Series / Janda Kembang

"Our first iftar feels rather lonely. It would be happier if our family is complete."

— Sri

Janda Kembang (lit. Flower Widow) is an Indonesian Dramedy produced by NET and Teras Kreasi Nusantara and aired on NET in 2022 Ramadan.

The titular widow is Salmah (Amanda Rigby), a makeup artist and a young, beautiful widow struggling to spend time for her daughter Laila (Abigail).^note By most definition, Salmah is not actually a janda kembang since the term refers to young, beautiful and childless widows. Other widows in the neighborhood includes Neneng (Oline Mendeng), the gossiping small shop owner; Seli (Alodya Desi), who thinks too highly of her own wealth; and Sri (Diah Permatasari), a retired, Older and Wiser widow who lives with her college-going, protest-happy niece Wulan (Dinda Annisa). Neneng and Seli are desperate for love and try to get close to the Malik (Miqdad Addausy), who only has eyes for Salmah. Malik is frequently helped by his motorcycle taxi driver friend Rais (Ence Bagus) and his other best friend Wulan, who secretly has feelings for Malik. Meanwhile, the RT leader (Akri Patrio) is a friendly, but greedy leader in love with Sri.

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Janda Kembang provides examples of:

• Accidental Truth: In episode 5, Rais buys an obviously broken motorcycle partly because it is cheap and partly because the seller and RT leader claims it is an antique. Rais repeats the antique bike claim when he tries to sell it to a motorcycle fixer. After Rais trades in the bike to the fixer for his old one, a customer suddenly appears and says that it is an antique and proceeds to buy it for a higher price than Rais would get.
• Acting Out a Daydream: While Rais is imagining him winning over both Seli and Neneng in episode 18, reality shows that he is hugging Malik and a jar.
• Actor Allusion:
  • In episode 8, Sri is asked to imitate Si Manis' creepy laugh, which she naturally can do since both are played by Diah Permatasari.
  • In episode 10, Eko comments that the RT leader, Rais and Robert look like comedy group Patrio, referencing the RT leader's actor being part of that group. (Coincidentally, one of Patrio's members is also named Eko)
  • After getting scared of facial-mask-wearing Sri, Rais compares Sri to "Si Manis Jembatan Ambrol" in episode 18.
• Agony of the Feet: When Malik tries to stop a thief from stealing his gas cylinders in episode 18, the thief drops one of the cylinders onto Malik's feet, injuring it and limiting Malik's mobility for the next two episodes and allowing some Ship Tease moments when Wulan and Salmah separately heal it.
• The Alleged Car: The motorcycle that Rais bought for relatively low price in episode 5 is obviously patched up when he bought it, breaks down a lot and gets progressively worse as it is used throughout the episode.
• And Starring: The opening credits has "introducing Abigail as Laila", since she is a child actress.
• Anonymous Benefactor: Salmah once finds out that Laila's school fee is suddenly already paid and on other occasion receive salon equipments from an unknown person. Not too long after each time, Kemal reveals he is the one who helped Salmah.
• Answer Cut: Done twice in succession in episode 19. Salmah agrees with Malik that her salon is in need of employee, but she wonders who could be one. Cut to Slamet (and Wulan) whom the audience know is looking for a job. Then, when Malik meets Slamet and says he has a job for Slamet, Slamet has a feeling he wouldn't like the job. Cut to an unhappy Slamet in Salmah's salon.
• Aside Comment:
  • Rais turns to the camera when expressing his happiness in episode 26 after Neneng admits she loves him too.
  • In episode 30, Jufri peeks at Salmah, Kemal, Malik and Ella's argument in the salon and speaks his comment when facing the camera, partly because he is alone in that scene.
• Birthday Episode: Episode 5 revolves around Laila's birthday.
• Bland-Name Product: Episode 2 has Minder, the equivalent of the real-life dating app Tinder. The same episode also offhandedly mention Indonesian bank names such as Mandiin (Mandiri), BCK (BCA), and Benin (BNI).
