Caray, Caray!

I was very upset seeing that little girl, Youngest Lety, cry last night. Her crying was so convincing that I was concerned that the actress was too young to realize that it was make-believe. After rewatching that scene tonight, though, I think she is older than she looks, and probably really is acting rather than having a genuine traumatic experience beyond her understanding. Whew! Good thing, too, because I'm almost out of ice cream.

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Lety's day

Lety heads to her office after exchanging insults with Alicia, but first the feas want to talk about yesterday. Sara says something about not seeing Lety's face. "It's the only thing I have," Lety says, and excuses herself. She stares at Fernando's chair for a moment, then goes into her cubbyhole.

She looks at some of the keepsakes in her office and has a flashback to the very first "gift" Fern ever gave her. She was crying in his car (I don't know why - it's from before I started watching) and he gave her a clean red rag from the glove box. She was worried about getting it dirty. He said don't worry, I wash my car with this, and he told her to keep it.

After the flashback, Lety spies a small photo of Fern on the floor where she dropped it two or three episodes ago. She stomps it futilely with her big chunky shoe. She tears the rag and drops it on her desk. She wipes her eyes with her hands and calls Lola and asks her to have Juana bring in a trash bag. She wants to tidy up her office and get rid of some junk.

As Juana passes through the executive lobby with a trash bag, we hear Lola on the phone with a lawyer. She is explaining that Marcia Villaroel recommended him to her. She needs his help in keeping her house away from her ex-husband and his girlfriend.

Carolina shows up, and Lety is glad to see her. She says she's happy Lety decided to come back to work. They talk about the long, bad night and Lety tells Carolina that her mom gave her a dog. She starts explaining about Moty, the mascot on all of her knicknacks, when Juana appears with the bag. Juana offers to help out (I think she wants to know what's going on) but Lety says she'll let her know when she's done. As soon as Juana is gone, Hurricane Lety whirls into action, stuffing things into that bag as fast as she can. Stuffed animals, cards, etc. She explains that she's cleaning up and throwing away all of this trash.

Carolina says they don't look like trash to her. They look like little gifts and keepsakes. Lety says they were at one time, but now they're trash and must be removed. Carolina says that it's a good exorcism, but it won't solve her problem. There are wounds and hard feelings, and you can't just stuff those into a bag and throw them away. Lety agrees, but says she's getting burned by all the things she has to keep (referring to her secrets, I think).

Carolina asks if she's sure if that's what she wants. Lety says no, she's not sure of anything. Carolina says, "When someone decides to throw away their memories, it's because they've already admitted defeat. Because they have definitively broken off their love. Are you sure that your love is broken beyond repair?"

Lety's guard goes back up and she resumes "Operation Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Carolina continues, "It's obvious you're suffering from a broken heart, I could tell by your reaction, the way you were crying. I think this is spite. That's why I'm asking if you're sure that you're sure, because if you throw this stuff out, you'll never, ever get it back."

Lety says she knows what she's doing, but she doesn't sound so sure. Caro asks if "he" knows about this, and what she's going through. Lety says no. Caro is aghast that Lety is breaking it off without even talking to the guy, but Lety says she doesn't matter to him. To him, she is nothing.

Carolina admits she doesn't know what's going on between them and that love can be complicated and full of tricks and lies. She urges Lety to consider motives and speak to him. Maybe there will be an explanation. Lety says she doesn't want to.

As if on cue, the clueless ox bellows "buenos dias" from beyond Lety's door. Caro asks Lety again to speak to "him," give him a chance to explain himself, before throwing out all of their memories. (Just to clarify - Carolina has no idea who "he" is.) Carolina leaves, and Lety shakes her head in exasperation. "An explanation?" she mutters to herself disbelievingly.

Fern greets Carolina and tells her how fine she looks. She says she wants to review the schedule of events for the Cannes film festival later on, and leaves. As she leaves, Fern mumbles that it's a shame she's his friend, because she's so fine. Then he calls for Lety again. She takes a deep breath and leaves her office. She greets him nonchalantly and stands on the other side of his desk, but he gets up to give her a kiss over by her ear. It's a longish kiss and instead of closing her eyes, she just slits them and glares at him sideways until he finishes.

