Caray, Caray!

Before I get back into the story, I have to put out a couple things I forgot to mention. Sylvia pointed out in the comments to my last post that the actress who plays Lety’s mother in the show is the real mother of the actress who plays Lety, which my wife also mentioned to me the first time Mama Padilla appeared on screen “Oye that’s her real mom!” Based completely on two people telling me that, I’m going to believe it.

While we’re on the subject of Lety’s parents, let’s talk about Papa Padilla. The Alborada recaps referred to Rafael as ‘the stuffed boy.’ In that spirit, Papa Padilla will be known as Papa the Robot. This guy looks like he was made from an erector set, then had Mr. Rogers’ clothes draped on. His voice sounds like gravelly voiced asthmatic. My wife tells me that the actor, Jose Jose (great name), was a raging alcoholic and that’s probably why he’s so messed up and can’t talk. So why we have someone who can’t talk in a TV show, I have no idea. He is also extremely one dimensional. “All men want to hump daughter….all men evil…..lock daughter in ivory tower….rrrarrrrgggghhhh.” Ok, not that last part, but he has a Frankenstein’s monster thing going on.

Lastly, Jean pointed something out that I can’t BELIEVE I didn’t mention. Lety’s spastic facial tics. Any time she’s nervous, which is most of the time, she gets this one eye squinting/blinking and one corner of her mouth twitching violently thing. Basically, she looks like she’s having some kind of seizure. When Fernando imitates her right in her face and the does the “what the hell?” gesture, it’s good comedy. I think the actress who plays Lety got the part due to her ability to make this seizure face. I try to imitate it and just can’t do it. There are always some rubber band ‘boinnnnggg’ sounds that accompany the face too, adding to the fun.

Back to the story -

Lety and Tomas are reading an article in a magazine called ‘Caras.’ It has a story about Conceptos and the people involved. As we get to each part of the article, a little flashback scenario is shown, this is still all part of providing some background for the story. One photo shows Fernando and Marcia, with a caption saying that they are getting married. We fade to a flashback of the day the picture was taken…. (there was no funny flashback music or anything, but I still can’t ever see a flashback on any show without thinking of Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World wiggling their hands and saying ‘doodle oodle oop doodle oodle oop’ when fading to a flashback, such as the time Wayne was recalling how he made out with Madonna.)

Fernando is with Marcia at a company party, it’s a nice sunny day. Fernando is hitting on the models present at the part any time Marcia is more than 2 feet away. This guy has balls. I’m not saying that in a good way, any self-respecting girlfriend would drop him like a hot potato. If Marcia was self-respecting, however, she wouldn’t be an interesting character and we’d be robbed of some good storylines. Asi es y asi sera.
Fernando sidles up to a model and drops the incredible line (I’m rolling my eyes, I’m not sure how to be sarcastic in print sometimes) “Hola Guapa!” Surprisingly, this gem of a pickup attempt works. Then again, this model might realize that hooking up with this guy will get her some steady work. Her opportunity is spoiled, however, when Marcia’s radar goes off and suddenly she’s right there at Fernando’s elbow. She gives the whole making a smiley face but showing her teeth like an angry animal routine, I haven’t seen a lot of soap operas or novellas but I’ve seen this look plenty of times. The model quickly runs away. A photographer approaches and takes a picture for the story being written for Caras, Marcia tells Fernando that ‘all his girlfriends’ are going to die when they see his picture with Marcia, since for some reason he hasn’t really told anyone about their engagement. Fernando senses a cold front, or perhaps Hurricane Marcia, on the horizon due to the look on Marcia’s face, so to calm her down he takes her by the arm, goes to the microphone someone was using to make announcements, and tells everyone that he and Marcia are getting married. Everyone is excited, etc, Fernando looks like he’s thinking “holy crap what did I just do.” (end flashback)

Lety’s parents are very proud of her for landing a job at such a prestigious place like Conceptos, but she lets them believe that she is the Assistant to the President, not just one of his secretaries. She plans to buy some new clothes, perhaps to look like simply a fashion victim, rather than a victim of a heartless Communist regime.

