Caray, Caray!

Eva Luna Ep #51, Jan 18, 2011: Julio has a plan and Daniel is depressed


Lo siento everyone, again I find myself short on time. This time I feel fine, it's just that yesterday was super busy, I got home just in time to watch (and do a video capture) of Eva Luna, but had no time to write the recap. I hope to do that later today, so WATCH THIS SPACE! (UPDATE: The recap is finished. I'm adding it to the end of this post—after the links to the clips and the photos. Scroll down to read it!)

Here are the clips: (Right click to open links in new window. These are streaming clips, like what you see on YouTube.)
Clip One: Near the beginning of the episode. Daniel tucks Laurita to bed. She says that Eva is not bad and she hopes Eva will come back. Daniel doesn't want to hear of it. He doesn't even want Eva's name mentioned in the house again. *Sniff sniff* Everyone is so depressed!

Clip Two: In about the middle of the episode. Some interesting scenes. First off, Eva has flown the coop (has left Leo's mountain shack hideaway) and Leo is upset. The next scene is Eva walking along in Daniel's neighborhood—she's going to confront him! But Icky the witch drives up and we have a screaming fight between them, where Icky accuses Eva of being a thief and Eva vehemently denies it. Then the interesting scene: Don Julio is talking with his doctor about a plan he has, and he needs the doctor's involvement in some way. It's dangerous, but what choice does he have? The doctor isn't so sure this is the right thing to do, but Don Julio thinks he has few options. Sooner or later, Marcela is going to do him in. I could see the writing on the wall—he's going to fake his death! Am I right or am I right? Hmmm . . . I wonder!

Clip Three: (End of episode and avances). Renata is having what she thinks is a routine day. She's nagged Don Julio to take his medicine. He's been busy on the computer in his office. Now she returns and he's sitting on the couch. Oh no! Something is amiss! I wonder . . . what's going on with Don Julio? He seems unresponsive. She calls his doctor and tells him that Don Julio is doing really badly. But what I want to know is, why on earth would she not call 911 right away?  Only in telenovelaland!

And until I return to finish this recap, I leave you with these pictures:

Daniel sees the car he had bought for Eva and has some bittersweet memories of happier times.  He looks so depressed.

Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. You look really rough. This Eva thing is really getting to you. I see bags under your eyes. It breaks my heart.

FULL RECAP FOR EPISODE 51, Eva Luna.

We start with Marcela grilling a nervous Renata about why she's taking a taxi and getting out of there. Renata explains that she's going to visit a friend. Marcela is suspicious but Renata is able to convince her that nothing is amiss.

Daniel is tucking Laurita to bed. She wishes Eva would come back but Daniel says that's not possible. But Laurita protests. Eva is good. She couldn't have suddenly become so bad!

We cut to Eva who is wringing her hands at Leo's mountain hideaway and wishing her auntie were there to advise here. Cut to auntie looking at her cards and wondering what's up with all the stuff going on with Eva.

More talking with Laurita and Danny. Laurita is worried that Icky will horn her way back in and separate Laurita from Danny. Danny insists that won't happen. Just then Jacky interrupts them. Danny seems vexed at first but Jacky says it's because the cops have come to see him!

Now we are back with Eva talking to herself at the mountain hideaway. She develops some backbone and decides she's going to go confront Danny herself!

The detective is asking questions of everyone at Danny's house. He wants to know if Eva had access to the house? Laurita helpfully tells the detective that she and Danny were in love with each other. The detective jumps on this and says that means she could wander everywhere in the house and steal the check. Both Francisco and Jacky back off from this and say that they don't think that Eva would do that. Laurita is even more upset by such a suggestion. Danny says that they were wrong about Eva and they're suffering the consequences. Laurita says that the only one who is bad is that witch Icky. Danny then says with resolve that Eva stole from them and he wants her brought to justice.

Back at the mansion, Renata has completed her mission (she left the house at Don Julio's request) and has returned to give Don Julio an envelope with a paper in it. Don Julio looks at it. Renata is happy that she has been able to be in Don Julio's confidence but she has never lied to Marcela before, she says. Don Julio looks at the paper and says that tomorrow after Marcela leaves for the office, he needs her to write a personal card (?) and not a word to anyone! She says she'll do that and he thanks her and says that he's glad he can still trust her.

Renata says something about how she's glad that her sister didn't turn him against her (Renata) but Don Julio says that Justa was always praising Renata. In fact, she encouraged him to hire Renata after his wife died, and when he (Julio) was putting the smooth moves on Justa, she resisted at first out of respect for Renata's feelings. "May she rest in peace" he says. Renata looks impactada at this news because I guess she had always assumed the Justa had talked trash about her.