• Blatant Lies:
  • In episode 27, when hiding their secret relationship from Sri who saw them romantically holding hands on the table, Neneng and Rais claim that they were arm-wrestling.
  • Seli tries to distract Jufri by claiming a goat is flying. Despite stating how obvious Seli's lie is, Jufri looks up anyway.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: In episode 18, when Rais asks to the sky whether it's okay for him to take some of the money he finds in his passenger's bag, a lightning strikes out of nowhere, scaring Rais into doing the right thing.
• Boyfriend Bluff: When Wulan's bad-boy senior Roy keeps asking her to be his girlfriend, Malik and Wulan pretend to be a couple to throw him off. Roy doesn't actually buy it, but Malik scares him off by cutting a tomato loudly.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Rais is the most likely to go through comical suffering in his individual subplot, like that time his bike gets progressively more beaten up as the episode progress or how a thief throw away his phone because it's too ugly to be worth stealing.
  • Kemal's uncle Jufri ever since he is introduced is constantly rejected by Sri, gets into slapstick scenarios and nobody ever give sympathy to him, not even his own nephew.
• Call-Back:
  • Rais' online-lending subplot in episode 12 is caused by Rais wanting to pay his debt to Sri from episode 5.
  • In episode 16, the RT leader shut Seli's protest up by reminding her of the investment scam that she brought to the neighborhood two episodes ago.
  • In episode 19, Rais receives an expensive smartphone for free, but he decides to sell it to pay his debt to Sri.
  • Malik's decision to crop Salmah's photo with her late husband Dito from now-Malik's phone ends up making things difficult when five episodes later, Laila needs a family photo.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Episode 18 shows a waste picker normally picking up Malik's broken gift to Salmah before later revealing that he is the thief who has been stealing from the neighborhood throughout the episode.
• Commonality Connection: When Jufri wants to fire Rais and other methods fail to convince Jufri, Rais begins to say that he is in desperate need for money to make sure his beloved doesn't go back to her ex-husband. Since Jufri also has been desperately trying to get Sri back, Jufri is touched and keeps the fellow "love warrior" service.
• Company Cross References:
  • In episode 4, the RT leader is watching previous NET. drama series Cinta dan Rahasia when his TV antenna needs fixing.
  • The footage used for the soap opera watched by Neneng and Seli in episode 8 comes from another NET. series Kesempurnaan Cinta.
  • The motorcycle taxi that Malik uses in episode 19 is OK-JEK from NET. sitcom of the same name.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When Salmah leaves Laila with Malik in episode 8, she tells them not to get Laila missing again, like in the first episode.
  • When eating Robert's fried rice with Wulan like usual, Malik suddenly is reminded about that time, in episode 10, when Roy confronts them there.
  • In episode 14, Rais at first has reservation about joining Seli's investation as he was previously tricked by an online lender.
  • In episode 17, when Neneng is repressing her annoyance that Sri wants to use her house, Seli warns Sri that Neneng would smack her down, referring to what Neneng did to Seli in the previous episode.
  • Episode 22 has Malik wearing unusually nice clothes for his love confession to Salmah. He offhandedly comments that Salmah might think he is looking for an office job instead just like in episode 6. She does.
  • Salmah's inner monologue about deciding her own happiness in the final scene(s) is a nod towards Malik telling her a similar thing in episode 10.
• Counterfeit Cash: To Rais' massive disappointment, the money he gets from selling an expensive smartphone turns out to be fake, something he only finds out after giving it to other characters.
• Credits Montage: Replacing the usual On the Next, the ending credits for the finale is shown with some clips of Salmah's moments with Malik and Kemal throughout the series.
• Crocodile Tears: Misunderstanding causes the RT leader to believe Rais' relative Cepi has died and give Rais some money. Rather than admitting that Cepi is his pet fish, Rais takes the money while pretending to cry.
