Caray, Caray!

Upstairs at the big mansion, Nereida the maid tries to serve dinner on a tray to cheerless Gretel, but Fedra insists that Gretel has to go downstairs and eat with the family. Gretel actually goes, but not happily, and I’m surprised to see when she puts down the cat she is constantly petting that it is actually alive.

At the boarding school, Eva’s remains have gotten the express service through the crematorium. Marianela and her classmates are in the dim candlelit chapel crying and praying when Netty brings in the wooden box of ashes and says they will return to the city that night. A nun tells them that she has called the family with the news.

Back at the manse, Emiliano tells the family (minus Kristel, who is no doubt out somewhere consoling Mauricio for his loss) that Eva is dead. Everyone is too busy being quietly stunned and sad to notice the gloating smirks on the evile faces of Fedra and Bernardo.

Marianela and Netty say goodbye to the nuns as their luggage is loaded into a car. Mari sobs about the injustice of losing her mother just as they were going to be together finally. The nun offers well-meaning platitudes. After Marianela goes to the car, Netty privately worries to the nun that Mari is probably going to be made to live in that house of vultures (buitres).

Meanwhile, in the house of vultures, Fedra and Bernardo search through a sheet-draped bedroom. Bernardo finds a wooden chest under the bed. They open it on the dusty bed and find a folder of papers and heaps of cash and jewelry. Apparently it is the estate of Eva’s deceased husband. Fedra thinks Eva was stupid to renounce that fortune, but Bernie says she probably was just saving it to give to Marianela. Well, obviously these greedy jerks can’t let that happen. Bernie assures Fedra that he can forge Eva’s signature. Thunder crashes, lightning flashes, and Fedra hurriedly shoves everything back into the box and says she wants all of it. She thinks it will be easy to make people believe that eternally inebriated Eva drank away her entire fortune. Bernardo worries about Marianela asking about her inheritance. Fedra thinks 10 years locked away in a boarding school should have made Marianela clueless.

As they sneak down the hall with their loot, Bernardo and Fedra run into Gretel, who is glaring and suspicious. She asks what they were doing in Eva’s bedroom. They unconvincingly claim they are getting it ready for Marianela to stay there. Gretel gives them sideways looks as Bernardo leaves with the chest.

Marianela and Netty make their way through the airport, arguing about a man Mari says Netty shouldn’t have fought with. Netty was offended that the man called Marianela “Gorda.” Mari says she did step on his foot. Netty says she apologized, and the guy was very rude, and Marianela needs to learn not to let people treat her badly. Emiliano greets them and Netty turns to him, all fluttering eyelashes and fan and het-up hormones. He offers condolences to Mari and gives her a big hug, and Netty snuggles up against his back to get in on the action.

It’s breakfast time at Vulture Villa. Head Vulture Fedra complains to her children about Marianela coming to stay. Emanuel doesn’t see what the problem is; after all, it is Mari’s house, too. WAS her house, says Fedra. Kristel wonders whether Marianela is as pretty and stylish as her mother. “Eva pretty? Ha!” says Fedra. “Her looks are all makeup and plastic surgery.” {That is a bit meta, no?} Emanuel insists that Eva was very beautiful, and there is no need to be rude to a poor girl who just lost her mother. Fedra whines that she doesn’t want some scandal if Marianela tries to demand her rights. Gretel stomps out, accusing Fedra of paranoia. “Paranoia” seems to be new vocabulary to Fedra, and Emanuel has to explain it to her and agree that she is indeed paranoid if she is threatened by Marianela. Axel glares at his mother.

Emanuel leaves the house and is super friendly to the gardener (Benino?) and then tells him of Eva’s death. Benino is super upset about it. He remembers Marianela riding her bike in the garden. He has apparently missed Mari and Eva greatly. Emanuel tells him that Mari is coming to live with them. As soon as Emanuel leaves, Benino gets on his radio, muttering that the General has to know this right away. “Aquí, gorrión. Aquí, gorrión. Llamando Halcón Imperial, cambio,” he says into the radio (Sparrow here, Sparrow here. Calling Imperial Falcon, over”).

