Caray, Caray!

[My VCR recorded only black static last night, so I have only this from memory and a bit of esmas to go by for now, till I double check my daughter's Tivo. Hope I didn't lose much.]

We begin when the daring and defiant Daniela arrives back at the manse with the loyal and ever-regal, legal eagle, Videgaray, just in time to have Elvis come out scolding them for allowing Grammie P to become frightened by their secrecy and the call that she just received from Avellaneda. Pilar comes out then and demands to know what has happened to Rod. She wants the truth and nothin' but!!

Meanwhile, Francisco and Priscilla, both mentally patting themselves on the back for the con they're playing so successfully on each other, start heavy smooching at 80 mph on a narrow two-lane. Frankie doesn't notice the one semi truck passing the other and which are both coming from the opposite direction until it's too late. Darwin's principle of natural selection takes over and two sets of stupid genes are abruptly scrubbed from the gene pool. (We can assume here that little Ricky got the recessive intelligence and the nurturing benevolence genes from Jose's side of the family.)

Priscilla dies immediately, but Frankie hangs on long enough to make it to the hospital. He has been literally boiled in motor oil and regains consciousness only long enough to realize he's dying and mutilated beyond all recognition. In the throws of his agony he mumbles to his mother to forgive him, rolls his one remaining lidless eye, then dies as his half-melted fingers clutch spasmodically at the air in one last, torturous tremor. (Now that, folks, is cosmic justice writ large!)
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Across town Dani explains to Pilar that Rod took the blame for everything to ensure that Mariana Franco would not lose her prestigious position with the CRT.

Rod is suffering a bit of claustrophobia in his cell. Later on he starts to breathe deeply as he remembers his and Gavi's little "marriage ritual" by the waterfall. Somewhere along the way he says to himself, as he clings to the bars, that when he finally gets free he'll look for Gavi and explain everything to her. At the same time Gavi is awake on the plane thinking that she never really knew this guy at all and blames herself for having gone looking for him at the airport and then allowing him to sweet-talk her into going off with him for another weekend tryst. She just cannot understand why he played with her feelings like that and says as much to Clarita. Clarita's spot on reply is essentially, "Well, if you'd have made that little call like I told you to, you'd know by now."

Back on terra firma at Montalvo Corporate Offices Aaron demands that Lluvia tell the authorities in her statement that the employees in shipping abused her trust and she merely signed the shipping documents without reading through them. Lluvia defiantly defends the people in shipping and says that would have been an impossibility because of the strict measures that are always taken. Aaron spits and spazzes in frustration 'cuz of course he knows all this and simply doesn't need or want to hear it from a no-account, smart-mouthed, ex-sexratary like her. He warns her that if she doesn't follow the lawyer's and his advice she'll end up in jail.
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Isa calls Pilar's from some coffee shop, looking for Rod. Dani answers and doesn't fall for the old-disguise-your-voice-with-a-handkerchief trick. (Damn! The A-team must have been back outside tokin' again, cuz even I couldn't believe they'd resort to a plot device that hackneyed.) Dani recognizes who it is after asking a couple times for the name of the caller.

Daniela tells Isa outright that her brother is otherwise occupied and in jail, paying for a crime he didn't commit, and that she would have loved to tell her future ex-SIL that Rod hadn't backed up her daddy's debt (to get and to keep his sorry rear out of jail) and that it was all a bad dream that Frankie the Fraud hadn't sold their copper sulfate to black marketeers leaving the whole plantation infested with bugs and worms; but it is, in fact, their reality now. So since Rod is totally ruined because of her and that louse of a lover of hers, she can forget asking for anything more from any of them.

Isa confesses then that Frankie left her for one of his lovers, stole her car and took most all her remaining cash, that then she had to sneak out of the hotel without paying the bill and now has nothing for the baby, not even a place to stay. Dani softens up when she hears this and agrees to deposit the monthly stipend Rod arranged for Ricky.

This isn't enough for Isa and she insists she needs the hotel billed paid, too (obviously to keep the cops from throwing her in the calaboose along with Rod). Dani says there isn't enough cash to cover that. Isa will have to make do and solve that problem herself. Isa agrees to call the next day with an account number for the deposit and hangs up.

Jose comes in looking for Isa and the baby and offers to put her up at her place. Isa is amazed that the woman would offer to help a perfect stranger like this but she accepts.

Everyone there in the city except for Patricio (and the incarcerated Rod) comes to Pilar's for the family meeting. Aaron assures his once gullible Grammie that Rod and Mariana Franco are the only ones guilty of criminally doctoring tequila and illicitly shipping it off to foreign ports. He also suggests that either of them probably also knew where to hide their dirty money in order to use it later on when it becomes necessary. Pilar asks Aaron if Mariana had access to that kind of money, how come when he fired her, she was out on the street and practically starving months later. Greed outweighs Minnie's hurt pride and despite the fact she's grimacing next to her adored Aaron, she backs his story.

