Caray, Caray!

[Note, for those who were wondering—after checking Esmas, I figured out that we have 43 episodes after this one. That puts the end of Amar Sin Limites somewhere around the second week of January at the earliest, given that I’m sure there will be holiday programming changes that will pre-empt the show.]

We open with the scene between Lidia and Piero where Piero is sweet talking her into signing divorce papers so that he can continue to make Lucia to believe he’s broken up with her. He finally leaves and Lidia goes back into the living room where Clemencia is waiting to find out who was at the door. Lida explains, that it was Piero. When Clemi wants to know what he wanted, Lidia tells her that Piero wanted them to get back together. Clemi is full of indignation and blurts out that Piero is shameless (un sínico) for thinking that he can get away with kissing Lucia in front of everyone and still trying to get Lidiia to go back with him. Lidia tells Clemi no worries that instead, she’s decided to divorce him. She leaves out the part where it is supposed to be a fake divorce to convince Lucia that Piero’s dumped her. Clemi says that although she doesn’t approve of divorce, she thinks that Lidia is doing the right thing. Piero won’t respect her. “And without respect in a couple, there’s nothing.” She adds that Lidia made mistakes—everybody does. The important thing now is to correct them. She’s sure that Lidia will find somebody who truly values her and loves her. They hug but Lidia’s choked up. Maybe because she’s a LIAR! Clemi smiles angelically.

Meanwhile, Azul is having a reunion with her family at Mo’s house, after the kidnapping. Emilia runs up and hugs her. Julio remarks that since she’s got a new dress on, he can see that Diego must have planned the kidnapping ahead of time. Azul announces that Diego made her the dress himself. Inez asks where Diego took her. Azul says to a remote beach. GSD is indignant and wants to know why Diego compelled her to go with him like that. Mo butts in and says that according to what Azul said, Diego didn’t take her by force, she went willingly. GSD demands a clarification. Mo says that Azul defended Diego at the Police Station, absolving him of all wrongdoing. Azul tries to interrupt him but Mo is on a tear now. He angrily demands that her family deserves an explanation, just like he does. They were all worried about her. (Camera cuts to Arnaldo for some reason—he’s looking like he’s thinking something but says nothing) . Azul explains that she didn’t want to get Diego in trouble because his mother had a weak heart and she didn’t want her to suffer. And besides, Diego didn’t harm her. He only wanted to talk to her. Finally Arnaldo chimes in—“what a way to talk to you, huh?” Emilia says, if that’s all he wanted to do, he should have done it in a more civilized way.” Inez just wants to know what he said. Azul says, “well, that he loves me and that Eva Santoro was dead so that now there were no longer obstacles between us.” GSD butts in here to say that they all already knew about Eva being dead, “It was from an explosion that she herself created with Ivan with who knows what nefarious goal in mind.” Emilia adds that Eva’s being dead doesn’t excuse Diego’s actions. Azul says that that’s what she told Diego. She accused him of only looking for her because Eva was dead. GSD is still outraged and thinks that she should have let Diego get locked up. Azul pleads that whatever, Diego’s mom didn’t deserve it. She was already stressing out from the kidnapping itself.

Diego isn’t exactly scott free, either. He’s with Don Chucho, Anibal, Gaspar, Efrain and Manuel who are all listening to what his lawyer has to say. The lawyer explains that he isn’t guilty of kindnapping because there was no ransom demand. He would have been guilty of “illegally imprisoning” but Azul not pressing charges let him off that. He did, however, beat up the chauffer and steal a car and he’ll have to answer for that. He’ll have to get bail money for that. Manuel interrupts to let everyone know that there’s no money. Silvana volunteers her savings. Chucho does too. Anibal says not to worry, he can loan him whatever he needs. Manuel cracks “look at how generous!” Anibal is. Diego thanks everyone for their generosity and says he’ll pay everyone back. Chucho takes this moment to let him know that they no longer have jobs, since Julio fired them. Gaspar adds that Julio said he didn’t want a delinquent working in his prestigious boutique. Diego has an orange flashback of one of his “love shack” arguments with Azul , with her accusing him of being Eva’s kept man and getting her to buy him half the boutique. Back in the present, Diego looks off in the distance and says, “We’ll see if Julio can fire me.” Chucho tells him he tried to convince Julio otherwise, but there was no moving him. Manuel interjects that Diego is going to have to pay for his foolishness. Diego thanks Anibal again and says that he has to accept his loan since he can only pay him back if he is free. And he’ll pay him back—with interest. Manuel sniffs at this boast and says he’ll believe it when he sees it. Anibal ignores this and tells Diego he trusts him and he knows that he won’t give his Mom any more reason to worry.

