Caray, Caray!

In which one soul shuffles off this mortal coil while another stumbles back on; and there’s a Whole Lot of Crazy Goin’ On.

Parte 1
A reprise of the Ambush by Jacuzzi. This time we see Max is along for the ride. Now he holds Victoria back -- but not before she gets off a good couple of smacks and hair-pulls. And Os is left pathetically wailing “It’s not what you think!”

Over a bowl of caldo de pollo (chicken soup), Milagros admits she knew that Nathy was in love with her JuanJo.

Linda shows up at Guillermo’s place in a bathrobe (probably the defunct Ofelia’s – ugh.) She tells Gui about the Jacuzzi Ambush Interruptus.

Back at Pedro’s place, Vic still can’t believe Os would do this to her. Again! He insists that she is the only one he loves. Her answer. SLAAAP!

Meanwhile Linda figures somebody must have tipped off Victoria. Gui agrees that there are plenty of folks who enjoy the pain of others (And he should know -- his picture's in the dictionary next to Schadenfreude.) Linda vows to destroy the Sandoval family – for the pleasure of it!

Nathy assures Milagros that Fabián is just a friend; the only man she ever loved was JuanJo. And once again, Milagros insists:
Digan lo que digan, mi corazón me lo grita, mi JuanJo está vivo.(Whatever they say, her heart cries out to me, my JJ is alive.)

Gleefully feeding into Linda’s thirst for vengeance and deflecting blame from himself, Gui casually mentions that Ximena may have told Victoria that Os was in the apartment.

Back at Casa Sandoval, Max tells Fer: Something serious happened. We have to prepare ourselves…

Osvaldo swears to Victoria he was alone in the apartment and Linda's arrival was unexpected and unwelcome. But he’s tired of begging. You mean tired of loving me, she says. No, never that, says Os.
And if their positions were reversed, would he forgive her an infidelity? Hah. She thought not. And she sends him away.

Bernie has asked María D to come and visit her. Fausto and Eva escort her in but Fausto lingers a bit too long at her side. Bernie has to ask him to leave. Twice. Then Bernie starts to kvetch – she’s so lonely, no one comes to visit, her son the priest neglects her. [And if she starts telling María she looks as skinny as a herring, she better eat something – well I’m gonna think the whole Catholic thing is a ruse.]

Bernarda isn’t the only gimlet-eyed observer in the house. Not much gets by Eva. And now she sees how longingly Fausto looks at María D. She tells him (rather cruelly) that no one would be interested in him; and more importantly, he’s not there for romance: he’s there to exact justice for his parents.

While María is soothing Bernie, Fausto is recalling the time he caught María in his arms when she stumbled. She’s so beautiful, so good. He’s never known anyone like her.

María and Bernie share a laugh (That’s one joke I’d have liked to hear. So a priest and his daughter walk into a bar…). When Bernie learns that Victoria keeps getting María fired, she offers to help. María repeats what she has said to her friends: Yo me basto. I’m enough. I can rely on my own resources. And Bernie, in spite of herself, feels a little thrill of pleasure that María Desamparada is as proud as Bernie herself:
No cabe duda que es mi nieta.(There’s no doubt she’s my granddaughter.)

Osvaldo winces with shame as he thinks of the Jacuzzi Ambush Interruptus.

Max tells Victoria that Linda doesn’t live with María any more. The girls kicked her out. Now she’s staying with Guillermo. ¿Qué?
Max comes to the apartment looking for María and they go outside to talk. He’s worried about his mother and not sure she’ll be able to get over the pain of this latest humiliation. María is his only solace. But María is afraid he’ll hurt her again. And she’s afraid of Ximena -- she’s a bad person and she’s not going to let Max get away from her that easily.

Toni tries in vain to raise Vic’s spirits. But Vic is so depressed she just wants to lock herself in her room.

Even though Max swears he’ll divorce Ximena as soon as the baby is born, María doubts he’ll be able to walk away from his child. He insists that María is the only woman he has ever loved – although sometimes he feels she doesn’t love him like she used to. If that were true, says María, she wouldn’t be there with him right now.

She loves him, she misses him, she lives in the hope that one day they will form a loving family together:
Eso es lo que más me une a ti – la promesa del triunfo del amor.(That’s what keeps me close to you – the promise of love’s triumph.)
Tears. Smoochies. Awwwww.