• Crushing Handshake: When introducing herself to Sri's annoying ex, Wulan grips Jufri's hand so hard Jufri feels pain, implicitly to show she doesn't like him either.
• Dating Service Disaster: Half of episode 2 is about Seli, Neneng and Rais trying out a dating app called Minder and keeps getting matched up with someone with a fake name who pretends to be rich, including each other.
• Daydream Surprise:
  • In episode 5, Salmah visits Malik's shop and he proceeds to hold her hand tenderly. Suddenly, the mood changes as Malik is imagining things a bit since it turns out that he is holding another customer's hand.
  • In episode 24, Rais wakes up in front of Neneng's shop who acts unusually nice to him and even assures him that it's not a dream. Surprise, it is a dream, as revealed when Kemal throws water at Rais who is actually sleeping in Kemal's home.
• Derailing Love Interests: Subverted. Kemal is revealed to be secretly married not long after asking Salmah out as if to set him up as a Romantic False Lead. But when Salmah finds out, Salmah merely breaks up with him and she doesn't choose Malik either. Kemal's personality also doesn't turn out to be any different from before and his apology is earnest.
• Dramatic Drop:
  • Malik drops the pizza boxes that he is holding the moment he finds out that Salmah agrees to marry Kemal.
  • Salmah drops the food he brought for Kemal in shock when Tiara appears and reveals that Tiara is Kemal's wife.
• Embarrassing First Name: Seli is embarassed of her full first-name "Seliatun" since Neneng mocks it as boorish which in turn doesn't fit Seli's belief that she is upper-class.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The RT leader is always referred to as "Pak RT" while his name, Romli, is only mentioned once in episode 28, long after he is Put on a Bus.
• Failed a Spot Check: When Salmah and her mysterious guest goes outside her house in the second episode, Malik and Rais hide behind the guest's car. They're really fortunate that Salmah doesn't look the other way when the car leaves and they are still there.
• Faint in Shock: Salmah faints in Malik's arms when the odong-odong driver reveals that the kid who fell of his odong-odong (which she assumes to be Laila) was brought to a hospital.
• Fake Guest Star: Bopak Castello (Jufri) is always credited as a guest star, even though he appears with a sizable role in every episode since his introduction.
• Fake Static:
  • When Salmah's first client Jefri is calling her out via phone for leaving her job, Rais takes the phone and imitates static sound until Jefri thinks the signal is weak.
  • When a debt collector demands Rais to pay his debt via phone call, Rais fakes static sound so he can hangs up.
• False Start:
  • Near the end of episode 23, Malik has prepared himself to confess his feelings to Salmah, even bringing in a flower. When he arrives, Kemal already asked out Salmah to a dinner. Malik feels defeated and gives the flower to Wulan instead.
  • In episode 26, Wulan decides to take her aunt's advice and admits her feelings to Malik, but she chickens out mid-sentence and says she likes pizza instead.
• Flashback-Montage Realization: After Wulan confesses her love to him, Malik has a flashback to several moments in the series when Wulan dropped clues about her feelings, only realizing what those clues mean now.
• Friendship Moment: In episode 6, Neneng refuses to help Seli from RT leader, saying that she hasn't forgiven Seli for mocking her lack of wealth yesterday. The moment the RT leader actually appears, Neneng immediately defends Seli and later admits she can't just abandon her "gossip friend".
• Fun with Homophones: Episode 16 twice makes a joke based on Indonesian word for insect (serangga) sounding similar with "si Rangga", the name of a missing child.
• Hot Wind:
  • In Salmah's introduction, wind out of nowhere blows her hair, establishing that Malik is attracted to her.
  • Salmah's hair is blown by the wind, indoors, when Malik sees her visiting his shop in episode 5. It's probably the only clue that it's just a Daydream Surprise.
