Wildflower (TV series)

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Wildflower is a 2017 Philippine revenge drama television series starring Maja Salvador, together with an ensemble cast. The series premiered on ABS-CBN's Primetime Bida evening block and worldwide on The Filipino Channel on February 13, 2017, replacing Pinoy Big Brother: Lucky Season 7 - Mga Kwento ng Dream Team ni Kuya.

Video Wildflower (TV series)

Plot

The story follows Lily Cruz (Maja Salvador) as a beautiful and smart heiress wants justice for the death of her parents by seeking revenge against the evil Ardiente family.

Lily Cruz was raised by her parents with love and wisdom. Her mother named Camia (Sunshine Cruz) was a school teacher while her father named Dante (Christian Vazquez) was a public attorney. Dante's recent case brought threats to their peaceful life that caused Cruz family moved to the small town of Poblacion Ardiente, where they planned to set up a daycare for Camia and Dante's own law firm. Lily easily found friends (including Diego Torillo (Joseph Marco) as the youngest son of the Ardiente family). The Ardiente family is the most powerful political dynasty in the town under the rule of Congressman Julio Ardiente (Tirso Cruz III) and his daughter named Emilia (Aiko Melendez) reigned as Governor. Emilia was married to businessman (and known serial womanizer) named Raul Torillo (Wendell Ramos). They have two sons namely Arnaldo (RK Bagatsing) and Diego.

Complications arise when Raul is smitten with Camia. This catches the attention of Emilia, who is quite fed up with her husband's indiscretions and many rape charges. Feeling the entitlement of the powerful, Raul attempts to assault Camia that causing Dante to file a case against him. But the Ardientes do not take threats lightly.

Lily's world crumbles when Dante suspiciously dies from a heart attack and is further crushed when she witnessed her mother's rape. Targeted to be killed herself, the assassins felt compassion for the 9 year old and freed her instead. Alone and nowhere to go, Lily fends for herself in another city until a wealthy woman named Prianka Aguas (Priscilla Meirelles) rescues her from life in the streets.

Prianka legally adopted Lily and raised her to become tough and independent. Prianka taught Lily to think smart and equipped her with the resources she needed to seek the truth and justice for her parents. When Prianka died, Lily inherited her fortune. Lily returned to Poblacion Ardiente to avenge her parents.

Lily introduces herself as Ivy Aguas. With her billion dollar conglomerate behind her, she becomes a magnet for the Ardientes who were preparing their political campaign for the gubernatorial and congressional elections. A power struggle was going on inside the Ardientes between Emilia and Arnaldo during that time. She reunites with Diego, who turns out to be the bastard son of Raul. But as Ivy continues with her plans to expose the Ardientes, she developed feelings for Diego, who renounced the Ardientes and decided to run for Governor as well.

Lily executes her intricate plan to bring down the Ardientes; she ingratiates herself with Emilia (as an avid campaign supporter for her political ambitions while gathering evidence to expose her with plunder charges), seduces Arnaldo (who she realizes is the family's weakness) and destroys his mental state so he is reduced to an incapacitated state; she pushes Julio Ardiente out of retirement to take him down completely; Although she crippled the Ardientes' power base that stripping Julio of his governorship, she was unsuccessful in keeping Julio and Emilia behind bars. Her plan backfires as a new and more formidable enemy emerges called as "Red Dragon" that turns out as Julio's first wife and Emilia's mother.

Lily's challenge is to sustain the love in her heart to pave way for forgiveness and justice. That through it all, love conquers evil, love heals, and love forgives.

