Caray, Caray!

I have been pleasantly surprised by Jimena and Leandro this week—first Jimena stands up to her mother and refuses to return home, and Leandro stands up to his tía and says he’ll run his business the way he wants to (I hope I understood that part right—he said he wasn’t going to fire Oscar, right?).

I thought it was cute during the dinner with the 2 sisters and the two brothers when Oscar told Norma no more of this usted stuff. And of course, the best part was when Juan smiled (*swoon*)—that must be why they didn’t need all of Quintina’s candles, because that sure lit up the entire room!

How is it that Sarita has been completely dry-eyed over losing her sisters? Even her cold-hearted mother has been weeping and moping all over the place.
 

Hi Debbie =)

I think Sarita has been dry-eyed to support mama. She's also upset, but knows she's and Fernando are the only things keeping Gaby from completely falling appart.

Sarita actually knew Juan was the baby daddy (she and Fernando had some conversation where he asked her who the guy was!) but was willing to keep quiet as long as mom remained blissfully ignorant. Once it all hit the fan there was no point in pretending 'cause her BIL was simply not going to stand being passed over by a peasant. He had SOME dignity. In the end, she and mom preferred him to Norma. So much for fraternal love.

I'm a little bumped the "happy time" in this TN lasted so little; but without conflict there wouldn't be much to do I guess.

I gotta say, Edu the cougar is just one of those characters you love to hate. She's provided at least this viewer with much amusement.

I loved Franco's heartbreak in Friday's episode. He just had this sweet crushed face. The kind that makes you just want to give him a big hug and feed him grilled cheese and tomato soup.
 

Margarita, thanks for correcting me about Sara & the baby thing. I haven't been watching this 100% thorougly, so I could easily miss specific conversations.

I've also lost track of where the events of this week ended. As far as I can tell, Margarita, sounds like the brief "happy" phase is over, and we ended up with everyone beginning to freak out.

Sounds like Jimena found the hidden Livia stuff, after which she freaked out & whacked Oscar with the broom handle & "escaped" with Norma? And did Franco freak out after finding Rosario in bed with Armando? Did he end up at Eduvina's, with her in the middle of a meltdown?
 

Howdy =)

Marie Celeste, Franco has gone to Eduvina's to quit, and she got down on her knees and begged him to marry her. She's also tried to shoot herself, missing by about a room's length. Franco did indeed catch Armando and Rosario in "morning afterglow." He's still wandering the streets but from the previews, it looks like he'll make it back home in time to join the new mess his brothers are in. Jimena has struck Oscar and run off with Norma believing him dead. Quintina also believes him dead, but I suspect (and will find out Tuesday - durn Memorial day!) that he's just stunned, as it's a little early to kill off one of the brothers.

It was such a bizarre juxtaposition; having Juan and Oscar with the light hearted music in the background talking about getting rid of the rats and making sure to keep it from Jimena so she doesn't get scared (for my money, they'd be better off getting a couple of cats who would not only get rid of the current rats, but keep new ones from coming back.
Alas, that wouldn't further our plot though) and the "danger" music as poor Jimena listens to the conversation thinking they are planning to poison her and Norma. You can't decide if you want to laugh at the mess of the situation or cry at it all falling apart over misunderstandings.

Quick query: Does anyone know what the title in "Aguas Mansas" referred to? Was it the name of the town? The hacienda? Just curious as it translates into "tame waters" which hardly seems suitable to this plot, unless it's a "calm between storms" or "still waters run deep" sort of reference.
 

Holy cats, I’m finally caught up with the rest of you. Granted, I fast forwarded through most of Rosario’s scenes so I’m probably missing something important there. I’ll try not to ask dumb questions later!

First, I think it’s funny that Juan says “Caray” so often. That should secure his place on this site if nothing else does!

I love abuelo – he breaks my heart when he cries. Abuelo on FELS is also great and probably funnier, but PDG abuelo really gets me when he cries.

Eduvina and Franco are just soooo cringe-worthy. Yikes. If she removed the pound of green eye shadow and softened up the other offending make-up she wouldn’t be so scary. But I guess if she’s going to fawn all over Franco in public and hang on his legs begging him to stay, she’s going to be appalling anyway.