Back at Mo’s, the interrogation of Azul continues. Inez is remarking that Azul’s adventure is like something out of a movie. Azul says she never wanted anyone to worry. She asks Mo about Katy. Mo uses the opportunity for a little emotional blackmail and tells her that Katy was traumatized and Chonita took her to a park to calm her down. Just then the non-traumatized Katy runs in, in her princess dress happily screaming out “Azul! Azul!” Everybody smiles and fawns over Katy. Julio and Arnaldo get up to go and Inez asks if she can have a ride to her house. Arnaldo says the important thing is that Azul is back. Azul hugs Katy and glances up at Mo, whose face is dark as a thundercloud, in sharp contrast to all the other happy people around him.

Silvana has gone home and is filling Ivan in on what happened. Ivan wants to know if Diego and Azul got back together. Silvana says no, Azul went back to Mo. Manuel told her that Azul didn’t press charges because she felt sorry for Clemi. Even if Diego and Azul have cleared some stuff up, it’s pretty obvious that they aren’t going to get back together. Silvana hopes that Diego will give up on Azul. Ivan adds in that deadpan way of his: “because you want him to end up with you, because you love him so much.”

Back at casa Moran, Diego has a fond reunion with Dona Clemi while Lidia and her Dad stand across the room. Clemi’s happiness is cut short by Manuel who insists on telling everyone that Anibal loaned him bail money. Clemi starts to get short of breath again and Diego tells her not to worry that he will pay Anibal back. Clemi says, yes, right away. She suggests that Manuel sell his car. Lidia agrees. Manuel’s reaction is about what you’d expect. He’d rather Diego stay in Jail than sell his new car. Lidia turns on a dime and backs up her Daddy. Besides, when Piero was in jail, Diego didn’t help her. Clemi points out that Diego did help—he got a lawyer and paid him out of his own pocket. Lidia argues that the lawyer didn’t help Piero. Manuel gets on his high horse about Diego doing a crime and that he should be doing the time. Clemi gives up. She tells Diego she’s glad he’s out and she understands that although what he did was wrong, he did it out of love. She looks at the other two and complains about how they are supposed to be a family and support one another. Lidia and Manuel hug eachother and look away from Clemi and Diego. [Some family! For me at least, justice for those two can’t come fast enough. ]

At the boutique, Andres has come looking for Ceci. Instead, Gaspar meets him and tells him off. Andres looks puzzled. What’s he being accused of. Ceci shows up and fills in the blanks—of beating up Gaspar’s Dad. Andres is impactado. Then he tries to lie his way out of it, saying that Efrain became violent when Mo tried to find out where Diego went. Gaspar doesn’t buy it. He knows his Dad is a peaceful person. He may have been a boxer but he only fights to defend himself. Andres (directing his words only at Ceci) says they only fought him to defend themselves. Ceci argues that even if that had been the case, they could have found another way. Gaspar points out that they were two against one. Andres argues, again, only at Ceci that Mo was desperate. And anyway, “Diego carried Azul off by force—they were the ones who did wrong, not us.” Andres says that Gaspar should know that neither he nor Mo were going to press charges against Efrain, even though they could have. Even if Azul wasn’t pressing charges, they could have made things hard for Efrain. [I don’t exactly see how, without implicating themselves in an assault]. Gaspar sees the implied threat. Ceci looks like she’s weighing Andres’ culpability against Diego and Efrain’s.

Diego is still with Clemi. They are making up. Clemi tells him that she understands his love for Azul but next time they’d better do things the right way—no more kidnapping. She’s got to divorce Mo before they can get together. Diego is all like Yeah, Mom. I know.

[whoo hooo long Pasion commercial!]

