Caray, Caray!

[Yes, indeed, folks. I did the first recap and I should have been recapping the finale a week from today but long held plans to travel to a family reunion on the West Coast and Univision’s screwy scheduling got in the way. I’ll be watching the Duelo finale a few days after it happens while Sylvia does the honors. It’s been a blast. Thanks, blogmamamelinama and all the rest of you guys. I'm afraid to do a list because I don't want to forget anyone! Gracias a todos. After Duelo, I’m taking a break from recapping. I’ll probably be watching (and commenting on) Amar Sin Limites and will apply to recap in the fall, for Pasiones as aregular or substitute recapper. I know there’s already a line around the block for that one…

This novela has been a real stinkeroo at times—violent, hopeless, retrograde, with over the top machismo and unbelievably wooden and pathetic characters. Still there were some highlights—Tonkey of course but also Ana Martin, (Luba) who I am convinced, could save any show. Sergio Goytri has also chewed up the scenery and has done yeoman’s work as Don Loco. Intocable—well--it looks like at least he had fun. If we needed any confirmation of how awful this novela has been for the staff, we’ve gotten it in that they’ve killed off roughly 30 characters and made about half a dozen more just disappear from the scene. Oh, and they actually substituted a couple of important roles with different actors. Rats fleeing the sinking ship, indeed. In real life, I don’t think Pablo or Ludovika will remember this job fondly since they had a flaming affair that ended badly with Ludovika now claiming in the tabloids that not only has she gone back to her husband but she’s giving up acting for awhile for the sake of her family. Yes, folks, this may be the show that ENDED her acting career! There may be an actual witch’s curse on this thing. But no matter—on with the show!]

We open to the touching parting scene between Luba and Raquel where Luba says nice things about her and her babies and Raquel tells Luba that she’s a good person.

Meanwhile, over in Floodlandia, Rodrigo enters his tent and Frank is there and stands to attention. He tells Rodrigo everything’s fine—there’s just one little thing he wants to clear up. Rodrigo says, “Oh, yeah, you must be referring to what happened between Karla and Captain Valtierra. Frank looks uncomfortable. Just then we get a glimpse of Alina poking her nurse’s hat into the tent. Rod states loudly that to him it is abundantly clear that Karla and Captain Valtierra spent the night together in his tent. Alina, behind him stops dead in her tracks after hearing this. Rod is indignant. He sarcastically remarks that Captain Valtierra is pretty slick to get Frank to cover for him but “You can’t fool me Sergeant!” he bellows to Frank. Rod goes on to say that he’s sure that Frank was told to do by Emilio to cover for his Captain because Alina’s back. Frank tries to protest that nobody told him to say anything but Rod isn’t buying it. Alina silently bursts into tears behind the curtain and runs away.

At Rodrigo’s apartment in Puebla, Gaby is hyperventilating. Tina asks her what’s wrong and Gaby tells her she doesn’t want to go outside or anywhere. She’s terrified that “the woman” will kill her. Tina tries to comfort her. She takes the little girl’s hands and sees that the nails are bleeding. She’s been chewing on her fingernails to the quick. Tina is shocked and hugs the little girl, who curls up in a fetal position against her.

Alina runs crying into the nurses’ tent. Valentina sees her and asks her if Rodrigo was a jerk about her getting back with Emilio. Alina says no, she just overheard a conversation between Rodrigo and Frank. Emilio had an affair with Karla. She bursts into tears again. Boo Hoo!

Back to Puebla—Don Loco, in his striped cap, bum’s attire and big silver revolver is still lurking around Coral’s house. The doorbell rings and Adela comes running. Don Loco hides behind a sofa. The guest is the Prosecutor Vargas who says he’s just stopping by to ask if she has heard from Soledad and she tells him no. And once again, with the “no news is good news” thing. Vargas says that he talked to Elias the other day and told him about the other killings. He says that it’s great that Don Loco doesn’t know and will never guess where they are. Don Loco thought bubbles behind the couch about how much he wants to kill Elias for stealing his woman.

