Caray, Caray!

St. Bernarda, Victoria and Padilla stare at the gold watch. They all know Padilla stole it, however much he may deny it. Wait a minute, says the canny St. B, how do you two crazy kids know each other anyhow? We were lovers, answers Padilla.

Linda got word to ScuzzBoy that the FerBeast wanted to see him. And now that they are together, he tells her he hasn’t called because of her mother’s threats. The FerBeast is incensed and wants to raise a stink but ScuzzBoy tells her that would only put Ma on alert. It’s better for them to keep seeing each other on the sly.

Max and Fabián are chewing over the scene with St. B and Victoria’s Secret. Today, our Max is wearing a very formal looking collar and tie. He looks like he’s a member of the wedding – probably the groom. All that’s missing is a boutonniere. A secretary tells Max that Victoria wants to meet him for lunch so they can talk about something important. Max hopes she intends to tell him the hidden truth about her life.

ScuzzyBoy tries to convince Fer to rent a room with him: If you love me, show me. Come away with me. (Escápate conmigo.)

At the Casa de Modas, Pipino is pleased with the models, especially his stars, the golden-clad Ximena and María D in elegant black. MD and Xi give each other the stinkeye.

María D comes upon a tearful Toni. Toni warns María not to fall in love with the wrong person. She doesn’t want MD to suffer the way she herself is suffering. But MD knows that Max is the right man for her and she’s sure of his love.

Fer and Scuzzy are in her car outside the Casa Sandoval. He has his marching orders from Papa: Get her to a hotel and knock her up! But oddly, his boyish charms aren’t working. He gets frustrated and grabs her. Let go of me, she cries. Cruz, a trained first responder, sees that his Damsel is in Distress. He pulls Scuzzy away from Fer, throws him out of the car and punches him out. What did you do to him, animal? yells the ungrateful FerBeast. She then mounts his back like a small monkey and Cruz twirls the two of them around a few times. Meanwhile, ScuzzBoy scuttles away muttering: No vales la pena, jardinerito. (You’re not worth the trouble, little gardener).

Fer is mad or pretends to be. Once again she threatens to tell her parents and get Cruz fired. Go ahead, he says, and while you’re at it, you can explain that you’re still sneaking around with that human slime.

Back at the office, Max lets María know there’s been a change in plans. His mother needs to talk to him so he’s off to meet her. Max mentions that he suspects that his father is cheating on Victoria. María looks like she just swallowed the last spoon of gruel at the orphan’s table: sooner or later, she reflects guiltily, he’ll find out that Linda is Osvaldo’s floozy.

In the make-up room, Linda is ready to work on Ximena. Don’t you touch me, you bozo, screams Xi, apparently still smoldering from the Nair facial. (Some people can really hold a grudge.) You’re so inept you shouldn’t even be here, she says. Linda smiles smugly: Victoria hired her and only Victoria can fire her.

María D is in a taxi on her way to see St B. She’s convinced that Bernarda is innocent. There has to be some explanation for what Max told her.

Back at Bernie’s, Victoria’s torture continues while the sainted one herself watches with satisfaction. I wasn’t your lover, cries Victoria. You raped me! And Padilla answers stoutly: You trapped me. You were just out to get my money!

I think that Padilla is telling the truth, says St. B. He’s been my tenant for years and he’s an honest man. Now your husband will find out about your past with this man. Caso cerrado!
Enter the smiling María D. She greets Victoria with a kiss. She’s surprised to see her there, she says. Bernie explains that Victoria isn’t making a social call. She came to torment her and to clean her conscience with her lies. Victoria has had enough. She leaves and María runs after her: Yo la acompaño. (I’ll see you out.)

Once they are outside, Victoria says look, kid, we have our differences, but I like you. And I’m telling you this for your own good: stay away from that woman. She’s very clever but she’s totally perverse. She’ll entrap you with her lies:
Me hizo conocer el infierno; por su culpa perdí lo que más amaba.(She made my life hell (literally, she made me acquainted with hell); because of her, I lost what I loved most.)
But she’s going to pay for what she’s done, vows Victoria.

Fausto is watching the scene from the window.

