The Time That Remains’ ending was centered around the deaths of Lilia and Matias. In 1941, when the Japanese invaded the Philippines, Lilia and her parents, Juan Pablo and Dolor, left their house in Baguio and moved to Batangas to live with Juan Pablo’s cousin. While staying there, Lilia found a shape-shifting vampiric cat named Matias, and they became great friends. Matias was a warrior from 1570 who fought against the Spanish conquistadors and was bitten by a vampire. He lived many lives after but was never satisfied. That was until he met a very young Lilia and bonded with her. In 1954, when Lilia was sexually assaulted by a bunch of locals, Matias avenged her by killing those men. But instead of feeling thankful for the deaths of some rapists, the society accused Lilia of being a witch. And when Dolor saw Lilia with Matias, she thought that her daughter had become Satan’s wife, and she died by suicide. Lilia was again blamed for that, and the locals were about to burn her when Matias intervened and saved her. In 1960, Lilia and Juan Pablo went back to Baguio, and Matias offered her the gift of immortality. Lilia rejected that offer and chose to live as a mortal. She saw Juan Pablo die of old age. In the ‘70s, she faced domestic abuse for almost four years at the hands of her husband, Isagani—a problem that was solved by Matias. In 1986, she opened a cafe with Matias, called The Night Owl, and she even entered the weed business, where she sold marijuana to a vampire named Ami in exchange for blood bags so that Matias wouldn’t have to kill. However, she avoided becoming a vampire herself and chose not to stay with Matias for all eternity. Why? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Andrei Exposed Matias’ Truth
The main plot of The Time That Remains was triggered by an attack on Lilia. Somebody had broken into her house and shot her. In retaliation, Matias had killed the robbers and left their bodies at the scene of the crime. When a senior police officer, Angua, saw the marks on the deceased robbers’ bodies, he was reminded of a similar attack that had taken his father’s life. During the ‘70s, Lilia’s decision to marry Isagani had sent Matias on a downward spiral, and he was killing people left, right, and center to satiate his thirst and rage. Angua’s father made the mistake of crossing paths with Matias, and he perished. That compelled Angua to hunt down his father’s killer. He had collected evidence over the past few decades of Lilia, a woman who aged, and Matias, her partner, who didn’t age at all. And after this recent attack, he was sure that Matias was the man he was looking for. But he didn’t have any way to prove it. He got so desperate that when his boss, Chief Inspector Carreon, went to take a statement from Lilia about the shootout, he broke into Lilia’s house and tried to access the basement where Matias lived. He was fired for doing so, and it seemed like all hope was lost for him. However, that’s when Andrei entered the picture and gave Angua a second chance. So, after being admitted to the hospital, Lilia had bonded with a nurse named Isabela. Andrei was Isabela’s abusive ex-boyfriend. When Andrei was harassing Isabela at the hospital, Matias stepped in and chucked Andrei to the ground. That bruised Andrei’s ego. Hence, when he spotted Matias at the tattoo shop, which was a front for Ami’s weed-blood-bag business, he decided to get back at Matias for shoving him. He recorded the transaction between Ami and Matias and reported it to the police. Even though Angua had been fired, he was allowed to lead one last raid.