In a far more humble house which has flaking red paint on the shabby outside, but is fresh and nice on the inside, Consuelita sweeps the floor and muses that Netty must be having such a good time with her sister and niece. Doris is applying makeup to her mother, Gladiola, and complaining that mom won’t hold still. The phone rings and Consuela answers with “Netty’s Pension.” It’s a job offer for Doris. The mortuary needs her to apply makeup to some deceased person. Doris is excited to have the work and runs off, teasing her mother about being good practice for funeral makeup. Gladiola teasingly threatens to report her abuse to Brandon, the policeman. After Doris leaves, Gladiola tells Consuela that she’s really worried about Brandon. He should have been home already, and they’ve heard nothing from him.

At the detention place, a guard comes to fetch Brandon from his cell. He complains that he’s been there two days and hasn’t even been allowed a phone call. He wants to go home and says he doesn’t deserve this treatment. The guard says this is the treatment he will get until he can prove he’s not a terrorist. {Is this real, or telenovelaland liberties? Do people accused of terrorism really not get to make a phone call in the U.S.?} They go off to see the immigration people.

Marianela is still in her ugly school uniform when she arrives at the house with Emiliano and Netty. She looks around at the house and yard wistfully and says she had wanted to come home, but without her mother it just isn’t the same. Netty tells her she’d like to have her come stay with her, but for now she has to stay with these relatives. Just watch out for your uncle’s nasty scheming wife, she warns. Netty tells Mari she’s written down her phone number for her, and she should call for any reason. Emiliano impatiently calls Netty to the car so he can drive her home, and Netty tears herself away, fretting about overweight Mari being left in this house where the residents are so fixated on appearances. They drive away and Marianela is left standing there outside by herself.

In Nueva York, Ilitia is needlessly rude to the hotel desk clerk because she wants to call her novio, and the clerk says all the lines are tied up. The lady says they can try again later, but Ilitia brattily snerks that she will be back home before this incompetent peon can manage to get the job done. The clerk rolls her eyes heartily as soon as Ilitia’s back is turned. Ilitia redirects her whining to her mother. Mom thinks Ilitia should back off of Emanuel a bit, and they’ll be home soon anyway, but Ilitia claims it’s felt like centuries since she’s talked to him, and what if when she finally sees him it turns out he’s replaced her?

Emanuel is jogging around the large garden. The gardener sends two dogs to chase him, for a little extra motivation. The pack rounds the corner, scaring the daylights out of Marianela. She runs, too, but then trips and falls on the lawn. The dogs are looking a tad bloodthirsty, so Emanuel grabs Mari and they both fly into the pool to escape the beasts. And thus we have our first quasi-romantic water scene, and it’s only day two. Her skirt floats up to reveal large granny pants, he’s all legs and arms, a tad gropy as he makes sure she’s okay. When they’re up for air, he stays right in her face as he asks who she is. “Marianela,” she replies.

In the car, Emiliano doesn’t know why Netty is so worried about Marianela living in his house. After all, that is her position as an heiress. Netty says all his family thinks about is money, but some things are more important. For example, love, which is what Mari really needs more than anything.

Marianela and Emanuel still haven’t made it to the side of the pool, and now Mari has lost her glasses and can’t see anything. Emanuel says he’ll find them. Benino comes back and tells him to hitch up his pants and get her out of the pool. Em tells him to take the dogs away. They flail underwater some more.

In the car outside Netty’s house, Netty tells Emiliano that Marianela should live with her. After all, Eva was her sister. Emiliano holds Netty’s hand (which seems to give her a hot flash) and says Mari is his niece, too, and it will be better for her to live with a family. Netty gets offended and says she may not have a family, but the people who depend on her have never lacked for anything. She flounces out of the car and Emiliano chases after her.

