Saturday, October 18, 2008
Fuego en la Sangre, 10/17/08: Fits, Snits and Crabi In the Pit Or, Where’s That White Rabbit and Those Funny Mushrooms When You Need Them?
[After watching this particular episodio, Hubby and I looked at each other and wondered what this one was supposed to be about. We remembered one of the Seinfeld episodes where George expressed the essence of the show so descriptively, “It’s about nothing.” Our apologies to Sr. Mejia regarding this capítulo, but….. So, for those of you who slept through it, and for those of you who wish you had, here we go.]
In the rain forest the next day, Juan finds Skinny Bones (ol’ Apolinar) trying to force a village girl to give him a roll in the hay and threatening to burn her parents’ fields down if she doesn’t. Juan takes a pole after him and warns him off her. As flashbacks of Mighty Mouse cartoons invade my brain, he warns Apolinar that if he tries this with anybody again he’ll see the creep is thrown out of the settlement. Not to be undone, the old perv grumbles to himself that if Juan tries that he’ll burn down his hut.
In the meantime, back at Hacienda de las Elizondo y del Escandon, Sofia comes rushing down the stairs spewing threats at her ex. She blasts Fernando with both barrels and warns him that she knows he attacked Rosario and if he dares try it again she’ll go herself to the police and file a report. He says if she does, then Rosario has more to lose than he does. Sofia barges ahead and warns him that she won’t put up with him trying to take advantage of her mother either. After a sickening description of his uber-passionate sexual relationship with her ma, Feo threatens to see that she and her sisters are thrown out of the hacienda if she doesn’t back off. She says he doesn’t frighten her and if it’s war he wants then it’s a war he gets and then storms out with her pride intact. (Yessss!) Feo grumbles to himself that they’ll just see who gets the last laugh.
It’s time for a bit of comic relief, I guess, so over at the Double R (Hacienda de los Robles-Reyes), Pablito explains to Quintina that he got in trouble at school for fighting because one of the kids was calling Juan a criminal for kidnapping Sofia’s baby. Her answer is to take him to the plaza and stand on the fountain screaming various things through a bullhorn in Juan’s defense.
We are shunted again to the jungle where Dra. Leonora Luscious-Lips is listening to Juan complain that somebody needs to do something to stop Apolinar from harassing all the women and girls in the settlement. She says people are just too scared to dare to cross him.
Back in Cd. Serdán, Sofia has gone to the sheriff to complain that he’s not doing enough to find her daughter. He says he’s sent out wanted posters to all the neighboring states and towns, but there still is no answer. Nobody’s seen or heard from Juan and nothing has come in about any sightings of her little girl. The sheriff suggests it may be time to consider that Juan might be dead or that perhaps somebody else carried off the little girl. Of course Sofia cannot imagine who, what, or why so this is not an option. She has a fit and denies that it’s even remotely possible.
Meanwhile, Feo pays a visit to our favorite corrupt physician, Dr. Matasanos, and bribes him at knife point to insure that when Gabi, who is due to suffer a nervous breakdown very soon arrives, he is to care for her but not to cure her.
Matasanos doesn’t disappoint. He counts his money as we fade to the next scene where Juan is inciting the people of the settlement to take action against Apolinar. He wants them to throw Skinny Bones out of the settlement before another one of their innocents is abused.
Apolinar, meanwhile, is one step ahead of Juan (not that that is so difficult to imagine). He gets some of his henchmen in the village to help him set a snare along the path Juan takes to the river. (Question 1: How many people use that trail to the river? Question 2: How does Skinny Bones know that Juan will be the only fool falling into that contraption? Question 3: Why is this telenovela written so crummy that we need to ask questions 1 and 2?)
Back at the Double E (Hacienda de las Elizondo y del Escandon), Feo figures the pit is deep enough and tells the men to stop digging. The men ask why since they still haven’t found water there yet. Feo has a fit of his own and chases them off, warning them not to come near it again until he tells them they can.
At the Double R, Capricho races off from the open corral apparently to go looking for Juan again as, unsurprisingly, he is instinctively brighter than the humans in this story and somehow realizes that Juan is in danger.
In town at Knickknacks R Us, Damian tells Sofia about Oscar and Franco’s visit complaining about the wanted posters he had put out. He also tells her that they asked about his intentions towards her and that he told them the truth: he is head over heels for her. He practically begs Sofia for a chance to show her he can make her happy if she’d only let him. Damian moves in for The Kiss… but we have a commercial.
