Caray, Caray!

Nuria is sweeping around the couch and finds Lizania’s necklace,figures it is finders-keepers and puts it on. Cesar is leaving and tells her not to make noise because Fabricio is back and is resting in the guestroom. He leaves and Fabricio comes out of the guestroom and asks if Cesar had her come over to take care of him. She confesses then that they have gotten married. She asks if Fabricio has told his wife yet and he says no, that Cesar says she needs time because right now she wouldn’t be able to handle the news of his return. She wonders if he saw the people who did this to him but he says he doesn’t know anyone and didn’t see anything. (He is obviously petrified of El Guapo and Bertha.)

Miranda and Rebeca are talking in Rebeca’s living room when Cesar slithers in like the snake that he is and pretends that Fabricio is still in the hands of his kidnappers. He tells his mother to give him all her jewelry and any cash she has around to pay Fabricio’s ransom off since they want a million pesos or they will kill him. Miranda says she’ll go with him but Cesar-the-Sleezer says he must go alone to rescue Fabricio. Rebeca comes in with her family heirlooms and cash and throws it into a bag while Cesar turns to Miranda and says, very dramatically, that he doesn’t know if he’ll come back alive so not to get upset for what he is about to do. He grabs her and plants a big lascivious smooch on her mouth (gagging here), then takes the sack of jewels and cash and exits, stage right, through the doorway. Rebeca, ditzy and tactless as ever, tells Miranda that nobody could love her like her boy, Cesar, so if ever she should leave Alejandro she has to give Cesar an opportunity. Miranda stands there practically wiping her mouth off, but not quite, and assures Rebeca that it will never happen. It is plain though, that Miranda is ......impactada from all Cesar’s heroics.

Juan is telling his father and Amparo about his fight with Renata the night before and his problems with Bertha’s constant interfering in their marriage. He swears that he will fight to keep Renata and will not let Bertha hook him in the way she does the everyone else.

At the hospital, Gonzalo tells Florencia and Fernanda that the past is unimportant. She is his daughter and nothing will ever change that. Then he tells Fernanda and her that he’s going back to the cocoa plantation and when he returns from there everything will be explained away. He gives Fernanda a long meaningful (?) stare and walks out.

At the same time Cesar returns to the apartment with his bag of his mother's loudly jangling heirlooms, valuables and cash. He orders Nuria to put it in the closet while he and his brother are seated on the couch. He and Fabricio talk then and he asks if they did anything to him. Fabricio sheepishly lies and says they did absolutely nothing to him. He asks Cesar who paid the ransom and how much it was, and how was it raised.

Cesar lies that it was from both his mother and himself. Fabricio thanks him and says he someday will somehow repay him. Cesar says he definitely will repay him and he will do it by telling Florencia to sign him over "The Manglars". Fab objects saying Alejandro gave it to her, but Cesar says he bought it from him through deception.

Gonzalo has called Alejandro at the office to tell him to contact everybody in the family, including Cesar and Bertha. Luis Alberto, Luciano and Vicente are there with Alejandro. They are all to come to the house but at different times throughout the evening and Luis Alberto is to get Cesar to call him. Luis Alberto leaves to get hold of Cesar and Vicente then lets the other two men know that Gonzalo kept him out of the loop regarding Cesar’s activities with the Investment House over in London. Luciano figures it was to protect Vicente from Cesar. Vicente tells them what he knows, that Gonzalo found the best computer systems analyst to hack into the bank's computers to determine what happened to the customers’ accounts and how the bank there had combined the funds and so on.

Miranda later comes to visit and lets Florencia know that Cesar paid the ransom. Alejandro comes a bit later and finds out from her also that Cesarwas going alone to rescue his brother with the ransom. He tells Florencia that Daira went back to Italy to go on a personal retreat and both women are told about Gonzalo’s meeting with the family that evening. Miranda is to bring Renata and Fernanda with her.

Gonzalo calls Bertha and she gets agitated when he demands she come to the meeting at the time he’s set for her. He tells her that he knows everything now and hangs up. Bertha cries to the dog and says she’ll give Gonzalo the whatever. She's wondering just what and how much he really does know.

Gonzalo goes back to the plantation house and remembers how things happened that night. Green memories: He knocked Fernanda unconscious and she fell down. He fights with Alfredo then and the gun shoots up into the ceiling. He didn’t shoot, let alone kill, Alfredo so when and where did Bertha enter and where did that shot in the back that Alejandro’s father told him about come from?

He works it back and remembers that Tomasa said to him and Bertha the night she died, “She also shot. She also shot.” He realizes Tomasa meant Bertha and remembers Bertha hid Alfredo’s back and immediately began to accuse him of murdering Alfredo. He also realizes that Bertha took Tomasa’s granddaughter away to keep Tomasa from ever telling anybody the truth. So then he asks himself who was it she was really trying to kill that night.

Renata and Juan argue over her not being able to come to Amparo’s birthday party, but Renata says she simply cannot be there because of this important family meeting at the house that evening. She leaves him standing in there alone in the hallway of the Jimenez house and it really hurts him. (It is because of those large puppy-dog eyes of his.)

Alejandro gets upset with Gonzalo while talking on his cell because Gonz refuses to allow Alejandro or Vicente to handle certain financial transactions a certain way. He and Miranda fight about her “perfect father” and he leaves.

