Caray, Caray!

Everyone shows up to work at the same time. Alicia arrives in a cab, and as she jumps out of the cab in front of Conceptos, she tells the driver that he won’t get any more money from her, because his fee is ridiculously high. The driver gets out of his cab and says he’s not leaving until she pays the rest. The insults fly back and forth. The cuartel, Celso, and Saimon watch the spectacle. Lety arrives in her the swiggle-mobile. The cab is blocking her way. She beeps and asks Celso to move the cab so she can park. Celso in turn asks Alicia to pay the cabbie so that the licenciada Lety can park her car.

(Quick break for a Spanish lesson… In Latin America, when someone has a "professional" position, people often address them by their title, e.g. arquitecto, ingeniero, doctor (of course), or licenciado. In addition to attorneys, which is the literal translation, licenciado is also used to address business professionals or white collar types who appear to more-or-less know what they’re talking about.)

Anyway… Alicia asks Celso to lend her the cab fare. He tells her no way, because she already owes him more than 300 pesos. She turns to Saimon, calls him Saimonsito, strokes her hair (I guess she thinks that’s sexy… it’s not sexy), and asks if he can pleeeeeease help her. He gives the cabbie 30 pesos. PM protests but he says it's just so they can get the cabbie to move. With the driveway clear, Lety moves her car. Celso plays traffic cop and directs her down the driveway. Alicia scolds Celso for helping Lety and asks how come when she drove in with her own sexy silver swiggle-mobile, he never once called her licenciada. He says duh, Alicia! Because all you have is six semesters of finance from who-knows-where! Lety actually has a degree, not to mention an MBA.

Lobo and Martha are at the clinic to find out why she fainted the day before -- after the tragic disappearing chocolate fiasco. She’s nervous. They call her into see the doc. She crosses herself as she goes in.

As they go into the building, Lety concedes to the gang that she’s a horrible driver, but that her dad made her get her driver’s license long ago. She says that her boyfriend let her borrow the car. PM asks what time she has to give it back. Lety says she wasn’t given a limit. PM says Woohoo! Let’s Party! She realizes that Saimon is listening from behind a pillar. She goes on about partying all night in the swiggle-mobile. Saimon jumps in to protest. She makes a face that tells him she was just kidding and kisses him. She pulls him by an imaginary tie. He pulls back. They struggle with the imaginary tie. He cuts the tie with some imaginary scissors and stomps off in an imaginary fit. (This is cute, but somehow, it’s just not as satisfying as the Lety/Fern romance that’s MIA.) Lety says she doesn’t know if she can party all night, but she wants to take them all out to lunch.

Everybody scurries off to work, except for Sara and Juan. Sara says she envies Lety. Who would have thought that the ugliest (she says “felliata”-- not “fea” -- which makes it okay because she’s saying it as a term of endearment, not as an insult) of the cuartel would have found herself a man first. Of course, Tomas isn’t exactly Mr. Universe, but hey he’s rich, and he’s a swell guy. Juana agrees that Tomas is very good to Lety (I guess the whole flirting with Jasmin thing didn’t make a bad first impression). She says she can think of at least one airhead (nodding in Alicia’s direction) who would LOVE to reel in a great catch like Tomas.

In her office, Lety though bubbles that her evil plan to make Fernando believe that she wants to take his company is working. She feels sort of bad about doing it, but he deserves it. He’ll have to suffer though it, and he’ll have to live through the nightmare of having her by his side. She lights Carolina’s Karma Cleansing Candle.

Back in the driveway, Celso is buffing the swiggle-mobile. Fern and Marcia arrive together in Fern’s beamer. He stops nexts to the swiggler and asks Celso to park it as he helps Marcia out. Marcia exclaims “Wow! Who’s is this?” Celso informs them that it belongs to the licenciada Lety’s boyfriend. Fern conducts a super-close detailed inspection of the driver’s side. She says the car is spectacular, then realizes Fernando is irritated. Not realizing why he’s irritated, she adds that, of course, the car is not really Lety’s style, or her boyfriend’s. Fern impatiently asks Celso if the licenciada Lety is inside the building with her boyfriend. Celso clarifies that, no, Lety arrived by herself in the car. Her boyfriend let her borrow it. “Her boyfriend has great taste, right? He’s got even better taste than you , Don Fernando.” Fern's irritation swells and orders Celso to clean the beamer, since that’s the car of the guy who pays his salary. Marcia comments that Lety’s beau must be uber-rich if he can afford that swiggle-mobile. She wonders if maybe he’s involved in something illegal.

