Caray, Caray!

Thank you Susanlynn for pointing out my mistake on the date! It is JANUARY 5. Duh.

Cesar throwing his sword down the hall to stick into the wall was really cool. The way they showed it with the dramatic effect, it had to be on purpose I think. I wonder how many tries it took. Regardless, pretty cool. Cesar proceeds to try and drink an entire decanter of booze in one gulp, then try not to hurl. Though we all know he’s ok with barfing in his living room. What is it with everyone having all their booze in glass bottles anyway, do you actually know anyone who does that? I think I’ll take my booze out of their perfectly good bottles and put them in label-less bottles instead, give a little more risk to my drinking.

Fab, holding the baby, asks Julio how he feels. Something about now not being a good time for the operation. Fab says he doesn’t know how to call Julio to his son, he wants to call him papa, not Julio. Julio is touched and pleased. Fab says the baby will call him grandpa. Julio says he always doubted Cesar a bit. (Then why did you get involved in all this, genius?) He tells Fab that he should stay far away from Cesar and that he (Fab) is a good noble man and son. Fab hands the baby to Julio and says “go to your grandpa, and love him, because he is my dad.” Ok we get it. Very touching. Let’s move on.

At the hacienda, Nati shuffles in with the Gabinos in tow. Nati says Gonz is already present. They hear some noises, mrs. Gabino says it sounds “like fear.”

Vicente and Luciano finish up with whatever it is they are doing that will put Cesar in jail. They talk about Babe Lawyer and if she likes Al or not, like a couple of teenagers.

Gabino wants to shut the door to keep the wind out, Nati says keep it open, before Gabino can say “close it” again, Bertha walks in. Bertha says it can be easy or tough, Nati, you decide. Nati says no, Bertha, YOU will be the one to make that decision.

Amparito is telling Roman how sad she will be when Raul and Carola leave. She’s happy for them but she will miss Raul terribly. They plan the going away party for tomorrow, Roman promises to help and Amparito likes the idea. He gets a call from Luis Alberto. LA and Nuria have apparently started their trip to Brazil, Roman wishes them well. I agree, though, shouldn’t some of that money those two idiots are running away with be returned to SLI, or even some to Mophead (even though I hate her) since some of it was stolen from her? Why doesn’t anybody speak up for their cut? Al was right there in their room with them, he knows what’s going on, he should have straightened that out. I guess he’s too busy being ‘noble’ and selling all of his own stuff to help the others. Bah.

Bertha pours herself a drink to try and be melodramatic. She says “Gabino, you are the one who hurt Chocolate, right?” He says yes, on Bertha’s orders. Bertha says he needs a better answer than that. She tells Nati that she wants to end this once and for all, give me the gun! Nati says “I don’t have it, Miranda does!” Bertha puts her hand to her forehead, a momentary lapse of composure. She says to herself, but loud enough for people in the hall to hear apparently, “how long am I going to have to wait for those imbeciles?” Miranda’s voice says “you don’t have to wait any longer, here we are” as she, Al, and Fern walk into the room. This is the part in a Scooby-Doo episode where somebody gets their face torn off to reveal it was just a mask. Bertha tries to act cool and sip her drink, saying “ok, let’s get started.” She tells the Gabinos and Nati to leave, but Miranda says that Nati should stay. Gabino says they’ll wait outside if she needs anything. Bertha says that Gabino has something very very important to confess. Gabino looks like what I imagine I looked like when I was a kid and got busted stealing a candy bar. The Gabinos step outside. Miranda walks to the desk and takes the gun out of the desk drawer, it was there the whole time! Ah Nati, you clever witch. Miranda wants to know what went on ‘that night’ and with ‘this gun’, because everything since has its origin in ‘that night.’ Bertha gets bugeyed. She says the gun was the end, not the beginning, things started way before that. “Right Fern? When you, Sophia, and I were all in love with Alfredo Luque!” I have always had a hard time believing that Alfredo was sooo great for all these ladies to be in love with him, since Alfredo is played by Arturo Peniche, who was the glorious fop Antonio de Guzman in Alborada. There was nothing manly about him. He flipped his hair around like Alicia on La Fea. So when I hear the name Alfredo Luque, I think of sexually ambiguous Antonio. Not a ladies man by any stretch. Anyone else have this problem?

