Caray, Caray!

If no one else steps up, I can do it. I do enjoy Llena de Amor. :D BUT, Cap'n Sylvia, Julia, Judy, or the other recappers whose names I forget at the moment but whose recaps I always enjoy so much, if you read this and can do a recap, por favor, I'd love to read your take on this episode! :-)

I am so sorry that real life has interfered, Chris!
 

Sweeney, I'll write what I remember and you can fill in the blanks.


Marianela ends up winning the beauty contest and she's clearly the crowd favorite. However Ilitia is incensed and rips Mari's blouse open in front of the crown. Once again Eman pulls a table cloth off a table to cover her up. He even tells the people "here we go again" which was pretty funny. Then Kristel viciously pops off at Mari which earns her a slap in the face by Emiliano.

Mari is ashamed and mortified and flees in tears.

Netty tells off Kristel and Emiliano forces Kristel to listen as Netty tells her when she loses her looks nobody will like her because her inner self absolutely sucks.

Ilitia also dashes out (probably before the crowd can attack her) and sees that the naco has arrested her daddy.

Emanuel looks all over for Mari and finally finds her. She practically leaps into his arms for a big hug so he can console her.
 

Continued:

Meanwhile Fedra and Spidey have snuck off to find Gretel and Oliver. They park the car in the dark and Fedra yells something which wakes Gretel up. She jumps up all paranoid and Oliver takes his gun to check outside but doesn't see anything. Suddenly Spiderus busts the door down and it's a Mexican standoff. He's got his gun six inches from Oliver's face and likewise. Fedra stands between them daring Oliver to shoot his "suegra" and she grabs Gretel. The two men wrestle over the guns and we hear a shot. Gretel is horrified. Fedra is horrified. Spiderus walks through the door and I am horrified. Oliver has been shot and is on the floor, I think he's conscious. The villains drag Gretel away.

Kristel gets bad stomach pains and Emiliano and Nety take her to the hospital. The doc says she'll be OK but she lost the baby. Hoo boy Emiliano has quite a reaction to this news. Nety calms him down.

Emanuel takes Marianela to a very romantic scene, a room draped in white cloth, candles, roses, a romantic dinner. He is incredibly sweet and for the first time tells her "te amo", "I love you", which is serious business and a huge step up from "te quiero".

I feel like I'm forgetting something. Sweeney, what else happened?
 

Sylvia- You forgot that Begonia got bumped off, Baby Cristian stolen and dumped on a pile of branches in a scary neighborhood! In addition to the horrible shooting of Oliver, the kidnap of Gretel, and the miscarriage of Kristel, this was a pretty dark episode considering it also contained our heroine winning the beauty contest.

Thanks so much for the quick rundown of events. What an episode! Chris- I hope things get less hectic for you.
 

Oh my that's right! Those stupid guys who killed Begona saw Lowrenzo being hauled off in handcuffs and the head guy didn't know what to do with the baby so they abandoned it. The second guy didn't want to but he went along. Don't they think Lowrenzo will be absolutely enraged when he finds this out? When Lo was at the police station he wanted to call those guys to check on his kid.
 

So Begoña actually got killed?!!! I missed that part. Sob.

Ilitia really took her brattiness to new heights. Well, higher than she's shown in public, anyway, although she's been this awful to Muñeca in private. As the reigning queen, she was supposed to crown Marianela, but she just threw the crown on the floor and had a childish tantrum right there on stage. André tried to smooth things over but there was only so much he could do, especially after Kristel tore off Mari's shirt. I liked Netty telling Kristel off.

Also, backstage, Brandon told Ilitia that it's her own fault Emanuel ditched her, not Mari's, because she's a childish brat. That's the third person who has pointed that out to Ilitia...how many will it take for her to believe it?

Oliver's got to be okay, right? I will be seriously depressed if he doesn't make it.

There was so much darkness it was kind of hard to enjoy Emanuel's and Mari's romantic evening. Maybe Monday will be better. I'm pretty sure they were in the studio at the publicity agency. Must be nice to have an assistant to set up dinner and light a hundred candles just in time for your arrival.