Maps Wildflower (TV series)

Cast

Main cast

• Maja Salvador as Lily Cruz / Ivy Patil Aguas - The main protagonist and antithesis to the evil and cruelty of the Ardientes. She is Diego's childhood best friend. After she escaped Poblacion Ardiente as a little girl, she was adopted by Prianka Aguas, a billionaire-philanthropist, owner of one of the largest property development firm in Asia and a wife of the late Jose Ricardo Mendoza Aguas. Prianka helped her to extract revenge on the Ardiente by giving Ivy all the resources available. She raised her to be independent, arming her with all the skills needed to defend herself. When she moved into Poblacion Ardiente as Ivy Aguas, she methodically executed her plans for revenge. She is a strong-willed person, vicious, manipulative, cunning, and devious. She is a skilled martial artist and trained fighter, with the ability to hold her own against the goons of the Ardientes. Her hard headedness is also her weakness as the evil Ardientes are able to keep up with her. Their power allows them to get away with murder. This frustrates Ivy and she has made many mistakes. She successfully drove Arnaldo insane, but at the expense of Carlota's life. She also successfully gathered evidence against Emilia's corrupt practices as a governor and manipulated the events to turn Julio against her. Her interaction with Emilia in many occasions involve sarcasms and at times end up in violent catfights. Emilia orchestrated a plan with Julio to bury Ivy alive. Ivy was rescued, and used her highly publicized "death" to make a come back during 100th celebration of Poblacion Ardiente. In this event, she exposed Julio's cheating, successfully removing him from his seat and lodged cases against him. She revealed her true identity as Lily Cruz, and vowed to use her money and resources to build the Poblacion Ardiente community, despite of the evil schemes of Ardientes and her new enemy, Red Dragon.
• Aiko Melendez as Emilia Ardiente-Torillo - The main female antagonist/villain of the series. She ordered her bodyguard to rape Camia and kill her. She has ordered the killing of almost every individual who crossed her. Feared by everyone except her father Julio who constantly puts her down, and her son Arnaldo who resents her because of her accusations about Ivy, Emilia is a product of the family she grew up with. She is corrupt to the core. Despite the fact that she is never taken seriously by all the men in her family, she is the only one who never trusted Ivy. She got trumped by Ivy, jailed for plunder charges but eventually released when the evidence and witnesses were mysteriously killed. Later in the show, it was revealed that Emilia was not Esmeralda's daughter, but from another woman which is later revealed to be Julio's former wife, who is mysteriously named as the Red Dragon. Red Dragon is behind the power basement supporting Emilia's return to rule Poblacion Ardiente.
• Sunshine Cruz as Camia Delos Santos-Cruz / Jasmine - A loving and devoted wife to Dante and mother to Lily Cruz. As a teacher, she offered free education and daycare for the children of Poblacion Ardiente. Her beauty quickly caught the attention of Raul Torillo. Despite knowing she is married with a family, Raul attempted to sexually assault her. Emilia, Raul's wife, quickly learned about this and retaliated by ordering her henchman to sexually assault and buried her alive. Unbeknownst to Emilia, Raul saved Camia and kept her as a prisoner-slave in a relative's home in another town for a decade. In an attempt to hide her identity, Raul renamed her Jasmine. Jasmine suffered a mental breakdown and was unable to speak. She was later It was later rescued by Ivy Aguas, who randomly ran into her when Jasmine tried to escape. After care and rehabilitation, Camia came back, recognized her daughter, and joined forces with Ivy in her plan for revenge. Later, she helped mobilize a campaign team for Diego as governor. In an extreme desperation and hatred, Julio tried to kill her but was unsuccessful. After Ivy Aguas revealed her true identity, she stood side by side her daughter in rebuilding Poblacion Ardiente.
