Caray, Caray!

Fair warning: My generally cranky mood and Jacqueline Bracamonte’s atrocious acting are converging today in a really unfortunate way. I apologize in advance to fans of MariaJose/Jacqeline Bracamontes !

Roberto and Ulises are talking and Roberto tells Ulises the news that MariaJose was going to meet the supposedly non-existent Mario Aguirre in the hotel. Ulises says that he never told Mateo to do that, and Roberto warns Ulises to be careful because Alex is a “perro de presa” (a kind of herding dog that can be vicious) and won’t stop until he finds out the truth; if he does find out things could go badly for Ulises. Ulises talks to Mateo and Maura and calls an urgent meeting.

Bruno is also busy on the phone and calls the social column of the local newspaper to give them a lead: Alex Lombardo’s sister-in-law has been arrested for a hit and run accident while driving drunk.

At the delegation Alex comes out to tell the waiting family that Paula will get out on bail, though they can’t leave right away. MJ tenderly thanks Alex, who coldly stares at her and then brushes past her, telling her he has things to do. MariaJose looks worried – she knows something is up but she’s not sure what. What could it be, what could it be? Yes, I know my hair is its usual mess and I look like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards, but probably that’s not it. My pants are so tight you can see my lady parts coming and going, but the faux-hooker look certainly didn’t repel Alex when he was with Maura, so that’s probably no it. I hid the key and all, but we made up after that so what could it be, oh what could it be? The lawyer tells them they still have some paperwork to fill out, and that they should pray that no wounded or dead person shows up. Don Pedro noticed that Alex is upset and asks MariaJose about it. Yes dad, he is upset, but that’s normal. Pedro agrees – of course it is – we’ve caused him a lot of problems.

Roberto, Ulises, Maura and Mateo are poolside. Maura denies having made the reservation in Mario Aguirres’ name, and they wonder if it could have been Bruno. Roberto worries about how complicated things are getting and Ulises wants to put an end to it, but Maura wants to keep going and even apply more pressure because it might lead to a divorce between MariaJose and Alex. They ask Mateo if he has talked to anyone about it but he assures them that he is to be trusted. The camera zooms in on a smirk on Mateo’s face that even a dog would know enough to run from, and the scene cuts out.

Now we have a couple of fast takes to let us know what’s going on concurrently elsewhere. Alex arrives at Fernando’s house, where Fer is on the phone with his sister Katia. Fer is surprised and thought her school had a couple more weeks to go, but yes, he will pick her up at the airport. Now to the front of the police station, where a crush of photographers and reporters are waiting for MariaJose and her family. They fight their way through, with Chucho valiantly defending the family against an aggressive reporter.

Back with Alex and Fer at Fer’s house, Alex is raging at having been taken in by MariaJose’s innocent country-girl act and is furious. The problem, he says, is that I fell in love with her. She wasn’t the prettiest or the most glamorous but she sure was the smartest, because she made me believe all her lies. If she were here in front of me I’d kill her! Fer acknowledges that he was on Victoria’s side in the beginning, but now he wants to play the devil’s advocate for MariaJose. He urges Alex to talk to her. He wonders about Bruno’s involvement in all this, and why he helped MariaJose and her family escape. He points out that the person who planned the wedding must have been someone very close to Alex. Alex thinks it could have been anyone at the office. He’s been turning things over and over and can’t figure it out. He’s fed up. Poor Alex is clearly unable to distinguish the lies MariaJose tells from the lies others tell about her and he’s ready to bag the whole thing. I hope he does, as I really think JB is a rotten actress and I’d like to see Levy paired with someone who can move her facial muscles. (Fair is fair, though, JB has good voice control and faints and falls quite well. Maybe she should be a comic actress.)

Now Eric is explaining to Bruno what happened back at the police station: He and Paula were questioned at length, and they are free on bail unless someone shows up dead or wounded. Well, someone will tomorrow, Bruno reminds him. Eric asks Bruno not to go through with it – Paula is just a kid and the whole thing is just a fabrication - but Bruno refuses. He reminds Eric that he, Eric, is in this up to his neck with Bruno in this.

Eric is pleading with Tomás to let him out. Tomás doesn’t want to – Alex said not to let Eric off the compound – but Eric explains that was just until he was able to make his statement, and won’t Tomás p-l-e-a-s-e let him out because he’s got an emergency with his sister. We see Tomás thinking it over, but no resolution.