Gladiola is now kvetching to Consuela that her daughter can’t have a decent job. No, she has to put makeup on dead people. The little boy runs in with the newspaper and shows them the story on Eva’s death. They are all impactados.

Marianela and Emanuel are still groping in the pool. How hard is it to get out of a pool, anyway? Apparently pretty hard. For some reason Marianela apparently can’t climb the ladder, so Emanuel and Benigno have to join efforts and heave her out as the cameraman gets a lot of leg shots. She lies on the pool deck, and the silver lily drifts to the bottom.

Netty and Emiliano fight over her luggage. She’s ranting so vociferously that people on the sidewalk stop and stare. Some busybody neighbor lady comes along and tells her if she fights with and runs off handsome men like that, she’ll never find a husband. Netty is embarrassed for Emiliano to hear that she’s looking for a husband, and she denies it at great length and speed. She takes her suitcase and goes into the house, but he follows her in.

Dolores has joined the crowd inside. They speculate that Marianela will come here to live with her aunt. Netty comes in, crying, and accepts condolences.

In her office, Fedra throws a tantrum about the possibility of Marianela getting her inheritance. She’ll be 18 in only a month, so they need to do something fast. Bernardo tells her not to worry, he’ll take care of everything. Fedra wants Eva’s entire estate, so she says Bernie should create paperwork showing that Eva was heavily in debt to her. She hears the dogs barking outside and gets crazy unhinged about that, too.

Marianela is now lying on the grass unconscious, even though she was floating just fine a minute ago. Maybe our inept rescuers bashed her head when they hauled her out. Nereida and Delicia have rushed outside to see what is going on. Benino thinks she’s dying and they should call an ambulance, but Emanuel says she’s not going to die. He rubs his hands together, licks his lips, and starts on the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Nearly drowning has never been so appealing. The maids swoon. Fedra, Bernardo, and the siblings run out of the house in time to see this passionate public display of medical attention. Fedra is horrified. “Emanuel?! What are you doing kissing that fatso?!”

Fedra demands an explanation. Emanuel says he’s busy and goes back to the breathing. Fedra won’t give up. “Who is this beached whale (ballena varada) and what is this spectacle?!” Kristel looks nauseated. Emanuel says she is the daughter of uncle Luis Felipe, and she fell into the pool (he says alberca, not piscina) and nearly drowned. “That fatty is my cousin?” asks Kristel, overwhelmed with disgust.

Netty sobs to her supporters that the Ruiz y Teresa folks wouldn’t let her bring Marianela here, where she should be. Instead, she is living with that woman who is probably glad that Eva is dead. Gladiola encourages her to dwell on the positive: Marianela is still alive, and is nearly all grown up and probably as beautiful as her mother. At that, Netty launches into a fresh round of sobs.

Emanuel tries chest compressions, which finally makes Marianela spit up a lot of water and wake up. Fedra asks why they went swimming with all their clothes on, and Emanuel impatiently says they jumped in to get away from the dogs, who were trying to bite Mari. Fedra snarks that it’s a good thing they didn’t succeed; they would have gotten indigestion from so much fat. Then she looks Mari up and down and tells her it’s obvious she is going to be much cheaper to clothe than to feed. Lovely woman. Fedra asks how Marianela got here, and Mari tells her Emiliano dropped her off and then took Netty home. Fedra does not seem happy to hear that and brusquely says the party’s over and sends everyone back to their regularly scheduled vapid timekilling. She tells the maids to get Mari cleaned up (throwing in a nasty comment about Mari probably needing help to reach her feet) because she certainly can’t be in the house like THAT. She mutters to Bernardo about Emiliano going to the house of that actress (she says actress like it’s a vile slur). Emanuel obliviously holds Marianela and looks blissful that she is there and undrowned.