Ximena is in the bedroom at Casa Sandoval gulping down a handful of pills (and I’m pretty sure they’re not prenatal vitamins). She pounces on Max as soon as he walks into the room and accuses him of having been with HER, with his LOVER. Why? Losing his cool, he shoots back: Because I love her. Now shut up!

Their loud argument brings Victoria and Osvaldo running. [Well, at least it got Vic out of her room. Although even an air-raid drill would have been a more pleasant motivation.]

Ximena, who seems emotionally tone-deaf, annoys both Victoria and Osvaldo by whining that she won’t let Max treat her the way Os has treated his wife.

You have to make him leave that woman, Xi tells her suegra. But Max has had enough. He says emphatically: He doesn’t love Ximena – once the kid is born, he’s history!

Fer is standing in the background, as usual, and observes the scene silently.

And Ximena’s parting shot to Victoria: Why do men cheat on us? Victoria glares at Osvaldo’s back.

Back in the barrio, Maria takes a glittery heart pendant from her tchotchke box and remembers the promises of love she exchanged with Max.

The day after the Ambush by Jacuzzi:
Victoria is getting flashbacks of the scene [Yikes! So am I!] and is understandably still feeling a tad cranky. So when Os tells her he’s going to Televisa but will be back later, she says: Don’t bother. The lawyers are already working on our divorce. And then she takes off her ring.

LindaHo is mad. She’s fuming. Her ringlets are steaming and for a moment I fear her silicone will overheat and melt. She rifles furiously through Guillermo’s drawers [Get your minds out of the gutter. I’m talking furniture] and finds a wad of bills. Not enough. She keeps looking. And her persistence is rewarded! She finds the assessment of the theatre Os and Gui are buying and realizes that Guillermo is cheating Osvaldo. [Although it takes a good tug on the beanie to believe that LindaHo can tell that just by glancing at a legal report.]

At Casa Sandoval, Fer comforts her mother and begs her to forgive Osvaldo. She doesn’t want to lose her father.

Linda understands she has some pretty potent ammunition in her hands. [What she doesn’t get is that she’s just signed on as a suicide bomber. Just ask Ofelia. Oh, right, she’ll have to wait until she gets to hell for that conversation.] She mutters darkly:
¡Me vas a pagar todas mis humillaciones, Guillermo!(You’re gonna pay for all the ways you humiliated me, Guillermo!)

Just then Guillermo comes in with Ximena. Linda quickly ducks out of sight. Xi is kvetching our favorite kvetch: No lo soporto, no lo soporto! (I can’t bear it!) [Too bad she’s not wearing her “No lo soporto” embroidered angora beret. Then she could simply point to the words on her head and we wouldn’t have to hear her whiny voice.]

She goes on: She can’t stand Max, she can’t stand living in that house, if Gui had taken responsibility for the pregnancy… As usual the angry words devolve into nasty groping that not even LindaHo can stand watching. She clears her throat loudly.

Victoria announces to Max:
Le acabo de pedir un divorcio a tu padre.(I just asked your father for a divorce.)

Linda’s employment worries are over! She can live comfortably on the money Gui and Xi will give her for her silence. But guess what, LindaHo? Guillermo doesn’t care if Max knows that Ximena is a lying skank. But I bet you’d care if Osvaldo heard you were cheating him on the theatre deal, retorts Linda.

She continues to recite her list of grievances: You wouldn’t let me sleep in your bed, you just wanted to use me, and then you wouldn’t give me any money. Well now you’ll pay me and plenty!

Guillermo pretends to give in to her demands. He agrees to meet with her the following day to pay her off. Linda says she’ll meet him at 10 in the cafeteria next to hotel with a snooty name. (maybe Maison D’Or?)

What now? asks XimenaHo now that LindaHo has gone. Guillermo reminds her that money isn’t the only way to shut people up. Hmmm… what kind of accident might befall that stupid woman?

At Casa Sandoval, Victoria’s bitter solitude is interrupted when Micaela informs her that a very insistent woman is on the phone. It’s Crazy Bernie full of her usual ominous threats and abuse, maybe ramped up a level or two. She warns Victoria that she is about to suffer the very same torment she suffered years ago.

It looks like Linda has been stood up. She stalks out of the cafeteria angrily and mutters what are going to be her last words on this earth:
¡Me las van a pagar!(They’ll pay for this!)

