leads him to Calvin. Calvin has a moment of clarity and discovers his dad’s real killer. He contacts Justine to tell her he will warn his father of the killers’ plans. Justine alerts Enzo who rushes to Calvin’s location (“at our dad’s safe place”) accompanied by Olivia but Calvin is fearful of them and runs away. Joseph, following Olivia, arrives to help but another altercation between Enzo and Joseph allows Calvin to slip away once more.

Joseph eventually finds Calvin and brings him into sanctuary in a convent. Determined to unnerve Olivia, he sends her another anonymous note claiming he has Calvin, further rattling Olivia who thinks it is Dado. Meanwhile, Olivia finds Villamanca and roughs him up who eventually gives her access to the funds which Anthony had instructed to transfer back to Victor’s company for his three sons to inherit. Olivia prepares to retrieve the missing funds!

Believing she is at the home stretch, Olivia arranges to leave the country with her sons and mother as soon as she finds Calvin. Elsewhere at the ocean, fishermen find Dado's corpse, dead from gunshot wounds sustained from Arthur’s attack.

Now suspecting that Joseph is sending the notes, Enzo and Obet follows him to the convent and a violent confrontation ensues culminating with a near tragic ending. Joseph saves Obet and Enzo from plunging to their deaths and the near death shakes them. The siblings realize their mistakes and iron out their differences, as they discover the awful truth about Olivia: in a recorded conversation between Olivia and Dado, the brothers hear her admitting she poisoned Victor and planned to hide behind Calvin’s illness. Realizing that Olivia manipulated everything in her twisted and mentally ill mind, they decide to flush out their mother. Used to her expert manipulation to get away with murder, Enzo turns himself in as bait, an act that shakes Olivia’s core, but does not admit anything. Despite Enzo’s false confession to the authorities and risk to his future, Olivia continues to use legal due process while she surreptitiously arranges for new identification documents for her family to leave the country, which she plans to do as soon as she finds Calvin. Enzo has an intense conversation with his mother when he shows her the audio recording and begs her to make things right, but Olivia vehemently denies everything. Joseph decides to file charges against Enzo, both hoping Olivia will break when she sees her son in jail.

At prison, Arthur continues to urge Obet to seek revenge on the Buenavidezes but Obet is no longer under his father’s bad influence. Enzo later visits his grandmother Matilda and tells her the reason why he confessed a lie, he thought his mother couldn’t bear her son taking the rap for her crime and would owe up to the truth, but she didn’t. Horrified at the turn of events, that her grandsons are suffering the most cruel punishment for their mother’s sins, proves cathartic for Matilda who admits her hand in Olivia’s abusive childhood, and her husband Enrico's cruelty towards their daughter created a selfish and mentally ill individual who sought to be loved manipulates and lies to survive. She asks Enzo to forgive her.

Meanwhile, Olivia is determined to escape with her mother and two sons. She abducts Enzo by drugging him but he manages to call Joseph who brings the authorities. After a brief hostage situation where Olivia finally admits killing Victor, she escapes and Enzo is taken in. Calvin returns to the mental facility to recover from his mental illness.

For a few weeks, a brief period of calm follows as authorities pursue Olivia, now a fugitive. Enzo is released and reunites with Joseph. Calvin comes to terms with his fears and begins to heal. Obet realizes the error of his envy and reconciles with Joseph. Unknown to them, Olivia is nearby planning her final revenge. She hires an assassin to poison Joseph during his birthday party.

The finale episode depicts the parallel lives of Victor and Joseph's birthdays. Joseph’s birthday begins with his first waking moments, full of hope and optimism about his family. He enjoys a traditional breakfast with his brother and grandfather, his first birthday without his mother, but joyous nonetheless over their renewed lives and second chances, climaxing to his birthday party, a toast and subsequent collapse from the poisoned drink.

Victor’s last birthday also begins with his first waking moments: he is decisive on the changes he was about to make for his family; he spends breakfast with Olivia and his children, and the rest of the day was executing his legalization of Joseph, and executing documents to make things right for his three sons and Raquel. Flashback scenes intersperse with present day, revealing Olivia’s anger at discovering his plan, her slipping the poison into Victor’s champagne, and her toast to him before he leaves their home, and it climaxes to his collapse and death.

The authorities are closing in on Olivia, who won’t leave without her sons. An anonymous caller tips the police on her whereabouts and after a brief chase, she crashes into a tree as her car bursts into flames engulfing her. In her hospital death bed, she apologizes to her sons for her crimes and the sufferings they went through because of her revenge. Joseph survives the poison attempt and visits her to tell her he forgives her. Olivia asks for Joseph’s forgiveness as well, and she dies shortly.

The last scenes are a time skip to two important events in the lives of Enzo and Joseph Buenavidez. The mystery of Anthony’s motives before he was killed is revealed when the two are advised by Anthony’s lawyer that the money Anthony hid from Olivia was to protect the three boys until they solved Victor’s murder case. With Olivia’s confession, the money was released for the three boys to inherit. Victor and Anthony’s will also provides for Calvin whom Victor never stopped regarding as his son. The second event was the two boys’ graduation from Brizard College. At the grad ceremonies, all their friends and loved ones are in attendance. Obet reunites with Sabina, as Hazel with Joseph. The closing scene shows the four boys in front of the grave of Victor, sealing their relationship, with Obet as their Kuya, Calvin fully healed and all four ready to embark on their new lives as siblings.

Cast

Reception

Production

Awards

See also

• List of drama series of ABS-CBN

References