Oliver should have just shot Spiderus and Momster. He didn't have to kill them, just incapacitate them. Doesn't he have a Taser?
 

Oliver was conscious so there is hope! Also, the bad guys said that Begonia's body was in the trunk but we haven't gotten confirmation yet. They are so stupid that maybe they bungled it. Maybe she's still alive. It's unlikely but I'm a cockeyed optimist.

That makes sense about the romantic bedroom being in the studio.
 

Thanks everybody for jumping in with the recap.

I found this episode to be very strange. Light-hearted and funny in the way that the one thug kept nattering on to the baby, automatically figuring he'd get diapers and formula for the little guy once he saw Low carted off.

The rest, scandal, emotional and physical cruelty, murder and a seduction set-up scene between cousins. Yikes.
 

I think all of you have covered most of this episode, thank you! It was quite something, wasn't it?

We haven't seen Begoñia's body, but the thugs referred to her as "the body of the mother" (or something similar) so I guess we are to believe she's dead. That depresses me something terrible, even though she wasn't my favorite character. And then it was weird how the one thug was cooing over that baby as if he had normal instincts, all the while we know he'd just killed the baby's mom. Weird.

It was disturbing how they just left the baby propped up on a stack of garbage or wood or something? We know the baby will be found soon, because it's right in the middle of a residential area, but how weird.

I admit to the most un-correct feeling of "YESSSSS!" when Emiliano slapped Kristel across the face. I know that it's wrong to cheer a man slapping a woman, but dammit, Kristel had just literally ripped Mari's clothes off of her, exposing her in just her bra, in front of a crowd of people. Mari was humiliated beyond words. Emiliano has been a whipped husband and a clueless father for so many years (so he's partly to blame for how out of control Kristel has become) but it was satisfying to FINALLY see him step up to the plate and do something.

And then when Netty got up on the stage and made some stirring speech about (I didn't really catch all of it, but presumably something about "beauty from within") and Kristel wanted to leave (after being slapped thoroughly by her father), oh no, Emiliano restrained her and made her stay up there on the stage too and listen to everything and face the glares of the audience.

If only someone had done that earlier for Ilitia when she threw the crown at Mari's feet!

Well! It was satisfying, that is all I can say, after seeing these skinny bitches dump on Mari for so long.

Yeah, I think Oliver is still alive. His and Gretel's story can't be over yet! But I anticipate some nonsense where he/she thinks he/she is gone/dead/betrayed the other and that keeps them apart for many episodes.
 

I found the slapping of Kristel very satisfying. I didn't really think of it as a man -woman thing but a parental thing. But I still say she is Lowrenzo's kid.m
 

I'm thinking that Axel is the only child that Emiliano and Fedra had together. Emanual's father is who Fedra was with when she washed up on the beach naked. Gretel is Paula and Tio Maximo's child and most likely Kristel, though the spitting attitude of her mother, is from the liason with Lorenzo. Which would make Kristel and Ilitia sisters. I think Emanue is rushing the big seduction scene. He knows that Marianela has been in love with him for years and I think he's taking advantage of that. Seems the boy, like most men, is ruled by his lower half. Sorry, Carlos and Chris, but that statement has been proven over and over again in real life, not just in TN's.
By the way, people have been complaining about Hornatio's hairy chest in STUD, but Emanuel's is just perfect. Just my opinion, of course.
 

Yeah. If I was Mari, and saw the bed there amidst the romantic dinner setting, I would be like, wait a minute there buddy! What do you think is happening tonight? She didn't even ask why the bed was there, and he made some really lame excuse about having it put there since he thought she might not want to go home after the beauty contest hoopla. That boy has one thing on his mind for that night. Did you notice all the pouty kinda kissy lips he was making as he was thinking about the evening he would have with Mari?
 

Anon and Barbara you two are probably right about Kristel being Lorenzo's kid. I fear that Fedra will take all her anger out on Gretel, especially now that she's mad at Carlota for sneaking Maximo's kid into her own multi-fathered family.

