Caray, Caray!

The clinic staff is waiting when Leo arrives home, and delivers the bad news. Albieri says, “Our son.. is dead.” Leo recalls their final conversation, at the same spot in front of the house. Diego said, “If you want me to return, tell that woman to leave.” Leo told Diego that she stays. Diego answered, “Tú elejiste (you chose),” his final words, and left.

We see a variety of reactions.
• Leo is stunned and stoic.
• Rosa is just the opposite, hysterical, and the deputy has to pull her away from the crash site moaning, “My son needs me.”
• Luisa determines how Leo is supposed to be mourning – he’s doing it wrong.
• Enrique takes charge of the tramites – the arrangements.
• Albieri, who wouldn’t listen when Ali tried to instruct him, now does begin to listen when Life teaches him (he who will not be ruled by the bridle will be ruled by the bit). He says, “When you feel big and important, and that now you control your own destiny, this is thrown in your face and you realize we are nothing. Death is nature telling us that even with all our science, we are but dust.”
Leo tells Enrique that Lucas needs to be here at Leo’s side where he belongs. Enrique tries to console Leo, telling him to accept God’s will, but Leo doesn’t want to hear any “religion” (his throne only seats one). Leo grasps at straws and convinces himself that it’s all a mistake, that it wasn’t Diego’s body in the crash.

Ali brings the girls the good news – everything is settled, and the wedding is on. But he feels sorry for Said – Jade could make a man very happy, or miserable. Latifa starts talking up their sister, Nariza (I like Jean’s Freudian typo; I think I’ll keep it), but Ali says she’s an unrelenting conspiradora. Alone, Jade wonders what Latifa is trying to do, since Latifa can’t stand Nariza. Considering that Latifa will be living in the US, she wants Nariza to be a distant relative, the more distant the better.

Ali takes a call from Albieri and dismisses the girls. He finds out about Diego, and that no one can reach Lucas. Ali promises to do everything he can to contact him. Jade hears the name of Lucas, and hope returns. When he didn’t show up at the ruins, maybe it was because of family matters! She begs Zoraida to read her fortune. Zoraida reluctantly agrees.

Latifa desperately looks for the steamy DVD. Jade comes in and says she has to figure out how to escape the marriage. Latifa goes into whiney mode: “Don’t you dare! You’re destroying my life. You made me lose Said, and next I’ll lose Mohammed, and then .. What a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my..” Oops. Wrong movie.

Back in Miami, Dora gets the low-down on that low-down Osvaldo. He’s sterile and the whole pueblo knows it. The neighbor says he’s like a agacate macho (avocado ??) – no da hijos. She chases him outside and rails at him. You’re dead to me, it’s a relationship of lies. She punctuates her screams with thrown shoes and the engagement ring.

In the marketplace, Nariza thinks her brothers are fools to want to marry the girls, especially that out-of-control Jade. Said is sure he’ll be able “acomodarla a mi manera” – that wording could have at least two meanings, perhaps three. Nariza thinks he acted like a fool, falling all over himself for her, and that soon she’ll lead him around by the nose. Said says he won’t let that happen, and closes the subject. Until Nariza suggests she might not be a virgin, or she might cheat on him after they are married. She suggests Jade be cortada (female circumcision) because women have too much passion and must be cooled off. (Paula to self: Hold me back! Hold me back!)

Zoraida reads Jade’s coffee grounds. “A love that will last your entire life. Joy that turns to sadness that turns to joy.”
Jade inserts, with excitement, “Then we’ll be together! He’s el amor de mi vida! I knew it the moment I saw him!”
Zoraida continues, “You’ll meet the same man two times (i.e. Jade will meet him for the first time, twice. Time will pass for you but not for him. The past and the future will cross in front of you, and you will decide whether to take the path that leads backwards, or to continue forward. Love will last a lifetime, but it doesn’t say you will be together. Perhaps you will lose him and re-find him later.”
Jade doesn’t like the direction this is taking, and she makes Zoraida stop.

Cris is talking to Vicky, grateful that it was her destiny to be with Leo. Vicky asks, “What about Diego?” Vicky couldn’t care less about Diego, all that matters is that Leo is at her side. As far as she’s concerned, Diego is dead. And in true novela timing, Cris’s friend calls; she heard on the radio that Diego is dead. Cris protesteth too much, that she never wished him any harm. She goes to her room and talks to a strange picture – it’s a collage where she cut out pictures of Leo and Diego, and she put herself between them. Perhaps she doesn’t have any actual pictures of herself and Leo? She tells the picture, “I love him.” Just then her purse, her gold purse, breaks its strap and falls to the floor. There’s a lesson here: In books and movies, rain is never just rain. In novelas, things never just fall. Especially not when they play the profound music.

In Diego’s old room at Leo’s house, Albieri remembers times with Diego. When he took pictures of a cloned cow. When Albieri told Diego about a cow/sheep chimera. (Per Ask a Geneticist (click here), a chimera is an animal with two types of DNA. It can happen when developing fraternal twin embryos fuse together to become one embryo. Think of this is as the reverse of identical twins where a single embryo splits into two. See also Wikipedia. Albieri collapses in grief.

Back in Morocco, the brothers want to know if the girls have been circumcised. (Ali’s temperature rises.) The brothers say the religion requires it. (Ali boils over.) Ali sets them straight (con fuerte!) – it’s a custom, it’s not in the Koran, it’s not from Allah! I challenge you – where is it? Said tries to hold his ground, “It has to be in there somewhere!” (If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard a heresy defended with those words..) Ali lays down the law – you can back out of the marriage if you wish, but my nieces will not be cut, they will continue as God made them. Said defers to Ali – “if you say it is not in the religion, we accept it because you are wiser than we are (boy howdy!).” They will be satisfied if he gives testimony that the girls are virgins.

A servant (who looks more like Said and Mohammed than either of them look like each other) comes in and tells Ali that Lucas has been found, and he is with Bedouins. Ali tells Zoraida to prepare the guest room; Lucas will be staying with them. Zoraida is impactada.

Ozzie tries to appease Dora with flowers, but she throws them back at him. She tells the clinic doctor that she quiera a Osvaldo, but quiera hijos más. Yeah, Honey, you put up with anything, up until you found out he couldn’t be your bed-warmer sperm donor. The doctor suggests in vitro fertilization.

Zoraida tries to warn Jade that with Lucas as their house guest, the situation is even more dangerous. Hospitality is sacred in their culture, and if Lucas offends his host he could be killed for it. Jade, as usual, blows her off. All she can think of is living under the same roof as Lucas, and besides, soon they’ll be faaaar away. That’s one honking-big anvil.

Leo is tormented with memories. Notice how much he looks like an invalid ever since the news? He goes to the mortuary and looks at Diego’s casket. Cris comes in and, ever respectful, is wearing a black floozy dress. Leo tells her to get lost. “I never preferred you over my son! NEVER!” Sounds like he’s trying to purge some ghosts that will not leave easily.

Ali arrives at the Bedouin camp to bring Lucas home. Ali says Lucas needs to go back to the US soon because his father wants to see him (but dodges questions of why). But he reminds Lucas that God is the one who gives life and death. Lucas asks what he’s getting at, and Ali dodges. They get back to the house, and Lucas and Jade lock eyes once again, but a cloud hovers over Jade.

Did the rest of the country get previews? I think ours (Pacific Time) got cut off for the soccer game.

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