Mari Mar (Philippines TV Series) - Plot

Plot

Gustavo Aldama, a rich businessman, married a woman named Lupita despite his mother's disapproval of their relationship. Things become more complicated when Lupita gave birth to Gustavo's daughter, who she named Marimar. Dolores, Gustavo's mother, believing Lupita married her son only for their wealth, did everything to separate the two of them. Dolores drugged Lupita and hired a man, setting them up to make it look like Lupita was having an affair. Gustavo was devastated to find Lupita "sleeping" with another man, unknown to him that it was a plot by his own mother. Dolores then demanded Lupita to leave their property and never to come back. It was too late, however, when Gustavo finds out his mother's treachery. He could no longer find Lupita, who had gone into hiding along with his daughter. Lupita promises her daughter that one day Marimar will claim what is rightfully hers. Meanwhile, Gustavo left his parents and decides to live alone in Manila, not losing hope that one day, he would find his wife and daughter. Seven years pass, but Gustavo's efforts to locate the whereabouts of Lupita and Marimar remained fruitless. One day, his cousin Esperanza visited him, carrying with her the news of his parents' fatal accident. Despite his ill feelings towards his mother, Gustavo went home to finally put closure on his past. While visiting the grave of his parents, Selva, a friend of Lupita, came by to inform Gustavo the whereabouts of Lupita and Marimar. Gustavo doesn't waste any time and goes to reunite with his family. Lupita manages to forgive Gustavo, to the delight of Marimar who is overjoyed to finally meet her father. On their way back to Manila, the passenger plane on which the family is riding crashes into the sea and separates Marimar from her parents. Gustavo once again loses the family he had tried so hard to rebuild. Lupita is later found dead, but Marimar is nowhere to be seen.

Marimar was washed ashore on a nearby island. She was found by a childless couple, Lola Cruz and Lolo Pancho, and upon discovering that Marimar suffers from amnesia, decided to raise Marimar as their own granddaughter. Lola Cruz calls her Marimar after seeing the name on Marimar's necklace. Young Marimar meets a young Angelika. Even when she was a little girl, Angelika was a social climber, always envious of rich people. Despite this Marimar and her become friends. However, Marimar and Angelika start fighting when Angelika falls and breaks her arm, blaming the incident on Marimar.

Marimar then grows into an innocent and naive young woman. Her grandparents tried to keep her away from others because they were afraid Marimar's real parents will see her, because of this, she never went to school and she actually believes that all people are actually nice like her friends in the island. Her complicated and tormented life begins when she meets, falls in love with, and agrees to marry Sergio Santibañez, for the latter's reason to have revenge against his father Renato and Sergio's ex-girlfriend, Angelika, Marimar's childhood friend, who had become his new stepmother. He wanted to put shame on the family name and make her stepmother jealous. Marimar is then subjected to the cruelty of Angelika in the Santibañez mansion. Marimar is awakened to the harsh reality of what her love for Sergio had done to her. Sergio learned that their resort was becoming bankrupt and his father, Renato, is hiding this fact to him. So he decided to leave abroad to join a formula one race to get money to save the business and to find a separate place for Marimar so Angelika won't harm her anymore.

Angelika despises Marimar because of her innocence and her lack of knowledge of the world of high society. She also hates her because she still wants Sergio. She hates the fact that Sergio found a replacement for her. She wants Renato's money and Sergio's love. After Sergio left, Angelika drugged her husband to make her the sole owner of the resort which she doesn't know is going downhill. Then, Angélika constantly embarrasses Marimar, often diminishing her worth as an individual. She made Marimar get a bracelet from a puddle of mud using her mouth then she tells the police that Marimar stole the bracelet from her, and Marimar is sent to prison. Then Angélika sends one of her servants, Nicandro, to set fire on the humble hut belonging to Marimar's grandparents, which results in their deaths. Angélica forges Sergio's handwriting and writes a fake letter to Marimar stating that he wants nothing more to do with her and that he never loved her and he just used her. All this, along with the impact of her grandparents’ deaths, changes Marimar and sets her on the road to revenge.