• Tirso Cruz III as Julio Ardiente - The main male antagonist/villain of the series. He is a cunning, remorseless, corrupt governor and totally egotistical evil father of Emilia. A man without conscience who thinks he can get away with anything, he feels quite proprietary with his city. The only person he loves is his grandson Arnaldo, who he raised in his image and likeness, and whom he had hoped would inherit his legacy in Poblacion Ardiente. With Arnaldo losing his mind and then in a vegetative state, he decided to run for governor himself, in attempt to hold on to his political power. He is highly misogynist, with a clear distrust against his daughter Emilia, played manipulative mind games with Ivy Aguas and very dismissal of Claire's opinions. This was believed to be rooted in his distrust against his first wife, Emilia's real mother. When Claire threatened to reveal the truth to Emilia, he had Claire murdered, but not before Claire told Emilia the truth. Lily Cruz crippled his political power.
• Joseph Marco as Diego Torillo - A leading male protagonist. He is the illegitimate son of Raul, and younger half-brother of Arnaldo, raised in the same household, first as a legitimate Ardiente, until he left when he learned the truth about his parentage. But even as a young boy, he was kind. He was close to his yaya, and developed a close relationship with Dante, Camia and Lily Cruz. Camia tutored him with his school work. He quickly developed a strong bond with Lily Cruz. He was not loved by his grandfather Julio, and his mother Emilia was very indifferent to him. His brother Arnaldo always tried to get him into trouble as he enjoyed watching his grandfather punish and torment him. As the illegitimate son of Raul, and some arrangement with the Torillos, Julio forced his daughter to take in Diego as her son. When he grew up, he shunned the social and political activities of the Ardientes and was more a man of the people, often choosing to live in the farm with his yaya, who by then had retired. He was responsible for setting up the farmers' coop market. He was one of the first few people who learned the real identity of Ivy Aguas. While Ivy pretended to be in the side of the Ardientes, he fought against Ardientes by running as governor. His secret mutual understanding with Ivy was kept under wraps. He won the election but was cheated by Julio. While case is being reviewed, Julio was stripped of his seat, and replaced by the vice governor. Upon learning that his father was posing as Jaguar, he took over this identity to infiltrate Red Dragon's operation and give an upper hand advantage to his and Lily's cause. After the murder of his foster parents on the hand of Colonel Sanggano, he vowed to take revenge by allying himself to Red Dragon in against Julio Ardiente.
• Vin Abrenica as Jepoy Madrigal - He is Ivy's childhood friend after she escaped from Poblacion Ardiente. He was a street urchin who rescued Ivy from a pedophile. He later joined Ivy as one of three street urchins that Prianka rescued. He is in love with Ivy and will do anything to keep her safe. He joined Ivy in Poblacion Ardiente, where he worked as the bodyguard of Arnaldo, secretly helping Ivy so she could get into Ardiente's world. His betrayal was soon discovered and was tortured by Julio and Emilia. With the help of Ivy and Diego, he was able to escape. He soon returned back to Poblacion Ardiente with Ana Navarro to help execute Ivy's plan. He later joined Jaguar's syndicate to help taking down the Ardientes. Upon revealing that he shot Arnaldo, Raul posing as Jaguar attempted to kill him. Natalie rescued him, and now feels he owes his life to her. Realizing that he is in love with Ana, he asked Natalie to let go of him.
• RK Bagatsing as Arnaldo Ardiente-Torillo - The villainous son of Emilia who murdered Carlota Navarro and many other innocent people. He is a psychopath and obsessed with Ivy, who used this to her advantage to push him to madness. Ever since his childhood, Julio had been training and molding him to carry on the political legacy of the family. Ivy intentionally targeted him for this reason to take out the political power of the Ardientes. Suspicious of Ivy's behavior and actions, Arnaldo planned a night alone with Ivy in his yacht, where he attempted to sexually assault her. To save Ivy, Jepoy shot Arnaldo in the head, which led to his comatose state. In the 100th year celebration