Yep, it seeme like Eman's got one thing on his mind and I wouldn't be surprised if they end up in the big romantic bed. This show has pretty consistently rushed the sex thing.
 

Yeah, I thought the same thing when I saw the bed. He said he just wanted her to have some peace, a luxurious night away from everyone, but it clearly wasn't QUITE what he was thinking. And the two of them have just barely started to agree that they want to be together. It helps that he now suspects that they aren't biologically cousins, but he hasn't even found out for sure. Slow down there, dude.
 

Oh yes, the leering, lusting looks Eman was throwing Mari all through the episode could not be mistaken. The avances for future episodes show them in bed, but fully clothed, though. I don't know if this is their way of hiding the actress's fat suit, or if Mari puts the brakes on anything less then fully dressed bed co-habitation. We'll know on Monday, I'm pretty sure.

Yeah, he's definitely rushing this convent-school-raised miss. I hope that she delays the inevitable at least for a little longer, but like others have said, this telenovela has rushed everyone into bed, so it's anyone's guess how it'll go with this couple.
 

Thanks all for stepping in for the summary of the show. I was thoroughly satisfied when Emiliano slapped Kristel and Netty gave her a verbal smackdown. She deserved it after her cruelty to Mari. I felt so bad for her when Kristel ripped her blouse right off her like that. Ugh. Double ugh with Fedra and Spiderus finding Gretel and Oliver. I think Oliver isn't too badly hurt. It might just be a flesh wound. I'm in the opinion that Eman is ready to take the relationship to the next level especially the way he stared seductively at Mari during the pageant. I guess we'll find out for sure tomorrow. I think Eman's chest hair is just fine LOL.
 

There was one other detail from last episode- Doris slapped Ilitia, TWICE! Once for messing with Mari. And once for messing with her brother Brandon. That was pretty satisfying. :)
 

Oh that's right! It was quite a night of slaps, wasn't it? Ilitia looked petrified of Doris. When she tried to mouth off after the first slap she got slapped again. I don't condone physical violence but those slaps felt very satisfying.
 

Chris sorry about real life interfering and completely understand as I feel I've been there most of this year :(

Thanks so much Sylvia and Vivi for the summary. I missed part of the episode but did see Doris's smackdown of Ilitia!

I am also concerned with the rush to the bed with our main couple but as others have noted it's a trademark of this TN.
 

Wow, a lot happened and most of it bad. Begonia"s gone. Poor little Cristian's abandoned in a pile of tree limbs. Oliver's shot. Gretel's grabbed. I thought this was supposed to be a happy little show.

At least things are moving along.

I'm shocked that everyone is suspicious of Manny's motives. I took him at his word. Now of course if tonight he start's off with, "Oh, by the way, we're really not cousins..."

Two left on the death watch:

Nereida
Tia Carlota

Who's taking care of Gretel's Grumpy Gato?

Carlos
 

Pirate Babe, I agree with you about Emanuel's chest - it's fine - reminds me of Tom Selleck. I don't doubt that Emanuel has fallen in love with Mari, Carlos, but I think he's being ruled by an organ that is not his brain. It's a little quick to rush to have sex with someone when you've just discovered you're in love with her. Of course, Oliver and Gretel aren't any better.
 

Not only has he just barely fallen in love with her, but she's spent nearly her whole life in a convent school. She's barely even been around any boys or men, much less dated them. A gradually progressing courtship would be nice, especially since it's all new to Mari. I'm not saying they have to take forever about it, but skipping straight to bed just seems like missing out on a lot.
 

I guess the point in all this is to show that Emanuel doesn't care about Mari being overweight- you know, love conquers all. Unfortunately, we know from the synopsis that Ilitia does something to break up Mari and Emanuel. If they wait longer to have sex until they have a firmer relationship, I don't Ilitia would stand a chance. But she wins, at least on the short-term, because Mari goes off to Spain.
 

We all know that there is an incredible time warp in these shows. People take FOREVER, days weeks months, to spit out one important bit of information, yet fall in love practically overnight. To be fair to Emanuel, I think he probably always loved Marianela but it wasn't until she appeared back into his life that he realized the extent or the depth.