Caray, Caray!

Nathy leads heartbroken María (seduced and abandoned!) to the rooftop (azotea) so she can jump off… no, no… so she can get some air. And there she sees a path of candles, and rose petals leading to a table set for two. And finally Max in an ascot (not as cool as Max in a scarf) reveals himself. Musicians, dancing, and at last, forgiveness.

Cruz and JuanJo are concocting a way to bring Don Napo and Milagros together. They compose a letter, supposedly from Napo, for Millie’s matchmaking service. Because Millie knows Napo’s handwriting, they get the letter typed.

Oscar – finally -- shows a spark of interest in Antonieta when she models one of the new ‘prêt-à-porter’ line of dresses.

Osvaldo has indeed been shot with a live bullet. (No one knows who switched out the blank on the mini-series set. Ofelia whispers to Guillermo: it was you, wasn’t it?) Fortunately, the bullet wound itself isn’t serious but the doctor is concerned about possible head trauma because of his fall. He is taken to the fancy-schmancy hospital where LindaHo is currently housed.

LindaHo hears the tv news announce that Osvaldo has been shot and is recovering in a suite on the 6th floor of the very hospital where she, for no reason at all, is still a patient. (This is just nuts – the tv report is like a Kmart Blue Light Special for Stalkers – Now on aisle 6!)

The opportunity isn’t lost on our stalker. She sneaks up, watches Victoria et al leave and then slithers in. Osvaldo is horrified and tries to get rid of her. He is literally pushing her out the door when she forces a kiss on him. Naturally, Guillermo is lurking in the hallway and captures the image with his cellphone camera.

Fer is genuinely frightened to hear that her father has been shot. Victoria reassures her daughter and tucks her into bed. Sweet.

The following morning, Osvaldo and LindaHo are both discharged from the hospital and in the lobby everybody gets to exchange charged looks with everyone else.

A disfigured young man – half his face is scarred by fire – shows up at Bernarda’s door. His name: Fausto Candela. He needs work and in return just needs food and shelter and minimal pay. B will think about it. (This fair young man reminds us of the little boy who supposedly died in the fire set years ago when Bernarda was just starting out as a homocidal psycho freak. But naturally, he doesn’t seem to ring any bells for her.)

Bernarda chalks up another victim: She beats Tomasa to death with a poker after the latter declares she is leaving and she’s going to tell Juan Pablo all Bernarda’s dirty little secrets.

Fausto is mysteriously back and offering to dispose of Tomasa’s body. Ok, says Bernarda. He can stay. And he can have all the money Victoria gave Tomasa (it is now strewn on the floor around Tomasa’s dead body.) He accepts but wants to be clear: he’s not doing it for the money.

It is implied that Tomasa is burning up in the hearth. Do-it-yourself cremation. Meanwhile, Fausto and Bernarda confide that they are both afraid of fire. Fausto’s fear, he says, dates back to an accident many years ago. That’s when his face was burned.

Speaking of fires, there is another blaze in a high-rise. Cruz joins Napo and JuanJo and proves his mettle at a firefighter. He is hired as an auxiliary firefighter.

Juan Pablo comes home, wonders where Tomasa has gone to, meets Fausto, and notices a terrible smell – like burned flesh. What have you done, mother????

Cue the kayak.
 

NovelaMaven: Thank you for doing this. I'm sure Kat is busy with all of her theatre work. Gracias, Amiga.

Fausto Candela...is this not a wonderful name?! Mr. Faustus (versus Dr. Faustus) has come home to roost! Yes! And the Candela last name...oh yes...love that name, too! When he first appeared at the door, I wondered: 'what kind of abrupt segue is this?!', but it didn't take long for me to put two and two together.

I can't wait to get all of Fausto's back story, i.e., his life after the fire, etc.

It was upsetting to see Tomasa die. I yelled at her through the magical telly and told her to SHUT UP. How in the world did she think she would escape Bruja St. Bernard's rage?!

Did anyone else notice how it appeared that Prince William seemed to be controlling laughter during that rooftop scene? He kept looking at the camera in such a way that made one thing he was looking at someone. At some point in that whole scene, Perroni did the same thing. Was I imagining that? It appeared that he was trying very hard not to come out of character.

Romo is certainly not my fave, but this role suits her very nicely. Those saintly outfits she wears are in such contrast to her evil. Don't you just love it when she says she has 'no money, only this house'? Right. She lies like a dog! The house looks like a miniature version of the Sistine Chapel with all of those religious figures! She is so utterly disgusting.

Love the Naty/Fabian pairing. Naty is changing already as she is more herself with Fabian.

Linda Ho is too sickening for words. I liked the look on Desinformada's face when Victoria told the Ho to make an appearance at the business. I hope and pray that Victoria has her number.

That sly Gui...I wonder how quickly that foto will make the trash papers?! He and Ofelia are certainly having a good time, aren't they?

When JP asked St. Bernard about the smell, he kept saying that it smelled like carne. Did he mention something about human flesh specifically and I missed that?

Can you believe how depraved St. Bernard is to burn Tomasa in that fireplace.

