Caray, Caray!

Living in Real del Monte could drive anyone to drink. Cris the recovering alcoholic is probably going to need strong therapy of some kind to avoid either a relapse, or slicing his own veins to get the evil blood out.

Paloma and Cristóbal (not yet glowing purple) tell each other how strongly attached they are. I hope Cris recovers super-fast, because I find hospital scenes quite tiresome. Even the zombie prison is better.

Luz tells Gabriel she knows his secret. He’s upset, but she says she found out quite a while ago, by accident, and it hasn’t changed anything between them thus far, so it needn’t change anything now. She won’t tell anyone. She does urge him to carpe diem, live life fully, fall in love, etc.

Cris tells Padre Benito he hates Carlota with the fire of a thousand suns and wants to kill her.

Paloma calls Gabriel and tells him that PJC is going to be fine. She says she’ll see him at their next class, and not to worry about Auntie Maim because soon (WHEN?!?!! This girl lives in Neverland) Paloma will be a legal adult and things will be so much better. Gabriel gets all smily and wiggles eyebrows with Luz.

Rufi tells Dr. Bermúdez about the second ring she found, exactly like Paloma’s engagement ring from Iñaki, which Carlota said was worthless. The doc wants to see them.

Mónica watches her son drawing with his class of little children. The kids are all wearing girly smocks. Joel shows up, says hello to the kid, and is rewarded with a big hug and kiss. He gives the little boy a present right in front of the other kids, which seems kind of rude, but they don’t seem to notice. Mónica is touched by the schmaltzy sentimentality of the scene.

Germán illuminates Paloma on the subject of prison vigilante justice. She wonders if there is something they can do to protect PJC and Natalia, like prove their innocence. Germs thinks that will be hard because he is a crappy lawyer who has been bought off by the opposition and no one can be bothered to investigate. He leaves to visit Natalia.

Loser Chava hangs in the park, drinking with his buddies. Meche shows up and yells at him. He tries to blame his drinking on the hypocritical killer priest.

Emiliano has taken Rufi and Paloma home, and Rufi is instantly summoned by the bellowing harpy, leaving Emo free to hit on Paloma, even though she keeps pointing out how his continued pursuit annoys her.

Carloca lounges in bed and demands juice, as she is feeling weak after giving up her demon fluid. She also wants to make sure Rufi knows that it is thanks to her that Cris is still alive. Rufi would rather thank God. She asks La Loca what exactly are her intentions in all this. Well, obviously, says Carloca, to keep Cris alive and make him eternally grateful to her. “And are you ever going to resign yourself to the fact that he will never return your feelings?” asks Rufi. Cruel glares.

Cris is still grossed out and horrified at having Carlota’s cooties. Dr. Rodolfo apologizes but says it was an emergency. Cris says he has a lot of suspicions about Carlota but isn’t yet ready to stir up (remover) the past.

Carlota is annoyed that it is so obvious that Cris does not return her affections. She tells Rufi that soon she will get a big surprise; everyone will find out that Cris is really in love with her. Rufi manages not to roll her eyes back so far that they get stuck, and leaves. Crueloca pulls out her precious envelope of “incriminating” creepy photos and tells Cris he’ll have to give in. She rubs the photos all over herself and seems to get all het up by that, blegh.

Paloma tells Emo it would be better if he just gave Romina a chance. He says he has, but his lips only want Paloma’s, and the lips don’t lie. He takes her hand and leans in, and when said lips are mere millimeters apart, we must go to commercial. Elmo and some fuzzy green character take the opportunity to teach us how to cough properly to avoid spreading disease, but they don’t mention kissing or devil blood cooties.

When we return, we can’t tell whether they are actually kissing due to the camera angle. Well, whatever, Emo says he’d better leave before things get harder. He makes it to the other side of the gate before he has his usual meltdown.

Camila is still tormenting herself with flashbacks of Rafael and Luz and trying to pep-talk herself into getting over it, since she was the one who left him. Mónica interrupts to rave about how well Joel and her son hit it off, and how happy she is that she can fall in love and have a partner in life after all. She hopes Camila will be as happy with Orlando. Cami tries to put on a brave face.

Emiliano drags himself home. Romina is for some reason super excited about the graduation party and showing him her new dress and asking him if he wants to invite his parents. Wow, this town has a dismal social scene. He says Germán wants to be invited. Romi doesn’t like that, but says he should invite Rafael and his new girlfriend. “Huh?” asks Emo. Romi says she saw them herself, and she never knew Rafa could be soooo affectionate. “Oy,” thinks Emo.

Samuel gives bewigged Diana a stolen flower and strokes her cheek. Maybe his oiliness will get rid of her squeaking.

Emiliano calls Rafa, who is hanging around in pajamas with Luz, to verify the existence of the new girlfriend. Rafa says it happened rather by surprise, and in carefully worded answers tells Emo part of him is happy, and the other part will just have to forget. You can guess which part is which.

Meche cries to Padre Mateo about her screwup grandson. PM says he’ll ask Emiliano to help him try to talk some sense into the kid.

