Caray, Caray!

Capitulo 56

Repeated from last week, Ivana and Tizzy are arguing over Val’s intentions toward JM. Ivana ends the conversation by vowing that she won’t permit Val to take Jose Miguel.

Lummy is thanking Don Ernesto for trying to get Crisanta to accept her portion of Rosendo’s salary. Don Ernie says it’s nothing, it was all Valentina’s idea. A blissful Valentina bursts into the room and showers Ernie and Lummy with hugs and kisses. They’re pleasantly surprised, and she kisses each of them again before floating upstairs in a cloud of cartoon hearts and sprinkles. Benita walks in on the shocked Ernie and Lummy, who inform Benita that Valentina’s completely changed her tune. Benita smiles knowingly and says Lummy should get ready for the return of the sweet, real Valentina.

JM returns home a conquering hero, but is greeted by a grim-faced Juan and Sabino. They’ve just gotten the results of a test on a possibly poisonous weed growing on the hacienda. Juan and Sabino argue over who gets to break the news, but finally reveal that the weed was found to be harmless: somebody must have poisoned the cow on purpose! Sabino says Val must’ve become enraged over their supposed “bet” and poisoned the cow. JM staunchly defends her. “I’d put my hands in the fire for her,” JM says; he’s that sure of her innocence. JM admits, though, that the poisoner has it in for him, and there’s surely more mischief to come.

Back at Los Cascabeles, Benita surprises a beaming Val as she emerges from her bathroom/thinking tub. Benita demands to hear all the juicy details. “What details?” Val demurs, before hopping onto the bed and giving Benita the dish.

“JM and I are in love,” Val announces, and Benita swoons backward onto the bed. Val and Benita channel their inner 13-year-old girls by jumping up and down and shrieking. “I’m the happiest woman in the world!” Val shrieks. “I feel like my heart is going to burst!” “Careful, nina, you’re going to splatter me with love,” Benita shrieks back. At this rate, Enshrieketa is going to burst into the room at any second.

But as Val starts shrieking “JM loves me! He loves me!” It’s Count Skankula that darkens Val’s doorstep. Val and Benita’s faces fall. “You robbed his love from me, Valentina,” Ivana says flatly. “You don’t know how much I hate you.” She underlines that point by grabbing Val and flinging her around the room. Damn, I don’t know who’s gonna win this one. Val is probably more physically fit, but Ivana has more artificial body parts than the Bionic Woman.

The flinging culminates in a catfight on the bed, at least until Benita can drag Ivana off of Val. Ivana’s howling draws the attention of Tizzy, who walks in and demands to know what’s up. Ivana twists her face into some semblance of anguish and tells Tizzy that Valentina stole JM even though she knew how much she lusted after, I mean loved, him. Valentina tries to speak, but Ivana cuts her off, saying that if Valentina has everything, why did she need to take the only thing that ever mattered to her? Lummy is feeling left out, I guess, so she runs into the room for Valentina’s rebuttal.

Val begs Ivana to understand -- she fought this sentiment precisely because she knew it would hurt Ivana. Val’s cut short as Ivana starts clawing and vowing revenge again. As Tizzy starts dragging her out, Ivana snarls: “Hopefully history repeats itself. I hope JM betrays you the way Alonso betrayed you. It’s the least you deserve.”

Burn.

Back at Ivana’s room, she screams at Tizzy about how Valentina is an egoista and can’t stand to see her happy. First Val hated JM, and now she’s in love with him. “She’s doing this to torment me!” Tizzy’s protests only make Ivana madder. “I should have died when I took those sleeping pills,” Ivana says, “then I wouldn’t have ended up here.” Ivana insists that JM is the only man in the world for her and begs for Tizzy’s help.

Back at Camp Montesinos, Fed is congratulating JM on winning Valentina’s heart, but warns him that Val has a “strong character.” Speaking of bitches, Fed worries that Leo won’t take JM’s news well, and they agree not to tell her for now. JM, oblivious to Los Cascabeles Smackdown 2010, hopes that Ivana won’t take the news too hard. Fed warns that a woman scorned is capable of anything.

Sandra is crying to Dr. Felipe and describing her encounter with Horacio. She’s realized that compared to Ivana, she’s just a backwoods country girl that no man could be attracted to. Felipe responds by calling her beautiful and drying her tears. He says that when he first met her, fainted on the floor of her bedroom, he thought wow, this city has some beautiful women. “Even though you were the color of a fresh corpse!” That Flippy has a way with words.