Back to the big boohoo with Alina. Valentina tries to comfort her, to suggest that maybe she heard wrong. Alina is sure she heard right. What’s more, now she has an explanation for why Karla was such a bitch to her when she showed up. She was Emilio’s new squeeze and Emilio probably told her to beat it when Alina showed up. Also, Rodrigo’s coy remarks about her making a mistake in choosing Emilio now made sense. When she had asked him to explain, he had simply told her to ask Emilio. Valentina, the level headed one, tells her she should go ask Emilio for an explanation. Alina agrees and leaves. Valentina says to no one in particular that Alina sure has it rough. Fate is set against her and Emilio getting together.

Zipping over to Puebla, we are in Coral’s boutique. Who should come flying in the door but Claudia’s mom. Claudia is impactada but not for long because her mom starts in on a big rant about how she is ashamed of her daughter. She can’t believe that she spent the night away from home. Claudia tries to defend herself , telling her that she sent Angel to tell her that she was spending the night with a friend. Mom doesn’t buy it. She’s sure that she spent the night with Angel. Claudia shakes her head with a look of sadness and fear.

Over to Sierra Escondida—Rancho Viejo. It looks like Luba’s threats have worked. The workers are back on the job and seem to be happy about it. Luba and Gaspar and heading out. Gaspar is excited to go see his cub. Luba says goodbye to Raquel and gives her her huge stone neckace. The one that she always wears. Uh oh. Foreshadowing? Tears and smiles. Orlando rides up and they part. Luba is concerned that there may be La Rinconada folk lurking around but Orlando says no.

Back to the big blowout between Claudia and her Mom. Mom once again accuses her of trying to seduce Rosendo and Claudia once again tries to explain to Mom that Rosendo is a creep who exploits them. Claudia says that as long is Rosendo is there, she’s not going home. Mom goes all twitchy bitchy and starts screaming that Rosendo is her man and that no one is going to steal him from her. “So you choose him over me?” says Claudia. “At least he respects me” says Mom. “And if you don’t return to live under my roof, like a decent girl, you can forget that I’m your mother.” Claudia is impactada.

Vargas is taking leave and tells Adela to call him if Coral hears from Soledad. All of the sudden, TONKEY bursts in. (Where have you been, big fella!!) He immediately gets a whiff of eau de bum and runs over to where Don Loco is hiding behind the couch. Although Adela is perplexed, it takes only a few seconds for Vargas to realize that there could be an intruder hiding there and apparently prosecutors in Mexico conceal-carry. He whips out a small pistol and carefully approaches the couch. We go to commercial. When we come back, we are disappointed to see that Vargas has DL’s scuzzy jacket in one hand. Adela and Vargas accuse Tonkey of having dragged it in from the street or the trash. Poor Tonkey! A misunderstood hero!!! Vargas reholsters his weapon and accompanies Adela out the door, followed by Tonkey who is jumping for the jacket. They must have put a steak in the sleeve. After they leave the room, DL peers out behind a curtain, gun in hand. A close shave for DL.

Back to the mother-daughter bust up between Claudia and her mom. Claudia is crying and tries to tell mom that she’s afraid to return home to the neighborhood, because that bastard Rosendo…every time you aren’t around…” Mom interrupts her. She won’t listen. “Rosendo is incapable of doing anything bad to you.” Then she lays on the guilt. “If you really loved me, you’d come home right now!” Just then Coral, looking stylish in a black ensemble comes into the boutique. “Claudia is not going anywhere!” she announces. Claudia’s mom tries to bully Coral by telling her to butt out. Coral has none of it. She insists that Claudia isn’t going back home where that husband of hers is. Claudia looks torn. Please no, she’s not going home is she????

Back to floodlandia. The nurses are treating patients in the hospital tent . Karla is there working in the background. Valentina comes in and tells the nurses to make ready the dirty sheets for collection. She asks for some nurses to come with her to check on some patients in another tent. As soon as they leave, Karla runs over and takes a sheet from the contaminated sheet bag and runs out of the tent with it.

Back to Mother and Daughter fight, now featuring Coral! Mom again tells her that their dispute is none of her business. Mom grabs Claudia by the arm and tries to drag her out of the store. Coral runs to the door and slams it. Mom tells Coral that she probably has only heard the lies that “this brat” has told her about Rosendo. Coral pleads with her to listen to her own daughter. Mom says that Claudia is not her daughter. She’s an ingrate who is looking to steal her husband. [Give it up, lady! Either she’s hot for Angel or for your husband. Which is it?] Claudia crumbles. She’s going to go home with her mom. Coral can’t believe it and neither can we. Oh, yes we can. This is Duelo de Pasiones, where people do the exact wrong thing all the time, just to torment us. She thanks Coral and tells her to tell Angel not to come after her. Mom grabs Claudia and leaves.

