EPISODE 17 RECAP

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Discovering that Anokhi's name used to be Shaurya shakes Shaurya to his core. Now he understands that he was given Anokhi's place on the family register, which allowed Sabherwal Group to erase all traces of the girl who lived in the basement.

Shaurya clutches Ronny's stuffed bear to his chest and wails, helpless in the face of this terrible truth.

At the family restaurant, Anokhi also breaks down after finding the photo of her younger self with the woman she thought was Shaurya's mother. Pawan and their parents come rushing in and hold Anokhi while she cries, lost in the rush of memories. She's completely lost to the present, not reacting to her parents' words, so Pawan goes to get a sedative.

We flash back to twenty-one years ago, with little Anokhi (I'll continue to use their current names to keep things simple) playing on a swing. Her mother scolds her for taking chances, but she doesn't stay mad for long. A man arrives at the edge of the park; it's Shaurya's grandfather, then-chairman of Sabherwal.
He has come to America to convince Sridevi to take the reins of Sabherwal Group.

Tez has run away, presumably for good, and there is no one as capable as Sridevi to take over the company. Sridevi wants nothing to do with the company, but Grandpa plays on her weak point : her daughter's future. Sridevi is dead broke, and her daughter will always face scorn for being born out of wedlock. Grandpa offers her a future as the heir of Sabherwal Group, as long as Sridevi places her on Tez's family register.

Grandma Seeta welcomes Sridevi into the house under the impression that Anokhi is Tez's child. She cheers up noticeably after seeing Anokhi, though she wonders where Tez is, and why he's not here to see how well his daughter has grown.

Tez is in hiding with little Shaurya, living under an assumed identity. He tells Shaurya that hiding your name can help you live freely, which is what he wants to do in life. His idea of happiness is sailing around in a boat of his own, doing whatever takes his fancy and not getting scolded for it. Shaurya promises to buy his father that boat. When he does, they will name it the "Arjun Krishnamurthi."

Shaurya's mom badgers Tez to beg for forgiveness from his family, so that Shaurya can be placed on the family register. Tez says he cut all ties, but Mom leaves him with an ultimatum : If he wants to do right by his son, he will return to Sabherwal Group.

Accordingly, Tez takes Shaurya back to Chandigarh, promising that Mom will join them soon. This results in the homecoming scene we saw before, when Tez returns to find Sridevi already living in the main residence, with a child he knows can't be his own.

The chairman won't allow Tez's son to be added to the register, since Sridevi's child is already listed there. Out in the hallway, Grandma Seeta hears that Anokhi isn't actually her son's daughter.

Gah, the web is getting so tangled!

The children introduce themselves as Shaurya and Karanvir, and they seem to take to each other immediately. They jump on a trampoline in the yard, laughing as if they don't have a care in the world.

In the present, Grandma Seeta learns that someone has leaked the news of Tez's coma, which weakens her position considerably in the eyes of the world. Grandma asks Shaurya's mother if she was responsible for this, which she firmly denies.

But no sooner does Grandma leave to do damage control than Mom calls Yash's father to commend him for putting her information to good use. She reminds him of his promise to place Shaurya in control of some of Sabherwal's subsidiaries.

Yash overhears the phone conversation between his father and Shaurya's mother. He's curious about what deal is so important that it requires giving away important subsidiaries of Sabherwal Group, and to Shaurya's mother at that. Dad says he doesn't need to know, and should simply benefit from the results.

Grandma Seeta stalks through the company hallway, icily ignoring Yash's father outside the elevator. When she reaches her office, however, she finds Shagun waiting for her.

Shaurya is still in his apartment, calmer now after coming to terms with the truth of his name. He has learned that there was a request to change Shaurya's gender as listed on the registry from female to male, and suspects that this is the role his grandmother played in the events of twenty-one years ago.

Shagun has come to Grandma Seeta to propose a deal : Her family's shares in exchange for Grandma supporting her relationship with Shaurya. Shagun also asks that Grandma give Shaurya real power once she strengthens her position, and pointedly requests that Grandma be the only in-law relation that she will have in marriage.

