Caray, Caray!

Lots of action tonight. Most of it dreadful. But a few good things happened. Let's start with the good: Marianela isn't pregnant. Just anemic. And Ilitia finally...finally! tells Kristel that Orangey Mauricio tried to take advantage of her.

The rest?....pretty much all bad. Oliver tracks Gretel down to the looneybin but Bernardo sneaks her out just in time and stashes her in the wine cellar of the house. And only he and Fedra have the key. Mauricio hooks up with the Godfather in jail and plans vengeance on Fedra...by taking out a contract on her favorite son Emanuel. And Bernardo has come up with a fake will leaving all the General's money to Emanuel. Oh wait!...that's good news since we know he's actually going to end up with Marianela. But our bad guys don't know that. And neither does poor Mari. She's suffering a major depression and believes the worst of Eman. And maybe she should. He's a complete doofus, is he not?

So that's the short version. Here's the expanded scenario. We begin the evening with Mari being very Greta Garbo. She just vants to be alone in her misery over Emanuel's purported betrayal. Can't say I blame her.

Elsewhere, Paula's confiding to Oliver (who seems to be fully and miraculously recovered from his bullet wound) that she's very worried about Gretel. But he really loves her, doesn't he? This brings forth a real feast of reason and flow of soul from our cop. " Before I met Gretel, my only desire was to become a top police officer. But my heart was empty. Then she came. She completed me. Even with all the craziness and all her problems, I just want to be with her. Protect her. Give her the strength she needs. Because she gives so much to me. Hopefully I can find her." And so forth. Paula's reassured and gets ready to leave. I'm screaming at her to give him the friggin' note already. She turns, starts out the door and.....says, "Oh, pardon me, some very nervous woman gave me this note to give to you." Aha. Gretel's at the Sagrado Corazón psychiatric hospital. So Oliver heads right over there..

All by himself.

Okay, put him in the same Dunce's Corner with Emanuel.

And speaking of Dunces....We're now at the prison where Kristel is draped all over Mauricio, vowing to get him out so they can live happily ever after....without kids. Fedra arrives and isn't buying this sweet tale. I'll help you all right she sneers. I'll help you rot in prison, you creep! Next she rips Kristel out of his arms, grabs her face and says Take a good look. This is the last time you'll see her!

Mommy Dearest now has her daughter at home and informs the staff that she's to stay in her room until she learns to behave decently. Paula is concerned with her pallor and suggests maybe she should remain in the hospital. Nuthin' doing. That's what she gets for being immoral, snaps Fedra, and if any of you even try to pass a message to her from Mauricio, you'll be out of her so fast your head will spin.

Our Lone Ranger has arrived at the psychiatric hospital. Bad Doc spots him and phones Bernardo. Other Doc stalls him and says there's nobody by name of Gretel Ruiz y de Teresa in the joint. Good Nurse tries to intervene. Drops a bunch of folders. Including the Red Folder. Asks Oliver to pick it up and aha! it's the list of in-patients and Gretel's name is in it. HAHAHAHAH.

Mientras tanto, Mauricio is working on Plan B. Since Kristel wasn't able to get him out, he's trying to hook up with the Marlon Brando impersonator/Mafia Boss. If you want to work for me, when you're on the outside, you'll be my slave, croaks the big boss. Mauricio's down with that. But he also wants to send a message to Fedra Curel.
Why?

She humiliated me. Tried to take me down.

Great. I like that attitude. Ya want her murdered?

Nope. Too easy. I want her to SUFFER. So let's kill her favorite son, Emanuel.

Fine with me. But remember son....Fedra's put a price on your head. So be careful....even with your own shadow.

Our Fedra is lounging around the office at home when Ilitia blows in. In high dudgeon. How could Fedra countenance her precious son hooking up with that asquerosa gordita!? Sorry, sighs Fedra. I don't intend to move a finger to help you. And don't disturb my son. Ilitia is impactada.

But when we come back from the ads, we see she and Fedra are cozy and like old times. Sharing a cognac and chuckling with evil glee. Yup, you guessed it. Ilitia's in on the plan and is so happy to think she'll one day soon be marrying a multimillionaire widower. A young hunky one to boot.

Back to Miserable Marianela. Her desire to be alone has been roundly ignored. Brandon is all over her, kissing and stroking and sympathizing. Netty comes striding in with chicken veggie soup and orders to eat it. Mari clutches her rag doll and doesn't want to. Doc arrives, grim-faced and informs them he has news. Bad news.

And we switch back to Fedra and Ilitia. Don't you love how they do that?

Emanuel enters and knows something is very wrong. Indeed. Mom fesses up that she just couldn't hold it in a minute longer and confided Manny's wicked delicious plan to Ilitia. Fedra then makes a discreet exit. Or it would be discreet if she weren't wearing horrid thigh high zebra striped boots.

Our little model, while not wishing death on anybody, mind you, is thrilled at the thought of consoling a rich widower. In fact let's get busy right now she suggests and do a little preemptive consolation. Eman's moving around the room, crawling under the desk, stalling, punting and weaving, while Yo Soy Sexy plays in the background. He finally fobs her off with "this is neither the time nor the place but how about a little honeymoon at the beach this weekend." Ilitia thinks it's a grand idea. Phew. He's bought a little more time.

Back at the nuthouse, Other Doc's still stalling Oliver. Oh...that Gretel. Well, she responded so well to treatment she was in and out, just like that. Zip.

