Caray, Caray!

• Lety marvels at Aldo: "What a beautiful smile you have..." Without glasses, she squints thoughtfully and gratefully at him. He says they are like brother and sister now that he's saved her life. He has a ring around his neck very like the one she just found in the sand. He says, "I'm so glad to meet you, you're a beautiful person." He tells her to call him "just Aldo." She tells him she has another brother-friend (Tomas). Aldo says he has nobody close to him and she sympathizes: "It must be hard to lose the people you love." As they walk the beach, she says: "You're so agile and springy - I'm such a city girl." "Is that why you were in the ocean in your shoes?"
  
  I want you all to cut Aldo a break, at least till he starts being a jerk. He's nice, cute, he's listening sympathetically, he's supportive, he's single, he's not her boss, and he's not engaged to anybody. What a welcome change that must be!
  
  Aldo tells her she needs to give things up ("these shoes, for instance," pretending to throw them in the sea). Lety: "Did you renounce your family, is that how you lost them?" "Yes, my father had planned my life according to his own needs, which had nothing to do with mine. He got furious when I told him what I wanted to do." "Yes, I guess he'd be bothered that his son wanted to be a lobster fisherman, I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, but there aren't that many lobsters, or, well, there isn't much of a future in that career." Aldo is laughing. Lety: "But was it worth it to exchange everything for your liberty?" "I'm a completely happy man." "You don't sound convinced." "How could I not be happy when I have all this?" (Gestures towards the ocean.)
  
  "Tell me, living in a place like this, Leticia, couldn't you feel free?" "Yes, but I don't live here, my place is far away." "No, your place is the infinite universe." "No, I live in a tiny, reduced place." "Reduced to one name, Fernando?"
  
  She scolds him for reading her writing in the sand, he reminds her she almost drowned and wonders if she somehow wanted to drown. Luckily, from there the walk and talk becomes lighthearted and silly and he dandles her shoes in front of her all the way back to the hotel where they sit very close and she tells him her entire tale of woe (I don't need to repeat it, since you all lived through it at length). It is intercut with sweet scenes of Fern mooning over her empty office.
  
• Back in Mexico City, Fernando calls Lety's house and asks Julieta about her. His voice is respectful, sweet, and warm: "Can it be you've heard nothing? Will you please let me know when you get a report?" Robopop: "Why didn't you tell him she called? Since when does she play cat and mouse with this man? I don't like it at all." Tomas: "Is she still coming home today?" "Dunno, she hasn't called again."
  
• Lety, in conclusion, boils down her problems to being the consequence of her ugliness. Aldo says if she loved herself more, she wouldn't have gotten to such a terrible place, and if she learns to love herself sufficiently, men won't betray her.
  
  He flirts gently, looks searchingly and sweetly into her eyes [I have NOT abandoned Fern! I'm just trying to give the new guy a chance...], tries on her shoes when she says "You'd have to stand in my shoes to understand," and touches her hair, which makes her jump and yelp. He says: "I believe in you, you inspire me." She says he's given her a bit of confidence too.
  
• The cuartel is reduced to wanly speculating about Lety and the various goings-on - it's hard to gossip when you have no information at all.
  
  Irmita arrives. The cuartel pulls her in one direction, Luigi pulls her in the other. He finally has to swallow his pride and, for the sake of getting the story, goes with the girls to THEIR boardroom - which, he hadn't realized, is the lady's bathroom. Simon, who is evidently used to meeting here, consoles him. Irmita rehashes about her sad-sack ex coming home to die.
  
• Marcia tells Alicia she can't pardon Fernando after all. She sits in her office, looks over the dreaded Carvahallmarks and stuffed animals, stuffs them back in the garbage bag, and then thrusts the whole lot in Fern's hand. She wants an assurance he did it all for business, not love - he stays silent. (Later he answers her question when he's alone in Lety's office: "I did it because I'm crazy in love with Lety.")
  
• Fern's parents arrive for another meeting. Humberto tells Luigi he will have to continue taking orders from Fern. In the boardroom Teresita greets Marcia with sympathy and asks what they can do for her. "Don't blame yourselves for what's happened, and don't feel sorry for me."
  
  Nobody greets Fern and Omar when they come in from the doghouse, our two big stupid shaggy beautiful dogs in deep doodoo. Silence.
  
  Ariel arrives with two lawyers. He viciously mocks Alicia's carlessness and says he guesses she wasn't worth 500,000 pesos after all. He offers her his slimy friends again, then says: "Be sure there's coffee in the meeting room this time."
  
  Humberto passes all the papers over to the lawyers. They note disapprovingly: Lety's letter giving up control of the business is "improvised" and also is not notarized. "Where is she?"
  
  The parental units tell Fern to have Lety there tomorrow! The meeting adjourns. Fern asks Omar rhetorically how he is going to find Lety since her family is not talking. Omar asks: "Are you more afraid of facing her father, or your own?"
  
• Aldo asks Lety: "What's the most important thing about you?" Instantly: "That I'm ugly." But on reflection she adds: "I'm loyal, honest, affectionate, sweet, and intelligent - though not intelligent in love. I like to help people." She tells how she loves to laugh with Tomas, they're like a circus.
  
  Suddenly she asks what time it is and, hearing that it's noon, she jumps up, says she has to go back to Doña Carolina Angeles. Taken aback, Aldo says: "Doña Carolina??!!! What a strange world..." but Lety isn't listening and has already run off. Aldo murmurs to her back, "I myself once made the mistake of loving another more than myself..."

Labels: fea

Permalink posted by melinama @ 9:59 PM