In the lobby, Omar asks Sarah to run some errand for her. She looks at him with googly eyes and smiles. Sara runs off on the errand as Fern walks by. Omar asks Fern where the heck Lety got the swiggle-mobile. Fern says he plan to ask Lety just that. Then he yells at Omar for hanging up on him the night before. Omar says “Of course I hung up on you, because, Ay, Fernaaaaando!” (he does this imitating Alicia and stroking long imaginary hair) “You must be nuts if you’re at her house spying on her” Fern says that yes, he was spying but he found out important information, i.e. that she lied about not being home, and when Tomas left he took the swiggle-mobile with him. Then Fern remembers the PG who told him that he must free his soul and free himself of the company so he can finally be free to love. Omar tell Fern to talk to the little gargoyle…uh Lety (that joke is getting old) to find out what’s going on. Seeing Fern’s high level of distress, he tells Fern to calm down and tries to coach him through some breathing exercises. Fern calls Omar an idiot.

Form her desk, Lety hears Fern approaching and prepares herself for their little talk. Fern says he called her and wants to know why she never called back. Lety says she got home late, he didn’t say where she could call him, and besides, she figured he was probably with Marcia, so she didn’t want to bother them. Fern says that yes, he did have to go to Marcia’s, and oh, by the way, is that Tomas’s car outside or is it maybe borrowed or something? Lety says that the car is hers. Fern is impactado.

Next we get a montage of Tomas’s shopping trip. He gets help from a pleasant sales woman. He tries to show her how he wears his tie. She tells him to trust her and brings it down to a respectable length. They put a decent suit on him, give him a long coat, and a new pair of glasses.

Fernando laughs, thinking Lety must me joking. Lety says she’s not joking. He says she can’t use Concepto’s money for something like that. Lety points out that she only used Filmo Imagen money, and that he told her she could manage FI as she pleases, and that the swiggle-mobile is imperative to the image of FI.

Celso doesn’t care who pays his salary. He’s back to buffing the swiggle-mobile in the driveway. Ariel arrives wants to know whose swiggler it is.

Lety says that the swiggler belongs to the general manager of FI, who currently happens to be Tomas. Fern asks why she had to pick such an expensive car. Lety says that they need an image to match FI’s reputation. Otherwise no one will take them seriously, and that would be a bad thing for Conceptos. She insists that it’s for business use only and that she keeps it in her garage. Fern thought bubbles that is a lie because he watched the night before as Tomas took off with the car when he left Lety’s house. Lety then pulls a out her ace: a guilt trip. She cuddles up to him and reminds him that he once promised her a car but never delivered on his promise. Fern says he never promised her a million-peso car. Lety asks “don’t you think I’m good enough for it?” (I think she even batted her eyeslashes!)

Celso tells Ariel that it's Lety’s car. Ariel doesn’t recall any Leticia Padilla. Celso reminds him that she’s Fern’s assistant. Ariel can’t believe they pay their employees enough to afford something like this. Celso clarifies that it’s actually her boyfriend’s, but she’s driving it today. Ariel comments that if the car’s designers knew who would be driving the car, they would not have designed it.

Lety tells Fernando that she had to tell everyone that it’s her boyfriend’s car because she would not be able to explain where she got the money for it, plus, people would probably think she didn’t deserve the car, because she’s ugly and poor (She’s laying it on thick!). Fern says that of course she deserves it. Lety says he does not seem convinced. Fern says he just doesn’t understand why she’s treating him the way she is. Lety is still on a roll; she says that if he doesn’t trust her, she can take the car back and give him his company back. Fern remembers the PG again. The PG told him that there is a woman he loves but does not trust, and that love and mistrust can not co-exist. Fern tells Lety that it’s not about the car or the company. It’s about the two of them. He wants to talk about them. Lety says there is no time now, because he has an important lunch meeting to go to with some clients.

Just then Marcia calls for Fern from his office “Amo-or!” Neither Fern nor Lety seem to like the sound of that. She walks into Lety’s office and Fern yells “What?!” Marcia is offended and walks back out. Fern follows her and apologizes. He says he had been arguing with Lety about business, but doesn’t want to discuss the details. Marcia says if it’s business, she needs to know because it's her company too. He skirts the question. She wasn’t really interested anyway, she wants to talk about the wedding. He pretends he’s interested. Lety can hear from her office and calls him a traitor. Marcia shows him the wedding list. He looks at it for a nano-second. She asks whether he found out anything about Lety’s boyfriend. He says that he knows Lety’s boyfriend, and can vouch for the legitimacy of his character and money. Marcia says “Wow!” and gives two thumbs up before walking away. Fern imitates her thumbs up with disgust.