We spot Ximena lurking outside in the shadow of the building, disguised in a black wig, shades and a red coat. Linda walks up to the curb. Just as a dark red SUV approaches, Ximena steps forward and pushes Linda right into its path. Linda is struck, her body is flipped up on the hood of the vehicle and then settles face down on the ground. The red SUV backs up and then speeds away. [Damn. Haven’t we seen this before?]


Parte 2
Ximena, who up until now has not impressed us as the sharpest tack in the box, shows an unexpected aptitude for murder. She deftly ducks back into the hotel bathroom, doffs her wig and shades, dons her beret, and turns her reversible red coat to its black side. Then she joins Guillermo (who has been sitting quietly at a table in the restaurant enjoying the show through the window). The police are looking for a woman with short, dark hair. A witness comes forward – she saw the dark-haired woman push Linda into the path of the SUV. Man, there sure are some crazies loose out there, remarks Gui. Did she survive? No, the policeman informs them, the impact was brutal and she died instantly.

Ximena has a sudden attack of the vapors, what with the shock of the accident and all, and Guillermo leads her out solicitously.

Now safely back in the car, Guillermo gloats merrily:
¡Loquita, loquita, eres tan predecible!(Crazy girl, crazy girl, you’re so predictable!)
He saw the gleam in her eye when he talked about an accident. Well she deserved it! says Xi. Guillermo assures her: You did good, kid!

Then he grabs her bag [which has the incriminating black wig and shades] and tells her he’ll hold on to it so he can control her. If she dares to disobey him, Max will find out who her baby’s father really is; and she’ll go to jail for murder. In that case, says Xi, you’ll go to jail for defrauding Osvaldo. Maybe, acknowledges Gui. But I’ll get out on bail. You won’t. The conversation gets them all hot and bothered. Thankfully they have no fruit in the car.

Speaking of matters holy and un-
The Padres are having a heartfelt conversation -- Juan Pablo is telling Jerónimo that he feels responsible and he doesn’t want to abandon his daughter when she needs him most – when Bernarda bursts in, freak flag flying:
Un sacerdote no tiene derecho a los afectos humanos. Un sacerdote queda clavado a la cruz de Cristo, a la pasión y el dolor del Redentor desde el día de su ordinación. Los sentimientos y los pensamientos de un sacerdote tienen que estar puestos en Dios! ¡Sólo en Dios!
(A priest has no right to human feelings. A priest is nailed to the crucifix of Christ, to the passion and pain of our Saviour from the day of his ordination. The feelings and thoughts of a priest must be focused on God! And on God alone!)

Er… excuse me Doña Demente, interjects Padre Jero – who, having been a priest for the past 50 or 60 years or so, may know a thing or two on the subject –

-- Priests have an obligation to help everyone and they have a special obligation to offer help to those who need it most.

Bernie is dismissive. If Jero, who is more worldly than her JP, feels that is his duty, so be it. But her son is different, evermore closer to God; and she will make sure he continues in that path.

The padres look at one another – JP with despair and Jero with horror.

At Casa Sandoval, Guillermo brings the news:
Linda murió esta mañana. Sufrió un percance, la atropellaron y se murió instantaneamente.(Linda died this morning. She was in an accident, she was run over and she died instantly.)

Osvaldo is impactado. At least he has the good grace not to look too relieved. Victoria asks bitterly if he’s going to say goodbye to his lover. He’s sorry she’s dead, he says, but he’s not going anywhere. Vic makes it clear that he can go wherever he wants – she’s getting a divorce and she wants him out of the house.

Fer, once again, is left to take it all in without fully understanding what is happening. She asks her father if it’s true that Linda was his lover. Answer her, says Victoria.

Linda’s death, or rather, Linda’s murder flashes before Ximena’s eyes. She seems to lose her already tenuous hold on reality and spirals downward into madness as we watch.

Guillermo knows too many things, she thinks. He’s going to do me harm.

The next speech she addresses to her reversible red and black coat which seems to be a stand-in for Linda [And I can’t suppress the thought that the novela would have been improved if the coat had played the role of Linda from the beginning]:
Te dije que te callaras, te dije que no te íbamos a pagar nada, te lo dije...(I told you to be quiet, I told you we weren’t going to pay you anything, I told you…)
She throws the coat down and thinks: Someone, someone has to help me; someone has to protect me in this house because I can’t… Her gaze falls on a framed photo of Victoria. She picks it up.