Fausto and St. Bernard are going to make an interesting couple.

How Desinformada can look at St. Bernard and feel 'drawn' to her is utterly beyond me.

Susanita
 

Susanita,

You are absolutely right -- JP said nothing specifically about human flesh.

The word 'carne' means 'meat' as in 'chile con carne' or 'flesh' as in 'de carne y hueso' (of flesh and blood -- well, literally, flesh and bone) or 'los pecados de la carne' (carnal sin, sins of the flesh). So I took the liberty of translating the word here as 'flesh' rather than 'meat'.

I was yelling at Tomasa too! Why don't they ever hear us???
 

NovelaMaven: Ah yes...I see about the meanings of the word 'carne'. I appreciate that clarification. I guess I felt that JP is usually so slow on the uptake that he wouldn't begin to think that mother had done something suspicious.

However, when he asked about the smell, he certainly didn't ask the question in such as way as to suggest that the 'carne' smelled good! LOL! In fact, my first thought was that Fausto had bad body smells, but when he walked away from Fausto and headed towards the fireplace I realised I had been too quick to blame poor Fausto.

Amazing that JP even noticed this as he oftentimes seems blinded by his mother's 'light'.

Gracias, NovelaMaven!

Susanita
 

Forgot to say that I liked it that goofy Oscar finally noticed Toni. I get tired of seeing her play second fiddle all the time. :))

Susanita
 

De nada, Susanita. I agree, it was definitely not a "Yum, what's cooking?" kind of question :)

ITA about Oscar and Toni. We'll see if that goes anywhere.
 

Victoria & Bernarda have sth in common, they are both dumb as hell. Vic can't figure out that María MAY be her hija & Bernarda doesn't have a suspicion that this badly disfigured guy that just happened by to help dispose of a body, could be from her past arson/murder.
Even as stupid as this TN is, I am still enjoying it & it doesn't even matter if I sleep through an episode now & then.

I believe "Cuando me enamoro" may come on after Triunfo. Silvia Navarro, Juan Soler, Lisardo Guarinos, Carlos de la Mota, Alejandro Ruiz & several others that we know.
I'm looking forward to Silvia.
 

NovelaMaven thanks for the recap.

If that's the little boy of St. Bernard lover who is the biological father of JP wouldn't he be older than JP?

Tomasa after living in that house all of those years she's going to say something like that to St. Bernard's face?
 

I'm working on it right now. I thought I'd be able to get to it earlier, but life, work-work, and actress-work keep interfering. I'm shutting down the distractions now and getting to it!
 

For dumb you can also add Tomasa, Really, really dumb.
 

Fausto Candela... agree this name is definitely appropriate. But shouldn't he be older than JP, who should be about 43? He doesn't look it at all. His DOB isn't on IMDB, but his resume only begins in 2003.

Carla Estrada was much more careful about casting EPDA.

Poor Tomasa was too outspoken for her own good. She should have left Victoria's office and headed straight to the church.

Osvaldo's career should be fine; the notoriety of this "accident" will bring viewers to the program.

He does need to get a restraining order against LindaHo.
 

NovelaMaven: Thanks for the mini-snarkfest! I took it to mean flesh also, tho' I can't imagine JP would know what burning human flesh would smell like. I'll just adjust the reality dial on my beanie. Maybe Mama will say dead birds or squirrels?

Nathy still needs a real make-over for her to appeal as any real novia for Fab Fabian.
 

Kat: Will await your recap, amiga. We know you have a lot on your plate right now. : ? )
 

NovelaMaven - thanks for the quickie recap. I watched the first half last night, and did not know Tomasa was roasted on an open fire... er... in the fireplace. Eeew. HOW on earth did they squeeze her in there and get it all cooked to ash before JP got home? Oh. Right. Warp speed. Telenovela Beanie Hat time, and it's a Mejía telenovela. Duh.

Fausto reminded me of the masochist strange dude in DaVinci Code. He creeped me out.

I heard and saw those anvils over Tomasa's head. To bad she did not. Ack.

JARDINERA - Thank you for filling me in on who Padilla is, a few days ago. I finally got back to that page to read the answer. Millones de gracias.
 

I picked up on the padre asking what that smell was. Like carne of some kind. Meat basically. You don't have to know burning flesh to instinctly tell it is burning meat. He just was not sure what.

Another thing and you will need your beanies, Cremation must be done at temperatures of 1,598–1,796 °F to ensure disintegration of the corpse. It also takes from 90 minutes to 2 hours or more to cremate a body. Just tossing it in the fireplace won't work. You will just have a royal mess.


Ibarramedia
 

Okay. It's up. Don't delete this, though...people will get confused when they can't find those comments they could swear they'd posted somewhere!
 

Great! Thanks, Kat! I won't delete this thread but I did direct folks to your recap.

Hey Doris -- I thought the same thing about Fausto Candela and Dan Brown's creepy albino 'monk'.

By the way, obviously I meant to write: homicidal (not homocidal) psycho freak -- that would be a whole 'nother ball of evil crazy.