Alright. Enough with the suspense. Is Marianela pregnant? Nooooooo. She's anemic. At least that's what the basic exam says. But Doc Arnoldo wants to do more tests. Meanwhile, now hear this. Her Life Is In Danger if she doesn't rest and eat well. That's a little overstated. I was anemic one year in college (tea and white rice don't constitute a healthy diet) and I was tired as hell but otherwise in no danger of expiring. But you know how telenovelas go....And.... Guess what? Our Miss Marianela just wants to die anyway. She's tired of suffering. Life has been so cruel. If she could only join mommy and daddy up in heaven. That's all. Really.

Oh no! Now we see Bernardo hauling Gretel over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He dumps her down in some little alcove of the wine cellar, chortling Welcome to Switzerland. Hope you enjoy your little "caso de reposo". You'll serve out your sentence here my lovely. Gretel whimpers that she's going to tell her Dad. No way. Fedra and I are the only ones who have the keys to this place. Curses! Foiled again. Sorry Oliver.

Fedra, meanwhile, is doing damage control. She's assembled the house staff and accused them of stealing some bottles of red wine. Bernardo skulks out and admits he was the guilty one. Aha! I'll take it out of your salary then you swine. But hear this, the rest of you! If I find any of you hanging around the wine cellar you're fired!

Well, with that out of the way, we can return to the drama at the pension. Netty's all aflutter because Marianela is dying. Gladiola vows to bring her back with her irresistible picadillo, beans and rice plus fried plantains. The Mexican wonder drug.

Enter Emanuel. To hateful looks.

Upstairs: Marianela is still moaning to Brandon that she wishes she had gone up in that helicopter with her mom. Then all this would be over.

Take Home Message. From Brandon. We've all come to this world to struggle and to fight....to be happy.

Next question: What did Emanuel do to you to make you feel this way? Wanna know the answer? Tough. We've got more ads. Hang in there. Oh yeah. You already know anyhow.

Downstairs: Netty has upped the ante, screaming at Emanuel to GET OUT!!!! YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL ME BEFORE I LET YOU SEE MARI. YOU'VE HURT HER ENOUGH!

Eman's his usual low key self. He notes that sometimes you fall in love with folks you shouldn't. Like she fell in love with his dad.

Don't talk to me about that night! It's over! I'm never seeing your father again!

Upstairs: The dirge continues.

Mari: Don't ask me what happened that night. It's too painful.

Brandon: Well, Just know that I'll always be here for you.

Mari: He fooled me, misled me. He made me believe he loved me, when all he really wanted was my inheritance, my money.

Brandon: I'm gonna kill him!

Mari: Noooooo. Don't hurt him!

Brandon: Sorry. Can't promise anything.

Downstairs: The fracas has escalated. Doris, Glad and Netty are shrieking. Eman's persisting. Brandon descends and bars his way. Dogfight coming' up.

But first. Fedra. She's doing a righteous number on Emiliano and his trashy affair with that equally trashy actress. While SHE, the Injured Wife! has always been faithful to him. But Emiliano's had enough. He can't breathe the same air as Fedra. She's suffocating him. He's out of there!

Waaaay Downstairs: Now we're in the General's lair and he's fussing that he just wants that nasty Fedra in front of him so he could deal with her. Paula tartly reminds him that if he'd stayed upstairs where he belonged, he could have protected his family. Delicia arrives to tell General the licenciado Pacheco wants to see him. Turns out there are problems with the will. Seems the word is out that the General is not of sound mind. Therefore the will he just drafted to give Marianela all his worldly goods won't be accepted. General flies into a rage. Licenciado looks frightened. Stammers and stutters that he'll try and sort things out but it will be tough.

Upstairs: Fedra and Bernardo are chortling over his latest fake will. This one gives all the General's money to Emanuel. Fantastic!

Back to the pension: Doris zips upstairs to plead with Marianela to come down before Brandon and Emanuel come to blows. Mari refuses. Doris descends and blurts out: She never wants to see you again. Brandon juts his chin out. Eman punches it. Now you're gonna get it yells our naco policia.

Back to the Manor: Kristel's room: Ilitia's making a True Friend visit. Kris wants to talk about visiting her babe in jail and Ilitia wants her to understand how stupid she is to have anything to do with that scum. You deserve better. No I don't. I'm not even a "whole woman" anymore. And what did he ever do to you that you should talk about him this way?

Want to know? Well here it is. He tried to take advantage of me...abuse me, admits Ilitia.

And there we end.

Previews:
Brandon vows that for every tear Mari shed, he's going to collect in blood.... Emanuel's.
And Emanuel somehow gets to Marianela and tells her about his secret plan to mislead his very own mother and protect her. Will she believe him?

Vocabulary:

empinando el codo = drinking a lot, propping up the bar (what Bernardo supposedly did)
las patitas en la calle = your little feet in the street....getting thrown out (Fedra's threat to staff)
te saco a patadas = I'll throw you out (Brandon to Emanuel)
te tapaste con una pared = you ran up against a (stone) wall
casa de reposo = rest home
perro sarnoso = mangy dog (Bernardo)
revolcando con esa basura = rolling in the hay with that trash (Fedra to Emiliano)
te daré tu merecido = I'll give you what you deserve (Brandon to Emanuel)

Dicho of the Day

El comal le dijo a la olla. El burro hablando de orejas. Both in English mean The pot calling the kettle black. Think of Fedra's chutspah taking Emiliano to task for a roll in the hay with Netty.

Labels: llena