Caray, Caray!

Ariel is gloating and insufferable, asking Fern when he'll be clearing out. Fern says he'll stay till there's a new elected president and his dad has stepped down from interim command, and will stay in his former office "even though it hurts you because YOU want it." Ariel says something about "Japanese ... honor" - and suggests "hara-kiri" (ritual suicide). He leaves in a huff, the lawyers follow, Fern and Omar bring up the rear.

The gossipy Monica calls Marcia: "Fern was so drunk last night the bartender had to put him in a cab." Mom finally starts to worry about Fern - "Maybe we shouldn't have left him so alone." "He isn't alone, he has his accomplice Omar, and if he's alone, it's because that's what he wants."

Omar complains to Fern: "How could you show up here like this? You look a sight and smell like a cheap distillery." "Don't talk to me -- after you set me up last night with that cheap clown!" "She told me you kissed her looking at a little photo of Lety. And then you didn't go home! Do you even know WHERE you went?" "To a pharmacy to buy hair gel [he probably buys the economy quart size]. Then I made friends with the taxi driver and he took me for a little ride through the city."

"Is your brain atrophied?" queries Omar, who then continues with the majority opinion: that Lety has deserted Fern and intends to steal the company.

Meanwhile, in Acapulco Lety is explaining the kiss Caro just witnessed: "Aldo is explaining life and the sea to me, I like him, he's beautiful, we went diving, he never left my side." As he looks on approvingly, she reviews his philosophical monologues for Caro, gives Aldo a kiss on the cheek saying "te quiero mucho," and rushes off.

Caro asks Aldo what's going on - there was one Lety in the morning, and now there's a powderkeg! "What did you do?" He shares his New Age speak with Caro but she is unreceptive and warns him to be careful with Lety and not break her heart. "Keep a little distance, you've already helped her enough."

Teresita asks Fern if he wants to go out to eat, but he isn't hungry, so she sits with him to talk. He assumes she wants to rag him some more, but she wants to talk as his mother (which actually means she wants to rag him some more), "I'm worried to see you like this! Drinking... instead of working..."

He says he has to work things out in his own way, he needs time to pick up the pieces. "I got into the problems myself and I'll get out myself. It's a process. As my friend learned in Buddhism: we have to lose ourselves to find ourselves. Maybe someday I'll be come the hero you want." She says he's ingenuous to think Lety will give the business back, since she hates him now and probably has somebody new. This idea shocks Fern. Mom urges him to reconcile with Marcia. He says he doesn't love her and can't marry her, and that "his" Lety wouldn't behave as Teresita fears.

Tomas rushes into Casa Padilla, anxious for the feed bag. He starts hoovering up his meal, mumbling to the anxious parents that things are bad at Conceptos. Lety calls and talks to Humberto who grumbles: "You haven't been drinking have you? I hope you've been staying far from the ocean! Don't play with it! There are big bad waves, sharks, whales..." She says she's very happy and in fact just went diving. "Very funny," he growls, "don't joke like that. And stay out of the sun, it will give you spots." She doesn't sound worried about freckles.

Tomas tells Lety: Conceptos is coming to a boil. She tells him not to worry, she doesn't want to come home because she's happy, he should talk to their lawyer, Sanchez. Reluctantly, Tomas agrees to keep holding Conceptos back - even though facing Alicia is like a horror movie. "I'll watch your back. But don't get into trouble, or your parents will strangle me, they'll cut off my meal ticket, and they better feed me cause I'm working for free." Mom keeps asking: "What could Fern have done that was so, so bad?"

When Lety tells Caro about the storm arising at Conceptos, Caro thinks she should go back. "No, no, no, when you brought me here I was a cadaver! Now I'm reviving. I have to stay longer so the improvement is permanent and I'm afraid Don -- will find me. And Aldo's wisdom is helping me."

Irmita decides to stay with her friends and work in Mexico, instead of going off with her daughter and son to be passed back and forth (like a ping pong ball, the cuartel comments). The home team cheers. It is promised that there will be visits.

Tomas visits the old bald lawyer, who sees the Elvis hairdo and says approvingly, "I used to wear my hair that way!" Tomas is impactado and asks, "and THEN?"

Tomas refuses a drink (ol' Sanchez doesn't, though) and explains the problem with the incorrectly-drafted letter of renunciation. Sanchez points out Tomas and Lety haven't exactly been contacting him, that the process of working through the embargo/seizure can't be stopped easily -- in fact the process is complete and Lety now owns Conceptos!

NOW Tomas takes a drink and says, "No, the company must stay in the hands of the Villaroels and Mendiolas!" "What you ask is very difficult. Rather, just tell Licenciada Padilla to come in to my office, we'll make a few little plans, have a few little drinks, then we'll go see the judge and see what can be done." "But she's out of town." "Well, then, things will stay as they are." "CHAOS!" "Calm down, you're both multi-millionaires!"

Omar is drooling over the Acapulco beauty contest again (he doesn't see Lety) when Teresita comes in. He switches off the screen, babbles about why he is still in his old office. She brushes that aside and orders him to take care of Fern. "You're his best friend, but you've also been his hangman. He didn't get into this alone, you helped him - you took him to the abyss and then abandoned him. Help him forget that woman."

Caro is arranging the beauty contest with four categories: Teens, Full-figured, Older Women, and "Sexies." One of the full-figured girls is nervous and wants to back out. Caro asks Lety to talk to her. Lety goes to the dressing room, doles out some of Aldo's advice, and when the girl says "I'm afraid of being laughing at me," Lety says: "I sure know what it's like. But perhaps instead of laughing AT you, people will want to laugh WITH you!" She raises her eyebrows happily as if she has a mischievous plan.

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