Downstairs, Os still has no good answer for Fer when she asks him why he betrayed her mother. When he leaves, Fer rejects Victoria’s attempt to comfort her. Don’t touch me, she says. If my father leaves forever, I’ll never forgive you.

Guillermo slithers over to Victoria and puts himself at her disposal, telling her she can count on his help, on his friendship.

Ximena feels sure Victoria will help her. She’ll take care of her and nothing bad will happen. Then she addresses the LindaCoat:
Yo te lo dije que iba a costar muy caro!(I told you you’d pay dearly!)

Back in the church, Jero tells Bernarda that he prays for her every day. Pray for someone who needs it, scoffs Bernie. Evil may lodge in the heart of even a pious woman like you, says Jero. Or in a priest like you, she shoots back, who advises another priest to abandon his religious duties. Wisely, Jero takes his leave.

When they are alone, Juan Pablo reproaches his mother for speaking to Padre Jero like that. He insists that it is his obligation – and maybe his cross – to help his daughter. God works in mysterious ways. Perhaps these obligations are punishment for my sin.

A police officer arrives at María’s doorstep looking for Linda’s next of kin. He tells her what happened earlier.

Bernarda complains to JP that he is indifferent to the shame he brings to her and the pain he is causing by his preoccupation for María Desamparada. This is all too much crazy to deal with at the moment and he asks her to leave him alone right now.

María D, Nathy and Milagros are all bummed out by the news of Linda’s death. [Although they’re not exactly rending their garments or beating their breasts. So far no one, not one single person says “I’ll miss her”. All you bad women out there – are you paying attention?]

Are you kicking me out? asks Doña Demente with genuine surprise. No, says JP, I just don’t want to talk about this anymore. If I change my mind about helping María D, you’ll be the first to know.

Bernarda can’t leave without one final warning:
Más vale que no lo hagas por el bien de muchos.(You better not (acknowledge María as your child) – for the sake of a lot of people.)

The news of the newly Late and Unlamented Linda has spread to the design studio of the Casa de Modas. And now Victoria is going to divorce Osvaldo, adds Fabián sadly. Oscar reports what the newspaper says: It wasn’t an accident! Some woman pushed her!
Roxana has been listening in silence but she looks up in alarm when she hears about the as yet unidentified woman. She thinks:
¡Esa mujer pudo haber sido mi hija Ximena!(That woman could have been my daughter Ximena!)
[Rox is nasty and dishonest. But not stupid.]

At Casa Sandoval, Ximena does her best to fan the flames of Victoria’s hatred for María D. She whines that Max is still seeing that zorra, MD, that same vibora that abused Vic’s trust.

Rox will be off to see Victoria [and whatever you think of Victoria, you have to be thinking: Poor Vicky!] as soon as she’s done putting her own touch on some of Pip’s frightfully dressed models. What are you going to use? asks Pip. The stuff that’s gone missing? Toni is puzzled so Pip explains: Since Rox’s arrival, expensive fabrics, purses, shoes, accessories have all been disappearing.

Rox acts offended: You’re not insinuating that I stole them?
And Pip faces her down: I’m not insinuating; I’m stating a fact!
And here Rox starts blathering about defamation and how Pip is in charge so if anything is missing, it’s on him – he’s a ridiculous puppet – careless and shameless. And she marches out, hips swiveling, head held high. [And just for a moment, Toni has to struggle to keep a straight face.]

Ximena keeps working on Victoria, trying to keep her hatred of MD alive: She can’t understand how Osvaldo could betray Victoria when she gave him everything. And now Ximena says she’s suffering the same fate. In her case, MD is to blame. Vic admits quite freely that she hates MD too – she was Linda’s accomplice – but now Linda is dead.

Ximena pretends she is Shocked! Shocked! Still, though she doesn’t want anyone to think she’s unkind, Linda had it coming. Women like that – like María Desamparada and Linda -- deserve what they get. Victoria nods.

And let's be honest. Milagros agrees with them – even if she expresses the thought a little differently. What happened to Linda was karma. Millie warned her many times that all the harm she was doing would come back to her. Nathy tells María she shouldn’t feel bad about telling Linda to leave:
Nosotros no tuvimos la culpa de nada.(We’re not to blame for anything.)
They warned her to stop hurting others but she never listened – she even seemed to enjoy it! And she’d do anything for money.