Timo is mangling a math problem while Horacio wrestles with the cash register. Horacio is feeling restless, and Timo suggests he go for a walk. Horacio does him one better and decides to close down the store early. “I get to go home early!” Timo cries, but Horacio rains on his parade: Timo will have to accompany him. Where? Horacio won’t say.

Sandra thanks Flippy for listening to her prattle. “I can’t talk with my parents, much less my mother.” Felipe says that anytime she feels like talking, he’ll be there. “With house calls!” Sandra rains on his parade by marveling that the same woman who stole Horacio’s love also betrayed Flippy. Sandra regrets thinking that Val was the one trying to steal Horacio, and sheepishly tells Flippy about how she slapped her. Sandra is too scared to apologize, but Felipe insists Val’s a good egg.

Benita is comforting Valentina. Val says Ivana’s reaction was to be expected. But Benita says Ivana’s hateful words are indefensible, considering all the love and patience (and *cough* money *cough*) Val has shown her over the years. “She reacted like a woman in love,” Valentina muses. “If I had been in her place …” Benita is having none of it. Tizzy and Val have babied Ivana too much, Benita says, and her behavior is the consequence. Val hopes Ivana will get over it, but Benita shatters that illusion. “Ivana won’t stop at anything until she’s Mrs. Montesinos,” Benita says.

JM reaches home, where Leo has been waiting to have dinner with him. Too bad JM’s already had dinner with his father. He excuses himself to go do some architectin‘. Leo ill-advisedly tries to lure him back by saying that Ivana was at Montesinos Manor earlier. She laments that Ivana went away disappointed after she didn’t get to see him. JM tries to introduce Mom to cold, hard reality with a sit-down chat. “I know you think she’s the girl for me, and I respect your opinion, but Ivana doesn’t interest me at all.” Leo asks if Valentina Villalba is the one who really interests him. JM dodges the question and begs Leo not to get Ivana’s hopes up.

Leo talks up Ivana like she’s selling a used car (although the used car probably has fewer miles on it). JM is steadfast and says Ivana will find happiness with some other guy, maybe … Horacio? Leo is unimpressed, and JM divulges that Horacio broke off with Sandra because he’s in love with Ivana. Leo is even less pleased. JM hints at Horacio and Ivana’s hot love affair, which surprises Leo.

Meanwhile, Horacio is pounding back a tequila at the bar, next to a far less festive and far more sober Timo. He shares his philosophy on the two kinds of women: the kind that will make you suffer, and the kind that will make you suffer more. Just then the band shows up. Horacio encourages them to play, and they begin a special corrido Timo says was written expressly about Valentina Villalba. Horacio orders them to stop, because it’ll only remind him of Ivana.

They start a new song and Horacio joins in, singing about his broken heart and the woman who done him wrong. I’d translate the lyrics, but I think his staggering and wild gesturing got the point across.

A glowering Enriqueta intercepts Sandra and Flippy as he drops her home. Enriqueta pointedly says good night to the poor doctor, but Sandra sends him off with a kiss on the cheek and an “hasta pronto.” Sandra scolds Enriqueta for her rudeness. Enriqueta says that she’s taking her attempt to make Horacio jealous too far. Sandra is confused, but Enriqueta knowingly says that Sandra’s trying to make Horacio jealous by courting the doctor. Sandra laughs. “Yeah, of course.” Methinks Horacio is the furthest thing from her mind.

Meanwhile, Timo is trying to drag a drunken Horacio out of the bar. “I’ve never seen you like this, much less over a woman.” Horacio admits he’s always had an eye for the ladies, but says that he truly fell in love with Ivana. Timo encourages him to fight for the woman he loves, but Horacio sadly laments that Ivana’s fallen in love with his best friend, and there’s nothing he can do about it, even if JM doesn’t return her feelings.

JM scribbles in his notebook before pausing to remember his liplock with Val in the school field. He throws down his pen. “I love you, Valentina!” he shouts to the walls and the mice that probably live inside those walls. “I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love!”

In Los Cascabeles, Val completes his thought. “I love you, Jose Miguel. Thanks to you my life now has meaning.” If those crazy kids strung a few tin cans and a string between their ranchos, maybe they could talk to each other instead of babbling to themselves.

Ivana, meanwhile, is tossing and turning in bed. She curses at Valentina and says “JM is my only happiness, and you want to take him.” She’s rudely interrupted in that thought by Ghost Oscar. “After what you did to me, you’ll never find happiness,” he says. Ivana hurls a pillow and abuses, but Oscar tries to wrestle the blanket away from her. Ivana’s screaming and bad acting eventually scare Ghost Oscar away.