She smiles cheerfully at him when he's looking and glares at him some more when he looks away. Today's order of business is to meet with the folks from rodaje.com. (There's nothing at this website. Boo.) Lety says that Jackie Palacios (I don't think we know her) isn't coming, and Rosy Orozco is coming instead. He says "Rosy Ocampo?" and Lety says again, "Rosy Orozco." (Rosy Ocampo is the woman who produces this show, and Orozco is the last name of the woman who played the original Betty La Fea.) She also says she's arranged something about a presentation and Bank of the Americas.

Next, Lety says "By the way, I read Don Omar Stinkypants's stupid letter and I hate you both. What do you say to that, douchebag? Is there anything you'd like to tell me?" Fernando sighs, then calls Marcia and puts her on speakerphone. He explains everything to both of them, and I mean EVERYTHING. Marcia is angry, but relieved to finally know the truth. Lety says she needs to think about it for a while. Eventually they sort it all out, and there's a happy ending.

Yeah, well, Lety has daydreams all the time, and I thought I'd add one of my own. But you can see the flaw here. If people just spoke frankly to one another on TV, there'd be no way to sell soap. In fact, we'd have been deprived of eight seasons of Three's Company. That's just insane. That's no way for people to live. I'll just stay out of it and let the experts tell the story their way.

Fernando asks Lety if she found a yellow envelope from Omar with his name on it. She nervously says yes. He says "And you didn't tell me you found this envelope?" She hangs her head in shame. He laughs and asks if she read it. She says yes she did and what the hell was that, anyway? He laughs some more and says it was a trick and she fell for it. She gets mad and he explains that he planted that letter there because he knew she would snoop through his stuff. He cackles again with glee. He says of course that letter was a joke, a lie. She smiles and he takes her face in his hands.

At the Padilla house, Tomas is surprised about the dog. He asks Mom if Mr. Sweetie agreed to it. Just then, RoboPop comes down the stairs and wants to know if the dog is in the bathroom. (Mom confides to Tomas that RoboPop is afraid of dogs.) He reminds her that he doesn't want that dog around his house. Mom and Tomas exchange nervous looks.

Lety tells Fern the joke was in very poor taste, and he says don't be annoyed, you very well know how much I love you. She says she's relieved, she thought she was dying, she thought her soul was leaving her body. He kisses her and says how could she think he would do something like that for real. He's incapable of making her sad. It was just a joke. A bad joke, but nothing more, and she has to admit that he pulled it off, she believed it... Lety snaps out of it and realizes that this conversation was a daydream.

That was weird. It's very strange to interject a non-daydream scene (Tomas, the Padillas, and Moty) into the middle of a daydream scene. I wonder if that was an editing error.

Fern is telling Lety it wants to see her looking cheerful because they have lots of work to do. She says she's a little tired but it's okay. She retires to her office. He is frustrated by her apparent aloofness, but tells himself it's better this way because she doesn't have any assurance that he is going to break his engagement with Marcia. Unfortunately Lety does not happen to be listening at the door when he says this out loud. She just sighs to herself that he didn't have an explanation. (This would be a valid complaint if she'd actually requested an explanation.)

The senior Mendiolas call. Lety says "hello, Doña Teresita" and then they both wait courteously while we look at some gratuitous footage of London. (It's okay that we see it, I just think it's odd that they can't continue their conversation while we sitesee.) Lety apologizes for not sending the DVD yet, but Mrs. Fernando's Mother says "Oh, but we have it here. How can you not know you sent it?" Lety is confused. Humberto asks if Fernando found out about their surprise (they rehash that it's a househunting DVD so they can buy a house for Fernando and Marcia). Lety fibs and says Fern's been too busy thinking about the wedding, so don't worry about that. She says she doesn't want to be rude, but she has a lot of work on her mind and has to go. She hangs up on him. Obviously the bad manners of everyone else in that place are starting to rub off on her. Next thing you know she'll be saying "hombre" every other sentence and ripping the tags off of mattresses.

