Caray, Caray!

We all know the most-repeated phrases of telenovelas: no puede ser, sueltame, desgraciado, etc. Tonight we add a new one to the list: “I’m worried about the baby.” Wanna' guess how many times we hear it?

At his hotel room, Pat again asks Alicia to leave him alone. He just did the hardest thing of his life; he delivered Candy to his rival. Ali, who claims to love him so much, can only think of her pain, not his. It must run in the family. She admits that she always dreamed of the day Candy would reject him, but she didn’t want it to be like this. She’ll keep striving until he realizes how much she loves him. Alicia, give it up already! Alicia leaves, but we can be sure, like MacArthur and Schwarzenegger, she’ll be back.

In one of the clinic’s examining rooms, Santiago explains to Candy that they closed the office for the wedding, and no one will bother them. After his usual flirting, she suggests that he needs to confront his emotions. Candy would be the perfect candidate to help him face his emotions, were it not for the enormous log in her eye (more on that in the next paragraph). He says, apart from Marissa’s plot, he’s glad he halted the wedding, because of what he feels for Candy. He has uncovered his feelings and emotions, but now what is he supposed to do with them?

Santiago muses, “I was at the altar, at the point of saying yes, when your call came like a miracle. Know why? Because I was about to marry and spend the rest of my life with a woman I don’t love. I lived with someone and didn’t even realize that I didn’t know her - the mother of my son. Can you believe it?” But Santi is bothered by a suspicion. Did Candy really, truly hear that? After all, maybe she lied just a little (Candy? Lie? Cómo puede ser?) to win a grand prize like him. The man who Candy says needs to confront his emotions tells his ‘counselor,’ “You know I love you. And you love me too. But since you don’t let yourself admit that (Candy looks away, rather than facing her emotions), maybe you invented the story about Marissa’s plot.” Or, giving her space to evade him, he suggests that maybe she did it to get a scoop on a best-seller story for her column! Santi is boggled – what kind of woman would separate a father from his son? (Maybe Candy has some answers for that one.) Candy says she needs to perform surgery on Santiago’s heart. What will she find?

At her apartment, Marissa and Raúl are trying to figure out what happened, and what should be their next move. He counsels that the only way she can win this match is to be cold. She proposes a wager on who will suffer more, Candy or Santiago.

At the clubhouse, Ed says he expected Santi to cancel the wedding at any moment, but not at that moment! Carlos says Santi is his idol. Hector is worried about Raúl – he went kinda’ nutso. What will happen when Raúl and Santiago are together in the club? Carlos says maybe they should let Marissa be an abandonada. Hector says she’s hot, but she’s poison.

Candy is examining Santiago on the operating table. What is in his heart? His daughters, his mama, a couple of friends, and Candy. Candy examines his heart and sees a lot of pain because of the woman that abandoned him. She sees fears, and he admits that he worries for his daughters, he fears losing his mama, he fears what Mar might do to his son (1), and he fears because he has found love and it’s so very close (he takes her hand) but it might slip away (she pulls her hand away). She sees doubts of the heart. Let’s review. Candy sees pain, fears, and doubts? I think the heart Candy is seeing is not Santiago’s.

Candy asks why he planned to go through with the wedding. It was because he thought it would help him to recover. He finally realized, with Candy reconciling with Pat, that his love for her was hopeless, and he thought that marriage might enable him to forget the pain of losing her. Candy is stunned that her capricious waffling, cowardice, and indecision caused so much pain and almost caused a disaster. Now maybe she’ll realize that you can’t just play with somebody’s heart like that, without somebody getting hurt. And maybe pigs will fly.

The institute staff discusses the ramifications of the day. Chayo says Santiago is a great dad but he’ll never marry. He’s been chasing women ever since Pau abandoned him. Soledad wishes Candy and Pat were together, but the others recognize it’s because Sol wants the leftovers. Ceci points out that if Santi doesn’t marry Marissa because he’s with Candy, Mar won’t come back to the institute. Goodbye institute, goodbye radio program, goodbye employment.

Speaking of the queen of Rome, she tells Raúl, “He’ll beg me to see his son, but he’ll never even get to know his name.” Raúl won’t see him either. Raúl starts to worry for his nephew (2). He realizes that his sister may be turning dangerous (nice time to lock the barn door, Toots!), and he tells her they should abandon the plot since Santi ran out on the wedding. The two start arguing about her plans, when in walks Santiago. Suerte, Matador! He says that, had they gotten married, it would have hurt both of them, so he knows he did the right thing. In fact, he’s finally doing what he should have done long ago but didn’t have the guts. (Bulls-eye! Or maybe steers-eye.) Marissa says it was Candy’s fault he halted (frenar: put the brakes on) the wedding. Santi hands her the bombshell; he knows that she planned to disappear with the baby after the wedding. Mar calls Raúl into the ring and wants him to back her up. She insists that what Candy said is a ridiculous lie. Raúl dodges, “You know I wouldn't let anything happen to my nephew.” Raúl and Mar agree that Candy did it because she wanted Santiago for herself. Santiago knows who to believe, because he knows that all along, Candy had countless chances to derail the wedding for her own interests.