Fed and Sabino are hanging out by the lake when they see the herd of cows. Fed says the cows must be moved, because they might eat some of that poisonous Johnson weed, just like the cow that died. Sabino shares the test results with him; it wasn’t a plant that poisoned that cow. He laments that JM won’t listen to reason and refuses to believe that Valentina Villalba was behind the poisoning. Fed doesn’t understand, since she and JM patched up their differences. But not Rosendo, Sabino says ominously. Sabino asks Fed to warn JM, because Rosendo has him in his sights. Especially since Rosendo’s rumored to be in love with Valentina.

Fed protests that Val would never look twice at a guy like Rosendo. Sabino says it doesn’t matter: to Rosendo, Val is already his property. Fed hopes they can all avoid a tragedy.

Over breakfast, Valentina swears up and down that she never meant to hurt Ivana. Tizzy understands, but the damage is done. No matter what, Ivana now thinks that Valentina intentionally betrayed her. “What do you want,” Valentina asks, “that I renounce JM so that Ivana feels better?” Tizzy says of course not. After so much pain, Valentina deserves to be happy.

Ivana walks into Rosendo’s lair and announces that JM has finally conquered Valentina. She demands that he do something, and soon. “What do you want me to do, kill him?” Rosendo shouts. Ivana angrily tells him not to be such a brute, but Rosendo flies into a rage and says he’s used to removing his obstacles. Ivana counters that she knows how to remove obstacles, too. Besides ending up with JM, she would then inherit the millions from her deceased cousin Valentina.

Rosendo grabs Ivana by the throat. “You do something to La Duena,” he says, and “I swear, you’ll regret it.”

“The same thing goes for you,” she pants, “if you do anything to Jose Miguel. You don’t know me.” But we, and Oscar, sure do!

Rosendo lets go of her throat. “You’re the real viper in this hacienda.” Ivana replies with “I’m not the only one. That's why us two get along so well.”

Don Ernesto and Jose Miguel are overseeing work on the schoolhouse. At this rate, they’ll finish sooner than they expected. Valentina arrives, and Ernie says he better talk to her -- they both know she’ll refuse to speak to Jose Miguel. JM tells him not to worry about it, and strides over to La Duena. She immediately embraces him before getting serious. “Ivana knows about us.” JM holds her hand (discretion FAIL) and says that’s too bad. “Ivana hates me,” Valentina says. JM says people in pain say a lot of things they don’t mean.

“I don’t want to hurt her,” Valentina says. “We’ve had our differences the past couple of months, but she’s my cousin. She’s my blood." JM says Ivana will come to understand (uh, he has met her, right?) and embraces Valentina. Don Ernesto is pleasantly surprised.

Fed walks into the lion’s den, and Leo pounces immediately. “I thought you’d never set foot back in this place.” Fed says it’s his house too, and he can visit as he pleases. Leo says that if Fed’s expecting her to beg him to come back, he’s wasting his time. He says he knows she’s not the begging kind; she’s too proud. Leo smirks: "It’s not pride, it’s dignity." Something that JM obviously didn’t inherit from her, because he’s always at Los Cascabeles chasing Valentina.

Maybe he inherited that lack of dignity, Fed says, from his real father! Teresa chooses that moment to tell Leo that somebody’s looking for JM. It’s Rosendo!

“Hi, patrona,” he says as a horrified Leo turns away. “What, you don’t recognize me any more? Because I haven’t forgotten you.”

Back at the school site, JM is telling Valentina he hopes Ivana won’t become a wedge between them. After all, they’ve had plenty of roadblocks already. Valentina agrees. She’ll need some time to sort things out, but nothing will ever come between them. “That’s the way I like it,” JM says, removing her hat in preparation for a passionate kiss.

Back at Montesinos Manor, Leo tells Rosendo she could never forget a thief like him. “You call me a thief just because I borrowed a few pesos?” Rosendo asks. Fed orders him out, but Rosendo insists he’ll only talk to JM.

Fed says he knows Rosendo’s been targeting JM since he arrived in town, and he wants him to stop … or else. "Please, Don Federico,” Rosendo says. “Everybody knows you’re old and sick. And everybody knows you’ve always been a man of …weak character.”

“Not when it comes to my son," Fed says. "If you lay one hand on him, I’ll kill you.” Rosendo looks unconvinced.

Labels: stud