After Uni pays its bills, Sofia breaks the spell and tells Damian that she cannot give him what he’s looking for and that she doesn’t want to hurt or mislead him. She doesn’t feel the same way he does and the only thing they really have in common is the painful loss of their children. (Ouch!) Sofia tells him that she has no interest in anybody or anything else, not even him. (Double ouch! I think it’s called deep depression and while Damian has had time to “move on” she has not.) Damian is put out and frustrated so he leaves.
At the same time, the principal/teacher of the school sends for Oscar and Franco. While waiting for the teacher to meet with them Oscar tells Franco how he overheard Sarita telling Jimena that she still loves Franco and though, at times, still wants to really hate him, she can’t. Franco is in seventh heaven. Oscar also confirms that nobody at the hacienda but him knows that Jimena has regained her senses. He warns Franco to be careful not to go around telling people this, either.
When the teacher finally arrives he informs Franco and Oscar that the school has expelled Pablito since he beat up a classmate. Oscar and Franco are elated that the little guy actually showed a bit of masculine spunk and laugh about boys being boys, but the teacher gives them (and us) a PSA about fighting not being the way to solve an argument, aka non-violent conflict resolution, i.e, “brains over brawn” (which is not always applicable when the result might well be the duping of the well-meaning into being led to the slaughter, but that is for another discussion).
===============
Franco goes to Knickknacks R Us looking for Sarita but finds Eva instead and he asks her to do him a big favor, but only if she can avoid getting caught by Crabi.
Speaking of Crabi, she’s in her rose garden remembering El Coyote’s visit and his offer of assistance. (Sorry, but Coyote needs his head examined if he really is hot for this old broad who has to be at least 3 decades his senior.) Gabriela thinks to herself that it is always better to have two friends that might be able to help her in difficult and special circumstances. Some of the workmen come by to tell her that because they’ll be replacing some floor tiles at the front door she’ll have to use the rear door to go in and out of the main house for a while. As the men walk off, one of them says to the other that perhaps they should have mentioned the pit they dug in the back, but the other says nothing happens around there that she doesn’t know about or authorize first. (Guess that means Crabi is in for one hell of a big surprise soon.)
Upstairs in Sarita’s room Eva lays out the dress that Franco promised to buy for Sarita. She sees Bernardo’s hat and looks longingly at his photograph on the bed table. A bit later she visits his niche in the family mausoleum and cries. She asks his forgiveness for having allowed the Reyes’ in to carry out their vengeance against his daughters. She tells him it was her way of getting even with Gabi for taking away her daughter. Gabi just happens to show up at that very moment and she delights in tormenting Eva by sneering about it being too bad it went against Eva the way it did and that nobody gets the upper hand with the likes of Gabriela. Eva says it wasn’t really because Sofia has forgiven her.
Gabi mocks the both of them and says Sofia and Eva are both doomed to wander as long-suffering fools searching for their daughters but never being able to find them. That’s their punishment for daring to cross her. “Did you hear me?” Gabi asks Eva for emphasis. Eva asks Gabi then what her punishment will be for all the evil she’s done. “Dying alone, perhaps? Dying alone, pondering over your resentments and your hate, and needing help without anyone being able to give you any. Nobody! Did you hear me?”
Night falls and Sofia sits in her room remembering Juan’s riding into the hall on Capricho yelling that he was there for his woman and child. She is bitter to think that he apparently left and took only his child in the end, and that her suffering didn’t matter a whit to him.
Back in the jungle, Juan walks the path back from the river and steps into the snare. He hangs helplessly by one leg upside down while Apolinar smiles triumphantly in the shadows and watches. “There’ll be nothing left of him by morning after the wild animals swallow him,” he says walking away.
Later that night, Gabi is alone in her room. She takes off her wedding rings and gets into bed. She hears a noise at her rear window and goes outside to investigate and accidentally falls into the camouflaged pit. She becomes hysterical, crying and yelling that this is her worst nightmare come true. (I’m up for a Long Island tea and nix the sympathy.) Feo watches it all from his bedroom window and thinks that finally he has found a way that he can get rid of her. “Rest in peace, Gabriela. Rest in peace.” He goes to bed.