Azul is flashbacking Diego making the dress for her. When she gets back to the present, she’s with Katy, who asks her about the kidnapping. Azul tells her that “the boy who kidnapped her didn’t do anything bad.” Princess Katy is happy to hear this because when Azul went away she was very sad and had a lot of nightmares. “You had the same nightmare?” asks Azul. “Yes,” says Katy. “I thought that they were going to do to you …” At this crucial moment Mo comes into the room and stops Katy from finishing. He tells Azul that her Dad is leaving and he wants to say goodbye. Azul gets up and goes. Mo sits down with Katy and, holding her down, reminds her that he brought her back Azul and that she’d better forget about her Mommy up in heaven. He points out that she’s been mentioning Mommy quite a bit lately. “You KNOW that there was NO WAY to save your Mommy, right?” Katy nods slowly. He tells her that if she keeps talking about this, the police are going to take him away and “Azul won’t want to see us anymore. “ Katy’s eyes are big and wide. She whimpers. Mo sticks the knife in. “You’ll be all alone in the world, Katy. They’ll send you to an ORPHANAGE. “ Put another buck and change in the therapy jar for little Katy.

Azul is telling GSD and Emilia about Katy. Emilia agrees that Katy was very afraid (when she disappeared). Emilia says, “We just wanted to say goodbye. we know you need to rest.” GSD says he still wants to talk about this whole defending Diego thing. He let it go because he didn’t want to expose her in front of Mo. He walks away. Emilia lags behind. She thinks the whole Diego thing looks bad too, but she has something else to impart. While Azul was gone, she was watching Katy. She saw something, heard something. Azul wants to know what it was but Emilia doesn’t want to talk to her about it here. They can meet tomorrow, at her place. Kiss Kiss, bye bye.

Mo is still torturing poor Katy with tales of terrible Orphanages, where nobody takes care of you. Katy promises not to talk about Mommy in heaven if Daddy promises not to let anything bad happen to Azul. Mo smiles and promises her.

At Efrain’s apartment, Chucho is wondering aloud how Diego is going to get their jobs at the Boutique back. Efrain says he doesn’t know but Diego seemed pretty sure of himself. Chucho says that Diego is a very talented designer, he could certainly earn the right to work there. But if he fails, maybe Efrain could teach him (Chucho) to be a mechanic? Efrain says sure. That’s what he gets for allowing Diego to be a fighting Romeo and even involving himself, as his trusty sidekick. Chucho points out that he’s mixing up two different works of literature, Romeo and Juliet and Don Quijote. Just then there’s a knock at the door. It’s that same guy, whose name I don’t know who has been asking about the missing car. Presumably the one Diego took to the beach. (The same guy who made eyes at Lidia). Now he says that the owner of the car is really mad and he’s in trouble.

Diego finally goes to visit Silvana. He thanks her for all her help. He tells her that thanks to her, he and Azul have reconciled. Silvana is not too happy to hear that. She smiles anyway and accepts a hug from Diego.

Now with everybody gone, Mo accosts Azul and demands to talk to her alone. He wants to know what Diego told her. Azul claims that she told him everything already. Mo tells her that she must think he’s stupid. He wants to know what happened at the Love Shack. Azul wants to know how he knows about the Love Shack. Mo admits that he got as far as finding out where they went but by the time he arrived, they were already gone. We get an orange flashback of Mo at the Love Shack with the captive Efrain. Mo picks up the bodice of the wedding dress and announces that they had been there. Flash forward to the present. Since there was only one bed in the shack, he wants to know if they slept together. Azul looks stricken.

She tells him she didn’t sleep with him. She swears it. He asks her about bodice of the dress he found in the bed. She says that the piece came off when Diego grabbed her. She asked Diego to get her some clothes but later he made a dress from pieces of the dress. Now Mo seems quite concerned that Diego saw her naked but she tells him that it wasn’t so. He doesn’t believe her. She tells him that he should be glad that Diego forced her to go with him. During that time she realized that he (Diego) was crazy and that she didn’t want anything to do with him. She pretended to believe him and that’s why he let her go. Mo seems pleased by this. All of the sudden though, he grabs her and shakes her and screams that she swear that all this is true. Azul complains that he’s hurting her. He wants to know why he let her go. What did he try to convince her of. Azul drops the bomb. She tells Mo what Diego told her. That Mo ordered Andres to kill Paco and Abuelo. Also, that Mo has made a lot of people suffer. He sold counterfeit and expired medicines. Mo is speechless. Not for long, I’m sure.

