Tandav is making a point about politics necessarily leading to corruption of the mind and soul of a person. This episode makes that point very strongly, albeit in a forced manner. 

We jump to 2 years in the past (yet another unnecessary time jump). A boy named Azhar shoots himself in the bathroom as his girlfriend frantically knocks at the door. We don’t know why he did it or what happened, but that girl turns out to be Ada, Sana’s younger sister. This story is so random and forced, I really wish the writers had taken out the time to establish a better reason for the blackmail storyline that comes up next. 

Ada is arrested by the cops for suicide (SSR and Rhea anyone?). Anyway, long and pointless story short - Ada is not in jail, but is being blackmailed by the cop on that case for money. He claims that he will open a murder investigation unless Sana can pay him Rs 10 lakhs. 

Sana is freaked out and trying to borrow money from friends but to no success. 

SAI puts together a team of four for the upcoming elections - Chetan, Shiva, Sana and Vishal. Vishal is the unknown and soon becomes known as someone in cahoots with Gurpal. Gurpal is cooking up a scheme and asks Vishal to disappear for a couple of days. In exchange, Vishal asks for a car and Gurpal agrees. 

Samar realises that this is not the time to show aggression. So he goes up to Anuradha and tells her that she should give him a better position in the government. He is the youth leader of the party and she needs his support. Anuradha is scathing and tells him that he will stay in line in exchange for her silence. She tells him that Devki Nandan was the person she cared for most and he took him away from her. She is pissed off! Hearing Dimple Kapadia saying the word “fuck” gave me a childish joy. 

Students at VNU realise that Vishal is missing, but they decide not to freak out just yet. 

Gopal Das gloats in front of Samar about his reduced position in the party. Samar warns him that he needs to be more wary of Anuradha. After all she is yielding all the power right now. Samar tells him not to underestimate her. 

Anuradha on the other hand complains to Maithili that she still doesn’t have the proof that she paid 100 crores for. The anonymous caller has disappeared and Anuradha knows that she needs more than just the threat of a poison to keep Samar in check. The caller has disappeared, but Maithili says that she will try and get a better lead on him. This is the part of the story that I am most curious about. Who is this anonymous caller? 

Gurpal visits the hospital where Devki Nandan’s body was kept and gets the CCTV footage. He’s trying to track if anyone came near the body that might give him a clue as to who the leak is. 

Sana goes back to Jigar. She sleeps with him and then asks for money. She lies saying that it is for a mortgage on her parents’ house. Jigar tells her that he may have a way for her to get the money but she may have to do something immoral. She jokes that she won’t murder anyone and Jigar assures her that it’s nothing like that. She agrees. 

SAI leaders intensify the search for Vishal. The same Vishal who’s chilling in a room provided by Gurpal without his phone. They start freaking out and decide to go to the police station to file a complaint. At the police station, Gurpal calls the officer and tells him to ensure that no paperwork in recorded about the missing boy. The cop tells the students that they’ll search for Vishal, but they do not register an FIR.

Anuradha speaks to Aditi about advancing her own career over being loyal to Samar. Samar is highly aware that Anuradha is trying to poach his friends in the party to gain power over him. 

Anuradha announces her division of responsibilities. Kailash gets the Home Ministry (this is surprise, since he was expecting HRD). Kailash is a Dalit leader, so the sense we get is that he is overlooked in the party often. But in this case, she makes that decision. Also, she makes the interesting decision of handing over Defence to Aditi Mishra. Is Aditi in Anuradha’s camp now? Or will she stay loyal to Samar? She seems to be the candidate most likely to double cross one or the other person. Gopal Das doesn’t seem happy because he isn’t involved in the distribution of ministries. Samar isn’t thrilled either. 

Having said that, the media lauds Anuradha’s decision. She has appointed a Dalit in charge of Home, a woman in charge of Defence. These are historic decisions and get Anuradha a lot of positive press. 

At VNU, the search for Vishal continues. Sana goes to Shiva and tells him that she found his phone in a drawer that she shares with Chetan. This casts doubt on Chetan. Is he behind Vishal’s disappearance? Clearly Samar and Gurpal are trying to frame Chetan. The goal, I am guessing is to get rid of him from the party so that Shiva becomes the president of the elections. His win is certain and this would convert him into a full blow politician. 

Though really, it’s hard to believe that Samar Pratap Singh doesn’t have better things to do than manipulate this poor student’s life. What is the game plan Samar? Get to it already, I’m bored!

The final scene of this episode has a lot of built up anticipation via loud, suspenseful music. The scene is hammy and fails to deliver the climax (which is pretty intense). Vishal has been mudered by Gurpal and thrown in the bushes somewhere inside the VNU campus. Poor boy! To think, all he wanted was a car. 

Episode Rating 1/5