Caray, Caray!

Tonight’s show was chock full of important dialog, so brace yourselves!

Friday: Ilitia has called the cops who now surround Muñeca’s house which of course contains our leather-clad hero, the Lirio whose Plata must be quite tarnished because he’s all black.


Ilitia gloats, but our Lirio tells her if she’d ever worked with the orphans, she’d appreciate what he’s doing for them. He hands the briefcase full of money to Muñeca. Ilitia tries to threaten him with a tall decorative pot, but he calmly takes it from her and tells her nobody gives him orders. For extra points, he calls her Loca. She kinda digs his macho-ness. Outside, the police yell warnings.

Back at the big house, Emil is wistful that Eman and especially Marianela aren’t there. Netty assures him that Mari is closer than he thinks, and MariVicky makes big eyes at her. Emil hopefully asks if Netty’s spoken to her, but Netty fudges that Mari may be far away, but her heart is with them. Emil droops.

Jorge comes in and informs them that he’s just spoken to Mari and she’ll be showing up soon. Kristel hopes that whale doesn’t move back in, and Gretel curtly lets her know that it’s Mari’s right. Emil tells her he hopes that when Mari comes, Kristel will treat her as a friend. Kristel delivers a delightful cascade of fresa-speak, which boils down to “no way.” MariVicky tells her she’ll have to move out then.

Kristel asks who MV thinks she is to order her out. Well, there’s only one thing a telenovela character can say in a situation like this: Soy yo que la mando en esta casa (I’m the one who gives orders in this house). Love that line, even though I’m not sure what the “la” is doing there.

A car pulls up outside Muñeca’s and the police surround it, guns pointed. Inside, it’s Fidel and Benigno who look surprised. Turns out Eman, in his civvies, is in the back seat. Brandon orders them all out.

Max declares that it’s the beginning of the best days of the Ruiz y de Teresa, and it’s all thanks to MariVicky. Kristel, steam coming out of ears, thoughtbubbles that first MV took her fiance and how she wants to take her family.

On cue, Nereida serves champagne for a toast and Delicia looks a little tearful.

Fedra swishes in the front door, and, spotting them, exclaims that it’s wonderful that her family organized a toast to her return. She asks Nereida to hand her a glass. Max throws his down and pulls out his pistol. Not one more step, you evil serpent! I’m capable of killing you on the spot!

Which of course is telenovela-speak for I’m all bluster and no bang. He rattles on about how he isn’t going to let her poison this family anymore. She calmly says if she’s going to be executed, she has the right to some last words.

Max isn’t interested, he just wants her to do an about-face, walk out and keep going and never come back. She asks if she doesn’t do that, he’ll kill her, yes? You know I’m capable of it, he says... nobody wants you here, nobody needs you, you’re just a rock in the road (estorbo = hindrance) for this family.

She tells him that this is her house, that is her husband, and those are her children. She’s not leaving, so go ahead and shoot. Max pulls back the slide and racks a round. MariVicky trots over in front of Fedra and tells Max she doesn’t want him to be a murderer. Gretel tells him she doesn’t want him in prison the rest of his life because of Fedra. Feh, says Max, I’m an old man and it’d be worth it to save the family.

Drop it, begs Gretel, do it for my papa. Don’t, pleads Max. Do you want me to lock myself up in the cellar again? Because that’s what I’ll do until she leaves this house. Gretel tries another tack: Don’t turn into a killer like she is, don’t become the thing you hate.

That does it. He lowers the gun and heads for the cellar. This guy has only one idea… why doesn’t he try some of the other time-honored ones, like locking himself in the bathroom and sulking, or holding his breath until he turns blue? Paula chases after him, pleading.

Now Eman, Benigno, Fidel and the police are standing around inside Muñeca’s. Ilitia tells him he just missed the Lirio. Brandon snorts that Eman knows the Lirio very well. Eman laughs to Ilitia that Brandon thinks he’s the Lirio and that Fidel and Muñeca are his accomplices.

Benigno thinks it’s perfectly normal for a guy to visit his mother-in-law. Brandon scoffs some more and asks Oliver if he agrees. They both nod, but their too-big helmets don’t.

Muñeca gulps and wonders to herself if Brandon is right.