At the Double R, Eladio and Rigo tell Oscar and Franco how Capricho took off again and this time didn’t come back. They figure the horse went looking for Juan again and hope that perhaps he was able to find him this time, because it’s the first time the horse didn’t return home at the end of the day. Oscar says afterwards that he’s off to the hacienda for a nighttime “visit” with Jimena.
Meanwhile, back in the wild, the devoted doctora suspects that something has happened to Juan since he’s very late getting back with the water urns. Silvestre goes looking for him and finds Capricho there trying to “help” Juan, now unconscious, and still swinging upside down. (Dunno. I guess all the wild animals figured he was too tough to eat.) Silvestre cuts Juan down from the tree and throws him across Capricho’s back, and then heads back for Leonora’s hut.
Back in civilization, Sarita enters her bedroom and finds the dress from Franco. She remembers his telling her he’d buy it for her if she’d model it for him and she puts it on. Sofia walks in and finds out the dress came from Franco. Sarita admits she is still in love with Franco but feels guilty about it because of Juan’s kidnapping the baby. Sofia assures her that she won’t stop her from forgiving Franco and going back to him.
Outside, Gabi is still screaming for help. “It’s like a tomb! It’s like being buried alive! Help me! Fernando-o-o-o-o!!!!" (Yawn.) Inside, Sofia tells Sarita that she doesn’t want her two sisters sacrificing their happiness just to please her. Her problems with Juan are her own.
Meanwhile, Damian is sulking on his living room couch and thinking that without Sofia he is condemned to a life of loneliness and sadness. (Dami, consider yourself lucky!)
Back at Scandal Heights Sarita and Sofia continue their chat. Sarita doesn’t think Sofia should still love Juan nor be chained to his memory. She wants Sofia to forget him and consider Damian. Sofia admits that she can’t decide for sure whether she still loves Juan or not at this point. Sarita tells her to give Damian another chance. He’s in love with her and not exactly hard on the eyes so it shouldn’t be too difficult to love somebody like him. Sofia seems to be interested in taking her sister’s advice.
Labels: Fuego
Also, those little energetic bongo drums that cue us we're back in the jungle village are just giving me some bad flashbacks to Disneyland and the Jungle Cruise ride.
Well, enough complaining, I'll give someone else a shot at it...
"Creemelo"
Well,
Thanks for the recap - I missed some parts last night, like why Gabriela was wandering around outside in the dark (doesn't she have peones to send to investigate stuff like that?). Oh, I guess that's supposed to be macho Fernando's job but of course he was AWOL. I kind of liked her encounter with Eva followed by the frenzy at the bottom of the tomb - as evil as she is, it seems like they are trying to us some reason to pity her, maybe explain what's behind her bitterness. But what's Fernando's excuse? I mean, really, trying to shoot the priest after he foisted all his confessions on him?
I may watch my tape when I get home, just to see Gabi fall into the pit. One can only hope Feo will be inspired...... I kind of thought that was his purpose all along when I read about the digging.
doris
At least last night MOVED! Really is no one going to get a clue about Gabi in the hole? They guys who work there know who ordered it dug!
It looked like the preview showed the boys and Damien coming to her rescue. Does that mean she might have to be nice to they boys? Doh! What was I thinking she won't repent that quick!
I'm hoping since Capricho is now with Juan that will signal he is coming home soon and we are getting the heck out of the village!
Thank you for the recap.
I found another FELS parody. It is supposed to show some opening credits. I love the names they give the girls. Rarita, Jimensa and Nofia. mhm
I do not like Sophia, not one little bit. Rosario confides in her and she immediately blusters to Fernando. Does she get the risk or just not care? It's a horribly written part. And the hair is so unflattering. Enough -- we've all said it and heard it before.
There was a certain satisfaction in seeing our Crabby fall into the pit. It will be interesting to see what she makes of all of this.
I would like to see both Sarita and Jimena get back with their Reyes before Sophia reunites with Juan. Am I dreaming to think that this is plausible?
Supposedly things start to heat up in the next couple of weeks. Here's hopin'.
Buenas noches a todos. Hasta lunes y los loonies!
Also, I backed up and watched several times, but to me it seemed that Capricho reared up and somehow loosened the rope with his hoof. He also whinneyed and called Silvestre's attention to where Juan was hanging. Clearly, Capricho is the smartest mammal in the whole novela.
Yeah, it really was weird that Feo could hear Crabi screaming, really loudly, but no one else. Oh well. No logic here.