We cut to Justa talking to an old cameo picture of Don Julio and expressing her regret that she never told him that she was expecting his baby, because the last time she saw him, she knew he had decided to marry Marcela. But he had a right to know, she's saying.

The next few scenes are condensed: At the mountain hideaway, Leo brings flowers to greet Eva but finds that she has flown the coop. He is not pleased. He yells "No puede ser!"

Don Julio is visiting his doctor and the doctor is worried because he doesn't know the effect that the poison has had on Don Julio's system. Don Julio tells the doctor he needs help in something.

Eva has been transported from the mountain hideaway to somewhere in downtown L.A.? She's saying something to herself about how she's going to confront Daniel(?). The CCs were failing me at this point.

Eva is approaching the neighborhood where Daniel lives and the bruja Icky drives up in a car and calls her a ladrona. Then we have a heated conversation where Eva professes her innocence and the bruja says that Eva is capable of anything. Eva finally snaps and says fine, let's get the police involved because Daniel committed a crime and I want it all out in the open!

Apparently Don Julio's doctor has been clued in on Don Julio's crazy "fake your own death" plan (this is just my guess!) and is saying he can't believe what Don Julio is suggesting. Don Julio explains that since Marcela won't sign the divorce papers, and since she's determined to take him down sooner or later, his options are limited. The doctor again says that what Don Julio wants to do is very dangerous. Don Julio replies that he's willing to take the chance.

Back to more sniping between the bruja Icky and Eva. Icky unburdens all her feelings towards Eva—she stole Daniel away, the only crime that Daniel committed was falling in love with dirt like her, blah blah blah, I want you in jail, I hate you, blah blah blah. She tells Eva that she's there to support Daniel and she'll give Eva a chance to disappear, because otherwise Icky and her mom will make sure she's in jail for many years.

Leo calls Daniel's house, talks to Jacky and finds out that Eva hasn't been there either. Then Jacky and Francisco have a conversation about how poor Danny is trying to convince herself that Eva is bad, but he still can't quite believe it. After some conversation about this Francisco starts boring us with his bogus planned wedding with Marisol. Yawn.

More fast cuts back and forth, which I will try to streamline a little:

Now we cut to the back room at the fashion house (?) and a suddenly more attractive Giorgio is dealing with some employees as Marcela is there. They are chit-chatting about the fashion collection.

The bruja Icky has horned herself into Danny's house and is going to fix "her boyfriend" Daniel's breakfast, even though she wasn't invited. Jacky can't really fight her as she breezes in and takes over.

More clothes are being shown to Giorgio and Marcela. Marcela doesn't like one of the dresses. The employee that brought in the models reminds Giorgio that he approved them yesterday. He says no way, he was too busy and would have never approved such rags. He tells the lady to get them out of there and maybe even burn them. As he's talking with this lady, the bruja Icky calls mommy and tells her that Eva came there and almost confronted Daniel. Marcela asks, why didn't she call the police? Icky says because she knew that Eva would tell them that Icky gave her the check to cash. Marcela scoffs and says no one would believe Eva. Icky was still too nervous to do it.

We cut to Eva wandering the streets and a hot dog vendor offers her a hot dog "to try," which she eagerly eats. When he expects payment, she says she has no money and reminds him that he offered her the hotdog to "try" and takes off.

A very rough-looking Daniel crawls out of bed and greets "Jacky" in the kitchen, only to discover that it's the bruja Icky who has taken over and is fixing him breakfast. He looks too beat down and depressed to put up too much of a fight over this. Icky is insufferable about it.

Leo has shown up at the pension looking for Eva and ends up pumping Don Ricardo for info. Don Ricardo says he should ask her sister.

After the break, Leo gets a call from Mama. She's blaming him because he let Eva get away. She turned up at Daniel's house! She tells him all that happened and he looks impactado.

Poor Daniel is putting up with Icky as she oozes over him as he eats breakfast. He is so beat down that he can't even think straight, otherwise he'd remember that not too long ago she had appeared in his bedroom at the dead of night, with a knife in her hand, ready to stab him to death. I'm just saying.

At the pension Don Ricardo has a brief conversation with Alicia about all the stuff going on with Eva.

More nonsense with Icky and Daniel. As he half-heartedly eats his breakfast, she tells him of some guy who married someone who then cleaned out his bank account (or something). Daniel says that he guesses he was "lucky" that he didn't get married to Eva. No, what you're missing here Daniel is that the woman you are talking to right now was more than ready to kill you just a few days ago. Try to re-think that "lucky" thing.

