Saturday, July 18, 2009
Gancho Friday 7-17 Who was that Masked Man? Not her Tonto
When last we left our lovable characters, Moni hadn’t been able to tell either Mau or Beto the truth, but Don Cesar seemed to know the score. Beto tells Moni he’s just spoken with Don Cesar, which makes Moni muy nerviosa until Beto reveals that NO WAY is Moni quitting boxing. Moni’s relieved that that’s all Cesar told Beto, tells Beto he’s absolutely right, she’ll never quit boxing, he’s convinced her. Beto starts getting suspicious until Moni offers him some quesadillas, and once again, tummy trumps brain.
In the office, Gabi’s glowing from her date with Oscar. She even brought a little plant to work. She tells Salvador that she laughed so much with Oscar, she’s got new wrinkles. Sal looks jealous. Gabi asks if he is. Me, jealous? Looks as if Gabi’s plan is working just fine. She likes Oscar, and Sal’s interest is growing, too.
Jerry (remember, since a j in Spanish is pronounced as an h, I call him "Hairy") and Oscar are in a car talking about Gabi. Jerry thinks Oscar must be pretty tolerant to stomach that “bulldog” Gabi. Oscar thinks Gabi’s a fine woman, just needs love. Jerry puts her down again, but then gets to the point. What info did Oscar get? Well, to get Mau’s fortune, they need to get rid of Sal. And the key to getting rid of Sal is Gabi. Jerry then makes a gross remark about what region Oscar should concentrate on with Gabi. What a guy.
Ivan wants to explain to Aldo that when he was kissing Kátia, it was Kátia’s idea, to make Héctor jealous. There’s nothing between Ivan and Kátia. Ivan tells Aldo that Kátia likes him (Aldo). Then why didn’t she ask ME to kiss her to make Héctor jealous? She didn’t want to hurt you. This touches Aldo, and the two guys agree to be amigos.
Oscar glides up to Gabi’s desk to turn on the charm, telling her he wants to wrap Gabi’s luscious hair all around him (Paula’s in the background). Not here, protests Gabi, so Oscar leaves with a wink, until tomorrow. What a whirlwind of a guy (torbellino) says Gabi to herself outloud, thrusting her arms in the air in rapture, and Paula thinks Oscar is quite the gent, too. But be careful, she says, since the new guy makes one forget the old guy (un clavo saca a otro clavo, or a nail drives out the other nail), and what about poor Salvador? Salvador who, he’s so over, responds our smitten gal. Okay, jibes Paula, want me to bring you a coffee, or should I get a bucket (balde) of cold water!
Oscar (he’s a lawyer, remember) has shown Jerry the changes to Mau’s will. Jerry’s pissed, he’s leaving everything to the snotball kids! Not to worry, answers Oscar, when we’re done with Mau, we’ll use these papers as toilet paper. Enter Moni with coffee. She’s wearing an especially short red ruffled skirt today (and a red satin blouse), and Oscar’s eyes go instantly downward, savoring the view. He wastes no time in trying to sweet talk Moni into working for him, but Moni’s wise to his game. Gabi enters a little suspicious, but Oscar pours on some more sugar, and as Gabi leaves, Jerry’s in awe of a master.
It’s party time! Estrella has decided to have a masquerade party to celebrate Moni’s boxing victory, and she and Beto are blowing up balloons. Nieves is helping with the decorations, and everything’s very colorful. Aldo enters, starry-eyed (Estrella-y eyed?), and upon hearing about the party, asks Estrella why he wasn’t invited. Estrella doesn’t know if Aldo has permission to go (since he’s a kid). Nieves whispers in her ear if you lie down with kids, you wake up wet (la que con niños se acuesta, mojada amanece).
Moni also has coffee for Mau, and he can’t understand why yesterday, she wanted to tell him something, but she left. Well, she saw him kissing Connie, and was just saying adiós. She starts to leave, he wants her to wait, he was worried about her, is that a bad thing? Well, no, she answers, they move in close, they’re really gonna kiss, she looks into his eyes, and DARN, Salvador comes in to ruin the moment! Moni exits, Sal talks business, but Mau wants to go to the track (autódromo) to practice racing, despite Sal’s protests that Mau said he’d never race again. He’s off.