Fedra tells the assembled (which of course no longer includes Max, king of the Mole People) that Bernardo faked Eva’s signature and she knew nothing about it. MariVicky snorts that if Bernardo did it, it was at her orders. Fedra asks that if she was guilty, would Bernardo have implicated himself? Emil thinks he would even cut his head off for her. She apologizes for believing so blindly in him…. she did loan a lot of money to Eva, and never had her sign any papers, so Bernardo must’ve done it to protect her.

MariVicky says Eva never would have borrowed that much money, and Fedra asks how she would know – did she perchance know Eva? Netty jumps in, agreeing, and saying that Fedra turned Eva into an alcoholic, taking advantage of her grief over her husband’s fatal accident to destroy her, the same way she tried to destroy Marianela and even her own children.

What I did for them, Netty, I did out of love. Emil steps up to the bat. When Kristel was in danger of dying in the hospital, you couldn’t support her. Was that out of love? Out of love you destroyed Axel’s youth? And out of love you separated Emanuel from Marianela? You imprisoned Gretel in a cellar for two years, and that was out of love? Puh-lease!

There is love that kills, it’s unforgivable! gasps Fedra, dropping to her knees. Forgive me! I know I’ve done a lot of harm. I know you can’t forgive me overnight, she weeps, but I beg you all to let me stay with you, to gain your love and forgiveness little by little. Gretel!

Hypocrite, says Gretel. Fedra goes on: You are my children, and for all my mistakes, I’ve loved you, you’re the most important thing I have in this life, let me show you I’m ready to change.

Gretel coldly tells her that she knows she will never her forgive her - Fedra is the worst thing that ever happened to her in her life.

Emil has had it – he goes to her and pulls her up, telling her to knock off the farce. It’s not a farce, she weeps, she had time to think in that cell and she realized how wrong she had been about everything. Even the worst of criminals deserve a second chance, she begs.

Netty has had it too, she declares she’s not spending another second in the house and she marches out. Emil tells her he’ll see her home, then tells Fedra they’re going to have a serious talk later. Fedra says she knows she’s lost him forever, but she’s never stopped loving him. Goodbye, Netty, she says.

Liar! spits Netty. Fedra says she understands, and tells her God bless. She turns to the others and says she knows it’s not her house anymore, but Marianela’s. Right, says Jorge, and until my wife returns, Vicky gives the orders here.

Fedra says that she came to fight (ah ha! says Vicky)… to fight for her family, for her children. The house doesn’t matter. She tearfully begs Vicky not to throw her out – she doesn’t have anyplace to go, and she wants to be with her children. Vicky grants her wish, not because she believes her, but because she wants to keep her plenty close to keep an eye on her.

Una Familia con Suerte – muy pronto! Will that be our next 7 p.m. show?

Back at Muñeca’s, more yucking it up about Eman being the Lirio on everyone’s part but the police’s, who want to take him down to the station. Muñeca has recalled kissing his ungloved hand, and goes over and takes his hairy paw for a confirming feel and tells Brandon that Eman is the most honest fellow in the world and couldn’t be the Lirio. She knows! thoughtbubbles Eman.

Fedra has gone up to her bedroom and is astonished to find her furniture, he clothes, her shoes gone. MV comes in and tells her to leave the room. Fedra asks her if she would be so kind as to tell her where her things are. The trash, sez MV. Fedra is quick on her feet and thanks MV, saying that she has done her a favor, because now she can start afresh from zero.

MV narrows her eyes and asks Fedra if she really thinks she (MV) believes that Fedra doesn’t mind losing her house, her things, her jewels. Fedra tells her the most important thing she has is here (pressing her hands to her bosom), her heart full of repentance. MV laughs, and tells her she can drop the act, there’s no use pretending. True, smiles Fedra, because one of us is pretending here, and it’s not me.

Fedra guesses that MV is staying in her room. Right, says MV. Fedra wonders where she’ll stay. MV ticks off all the rooms that are taken, but says Bernardo’s in the servant’s quarter is available. Fedra smiles and says that as long as she has a bed and clean sheets, she doesn’t care where she is. She thanks MV for her hospitality, curtsies, and leaves.

More back-and-forth at Muñeca’s. Ilitia tells Brandon he’s jealous, and Muñeca repeats things about his fine character. Brandon gives up and leaves, taking his men. Eman looks at Muñeca like “whew!” and she arches her eyebrows.

