Caray, Caray!

Great job, as always, Jean!

I'm glad you mentioned Ali's "lie back and enjoy it" comment. That left me with a bad taste in my mouth too.

I liked the look Said and Mohamed exchange when mention is made of choosing another husband for Jade: Mohamed just shakes his head as if to say "Not me, brother, not me".

Asking Sein to marry Jade seems immensely stupid on Said's part and raises the possibility of all kinds of delicious narrative complications -- including of course, that:

Sein and Jade might actually fall in love with each other.

Sein might agree to the plan but take Jade's side and help her get away from Said (and back to Lucas)
---
And certainly all of Sein's admirers, including the Naz and Malicia, would seethe with envy.

Of course the big question right now is: Why doesn't Jade simply grab Jadiya and run?
 

Thanks, Jean.

I always enjoy your summaries and pictures.

Prinny
 

Thank you, as always, Jean. And another thanks for the recappers and the commenters.

So Albi woke up with a headache. Surprise! Lois
 

Thanks, Jean, for the very helpful summarcap. I've not been able to watch the show for the past two nights, but the great summarcaps by you and NovelaMaven have made me feel completely up to date. Many thanks to both of you!

I wondered at first when I read your title, "Just when you thought that Islamic marriage law couldn't get any worse..." but it's perfect! Indeed, I have a hard time believing that there's a provision saying that if a man divorces his wife and then she marries another man and then gets a divorce from him, the original husband can marry her again. It sounds like a Rube Goldberg version of Islamic law.
 

Does anyone know if this business of marrying another man for one day and then getting back with the original husband is for real or telenovela hamburger plot helper?
 

Anonymous, I was intrigued by your question about divorce and remarriage and according to "Islamonline.net", it is a legitimate provision:

"She cannot go back to this husband who has divorced her three times, unless she marries another person who out of his own free will divorces her and then after the `iddah she and her previous husband want to remarry. This is called halalah in the language of the Shari`ah. This rule is given by the Shari'ah to reduce the occurrence of three divorces and to protect the honor of the woman."

Here's the specific citation, if you want to read more:

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503543322
 

The rules on remarrying after a 3rd divorce are true:

From the Koran:
[2:230] If he divorces her (for the third time), it is unlawful for him to remarry her, unless she marries another man, then he divorces her. The first husband can then remarry her, so long as they observe GOD's laws. These are GOD's laws; He explains them for people who know.
 

Novela Maven - two minds with a single thought - or access to Google!!!! ;-)
 

Thanks for the recap. I also googled it - seems to be true.

However, is a sheik/clergy has the civil power of marriage vested in them in a Western country, the divorce would also have to go through the courts.

Lynne
 

Thanks for the summary Jean! Nice pictures and comments.

I think the divorce law is being misrepresented. As some of you noted, the law says a man and woman who get divorced from each other three times can remarry, if the woman marries and divorces another husband first. The point is to prevent the couple from divorcing and remarrying endlessly. I see nothing wrong with that. But what Ali proposed, and what Said and (inexplicably) Abdul accepted is that Jade be forced to marry another man, divorce him, then remarry Said. As far as I know, Jade is not required to go along with this, even by their customs, and especially not by recent Moroccan law (not to mention U.S. law).

It is almost entirely out of character for Ali to force this on Jade. Almost, because even after he said she wouldn't have to marry Said, he forced her to do it anyway. (More or less. Officially she could have said no, and she had at least a legal right to refuse, but I don't know whether that would have mattered).

By the way, Said said the man in question "es de aquí" (American, presumably), but isn't Sein from Egypt? I thought Said meant Jade would marry Lucas, then be forced to divorce him (perhaps on pain of Said buying out la empresa Ferrer). But Lucas would have to convert first. (We don't know any Muslim men from the U.S., I think, but some have moved here. Like NovelaMaven, I enjoyed Mohamed's silent refusal to participate.)

By the way, the secretary at Albieri's clinic is Anita. She's been an audience-surrogate lately.

Rosa blows it again, failing to heed the warning signs about Nati. She is more concerned about ghosts.

Aside from Sein's possible involvement in this sham marriage, I like him OK. He seems to know what he wants, which doesn't include Alicia. And apparently he wants Cristina, who wants any attractive man who wants her. (But I still think she wants Leoncito most of all.)

It sounds like Albieri's plan now is to get out of the country and announce that he has created a clone. Maybe we'll see Betty Brown again (our only openly pro-cloning character, and our only upper-class Spanglish speaker).
 

:-( Very happy with the recap, but not so much with the family counsel. I'm shocked at Ali, and still dismayed with Said. I'm sure breakups are hard on all of us, but perhaps he doesn't take them very well.

expletive, expletive. (flag as inappropriate!)

How terrible it must be to be handled like property :-(
 

Jean, as always thanks for a summarecap that added an extra dimension of understanding to this TN. Thanks also to NovelaMaven and Lynne who, along with you, added some background research about the marriage "laws"...
Anonymous, you said it: is this for real or telenovela hamburger plot helper?!!!
I think we are starting to get a dose of plot helper, or maybe it's just plot metamucil (as in, "come on, get moving"...)
Joan
 

Great recaps & pictures.

