Whose side are you on—Mia (Anne Curtis)’s icy elegance or Gemma (Kaori Oinuma)’s fiery grit? That question has been heating up screens as their rivalry grows more intense with each episode of "It's Okay To Not Be Okay."
At first, it seemed like nothing more than leftover tension from their younger years, when Mia was said to have bullied Gemma. But with Patrick (Joshua Garcia) now at the center of their story, the spark has reignited and turned into an even bigger blaze. Check out this Kapamilya Update feature rounding up the two's most intense 'puksaan' scenes.
Just on the very first episodes, viewers have already noted that the girls couldn't see eye to eye, beginning when Gemma was introduced as the OK Hospital nurse assigned to care for Samuel (Michael De Mesa), Mia’s dementia-stricken father. Coming all the way from the remote town of Maravida, Gemma traveled to Manila just to meet Mia and have her sign the consent form for Samuel’s brain tumor surgery, which they had earlier discussed over the phone with the help of Mia’s manager, Vincent (Enchong Dee).
However, Mia changed her mind on the spot and refused to sign, insisting that for her, both her parents were already dead. Her mentioning that it had been two decades since they last crossed paths hinted at a shared past, while Gemma’s insistence on keeping things formal suggested that this history was far from pleasant. In succeeding episodes, Gemma's mother, Nanay Li (Rio Locsin) mentioned about Mia bullying her daughter in the past.
The rivalry began to heat up when Mia showed interest in Patrick, the same guy Gemma obviously has feelings for. She even drove all the way to Maravida to follow him to OK Hospital where both he and Gemma works. Unable to hold back, Gemma asked how the two first met, to which Mia replied that their meeting felt like a fairytale. Destiny, she said, had brought them together. She narrated how a near-death experience, when she pulled Patrick from almost drowning in the river when they were kids, turned into a series of chance encounters, as if fate had kept pushing them toward each other. Gemma brushed it off as nothing more than a fantasy. But, turning the question back on her frenemy, Mia reduced Gemma and Patrick’s story to a simple workplace connection that lacked the kind of magic she believes she and Patrick shared.
In another scene, Gemma approached Mia after her literature class with the OK Hospital patients to remind her that she's yet to visit her father, which was part of her agreement with the facility. Mia, however, stressed that the agreement only required her to conduct classes—nothing more, and certainly not to visit “that person.” Gemma pointed out that it meant Mia had no business being in the facility at all, to which Mia replied that she wanted to be there regardless and then teased her by asking if she cares knowing the real reason she agreed to the lectures, fully aware it would get under her skin since they both knew she was referring to Patrick.
In another episode, Gemma walked in the mess hall to check if Matmat (Carlo Aquino) had started painting, only to find him still busy taking selfies with Mia. Her smile froze the moment Mia asked, half-mocking, if she wanted a selfie too. Cutting straight to the point, Gemma questioned why she was even there when she didn’t have any scheduled literary session with the patients. Mia answered that she was visiting someone, making Gemma jealous after assuming it was Patrick.
The tension finally boiled over when Gemma found Mia casually sipping coffee while enjoying the seaside view outside Patrick’s house. Confronted about why she was there, Mia teased that she was wearing Patrick’s clothes, which, she said, is a supposed sign that she had spent the night with him. Pushing further, she mentioned that Patrick accepted her love confession, spinning tales that she had given him “what he wanted” while dismissing Gemma as nothing more than a friend in his eyes.
Gemma snapped back, reminding Mia she doesn’t own Patrick and that all her talk reeked of obsession. The clash escalated fast until Gemma slapped Mia. But Mia wasn’t about to lose the moment as she fired back harder by pulling Gemma’s hair and hurling the ultimate insult that she's far from the woman she believes herself to be, unworthy of love, unwanted by anyone.
The feud is already scorching, but just how messy can Mia and Gemma’s war get from here?
Catch “It’s Okay To Not Be Okay” on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live (KOL), A2Z, and TV5, weeknights at 8:45 PM. Watch it in advance on Netflix and iWant.