Cesar stares out the window and smokes. He swears things won’t end this way. Nobody gets over on Cesar Beltran like this. This is not how I roll. I ain’t gonna go out like that. His phone rings, it’s Roman on the other end. Cesar is pleased to hear from him, he wants to hire him. “To find LA and Nuria, riiiiiiight?” Cesar turns ugly fast. “What do you know about them, infeliz?” Roman tells Cesar that they left the country. Roman says he just called to tell him that God will thank him for his help. With the money LA and Nuria took, they are going to help orphans. They will name the orphanages after him. Something like that. Cesar is impactado. People will bless the name of Cesar Beltran, Roman continues. Cesar hangs up and mumbles to himself. He can’t believe his money is in a stranger’s hands. He tries to guzzle a whole bottle of booze again. I think LA/Nuria’s plan is stupid, all Cesar has to do (providing he’s still alive) is find where things are being done in his name and he’ll find those two dimwits.

Bertha continues. She told Sophia (Al’s mom) that Fern and Alfredo were lovers. This and bad medication brought on Sophia’s death. Santiago was off studying for the priesthood, or in the priesthood, or something else sufficiently priestly, that Sophia never saw him again before her death. Al is furious at the flippant talk about his mother’s death and lets Bertha know about it, grabbing her by the neck. Bertha gets off on it. Perhaps she and Lasagna could have gone to some of the same underground fetish clubs in a different situation? Anyway, Miranda gets Al to let Bertha loose. Fern says well, then what happened next? Bertha says she thought she had a clear road at Alfredo, but Alfredo told her no, he was in love with Fernanda. He had spoken with Sophia before she died and Sophia gave her blessing for Alfredo to go back to Fern and start up again. Fern is impactada. This is why she told lies to their father and had her married off to Gonzalo? Bertha says yes. After Gonz and Fern married, she started to see Alfredo but it was always the same, he talked about Fernanda. Finally she got the message and decided to stay away from him forever. It was earlier ‘that night’, I think she said. She acts like her story is over. Nati speaks up and calls her serpent tongue, and what about the part where Bertha told Alfredo that Fern wanted to run away with him? Bertha says, “how do you know that?” Nati just says to tell the story. Bertha has a green flashback of telling Alfredo that Fern wants to run away with him, if she doesn’t want to go, convince her! Back in the present, Bertha laments how she loved Alfredo since the first day. Bertha says something about them both being men of just one woman, but I’m not sure to whom she was referring. Alfredo for one, the other Alejandro? Or Gonzalo? I couldn’t quite figure it out.

After the commercial, the story continues. Nati says Bertha speaks true, she (Nati) and Tomasa heard the whole thing outside the library door. Fern says “who were you trying to shoot, Bertha?” Bertha says “You, Fern. I loved Alfredo with all my soul, but with you in the middle there was nothing I could do. When I came in the room, Alfredo was on the floor. Gonzalo didn’t kill him, it was me.” Throughout this portion, we are seeing green flashbacks to ‘that night’ that illustrate the action. In the flashback, she thinks “I’m so sorry Alfredo, I was going to shoot Fern and then Gonzalo, not you!” Back to the present – Bertha sniffles and refills her drink, then guzzles it down. She says that was the only time she ever asked anyone for forgiveness, she thought he was dead! That’s why she ran away, if she knew he was alive, she would have taken care of him! Sniffle sniffle. Al steps forward and says he doesn’t know if she deserves prison or the nuthouse, she’s bad in the head! Bertha says she had it all perfectly planned out. She didn’t permit Gonzalo near the body to see the shot was in the back, since Alfredo and Gonzalo had been face to face. Fern says, then why did Gonz run me out of the hacienda? Bertha says she had him do it. She told Gonz that if Fern was close to the girls she might kill them. At this, Miranda tries to attack Bertha. She says she’s going to take her out but Al holds her back. We are treated to a full 30 seconds of dramatic stares from each person.

Roman and Amparito are laughing and planning the partyand Francisco comes in, surprised to see Roman! He says he’ll be around more regularly, if Amparito wants and Francisco permits. Francisco says give me a break already, my sister likes you, jeez. He says “there’s just one thing I want from you sister,…” “what?” “coffee.” Ha ha ha laughs, she goes to get coffee. Francisco gives Roman a hard time about not being stable. They talk on about some stuff that doesn’t quite make sense. In the end he says it’s all fine for the two of them. Lots of hugs.

