Caray, Caray!

A few subplot moments: (a) That greasy blond Leonela babe with gigantic puffy collagen lips jumps all over Andres, having followed him to Aguascalientes from Spain. He's not very glad to see her and tells her he's in love with, and in fact married to, another woman; (b) Manola gazes upon the urn marked "GUSTAVO" but containing, actually, some stranger's ashes. She exclaims to her dad: "I hope Gustavo died like a dog! We have triumphed!" By the look on her dad's face, he isn't feeling very triumphant; (c) Federico calls Rodrigo "hijo" (son) one time too often and Rodrigo looks at him funny and then reminds us all that he, Rodrigo the Rehabilitated, regrets having helped Jacinta engineer the separation of Valeria and Andres.

Guillermo's mother Patricia is reading up on homosexuality in her hotel room when her brutish husband shows up. "You thought you could sneak out and I wouldn't notice?" She says she has a right to see their son. Brutish husband: "He's not MY son! He's dead to me." Victor arrives at this very moment, with flowers, to thank Patricia for reconciling with her son Guillermo (Victor's sweetie). The brutish husband slams the door on Victor and starts hitting the wife. Victor breaks the door down and protects Patricia, who tells her husband she is going to report him for beating her and if he keeps it up he'll end up in jail. She accepts Victor's invitation to go stay with him and Guillermo.

Valeria is mentally bludgeoned by Jacinta's inimitable, self-serving, relentless recaps: "Your mother got pregnant to trick your father into marrying her." (Actually, you may remember, he raped her.) "She left you and your father to be with her lover. She was a prostitute. Your father sought her and died because of her. She killed him." (You may remember it was actually Federico who bludgeoned Adolfo to death.) "She's only come back now to try and get some of your Valladolid inheritance." Valeria is crazed by all of this, cries a lot and screams at Maite to leave forever.

Maite goes to the cemetery where she gets drenched by a small amount of fake rain and asks dead aunt Griselda for consolation. Then she goes to church and tearfully petitions the Virgin Mary. Unibrow comes up behind (is he stalking her?) and she says she needs him more than ever, to help her win back Valeria. He takes her someplace with a fireplace and she starts to dry off. Then they have a shouting fight full of accusations. Him: "Who was the man you were leaving with on that train?" Her: "What kind of man asks a woman to join him, a woman alone, with a baby in her arms, on a cold night, and then leaves without her?" I think he finally convinces her he never got Griselda's letter (Explaining All) till recently.

Jacinta gloats to Federico: "Finally I can sleep peacefully, knowing Valeria will never pardon her mother." He agrees: "Maite menaces our tranquility." (Tranquility??) Meanwhile Valeria, who has been gadding around in the rain just as Maite has, coughs - and - oh no - Cleotilde is going to get some tea. Not tea in Jacinta's hacienda?!!!!

Labels: barrera