The party’s starting, Moni’s there, but she’s not dressed up yet. Beto is, though, wearing a light orange grass skirt and bra, dressed as a Hawaiian girl, with a flower in his ear. Moni and Paula think he looks ridiculous, but Nieves defends her boy, she had to destroy (desbaratar) ten brooms to make the skirt. Right, adds Beto, and it was the cheapest costume he could find. Not really, kicks in Estrella, you could have disguised yourself as a bum (holgazán) for free! Moni tells him to change, and she, Estrella and Paula go to get dressed up, too. Nieves still thinks Beto looks great.
Aldo wants Ivan to come with him to the party. Luisa wants to go, but Aldo says she’s too young. Ivan has to study. Aldo goes off by himself, just as Mauricio enters. Luisa tells him that Aldo’s going to a masquerade party in Monita’s neighborhood. When Teresa enters to say dinner’s ready, Mau asks her “Where was that costume of mine….?
As Mau exits, Kátia enters. Teresa informs her that Aldo’s in his bedroom, so that’s where she goes. She finds him sitting pensively on his bed, is he still mad at her? No, but he thinks she’s making a mistake with Héctor, he’s an idiot, and he makes her suffer. And next time you want help, don’t ask Ivan, ask me! You’re right, she replies, from now on you’ll be my advisor. Thank you. She reaches out her arms. He goes in for the kiss, but she stops him, “No, just friends, let’s hug”. They do, and she remarks it’s so great to have a friend. Yeah, great, he replies, a lot less enthusiastically.
The party’s in full swing, and we get to see the costumes (lent by an actor friend of Estrella’s). Moni’s wearing a red and white Cinderella gown (or maybe Marie Antoinette), looking like a Spanish princess. She even has a fan to complete the effect. Estrella has a bowler hat, elbow length black gloves, a little black top and a tiny black skirt over black thigh-high stockings. Rooowww! But look at Nieves. She’s Carmen Miranda, in a shiny red dress with blue accents, a daring neckline, a red turban, and bananas growing out of her head! (she thinks she looks like Rosa Carmina) And it keeps getting better (for us guys). Paula is dressed like the Little Mermaid, with a pretty blue bra and a long shimmering blue skirt. I’m loving it! We see Costeño in the background dressed as a priest, and all of a sudden, Zorro has arrived. Well, a chunky Zorro, as Beto ditched the Hawaiian girl garb for something a little more macho. Moni thinks he looks much better, but when he says he’s going to show her his “S”, she chides him not to be foolish (menso), Zorro starts with a “Z”. He then gets serious, and reminds her that their first kiss was at a masquerade party. She remembers, and they exchange tender looks. But she notices his cape is a little ripped, so he goes to find his Mom, maybe she can sew it up (zurza). In the hallway, a second Zorro has arrived. This one is tall, strong and gallant.
In the fancy part of town, Ximena is still mad at Connie for kissing Rolu. Connie’s sorry, goes to hug Ximmy, accidentally sits on the edge of the coffee table, knocking it over along with some bowls (apparently unscripted, and quite funny to me). Please forgive me, says Connie, you’re my best friend. Yeah, your ONLY friend, says Ximmy, and the girls touch thumbs, then do an eensty bitsy spider thing with their fingers, amiguitas again! Connie’s cell rings, and it’s Kátia, reminding her sis they’re having dinner with their Dad this Saturday. I know, replies Connie, where are you now? Kátia’s at Mauricio’s house, but he’s not there, he went to a masquerade party. Connie asks, does she know the address?