Crueloca calls Germy and asks him if something could happen to Natalia in prison, also. “Gosh, I hope not,” says Germs. “But it’s possible, right?” Cruel asks hopefully. Germy looks appalled. They clarify that Cruel is willing to spend plenty of money to achieve her goals.

Natalia mopes in prison and remembers Cris leaving her at the altar. She tells herself that life would have been so different if they had just gone through with the wedding. Now she’s afraid she’ll be in jail forever.

Paloma asks Carloca about her conversation with Gabriel and his father. Carloca tries to claim Gabriel’s slinking around with his tail between his legs is his way of heading off accusations at the pass, so he must have had bad intentions. Carloca wants him to know she is there to defend Paloma. Paloma is confused and doesn’t think that is how he was acting at all. La Loca doesn’t like having her ridiculous assertions challenged so she says she’s tired. She warns Paloma to stay away from that wolf in sheep’s clothing, PJC (now with less P). Paloma says she will always believe he is innocent.

The lady on wheels checks into a hotel, asking for the biggest room they have. Samuel passes by her at the reception desk, on the phone with Romina. He claims he’s in Mexico City and just kept the room in Real del Monte (or is it in Pachuca? I don’t know) as a place to keep his stuff. Not to worry; the furniture is on its way. She invites him to her graduation. “Uhhh…didn’t you get expelled?” he asks. She still gets to go to the party, which is obviously the important thing. He says it would be too awkward to be around Camila. Emiliano eavesdrops and looks disgusted. He kisses Romina on the forehead and leaves, and Romi looks sad and rubs her belly.

Eric drops off an envelope in Germy’s office, and things instantly get hostile:
Germs: Just leave it there.
Eric: I’m not your cat; don’t order me around like you’re the boss.
G: I’ll be the boss soon, so you’d better get used to it.
E: You’re rising like foam, and foam disappears. Be careful.
G: Estúpido! You’re just jealous because Liliana can’t forget me.

Emiliano and Padre Mateo drop by Meche’s quesadilla stand while Chava is begging her for food. They’d like one of everything, and also a chat with the young hoodlum.

Rojas calls Germs and says he’s heard that he is Carloca Espiny de los Monstruos’s new lawyer. He warns Germy to watch his back and says he doesn’t know whether to congratulate him or offer condolences. Germán hangs up and says he’s just jealous.

PM and Emo give Chava a boring lecture. I could not care less about this character.

Rufi shows Rodolfo the two rings, looking nervously over her shoulder and saying she’s worried because she thinks La Loca has superhuman powers.

Paloma gives the madre superiora a copy of her graduation speech and says she doesn’t know whether it’s any good, as she can’t concentrate. MS says she can tell how strong a bond Paloma and Padre Juan have. Paloma is sorry that he won’t be able to be at the graduation. Yes, missing the graduation is really worse than being accused of murder, being sent to zombie prison, getting de-priested, getting shivved, and being pumped full of demon blood. This school really must throw one heck of a graduation party.

Germán visits Cris in the hospital. Cris asks him to make sure that Carlota is not present at the trial.

Carlota lounges about, dreaming of the day when she will be Carlota Espinosa de los Monteros de Gamboa. Good thing it will never happen; she would probably insist on being addressed by all of that, every time.

Cris sleeps and creepy music of doom plays as we see part of a picture drop onto his bedside table, then the door closing. The photo appears to be half a black-and-white shot of a baby, torn diagonally.

The next morning, a nurse removes Cris’s needles and wakes him up. Germy arrives and they help Cris sit up. No indecency in this hospital; the patients get to wear pants. Cris sees the photo and is stunned. He says he has the other half and never knew that this half still existed. He begs Germy to ask the other padres to find his half in his things and bring it, and to find out how this half arrived. Cris continues to hyperventilate.

Montage of Emo and Paloma making googly eyes at each other while Paloma supervises her art class and Emo halfheartedly kicks the soccer ball around with the boys. Time passes.

Cris returns to prison and is buddy-buddy with the other prisoners. Paloma visits Natalia. Time passes.

Luz snuggles up to Rafa in bed. Samuel and Diana get frisky on the couch. More time is passing.

Camila and Orlando plan their wedding. The padres hunt through Cris’s stuff and find the other half of the baby picture. More time passes.

Romina looks even bigger, and tries on dresses and cries about how huge she is. Emo laughs at her.

Paloma and Gabriel flirt a lot during her art lessons.

Paloma admires her dowdy graduation party dress and tells herself she will not be bitter and uncomfortable because she doesn’t have a date. Carlota comes along and tells her the dress is too daring and inappropriate. Daringly ugly, and inappropriately unfestive, I say. I don’t think she could possibly have found something more conservative. Anyhoo, Paloma doesn’t care. She’s proud that she bought the dress with money she earned herself.

FINALLY it is graduation day. Caps and gowns, smiles, diplomas, candles, speeches, making eyes at your married beloved, the usual. Paloma gets a special plaque for being the best. Everyone claps. Caps thrown. Fortunately, we are not subjected to Paloma’s speech.

Mañana: The big party. Paloma seems to have the impression it is a Victorian costume ball. She smiles at Gabriel and Emiliano gets ragingly jealous.

Labels: amor