At Silvana’s, Silvana pushes Diego a bit on this whole, “Azul believes me now” thing. Diego says, oh yes…and there are a few things she told me that I have to verify. He wants to talk to Ivan. Conveniently, he’s in the other room. Diego kisses her hand and thanks her again for taking care of him. Silvana vows that she’s his friend. Diego says that when he and Azul are successful in unmasking Mo, there will be justice for Nico. Silvana smiles again, wanly. Diego goes in to talk to Ivan and a tear trickles down Silvana’s face.

Mo is still on a rampage. “Diego ripped you from my arms. He made me look like a fool in front of everybody. He took you far away when you and I should have been on our honeymoon.” Azul apologizes. He is still pissed that she took his side at the police. Azul says that she had to do what she did. “ I did it for us.” “Listening to the lies of Diego, I realized that he is crazy. He said that when my Dad finds the cure, you are going to sell it to people that you’ve infected. Imagine that!” “Diego is capable to inventing all this to separate us.” “I was afraid of him and couldn’t deny him what he asked.” Mo wants to know what this was. “That I listen to all these lies.” “I swear, I didn’t sleep with him.” The next bit I found hard to follow. She says something like, “I’m sure the authorities would have looked for evidence of sexual assault.” I would have had to respond to questions in front of my family. I found all of this very embarrassing. “ she breaks out into tears and hugs him. Mo is crying too. He tells her he’s sorry for pressing her when she was only a victim. Over his shoulder, Azul looks anxious.

Diego’s with Ivan. Diego and Ivan compare notes about the kidnapping. Ivan immediately asks if Diego actually believes Azul. If he’s sure that she just didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear so he would let her go. Diego laughs off the suggestion. “Azul is incapable of betraying me.” Ivan says, “and that’s why she married Mauricio? Because of a little misunderstanding with you? Diego says he doesn’t want to argue with Ivan. He changes the subject. What are you going to do when you’ve healed? That’s easy. Avenge the death of Eva. Diego nods.

Mo asks Azul if she has realized that when Diego realizes that she is with him, that Diego will try to harm them. Azul says yes. Mo then moves in for the kill. Now that there are no longer obstacles between them, they can achieve “total union.” (No more, I’ll wait till you’re ready missy, it’s time to prove your love to me in the sack.) He pushes her to the bed and sucks her face. She lies there like a corpse. Azul begs him to stop. She’s not in the mood. She wants him to honor the prior agreement.

Diego tells Ivan that they ought to be allies in the fight to bring down Mo and Boris. For him, it’s the only way to get Azul back forever. Ivan says that he doesn’t need him. Diego says that well, he should hurry up and get well so that he can leave soon so that he doesn’t incriminate Silvana. Ivan sits up suddenly.

Next we’re over to Piero who is at the office with Lucia. Lucia’s ticked because he’s been AWOL. She reminds him that she’s the boss. The business belongs to her. He can’t just take off. Piero says that he went to get the paperwork for divorcing Lidia. Lucia stops in her tracks. He hands her the papers. He got the marriage certificate and all the paperwork. All he has to do is hand it into a lawyer and then get Lidia to sign it. Lucia opens the envelope and reads the papers. She says that it’s a good beginning. But she wants him to hand over the handling of the divorce to her.

Efrain has brought the car guy to Diego’s house. Lidia’s there and of course he’s gaga over her. He can’t believe the luck that she’s the sister of the guy who has the missing car. Lidia is rude to him and he says now just wait a second here, missy. “Your little brother took a car belonging to one of my clients.“ Efrain cuts in to explain that there’s a problem, they need to talk to Diego. Lidia tells them that she has no idea where Diego is. Just then, who should happen by but Manuel. To catch him up, Lida announces that Diego took his car to kidnap Azul. The guy gets furious with Efrain when he learns that the car may have been used to commit a crime.
As Casa Silvana, Isela is now sitting on the crying couch and Silvana is telling her her tale of woe. She’s lost Diego forever. Gloria comes in. She’s jealous that Isela and Silvana were chatting up a storm only to shut up the minute she came in. But no worries. She’s going to go see “her spy.” She’s brought him some fashion magazines so that he won’t get too bored. Silvana tells her to stop. She tells her that he’s busy. Gloria laughs this off and says, how could he be busy, when he’s just lying there like a sack, in bed. Gloria complains that they are hiding something . Just then, Diego comes out with Ivan, leaning on him heavily. Diego announces that he’s taking Ivan with him. He doesn’t want to cause them any problems. Gloria refuses to let him go. The women block their way. They want to know where he is taking him. Ivan says he wants to go. Blah Blah Blah. Diego tries to make a compromise. He’ll take Ivan in the morning. Ivan looks disgusted but heads back to the room.