I guess so, as we’re whisked to the barrio, kids run out of the party, almost crashing into two party crashers, namely Connie, dressed sort of like an 80’s Madonna, or maybe a can-can girl, short black dress, net stockings, mesh gloves with the fingers cut out, and Ximmy, looking like Morticia Adams, full length black body suit over black bra and silver shorts, black lipstick and heavy eye makeup (not really too far from her normal look!). She’s happy Connie brought her to this cool party, doesn’t mind the rotten egg smell, it adds to the essence of the place, let’s dance! Connie’s not in the mood, so Ximmy grabs the first guy she sees (Costeño). The first person Connie runs into is chunky Zorro, and no sooner do they greet but all the lights go out, music stops, and we hear screaming and whistling. Beto yells out that the fuses burned out (ya se fusieron los fusibles). Connie yells “who grabbed my butt!” Beto goes to change the fuses. Most of the guests are happy, Estrella digging the ruckus (relajo), but sees that Moni is sad. Moni goes to her room to rest, and we see Zorro in shadow, sitting on a chair. She thinks it’s Beto, tells him not to say a word. She was remembering their first kiss, she knows she’s been treating him badly, but she really does care for him very much. Come give me a kiss, she says, closing her eyes, tilting her head back. As romantic strings play, Zorro turns, and it’s Mau, who approaches, gently taking her face in his large, strong hands, and they kiss deeply, beautifully.
Four minutes later (after the commercial), they’re still kissing. But when she pulls back, she realizes it’s not her novio, who are you, she yells. Mau/Zorro runs out without saying a word, just as Beto/Zorro comes in, and the lights come back on. Mau crashes into a table on the way out, Connie immediately recognizes him, and Ximmy thinks Connie’s hallucinating until Connie says Mau wore that same outfit to a party they went to recently. Connie leaves, disgusted, but Ximmy stays to party on.
Back in Moni’s apartment, Beto wants to know who was that other Zorro! She has no idea, but she thought it was Beto, and guiltily admits she did kiss him. But she meant it for Beto, wanted to give him a kiss like in the movies. So you really do still love me, asks Beto. Of course, dummy. Like when we first met? Well, I didn’t actually love you then, it took a while. Oh, well, anyway, why don’t you give me a movie kiss now, says B. Somehow the mood is broken, and Moni gives him a little peck, recoiling from the smell of tequila and chicharrones with green sauce. Whadya want, it’s a party, answers Beto, let’s dance!
Connie has retreated to a nightclub to drown her sorrows. But I guess not with alcohol, as she asks for a conga, a non-alcoholic fruit drink. And, small world, who should walk up but Jerry. Connie tells him to split (esfumarse), but he doesn’t, and introduces Oscar to “Mauricio’s novia”. Ex, she corrects. She’s had a rough night, followed Mau to a slum (tugurio), it was scary, and the lowlives who lived there were actually celebrating! Why weren’t they killing themselves? Ah, I bet he was chasing a woman, adds sensitive Jerry. Connie’s exasperated, but suave Oscar calms her down, telling her how pretty she is, why don’t they get a table and she can tell them all about it.
Mauricio arrives home, smiling, but limping from crashing into that table. Aldo greets him, you look good, you were the Zorro at Moni’s party, right? Mau tries to deny it, but Aldo wasn’t born yesterday. So Mau swears Aldo to secrecy, and tells all (although we don’t really see the conversation).
In the bar, Connie complains that she really started losing Mau when the three brats appeared. Jerry informs her that Mau’s leaving a lot to them in his will. You see, says Connie, if Mau died, what would I be left with? Of course, I’m not talking about money, just self respect. Of course it’s not the money, assures Oscar as he comforts her with a hug. He adds some praise, that the minute he saw her, he could tell she was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, and who says what she thinks. And if she wants to get rid of those brats, they can do it if she’ll help. I’ll do anything, she asserts with a determined look, as the two cads wink at each other.