Pilar tells Aaron that at least, if Rod is guilty, she will recognize that he had the dignity to accept it. She is emphatic in warning Aaron that if she finds out it was actually he who conspired to devise such scandalous and illicit activities now destroying the family, she will never pardon him for it. Minnie stands up for Aaron against Pilar's "partiality". Fedra chimes in with another complaint that Rod's the grandson Pilar's always spoiled and says she's heard enough and is leaving. As they get up to go, Pilar asks Bruno to get to the bottom of this as soon as he can.

Once they are gone, Nestor tells Pilar that he believes Bruno was not privy to any of this. Daniela remarks that Patricio wasn't there and complains that he is just a puppet of Aaron's.

Back at Pat's place, he is explaining to Lluvia that he couldn't face Pilar without breaking down and confessing everything, so he simply stayed away. Lluvia is worried about Rod and Gavi taking the fall for Aaron's rotten schemes and complains to Patricio for always confiding in and counting on Aaron. She tells him she's frightened of having to lie when she gives her statement.

Aaron tells Minnie that as soon as they sentence Rod they'll leave the country since Rod can very easily break at the thought of facing a 20 year jail sentence.

Jose arrives home with Isa and Ricky in her apartment. She offers her the bedroom for the two of them to sleep in and suggests they could stay and live with her. They get to talking and Isa wonders about Jose's family. Jose tells her that she has a son named Pancho but that he comes around very little to see her. She lives there alone. Sure she had some good friends, but they have just recently moved far away.

Later, in Jose's bedroom, Isa thinks about the helping hand Jose has given her, and that she of all people never expected to end up living in the "vecindad" (a barrio, aka, the inner-city).

In London, capital of England, Olavaria hands over the keys of their new, prestigiously posh pad, to Gavi. Clarita practically swoons at the surrounding luxury that was once unimaginable for either of them. Gavi, though, is oblivious to it all and walks out onto her balcony. Staring out at the city she remembers her first trip to London. She says to herself that four years ago she came to London looking for Rodrigo Montalvo, and now that she's back this time around in this city she'll learn to forget him.

Back in Mexico City at the corporate offices, Aaron unceremoniously informs Margarita that he's decided she's done working at the corporation as of that day and must leave at 2 PM sharp. Before he goes back into his office, though, Quintana comes out to tell him he's working on the financial reports for Turquoise Agave that his lawyer and Aaron have asked for. Aaron says he wants them on his desk at 11 AM on the dot and goes back inside his office.

Margarita has obviously learned a thing or two working for the Montalvos and shrewdly asks Quintana for a copy of those financial statements he's working on, saying she needs them as a file copy. He says they're confidential but she persuades him by saying that she better than anybody understands the need for confidentiality with someone like Aaron in charge, and so he agrees to make her a copy for the files.

Across town at the prison Vid tells Rod that Dani gave Aaron the message about his retracting his confession if anything at all happens to Mariana Franco. He is certain that Aaron will not try anything since it doesn't suit his purpose. Rod confesses to Nestor he regrets that he was so cruel to Gavi when breaking off with her, but he had to make sure she would go to London like she had planned. Nestor commiserates and then walks over to open the door and brings in Pilar to speak with him.

Rod is moved to tears and, being in a jail, is compelled to wipe his face and nose on his sleeve like the other hardened criminals there. Pilar just continues to stare with that signature smile of hers frozen in place, not once (to my eternal chagrin) thinking to offer him her hanky. Rod assures Pilar that this was all a trap Aaron had set for him, and he swears that sooner or later he will prove his innocence. He asks her when she goes to speak with Avellaneda to tell him the whole truth concerning Gaviota and him, as it would be unfair to make her come back from London. It would make his sacrifice useless.

At Montalveña James tells Sofia that he will have to settle up with the workers and let them all go since everything is probably lost. She refuses this idea and tells him that the two of them together will fight to come out ahead with the hacienda and what they can save of the agave crop. James can no longer contain himself and he kisses Sofia and she kisses back. He confesses that he still loves her and now feels only a brotherly love towards Acacia. He's worried she still feels something for her ex, but Sofia admits that she has no feelings for Frankie and tells him that "that curse is now Isa's problem."

Sofia, who has had an epiphany somewhere during this tragedy, says she's very happy together with James, working side by side at the hacienda with him. They remember the old days in London when they were short for cash a lot of the time and the silly things they did to get by.

Back in the barrio, Isa explains to Jose that a smooth-talking playboy stole her car and she is planning to make a complaint to the police. It seems that Jose apparently took care of the hotel bill for Isa somewhere along the line. Jose agrees that this man should be punished for what he's done to Isa. Isa is moved and says that once the police get her car back she'll sell it and repay everything.

Just then Isa gets a call on her cell from the police asking about her car's license plate numbers. When she says those are her car's they ask her if she knows a Francisco de la Vega. Isa tells the caller that of course she knows the name Francisco de la Vega then she, impactada, tells Jose that the father of her child is dead.

Isa explains to Jose that Francisco de la Vega is the father of her child and there was a car accident, that his lover died at the site of the accident and that he died a bit later at the Red Cross. Jose chokes out a scream of horror at the news and her eyes fill with tears. Isa gets confused at Jose's extreme reaction, and is wide-eyed impactada when Jose, trembling from the shock of this news, screams in a shrill, piercing voice that Francisco de la Vega is her son.

Labels: Destilando

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