of Poblacion Ardiente, Ivy surprised the Ardientes with the revelation of her true identity. In the same night, Arnaldo suffered a seizure attack. Later, he seem to have recovered, but has forgotten his evil personality. He became religious, holding bible classes for the house staff, and expressed a desire to become a priest. He ran into Jepoy and Ana who attempted to hurt and kill him, but he didn't defend himself. Instead, he asked their forgiveness. Confused with this new personality, Lily feels she needs to protect him from the Ardientes. Arnaldo has left the Ardientes and is being kept at a rural farm, brought there by his grandmother, Red Dragon. Arnaldo started to remember his old self and turned to his grandfather for clarity while Lily vehemently pushed him away.
• Wendell Ramos as Raul Torillo / Jaguar (Fake) - A villain though on and off antagonist. He is Diego's and Arnaldo's father. He is a serial cheater, and was mesmerized by the beauty of Camia. As a result, he tried to woo Camia and crossed the line by attempting to sexually assault her. He rescued Camia from being buried alive by Emilia's henchmen. For over a decade, he hid Camia and changed her identity to Jasmine. His love towards Camia was unrequited. He briefly connived with Natalie in an attempt to bring down the Ardientes in a concealed identity of a feared criminal boss, Jaguar. His is torn between his love for his sons, and is full of hatred for his father in law. He disrespects his wife, but has a love/hate relationship with her.
• Christian Vasquez as Atty. Dante Cruz & Damian Cruz / Jaguar (Original) - A righteous man of high principles and values who moved his family to Poblacion Ardiente to start a fresh life. He started to get suspicious with the unusual low crime rate in the town and began to investigate, unknowingly going against the powerful Ardientes. His filing of sexual harassment case against Raul led to his demise and separation of Camia and Lily. His values were an inspiration for Lily and his murder fueled Lily's wrath against the Ardientes. It was revealed later in the series that Dante had a younger brother, Damian Cruz. Unlike Dante, he is morally conflicted individual who was previously jailed due to his illegal activities. He is the Red Dragon's best lieutenant and the real Jaguar, a crime boss of the province where Poblacion Ardiente is located. He lent his identity to Raul Torillo as part of a plan hatched by Natalie, to give Raul an advantage against his father in law. Damian returned to claim his identity but Raul refused. In a stand-off between the two Jaguars (Raul and Damian) Damian was shot and was unexpectedly rescued by Ivy and Camia. He is attracted to his sister in law who is unaware of his criminal activities, secretly protecting her and her daughter Lily, while continues posing as Jaguar behind the scene.
• Zsa Zsa Padilla as Helena Montoya / Red Dragon - The enigmatic antagonist to Lily Cruz. Utilizing her female foot soldiers called "The Dragon Ladies" to carry out missions to destroy Lily Cruz. Her motivation against Lily is fueled by her association to her (and Julio's) daughter Emilia Ardiente. Dubbed as the 'Queen of the underworld', she is a powerful female leader of several illegal organizations including Damian's Jaguar organization, whom she referred to as her best lieutenant. To carry out her plans against Lily Cruz, she introduced herself as CEO of Montoya Industries, a successful jeweler and philanthropist who wanted to invest in Aguas Realty and help the residents of Poblacion Ardiente.
• Roxanne Barcelo as Natalie Alcantara - The main villain character later anti-heroine of the series. She was Arnaldo's fiancee, used by the Ardientes due to her father's political power. After Ivy successfully seduced Arnaldo, he dumped her, creating the conflict between her and Ivy. After Emilia killed her father , she sought revenge. Natalie carried out her vengeful plan by seducing Raul, Emilia's husband, and made arrangements for Raul to take over Damian's concealed identity as Jaguar, giving him power and money. Emilia discovered Natalie and Raul's affair and ended their relationship. She also tried to kill Emilia Ardiente but failed. She is currently using Jepoy in her continuing revenge against the Ardientes.

