Possessed by Heneral Borgo, Rex Vanguardia’s character has constantly made the life of Regina (Janella Salvador) miserable. We can say that one of his earliest crimes was turning the pure-hearted Regina into a beast, cultivating the horrible villain inside her by playing with her human emotions. Watch this Kapamilya Toplist of scenes from Mars Ravelo’s Darna and you will see that he is evil to the core.

Rex’s dirty tactic involves tapping into Regina’s guilt, knowing the latter sees him as a loving father. He knows her psyche, thus guilt-tripping her into carrying out his every order. He makes her feel bad for even the littlest mistake, especially in her job as a lawyer. His order was to unleash her killer instinct because the world is already full of weaklings.

When Regina unknowingly made her first attack as Babaeng Ahas, the cunning Rex exalted the villain and wreaked havoc in Regina’s mind. He had her abducted by a group of men, so she’d be traumatized enough to awaken her inner snake.

He provokes Regina by insisting that Darna (Jane de Leon) is the better, wiser, and stronger character, therefore worthy of admiration, as compared to Valentina who is a weakling and lacks spectacular acts. “Darna makes Valentina look stupid,” he said, successfully rousing Regina’s rage, which meant he was getting close to establishing Valentina’s rivalry with Darna as planned.

When Regina fully embraced her snake alter-ego, she opted to use her venom as an extension of her day job as a lawyer, killing only the crooked. But that wasn’t Rex’s game plan. He was infuriated by how Valentina projected herself as a hero than a monster. He berated the girl, hurting her ego by calling her a loser. Regina retorted that she has won legal cases for the poor and saved people through the Vanguardia Foundation, which she believes makes her worthy of respect. The more she tries to validate her good deeds, the more she gets punished for it.

She discovered that her powers came from the green venom-like shrapnel from the cyborg Zora/Leonor (Iza Calzado) buried. Twisting the narrative to his advantage, Rex fed vengeance into Regina’s mind and waited for her to explode.

He must move fast in forcing Regina’s friends out of her life. He fears that these people, especially Narda (Jane de Leon) and Brian (Joshua Garcia), might influence her to go back to her good ways. Things worked in his favor when Brian dumped Regina for Narda. Like a demon, he fed the snakes on her head with lies and self-pity, telling her that Brian and Narda are traitors.

Regina was affected by Narda’s pleas in a video campaign created for the Vanguardia Foundation. Then again, Rex told her to stop watching the clip. He even said that asking a friend to surrender equates to rejection. If Narda accepts Regina, then she’d be okay with her being a snake, he said.

Recently, Rex hatched a plan that completely ruined the girls' friendship. He called Narda using Regina’s voice. The confrontation resulted in a fight in which Rex pretended to have fallen dead off a cliff. Regina transformed into Valentina and vowed to get back at Narda’s family to avenge her father’s death.

This signalled Borgo to junk Rex Vanguardia’s identity, and Regina to bury her friendship with Narda.

Don’t miss an episode of Mars Ravelo’s Darna, weeknights, on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, and A2Z.