I also agree, this marriage to zein should lead to some interesting outcomes.
Maybe someday luisa will find alberti's diary, since he's not ready to reveal that daniel is a clon.

kc
 

Poor nati, this show enjoys dragging her through the mud.
Once again she's on another drug - hallucinating like she's on acid.
I wish this show would have made marisa or alicia addicts but that would have never happened.
Their drug of choice is money.

kc
 

KC -- I liked what you said about money being the drug of choice for Malicia and Marisa. I would add a second drug -- control over others. Both of them live to manipulate other people. Greedy and manipulative -- what a charming combination! No wonder we love them so!
*****
Hey, I have a question for anyone who has access to English captions: How do they translate the word "odalisca"?
 

NovelaMaven: because of the famous Ingres painting of that name, I always imagined an "odalisque" to be a pampered lady with no visible means of support, who lounges on silk cushions...so that suggests a perhaps a "kept" woman who is shallow and has no hobbies of redeeming social value.
:o)
Joan
 

PS NovelaMaven: but I don't know how the caption translates "odalisca". I can't think of a word in English that would be similar.
Joan
 

Jean, great recap as always.

NovelaMaven, the definition is a woman slave in a harem.

Rosemary
 

Rosemary and Joan: Thank you both for your thoughts on how to translate 'odalisca'.

Joan, that's the image I have too, the sensual, reclining figure of the famous painting.

I'm just curious about the word chosen by the captioning people to convey the idea of "odalisca". We really don't seem to have an English equivalent. "Concubine" perhaps, although that doesn't seem quite right. Maybe the best thing to do is use the French "odalisque".
 

NovelaMaven, I guess I forgot to say that odalisque is an English word from the [F, fr. Turk odalik]. It is in Webster's.

I am surprised that Marisa has not put the moves on Sein. It would be wonderful if Jade did fall in love with Sein. Lucas is really very immature. Marisa and Lucas stayed married because of Nati and then promptly forgot about her. It doesn't look good for her at this point. Poor Rosa is just clueless.

Jean, I liked the title, but hesitate to dwell on Islamic marriage laws. The more I read about it the more I rant.

I am really disappointed in Ali.

Rosemary
 

Very perceptive comment, as usual, Luke. You are right, the Islamic law does not permit the divorced husband to forcibly marry his ex to someone else. Although the reasons are different, this is typical novela practice - the reasons that the protagonists can't get together get sillier and sillier.

The English subtitles translate odalisca as odalisque. While it literally means a harem slave, it is obviously being used by the Naz and others to describe Jade and Latifa as women who can't prepare the lamb and take care of their menfolk.
 

Interesting discussion. Yes, 'odalisque' is the word used in the English captions, but I'm sure it was new to most English-speaking viewers, as it was to me. In this context, the English word I would substitute is 'seductress'.
 

Jean, Thanks for the info. I also liked your contextual definition of odaliscas as 'women who can't prepare the lamb and take care of their menfolk.' It belongs in A Viewer's Guide to NazSpeak. An earlier entry in this volume was written by Juanita who explained that 'exhibicionista', when used to refer to Latifa and Zoraida, meant (más o menos, as best I can recall) 'a woman of exceptional virtue and modesty.'

Luke, I'm sure you're right about 'odalisque' being unfamiliar to most English speakers. I suppose 'odalisca' also sounds pretty exotic in Spanish. I would guess that whenever one of the Arab characters sounds 'foreign' in Spanish, what that person says is translated pretty literally into English in the captions to preserve the sense of the exotic. But when, for example, Abdul uses a Spanish modismo like 'darle gato por liebre', the English captions probably look for an equivalent idiom like 'to deceive him' or 'to con him'.
 

Great work and photos, Jean. I'm very late to the commenting.

I could bash Said over the head with something. But I have to remind myself that this is a TN staple. Although Said isn't exactly a villain, it's usually the villain who is obsessed with the heroine and doesn't give up his sexual obsession until he's killed off. The difference with this "made in the USA" novela is that Said has actually had sexual congress with the heroine. Usually in the Mexican-made ones he never gets even to first base.

I'm thinking Sein is going to fall for Jade hard. I doubt Said is going to permit consummation of the sham marriage, but there isn't much he could do to stop it.

If this wedding really happens, they'll probably go to Morocco for it, giving Jade and the clone a chance to encounter each other.

I don't like Nati's druggy part of the novela at all.

It was funny the way Rania and Jadiya looked at each other after Jadiya told Rania her mom was going to be first wife and bed partner again. Rania wanted to slap her and Jadiya just looked smug, understanding she'd given Rania one in the eye.

By the way, many, many years ago I used to wear a perfume called "Odalisque". I googled it and I guess it's still being sold.
 

Hehehe, if sales of "Odalisque" perfume skyrocket, maybe they will trace it back to CarayCaray!!!
Joan