In her room, Kristel is on the phone with somebody saying something really bad is coming down. Fedra walks in and wonders who she’s talking to, and Kristel fudges that it’s Ilitia. Fedra notices a suitcase on the bed, and asks if she’s going somewhere. Kristel says no, it’s some clothes she saved for Fedra since MV took all Fedra’s stuff. Fedra says she’s touched at the thoughtfulness.

She comes around to where Kristel is sitting on the bed and remarks that they have the same taste. Kristel cowers and begs her not to hurt her. Fedra tells her no, she forgives her. It’s not her fault - she’s such a pretty girl, but such a stupid girl. Lorenzo used her when he saw how upset she was about Maricio, and she didn’t know what she was doing, did she? No! says Kristel, scared.

You knew exactly, says Fedra, you shot to kill. She reaches towards Kristel who cowers some more, but she just picks up a garment behind her on the bed. She thanks Kristel again and puts it in the suitcase which Kristel leaps up to close up for her. Some shoes too, please! says Fedra, taking the suitcase, and when you see Lorenzo, give him a kiss for me. She sends Kristel an air-kiss on the way out,

At his office, Lorenzo is on the phone demanding a private plane, ready within the hour. Mauricio comes in to his office, locking the door behind him. He wants to settle some scores – Lo lost him Garduno’s respect and his place as his right-hand man, and then he took his novia. Mau rolls up his sleeves. Lo laughs and does some air-martial-arts moves. Mau gives him a head knock with his forehead. Lo stomps on his foot. Both retreat, crying “ow!” The battle is on.

Fedra is having tea outside when Jose Maria walks up and says he’s heard the lady of the house is having some problems. Fedra dismisses Nererida. JM remarks that these are some digs, and she’s living the life of a queen. She tells him to leave.

Netty is telling Eman that that man is the key to Fedra’s past.

Fedra has popped up out of her chair and we see she’s in one of Kristel’s dresses, fortunately in her favorite chocolate color, but much too short for a middle-aged lady. She asks JM what he’s doing there – she’s a married woman. Married to what? Money? Greed? Lies? I’ve come with questions and I’m not leaving until I get the answers, Juana Felipa.

She tells him Juana Felipe is dead, she died in a shipwreck, and now she’s Fedra Curiel. JM tells her everybody’s talking bad about her – that she’s stolen, lied, even murdered. What has she turned into?

She turns her face away. Why can’t you look at me? What are you pretending to be, Juana Felipa?

I’m not pretending to be anything, she spits at him, I AM Fedra Curiel, and I turned myself into what I had to be when you abandoned me, when you had the wonderful idea of dying. Just when I needed you the most, you disappeared.

You can’t blame me for the fire in which I almost lost my life, retorts JM. I spent 27 years in jail for a murder I didn’t commit, but you had the opportunity to choose your path, but you, you chose the easiest way.

Well, aren’t we being critical, says Fedra. You’re the one who made me what I am, you who denied your own child because it wasn’t convenient, so you could be lord of the seven seas.

MV tells Jorge that Fedra knew that she couldn’t unmask her. Jorge tells her to calm down, or she’ll get another asthma attack. MV rants that Gretel can’t say what she knows because she’s afraid of what Fedra will do to Paula or Oliver. She feels so frustrated. He gives her a big hug and just then Eman and Ilitia walk in and see them.

JM tells Fedra that he couldn’t be sure the child was his. She might have been pregnant when she joined him on the boat. He knows what her past was and she wasn’t exactly a saint. No, she agrees, but I was the woman of a buccaneer, a buccaneer who didn’t know to assume his responsibility.

It’s not important, he waves off. This child, was it born? Does it live?

Jorge explains to Eman that MV was stressed out because his mother had come home. This is news to Eman. Ilitia gloats that Fedra will put MV in her place. Jorge tells her to knock it off. Eman reminds him that he was going to give up MV to fight for his marriage to Mari, and MV says he was just being a friend.

Eman asks where Fedra is and MV tells him probably in Bernardo’s room. Ilitia is shocked. Jorge points out that they should be glad she lets them stay there at all, since it’s Mari’s house now and MV is in charge. In fact, Eman should buy a nice house and move into it with his wife, because “they” don’t want them there anymore.