Shaurya is exercising when Chief Makkhan tells him about the news article outing Tez's coma. Chief Makkhan wants to know whether he'll go to Grandma Seeta, since even though she's been dealt a serious blow she's not the type to ask for help. Isn't Shaurya worried that Yash's family might take over Sabherwal Group?

"That can't happen," Shaurya declares. He's going to make Sabherwal Group his, no matter what. But he wants to let Grandma Seeta stew in her own mess a while longer, so that she'll be desperate enough to come looking for him first.

Chief Makkhan delivers a photograph of the staff members who worked in the Sabherwal mansion on the day of the fire. Shaurya looks through their faces and recognizes Anokhi's mother, whom he met before while pretending to be Arjun Park. Anokhi's family has called Dr.Singh to check on her, and he reassures them that she's physically healthy. But he asks if anything happened recently to give her a shock, and Dad just says that getting fired from her job as "that chaebol's physician" upset her.
In her own way, says Dad, Anokhi took a lot of pride in that job.

After seeing the picture, Shaurya surmises that it was Anokhi's mother who rescued her from the fire all those years ago. Chief Makkhan asks if he recognizes anyone in the picture, but a call comes in from Dr.Singh before Shaurya can explain.

Dr.Singh tells Shaurya about Anokhi's collapse. Although he didn't tell the family, he guesses that Anokhi was reacting to the stress of suddenly recalling a memory. "Are you two recovering your lost memories one by one?" he asks. Dr.Singh wonders if the two of them are tangled up in something dangerous.
Shaurya only cares about Anokhi and whether she's okay. Dr.Singh assures him that she's healthy, but the danger only really surfaces after she wakes up. She may experience "Repetition Compulsion," which is a psychological phenomenon in which trauma victims reenact events from their past (there are different ways in which this can happen, but two of them happen to be sequential nightmares and hallucinations).

Anokhi finally wakes up with Mom sitting by her bedside. On the verge of tears, Mom says that if things were going to be so hard for her, Anokhi should have come to her instead of crying alone. Seeming calmer now, Anokhi reveals that she remembers that Mom saved her from the fire, and that her name used to be Shaurya. But the knowledge only leaves her with more questions, specifically why she and Shaurya had their names taken from them.
Anokhi reassures Mom that she likes her name, and that she was always grateful her parents gave it to her and accepted her into the family. But she also liked Shaurya's name (not to mention the man she thought it belonged to). "What do I call him now?" she asks, beginning to cry.

Shaurya throws up in his bathroom, tormented by the guilt brought on by his memories. He thinks back to when he first introduced himself to Anokhi as Shaurya, only now those words carry a very different meaning. A stress headache is triggered, and Shaurya staggers to his study to find medicine. But in his medicine drawer he finds a message from Anokhi, telling him to watch the video she left if he needs medicine.

Shaurya puts the flash drive into his computer and calls up the video that Anokhi made. She makes a hilarious mic-testing noise and addresses the camera : "Are you watching, Shaurya? Are you listening, Shaurya?"

In the video, Anokhi scolds Shaurya for relying on medicine to deal with his issues instead of overcoming everything with her, the way he promised. He said he would replace all his bad memories with good memories, which is one of the reasons Anokhi wanted to ride the Snowflake Train with Shaurya. Anokhi goes on to apologize for hesitating and denying her feelings. Now she will say it directly, and she asks Shaurya not to be shocked at what she has to say : "I like you."

Knowing what he does now, watching this video is the purest torture for Shaurya. Tears stream down his face and he punches the desk repeatedly, unable to do anything for the woman he loves.

Pawan finds Anokhi in her room and gets mad at her for avoiding her family. Mom is cooking up a storm to comfort her and Dad's heart is breaking for his beloved daughter, but Anokhi insists on suffering alone. Pawan reminds her that he wants a sister who fights back, and says that if she won't do that, she isn't his sister. "Don't be like that," Anokhi cries, holding him back. She says that with Pawan by her side, she was never fearful as a child. The only thing she ever feared was him not being her brother.

After Anokhi apologizes, Pawan makes her promise to eat enough and tell the family when she's having a hard time. She thanks him wholeheartedly for being her brother, and he leads her out of her room in search of food.