Supporting cast

• Yen Santos as Ana Navarro / Lily Cruz (Fake) - One of the three street urchins rescued by Prianka, she also grew up with Ivy and Jepoy. She returned from Singapore upon learning the murder of her foster mother Carlota. She at some point took over Lily Cruz identity in attempt to protect and hide Ivy's plan against the Ardientes. Driven by her hatred against Arnaldo, she in many situations act on impulse, jeopardizing Ivy's plan. While Ivy continue to pretend to work with the Ardientes, Ana stood next to Diego during his campaign as governor. After the heated elections, she started working as a teacher in Sitio Ardiente, where she ended up meeting a reformed Arnaldo. Her strong belief that Arnaldo can change create a big disagreement between her and Jepoy. In addition to this, she was unhappy with the brewing relationship between Jepoy and Natalie. Later, she realized that she is in love with Jepoy.
• Nina Ricci Alagao as Mercedes Palacio - She is the most trusted ally and second in command of Red Dragon. Following the order of Red Dragon, she orchestrated simultaneous bombings of Aguas Realty buildings. She disguised herself as a potential investor via Mr. Paterno in order to allow Myla Lomeda to get in to Aguas Realty main building for a final bombing. After realizing her connection to Red Dragon, Lily Cruz targeted her to get inside intel on Red Dragon's operations.
• Sheila Valderrama as Atty. Georgina Fisher - She is the attorney of Ivy and Camia in their case against the Ardiente's, she is a big time lawyer and is loyal to Ivy and Camia.
• Bobby Andrews as Gov. Mateo Ruiz - The former vice governor of Poblacion Ardiente, who took the seat of governor from Julio Ardiente after Lily's exposure of Ardiente's corruption. He seemed to be an upright man, who publicly and bravely fought against corruption. His political and moral compass enticed Diego's camp to form an alliance. However, after a short period of time being the governor, Red Dragon ordered her Mercedes Palacio to confront and threaten him. After this incident, he soften his interaction with Emilia Ardiente, allowing her to become a consultant on the office of governor.
• Dawn Chang as Myla Lomeda / Ms. Moran - She is also known as the "Lady Bomber" she is the person responsible for the bombings of Aguas Realty buildings. Disguised as Ms. Moran, she was allowed to get in the Aguas Realty main building via Mr. Paterno. When Lily recognized her in the construction site, she ran off to the parking lot where she had an intense fight with Lily. After Lily Cruz successfully defuse the bomb attached to her body, she was sent to jail. In attempt to get rid of loose ends, Mercedes ordered to kill her; however, she survived the stabbing. While recovering in the hospital, she made a deal with Lily Cruz, devulging information on Red Dragon's connection to the series of bombings in exchange of the safety of her family.
• Jeffrey Santos as Colonel Magbanua - Shortly after the death of Colonel Sanggano, Julio Ardiente recruited him as his replacement to Sanggano.

Former Cast

• Malou de Guzman as Lorena ¨Loring¨ Cervantes- She is the second mother to Diego and the former maid of the Ardientes, she took care of Diego when he was younger, and then took him in when he left the Ardientes for good.
• Bodjie Pascua as Leopando ¨Pandoy¨ Cervantes - He is the second father to Diego, he is a loving husband to Loring. He is on Camia's side and sometimes serves as her adviser, he is very supportive to Diego. In his last birthday, in attempt to flee from Sanggano and his men, he was shot to death together with his wife Loring in front of Diego.
• Isay Alvarez-Seña as Clarita "Claire" De Guzman - She is Emilia's aunt and the sister of Esmeralda, Emilia's late (adoptive) mother. She once vowed to seek revenge against Julio for the death of her sister, however, failed to execute this; instead, she had been supportive of Emilia and had always been in her side, moreso, if this is against Julio. One night, out of anger, she confronted and threatened Julio to expose his dark secret concerning Emilia's real mother identity. In attempt to prevent Claire from doing this, Julio ordered his henchmen to kill her. In her dying moment, she was able to tell Emilia that Esmeralda is not her mother.
• Ana Abad Santos as Carlota Navarro - She is foster mother of Ivy Aguas as well as Ana and Jepoy while they were living in Prianka's home. She initially worked as a maid in Priyanka's residence, where she took care of Ivy growing up. Arnaldo strangled her to death and then hanged to make it appear that she committed suicide, Ivy later discovered that Arnaldo was the person responsible for Carlota's death.
• Ingrid dela Paz as Nimfa Naig - She is Diego's college bestfriend, she later became a traitor because Emilia manipulated her, promising luxury and money to spy on Diego and Camia's base. She tells Emilia everything she knows about Camia. She found out that Ivy is Lily Cruz and told Arnaldo everything, but Arnaldo refused to believe and in his psychotic state, shot and killed her.
• Richard Quan as Colonel Sanggano - He is the right hand and military head of Julio Ardiente, who execute all his operations, including the attempt murder of Diego, Camia and Jepoy during campaign period. Distraught by the murder of her foster parents, Diego allied with his father as Jaguar to entrap Sanggano in a bar. A gun struggle between Diego and Sanggano led to the demise of the latter.
• Arnold Reyes as Arthur Vergara - He is allied with Ivy, he is determined to help Ivy exact her revenge on the Ardientes. He is also a victim of the Ardientes and helped Ivy take down Arnaldo and Emilia. He is also responsible for kidnapping Divine to serve as their whistle blower in their case against Emilia Ardiente.
• Chinggoy Alonzo as Sen. Pablo Alcantara - He is the late father of Natalie, assassinated by Emilia's henchmen after he withdrew his support for Emilia's senatorial bid. He was a silent ally of Ivy.
• Jett Pangan as William Alvarez - He is the replacement Governor to Emilia. He was killed by Jepoy.
• Miko Raval as Marlon - He is Diego's university batch mate and bestfriend, he helped Diego for his campaign and election, he helped Camia and Diego in their daily activities.
• Alma Concepcion as Divine Oytengco - She is responsible for hiding Emilia's stolen money in her bank account. Ivy convinced her to be a whistle blower in their case against Emilia. It is later revealed that her husband was killed by Emilia the same way as how Dante Cruz died. She was later assassinated and shot to death.
• Maika Rivera as Stefanie Oytengco - She is the daughter of Divine Oytengco, who also manages Divine's jewelry shop.