I’m going to try and keep up now so I can enjoy your discussions. My understanding is that two episodes are shown per day right now on Telemundo and that no shows are on tomorrow for the holiday. Please correct me if I’m wrong!
 

Margarita--thanks for response to my last question. Re: Friday's episodes, I too felt bad for sad little Franco wandering down the street with his luggage and no place to go. (It reminded me of Charlie Brown walking away from his empty mailbox with his head hanging down after not receiving any valentines.) But wait, Jimena has just run away, so now there's room back at the inn for him! What a coincidence!

I also had similar thoughts about that scene with Juan and Oscar almost gleefully talking about killing the rats. It actually made me laugh out loud, because Jimena overhearing everything and jumping to the wrong conclusion was very "Three's Company." I wonder what Oscar and Juan are going to do now that Norma and Jimena know about Libia and the Plan of Vengance--will they try to win them back? (And what could they even do to accomplish that?)

Rhonda--I too think it's funny that Juan says "Caray!" so much. It make me laugh every time because it's just so cute, and so different from Hugo in LT. And yes, PdG is showing 2 hours a day (except not today) on Telemundo.
 

Thanks so much, Margarita, for the quick catch up. At 2 hours each day, it's easy for me to get off track with the TV schedule if I don't pay attention! I've decided to mark up a calendar to keep myself on track with you guys & not get lost again. I'm surprised they skipped Memorial Day, but I'm not complaining. I need the time to catch up/get ahead!

Things do get a little weird now, after Jimena hearing the rat poison story, but that's just the ups & downs of Novelaland. This "freak out" swing doesn't last too long, and then things get REALLY good, so I'm excited!

The more I watch Paola Rey, the more impressed I am. Physical beauty aside, she does a great job with the role of Jimena. She absolutely nails the flighty, party-girl persona, but she's incredible in the heavier dramatic stuff, too. The woman is a world-class crier, for sure. I always wonder how some actresses avoid the red nose, eyes & lips & other physical signs that afflict me when I get teary. Not Pao, though. When she cries, it's all over her face! I want to reach into the screen & give the girl and hanky and a hug!
 

Oh, I was going to add my comment also about Abuelo Martín. He's also a favorite of mine. I haven't seen much of the character on FELS, but he seems a little on the "loonier" side whereas on PDG, he's completely sane but just plain irascible. I think the actor Jorge Cao does a terrific job with him. He doesn't hide his accent (Cuban) nearly as well as the other actors do, so it's frequently a little harder to decipher what he's saying, but I enjoy the challenge of that & just hearing the differences.
 

Great comments all!
Only on a novela could someone like Jimena believe that people she knows to be good like Juan and Oscar are cheerfully planning multiple murders!

I will do another post after Tues. episode.
 

Thanks for your comment on Jorge Cao's Cuban accent, Marie Celeste. I'm not at a level with Spanish yet to really get those distinctions. I've noticed he does skip pronouncing the s in, for example, está bien, but I haven't figured out if that's a country thing or something else. My Conversational Spanish teacher is from Cuba, but she's in her 70s and has lived here in St. Louis almost as long as she lived in Cuba, as well as having lived in Spain several years.

I watched a clip on YouTube that was behind the cameras with something Mario Cimarro and his dog Mambo was in and was so impressed with the fact that the director was switching back and forth with ease between directions in Spanish and English. I’m being easy on myself and giving myself a few more years to get to that level, since I read once that it takes 4-5 years to become fluent in another language. I’m only a few years in to this hobby/obsession, that’s why I’m so happy to find telenovelas I can really like for my daily exposure to the language. I have a lot of work to do. So thanks all for contributing to my education!

As you can see from the length of this comment, I really did mean it when I wrote “hobby/obsession”.
 

I was bereft that PDG wasn't on yesterday. Wathing it was going to be my delicious treat for the holiday. :(

I've finally caught up, too, and realized that the Mario and Danna are the couple in La Traicion. They are good together.

Juan - I just love him! What can I say? Perfecto.

The Franco - Eduvina thing was icky. I was embarrassed for him being with her in public. Why did he still let her caress him at the business meetings, etc? Glad that's over.

The boys have some explaining to do this week. I hope this isn't an extended misunderstanding that is usual in novelas.

Getting (if they do) Sarita and Franco together is going to be a hard sell to me. She's too hard and protected.