Chucho is talking with Don Pedro, MariaJose and Paula. He’s offering to get them some delicious chilaquiles, as that may help them calm down after their upset. (I love Chucho.) They refuse his kind offer, and he leaves alone. Pedro comments on how upset Alex was and suggests they all leave this place. Paula doesn’t want to go – obvio. While they are talking Ezequiel comes and tells MariaJose that Alex has returned and wants to talk with her, though he doesn’t know why. Worried looks all around. Pedro offers to go with her but she turns him down, sure that it’s nothing to worry about. Still, it looks like MariaJose tries to frown, which is impossible given Jacqueline Bracamontes’ wooden face (Or is it botox? At her age she needs botox?) and we see that she is in fact worried. What could it be, oh what could it be? She has cleared up all her lies and doesn’t know that behind her back others have been lying for her.

In Alex’s office, MariaJose puts on her most sincere face (which, unfortunately, we can't distinguish from any other face) and thanks him again, but Alex informs her he did it not for her but for his family. She looks as stricken as a bad actress can and Alex gives her a check for the money for the apartment minus the amount he paid Rufino and the deposit (?didn’t catch what this was). What’s left should be enough for them to find a hotel or a boarding house to live in during the time it takes MariaJose to find another idiot to swindle. He wants her to leave tomorrow, and early. (Don’t hang around for breakfast, we won’t squeeze any orange juice for you.) MariaJose widens her eyes but her face is frozen. Is that due to her tremendous shock, or is it just another sign of Bracamonte’s inability to express emotion? The camera zooms in on her face, and I think it’s to provide the sense of drama that she can’t express with her facial muscles. Alex goes on to say that he’s tremendously happy that she is not expecting any child of his. When the shot returns to MariaJose we see they’ve had time to insert some teardrops or glycerin in her eyes, and now tears are trickling out of each eye and coursing their way down her cheeks. It’s being poured on thick, and I’m sure we’re supposed to feel sympathy for MariaJose, but her character is such an unfortunate combination of adolescent liar and spineless milquetoast that I feel no spark of sympathy for her. (Please no comments about how she is being forced into this and how she is sacrificing to save her family. I’m not interested in yet another telenovela about trapped women who can only be saved by men; I’m more interested in women who would chew their own leg off to get out of a trap. Sorry for that image.)

Anyway, I digress. My real point is in fact another digression, and it’s about my grandmother, who used to tell her nine children, when they got punished for doing something that wasn’t their fault, “if you didn’t do anything wrong this time then it’s for something else you did that I just didn’t see.” It’s hard to feel sympathy for MariaJose because it seems like she’s finally getting her just due for past idiocy, but I don’t know if this is what the writers had in mind for our reaction. The mournful music and tragic looks rather make me think they were targeting our sympathy. I think by this time it’s clear that William Levy’s acting ability and looks are the reasons we watch the show, so they’ve given up on improving MariaJose’s acting or hiring writers to imagine novel reactions from the characters. (Though many of the minor actors, like Paula, Raquel, Roberto, Chucho, Ulises, Maura…do a great job in their respective roles. Sorry, another digression.)

In spite of her suffering MariaJose valiantly tells Alex to take out the money for Paula’s bail. A martyr to the end, she thanks him for everything he has done for them. She bites her lip but no facial muscles move. She leans her head forward for emphasis, but still no facial movement. Finally she kind of puckers her lips, the way you do when you suck on a lemon but you’ve just been to the dentist and the Novocain hasn’t worn off yet, and a slight groove appears on either side of her mouth. I think this is meant to convey utter despair, because she turns and walks away, so distraught and noble and good that she forgets to take the check and Alex has to remind her. She leaves with a jangle of bracelets and some panting that I think is meant to convey that she is crying. Alex takes a mighty swipe at his desk and a box goes flying. He puts his head in his hands and begins to cry.

Alex makes his way out to the living room and Victoria lovingly approaches him to offer comfort. Now that that girl is finally gone she can be loving and supportive at how much it hurts her son that that girl is finally gone. She feels his pain.

