Caray, Caray!

Excellent photos, Jean. Thanks. A few impressions from the episodes last week:

After Hortencia & Martin escape, why does a nurse at the sanatorium keep saying “Oh My God!” in English? Did someone just want to show off the bilingual staff? ;-)

Anyone know if American currency is commonly used in Colombia, or is it just "unofficial," i.e. in gambling, black market, etc.? ;-) There seems to be a lot of it floating around in this show.

So Arthur Klaus is Pepa’s fiancé. Oddly enough, this is a pair that makes sense to me. Nice of him to bring her to the Elizondo place to get her approval on their potential future home. Fernando's face when he saw her was priceless....

In the scene where Juan is about to leave with Manolo & Miguel to hunt for Hortencia, I loved the way he wrapped his bad leg around Norma while standing next to her. Very cute. It's easy to see how rumors of on-set romances must have been rampant, with the remarkable physical ease that seemed to exist between the members of the star couples, especially Danna & Mario.

We haven’t seen Juan David for a while. What a cutie. With his now longish hair somewhat parted down the middle, it kind of shocked me how much he reminded me of a little Benito! What a sweet relationship he seems to have with Norma/Danna.

NORMA MADE A PHONE CALL! Someone finally did a sensible thing! After Pepita FINALLY tells Norma something is rotten at the hacienda, Norma immediately gets on the phone to Santa Clara and SAHSSSSSS! Fern’s story is discredited. Here's to future better living through common sense. ;-)

Alas, Norma's sensible streak was short-lived. Once again, why the heck would she (or anyone) head out to the hacienda alone? She took Eva because Eva insisted, but why not wait for the boys, or at least get Jimena & Sara to come along?

I felt Juan was perfectly justified in chastising her for going alone, but then he shot all his credibility by doing the same stupid thing himself. What about all his earlier preaching about letting the police handle it? What it just because now he knew Dinora was involved? What did he think he was going to be able to do ON CRUTCHES? Apparently he can drive with his bad right foot, so heaven knows what other surprises he has in store...

Poor Carmela & (especially) Malcolm. First, an impressive slap from Eva, then Dinora finally turns on them & he gets the water torture bit. Neither was very pretty, but can't say as I felt sorry for him at all.

I loved watching Hortencia totally spills the beans to the police. Good Girl; it's about time SOMEONE got them involved. Too bad Juan didn't just drive straight to them instead of the Elizondo place.
 

Thanks for the great screen shots, Jean. I finally caught up again, just in time for the final episodes.

I thought Juan going alone, on crutches, was a silly macho thing to do. But I guess they have to set up things so that Gabriela will realize how wrong she's been about Juan.

I like Arthur Klaus and Pepa together. He seems like a nice guy and she's not a tiny thing, so she needs a little more bulk to her man than most of the slim guys in this show have.

Marie Celeste, it always cracks me up when I hear english phrases on telenovelas.

Just a side comment here about the beautiful Mario - I've really enjoyed PDG and Juan has a great heart and is nice eye candy, but I found the characters of Hugo and Alcides in LT more attractive. Juan is the strong silent type, not someone I think you could have a terribly interesting conversation with. Hugo and Alcides were both interesting, in different ways. Juan, not so much for me. I guess that's a great compliment to Mario's acting. I think Eduardo Yanez is also an amazing looking guy, but he seems to play the same hot-headed, not overly-bright character in everything I've seen him in.

I will have to settle for watching the official (shortened) DVD I bought of El Cuerpo del Deseo since it apparently isn't on YouTube in its entirety. I'll be interested to see how Mario plays that character. From the clips I've seen it looks pretty steamy!
 

Concerning the plot- I agree. They have contorted the storyline to get Juan and Grabiela together for the final conflict.

Concerning US dollars- I saw that too. Ecuador uses the US dollar as its currency but according to the internet, Colombia uses the Colombian peso. But the novela is not supposed to be set in any particular country so I guess the US dollar is a good generic currency.

I had no sympathy for Malcom. I was a little surprised that Feonando was helping. He's pretty squeamish but he is desparate too.

Arthur Klaus and Pepa are cute together. He is her sugar daddy.

As for Mario as Juan, I agree with you, Rhonda, that Alcides and Hugo were much more developed as characters. I think Mario did a good job in playing Juan as the character was written. I will commit heresy and say that I don't really understand all the fuss about Juan and Norma's chemistry together. The characters obviously had a strong physical attraction to one another that was performed very well by the actors. But to me, Juan and Norma have absolutely nothing in common beyond the physical attraction. If they have a conversation that goes beyond, 'I love you,' it seems very stilted and unnatural to me.
 

Thanks for the comments and the shots Jean. I especially liked the one with Hortensia squashing her hubby.

Marie Celeste - The nurse speaking English was not from the funny farm. She and her charge were accidentally grabbed by the hospital guards, thinking they were Hortensia and Martin. Maybe she was the caretaker equivalent of an au pair.

So the compound the impulsive foolishness of our cast, not only did Juan arrive gimpy and unarmed ("do as I say, not as I do...") but his bros and two of the sisters leave without so much as a weapon or a even a pair of binoculars and drive straight into the entrance without even bothering to use some stealth. Silly, silly wabbits ;)