Little Adrian is dealing with his useless father who has returned to the pension. Basically the dad is telling Adrian that he can forget about school, because daddy needs him home to do some sort of work (to help dealing with stolen goods, apparently). There is more of this, with dad getting increasingly angry and Adrian crying over the loss of going to school and basically, his future.

At Marcela's office, Don Julio has visited and he's got an envelope in his hand. Marcela is telling him that NUNCA (never) will she sign the divorce papers so get out of "her" office! Don Julio reminds her that everything there is HIS.

Eva is walking down the street and is hungry. She walks by an outdoor cafe and sees some half-eaten food on an abandoned table. She so wants to eat it, but hears Daniel's voice in her head accusing her of being a thief. She won't have anything of that, so she starts to walk away and then passes out. (From hunger? or from something ELSE?) The staff at the restaurant fuss over her. (I condensed this scene because of all the annoying quick cuts.)

Don Julio tells Marcela that if she agrees to separate from him, she'll get a lot of money, which is all she's interested in anyway. Marcela mercenarily reminds him that she'd prefer to wait until he dies, because she'll get much MORE that way. Don Julio gives her a knowing look.

Don Julio tells Marcela what he thinks of her. She sneers at him that he should go home and take his medicine, and maybe he'll have another attack and it'll be his last. Don Julio again looks knowingly at tells her that she's nothing and he's going to show that. "You'll see" he says with a knowing smile, drops the envelope he's been holding in his hand, says "from Mr. Basualdo" (I think?) and walks off. (Could he be telegraphing any more clearly to us in viewerville that he's going to fake his death? Or is it just me that thinks this? Seriously, if this is not a case of faking his death I will feel quite ripped off!)

Marcela drops the envelope that Julio gave her into the trash.

After the break, we see Don Julio leisurely leaving the office building while Leo spots him and follows behind for a spell. Don Julio gets into the chauffeured car. Leo watches. In the car, Don Julio calls Mr. Basualdo and asks if he has the paper ready to sign, and that he (Julio) will do it today because he wants it resolved today.

Leo sees his mom in her office and says that he saw Don Julio leave the building. Then they go into how Leo almost got fired by Julio a while before because he (Leo) was using money to pay for gambling debts. We have some sniping back and forth between mother and son over son's shortcomings and mess-ups.

At the pension Justa gives Alicia a phone. It's from her tia.

Eva is crying at her papa's grave, basically whining and wondering why all this stuff is happening to her.

Daniel goes to his garage and sees the product placement car that he gave Eva when he proposed to her. He has a flashback of seeing her model in front of the car at the car show. Other flashbacks of him proposing to her in the car. Good times. Well, not so good anymore. Danny is majorly bummed.

Marisol is visiting Carlos in jail. Carlos is sporting his fetching designer stubble again. Basically their conversation goes like this. Carlos thinks that Alicia "used" him and he's bitter. Marisol tries to remind him that he voluntarily did what he did in order to impress and woo Alicia, but Alicia never asked him to do anything. But Carlos isn't seeing it this way.

Don Julio is back home and talking with Renata. She reminds him to take it easy because he may have a relapse. Julio makes a point of saying to her that he's going to have his coffee and his medicine. Another telegraphing of Don Julio's plan to fake his death, because why else take the poison that Marcela is giving him? I think that he has swapped the drops with different ones.

Giorgio is chewing out that employee at the fashion house for the choice of the dresses and is blaming her for his shame, as if it's her fault somehow. Whatever.

Renata is bringing in Don Julio's food to him as he is engrossed with his computer. She goes into his room, fetches the drops and puts them in his coffee. (This means that the drops were out in the open and he would have access to them, right?) They spat about Eva. Don Julio defends Eva and says that "you will see in time and everything will be clear." When she leaves he says to himself that his "revenge will be very sweet." Don Julio is acting like a man with a plan!

More with Marisol and Carlos. He's talking of the hell that is prison. He's changed. He'll never be the same. He mentions that his mom is sick and is living with his uncle. Marisol tries to cheer him up but he's not going for it. He says that when he gets out of jail, he'll look up Alicia. It sounds like a veiled threat.

Renata comes into Don Julio's room and he's in the throes of an attack. He clutches his chest. She calls Dr. Garcia (instead of 911!) and tells him that Don Julio is muy mal. She returns to his side and he seems out of it completely. Like dead? Or fake death?

We end there!

Labels: eva