  • When Slamet meets Seli, Seli's hair is suddenly blown and the scene goes slow-mo to indicate Slamet's attraction.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • The Dating Service Disaster in episode 2 derives its humor from characters calling out their fake matches for not being as rich as they claim they are (Seli) or using fake fancy name (Neneng and Rais) even though they are doing the same thing.
  • In episode 3, RT leader gives some advices to Malik on how to get Salmah, including lastly to play hard to get. Right after saying that, the RT leader sees Sri passing by and desperately tries to woo her.
  • Episode 4 has the RT leader claiming to Sri that he never asks for "money under the table" when giving services. Sri looks below the table and sees that he is hiding a money envelope literally under the table.
  • In episode 9, Seli complains to the RT leader about having to do community service when fasting. Neneng tells her to just follow their leader's order, before immediately complaining about the same thing.
• I Have This Friend: Played With in episode 6. Rais accompanies Malik to Salmah's house and says that they have a friend, who is definitely not Malik, who wants to be make up for a wedding. But it really is not Malik and is not anybody at all, since the story is just part of a ploy to get invited to have an iftar in Salmah's house.
• Imagined Innuendo: In episode 2, the RT leader tells Sri that he is "cleaning his bird", which Sri mistakes as an innuendo for cleaning his penis before he shows that it is literal.
• Imagine Spot:
  • When Seli claims that her skincare product will make RT leader looks like a Korean artist, he imagines himself and Sri acting out a K-Drama style scene.
  • In episode 8, Seli and Neneng take turns imagining how they would not forget each other if they become famous. Humorously, Neneng would always be Seli's assistant in both Imagine Spots that are shown.
  • After discovering a lot of money in his missing passenger's bag, Rais imagines having Seli and Neneng fawning over him and his money, before the scene switch back to reality where he is Acting Out a Daydream.
• I'm Your Biggest Fan: Rais is a massive Vanya Karambol fan, so he tags along with Salmah to Vanya's filming location, fulfills Vanya's request even when her personal assistant can't, and reveals his deep knowledge about Vanya's background. The last one wins Vanya over.
• I "Uh" You, Too: In episode 10, even when merely listing people who platonically love Salmah (Laila and all of their friends), Malik can't bring himself to say that he "loves" her and says he "cares for" her instead.
• I Want Grandkids: It's mentioned that Malik's mother wants one, partly because her friends kept asking about it. Malik uses it as an argument to his mother for why Salmah is a good fit for him: Ella would immediately get a granddaughter in Laila.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Malik finally decides that it is time to confess his love to Salmah, Wulan decides to forget her own feelings for Malik and help his attempt to approach Salmah. As it turns out, it's not as easy as saying it.
• Lies to Children: When Laila hears Neneng and Seli talking about (child-trafficking) syndicate and asks what syndicate means, they try to spare her from the horror by saying that syndicate sells barbie dolls and chops their body. Since Laila loves her dolls, it still terrifies her.
• Like Father, Like Son: Sri and Wulan's father Eko discuss how Wulan takes after her father in terms of being headstrong, critical and prone to join demonstrations. Sri remarks that hopefully Wulan doesn't become a drop-out like her father.
• Literal Metaphor: Rais refers Kemal throwing water at him to wake him up from a really good dream as a "wet dream".
• Literal-Minded: When Kemal gives Slamet some money to "shut [his] mouth" since he is tired of Slamet's stories and jokes, Slamet puts the money in his mouth to shut it.
• Look Behind You: In episode 27, Seli says there's a flying goat in the sky to distract Jufri while she runs away. Jufri talks about how that's impossible and Seli is probably tricking him, all while still looking at the sky and letting Seli escape.
• Love Confession: After hiding it for so long, Wulan straightforwardly tells Malik about her feelings for him in episode 28. Since Kemal has won over Salmah at the moment, Malik considers to reciprocate it, but in the end he turns her down because Wulan will always be a friend to Malik (and Kemal and Salmah's relationship is suddenly in shambles).