Humberto stares at the phone in shock. Teresita doesn't care - she wants to watch the DVD.

Lety remembers that Fern said he'd put the postal code on the envelope. And of course he did, Lety realizes angrily - because he has every intention of marrying Marcia and he wants the house too. This is just more proof of his real plan in this dirty game.

Juana comes back for the trash bag, but Lety says she doesn't want to throw it out just yet. Juana is confused. Lety says it's papers and stuff and she might still need them. They say something about cuckoo and Juana leaves. Lety tells Fern the people from rodaje.com are here. He asks her to go find Luigi and ask him if he can take some time out to join them at the meeting.

Alone at his desk, Fern reviews one of the cards Omar has written for him ("Last night I dreamt of you, etc etc.") but isn't happy with it. He pens one on his own - or tries to. The words do not come easily. He gives up and stuffs the Omargram into its envelope. Did I say Omargram? I meant Carvahalmark. He brings it and the newest gift - a stuffed animal of some sort - in her office. He looks for a good place to put the envelope. He looks all around her office and fails to notice that all of his previous gifts are gone. All that remains are her Moty things, a few other personal items from home, and Eduardo's tomtom and drawing. He props the envelope up against a couple of Moty mugs and says "there it is, Lety... my Lety." He makes a cute, sort of timid little sweep of his hand and leaves for the meeting.

Lety gets to Luigi's studio and sees Marcia's wedding dress. She sadly remembers how she naively used to worry about Marcia being hurt by Lety's relationship with Fern. Now Marcia will marry Fern, and Lety will suffer.

Irma shows up and promises to give Lety's message to Luigi when he comes back from wherever he is. Lety goes back to her desk to find her CarvaHallmark Card. It's exactly as Omar wrote it. She is disgusted. Fern busts in and asks if she's ready to go to the meeting. He sees her crying and she pretends that it's because the card was so nice. She says his writing is precious, and that he is so talented at it. He says honestly (ha), he would have preferred to write something else. Much better. She deserves it. She says thanks. He says he's glad she likes it though, now let's go to the meeting.

He steps forward, perhaps for a kiss, and she gives him a right hook that knocks him off his feet. This precious moment has been immortalized on YouTube.
She snaps out of her daydream and shoves the card and stuffed animal into the bag. (She handles the stuffed animal like it's a dirty diaper.)

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Alicia's day

Rewind to first thing this morning: In reply to Alicia's taunting, Lety says she'd rather be an old maid than a failure at marriage, career, and life. Alicia's day goes downhill from there.

Shortly after Lety's phone call from Fernando's parents, the people from rodaje.com show up. It's that Rosy Orozco woman and two men. Alicia greets this trio and immediately starts flirting with the men. Rosy is in a hurry to get this meeting over with because she has somewhere else to be. She tells Alicia she needs to see Fernando and Lety. Al has them sit down in the lobby and she calls Lety to say that the rodaje.com people are here. Lety is surprised by Alicia's pleasant manner (Al is sometimes polite when trying to impress others).

Lety comes out to greet them and says Fernando will be out soon. Rosy is worried that he might be running late. Alicia swoops in and offers to take care of the guests. Lety is still confused and says "how agreeable, Alicia, like always." Alicia pats her shoulder fondly and leads the rodaje.com people into the boardroom. The younger man checks her out as she walks.

Alicia sits in Fernando's chair and tries to impress them. She calls Sara at her desk (calls her "giraffe" by mistake in her fake-sweet voice) and pompously orders her to the boardroom. She introduces herself to the rodaje.com people and starts telling them how important she is. She manages the image of Conceptos, and public relations...

Rosy interrupts, saying "you're right, we haven't formally introduced ourselves." The younger man is Nestor. (He is still checking Alicia out.) Alicia strokes her hair at him. The older man is Marco Gaitan. Okay now I know something is up with all these names - Gaitan is the name of the guy who created the original Colombian series. I wonder if these actors are from the original show too? I wouldn't recognize most of them but they seem to be having so much fun in this scene I think there's an in-joke going on.