Marissa reminds Santi that Candy is known as Doña Mentiras, and he has to admit that Marissa doesn’t lie to him. Raúl plays offended because Santi won’t believe his old friend. Santiago suggests that they need to cool off and sleep on it, and they can deal with it tomorrow. He expresses his concern for the baby (3), and she essentially tells him to shove it. Santi leaves, and the moment the door shuts, our fib-sibbs panic because the gig is up. Mar asks what they will do, and Raúl corrects: “Us? No. What will you do?”

Candy sits in her room remembering. Chapala kisses, moonlight dancing, and an interrupted wedding. Her mom brings her tea and tucks her in, just like when she was little. They remember those times, and Gregoria says she used to listen to the girls’ lights-out talk through the door. (Chismosa metiche!)

Writing in her diary, Candy ponders some more. She saved Santiago, but she’s worried about Marissa because she hates Candy, hates Santi, and might hurt the baby (4). Candy realizes she needs to be careful about Mar. You gotta’ hand it to Candy, she never misses a trick, though she usually waits until three weeks after the horses have left the barn. Chava comes in and climbs into bed with Mama. He asks if he can marry Rocío. Nope. Then trying for Plan B, can they be novios? Wellll, okay.

Sven and Ole prop each other up as they stagger into the restaurant. Sven steps on a business envelope on the floor. He doesn’t notice it, but we do. Ole starts a joke: How is an interrupted wedding like a Chivas vs. America match? Sven doesn’t know. Neither does Ole; he hoped Sven knew.

Meño arrives, sees the drunks, and reads the letter. Pat walks in, and Meño tells him that tomorrow the new owners take possession of the restaurant. All his memories, all his work, gone just like that. Pat offers to put together one last blow-out, so the restaurant can go out in style. Meño needed that support.

Isabel listens while Santiago rehashes his feelings. He hates what he had to do, but he’s also relieved. The wedding never should’ve happened, and he feels like he can breath again. He notes Marissa has “dark crevices in her mind,” and he’s just worried what she might do with the baby (5). It sounds like Santi, Candy, and Raúl are recognizing simultaneously that Marissa is dangerously unstable. Mama recommends that Santiago take a nice hot bath so he can sleep. If this were a Colunga novela, the next scene would be... Alas, it’s not. The next scene is a sunrise.

Raúl calls on Candy to try to rearrange the truth. He says she lied about escaping with Santiago. She redirects the conversation to Marissa’s plot to disappear with the baby. Raúl claims he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but she knocks that idea down in one blow. As she kicks him out, she tells him, “One of us is lying, and it’s not me.”

Meanwhile, Paulina will take Fantasy Worlds for 800, Alex. When Santiago fled his wedding, she assumed he wanted to get back with her. He tells her ‘no’ clearly, but Paulina has trouble with concepts like “no.” Santi reminds her that she has a daughter. An e-mail, a card, a little phone call, is it too much to ask? “Sure, Santi, sure. And for starters, can you give her this goodbye note because I’m too much of a slime mold to face her myself.” Loosely translated.


At home, Papa reads Rocío the note. “I’m sending you this letter through your papa because I don’t like goodbyes. I promise to call you de vez en cuando (every so often). I’ll miss you very, very much.” Roc asks, “Not even a kiss?” Thinking fast, papa explains that she didn’t put the kisses in the letter, instead she put him in charge of giving her 1,535 kisses. Papa remembers a song he used to sing to her when she was little, as little as a mouse, and Rocío wants to hear it again. Papa sings and gets misty as he remembers when Roc was a baby.

Ha nacido un sol, que aparte de hoy ilumine mi alma.
Eres tu, mi gran amor, que abra la esperanza en mi.

A sun was born, that starting today lights my soul.
It’s you, my great love, that awakens hope in me.

Roc wonders if she’ll ever see her mother again. Papa explains that in life there are happy things and sad things, but all of them make you a better person. No matter what happens, her mama and her papa will always be in her heart (that's not very reassuring). To cheer her up, he does a magic trick with a piece of paper because to Rocío, her papa is magical.

At the restaurant, they are packing up everything. Ole is long-faced, Gregoria is blubbering, and Sven is singing the blues. Meño, the one losing everything, is left to cheer up everyone else. Pat arrives and explains that he’s there to present the new owners. But they are not ready to take charge so they need a manager. Candy asks, “I suppose that’s you, Pat?” No. He explains that starting today, Meño is the manager of the property. And the new owners? His sons, Chava and Beto.

Candy is ecstatic. She runs up and gives Pato a big appreciative hug. He confesses that it hurts because he loves her and she is with Santiago. Candy corrects him. She saved Santi from Marissa, but she’s not with him. In fact, at the moment she would like to be with Pat because she’s tired of being alone, tired of running from the past, and tired of running from Pat (but apparently not tired of running from Santiago).

Vocabulary
de vez en cuando – every so often
frenar – to put the brakes on
’toy contigo – short for ‘Estoy contigo.’ I’m here for you; I’ll support you. It’s what Isabel tells Santiago.

Tuesday:
Where have all the chinos gone?
Marissa threatens that the baby might have an “accident”
Raúl fights with Santiago
Marissa trashes the institute

A couple of marginally related points.
1. Jaime Camil started a new 6-week show for Televisa Saturday, Aventura por Mexico.
2. For those of you who use music to improve your Spanish, last week on a MEPS recap, someone recommended Pandora.com, a free service with no ads, that plays music through the internet, customized to your preferences. I’ve been listening to Latin Pop all week, and I couldn’t be happier with the service.

Labels: Tontas