Matias and Lilia Died
Ami’s Black Cat Tattoo Studio was shut down, but Ami wasn’t caught because she managed to escape the police’s clutches. Since Matias wasn’t at the tattoo shop, Angua led the police to Lilia’s house. However, by the time they got there, Lilia had succumbed to her wounds. And, in The Time That Remains’ ending, as the sun had come out, Matias decided to walk into the daylight and die by suicide. All that was left of Matias was his necklace, which Angua kept as a memento. Meanwhile, as evident from the passport in Isabela’s hands, she’d decided to explore the world. Which brings us back to the topic of Lilia choosing mortality over immortality. One way of looking at Lilia’s choice is that she had seen what immortality had done to Matias. He had become a monster, and even when he chose to mend his ways, he was still treated like an animal by the law enforcement authorities. So, if she became an immortal along with him, there was no saying what kind of horrors they’d have to face from the people around them. People always fear the things they don’t understand, and it was pretty evident that they wouldn’t be allowed to coexist with humans. Also, immortality would have given her eternal life, but it wouldn’t have changed the world around them. Since Isagani’s demise, Lilia had enjoyed some semblance of peace and quiet. She was content. She didn’t interfere in anyone’s life. Yet, robbers showed up at her doorstep and shot her. Sure, they could have been after her weed or the antiques that Matias had collected over the years. But the fact of the matter was that things were getting so bad in general, and people were becoming so reckless, that existence itself seemed futile. What was the point of immortality in a world that was in self-destruct mode, right?
The Meaning of Lilia and Matias’ Deaths
Lilia had endured hatred and destruction all the way up to the ‘70s. After that, she had had her fill of love and affection, and she wanted to die feeling content. Extending her life and ruining that experience by dealing with Angua, robbers, or other vampires seemed pointless. The same goes for Matias; without Lilia, his life seemed meaningless. Sure, he could have outlived Angua and then enjoyed his freedom. But who would he have shared that freedom with now that Lilia was gone? Hence, death seemed like the only option. Additionally, by choosing to die in front of Angua, he actually brought the elderly police officer’s revenge saga to an end and also helped Angua prove to his colleagues that his theory about immortal beings in the Philippines was true. While he can die in peace, his colleagues will probably commence a lifelong mission to track down all the vampires in the country. That said, given how the final shot of the film was one focusing on Isabela, I suppose I have to see Lilia’s choice to stay mortal through her perspective as well. When Lilia and Isabela entered each other’s lives, the latter had stopped believing in love because of Andrei. And as someone who had felt true love because of Matias, I think Lilia wanted to assure Isabela that she shouldn’t lose hope just because of one abusive man. Hence, she shared her life story with her, she showed how much love there was between her and Matias, and she proved that one didn’t need to seek immortality to attain contentment—just a few decades of companionship was more than enough. Although Lilia didn’t live to see the effect she had had on Isabela’s psyche, her decision to explore the world and give love a chance meant that Lilia’s final mission was a success.
Some Filipino Vampire Lore
Here are some tidbits about Filipino vampire lore that I found on the internet. The vampire-like creature that’s known to have originated in the Philippines is called the manananggal. A manananggal’s upper half and lower half can be separated from each other without causing any harm to the creature itself. But if somebody can find its lower half when it’s unguarded and destroy it, the manananggal will die. The manananggal are known to suck the blood of pregnant women, recently wedded couples, lovers, infants, and even grooms that got rejected right before their wedding. “Aswang” is a catch-all term for all kinds of shape-shifting creatures in Filipino folklore, and their existence was apparently confirmed by Spanish colonists. The aswang is known to transform into dogs, cats, and pigs. While we didn’t see a dog in the film, Matias’ alternate form was a black cat, and when he was transformed, the villagers sacrificed a pig in front of him. Now, the question remains: was Matias an aswang or just a regular vampire? Well, given how the vampire that bit Matias was from Spain, it could have been Comte Estruch, and his qualities were similar to the vampires of yore. Hence, Matias depended on blood for sustenance and was burnt by sunlight. Mirrors, garlic, crosses, and the need to be invited to enter a building—the movie dealt with all that in a flexible fashion. When it came to the shape-shifting aspect, though, the movie bent the rules completely and blurred the lines between regular vampires and the aswang. While regular vampires transformed into bats, wolves, or just mist, Matias could turn into a cat and not much else. That’s all I have for you about aswangs and vampires. If you need to learn more, maybe request the makers of The Time That Remains to make a spin-off about that Spanish vampire that entered the Philippines in the 1500s and went around turning a significant chunk of the country’s population into vampires.
