The world famous sleuth Riddhima accomplishes her task of proving Vansh innocent of any and all crimes. Vindicated and after due apologies, Riddhima gets down to business of evicting Kabir. Everything seems to be proceeding smoothly to plan when Vansh turns traitor & derails her plan. Vansh pardons Aryan & Kabir thus rightfully earning the wrath of glaring Riddhima.
The family disperse peacefully to their respective rooms, however lava is waiting to erupt in Vansh’s room as mini volcano Riddhima cannot wait to incinerate Vansh to ashes for his utter stupidity. Vansh is made of sterner stuff though, he manages to steer Riddhima from her objective of doing him physical harm.
Vansh takes Riddhima’s leave by giving her some food for thought.
Kabir’s cup of woe seems to be running overfull as Riddhima tells him to seek Ishani’s forgiveness on bent knees. The currently vanquished Kabir has no other option but to obey Riddhima.
Anupriya who had been keeping a low profile, decides to wake up from her hibernation. She slyly instigates Vansh against Riddhima, reminding him about Sia’s accident and the confession recording. Vansh makes a decision.
** A paisa vasool episode for the audience. It had the spirit lifting, good triumphs over evil message down pat. It brought out the unpredictability of Vansh back into focus. Most importantly, it was a Riddhima centric episode. A key episode that subtly showed the seeping grey into Riddhima’s psyche.
Vansh who had studiously kept himself in the background these past days has begun to inch towards foreground. Unlike Riddhima who seems to think problem ends the moment Kabir is thrown out of the house, Vansh is pragmatic enough to understand that throwing Kabir out is not the end of problem because Kabir is THE problem and unless Kabir is treated, the problem and the threat to Raisinghania family will remain.
By throwing out Kabir, you are giving him complete freedom to plan and execute his traps but by keeping him within the walls of VR Mansions, you care restricting his moves, limiting his freedom to plan. Eyes will be on him and he will be watched constantly thus defanging his plans of intended venom.
Vansh’s decision to keep them closer does not just limit itself to keeping a watch over the enemy. He also wants them beholden to them in the eyes of his family. When he starts his own circus, he wants this two personal monkeys to jump over the loop at his instant command and what better way than to make it seem that it is their moral duty to do what their elder brother wishes because he has so magnanimously forgiven them for their sins.
Vansh who has swum in the oceans of conspiracy and has spent a lifetime planning, making & breaking traps has enough foresight to halt Kabir’s plan for the moment. Riddhima who has entered the dark ocean now has no idea about undercurrents and her impulsiveness can and will drown her.
Once Vansh diverts her by bringing up Vansh’s memories again, a ploy that startles her, calms her and keeps her receptive to Vansh’s words. Vansh lays out the reason for keeping Kabir & Aryan in the house. Riddhima realizes the advantages. She agrees to go with Vansh’s plan.
Another ulterior motive is to see how the equation fares between Kabir & Riddhima! Kabir has been Riddhima’s weakness. Through lies & manipulation Kabir has dominated & made Riddhima helpless, blackmailing her into doing what he wants. Be it today’s sly taunts or the way Vansh observes the interactions & dynamics between Kabir & Riddhima when Riddhima purposely hugs him or makes him kneel in forgiveness.. He is evaluating their ‘relationship’, prodding Riddhima to find out her feelings and indirectly giving her the support to clash with and overcome Kabir & the fear he induces in her mind. Through constant instigation, insinuation and provocation, Vansh is slowly but steadily decreasing the stranglehold of Kabir on Riddhima. The girl who would turn into a frightened nervous wreck is now able to look Kabir in the eye & give it back to him. The girl who used to falter or who used to give up earlier now thinks on the spot and outsmarts Kabir. ..
Now comes the curious reaction of Vansh, a man who is forever alert . A man who sensed the presence of someone spying on him. Today when Riddhima detected someone keeping an eye on them, he intentionally misdirects her by taking her focus away from the spy and refixing it on Kabir. Why does he do that? Is it because he knows who the joker is or is it one of his own gig ?
The scales of justice.. Until today, Vansh was focused only on Riddhima! Questioning her, badgering her for answers while playing her game willingly. Today, the scales have tipped, He not only will up the ante against Riddhima but at the same time he will begin to toy with Anupriya the way he did with Riddhima by giving the impression of being her protector while at the same time being her tormentor. A dual game that is going to cause confusion and mayhem in Raisinghania house. (Abhimanyu commences)
Riddhima is no more the sweet girl who had entered Raisinghania house, forged through the fire called Vansh, she is emerging as a woman who can and who does make hard calls and does not have any remorse over it.
From a girl who docilely stood at the periphery of the family circle to one who has moved to the centre. She has begun to make decisions. Riddhima’s decision to allow Kabir inside was an emotional one but her determination to throw out Aryan & Kabir is borne of calculation. She does not care nor have even a smidgen of compassion for Chachi’s predicament.
The older Riddhima would have broken down and cried her heart out in front of her Bappa when Dadi slapped her, pained that she has hurt Dadi, saddened that she had to lie to Dadi before gathering herself to fulfill the task of proving Vansh’s innocence. But the new Riddhima has no time for that, she shrugs off the slap and is not impacted by it to the point of losing herself in self pity.Clinical, almost detached, Riddhima’s full concentration is on her objective. Contrarily, when a remorse laden Dadi seeks her apology, Riddhima tells Dadi to forget it almost authoritatively than softly, emotionally that she was prone to do.
Being vindictive was never part of Riddhima’s psyche, she has been more of law and God will take care of wrongs and punish them kind of girl but today, she has no hesitation in forcing Kabir to kneel on the ground whilst apologizing to Ishani and gloating over the spectacle with unhidden glee.
There’s no two words about it, Riddhima has become strong but at the same time the line between her goodself and the not so good self has begun to blur. Riddhima has begun to embrace her darker side. A side which she will need to fend off the upcoming attacks. Attacks that will be launched on her from all sides. She cannot win the battle by being good, she will win it only by stooping to the level of opponents and outplaying them using their own weaknesses, using her own darkness against them.