We lucky Queridians are now into Ultimas Semanas. Wish you were too...for all the "recrappers" sakes, but alas, it is not to be.
This stinker is STILL no. 1 in viewing popularity south of the Border. Yikes.
"Creemelo"
Calling E.A.Poe, we need you...
"Cree"
Novelera, thanks for adding that clarification. Sorry for skipping over it. --As for the demonstrated horse sense in this novela, I think we might all be happier if Mr. Ed and Capricho got top billing and the meatier roles. It would be a blockbuster.
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Creemelo: The Jungle Cruise! You are so right. I knew that those bongos kept reminding me of something, like an annoying itch you can't scratch. Thanks for scratching it.....
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Renee: If the writers do invite us to a pity party for Crabi I think I'll pass.
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Doris/Judyb: LOL! Can't stop giggling.
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Molly/Travelling Lady -- I've got jungle fever from the anticipation of it all!
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Okokay, susanlynn! Now, if we could only get a few more close-ups of EY getting ready to pucker and pout like he did in DA....aw, but I don't even think EY would blame you for throwing in the towel on this one.
You fooled me once with LaFea...I won't be fooled again, however we all know once Juan pulls his head out and please God grows his beard again..angst will once again insue.
By the By...I don't think Oscar can really grow a beard..that was a pretty lame ass fake one, when he wandered back after his fake search for Juan. Franco & Juan don't seem to have a problem, but Oscar is always extremely stubble free. Sadly I like Juan better with the stubble cause it makes his head look smaller & considering his role having an enlarged head just kinda of pads the stero-type, (with all due respect).
I agree Beckster, EY needs to grow the beard back. Although I do like the curly hair, but they could have left it longer.
Still, I'd like to see another villana show up and quick and how.
And, too bad, our Crabi isn't on her way to meet Elizabeth any time soon.
I agree that at least things seem to be moving. Are we down to less than 50% of the time with "slow-is-me!" with hand to forhead yet? (I'm about to lose my faith in the Virgencita too, she hasn't turned out to be much help yet)
I'm firmly in the Juan with beard camp. It looks like Caprico is finally going to succeed in getting him the hell out of there, and for me, no love lost on Doctora Vergara, she turned out to be a little twit.
Maybe the blood pooling in his brain while hanging upside down will have a salutory effect on Juan's brain and memory. Juan-a-Brain, could become Have-a-Brain, or at least Halve-a-Brain.
I feel badly for our poor Pablito, his scenes have been heartbreaking lately, he's really good at being serious and sad, I like him defending Juan's honor esp. against the useless Sofia. And he's getting kicked out of school for hitting a kid once? No warnings or suspensions? This sucks, and is really unfair.
I have to admit that Crabi in the bottom of the pit is pretty pitiful. Yes she's evil, but I feel for her just a little bedcause she is also a victim of her own warped moral universe and blinded by her own ambition and bitterness over her un-reqited love for Juan Jose Robles. I know not really good excuses, but I'm just saying. She's not simply a cardborad cutout of pure badness, like Fernando.
BTW, I watched "La Casa de Bernarda Alba" because it was mentioned here. Wow, what a downer, and a lot of paralells with Fuego. It was very well done. I loved the beautiful house, the period details, and the glimpses of what life was like in that place and time. So thanks for the tip to whoever recommended this movie.
"Creemelo"
Thanks Cakes for your stalwart rendition. I am watching just to keep up with the creeping slow plot changes.
"creemelo"
Interesting that she's had three of these "trapped" incidents in a row lately after a long spate of no trapping at all... yet she's not suspicious.
Cathy, your doggie is adorable!
Once again, Feo's elaborate plan works. Remember when he tied that string across the staircase, and timed it just so that Sofia would run out from her controntation with Gabi? And the snake that frightened the horse to almost stomp Sofia? Getting Augie to sign away his money, or Oscar to sign the divorce paper? Of course, something always goes wrong later, but I gotta give it to him, he's very resourceful.
They are funny. I loved it when they woke up and found out they were married. I'm tired of all the hand wringing and forehead holding that goes on with Juan/Sophia. Not to mention the weird bedside sponge bath. Blech!
The way he pushed Skinny Bones down I though for sure that geezer was going to break something!
I'm hoping to see Crabi completely bonkers by the time she gets out of the pit. Of course, she'll have scorn for whoever rescues her, not gratitude.
La Paloma
How much longer must we suffer??
Maggarita
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