Next we’re back in Sierra Escondida. We get a quick update from La Rinconda. Ifigenio comes into the kitchen and is giving the news to Vera. Santos’ mom is still really sick so he won’t be making an appearance anytime soon. But Don Braulio (remember him? Rosita’s dad?) He’s been cleared of the charges of killing Castulo and will be released from jail soon in time for the Gran Final. I guess he gave up trying to find work on another novela. Don Braulio will be the new administrator! Ifigenio goes off to work. Thelma comes in her negligee and asks Vera where Orlando is. Vera nervously tells her that he left really early “to check on some things dealing with the new highway that they are about to finish.” Vera asks her if she wants breakfast but Thelma asks for Coffee and absently picks up a piece of fruit and craftily asks why the people of the mountain are so unfair to let Luba and her son escape justice after they killed Flor. Vera tells her that they tried but Luba and Gaspar escaped. “Don’t worry, Senora, says Vera. When we find them, we’ll lynch them” finishes Vera.

Over in Floodlandia, Karla is busy making sure that the contaminated sheet makes it on to Alina’s cot.

Back to SE—Raquel is cleaning up. She goes up to evil Hernan and tells him that she wants to speak to the parties interested in buying the Ranch. He tells her that the buyers didn’t want to meet with the owner, only with a go-between…him. Raquel tells him she’s on to him. HE’s the interested buyer. What’s more, she calls over Fidencio who is now a loyal worker and gets him to admit that Hernan paid them to go on strike. I guess that there was one worker who was paid way too much at Rancho Viejo if he had enough to bribe the entire crew. Now his ass is fired!!! She tells him to beat it. He threatens her and she threatens him right back. He leaves.

Back to Floodlandia again! Emilio is talking to someone on a walkie-talkie. He’s confirming plans to check on a bridge. Over and out. He gets up to leave and Alina drops in, with furrowed brow, hands in tiny nurse pockets. Emilio pinches her chin and says that he’s glad to see her, he’s headed out. Alina tells him she wants him to tell her about what happened before she arrived. “What do you want to know? asks Emilio. “Is it true that Karla spent the night with you in your tent?” Ooooh. Superslomo impacado into a commercial time for Emilio. Emilio himself of course merely looks constipated. Our transition to the commercial features Alina in her pink dress throwing a hissy fit over one of any number of a million slights of Emilio’s back when she was living in the cave with Luba. Luba tries to comfort her, maternally.

Emilio doesn’t take the right approach. He starts in with “Who told you that?” and then goes into complicated explanation mode. Alina doesn’t like this one bit and says “So it’s true?!” Emilio tries to explain but Alina goes on a rant about how she gave it up for him and let her think that he was in love with her. Emilio tries again to explain and Alina won’t let up. She’s not listening. “You deceived me!” Emilio stops her and says “I did not deceive you!” Finally he gets it out that Karla slept in his tent but he slept in a chair. “Then why did she treat me so badly?” asks Alina. “because she heard me speak your name and she was jealous” says Emilio finally. He grabs her face in an effort to shut her up. “You can’t doubt me, my love, not after what happened last night.” Alina relents somewhat and says that she’s confused. She doesn’t know what to think. She walks out and tells him she needs to be alone to think. Just then, Karla shows up and makes a catty comment about how now Alina knows “everything.” Emilio is ticked and asks her what she means. Karla says that “now that you two are going to be together, it’s better that you not have any secrets—that she know that you and I had an affair.” It’s Alina’s turn to be ticked. “How could you do this to me?” She wails.

Back in SE, Orlando arrives at his cabin with Luba. It turns out he can’t go to Puebla right away. He’s got to wait until the engineers finish up with the highway! Luba can’t believe that he was in such a rush to get them away from Rancho Viejo when they now have to stick around in SE which is dangerous for both her and her son. Orlando tells them unconvincingly that he will take care of them. He gives them a walkie-talkie. Luba looks skeptical. Yeah, I would be too.

