Caray, Caray!

Luigi's bilious attack - brought on by the discovery that Aldo has lovingly inscribed his book to Lety the Platypus rather than to Luigi - turns to noisy rage. He criticises Aldo's poor taste, grows indignant over his "deception," and marvels that, rather than fixing on somebody good-looking ("Even Ali Boobies!"), the sexy handsome Aldo has defied the proper order of the universe by fixing his interest on someone ugly.

The furious screams can be heard in the next room (where Alicia's corsetry is looking more like Marie Antoinette's than ever). Pituca and Pitaca (aka Omar and Fern), their curiosity piqued, peer around the corner and hear Luigi make a fateful telephone call to Aldo's publishers. Pretending to be Aldo, Luigi tells them to re-direct the book shipment to an address in the middle of nowhere. He hangs up snarling, "Aldo, you'll pay, you'll all pay!"

In Omar's office it's Chin Cham Pu again for the chair. Chin Cham Pu is either the same as paper-scissors-rock or is, here, followed by that other time-honored way to see who gets the Seat of Power. Fern takes the throne.

"Should we intervene and thwart Luigi's trick?" Fern is of two minds. On the one hand, he would certainly enjoy watching Aldo be embarrassed. On the other hand, Aldo's book event is critical to Conceptos' survival. (Omar brings up Fern's idea of the giant wooden book rolling into the Expo on little bitty wheels.) Fern debates further: "It's Lety's project. I'd love to stick it to that stupid DomensaEEN but I can't do that to mi Lety."

Fern gets all hyper-ventilated - let's review, he's rattled trying to decide whether it's worth flushing the whole Conceptos recovery down the drain simply to annoy Aldo. In order to calm his nerves he decides to prune his bonsai tree; when he calls for the scissors, Omar realizes that in actual fact HE, Omar, had won the deciding game. "Hey, stone wins over paper! You tricked me!" They trade places.

At the presentation (it looks like a crummy little cafeteria in a hospital basement) Aldo has completely lost his New Age cool, he is ruffled and desperate because his book hasn't arrived. [I kept thinking, "Jeez, get over it," but the principle of All Filler All The Time dictates that this must be a great emergency. -- Ed.] Luigi watches from behind a column while all agonize over the missing books.

(Aldo's dad meets Lety's parents and there is mutual admiration.)

Meanwhile ... in the middle of nowhere, in the rain, delivery guys are trying to figure out where to leave Aldo's books since the specified address is locked up and dark. (Tell me why these guys don't have a cellphone to call the office.)

Fern and Omar drive up; Fern says: "We'll implement Plan A, and if that doesn't work, we'll go to Plan B." Fern tries to convince the delivery guys to give him the books (calling them "little booklets of recipes") but the guys aren't having it, so he coughs into his hand, "PLAN B!" He engages the guys in fatuous, frenetic conversation while Omar removes all the packets of books from their truck. If you like pratfalls, there was one. The guys like Fern so much they ask him to suck down some tequilas with them, but he and Omar make a getaway.

Aldo is onstage, his voice breaking with emotion, sadly cancelling his presentation, when Omar and Fern burst in with arms full of books (more pratfalls). Luigi is dumbfounded: "Super Pituca and Pitaca to the rescue, it can't be!"

Aldo's father takes the mic and says, "I'm proud to present this book, I haven't read it yet, but it proves my son is a great chef who deserves his success. Aldo, I'm glad you disobeyed me and followed your dream!" All rise in spontaneous ovation! Props to dad from Aldo, who says further, "Somebody once called my tome a 'little booklet of recipes'..." ("Who would have such bad taste?" mutters Fern, who was the somebody.) "... that wasn't my intention. Each of us should live in our own way, and my way is in this book."

Luigi staggers off backstage wondering why Fern helped Aldo - "Does he know Aldo loves the Elephant Woman? What can I do NOW to make this the worst night of their lives?"

Meanwhile Carla, all dolled up, is waiting in her hotel lobby. Fern forgot to come for her. She's sure it's because of Lety.

The presentation is over. Erasmo confides to Aldo: "I didn't really understand all that stuff about the connection between Taste and Life." "It'll take a lot of time to explain it," warns Aldo. "That's OK, I have a little bottle put away for special occasions."

Most everybody's gone; Omar and Fern see Aldo and Lety nuzzle and exchange a sweet little kiss. Aldo asks Lety to leave: "I have to have a talk with MANDIOLA and it won't be a friendly one." Fern and Aldo are so hilarious together - they dodge and weave through the tables, wishing they could sock each other some more. They end up in a hallway squabbling, prodding, and picking at each other except when they greet passing guests (graciously and in unison).

"It's not enough you tried to ruin my presentation, now you want to make a scene with your boxing?" "I rescued your books so you wouldn't look like an idiot, I did it for Lety."

The delivery guy shows up with the police and wants to get Fern arrested. (He calls Fern "the little blond" again, which surprises both Aldo and Fern. "He said that before" Fern confides perplexedly.)

Aldo says everything is fine and signs for the books. Fern says it wasn't he, Fern, who made the dastardly phone call diverting the books to the boonies. Aldo believes him. Lety doesn't, though, saying: "He's an expert liar." Anais shows up again, with Caro. She wants to interview Lety. Yawn.

Tomas shows up at Alicia's desk and invites her to the expo. "And we can take my car." "You mean MY car." "Let's say, OUR car."

She goes off to repair her makeup and comes back so guapa that Tomas's hands are magnetically attracted to her immense, pressurized, artificial globes. Hovering and having a mimisqui of his own, he's almost reached his goal when Marcia shows up, furious. The reason she's been so delayed? Alicia forgot to confirm her plane reservation! "And Alicia, were you about to leave?" "Yes," crows Tomas, who's been thoughtbubbling "This is my lucky night." "Uh, no, I was waiting for you," says Alicia.

Fern, twitching in the way we have come to know as an outer manifestation of his insane love and jealousy, tells Omar: "I didn't tell DomensaEEN who really made the call because I have no wish to get in good with him, I just wanted to help Lety." Omar suddenly realizes Fern has forgotten, in the excitement, to pick up Carla. "Capital crime! Infamy! Who would stand up a bonbon like Carla?"

Carla has just now arrived at the Expo under her own steam. Fern rushes past her and then realizes he doesn't have to hurry since she's already here. He spins some vague blather about a tiny problem which was nonetheless very "grave" and Carla surmises it must have had something to do with Lety, and he complains, "You think everything is about Lety."

He says she looks divine, and they get closer and closer, and he's very nervous, and she says, "Well it doesn't matter now, I'm here and we're going to have a great evening," and the Golden Circle of Goodbye closes around their faces.

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