Inside, Bernarda tells Padilla that she backed him in front of Victoria but she knows perfectly well that he stole the watch. She flings it on the table and demands he refund her money. She doesn’t want anything that reminds her of the Sandovals. Padilla reluctantly peels off a few bills and hands them to her.

Osvaldo and his BFF Guillermo are at work, walking and talking as boys will do. Os says he loves Victoria but he cares for Linda too. Just in a different way. You know. A dirty way.
But Gui says he wouldn’t know because he has never truly loved a woman; he just has affairs with them. Os contradicts him:
Tú sí has conocido el verdadero amor.(You have indeed known true love).
He continues: Your love for Leonela Montenegro was the real thing and it was the reason you and I were estranged for so many years. Leonela Montenegro -- The woman I married, Max’s mother.

We leave that conversation just as it is starting to get interesting to go back to Bernie’s. María has come back inside and apologizes for popping in like she did but she was uneasy about what St. B said to Max and what she said to Victoria just now. Bernarda will explain it to her – it’s a long, dreadful story --- but only if María swears not to repeat it to a single soul. Victoria is a bad woman, a liar, a sinner. She has her whole family bamboozled but she’ll pay dearly for what she’s done when the truth comes to light. Stay away from that woman or she and her son will make you suffer more than you imagined possible!

Back to the boys at Televisa:
Gui says: She preferred you, she married you, she gave you a son, she died. Let’s not talk about Leonela any more, okay? Okay. Blood pressures are just beginning to come back to normal when Oscar bursts on the scene, eyes blazing. I need to talk to you, he says to Osvaldo.

María stumbles as she is making her escape from Bernie’s and Fausto catches her. They exchange a long soulful look.

Osvaldo is startled by Oscar’s demand. Is there a problem with Victoria or my son? he asks. Don’t be a hypocrite, says Oscar. He wants to talk privately but Os gives him the brush-off. Finally Oscar loses control. He says loudly enough for people around them to hear: How dare you appear in public with a lover, and a vulgar woman at that, one who’s not fit to shine Victoria’s shoes (no le llega ni a los talones de Victoria, literally, she doesn’t reach Victoria’s heels).

Fausto apologizes to María. He didn’t mean to frighten her. No, no, she says, she’s not afraid of him. She thanks him for helping her. She was just upset over something St B said. Fausto warns her not to believe everything people tell her:
Algunos mienten para perturbarnos el alma y apropiarse de ella.(Some people lie to disturb one’s soul and take possession of it.)

Maybe you’re surprised to hear me use fancy language like that, he continues. It’s because I spent a lot of time reading; books were my refuge when people rejected me.

María is touched. You must have suffered, she tells him, but I can see you’re a good person. Thank you again. And God bless you.

The FerBeast is on the phone with Scuzzy complaining that he left her alone with the gardener. Yes, she’ll tell her parents what Cruz did so he’ll get fired, but Fer is still mad at the Scuzz. He went too far. Still, that damn gardener is gonna pay!

That’s what worries Don Napo when he says to Cruz: You hit the daughter’s boyfriend? What were you thinking? Mira la cara de perro panteonero te traes! (Look at the expression on your face --you look like a graveyard dog!) But the jerk was taking advantage of her, insists Cruz. Still. He and Napo know the real reason he punched out the Scuzz: Jealousy (celos).

At the Televisa cafeteria, Gui tells Os he’s spending too much time in public with That Woman. But how did Oscar know about her? Os is explaining that Oscar has always been in love with Victoria…
… Gui makes a hasty exit (Victoria is my friend, he says) as That Woman is spotted making a beeline to Os’s table.

Victoria and Max meet at the restaurant. His wedding formalware is disguised by an artfully knotted black wool scarf thrown over it. Victoria isn’t here to talk about her past. Here’s what she wants to know:
¿Es cierto que tienes una aventura con María D?(Is it true you’re having an affair with MD?)

He answers:
No, eso no es cierto. Yo amo a MD y nos vamos a casar.(No, that’s not true. I love MD and we’re getting married.)