Azul is finally catching up with Ceci. Ceci tells her that she’s glad to see her back. And she wants to know EVERYTHING. Especially if it is true that she defended Diego with the authorities. Azul says, yes and she paid for it, with Mo’s fury. Ceci said that Andres said the opposite. Azul says “then Andres lied.” Ceci tells her about how Andres and Mo grabbed up Efrain and beat him up to tell them where the shack was where Diego was keeping her. Azul sighs. All the time she’s looking over her shoulder. She says that everything she’s finding out is proving that Diego told the truth. Mo is a liar. He tried to make me believe that Silvana--dicho alert: “nos echo de cabeza”—I think means “betrayed us.” The truth is that he and Andres are a couple of criminals. Ceci wants to know what Diego told her. Azul tells her that Diego is convinced that Andres killed his Abuelo and Paco. Ceci looks uncomfortable and says quietly, please don’t say that! It can’t be. She puts her head in her hands. Azul says she know’s it’s hard for her to hear. She felt the same way when she thought Diego was a criminal. She couldn’t stop loving him. She suffered a lot. Ceci whimpers that she thought she had found the love of her life. “I can’t believe it.” A tear wells up in her eye. Azul says “Now that you know, you’ve got to take precautions.” “Help me find the truth and follow it through to the end.” Ceci wants to know what this means. Azul says that she believes Diego. Ceci wants to know if he showed her proof. Azul says no, but that is why she came back, to find it. Ceci breaks down in tears. “This is a nightmare!” she says. Azul tries to comfort her. Ceci says, “you don’t know, I already have my own suspicions.” Azul wants to know more about that. Ceci tells her about Leonarda’s supposed trip abroad without clothes, makeup, perfume or her passport. Azul looks shocked. Could they have”done something bad” to Leonarda? Ceci doesn’t know but it certainly is strange. Azul counsels her to keep a cool head. They have to stay calm. Ceci is anything but. She tells her she needs to know, she HAS to know. Azul tells her under no circumstances take any of her suspicions to Andres. She tells her that she loves Diego with all her heart and she wants nothing more than to go to him. But she wishes that it were under different circumstances. Different than her husband, and the father of Katy, is a murder. Ceci says she wishes that all of these suspicions were untrue. Azul tells her that they will only know by trying to find out. “We have to stay strong and united.” Ceci smiles and says that Azul is the family she never had. She wipes the tears out of her eyes. Ceci asks her for what must have been the only good part of the kidnapping…the sex! “So did you sleep with Diego?” She laughs with tears still in her eyes. Azul smiles.

Andres and Mo are back at Mo’s office, talking. Andres tells Mo that he barely was able to convince Ceci about why Efrain got a beating (supposedly self-defense). Mo compliments him on this. He’s still ticked that Diego told Azul that he (Andres) had killed his Abuelo and Paco. This is news to Andres. He freaks out. Azul is going to tell Ceci! He stands up. Mo tells him to calm down and sit. Diego also told her about how he plans to infect other people with his illness and sell the cure. Andres is even more shocked. “We’re lost. They know everything.” Mo says he isn’t sure but Azul told him that she thinks Diego is crazy and she didn’t believe him. Andres says, so why did she defend him them? Mo says that’s why he wanted to talk to him. He isn’t sure about what she’s doing. If he can trust her. If she’s trying to entrap him, she’s the one who is going to end up a prisoner. For the moment, they will have to be very careful. Neither Azul nor Cecilia must hear anything odd that might make them suspicious. Andres says, no worries. He knows how to handle Cecilia. “And you, what are you going to do?” Mo says, he also knows what to do. He’s going to make her love him again.