The party’s over and Moni’s cleaning up. Drunk Beto pinches her tush, and she tells him to go sleep it off. He says the party’s not over until he says it is, and he pulls out a gun, pointing it at the ceiling. What are you doing, screams Moni. It’s just a toy, answers Beto, look, pulls the trigger, and boom! The gun goes off, waking up the entire neighborhood. Paula wants to know what he’s doing with her Dad’s pistol, but he thought it was a prop. Estrella shoos our tipsy fellow away, as he tells her to take off her disguise (the second time he said this to her in this episode, and of course, neither time was she wearing one). Nieves comes out in her nightclothes, Costeña’s sleeping in her living room! She wants the girls to help, but they make excuses, and rush giggling into Moni’s apartment.
She tells them she has no idea who the second Zorro was, but Paula says it’s obvious, it was “Mauricio Sermeño Group” (using the English word group). Oh, sure, why would Mauricio come here? Why, to give you a kiss. But how would he know? Estrella relates how Aldo came by earlier and they told him about the party. Moni’s face brightens, are you sure? Well, says Paula, he crashed into a table on the way out. Tomorrow morning, when you go to the office, see if he’s limping. If he is, you’ve found your Zorro!
It’s morning now, and Nieves is disgusted that two people are sleeping on her living room sofa, namely Ximena (still fully dressed) and Costeño, arms wrapped around her, in his undies. All night, he was snoring like a frog. Ximmy wakes up first, surprised but very happy to find herself entwined in the muscles of a stranger, where has he been all her life? Costeño’s not so happy to find himself with a strange señorita, jumps up, and asks Nieves where his clothes are. Well, she had to return the priest outfit Estrella had borrowed, and his other clothes are outside, so get out! He does, and Ximmy opines how great is unexpected love. And just who are you, asks Nieves, observing our nutty gal. Just a woman in love, see ya! And she floats out on her personal cloud.
At the office, Mau tells Salvador not to tell anyone he’s limping. Moni enters to check out just that fact, asks how was his evening. The best night of his life is the response. She wants him to move, says there’s a cockroach on the floor. No cockroaches here, quips Sal, Jerónimo hasn’t arrived yet. Mau requests coffee, and it’s you first, back and forth between them a few times, but he’s not moving. Jerry comes in, and HE’s limping, horrifying Moni. She rushes into the coffee room to tell Paula, but Paula reassures her, I know what I’m telling you, Zorro was Mauricio.
Cut to the park, just off the beaten path we see a naked man, bushes mercifully blocking our view of the danger zones. Beto wakes from his dream, says “who called the penguins” (good phrase to start the day with, no), then realizes he lost the Zorro suit, Estrella’s gonna kill him. He grabs some leaves, stands up, just as some kid’s big green ball goes into the bushes near him. He grabs the ball to cover himself, runs off, pursued by the little boys and their granny.
Moni brings Mau coffee, puts a napkin on his lap, don’t want to stain those pants, he still doesn’t budge, she leaves, but doesn’t close the door, waits, waits, Mau’s on the phone, he gets up, and he limps! Gotcha! She yells joyfully, pointing at his leg.
Monday: Beto’s not taking this con les brazos cruzado (lying down)
Vocabulario:
Torbellino - whirlwind
Un clavo saca a otro clavo – One nail drives out the other, or the new replaces the old
La que con niños se acuesta, mojada amanece – when an older person hangs out with a younger mate, there’s trouble, literally, lie down (or sleep) with children, wake up wet
Autódromo – racetrack (note accent)
Holgazán – bum, slacker
Menso – foolish, stupid
Zurcir – to darn, to mend
Se fusieron les fusibles – the fuses burned out
Tugurio – a slum, dive, hovel
Un relajo – a ruckus, a commotion, pretty much the theme of our entire novela, and I mean this in a good way
Labels: gancho
Carlos, you are so right, everyone looked fabulous in their party costumes. Nieves has really become svelte since Gaviota's Mama days in Destilando. She is really still a pretty woman. And Ximena whose affected ways usually annoy the daylights out of me was more natural acting and looked so dreamy (blue lips aside) in her filmy outfit. And little Moni looked like a princesa.