At the apartment, Nathy and MD are talking about the same thing. MD knows that Victoria is fond of her (me aprecia), but that doesn’t mean she wants her in her family. Who am I? she asks. An orphan who doesn’t even know who her parents were.

Ah the delicious irony. Victoria challenges Max’s choice of María D as his bride because he knows nothing about her family or her past. (Although on second thought, Victoria does have a point. St B is MD’s grandmother. If he knew that, would he still want to marry her?) Max stands firm. He knows her soul is clean and generous. And he knows he loves her. Nothing else matters.

At Televisa, Osvaldo is not pleased by LindaHo’s invasion into his workplace. He tries to keep her tentacles away and tells her to cool it with the ‘mi amor’s’. He expects discretion (hah!) and doesn’t want to jeopardize his family because of her foolishness. She finally gets the message but not before telling him she has a birthday in a few days. She starts to leave and then comes back to tell him one last thing. (At this point, Osvaldo is just about tearing his hair out in frustration and embarrassment. Good.) She says:
No me regales nada para mi cumpleaños; con tu cariño me basta.(Don’t give me a gift for my birthday; your affection is enough for me.)
[At home we are yelling at the tv: Liar Liar Pants on Fire!]

Victoria tells Max that he should marry Ximena because she and Xi’s mother are old friends and everyone always expected them to get married. Really, Victoria? Is that all you got?

She is deaf to Max’s insistence that María is the woman he loves. And that he’s a grown man. If he marries María D, says Vic, don’t count on her support. No problem, says Max. You’ll have my resignation today. From this moment, I no longer work for you.

Nathy is telling María that if Victoria loves Max like a son, she’ll allow him to choose his own happiness. But María isn’t so sure. Victoria is cold and calculating and MD doesn’t know how she’ll react to Max’s announcement.

We at home are all very proud of Max when he tells Vic that nothing is more important than María. But his mother thinks he’s acting like an adolescent. She warns him:
Cuando la pobreza entra por la puerta, el amor sale por la ventana.(When poverty comes in the door, love goes out the window.)
Max says her way of thinking is sad. And for all their money, she and his father don’t seem very happy. Max loves her like a mother. If she loves him like a son, she’s the one who will have to change her opinion.

Victoria is left alone at the table. Badly played, Victoria, badly played!

At the Casa de Modas, Gui has slithered past the reptile barriers and caught up with Ximena in the hallway. He grabs her arm. They do their little I hate you -- I own you – You used me thing . Toni comes upon them. Gui says he’s there to buy a dress. He’d like Ximena to model it.

Max has phoned María and now she joins him in the restaurant. He tells her about his conversation with his mother. She still wants him to marry Ximena but that’s impossible because he doesn’t love her. Did you once love her? asks María. Max looks thoughtful. I thought I loved her but it wasn’t really love. It wasn’t until I met you that I understood what love was. And whether other people like it or not, you and I are going to get married.

Not without your mother’s blessing, says María. I’m not going to marry you if it means separating you from your family. We shouldn’t see each other any more.

Ximena walks the runway in a tight white dress while Gui looks on lasciviously. Xi looks like the “before” actress in a Paxil commercial. Gui tells Toni he’s going to buy the dress even if the woman he’s buying it for isn’t nearly as beautiful as Ximena. When Toni leaves, Xi reproaches him: You want everyone to know I have a lover? He answers: I want to show you you belong to me and you’ll never get rid of me.

Victoria is back in the office. Toni can’t believe what she’s hearing. Max resigned??? Victoria face is stony. Max is obsessed with María Desamparada, she says. If he wants to ruin his life, let him.

Toni is aghast. She tells her friend that she’s pushing Max away with her foolish insistence that he marry Ximena. She has already lost one child. Does she really want to lose another?

We love each other and we’re getting married, says Max. And that’s that.
Nuh uh, says our prissy orphan girl. She won’t let him lose what she has wanted all her life – parents! – in order to marry her. Don’t be ridiculous, says Max (¡no seas necia!). You are the only thing that matters to me. That may be true right now, says María, but later you’ll regret giving up your family. I can’t let you make that sacrifice for me!

Finally we all escape the two stubborn women as we glide along with William in his kayak.

Labels: triunfo