Fern goes to recap Omar on his conversation with Lety. Omar is surprised that Conceptos has enough capital to afford the swiggle-mobile. Fern confesses that he doesn’t know how to manage the situation.

Ariel stops by Alicia’s desk to degrade her about her car getting repo’d and also throws in a bunch of innappropriate comments about her body parts. (Are there any sexual harrassment laws in Mexico? Because I think I just found a way for Alicia to pay off all her debts.) He rubs it in that even Lety was able to snag a rich boyfriend, while she continues to live in financial misery. Alicia says that she has not lost her car yet, she’s getting it back, and she does not need his help because she had someone much better than him or Lety’s sorry-old boyfriend. Ariel calls her bluff and tells her that when she gets herself a non-fictional boyfriend, Ariel would be happy to meet him. After he leaves, she says that she won’t be degraded because of Lety’s fault, and we’ll see who ends up with Tomas the Rich Boyfriend.

Omar tells Fern that what Lety did is all Fern’s fault. He should have given her a better raise and the car he promised her before. Now she has sort-of given herself a raise. Did he think that the meager raise and all the horrible little kisses that he gave her would be enough? Fern objects that the kisses were not horrible!

Ariel comes to Lety’s office under the pretext that he’s checking on the status of the upcoming board meeting. Lety assures him that preperations for the board meeting are going fine and everything will be ready. Omar adds that everything better be accurate as well.

Omar points out that Lety never asked for compensation in return for managing FI. The 90,000 dollars are a mere fraction of the 45 million dollars she manages for FI/Conceptos. (I wonder if the Mexican version kept referring to dollars instead of pesos, or if they dubbed the dollar conversion for our benefit.)

Ariel tells Lety that her attitude is different, could it be because of the car she has parked outside? She says she imagines that the way she feels driving a $90,000 car must be similar to how he feels being at the head of a $45 million company. He says that yes, except that her car is only borrowed, while his $45 million company is actually his. (Ironic, because they are actually both hers!) He demands to know who her boyfriend is and what he does.

Fernando tells Omar that it bugs him that Lety has rejected him, has lied to him, has been disrespectful to him, has gone out with Tomas, and now she has bought the car. He is very angry with Leticia Padilla Solis. Omar asks what happened? He thought Lety was in love with Fern. Fern thought bubbles that he was in love with her too, until today, the day she betrayed him. Omar can’t believe that Fern, with his good looks and charm, has lost the love of a homely girl.

Lety tells Ariel that while an ugly girl with a gorgeous car must seem suspicious, he should not worry; her boyfriend is honorable and his money is legitimate. She points out that not all honorable and wealthy people are beautiful, and not all of them are his acquaintances . Many of them actually work very hard for their wealth and are way above his social circle so he can just stick his pompous opinion where the sun don’t shine (well, she was a little more diplomatic than that).

Fern pops in Lety’s door and jumps back in exaggerated fright when he sees Ariel, “The King of Vampires.” Ariel says he was just there for a status on the board meeting from Lety. He congratulates the licenciada Lety on her boyfriend. On his way out, he tells Fern that Lety’s boyfriend’s car is more expensive than Fern’s. Fern says that it’s also more expensive than Ariel’s.

Fern tells Lety that he wants to discuss the documents for the board meeting. Lety says she can’t because she's on her way out for lunch.

On her way out to lunch with the cuartel, they exchange insults with Alicia (not interesting enough to go into). Martha walks in and shares the outcome of her doctor’s visit…. She’s pregnant! …just kidding (I was surprised, because it is a well known novela rule that if a woman faints, it’s because she’s preggers). It turns out she has something called Aerophagia, which means she eats so fast that along with all the food, she swallows a bunch of air too. The funniest part of this scene is that when Martha announces her illness, Juana shouts “Holy Mother of the Squished!” (¡Santa madre de los apachurrados!) I’m still ROFL!
Will the Holy Mother of the Squished hear their prayers?
Will Fernando take the PG's advise and free his soul?
Will Tomas get a date -- and the ride of his life -- with Alicia?

Labels: fea