Back to the latest bustup between Emilio and Alina. Karla pretends to be offended that Emilio would deny their roll in the hay. Alina stalks off. Karla says that Alina is a cry-baby if she can’t take a joke. Emilio is furious (I would guess) and tells her that the joke was in poor taste. Emilio tells her that she’d better go and tell Alina the truth and apologize. Karla pouts and smiles slyly.

Meanwhile, Angel has arrived on his daily visit to Claudia at Coral’s boutique. Coral greets him and when he asks about Coral, she gingerly tells him what happened, with the scene earlier between Claudia and her mom and that Mom took Claudia home. Angel is impactado.

Alina is sitting on her bed (with the blanket between her and the dirty sheet) and crying. Valentina comes in and she tells her what happened. “But you aren’t going to believe that sangrona (creep?).” Valentina tells her that if she loves Emilio, she’s got to believe him. Besides, why would Emilio be with a bitch like Karla if he was in love with her (Alina)? [Not exactly what she said but you get the drift…] Alina goes into her “woe is me, the world is trying to separate us” dirge and Valentina urges her to fight for her love.

Emilio and Karla are still having it out. Karla tells him that she’s not going to apologize to his dopey girlfriend. Emilio tells her she’d better or else…he grabs her hard by the arm and accuses her of stirring up this whole mess by telling Alina that they spent the night together. Karla says (truthfully) that she never told her. Yeah, well, half the camp saw her come out of Emilio’s tent wrapped only in a towel and she made sure of that. Karla tells her she’ll tell Alina the truth…when she damn well pleases. She stalks off. Emilio swears under his breath.

Commercial, a great new transition with Coral dancing. And we’re with Coral and Angel. Coral tells Angel about how Claudia’s mom basically blackmailed her into returning home. Coral sighs and says it’s obvious that Claudia caved under that kind of pressure and that she made the wrong decision. “Can you imagine what awaits her at home with that monster of a step-father?” At this, Angel gets up and says he’ll kill Rosendo if he does anything to Claudia. Coral warns him not to do anything stupid and Angel assures her that he won’t.

Don Loco shows up at Elias’ place. I always liked the furnishings at that place. Blanca had good taste in home décor even if she had questionable judgement in marrying Elias when he so obviously had the hots for someone else. Elias’ house is still perfectly kept but apparently nobody bothered to lock up or watch the place because DL is there, looking dirty and out of place, shouting and waving a gun around. All of the sudden, he sees Soledad. Soledad tells him to stop looking for her. She’s found her happiness with Elias. DL yells angrily that he won’t let her be with that traitor. Soledad tells him it’s too late, she and Elias have been doin’ the wild thing from the moment DL was locked up in jail. While it’s true that all of his accusations about her infidelity were false, now they have become true. She’s been enjoying the lovin’ she’s been getting from the studly Elias. OK, I threw in the studly part, she doesn’t go that far. Don Loco starts screaming at her to shut up. He’s kneeling on the ground and Soledad encircles him, taunting him about how she’s getting her revenge now, making him feel lower than the dirt, just like he did to her. He almost, but not, quite points the gun at his own head. Yes, my friends, this is another Don Loco (trademark) hallucination. He turns around and she’s gone.

Meanwhile, the real Soledad is taking a walk with Elias in San Mateo, followed by a policeman in a dress uniform. Elias is remarking about how someday they’ll be free and happy. Don Loco will be in jail and they’ll be able to enjoy themselves. Soledad agrees. Again, Elias announces that DL will NEVER look for them in San Mateo!!

Back to Floodlandia. Emilio shows up at the bridge where Rodrigo is directing a bunch of soldiers to place sandbags on an embankment. Rodrigo says snidely, “Finally you show up for work.” [I gotta say, old Rod has a point here. People are losing their homes, getting sick, drowning and dying in this God forsaken place. Meanwhile, Alina and Emilio are spending their time, alternately mooning over and fighting with eachother. Karla is spending all her time thinking of and executing plans to kill Alina. The practical Valentina is completely absorbed with Alina’s problems. Even Frank is worried about messing up his Captain’s love life. If I were the people in this village I would tell all these people to drop off the food, medicine and sandbags and then get the hell away from me.] Rod is snarky. Emilio gets all in his face accusing him of telling Alina he slept with Karla.

