Black Widow
Episode 8 of Paatal Lok begins with politician Shukla and his wife eating dinner in a restaurant but he’s clearly not happy given she orders food for him and controls aspects of his life. At the bar he meets a saddened Chanda who listens to him sing and they instantly start to connect. Back in the present, Chaudhary attends Bajpayee’s political speech where he notices Amitosh snapping photos and calls him over. Only, he starts to run until Chaudhary catches up to him and manages to take his press badge. With this in hand, he takes Amitosh’s spot after making it through security. With UP elections coming up, Sanjeev holds a meeting at the news station where he asks Rohan for some ideas on how to approach their coverage. Despite being put on the spot, Sara speaks up for him and suggests they dabble in fake news. Imran is coached in his interview about sounding more positive, especially surrounding the state of minorities in India. Chaudhary leaves the rally and follows a white car holding Chanda, who he learns is actually Tope Singh’s mistress and presumably entangled in this entire mess. After seeing her enter Apartment 317 in secret with Shukla, Chaudhary waits for him to leave before heading in and confronting her. As we cut back in time, we see Chanda constantly hounded by Tope Singh, who demands to see her Father and spill the secrets of her sleeping with a “low castle”. It turns out her getting mixed up with Shukla was actually an accident; she fell in love with him for being a poet. He told her to get Chaaka onboard with meeting Tyagi at the hotel room and doing this job would mean he “won’t bother her after that”. She claims not to know about the assignment but as she drops her robe, he suspects something is up and leaves. Outside, Chaudhary requests a phone record on DCP Bhagat as he has a theory but realizing how much trouble it would get Ansari in, he thinks otherwise and tries to find another angle. That angle comes in the form of Amitosh who gets hold of some political documents confirming Gwala and Bajpayee are allies and that means whoever Donullia tells people to vote for, they do. As Amitosh rides off after spilling these secrets, fragments of the previous episodes start to align as Chaudhary realizes the one person who stands out in this conspiracy is Tyagi. Chaudhary hurries off to the records office to confirm his theory and while he just about manages to make it out in one piece, Ansari phones through with DCP Bhagat’s phone records. Given they looked strangely similar to Tope Singh’s, he matched them up and it turns out the target wasn’t Sanjeev after all – it was the four suspects in the car. Unfortunately Firangi and Om Ji arrive and shoot Babua in the head. As blood oozes down the windscreen, we leave things on a big cliffhanger. With parts of the truth finally revealed and lots of twists and turns along the way, seeing everything start to come together now to reveal this politically charged assassination is shaping up to be a really satisfying climax to the series. Despite the obvious racial divides throughout the show, Paatal Lok has done well to remain consistent with its themes and all the backstory we’ve seen for the four suspects over the past 8 episodes are finally starting to make sense now. With the finale up next, will this one end with a roar or a whimper?