Fate began to favor the once oppressed Marimar when she decided to leave her town of San Martin de la Costa after suffering much from the Santibañez household. Marimar changed her name to Bella. In the city, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl whom she named Cruzita after her Lola Cruz. Marimar did not allow the child's father, Sergio, to see her, believing that Sergio had left her for good. After many years of searching, Gustavo finally met his daughter, Marimar, but since the latter had changed her name to Bella, Gustavo did not recognize her. Natalia, an insane and ambitious provincial lass from San Martin dela Costa who is jealous of Marimar when she still lived in Villa Santibanez, had snatched up Marimar's pendant, which would prove the identity of Gustavo's missing daughter and heiress. Natalia began pretending to be Gustavo's missing daughter, yet her deception did not last long as Marimar's lost memory came back and she was later on proved to be an impostor. Soon after Gustavo finally acknowledged Marimar as his daughter, he died from a heart attack, leaving the countless wealth of the Aldamas to her. With the help of her aunt Esperanza and friend Innocencia, Marimar left for the United States and completely transformed herself from a poor and naive lass into the rich and sophisticated Bella Aldama.

After the new, improved Marimar is ready to face society, she bumps into Sergio at a welcoming ball for her at her hotel. Sergio is in shock because when he went back to town, Angelika told him that she died in the fire along with her grandparents and showed him a fake grave. Fueled by anger, Marimar denies to Sergio and other people that she is Marimar. She seduces Sergio constantly and then rejects his advances to hurt him. She also flirts with billionaire playboy, Rodolfo San Genez to make him jealous. At the same, she time strips Angélica of her wealth and Marimar buys out the Santibáñez resort, leaving Angelika homeless and destitute again. She also embarrassed Angélika the way she had embarrassed Marimar before by making her get the keys to the resort in a mud pit in front of all of Angelika's former workers and made her narrate that Angelika made her do this before. This was her confession that she is Marimar from San Martin Dela Costa.

Rodolfo made advances to Marimar and even tried to rape her but she was saved by Sergio and he is put in prison. Still Marimar's heart was as cold as stone. Sergio tried all that he can to win Marimar's heart again especially now he learned that he has a daughter with her. Marimar denied him even though he went as far as kneeling in front of her. Sergio decided to leave but his plane went down and he became missing. Marimar herself created a search party just for him revealing she still loves him all this time and she is afraid that it's too late to save their love. Sergio was found, and Marimar realizing only forgiveness will make her happy, decided to make their family whole again. They also pieced together all the lies that Angelika made up and realized all the damage that she did. Meanwhile, Angelika was involved in a car accident which burned her, destroying her beautiful face. Sergio also rescued his father from Angelika and sent him for rehabilitation. Sergio and Renato's relationship as father and son was restored.

Angelika can't bear the thought of Marimar's family being whole again so she planned to take away Marimar's happiness. She killed Marimar's aunt Esperanza and planted the evidence making it look like Marimar was the culprit. She hid the primary evidence that will set Marimar free. She blackmailed Sergio to marry her to save Marimar. Through careful manipulation, Marimar got the evidence. She also hired a private investigator to gather evidence that Angelika was the culprit for her grandparent's death. Angelika was sent to prison but escaped.

On Marimar and Sergio's wedding, Angelika kidnaps Sergio and Cruzita and went to San Martin Dela Costa. She put them in two separate boats at sea each with a bomb that will explode on the same time. Marimar was forced to choose whom to save. Marimar saves her daughter. Unknown to them, Sergio managed to escape. Angelika is furious and decided to attack Marimar, but was beaten into a bloody pulp and having her hand brutally crushed in between the door of a car during the brawl. Now severely injured Angelika attempts to hijack the chopper the family was riding to escape. Marimar pushes her off the chopper with Sergio hanging on for dear life and Angelika fell to her grizzly death near a crocodile infested river smashing her head on the stones killing her instantly and was dragged into the river and eaten by a group of crocodiles.