Diego, Chucho, Gaspar and Efrain are all eating at Efrain’s house. (What happened to the car guy?) Gaspar is relating how he braved the evil Andres at the boutique. Gaspar swears that Andres will never touch his Dad again. Efrain tells him not to provoke Andres, that he’s a dangerous guy. Gaspar says that since Cecilia was there, he felt safe. Andres wouldn’t do anything to him because he knows that he’d go to Ceci and tell her. Efrain says he feels sorry for her, tied to somebody like that. Gaspar points out that Azul is in a similar situation. Diego agrees and says that very soon they will be freed from these [couldn’t make it out] bad guys. Gaspar mentions the guy looking for his client’s car. Efrain groans and repeats the story. He says that he begged the guy for one more day. Diego says he’ll give him the car back as soon as he deposit’s Ivan at his new hideout. Efrain asks what is his relationship to Ivan. Diego says nothing really. He wanted to have him as an ally in the fight against Mo, but Ivan wants to work alone.

Ceci and Azul are still chatting. Azul relates how at first, all she and Diego did was fight. But the location was romatic, the beach, the sound of the sea. Finally, they talked. Azul shows her the slip dress and the bodice of that Mo brought back. Ceci asks if Mo found them together. Azul says no. In the background, we see Mo spying at the partly opened door. She says that everything is worse now. Mo is jealous, imaging what happened between her and Diego. Ceci says that from her face, she doesn’t have to be that imaginative to guess what happened. Azul, holding the piece of dress to her face, says that it was the most beautiful time she ever had in her life. Mo is in shadow so we have to guess what he heard and what he’s thinking.
That night, Mo is asleep, alone in his bed, wearing old man PJs. (What is it with these guys?) he’s having a nightmare. He wakes up in a sweat and has an orange flashback of finding the piece of the dress in the bed in the Love Shack. Next he has an orange flashback of Azul holding the piece of the dress and saying it was the most beautiful time she ever had. Mo hisses to himself that for sure Azul and Diego slept together. He curses Diego and Azul.

The next morning Isela and Silvana are eating breakfast and Gloria is dressed like she’s going on a workout. Gloria laments that things won’t be the same around there without the spy. She announces that she’s bound for her kickboxing class and she’s out the door. Isela and Silvana laugh. Isela says that her mom’s attitude isn’t all that bad. Silvana agrees. She changes the subject to Diego. If he succeeds in convincing Azul that Mo is a murderer, she’ll lose Diego forever. And if he doesn’t, Nico won’t get justice. “Which would you prefer?” asks Isela. “I want justice for my Nico” says Silvana. “But I want Diego too. I still love him.” Isela tries to comfort her.

Mo in his PJs walks into Azul’s room. He sees an empty bed, with the piece of dress on it. He’s livid. He hears the water running. Azul’s in the shower. He is about to walk into the bathroom when Ceci walks in with a glass of orange juice and comments the obvious, that Azul’s in the shower. Mo gets all pissy and complains that Azul is his wife, he could just go and hop right in the shower with her, if he wanted to. Ceci says no worries but she doesn’t leave. Instead, Mo leaves, angry. Ceci’s brought the juice for Azul. She grabs a towel for her and tells her she’d better lock the door because there are a lot of stray dogs(?) running around. She just caught Mo about to crash her shower. Azul is worried. Last night he wanted to sleep with her and she wouldn’t. Ceci says that she can’t keep putting him off. If she’s going to be his wife and get him to trust her so that she can unmask him, she’s going to have to sleep with him. Azul shivers in her towel. Ceci says that having separate beds is strange.

Diego has taken Ivan, at his request to a field. When he asks him why he wanted to come here, Ivan replies that this was the last place that he took Eva, before she died. When they were on the way to Cocoyoco, she made him stop and she thanked him for helping her. Ivan thinks that she had a presentment of her death. Ivan hands Diego a letter. It was Eva’s last request. Diego wants to know what it is, the deed to half the boutique? He tries to give it back to Ivan. Ivan refuses it. It was Eva’s wish that he have it. He tells him to read it. “It will answer all his questions.” Diego still doesn’t want it. Ivan tells him to remember that it’s the last wish of a woman who loved him until her dying breath. Diego, ever the romantic, wrinkles his nose and seems to accept this.

-----Tivo cuts off here------

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