Recurring cast

• Raul Montessa as Fernan Naig
• Menggie Cobarubias as Atty. Sebastian
• Justin Cuyugan as Mr. Paterno
• Alex Castro as Rufo
• Vivo Quano as Jaguar's ally (by Raul)
• June Macasaet as Jaguar's ally (by Raul)
• Johnny Revilla as Jaguar's ally
• Carlos Morales as Romulo
• Prince De Guzman as Jaguar's ally (by Raul)
• Angelo Ilagan as Jaguar's ally (by Raul)
• Zeus Collins as Jaguar's ally (by Damian)
• Luis Hontiveros as Jaguar's ally (by Damian)
• Lito Pimentel as Cong. Ruel Cansiao
• Richard Lopez
• Alvin Nakassi
• Vanessa Wright
• Kris Janson

Special participation

• Priscilla Meirelles-Estrada as Prianka Patil Aguas
• Precious Lara Quigaman as Isabel Ramos
• Pinky Amador as Esmeralda de Guzman-Ardiente
• Carla Martinez as Alice Rivera
• Anthony Taberna as Himself
• Dolores Bunoan as Belen
• Rolly Innocencio as Witness
• Juan Rodrigo as Ramon Montoya
• Victor Silayan as Enrique
• Xyriel Manabat as young Lily/Ivy
• Jesse James Ongteco as young Diego
• Izzy Canillo as young Arnaldo
• Mutya Orquia as young Ana
• Andrei Garcia as young Raul Torillo
• Kyline Alcantara as young Emilia Ardiente
• Jennica Garcia as teen Emilia Ardiente
• Emmanuelle Vera as young Helena Montoya
• Ejay Falcon / Patrick Garcia¹ as young Julio Ardiente
• Christopher Roxas as Apollo, head manager of Club Dragonfly
• Matrica Mae Centino as Montona, the floor manager of Club Dragonfly

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Reception

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Production

Filming

Filming for Wildflower began in December 5, 2016, two months before the drama's premiere.

Timeslot

Wildflower premiered on February 13, 2017 and replaced Pinoy Big Brother: Lucky Season 7: Mga Kwento ng Dream Team ni Kuya. The series was originally planned to replace Doble Kara as a part of Kapamilya Gold afternoon block. But, due to the request of Maja Salvador's fans, the management decided to place it on the pre-Primetime Bida slot. The Better Half was placed in the afternoon timeslot instead.

Casting

Danita Paner was the first choice to play the role of Natalie Alcantara. However, Paner refused the role because it requires to cut the hair short. The role was eventually given to Roxanne Barcelo.

Extension

ABS-CBN has announced that the series will be extended at least early 2018 due to positive feedback and high ratings.

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Notes

Source of the article : Wikipedia