Caray, Caray!

Omar is reminding Fern: "We have to talk with Lety's father." "No no Carvajal, that man makes me very tense." Teresita comes in and puts on the pressure - Fern promises he'll have talked to Lety's family by the next day. After she leaves, Omar calls him Staffordshire (some kind of fighting dog?) and says, "Don't tell me you still feel pity for Lety?" "No, I don't. She's out of my life, I hope she marries, far away."

Bustling about in the big conference room: the cuartel and all possible hangers-on and spouses and children and finally el chavo (the kid) (which is, not one of the actual kids, but Simon) and popcorn and whatever, and eventually the bald creepy guy and even Celso, who has no interest in guarding the premises when there is beauty ogling to be done.

In Acapulco: the girls gossip that guapisimo Aldo only has eyes for Lety. Lety demurs, "No, we're just friends!" "Very! Good! Friends!" the girls titter. "He's so handsome and enchanting, you're lucky." Lety fusses over the girls as they prepare to go on the air: "Don't forget your inner beauty." They sashay out and Anais, the MC, grins at Lety: "There's nothing left of that opaque, sad Lety." "Well, the world turns," says Lety. "I quit Conceptos, that work was killing me." "Now you look so enthusiastic, full of life, content." "That's how you see me? I'm revived. Aldo showed me there's more to me than first appears." "Oh, so he's like your fairy godfather! You illuminate the world." "Well, for now maybe just 10 watts..."

At the Padilla Palace: Julieta, Erasmo, Moty, and of course Tomas are lined up in front of the tv. The phone rings, Julieta picks up, it's Omar asking for Mr. Padilla, "it's personal." "He's not here." "When might I talk to him?" "He won't be here for a few days." "But I can hear his voice." "No! I imagine you're Mr. Mendiola's messenger, so tell him not to bother us." Fern grabs the phone, shouting and babbling, "Don't complicate things, esta poniendo esto color de hormiga [sez my captions: HELP! what does "ant color" signify??], don't hide your daughter..." Julieta firmly insists: "Respect my family!" and hangs up. She sidles over to Tomas and asks him to distract Erasmo while she disconnects all the phones. Tomas sez to Erasmo, "How about them beauties?" and Erasmo scolds, "I don't care about them at all, I just want to see my queen, my daughter." [I loved how he said that so much, I had to rewind and listen again!] "Gee, you're an optimist, is that a characteristic of being in your dotage, do you think you'll see her modeling?" "Don't be a BOBO, you're only good enough to put sugar on your mother's donuts." Erasmo's jaw goes slack over some model or other and Tomas sighs and pulls out his photo of Alicia, whom he claims to be superior to the tv beauties. Erasmo sees Lety on tv!

Alicia barges into Marcia's apartment and exclaims over the mess. Marcia stops dead at the sight of Fern's unpacked suitcase still sitting there. She says tenderly, "that's where it belongs." Alicia posits, "still ready for your honeymoon in the Middle East?" The TV goes on and Alicia begins criticizing the Bellezas and doing her own cat-walk stalk, talking constantly. "SHUT UP!" suggests Marcia. [Note that Alicia has to put a pillow across her lap in order to sit down.] Alicia criticizes the contestants' crooked legs. Again, "SHUT UP!" [And again with the pillow across the lap. That's when you know your skirt is too short.]

Omar and Fern consider the fact that Erasmo, unemployed as he is, undoubtedly spends all day every day at home. Just then Marcia calls. "Did you talk to Lety's family? No? Well, another thing - you didn't take your suitcase, why not?" Fern's answer ("I uh was in a hurry and didn't have time.") chills her and she snaps, "well your stuff is bothering me, come get it this very day." She hangs up. Fern: "Omar, the whole world hangs up on me."

Omar tells Fern he has three options tonight: go to Marcia, which will resolve some problems; go home, sleep, and go a little more crazy; go to a bar and get some guys to beat him up on the other side so both sides of his face match. "Nice choices, Carvajal. Leave!"

Back to Acapulco. Aldo shows up muy guapo in his tux and looks anxiously for Lety. They sit together and listen to Shayla's pretty, happy love song and both their faces shine. [I don't care, Aldo-haters: Aldo looks utterly adorable! I wish some guy would gaze at ME like that! OK, enough of personal reflections.]

Luigi, looking for Irma (he needs some music she has on a disc) mocks Fern and says he's like the dolls in Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

Fern hears shouts in the conference room and goes in, where everybody is fascinated with his beatup face and he tells more random lies about how it got that way. He asks Simon to go get his car, and while he waits he watches the tube. He SEES LETY AND ALDO! He is MUY IMPACTADO! However, he thinks he's overheated and seeing mirages - he doesn't believe his eyes - so it was just a tease.

Then Luigi enters the conference room, exclaims at the profusion of unbeautiful people, then grows enchanted with the show - "look at that gorgeous - gown! Who designed that? That's why HE gets the big bucks and I'm stuck here. It should be ME doing that..." He spies Irma hiding behind the potted plant (trying to avoid having to go work when everybody else is ogling beauties on tv) - she says she is just cleaning it.

In Acapulco, "Lu" sings a sad song and Lety and Aldo grow pensive. There is a lovely, moving montage of past moments of love, happiness, and betrayal. We see Marcia having her own wistful remembrances as Lu sings, "I want to forget you ever made me happy. Life without you is a punishment..." Lety cries as Aldo looks at her tenderly and sympathetically, like a guy who understands trouble.

Fern stares at his beat-up fish-eye lens photo of Lety. "I have to stop deceiving myself, Lety won't come back because she doesn't love me. It's my own fault I lost her, through my stupidity she's lost forever."

And the winner is! Uninterestingly, Miss Puebla, whose speech is as follows: "I don't know if my parents are proud, but I'm satisfied with myself. Thanks to the very beautiful woman who helped me fulfill my dream." She shows us every one of her 88 teeth. Lety beams proudly.

[Editor's aside: every contestant is incredibly white. Where are the darker-skinned beauties? I am tired tired tired of the kneejerk racism of telenovelaland.]

After the winner is announced Alicia babbles and pretends (poorly) to be Garbo. Sarcastically Marcia suggests: "You should be the queen." Alicia misses the sarcasm since to her this is self-evident. "Marcia, when we lived together, we'd watch this show and snark the contestants. This time you didn't utter one criticism! Are you sick? You don't even know who won." Marcia says she's distracted because she's going to be seeing Mr. Mendiola. "Marcia, you need a vacation, let's go to Acapulco, breathe pure air, find ourselves some millionaires."

Caro comes up to Aldo and Lety and says she's beat and will turn in early, since they're heading back to Mexico City in the morning. Lety says she'd like to go say goodbye to Acapulco at the beach and Aldo is most eager to accompany her. Aldo kisses Caro, saying, "Thanks for bringing me Lety." Caro leaves and Aldo tells Lety: "This will be an unforgettable night, I promise!"

How can you guys get on Lety for enjoying a guy like this? If your heart were broken, wouldn't you enjoy a distraction of this magnitude? Cut them both some slack! I'm sure Fern and Lety will end up together so let's just relax and enjoy the ride...

Labels: fea