Lety happily trots off to work the next day, she rides the bus to work. I forget exactly where in the first couple weeks it happens, but RoboPapa Padilla trades in his sweet, but broken down, car for an extremely boring but reliable “newer” one. Newer, as in made after 1980. It looks like a late 80’s Chrysler LeBaron, something like that. All straight lines and corners. RoboPapa is worried that it cost too much (what kind of weak job does he have where he can’t afford a 20 year old used Chrysler?) but Lety, with her sweet new job, says she’ll help pay for it, she wants him to have a better car.

Lety arrives at work, everyone recoils as she passes again, and presents herself in Fernando’s office, ready for work. Fernando has cleaned out the storeroom, no windows, off the back of his office and put a desk in there for her. She’s the man behind the curtain, Alicia is the Great and Wonderful Wizard of Oz. We all know where the real work gets done.

Lety meets “El Club de Las Feas,” a group of women who work at Conceptos. They consist of a few secretaries, the cleaning woman, Luigi’s assistant, and the receptionist. They have given themselves that name, or perhaps Luigi named them that, I wasn’t able to clear that up and then forgot to ask my wife about it. Surrounded by models all the time, they have latched onto each other for support. The one member of the club that confuses me is Paula Maria the receptionist, played by Niurka. I guess she’s in this group because she’s the receptionist, but she’s really, well, hot. She wears little tiny skirts and looks good. So putting her in a group of Feas doesn’t make sense to me. She does have a 10 year old son by a guy who just up and disappeared after knocking her up, so I think it’s the whole single woman/kids/broken heart or just plain ugly that gets you into this club. The club isn’t openly welcoming of Lety at first, they are a bunch of gossipy hens, but in time they open up and become her friends.

Poor Lety – she’s so ugly that Fernando’s parents actually come in and have a meeting with him to discuss the fact that he hired her. She is referred to as “La Fea” throughout the entire conversation. Cripes, these people. Fernando does, however, defend Lety’s skills to his father and insists on keeping her.

Marcia is determined that Alicia get inside Fernando’s private zone, she urges Alicia to play dirty and do whatever she can to get rid of Lety. Right away, that task is made harder as Fernando gives Lety his personal phone book, which is not so little and brown, but still technically his ‘little black book.’ Alicia and Marcia seethe, maxing out their shared brain cell to see how to get their hands on that book. Why? Who knows. Again, if Fernando running around is such a problem, dump his ass. You’re hot and rich. Go find someone else.

Luigi has completed his latest masterpiece, so there is going to be a presentation of his newest ‘videoclip.’ Fernando and Omar head down to the models’ dressing room to hit on some chicks, and proceed to do just that as brazenly as possible. Fernando finds a girl he knew before and proceeds to make out with her right in front of everyone! Then, as I’ve said before, Fernando is a master of the smooth line. He tells the girl “with another kiss like that I’d have to marry you.” I’m sure that this girl, who is the type to make out with whoever in the dressing room, wants nothing more than to get married. This is the type of behavior exhibited by women looking to settle down. Right. Anyway, time’s up, so the models get going and Fernando and Omar leave. Omar, by the way, contributes mainly by looking at girls bodies and making faces like he’s constipated, I think it’s supposed to be uncontainable lust making him look that way but I think he just needs a box of prunes. Then he’ll be able to stop looking so pained.

Fernando sends Lety down to production to get some CDs that he needs for the show, of course these are vital and nobody remembered them. And instead of somebody who knows what they are and where they are, Lety gets sent. She trips and stumbles her way around, frightens some people along the way, and managed to find them. She comes back to the showroom with them and manages to come out the door right next to the film screen. The audience is watching Luigi’s video for…… get ready now music fans…. “El Club de Las Feas” by El Bando de Recodo. The song/video that plays at the end of each episode of the show. Yes, I know you’re all sad you missed this episode, I know how much you love that song. We have a Three’s Company type moment, lots of tripping, physical comedy, Fernando finally gets her out of the way and takes the CDs.



I’m almost at the end of the first week of recaps. I keep telling myself “just summarize to get up to date, you can channel Hemingway later.” But I can’t help myself. I’ll get caught up someday.

Labels: fea-e