I too would like to see more of Costeño. Or at least as much as we saw of him last night. Muy impresionante. An excellent way of forgetting the perfidious Rolu. Although of course I eventually want Ximena to end up with steady regular guy Tano.
I blame myself for not drinking enough, not smoking and not doing drugs in college. Obviously I have not trained my liver to deal with toxic substances. Who knew?
That being said, I was plenty nervous my first night. A little less so the next week and gradually calmed down. Although the first night I had to do Juan Querendon without closed captions I practically split my head open trying to understand what they were saying. I will NEVER forget that night.
What I find so encouraging is that other recappers will occasionally say..."I didn't get this part. Can someone help?" giving us all permission to be less than perfect. That alone gave me the courage to give it a try.
Happily, I got to see the Friday show before going to la-la land. However tried watching MEPS on Saturday and was in an absolute stupor. And mostly dozed for over 24 hours which seems to be a little excessive, no? Couldn't even begin to make sense of anybody's recap until today. Hope Carrie L.'s experience will be better than mine!
Judy, when I had my wisdom teeth removed, my dentist was also an anesthesiologist, and he gave me a combination of drugs. He said I was fully lucid during the operation, but he made it so I forgot everything immediately afterwards. Fine with me, although now I'm wondering if he used something like the drops Camilo gave Aurora on MEPS. Fortunately I didn't wake up naked under a sheet!
Speaking of naked, they never told us how Beto ended up in that state, and they probably never will. It's just a funny bit they threw in, so typical for his character.
Judy, I vividly recall the time I had to translate JQ sans closed captions, I was in a real panic. Luckily body language says a lot and our dear Juan was a master at it. Nobody seemed to care when I didn't get things quite right.
It's kind of a coincidence you folks talking about medical marijuana. Last night a friend of mine was telling me about when he was battling tongue cancer and undergoing chemo. He actually visited he medical mota clinic and left with a batch of cookies that he said really did the trick, although he could only eat about a quarter at a time. They were for helping him sleep and he said they were much more affective than Ambien which knocked him out for too long.
Hombre...you had me laughing again. Glad your dentist didn't have any wicked designs on your bod!
Sylvia, the Zorro kisses were muy caliente, but didn't you get a flashback to our dear Juan when Costeño woke up in his colorful boxer shorts? I was right back to Juan doing triceps presses in his undershorts and cowboy boots. Good times.
Sylvia, my sister found great relief in non-medical cannabis during her rounds of chemo. Must be something to it.
So for the old heads on this day, a question: where were you when the Apollo guys landed? That was during my tenure at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo (Carlos...) and I remember about 25 of us trying to watch a little 17" b&w TV. Truly amazing.
Judy, I do miss the days of JQ doing his morning pushups wearing nothing but his boxers and boots. Costeño looks like he does his fair share of pushups too.
Carlos
Carlos, I like the idea of Costeño and Ximena!
I watched the "moon walk" with my mother.
Diana in MA
I sadly too didn't get a recording of this show, so I just now read the cap and will have to see if you tube has (just not the same) so thanks for illustrating the images so well Hombre, I can see it in my head, though Xime waking up with Costena would be priceless to see!!!
I was skeptical forever until my friend swore with me that the carsickness I was feeling from speeding around coastal mountains in the back seat of a tiny little car would go away. Well, being a captive passenger on the trip and desperate to feel better, I finally figured I'd try anything and voila, when nothing ever worked for this, within a minute or two I was feeling amazing, not high at all, just all the nausea vanished...and I could enjoy the view.
Since then, I've known sick people who absolutely can't function without it, nothing else quite works as well. It won't work for the pain though, unless you do get so high that you feel none a'tall!! :)
Carlos
Regarding the moonwalk, like Kris, I was a wee one at this time and my sister was only a few weeks old.
Interesting conversation about medicine. Judy your statement about not being exposed enough to drugs reminded of my mother telling me about my sister's birth. She said the doctor didn't even have to use the full amount of the drug b/c she was not exposed to drugs or drink.
Best wished on the recap and I'll pray things go well in surgery and its aftermath.
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