Eman asks MV if she’s going to let Jorge talk to them like that, to throw him out the house where he’s lived all his life? MV tells Jorge she has to talk for him a minute. They leave the room.

Mau and Lorenzo look plenty the worse for wear. Both are beat-up and tired. Lorenzo puffs that Mau should get out before he really clobbers him. He goes to open the door and Mau pulls a big knife and stabs him in the back. Yaaaaa! yells Lo, his eyes huge. He falls to the floor and Mau snaps a photo of him with his cell phone, saying he’s repaid a favor to the Reina de la Noche, laughs wickedly and leaves.

Jose Maria asks Fedra why she’s torturing him, not telling him. She says she had the torture of a memory - that he’s the one who said a son of his couldn’t come from the womb of a woman like her. Aw, I was drunk, he says. You know perfectly well that when I took you onto my boat, I made you my woman – forever.

Ah, I was always very little to you. The child I was carrying wasn’t good enough for a pirate like you. Tell me, was my womb cursed?

JM scoffs that she knew perfectly well that when the child was born, sooner or later he would know by just looking at it that it was his, because she was his woman.

Was, says Fedra. He grabs her by the chin and demands to know what happened with the child. He lets go just as Emil arrives in the garden and demands to know what that man is doing there.

Jorge and MV come back from their talk and Eman kids around just a bit, but says that if anybody throws him out, it has to be Marianela herself. Vicky tells him that what’s happening between him and her needs to be put end to, and he needs to take his wife and move out. Both Ilitia and Eman’s eyes pop.

Emil says he’s surprised to find JM there, and even talking to the señora. He’s aware that JM was connected to Bernardo in the past. Are he and Fedra by any chance old friends too? Simultaneously Fedra says no, and JM says yes.

Emil says he realizes they didn’t have time to agree on an answer, so he’ll go with the “yes.” Fedra thinks fast: she says that she knew he and Bernardo were friends, but she knew him as an employee of her father, the great Aristotle Curiel, so not really a friend. Emil says he’s glad to know somebody who can tell him about Fedra’s past.

Oliver tells Doris he has to get into the house, to Gretel somehow. She has a brainstorm, and says he can show Gretel that he will do anything for her, same as Gretel did for him. Anything! he vows.

Eman is mad, and says Marianela would never support the decision to throw him out. Jorge assures him Mari completely supports Vicky. Eman tells Vicky Mari would never do anything like that. Vicky says fine, we’ll wait until Marianela comes, and she’ll tell you herself. She and Jorge exit.

Ilitia pops off about Vicky and Eman tells her she has to speak respectively of her. Ilitia can’t believe it, and asks if he’s in love with her. Hopelessly, he says. Ilitia looks miffed, but not crushed.

Jose Maria backs up Fedra’s story, saying he was close to the family. Emil asks if why, then, he’d never come to visit Fedra before, and why is he here now? Jose says he’s been out of the country all this time. Emil says it’s fishy to have somebody like him show up after all these years. (I think it’s fishy that our super-honorable pirate is suddenly lying through his teeth.)

Fedra asks him not to be rude to JM, he’s offending her too. JM grandly states that it doesn’t make him less of a man to have Emil doubt his honesty. The strength that creates peace only comes when one owes nothing to anyone, he pronounces.

Huh? says Fedra. Emil says he’s not interested in his philosophical ramblings, he just wants to know what brings him there. JM says there’s no point in telling him since he doubts his word, and, as he sees that Emil doesn’t want him there, he’ll leave. See you some other time, he says to Fedra.

He leaves and Fedra sits back down to her coffee. Fedra tries to chitchat, but Emil tells her not to change the topic. They have to discuss that man. Fedra instead tells him that Vicky told her to sleep in the guest room where Emil is, but she knew that would bother him, so she decided to stay in the servants’ quarters, in Bernardo’s room.

Emil is amazed that Fedra Curiel accepted to sleep in a servant’s room. She (fake) bravely says yes. Well, ploy foiled because Emil, smilingly very slightly, says she’ll have to put up with it until Marianela gets there and straightens everything out. Fedra says she figured he wouldn’t want to share a room with her. Right, sez he, because our marriage was over a long long time ago.