Alicia starts her speech about her six semesters of finance at a prestigious university. Sara arrives, and Alicia asks the guests if they want anything to drink. Alicia tells Sara to bring a soda for her as well. Sara shakes her fist at Alicia behind the guests' backs. This prompts Alicia to ask her for ice, too. And napkins. And then she tells Sara to hold her calls!!

Sara tells Lola and Martha about this strange event and how Alicia was flirting with the two men (who are supposedly papacitos, but I don't want to see them wrestle in their underwear). She sits down at her desk and says she's not bringing them anything.

In the boardroom, Alicia is ranting and raving about... I'm not even sure what, really. Something about employees wanting a lot of money, I think, and being lazy. Rosy is trying not to laugh at her. "You don't say," she says politely. Alicia goes on to say that poor people are so envious, and then she steers (no pun intended) the monologue to the subject of her beloved car. She says she has a convertible Mercedes; surely they saw it parked outside.

While she is describing it to them, we get to see it. Strangely, the little logo thingy in the front has been changed to look like a squiggle in a circle. Even more strangely, I can still see the regular Mercedes logo underneath. I wonder why they tried to obscure it. It'd be one thing if they didn't want to reveal that it was a Mercedes, which would make sense since it's been BMWs, BMWs, BMWs lately, but she just said "Mercedes" so it's not exactly a secret!

Alicia has to pause for a moment, because talking about her beloved car always gets her choked up. We are still in the parking lot, however, and as the camera pans to the right, we see that a tow truck has arrived, along with several men in suits. One of them gloats about how luxurious Alicia Ferreira's car is. Another urges him to hurry up and get on with the seizure. Celso interrupts and says they can't take Alicia's car without her authorization. Mr. Gloatyface says yeah, sure, we'd love to talk to her, go get her. Celso goes, and Mr. Gloatyface says to the truck guy, "okay, seize the car."

I just looked up rodaje. It means "filming," but it also means (pun drum roll please) automotive break-in. Ahahahaha.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Celso is telling Saimon about the tow truck. Celso tells Saimon that he wants to tell Alicia privately, so the cuartel doesn't find out. It's going to be rough enough on her as it is. Paula Maria wants to know what they're talking about.

Fern gets to the meeting and asks Alicia why she hasn't brought drinks for their guests. She is still sitting in his chair. He waves her out of it, but she thinks he's fanning her because it's hot in there! He says don't worry, Lichita; he'll go get the drinks. She says don't be that way; she'll get them. He asks if she minds if he sits in her chair. She says no, please, Fernando! She opens the door and calls to Sara at her desk to go get those drinks. We hear Sara reply "why don't you do that yourself, airhead?" Alicia explains, "it's the same as always, Fernando; another disobedient employee."

(Rosy, Nestor, and Marco look very amused.)

"Sara?" Fernando asks. Alicia nods, oblivious to the irony. Fern tells their guests that "she" is just about to get fired for insubordination. "The poor thing is a social misfit," Alicia explains knowingly.

Lety shows up and Alicia orders her to fetch the drinks. Fern tells Alicia to do it. He invites Lety to sit at the head of the table with him. Celso comes in and wants to speak with Alicia. She complains again about "the employees" and tries to get him to go get the drinks. She insists that Celso tell her whatever he's going to say. He warns that it's private. She says "I don't need to have private conversations with a porter."

That does it. He gets everyone's attention and announces that some men are here and something about her house and a tow truck...

OH!! Now I get it. This is about her condo. I wondered how someone could suddenly have a $46,000 debt on a car. I don't think they wait long enough for you to get that far behind on your payments. No, she owes this money on her dwelling. Foreclosure is much more complicated, so they are seizing her car to satisfy her debt instead. I bet that's it.

But Alicia doesn't catch on right away that Celso is referring to her car. She thinks it's Fernando's car. Celso says no, it's YOUR car. Everyone laughs at her! She is mortified. Rosy doesn't understand, so Celso explains that Alicia is a bad debtor and now they're taking away her car. She rushes out in a panic as Luigi comes in. Celso leaves and Fern asks him to shut the door so they can finally start their meeting.

