Caray, Caray!

Oooooh, things are getting good…. I was so waiting for Gabriela to finally catch Juan & Norma. In fact, I was sure Juan was going to deliberately out them at any time. They were pretty reckless – kissing all over the hacienda – so it was only a matter of time.

Isn’t Eduvina Trueba just AWFUL? (The old lady who bought all the dresses from Oscar.) She’s a millionaire widow with a weakness for boytoys. She was crushing on blue-eyed Franco a while back & asked Oscar - ever with dollar signs in his eyes – to set them up. Franco, being the ingenuous dolt that he is, went on the date and eventually bolted when he couldn’t take it any longer. Despite his reaction, “Edu” as she likes to be called, still won’t give up on him. Eccchhhhh….
 

I think the straw that broke the Camel's back was Gaby seeing Jimena scrubbing the floor. I think it's supposed to be all relative: someone as rich and snobby as Gaby would see a humble house like that as the ninth circle of hell. Although she probably wouldn't object to Jimena getting a job, she probably envisioned something more glamorous than kneading bread and scrubbing pots and floors. She's an elitist. Seeing Juan and Norma after that, I was surprised mama didn't faint right there in the bakery kitchen rather than later on in the house. She was probably afraid she'd get dirty! LOL.
 

It does get a little tiring watching the extreme reactions of Gabriela and Sara. I can't imagine what it must have been like for those actresses to play those parts. The seething and/or completely condescending energy they are always exuding must have been exhausting. Talk about being drained at the end of the work day! Natasha Klauss (Sara) is so intense she scares me, and does (in my opinion) a fantastic job of playing the mirror-image daughter of Gabriela.

After my inadvertent, near-spoiler of yesterday, the thought occurred that I may need to apologize in advance for possible future missteps in that regard. When Margarita said that what I had mentioned had already been given away in the next day's teaser, it occurred to me that the online episodes may not break in the same places as those being broadcast currently on TV. Per my capitulos, the scene that I mentioned had occurred within the same episode, and according to Margarita, it was scheduled to broadcast on Telemundo the next day. So, mil disculpas if something unintentionally slips out again. I'll try to watch comments about beginnings and ends, just to be safe...
 

I was just thinking the same thing about Sarita--she has been so scary lately! I couldn't believe my eyes when she pointed the gun at Juan. Did I understand correctly, that she said that Norma can no longer stay at the house after all this? What I don't understand is why she was willing to hide Norma's affair before, but now that Gabriela and Fernando know it was Juan, she wants to throw Norma out.
 

This is a phase now that I love. Everyone is happy, happy! :-)

Juan is so tickled to have Norma out of the hacienda. In these few episodes, he's like a kid that just got exactly what he wanted for Christmas. The scenes where Norma visits him at home for the first time after moving out and when she comes to dinner are just priceless. Mario plays Juan with such a restrained yet palpable joy here. His smiles are to die for. When he & Norma say goodnight on his front step & he confesses he's afraid of losing her... ay, mama! That vulnerability is sooo adorable. It's easy to see why the world fell in love with Juan Reyes and Mario Cimarro was launched into superstardom.
 

Debbie: I think Sara finally flipped out because she found out Juan is the father of Norma's baby. Up till now, she (and everyone) assumed it was Fernando's, so now that she knows the truth & sees how the whole situation has affected her precious mother & Fernando, she wants Norma gone. I just see red anytime Sara tries to 'grab the wheel of the family bus', so to speak, and direct all the action. As Benito Santos would say, she's "insoportable, insoportable!!"

On a different note, I just remembered one thing that made me crazy for most of the duration of this show: Why do these people seem to be the only ones in Latin America without cell phones? Granted, maybe the Reyes boys wouldn't be part of the cell phone crowd, but certainly the Elizondos, the Urribes and the other upper-class types would have them. They'd also help to avoid a lot of the conflict coming further down the road... Guess I may have answered my own question there. ;-)
 

Marie Celeste, when was this originally broadcast? Is it possible that this was filmed just shy of the cell phone explosion? By the time "Madre Luna" came along (it just ended in January and it's got a nice chunk of this cast in it), at least the rich folks had cell phones.

I'm waiting to see tomorrow (or I guess it's today) what plans Sarita has to keep Feonando in the house. Frankly I don't get what she and Gaby see in him!
 

thank you jean for posting these brief summaries. I have been so busy during the day lately that I haven't had much time to watch this novela, so I appreciate your effort immensely.

I have one request to you and all the commenters, please keep the nicknames of the characters to just those that shorten the actual names. It is really difficult to read along and keep up with what's happening when you start to use nicks that almost completely change the character name.

Which characters are you talking about when you use your nicks "Grabi" and "Feonando"?

Jody :)
 

Marie Celeste: On the lack of cellphones, they speculated over on TW that it was because the novela was based on Las Aguas Mansas, which was set in a pre-cell phone period. Or maybe there just aren't any towers that would cover the Hacienda. ;-) Los Reyes probably couldn't afford a cell phone.

Ho Jody: Ok, we need to be more careful for people reading this who a: don't know the nicknames used by the TW forum when PdG originally ran or b: the nicknames used by the folks blogging Fuego.
Out of respect for Fernando Colunga, star of Pasión, which was replaced by Fuego, the bloggers have called Fernando Escandón, Norma's husband verious nasty things including Feonando. Grabi is a nickname for Gabriela, the mother. If I use nicknames in future posts, I will make it clear to whom I am referring at the beginning.
 

That should have been Hi Jody.
 

Marie Celeste: I thought Sara already knew about Norma and Juan? She found them kissing in the cabana construction site one time, so I thought she must have figured out who the father was once they learned Norma was pregnant. Well, I probably shouldn't expect telenovela characters to make sense--especially not the crazy ones!
 

PDG was first run in 2003-2004, and for all other appearances, seems to take place in the same time period. Since this is well into the Cell Phone Age, I could never understand why none were seen on the show. It could be argued that since this is a remake of an older show that they just left them out, but I think they are so much a part of modern life that they are conspicuous by their absence in what is supposed to be a current-time story. My only theory is because the setting is, in fact, rural, one could argue that cell phone service is not yet commonplace or even functional in agricultural areas of Colombia. Since I’ve never been there, that’s the explanation I give myself, but it seems pretty weak.

Debbie: Sara knew about Norma & Juan’s affair, but she (and everyone else) didn’t know that Norma & Fernando had a celibate marriage. I think Sara assumed that Norma surely would be having relations with her husband more often than with the lowbrow ruffian Juan, so in her mind, odds were that the baby was Fernando’s.

Jody, good point about nicknames. It would definitely be simpler for newcomers to follow along if we stick to the actual names or avoid tricky convolutions. I think these characters’ names are short enough that I’ll stick with them.

There are quite a few nicknames for these same characters over on the “Fuego” board, but since this a different show & the characters really aren’t written the same, I don’t think the PDG characters have “earned” those nicknames so applying them here doesn’t necessarily seem relevant. As someone noted previously, Fernando Escandón is written quite differently in PDG from the uber-villain they make him in “Fuego”, so I don’t see him as a “Feonando”; I actually pity the guy (at this point in the story, anyway). As for disrespecting Fernando Colunga, he’s always been “Colunga” to me, kind of like “Brando”, “DeNiro”, or “Pacino”. As telenovela stars go, he’s big enough to rate single-moniker recognition. ;-)