Fer calls Victoria to see how she’s doing and she tells him her heart is broken - broken, I tell you – to see how sad her son is. And isn’t it hard to believe how a sweet-looking girl like that could be so deceitful? Fortunately, things were discovered just in time! Why did that girl do this to us? My son is so good - please support him, he needs it so much. After hanging up we see her musing. THough her brain seems to be in standby mode there is enough energy flowing to allow a lonely idea to find its way through to the one brain cell of hers that seems to be functioning and she murmurs to herself: “No sé por qué pero tengo mis dudas.” (I don’t know why but I have my doubts.) What could it be, oh what could it be?

MJ is now back with her family and telling them that they have to leave. Paula, of course, takes it personally and to heart – what, Alex is abandoning me to my fate? Why oh why oh why? MariaJose explains that they have caused too many problems, though Alex will still help Paula in this legal affair. She thinks it’s for the best and she has asked for a divorce (though not in their last conversation, so I don’t know if that’s a continuity error of if she’s referring to one of the many times she asked for a divorce when they were first married). They’ll leave early the next morning. She instructs her family not to take any gifts they received with them. She is all that is good and noble, and maybe pure, too, but tragically misunderstood due to a few little lies (hers and others).

Lisette is telling Maura to stop breaking her head (do we say that in English?) over who could have made the hotel reservation. Maura still thinks it’s Bruno. She’s sure Alex must be furious about MariaJose, and begins to plan what she’ll do once MariaJose is out of the way and she has another chance with Alex. For one thing, she won’t mess it up this time. Lisette wonders if he’ll be ready to be with another woman after what he’s just suffered, but Maura’s plan is foolproof and it is this: she’ll be honest and sincere so that Alex sees that not all women are the same as MariaJose. And frankly, at this point, I prefer Maura to MariaJose, whose self-induced suffering is really wearing on me. (Yes, I do know she’s not responsible for this latest lie. It’s her general deceptiveness that makes Alex unable to trust her, though, and not this one lie fabricated about her and Mario Aguirre.)

Roberto and Ulises are wondering if Alex will get a divorce. Ulises is happy about something which I missed, so if anyone has it recorded and can listen again and tell us that would be great. While they are talking Raquel calls Ulises. Roberto wants to know if they are seeing each other and Ulises insists they are not. She calls him because he’s got the latest and best gossip. Roberto tells Ulises not to tell Raquel ANYTHING about Mario Aguirre.

While packing MariaJose tentatively approaches the jewelry box containing the necklace Alex “lent” her. The memories are so painful – dare she open it? She does, and is overcome by rage at the injustice of it all. We know this because we see her bosom heaving and hear her panting as she hurries to Alex’s bedroom. She flings the necklace at him, scornfully telling him that he’ll regret it. Her lips are kind of drawn back and her teeth are bared, but we can’t see what muscles in her face are controlling her mouth because nothing else moves. She is proud, she has been wronged and we know this because her head bobs up and down as she speaks. MariaJose, did I ever tell you what my grandmother used to say? It’s hard to feel you’ve been wronged – only that you’re being justly punished for the wrong reason. At first Alex follows her, calling her name and asking her to wait, but he soon comes to his senses and turns back, muttering to himself that it’s just another one of her tricks and he won’t be fooled again.

It’s night and Gabriel and Meche are in bed, but Eric bangs on their door until they open. He tells them that when they go to make their statement the next day they should say that it was dark and they couldn’t see very clearly who the driver was. Meche says the “senor” was very specific about what they were supposed to say, but Eric tells them he doesn’t want Paula to go to prison. If they say they didn’t see who it was, someone from the family will still pay for Gabriel’s care and they can give Bruno back his money (seeing they didn’t fulfill their part of the bargain). When the scene ends the question of what they will declare in their statement is still unresolved.

The next morning Roberto is finishing his run when he sees MariaJose plus family plus luggage all coming toward him. What’s this? Why, it’s MariaJose and her family, kicked out of paradise. Don Pedro tells him that their vacation is over and it’s time for them to go back home, where people of their station belong. Oh, oh the nobility of poverty! Roberto offers to help MariaJose with her luggage but she refuses. He tries again and she refuses again. Oh, oh, the dignity, the nobility - she is poor but valiant and doesn’t need the help of anyone from Alex’s parasitic family (no, of course she doesn’t say that. I’m filling in some extra schlock where I feel that the scriptwriters put down their trowel for a moment). Don Pedro emphasizes that they are leaving but can’t go back to their village until Paula’s legal affair has been wrapped up, so they will be staying in Mérida for a while.