Bertha says now you know everything, I killed Tomasa, but not Gonzalo. Miranda points out that she was involved with that even if she weren’t the actual killer, just as much an accomplice as Cesar. “depends on what mirror you look at” Bertha says. What? Then she says “I did it all for love, you all wouldn’t understand.” She goes on some more about love, not having love, how they all love, “like me and you Miranda. And you Al. And you sister.” She says it’s the sweetest love. None of this made any more sense watching it than what it sounds like now reading it, sorry everyone. Surprisingly, though, the term “heridas de amor” was NOT said in all this. Al says she can’t leave, he’s going to call the authorities. Miranda says, basically, “yeah.” Bertha grabs the gun and holds it under her chin. “Like you said Miranda, the eyes of God will never see me. Bertha de Aragon will be free! Not in some jail and much less not in a nuthouse!” She starts running away with the gun still held up to her own chin. Everyone starts yelling to put down the gun. Fern says let the others go, it’s between us. Bertha says it’s all different now. Nati says to let her do it. Go Nati! Al says no, she has to face justice. Bertha says yes, she has a date with her destiny. She leaves and everyone just lets her walk out. Al starts yelling that they can’t just let her leave! Nati says they have to let her do whatever she’s going to do. The Gabinos come running in saying that a man was with Bertha when she left. Not possible, she left alone! Gabino says no, someone was with her. Nati says, don’t ask!

The next morning, I guess, Al is drinking coffee and Miranda comes in to talk to him. They discuss their lack of sleep for Al, Miranda slept like a baby now that she knows everything. Al is all worked up but Miranda, making sense for the first time ever, says they have the lawsuits all started against Bertha and Cesar already, it’s all in the works, so whatever. Fern comes in and is ready to go back to Mexico too. She says she feels free. Miranda also feels better now that the secrets have all come out. Al admits that they are right. Fern says she finally saw who Bertha really is, she doesn’t need jail, she needs to be locked up with herself. Miranda says the worst part is that Bertha never loved anybody, she just like to make trouble. I think that’s what she said. As the are leaving, Al says “aren’t you going to invite me to your chocolate thing?” Miranda says she would never forgive him for not being there at something so important to her. Al leaves, Miranda satisfies her contractual obligation to cry. She looks at Gonz’s old desk and cries some more. “Rest in peace, papa.” She pours a few drops of her bottle of Olde English out for him before slamming back the rest…. Oops not really, she just cries some more and finally leaves the room. Wait she pauses at the door…ok NOW she left, finally. The door closes behind her, seemingly on its own. The ghost of Gonzalo!

Back to Luciano and Vicente. Again, all the papers are in order. Vicente is a little worried, one of his contacts told him that one of the proofs against Cesar might also implicate Julio, but he doesn’t want to raise a false alarm and give Julio his fifteenth heart attack. They decide to talk to Fab and see what they can do. Al arrives and tells them that Bertha confessed to everything. She got away, he doesn’t want to talk about it. They tell him about Julio and talking to Fab. Al gets on the phone.

Renata and Slutty are helping Amparito set for dinner. They are talking about how great Spain is. She hopes Raul finds a woman, Slutty says don’t you think he and Carola, you know? Hey, can I still call her Slutty now that she’s all rehabilitated? I think I will continue to do so. Juan, Francisco and Roman arrive with food, they all talk at the same time and eat. Carola and Raul arrive, hugs all around. Carola is wearing some really strange furry shoulder pads thing. She has on very flattering jeans and some short tight tank top, but then furry shoulder pads that belong on an ancient Viking. What the hell. Joel sends his best, he couldn’t make it. More hugs. They sing a bon voyage song.

Al and Vicente make plans to talk to Fab. Luciano gets off the phone and says the airports and everything else have been alerted, Bertha and Cesar won’t get out of the country. Al says great, he has just enough time to get to Miranda’s chocolate event. Oh Vicente, did you make out a check to Babe Lawyer? Yes Al, it’s on her desk. Speak of the devil, Babe Lawyer walks in. Looking good in a red suit today, waaaaaaay better than that disaster of a dress I remember from last week. She asks to speak alone with Al. She starts all pissy saying she has a lot to talk to him about, he says “sorry, keep it short, I have somewhere to be.” She looks like she can’t believe he just said that! Like, oh my god! She says she came in, all her files on Gonzalo are gone, then she overhears about him leaving her a check, what the hell is going on? She sits down and demands an explanation. Hello you dumb hottie, you’re getting dumped. Al looks like he’d rather be anywhere else but here, which is true. Babe Lawyer fights back her tears.

This was about the talkiest episode ever. I can only imagine what next week’s finale will have. Maybe Duelo will have lots of car chases and fights and stuff.

Labels: heridas