Anokhi and Pawan take their dog for a run along the river, racing each other and laughing for the first time in a while. Anokhi tugs on Pawan's hood and hops on his back, and when the siblings are exhausted they lie down next to each other in an open field. Without speaking, the two carry on a complete conversation.

Anokhi tells Pawan how grateful she is that he was willing to share their parents' love, which otherwise would have been his alone. Pawan teases her for being so corny, but turns serious when he thanks her for loving him.

Alone in his apartment, Shaurya picks himself back up after the emotional blow of Anokhi's video. He dresses in work clothes and heads outside, only to be intercepted by an important visitor rolling up in a fancy car.

Grandma Seeta rolls down the window and tells Shaurya to get in. He knows what she wants, however, and says that she's awfully haughty for someone who needs his help. In return for his cooperation, she offers to tell him the whole truth about what happened on the day of the fire twenty-one years ago.

Shaurya rides with Grandma to the hospital where Dad is still deep in his coma. She asks Shaurya to promise that after learning the truth, he will return to Sabherwal Group. Shaurya merely promises to consider it, after he hears what Grandma has to say.

She begins her story of the day of the fire, which started out as the happiest day of her son's life. Tez plays the gracious host, welcoming guests to Sabherwal Group's party. Among the guests are Yash's parents, looking slightly disgruntled, and Shagun's outspoken mother. Grandma Seeta goes into the kitchen to give last-minute instructions to the catering staff, which includes Anokhi's mother (not her biological one, who by this point already died in the car crash).

After Grandma leaves, little Shaurya comes in and asks for more food. He shovels snacks into a plastic bag and takes what the cook gives him, saying he would prefer to carry it himself.

After he leaves, Anokhi's mom talks to a gossipy coworker about the complicated Sabherwal family tree, fishing for information about Anokhi.

Shaurya's mother preps him for his introduction to society, since the world did not know he was living there until today. She reminds him to work hard and inherit Sabherwal Group so that she can live openly as the lady of the house.

Tez addresses the assembled guests. He thanks them for being there and announces that he has a son who will follow him as Sabherwal Group's successor. The rumors start to fly immediately. Yash's mother gossips with some other high-society ladies about this news, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the former chairman's death. It's pretty clear, after all, who benefited the most from the tragedy.

Little Shaurya sneaks through the hallway to reach the basement, but he's stopped by Anokhi's mom, who asks him where the basement is. Just then Dad enters the hallway, and Shaurya ducks away to avoid notice. When Dad sees that Shaurya isn't in his room, he marches immediately to the door that leads to the basement... luckily, Anokhi's mother was watching from around a corner.

Shaurya finds Anokhi in the basement and apologizes for being late. He tells her to pack everything and run away with him. They'll take the train, he says, and go far away. Anokhi's face lights up when she hears about the train, and they rush to the door. But when it opens, Shaurya's father stands there with a blood-chilling expression. Shaurya immediately starts to beg forgiveness, but Dad shoves him out of the basement and shuts the door. Shaurya cries and pounds on the door in vain.

In the present, Grandma Seeta tells Shaurya how she left the party to search for Tez. But on the way, she saw someone setting the fire. And the person who set that fire... was none other than Shaurya. Grandma Seeta yells that Shaurya is responsible for her son being in a coma, while Shaurya grabs the railing on the bed for support.

She explains how she had no choice but to cover everything up, or else people would find out about her son's weakness and, even worse, what happened in the basement.

Shaurya leaves the hospital room, the present melding with his memories. He remembers pounding against the closed door, when Ronny's voice floats across his mind, offering to take on the burden that is too much for him. He looks down at a tin of "Ruler" matches (Ronny means "Ruler"). His tears stop, and his expression grows fixed and cold.

We see little Ronny in his first appearance ever, dragging a canister of oil all the way down the steps to the basement room. He coats the floor with gasoline and tosses a match, watching the flames begin to roar. In voiceover, Ronny says that he was the one to save the child.

Collapsed in the hallway outside his father's hospital room, Shaurya's fingers tap the floor in a way that spells trouble...

At the restaurant a little later, Anokhi goes outside and finds Ronny waiting for her. "I'm sorry I'm late," he says, and holds out his hand.


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