They approach the house and Victoria tells Arturo to take them where they want to go – now that she’s rid of them she can afford to be gracious. MariaJose, martyr that she is, says that they can go in a taxi. Music moans softly and sadly in the background in case we don’t get the tragedy of the moment.

Upstairs, Alex watches sadly as MariaJose and her family wend their awkward way to the house, MariaJose’s luggage banging at her knees. Roberto did get Don Pedro’s luggage, so that’s good. Now all the servants are saying their goodbyes, and Felipa (the one character I am in any sympathy with today) warmly and sincerely tells them how much she will miss them. Upstairs, Alex sheds a tear but it’s hard to feel sympathy with someone who fell in love with a woman who is such a bad actress. Eric, watching from the side, is clearly upset.

Back in the kitchen Chucho talks with Felipa and Ezequiel about the events He can’t believe that Paula’s accident would be enough to make Alex kick them all out and wonders what is really going on. Ezequiel angrily refuses to talk about “los patrones” and stalks off. Felipa agrees with Chucho that it was unfair but doesn’t spill what’s really going on. When Chucho continues worrying about where they will go and what they will do she tries to soothe him with the comforting thought that God may squeeze people but he doesn’t strangle them (dios aprieta pero no ahorca). Well, ok then. I know I’ll remember that if I’m ever lying under a bus. This is actually a very touching and well-acted scene on Chucho’s part about everyone’s lack of concern for the Samaniego family’s being on the street with no money and nowhere to go.

Arturo, MariaJose and her family are in the centro in front of a rather forlorn looking building. Arturo offers additional help but they turn it down, of course. They come up with a plan, which is this: they will look for inexpensive accommodations. My, how poverty and suffering sharpen the brain.

Meche and Gabriel go to the police station. Eric’s cousin and his blowsy looking wife, whose names I forget, warn them not to listen to Eric because it could only lead to problems – they’ve got to stick to what they agreed to with Bruno. Gabriel says he was hit by a truck and it’s not fair to blame a girl who hasn’t done anything to them. The issue still hasn’t been resolved when they are taken in to give their statement.

Raquel, Roberto and Victoria are at the breakfast table, and Raquel is going on in that whining, insistent voice of hers that makes you wish someone would reach right over the table and strangle her. (Wouldn’t be God, of course. He would only squeeze enough to scare her.) She briskly trashes MariaJose and then assures everyone at the table that Alex must have had a reason for kicking them out. Just as she is saying it Bruno comes in and wants to know where MariaJose and her family are staying. Raquel hopes they’ve gone to hell and Roberto wonders why Bruno is so anxious to know where MariaJose is, rather than the dirt on how she done Alex wrong.

We see MariaJose and her family in the centro, making their way across a plaza. Don Pedro’s knee is painful and MariaJose is tired so they have to sit down to rest. Paula goes to buy them some fruit popsicles and water while Don Pedro and MJ stay with the bags. MariaJose spies a likely-looking boarding house and goes to check it out. When Paula comes back with the water and sees what MariaJose is considering she is outraged and tells her father not to make up stories. Paula looks so revolted that for a moment it seems like her breakfast might come back up. (Oh wait, they didn't have any because they left early.) MariaJose doesn’t see her dismay because she’s inside arranging with the manager or owner to rent two rooms with meals. When the landlady wants to know how long they want the rooms for MJ is unable to say.

Eric is telling Bruno what he found out from Arturo: that he doesn’t know where MJ and her family are. He dropped them off in the center of town and doesn’t know where they went after that. Bruno tells Eric to go check all the hotels and boarding houses to see if MJ is registered there, making sure to ask for them under her maiden name, Samaniego. Bruno also reminds him (crankily, of course – just like me) to find out what’s going on with the whole Mario Aguirre thing.

Fer has to go pick up his sister but before he leaves Alex’s office he wants to point out again that some things don’t make sense - there is something wrong with the whole business of MariaJose meeting with Mario Aguirre at the hotel. Aguirre reserved over the phone, and then sent someone to pay the deposit it cash. Fer also points out that no one knows how MariaJose got the key – do they know if MariaJose left the house that day, or know who went in and out of the house and might have given her the key? He says that if he were Alex he would give it some thought, but Alex says he’s already already kicked her out. Fer suggest that he’s suffering so much he should at least know if he was justified in doing what he did.

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