Caray, Caray!

Said looks from his crying baby daughter to his crying baby wife, and he lets her stay in the house. In what status? They never say. Does she try to get along with him? Does she just coexist in the house without ever talking to Said? It’s hard to tell.

Ali is heard quoting something in the background. Allah created time, the creator and destroyer of all things, the giver and taker of life. But time is a mystery. We are taken to a time about 10 years later.

Little Jadiyah dances for the party, and Jade dances with her. Jadiyah has eyes only for her daddy, and daddy has eyes only for Jade. While Nariza, in full clown makeup, is making eyes at Ali. And Ali would rather gouge his eyes out than look at her.

Across the sea, Natalia, who looks about 14, is getting an award for being a star student. Lucas and Pop agree she’ll go far. But she’s terribly shy speaking in front of the crowd. (A 14-year-old girl who is awkward in social situations outside her age group? No puede serrrr!) Everyone is glowing except Marisa, crabby as ever. Backstage Natalia talks to her Cristina-in-training friend. Doesn’t Natalia know that to be friends, you have to dress exactly the same as everyone in your clique? Her friend cares nothing for studies, only boys. Lucas, Leo, and Rosa tell Natalia how proud they are. Marisa criticizes her clothing, her shoes, and her lack of make-up. You can tell this is telenovelaland. A real 13-14 year old girl would scream at her mother, “You hate me! You’ve always hated me! You want to ruin my life! Nobody understands me! I never want to see you again as long as I live! And can you take me and Cristy to the mall?”

Jadiyah has her mind on boys too. Only about 10, she wants to know if anyone has asked for her (hand) yet. Papa says she’s too young. Mama says she needs education and a profession first. Tio Abdul says that a women with an education puts her family in danger. Jade tells her daughter, “I’ve always told you, ignore what Tio Abdul says.” But Jadiyah doesn’t care about an education, only a husband, lots of kids, and lots of gold.

Marisa and Natalia continue their argument at home. Marisa says Natalia doesn’t pay enough attention to her appearance. I say she’s wrong. A person can’t find a shirt THAT ugly without looking hard for it. Naty tells Pop and Grandpop that none of her friends care who gets an academic medal.

At Casa Mohamed, Gloria and the Wild Ones move in across the street. She’s opening a bar, and her shirtless son and his two buddies are helping. The son has a round tattoo in the same place as Lucas’ mole. Not sure why. Gloria hollers across the street and invites them to her new bar. Latifa is scandalized. You’d think that after living in Miami for 15 years, she wouldn’t have seizures every time she sees a bare-chested man. Mohamed and Latifa hustle into the house. Gloria is offended by the snub. Doesn’t Islam value hospitality?

Little Amin goes snooping on the new neighbors. Ramon, the one with the shirt, catches him. He explains that Gloria’s son, Alejandro, is a cage fighter, and there’s a fight tomorrow night. Does Amin want to come? Gee, that’s a good way to lose your liquor license on the first day of business!

Said brings Jade a gold bracelet and says he remembers the first day he saw her. He thought, “I want to make that woman happy for the rest of her life.” I guess he never heard the song. He wants to know if he succeeded. Jade only answers that she couldn’t have a better husband. Later she tells Zoraida that Said is always bringing her presents. Z asks if she’s happy. Not happy, but tranquiliza - she has accepted this life.

Ali is fighting with one of his wives, and he declares that he’s going to get a fourth wife because the others don’t make him happy. Jadiyah overhears this and runs to tell Tia Nariza. Nariza sees her big chance, and she gets Jadiyah to agree to help her rope in Ali.

Latifa, wearing clown make-up and a very low-cut V-neck smock, asks Samira where her brother is. They can’t find him. Mohamed asks the neighbor (the one he snubbed yesterday) whether she’s seen him. She says no. Amin is actually inside watching the cage fighting. Okay, just a few oddities.
A. The business has café tables outside, and a general café environment, while inside it‘s crowded with rowdy people watching cage fighting.
B. It opened yesterday and already they have a big event with lots of patrons.
C. It‘s a bar, but nobody is holding any drinks, not even a bottle of beer.
D. This is Gloria‘s bar, and this is her big event, but she is outside sweeping the sidewalk.
E. Nobody has a problem with a 10 year old boy in the bar.
Time for a new beanie.

Latifa wants to call the police, and Mohamed urges calm. Amin comes home after the fight, and he tells his parents that he fell asleep in the mosque, because he was so tired from studying all last night. Latifa and Mohamed are uber-proud of their son. Amin and Samira pass glances, expressing how stupid they think their parents are for believing such a tale.

Dora shows up at Vicky’s door. She says she hasn’t heard anything from Daniel in five months. The problems started when they moved to NY. (No, Sister, they started long before that.) He never forgave her for taking him away from Albieri. She lost her house and would like to stay with them for awhile. Vicky says that Cristina met some gringo and is traveling with him. Vicky and another guy are running the bar. Dora’s ready to start a new life. Vicky says Osvaldo has been showing up at the bar. Dora muses that she would like to be with Osvaldo again. (New life? Isn’t that her old life?)

Meanwhile Ozzie is watching dancing bimbos. He fancies that one of them has an eye on him, but she walks right past him to her young, buff boyfriend, Alejandro who just won $2,000 in the cage fighting.

At la casa grande, Leo is in a mood (no puede serrrr!). Enrique says it’s because Cristina left with that gringo. She has some sort of hold on him. It’s as if Leo has lost the will to live. Leo goes to Diego’s old bedroom, still left in shrine condition. He thinks about the loss of Diego.

Odd scene. By the pool, Lucas and Marisa meet up with the parents of Natalia’s friend. The men go off to the gym. The wife complains how hard it is to be married to such a handsome husband because all the bimbos are drawn to him like flies.

The bare boys of the neighborhood decide to visit Mohamed’s store. Latifa is scandalized by their bare chests and starts screaming. They just look at her, perplexed. Mohamed comes and kicks them out. They offer to put on shirts to make him happy, but he just wants them to leave. Back at the bar/café, Alejandro tells Gloria that he only needs to win two more fights to go to Nationals, with TV coverage and lots of money. His buddy says that he needs to do something to get some publicity. Like fight the hulk at the local gym. Victor “The Murderer” Guzman. He’s never lost a fight. They go down to the gym and watch him pulverize somebody.

At the mall, Marisa tells the other lady that her marriage is important to her, but Lucas is a hopeless case. The woman asks if that woman in Morocco is still a problem. Marisa says no way, she’s been out of his life for a long time. Meanwhile Lucas finds and old picture of Jade in some old books.

At the clinic, Luisa reads Albi an article about the ethics of parents choosing the gender of their offspring. Albi says that if that is accepted, maybe soon the public will accept human cloning. Luisa is surprised that he would even consider such a thing, given all the ethical issues. Albi says maybe a human clone already exists. At home, Albi decides that if Daniel appeared in his life, it would be a scandal; “it would be the end of me.” Just then the doorbell rings. It‘s Dora..

Labels: clon