Eman tells Ilitia to get used to it, they are over. Ilitia, who doesn’t seem devastated says, seemingly as a formality, that maybe she could throw herself out a window or something, but he says to please understand, that threats won’t work, that he’s trying to be friendly and not be aggressive, but it’s over. She says she doesn’t want him to say those things. Eman is saved by Fidel, who has come to take her to the airport for her modeling assignment.

Fidel leaves with her suitcase, and Jorge comes in and asks her how she can leave at this pivotal moment. She tells him that she signed a contract, and besides she likes her work, which seems to be all she has left. She tells him to make sure that Eman and Vicky stay apart and aren’t left alone together even for a minute, because Eman just told her that he’s crazy in love with Vicky.

Eman is creeping around upstairs, looking for somebody. He runs into Fedra, who says she guesses he was looking for her. Um yeah, hi, he says. She says that of all her children, he was the one she expected to come look for her and give her a kiss and all she gets is “hi”?

Eman says he just doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know if he’s sad or shocked that she’s come home. Aren’t you glad to see me? she asks. Eman kind of shrugs. She says that he’s the one who judged her the most harshly, who let that policeman he can’t stand drag her off like she was a criminal, but she is innocent.

Why don’t you say anything? I’m waiting. Ask for my forgiveness. Eman just looks at her.

At Netty’s Jose Maria is sitting at the dining room table reading the newspaper about the Lirio who steals from mafiosos and other baddies, but so far hasn’t been caught. JM pulls a huge knife and stabs in into Netty’s table, demanding to know who this fellow is and how is he connected to him? This is unlikely to endear him to lovely landlord Netty.

Sure enough Netty walks in and is shocked that he has a knife like that. He tells her he’s had it all his life (in jail???) and now it’s really stuck in the table. Netty grabs onto it too and they both pull. She ends up with it and is amazed to see “Lirio de Plata” inscribed in it. She asks JM what he has to do with that man.

Eman apologizes and says he can’t ask his mother to forgive him because he doubts her innocence. She gives him the Bernardo story, and tells him that it’s very important to her that he believe her. Eman says sorry, but she and Bernardo shared a lot of secrets, and they shared a past that included Jose Maria Sevilla who she refuses to tell him about. Does she expect him to believe that Bernardo acted behind her back?

She thinks he’s being very unfair. With a finger, she dabs the small tear on his cheek, then says she’s going to her room.

Doris apparently has been working late and as she goes down the hall, she hears Help! which spooks her. A single hand comes out a door, followed by bloody Lorenzo who says he’s dying. He slumps to the floor.

Muñeca is telling Ilitia that if she leaves, she’s leaving an open path for Eman and Vicky. Ilitia tells her that she signed a contract, and where the heck is that guard Brandon was supposed to get for her? In the background, we see smiling Brandon approaching. She smiles too when she sees it’s him.

Gretel answers the door at the big house, and OMG it’s Oliver in drag, not looking too bad. With a bit too much hair-flipping, and a higher voice, he says he want to talk to Gretel Ruiz y de Teresa. Gretel looks doubtful and Fedra, who arrives behind her at the door, stares at him wide-eyed.

Muñeca asks Ilitia what she’s playing at. Muñeca assures her that she needs a chauffeur and body guard, and Brandon promises to take good care of her.

Oliverette has gotten as far as the home office where Fedra and Gretel look at her like she’s some freak creature suspended in alcohol in a laboratory bottle. Oliverette says she was contracted to treat Gretel by none other than Emil himself. Fedra and Gretel are in the dark about any expected psychiatrist. Oliverette asks Fedra to leave her alone to talk to her patient. Fedra seems very pleased to do so and leaves graciously. Oliverette, smiling, steps close to Gretel who seems amused.

Delicia has brought MV to a restaurant (I think – it has a big sign that says “Elite”) that looks and sounds like a wind tunnel. There is one single table, and a single server. Delicia says Axel set it up. She giggles and runs off just as Eman comes up and tells MV that it was his idea to have dinner and talk, after the conflict of today. What does she say? Yes, or yes?

Avances: Kissing! First, necking, and I think that’s Mauricio that Fedra is making out with. Kristel comes in and is shocked. Brandon and Ilitia kiss. Eman and Vicky kiss. Fedra chloroforms Vicky and it looks like she’s going to inject something into her as Nereida watches.

Labels: llena