In the immigration office (where the artwork is an image of George Washington, straight off the middle of the money), Brandon argues a bit with the agents and finally is given his belongings and his freedom. He takes his leave with a “see you later; thank yous” and his English pronunciation is every bit as good as his old buddy Fidel’s.

The Ruiz y Teresa kids have no activities to return to, so they are still standing in the yard staring at their cousin. Kristel teases that it was good thinking, siccing the dogs on Marianela. Mari is hurt, and Emanuel tells her to pay no attention to Kristel’s nasty little jokes. Gretel says this is no way to greet a person, and tells Mari that she’s very sorry that she had to come live in this house. Gretel leaves too, and Axel, unsure what to say or do, just shrugs and walks inside also. Mari tells Emanuel it’s true; she NEVER should have come here. Emanuel’s beamish optimism is challenged a bit.

Back in Los Angeles. {Did Macy’s pay to get that banner in the establishing shot?} Surprisingly, we do not join Brandon, but Ilitia and Camila, in the airport. No direct flights from New York, I guess. Camila is on the phone with Lorenzo, who catches her up on the situation (race won, Eva dead, Marianela en casa). Camila asks Lorenzo to pick them up at the airport, but Lorenzo, who is in bed with some dame, claims to be too busy with work.

Back at Casa Catty, older housekeeper Paula (formerly known as Asunción in Mi Pecado) has taken charge of Marianela. She sends one of the young maids for Mari’s luggage, and another to get the glasses Emanuel is searching for.

Emanuel is sitting on the edge of the pool, remembering the whole dramatic encounter and wondering why he’s so smiley. Delicia comes out and tells him Mari needs her glasses. He tells himself finding her glasses is a good opportunity to mend the rift with his cousin. He dives in and fetches the glasses from the bottom, and sees the silver lily brooch as well.

Netty is still crying to her captive audience. “Mari looks nothing like her mother, and even less like me!” The phone rings again. It’s the funeral home, wondering if Doris is waiting for the deceased to be revived before she shows up to do the makeup. Doris runs along to work. A bunch of kids who are apparently Netty’s acting students arrive for her class. Gladiola protests that she’s in no state to teach right now, but Netty insists that an actress never fails to do her job.

Emanuel is inside, arguing with Delicia that he wants to deliver the glasses to Marianela himself. Delicia won’t let him. She says it’s Paula’s orders; Mari wants to see no one. He argues that he is not just anyone, he is her cousin! Nothing doing; Delicia is one servant who is not easily cowed by the patrones. She takes the glasses and slams the door in his face.

Marianela is now dressed in dry clothes and in a tiny bedroom which is definitely not her mother’s old room. She hugs the box with Eva’s ashes and cries and remembers her mother singing with the mariachis. Somehow this does not make her laugh. Delicia arrives with the glasses.

In the fancier part of the house, Kristel snottily rants about that fat cow coming to live here with their pretty selves. {You’d be a lot prettier if you’d keep your mouth shut, witch.} Axel gets upset and asks her to please not talk that way to their cousin. Kristel says in a saccharine voice that of course she’ll be nicer—she’ll say things like hippopotamus, elephant, Himalayan mammoth, or how about her mother’s last name, Pavón (peacock), or rather, more like a stuffed turkey that feeds all the children at Christmas? Fedra thinks that is super funny. Emanuel hears this and gets mad at Kristel and says Mari’s mother just died and she should be nice to her (actually, he makes a crack about Kristel’s neuron deficiency). Axel vaguely agrees with Emanuel. Kristel thinks the death of a mother is an excellent opportunity to lose some weight. They continue sniping at each other. Fedra gives up on trying to reach Emiliano via phone. Marianela comes in and Fedra gets a start on putting her in her lowly place by insisting on being addressed as “Señora Fedra.”

Crazy Traumatized Gretel barricades her door and yells at the invisible demons to leave! She didn’t do it! She is guilty of nothing!