Luigi says "you must be Rosy" and Rosy says "you must be Luigi." Luigi says how much he loves it that everyone recognizes him. Rosy introduces Nestor, and Luigi's theme music bubbles up... I can only assume this means Luigi is hot for him. Actually, not exactly... he says who are these handsome men, and Rosy says "you already know them?" Luigi says yes, but Nestor has changed - he's cut his hair. He wants to have a conversation, but remembers he's in a meeting. Nestor smirks at Luigi.

Saimon and PM argue about the big secret and he gives in and tells her about the seizure of Alicia's car. He runs out to help Alicia. A small crowd has gathered to watch. PM watches discreetly as Saimon gets on the tow truck in protest. The repo man reads Alicia the riot act. He explains that she owes a lot of money on credit cards and such and was ordered to pay up. There may also have been some hearings she was supposed to go to - I'm not sure. She admits that she did recieve the notices and ignored them. She tells them they can take her car away - over her dead body. She accuses them of abusing her (she says this while strangling one man with his necktie). She says they are sullying her image. She says she works for a production company. She's not just some nobody. She's had six semesters of finance... Saimon says this isn't helping. She tells them they can't take her car because she needs it. It's a fundamental part of her life.

Meanwhile, PM is on the phone telling the entire cuartel what is going on. Sara wants to go out and watch the show, but PM says please don't, she promised Saimon she wouldn't tell them. (PM, I just thought of an alternative way you could have handled this. You could have kept your promise.)

Alicia has crawled into her car (on the tow truck) to continue the argument from a higher position. She suggests that maybe they could all just consider this a warning. This doesn't help, and I have to say these are the most patient repo men I've ever heard of. As I understand it, typically they just show up and take the car, and don't engage in conversation. The head repo man tells her she got plenty of advance notice. He says he called her a thousand times, and she yelled at him, she insulted him, and something about his saint's mother. He asks how many times did she hang up on him?

She tries to come up with more excuses, but he says the only way to stop this seizure is to cough up 500,000 pesos right now. And it'd have to be a business check, not a personal one. She admits that she doesn't have the money. (Duh.) The repo man yells to the tow truck driver, okay, let's go! She runs into the building. Saimon gets underneath the wheels and says if leave, you'll run over my beautiful body.

Is anyone else reminded of Arthur Dent and the bulldozer? No? It's just me? Never mind.

Back in the boardroom, Luigi is educating his guests as to how great he is. Fernando agrees to rent the special equipment that he wants for the Bella Life jewelry commercial. Luigi claps his hands and squeals with delight.

Lety excuses herself to go get a calculator. Alicia comes in crying and begs Fern for help. Yes, in the middle of the meeting, she asks him for a business check for 500,000 pesos. He shows her to the door, but she hasn't made enough of a fool of herself yet. She explains that if he doesn't give her the money right now, they'll seize her car and then it'll cost even more to get it back.

Fern gasps. "It's an emergency, then?" She nods. He says "Wait in my office and I'll get you a check," he says. He leads her to the door and slams it behind her. There's a knock, which Fern attributes to rats. Because let's face it, five rats aren't nearly as embarrassing as one Alicia.

The feas call PM to tell her the upstairs portion of Alicia's drama.

Alicia comes back to the boardroom, complaining that Fern's taking too long. He admits that he's not giving her a check. He tells her to leave, shut the door, and go get some coffees. She explains that they're going to take her car. He slams the door behind her again. The door pops open and he slams it again. The door pops open and he slams it again. A timid voice says, "Don Fernando?" He's actually been slamming the door on Lety.

Alicia goes outside and tells the repo man that she thought she'd be able to get the money, but she couldn't. The repo man says that's good - he likes the truth. He yells "vamonos" and Saimon hurriedly gets out of the way. He has to pry her off the back of the tow truck to prevent her from being dragged away. It reminds me of that time when the government people were dragging ET away and Elliott screams "no! ET!" and ET's all "Elliott! Elliott!!" so sad. Except the car isn't crying. Or from another planet. But the pathos of that scene is definitely there. It's a real Spielberg moment.

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Next time:
Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that the healing has been delayed.

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