Back to Alina and Valentina in their tent. Alina isn’t feeling so hot. Valentina urges her to lie down. Looks like Karla’s plan is working.

Emilio and Rod shout insults at eachother. It soon turns to blows. Rod isn’t winning but a bunch of soldiers show up and pull them apart. Karla shows up and looks surprised.

In Puebla, Coral has just made another sale to a happy customer in the boutique. Tina arrives to ask her if she has looked into the possibility of Thelma being Gaby’s kidnapper. They discuss the possibilities. On the one hand, the calls have stopped now that Thelma is out of town. On the other, Coral talked to the SA who swears Thelma had nothing to do with it. Coral thinks the SA is basically a good person and wouldn’t lie to her. Tina isn’t sure about that, after all, she’s her Aunt. Tina tells Coral that Gaby is doing really badly and she begs Coral to get to the bottom of this.

DL is still at Elias’ house. His dirty bum costume is probably making a stain on that nice couch. He’s wondering aloud where Elias and Soledad can be. Suddenly, he says to himself he knows who can tell him where they are. He gets up and leaves.

Back to Tina and Coral. Tina is crying, overwhelmed by how bad things have gotten with Gaby. Coral advises her to take the child to a psychologist. Tina brightens, and says she knows a really great psychologist who lives right next door. Yes, it’s Doctora Loca to the rescue!

Back to the big fight next to the flooding river. As I said, Rodrigo looks like he would have been the loser in this fight. The soldiers are trying to keep the two men apart while they hurl insults at eachother. Frank defends Emilio and says that he has no right to accuse him of what he has no knowledge of. The two men break free briefly and start fighting again. Karla comes up and suddenly decides to come clean. “Emilio is telling the truth, she yells. Nothing happened between us.” Impactada looks all around.

Back in Alina’s tent, she’s not looking so good as Karla’s plan B is well underway. Alina is sweating and feverish. Valentina comes over and sees that she’s sick.
Rodrigo apologizes. Emilio accepts the apology with a handshake and thanks Karla for finally stepping up. Rodrigo tells her that she’d better tell Alina the truth too. Karla agrees this time. Emilio tells Rodrigo that he understands why he reacted the way he did, that “any man in love” would have acted the same way. Besides, he was looking out for Alina which is a good thing too. Karla touches Emilio’s face and asks him to let her fix him up. Emilio grabs her hand and pushes it away, saying “Alina will do it.” As things are cooling down, Valentina rushes up to tell all the assembled soldiers and Karla that Alina is very sick.

Back in Puebla, Coral is arranging things in the boutique. Coral has her back to the door when Don Loco comes in. At first she thinks he’s just an old bum and she offers him clothes. Then she recognizes him and he recognizes her as the dancer from Edelmira’s. Coral’s eyes get big.

Everyone rushes over to the hospital tent where alina lies stricken in a bed like any other patient. Valentina tells them that she has all the symptoms of the rotavirus. Rodrigo is incredulous. “How can this be? All the volunteers have been vaccinated and take precautions with masks and gloves.” Karla bitchily (without her mask on) says that no doubt Alina made mistakes because she was such an inexperienced volunteer and that she was right all along for trying to exclude her. Valentina takes umbrage at this but Emilio tells them that now is not the time for arguing. Emilio and Rodrigo are both squatting next to her cot, one on either side. Emilio starts to explain the whole story about the Karla gossip but Rodrigo suggests that now is not a great time since she’s so weak. Emilio agrees. He starts to move away when Alina grabs his hand and tells him to stay. She believes him and she feels better with him near. She knows he never deceived her. Rodrigo looks unhappy-impactado although it’s hard to tell with a mask covering half his face.

Next time: It sucks to be Claudia. Rosenda strangles her until she passes out and then lays her out on a bed like he intends to rape her while she’s unconscious. It also sucks to be Coral, who is going to have to try to escape the homicidal maniac Don Loco while not revealing Soledad’s location. For the finale--It also sucks to be Alina who may or may not be hallucinating about being buried alive again. As was noted earlier, Gaspar and Luba run into problems too.

Labels: duelo