Downstairs, Fedra tells Marianela that she can’t stand to have fat people in her house, so Mari must lose weight starting immediately. Mari objects, but Fedra interrupts to tell her not to go in the pool in her clothes again. But on the other hand, the thought of her in a swimsuit… Kristel laughs viciously. Axel objects weakly to this mistreatment. {I say Mari should buy the sexiest swimsuit she can find, and lounge by the pool all day every day just to annoy Fedra.} Fedra’s last order is that Mari is to stay away from Emanuel and NEVER kiss him again. Mari tries to explain, but Fedra is not interested in facts.

Benino calls on his radio to some mysterious figure who is in a bedroom with a lot of radio equipment. Using the usual radio excessive wordiness, he reports to the “General” that Marianela is in the house and he is awaiting instructions.

Axel backs Mari up, and explains that Mari and Emanuel were not kissing; he was resuscitating her. Fedra says he is not to come near her like that again, not even to save her life. The very idea gives her chills and nausea. Kristel empathizes. Axel says Fedra doesn’t need to be so strict. Fedra says as soon as she loosens her grip, the house will fall down around her brick by brick. Axel leans in and murmurs, “Welcome to the mansion of terror” in Mari’s ear.

The General is some shaggy white-haired man. “If they dare to lay a hand on Marianela, I will kill!” he exclaims. He picks up a gun from the desk and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens. “First I will put in some bullets, and then I will kill!” he asserts. He gets the bullets, loads the gun, and fires into the wall.

Bernardo puts a lock on Eva’s bedroom door, saying to himself that he’ll keep one key, and Fedra will have the other. He heads down the hall with his toolbox. Emanuel cheerily greets him and says he looks guilty. Bernardo says he was just fixing up the room for Marianela. Emanuel doesn’t think she should be in that room; it has a bad vibe. Fedra’s orders, Bernie says. Emanuel shows him the silver lily he found. Bernardo is way interested. Emanuel says they must be thinking the same thing, about the old stories Bernardo has told him.

Fedra leads Marianela up the stairs and tells her she’ll have Eva’s old room. Mari says she’d rather have her childhood bedroom back. Too bad, it’s Kristel’s room now, says Fedra.

Emanuel and Bernardo discuss the brooch. It’s the symbol of the man in the legend, right? Bernardo says the story is true. He tells Emanuel not to mention this to his mother, because she had forbidden him to tell Em the story. He doesn’t know why; probably she didn’t want her kids hearing bandit stories. Just forget the whole thing. Emanuel says he can’t forget it. He pulls out a sketch Bernardo drew once which matches the brooch exactly, and which Bernardo had said the man in the story had as a tattoo. Bernardo tells him to leave it alone; there are enough problems in this house already. Emanuel continues to study the brooch and the sketch and look curious and mischievous.

Fedra escorts Marianela into the bedroom and tells her this is it; there is nothing from her mother’s estate to give to her. Eva left behind nothing but debts and bills to pay. You know how she was, a spendthrift drunk. But not to worry, Fedra paid them all off herself. Mari is not happy at the picture Fedra paints of her mother: always drinking, lost a ton of money in the casino, stole money from Fedra’s purse, drank her perfumes when she couldn’t get tequila. Mari looks sadder and sadder and thanks Fedra for everything she did for Eva. Fedra nastily says that all the thanks in the world wouldn’t be enough, but don’t worry, someday I’ll think of a way for you to pay me back. Mari doesn’t exactly look comforted by that. On her way out, Fedra tells Mari to put on better clothes and burn her school uniform. Mari says she doesn’t have much clothing. Fedra agrees that it must be hard to find her size. As a parting shot, she says that Eva must be happier now, because she always wanted to die.

Avances: Marianela wants to go live with Netty. Mari and Emanuel get cozier. Emanuel goes shirtless. Kristel and her evil minions plot against Marianela. Axel disapproves. Emanuel might kiss Marianela.

Labels: llena