Caray, Caray!

It seems to me that Marisela is now making the move toward becoming the show's hero (heroine), based on her innate goodness (as compared to Doña Bárbara's reliance on evil/violence/revenge and Luisana's constant selfishness) and her consistent devotion to principles (as compared to Santos and Cecilia).

Now, putting aside danger and revenge against a rival for Santos' love who has treated her with nasty disrespect, Marisela goes directly into the lair of Doña Bárbara to rescue Luisana from the evil spell cast on her. Also, having spied Antonio tiptoeing out of Cecilia's room, she covers for him to the "perceptive" Santos. The show has not finished developing either theme yet. We will see some more tonite regarding Marsela's rescue of Luisana, and we still don't know what will happen when Marisela confronts Cecilia about her stormy tryst with Antonio.

In short, the show is now beginning to revolve around Marisela alone, and not the Santos -Doña Bárbara relationship.

I enjoyed seeing the always great work of Arap Bethke and Katie Barberi. These two were quite convincing last night again, working together to create believable and realistic scenes.

The actor portraying Mauricio also had a very nice scene last night as he blew up at Santos' doubting of the spell Doña Bárbara cast on Luisana. I think that scene was significant for two reasons: First, Mauricio has always been portrayed as the sophisticated "city type," not taken in by the "country bumkin" ways and superstitions of the area. Secondly, he appears to me to have had enough of Santos' denials of Doña Bárbara's dangerous hijinks. Along the lines of this second point, I suspect that we will see more of Mauricio's siding with the views Lorenzo has been making about Santos' denials of Doña Bárbara's perfidy.

Another interesting point: Julian Barreto has already made a very noticed entry into the Progreso region. But in the lead-up to his entry, we had a smug Doña Bárbara leaning against a wall in the street, telling Pernalete that she "won again," referring to Luisana.

Just at that point, Barreto came riding into town. First, he speaks with (and is noticed by) Mujiquita, who advises him to stay away from Fear Ranch and warns him about the dangerous nature of Balbino and Melquiades. Barreto's arrogant dismissal of Mujiquita's warning by waving a revolver in the air isn't the important part here, i think. Rather, it is the fact that the always blabbing Mujiquita has noticed him.

Then, Barreto mistakenly rides to Altamira and talks with Santos on his way to Fear Ranch. So, his presence is also now known to Santos. Both of these events are going to establish Barreto's presence beyond any doubt.

So, we are moving directly from the events surrounding Doña Bárbara's attack on Luisana to those concerning her next victim, Julian Barreto. The fact that Barreto has been noticed in the area and that the show has taken such pains to develop that point is, I think, an indicator that Barreto's fate (whether death, like Pero de Agua or just near death, like Luisana) is going to play an important role in the story with regard to Santos and perhaps Marisela.
 

To whomever recaps this novela; Isn't this a lot of work considerating the fact that it only attracts 1 or 2 comments? In other words, is it worth your effort? Do you think people are reading but not commenting?
 

I think people read and don't leave comments. I for one love reading the recaps. I really like this soap opera. I no longer watch those univision soaps, Telemundo has the best. I wish people would start watching Telemundo more, then they will realize what they are missing. DB is awesome. Thanks to all the recappers.
 

I would like to make 2 comments regarding the effect posting recaps has:

First, there are an untold number of people who lurk: they read, but they don't post, for whatever reason.

Second, speaking as someone who has run my own website for 8 years, one might be of the opinion that with all of the information on the web, all of it cannot be read. This is not a good assumption. Only by accessing the web statistics and seeing how many hits a site gets, what pages are accessed and how many times they are accessed, and how much time is spent on each page, can a true picture of how effective a particular website is be gained.
 

Curious: I don't intend to sound rude but it's my time and if I want to write something that few or nobody reads, that's my choice.

Secondly, as noted by Anonymous 10:40, Telemundo novelas have fewer viewers and recaps of Telemundo novelas have fewer readers on this blog, which covers all the Univisión novelas and only a few Telemundo novelas.

Thirdly, I don't consider what I'm doing for Doña Bárbara a recap. Recaps are detailed summaries of the story that would enable someone who doesn't understand Spanish to follow the novela. What I'm doing is more like a short summary of the major plot developments with pictures to promote discussion. It takes about an hour to do these short summaries, not counting the hour I spend actually watching the novela and most of that time is involved in getting and posting the pictures.
 

Thanks, Jean. I watched the entire show on Thursday night, and I am really getting interested in the plot and the characters. Edith , the Wicked Witch , surely knows how to bring the evil to the screen. In Mundo de Fieras , she was crazy wicked . I appreciate the photos and recap. I love the colors in this novela---the lush greenery and the brilliant colors in the houses. Where is it supposed to be taking place ??? Thanks again, Jean. I appreciate your time and effort.
 

Jean, I'd like to add my thanks for the summaries and pictures. I'm a very sporadic poster as real life keeps getting in my way, but even a summary is a big help if you miss an episode.

Pascal
 

You perfectly expressed, Jean, what I think about this section of Caray, Caray. I DO understand Spanish and don't need the long recaps (but I do appreciate them for the Univision novelas when I have a DVR failure and can't watch at all). I really appreciate what you're doing for DB, and think you have a real gift for describing well what happened in just a few paragraphs.

I think few comments are sort of refreshing. It takes a lot of time to read the comments on the FELS part of the blog. They're great comments, but time consuming.

And welcome, Timoteo. I believe yesterday was your first post - at least that I've read. Your comments today are very insightful. I had not thought about the people who encountered Julian Barreto on his way to El Miedo and how that might influence the plot.
 

Susanlynn: The novel on which the novela is based takes place in the Llanos region of Venezuela. See my Sept. 2 & 3 posting for a map of that area of Venezuela.

According to an interview with Genesis Rodríguez, a link to which was posted on TW, the novela is being filmed in the little town of Honda, Colombia, which looks to be about 80 miles northeast of Bogotá.
Honda is not really in the Llanos, which extends south from Venezuela into Colombia but I'm sure that some of the atmosphere shots that they use between scenes were taken in the Llanos.

I watched Mundo de Fieras and I thought the character Edith Gonzales played was the usual one-dimensional wicked person. There is no comparison from that to the multi-dimensional character she plays in DB.
 

Thanks a lot Jean! I appreciate your summaries, the great pictures, and the time you put in doing this. I don't post, but I read regularly. I also don't post in the telenovela world forum, mainly because there are no summaries posted there, and not everyone has CC3. So no matter how many comments are left here, I read them and your summary. Thanks again!
 

Sorry Jean, I didn't mean to touch a nerve. At least my curiosity got a few people speaking out on your behalf.
Novelera, your knowledge of Spanish was obvious in the cut and paste you did on FELS the other day. The entire thing was in Spanish because it came from the official site. I didn't understand a word. But bless you for sharing.