• Love Dodecahedron: The core Love Triangle plot is simple enough: Malik and Kemal both love Salmah and constantly try to one-up each other, while Salmah supresses her feelings for both and hasn't completely move on from her late husband. Wulan has a one-sided romantic love for Malik. Also, Neneng and Seli are desperate enough that they would like to woo both Malik and Kemal, among other handsome men, but it's implied that their feelings aren't as serious as the one they later develop for Rais, who around the same time develops feelings for Neneng.
• Love-Obstructing Parents: Upon arriving in the neighbourhood, Malik's mother Ella finds out about Malik's love for Salmah and immediately tries to steer Malik away from Salmah because she is a widow. Malik, Wulan (whom Ella prefers for Malik) and unknowingly Laila manages to change Ella's mind.
• Malicious Misnaming: When saving Malik's phone number, Kemal unintentionally mistypes Malik's name as "Maliq". When Malik protests, Kemal retypes it to "Kalik" just to annoy him.
• Man Hug: Rais hugs Malik and even cries alongside him to cheer him up when Malik cries after Salmah agrees to marry Kemal.
• Missing Child:
  • The first episode revolves around all the main characters looking for the missing Laila, who actually just sneaks into Neneng's house and is unknowingly locked inside.
  • Episode 16 has a neighbor of the main characters looking for her missing son. By the time of the episode, he has been missing for three days, so the RT leader is forced to look for him himself.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Downplayed. The later episodes reveals that Kemal already has a wife when he is trying to get Salmah and offering to marry her, so he is accused of cheating. However, they are in the middle of a divorce, so some characters argue that it's not cheating. Everyone do agree that what was done is dishonest.
• My God, You Are Serious!: When Wulan finally and bluntly tells him the she loves him, Malik doesn't believe it and laughs out loud before Wulan tells him that she is not joking.
• Non-Verbal Miscommunication: Episode 19 has Slamet mistaking Rais' "Pay Me" hand gesture for a dhikr gesture, so he gives Rais a dhikr counter instead.
• No Romantic Resolution: In the finale, Salmah chooses to not pick anyone to be her husband, in spite of the clear attraction between everyone involved throughout the series. The Stinger shows that she eventually picks someone, but doesn't show who.
• Not What It Looks Like: In episode 14, Rais and Neneng hides under a seat to discuss Neneng's plan to pawn her gold. Robert spots them coming up and mistakenly calls them out for doing something dirty.
• No, You Go First: In episode 22, Slamet manages to convince Wulan to confess her feelings to Malik, but at the same time Malik has something to say. After several "you first", Malik is the one who say what's on his mind first: he wants to confess his feelings to Salmah, which makes Wulan decide to not confess.
• Obviously Not Fine: Salmah always pretends to be OK whenever Laila sees her having problem, but it reaches Blatant Lies-level when she says that while crying for minutes in episode 29.
• Older and Wiser: Sri is the oldest among the widows and is the most level-headed and the one everybody turns to for advice.
• On the Next: Every ending credits (with the exception of episode 12, 14, 15, 18, 22 and the finale) is shown on top of clips from the next episode.
• Operation: Jealousy: Defied in episode 10. Malik considers pretending to be in relationship with Wulan to make Salmah jealous, but Wulan shoots the idea down since it's more likely that Salmah will go away instead.
• Painting the Medium: When Rais "races" to Neneng's shop to confirm whether she is going to go to Arab, the screen suddenly looks like a racing broadcast.
• Pinocchio Nose: Salmah's cousin Herman always ends up mumbling whenever he lies.
• Playing Sick: After recovering from his fever, Kemal decides to plays up his fever again so Salmah would feed him. It works.
• Pop-Up Texting: Most text messages are shown with a pop-up so the audience can see it, just like in most NET. series.