Fabricio confirms with his mother how much she gave for his ransom and that the kidnappers (whom he secretly knows to be Bertha and El Guapo) had demanded a million pesos.

Luis Alberto has warned Cesar that something big is about to happen at that meeting.

Fabricio shows up finally at the hospital and Miranda gives Cesar a squeeze and a smile. When Florencia and Fabricio are alone he tells her he never wants to talk about the incident again and he promises to keep her and the baby safe. (I was wondering from the look in his eyes if he was planning to wait until the perfect time to take vengeance or if he is going to remain the silly, cowardly jerk he was in the kidnappers’ shack.)

Gonzalo gets back to the city house that night and is surprised to see Bertha sitting on the couch a few hours earlier than he’d told her to arrive. She says no way was she going to let him boss her around. She was going to come when she wanted to and not vice versa. Charo walks by and hears the argument. She hides behind the door to the living room and she continues to listen.

Bertha tricks him into telling her what it was that was so important. He gets on his high-horse with her thinking he finally has the upper hand because he has figured it all out. (Darn, Gonz. You never did learn anything from all of this!) He tells her he’s going to expose her tonight in front of everybody. (Stupid thing to do with Bertha). She whips out a gun and points it at him. (Now why would anybody let their guard down around Bertha, after figuring this all out and knowing how dangerous this murdering witch could be? I could see this coming a mile away, but he is clueless.)

She tells him it is her version of the truth that counts. “Shoot me, then!” (Wasted breath here.) Gonz tells Bertha he’s figured out exactly what happened that night with the gun and that Tomasa knew it too, so it must have been Bertha who threw her down the stairs. Bertha says no, that it was Lucas who chased after Tomasa, though of course, it was at her command. Bertha confesses to him that she had wanted to kill Fernanda first and then him. He asks her why she destroyed their lives. Bertha replies that Fernanda had stolen everyone that she loved away from her. Yes, she wrote the anonymous letters, although Fernanda did love Gonzalo. It was she who let Alfredo Luque into the main house that night. She couldn’t kill Fernanda so she determined to take away everything that meant something to her and of course her "dear Miranda, pretty Miranda".

He asks about Florencia. "Oh, the condition was found in time, but well, too bad she never took her medication. It was all placebos." She continues aiming the pistol at him as El Guapo has positioned himself outside the glass doors, just behind Gonzalo. He is aiming a second gun at Gonzalo’s back. (Now that was something I didn't expect!) Just then Cesar arrives and makes a snide aside about Bertha's timing. He turns his face toward Gonzalo and admits he did take all his money and smirks that he should be certain Cesar will have both of his daughters, Renata and Miranda for his own, soon, too. Gonzalo rushes furiously toward Cesar in an attempt to grab him, but El Guapo fires the gun, shooting Gonzalo in the back.

Alejandro is coming up the walkway in the dark at that moment and hears the gunshot and the breaking glass. He starts yelling for Gonzalo and running towards the house. El Guapo runs in and tells Bertha and Cesar that he will handle Alejandro and take care of things. They tell him they’ll just blame Alejandro and they run to hide off somewhere in the house.

Alejandro sees Gonzalo lying motionless on the floor and El Guapo then comes out of nowhere and the two of them fight and wrestle for the gun. Alejandro gets the gun away from El Guapo and shoots him in the shoulder as he is running towards the kitchen. El Guapo drops a bloody handkerchief and grabs at Charo, yelling at her to show him a way out to escape.

Alejandro drops down, moaning over Gonzalo, when Cesar and Bertha re-enter the room. Fernanda, Miranda and Renata are coming in at the same time and Alejandro points at Cesar and blames him. Miranda runs over to Alejandro as Bertha and Cesar claim it was him. Alejandro yells at Miranda, “You have to believe me, it wasn’t me! I didn’t do it!” Miranda grabs him and says, “ I know, I believe you, Alejandro." She looks accusingly over at her aunt and says, “Bertha!” Alejandro answers back that it wasn’t Bertha, but that man, El Guapo. Fernanda drops down and examines Gonzalo as the others are crying and moaning over his body. (This is one big Greek tragedy being played out here, except that it is Mexico and everyone is speaking Spanish.) Wait, though! Fernanda says he is still alive! Gonzalo moves his head a tad. (Will he mouth anything to his sobbing daughters or wife? No.)

Gonzalo hitches a last breath and dies. Fernanda and their two daughters begin to sob inconsolably. Cesar and Bertha look at one another with just the hint of an evil smile on their faces, but mask it so subtly. They turn to each other with a shared gaze of amazement, shock and pity --and triumph. (This is why Diana and Sergio get the big bucks, because they have managed to capture the essence of these two characters’ malicious cunning and connivance in a single glance.) Yep, it looks as if Bertha and her younger protégé, Cesar-the-Sleezer, will once again skate and literally get away with murder.

Back in the neighborhood, the birthday party is about to begin. Carola and Erica have decorated. Carola says she’s glad Renata won’t be around. Nobody can relax whenever she’s in the room. Erica defends Renata as her friend and says Carola just needs to get to know her better. Ramon brings Amparo inside a dark apartment and everyone shouts “Surprise!” Juan gives her a book on pastry and confection making and then the Mariachis arrive.

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