• Posthumous Character: Salmah's late husband Dito still affects Salmah and Kemal's side of the story despite being dead for one year prior to the series. Salmah and her daughter's memory of him affects them deeply while Kemal is partly motivated by his late friend's request to take care of his family.
• The Prima Donna: Episode 13 is about Salmah and Rais meeting such singer, Vanya Karambol, during a filming of her music video. She argues with the director a lot and refuses to be made up unless her overly specific demands ("mountain water filtered 19 times") are fulfilled. Even her assistant is ecstatic about being fired.
• Pun-Based Title: Some of the episodes has one.
  • Episode 2: "Media Sok Sial", a pun of Indonesian for social media (media sosial) referring to the dating app used in the episode and Indonesian for unlucky (sial) since Dating Service Disaster happen.
  • Episode 3: "Bicara HT ke HT", a pun of Indonesian for heart-to-heart talk (bicara hati ke hati) and handie-talkies used in the episode.
• Put on a Bus: The series drops some of the main characters as it goes on.
  • The RT leader is said to have already left off-screen to visit his sick parents in episode 18.
  • Seli leaves for Bali because of her new job in episode 27.
  • Sri goes to Klaten to take care of Slamet's father in episode 29.
• Red Herring: Episode 19 tries to make the audience (and Wulan) suspicious of Robert since he is wearing black clothes just like the thief who stole from Malik and apparently doesn't see any thief even though he comes from the direction the thief fled. As it turns out, he really is innocent and in fact becomes the one who caught the thief.
• Relationship Upgrade: Episode 26 has two in a single episode. Neneng agrees to get together with Rais while Salmah makes up her mind and accepts Kemal's proposal from three episodes ago.
• Reveal Shot: In The Teaser of the first episode, Malik apologizes to Salmah for the cramped seat even though there should be only two of them in the car. Camera pans to reveal that Neneng and Seli also ask for a ride after seeing Salmah gets one.
• Right Behind Me: During one of Neneng and Seli's gossip, Neneng wants to badmouth Sri, but Sri suddenly appears behind Seli. Not getting Neneng's message, Seli proceeds to guess what Neneng wants to say: that Sri is annoyingly preachy, before Sri reveals herself. Good thing for Seli that Sri is completely unvengeful.
• Romancing the Widow: The Series.
  • The main plot of the series is Malik and Kemal's conflicting attempt to win over Salmah, whose husband died one year ago. Salmah hasn't moved on yet at first, but between her reciprocating their feelings, Laila wanting a new father, and everybody encouraging her, Salmah eventually has to choose.
  • A lesser example is the RT leader's attempt to romance Sri, whose husband has also died. This one goes nowhere as RT leader's feeling is completely unreciprocated.
  • Rais/Neneng romance subplot in the later half of the series is also technically this. Since Neneng is divorced, the drama comes from Rais' fear that Neneng wants to go back to her ex-husband.
• Romantic Rain: A Ship Tease moment happens in the ending of episode 10, when Salmah gives Malik an umbrella and some food when Malik is walking alone in the middle of a rain.
• Say My Name: In episode 9, the RT leader shouts Rais' name upon finding out that Rais puts all the garbage from the community service in front of his house.
• Secret Relationship: Neneng and Rais gets together at the end of episode 26, but they decide to keep it a secret until Robert figures it out and spreads the news two episodes later.
• Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: Neneng and Seli like to talk as if Malik is closer to them more that he actually is, with Neneng even referring herself as his wife.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: The tomboy Wulan decides to wear feminime clothes and goes to Salmah for a make-up for once in her life because she plans to confess her feelings to Malik. Every guy she meets, including Malik, is awed.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Rais regularly gives support, advice, and ideas for Malik's attempt to get Salmah, even whenever Malik himself feels he already loses to Kemal.
  • Despite knowingly having feelings for Malik herself, Salmah is supportive of Malik/Wulan and occasionally encourages it.
  • Wulan tries to help her best friend Malik to get Salmah, although her own feelings toward Malik lessens her drive to do it. After Wulan's love confession and Malik's polite rejection, Wulan gets over it and directly tells Salmah to open up to Malik.
• Ship Tease: The amount of times Malik and Wulan clean the other's face while romantic music plays.
• Shout-Out:
  • Laila's birthday party is Frozen themed.
  • In episode 7, the RT leader claims that he can fix Sri's water pump with minimum tools because he is like Mac Gyver.
  • When telling Salmah to not carry the rice bag herself, Malik spoofs Dilan's "rindu itu berat" (longing is hard) as "beras itu berat" (rice is heavy).
  • The soap opera watched by Neneng and Seli in episode 8 is titled Layangan Nyungsep and also takes its characters' names from Layangan Putus.
  • In episode 14, Seli claims that millions of people doesn't realize they can earn one thousand dollars without leaving their home, quoting nearly word-for-word the infamous "Budi Setiawan" commercial from Binomo.
  • Wulan compares how Sri and Jufri's past relationship started to Cinta and Rangga's from Ada Apa Dengan Cinta. Flashback reveals that Jufri's poem for Sri is directly based on a poem from the film.
• Sick Episode: Episode 4 has Malik having a fever and spends the episode in a clinic while the others take turns at checking up on him.
• Single Tear: Wulan takes Malik politely rejecting her pretty well in the penultimate episode, but it couldn't stop her from shedding one drop of tear after Malik leaves.
• The Stinger: The finale has a post-credits scene showing what happens to Salmah and Laila one year later.
• Subverted Trope: Episode 5 subverts the bad-news-from-doctor trope. Despite the doctor telling the news being pulled away from Malik and the doctor preceeding it with "we have tried our best" memetically known in Indonesian soap operas, Malik is actually fine and can go home. The doctor just have a personal problem.
• Take a Third Option: Salmah ends up choosing nobody rather than picking Malik or Kemal for her husband. The Stinger shows that she finally chooses someone, but the series keeps who it is a secret.
• Tears of Joy: Salmah cries when Dino decides to withdraw the land dispute case against her, which confuses Laila. Kemal has to explain to her that her mother is crying because she is happy.
• The Teaser: Every episode starts before the opening credits with a scene introducing some characters (the first episode) or following up the ending of the previous one (the rest).
• Tempting Fate: In episode 16, right after Salmah assures her intermediary that Laila will not be a problem during her job, Laila plugs out an important power cord out of curiosity.
• Thematic Theme Tune: The self-titled theme song is about how it feels to be a widow.
• This Is Reality: Neneng hears a potential gossip in Malik's story where he and Kemal argue about who should pay the restaurant bill, but Malik denies it being as bad as Neneng hoped, saying that this is not a soap opera.
• Title Drop: Subverted early in the first episode. Rais comments that Malik is spying on a "flower widow" in English and tells the RT leader to translate it. He ends up translating it to "jendela yang berkembang" (flower window) instead.
• Waving Signs Around: Neneng and Seli make two signs and wave them around on Malik's car in episode 16, protesting the RT leader's inability to find a child who has been missing for three days.
• Wham Line: Combined with Wham Shot if the viewer is perceptive enough. In episode 23, Rais and a brief close-up reveals that Kemal's ID card states that he is currently married, putting the character's motivation in the series-long love triangle into question.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Unamused at yet another Seli's diss towards her, Neneng climbs up a chair and performs elbow drop on her, which Seli later compares to WWE SmackDown.
• You Remind Me of X: In episode 7, Laila says that Malik is reminding her of her father, which makes Malik overjoyed since it means he is one step closer to her mother.
• You See, I'm Dying: After getting from Malik that Wulan doesn't want anything to do with her father, Eko accepts it and explains that he wants to reconnect with Wulan because he was diagnosed with cancer recently. This revelation brings Wulan to tears and changes her mind.

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