At Casa Sandoval, Max has no explanation to offer Fernanda when she asks why Osvaldo cheated on their mother. All he can say is he’ll always be there for his sister.

Osvaldo brings the news of Linda’s death to Juan Pablo. Victoria thinks I betrayed her again, he tells JP tearfully, but I swear to you I fell into a trap. Now that Victoria is unwilling to forgive him, he wants to go far away, he says. JP discourages him from doing so: If your life is in ruins, right here is where you have to rebuild it:
Adondequiera te vayas, los remordimientos te perseguirán y jamás encontrarás la paz.(Wherever you go, your remorse will follow you and you’ll never find peace.)

Reflecting on Linda’s death, Max tells María D that there are some people that you just can’t help. But it’s been one tragedy after another, she says, first JuanJo and now Linda.

Doña Demente remembers with pleasure María Desamparada’s declaration that she can get by on her own. [Anyone else getting Mary Tyler Moore flashbacks?] But then her thoughts turn to darker memories: she sees the flames that consumed Gonzalo and Rosalía, she sees Octavio tumbling down the stairs, a victim of poisoning; she sees herself beating Tomasa to death and slamming the fatal injection through Sor Clementina’s habit.

Then the ghost of Sor Clementina herself appears to her in a terrifying vision:
Bernarda, Bernarda, estás condenada. Tu destino es el fuego eterno, te consumirás en las llamas del infierno. Estás condenada!(B, B, you are doomed! Your destiny is eternal fire, you will be consumed by the flames of hell. You are doomed!)

Okay, I think we all need a little air. Let’s take a walk outside and clear our heads. Wait – what’s going on over there? Isn’t that one of Millie’s neighbors?

Yes it is! And she’s all excited because she has just caught a glimpse of a drunken guy across the road who looks a lot like JuanJo. And it's him! It’s JuanJo! Yes, it’s him!

A truck goes by and obscures her view. When it has passed:
¡Ya no está! Estoy segura que era JuanJo.(He’s not there now. I’m sure it was JuanJo.)
She has to tell Doña Milagros
Cruz and Napo walk down the street with Millie after Linda’s funeral. Cruz says it's terrible (gacho) that no one else was there. [Milagros says she was there because there’s no point in holding on to rancor – she wanted to say a prayer for Linda’s soul. Well maybe. But I think she just wanted to be sure she’s good and dead.]

On the way, Millie tells the guys she feels bad about María D’s predicament. Napo thinks it’s María’s own fault for not telling Max about the baby. Cruz says it’s a delicate subject – but all agree that pretty soon María will start showing and her pregnancy won’t be a secret any more.

In the apartment, María and Nathy are dressed in black so it is likely they were at Linda’s funeral (thanks, Vivi, for pointing that out!). María remarks to Max that it must be terribly hard for a mother to accept the loss of a child. Speaking of lost children, Max wants to share something he found out only recently: Before she married Osvaldo, Victoria had a daughter, a daughter she was separated from. And despite years and years of searching, she has never been able to find her.

Max looks closely at María. You don’t look surprised, he says. It seems as if you already knew the story. Yes, says María, except your mother didn’t “lose” her daughter – she abandoned her! What are you talking about? asks Max, taken aback by her reaction. But before she can answer, María has a bout of nausea and runs to the bathroom and pukes. Nathy tries to cover for her and says María ate something in the street that didn’t agree with her. Max wants to take her to a doctor but both girls assure him that it’s nothing. He finally agrees to go to the pharmacy with Nathy to get something for her upset stomach. He’ll come back later to check on her.

Nathy and Max are continuing their conversation out on the sidewalk when the neighbor lady approaches them excitedly. She saw JuanJo! Remembering how sure Milagros was that JuanJo was alive, Nathy and Max take her words seriously. The three will go to look for him – they won’t say anything to Milagros until they find him.

Victoria has taken to drink. And to sarcasm. And neither of them becomes her.

She is tormented by thoughts of the Jacuzzi Ambush. Os asks her if she wants to go out. Go out? she asks with a smile of misery. Great idea! The happy, loving Sandovals on the town – showing all the world how well they are getting along! How moving!

You’ve been drinking, says Os, and you don’t drink. Well I don’t take pills either, but right now, whatever it takes to escape from this reality.

Then have their same bitter fight. Ya basta, Victoria shouts Os at last. Enough already! But not quite. Vic hurls her glass and it shatters. [Yeah, I get it, like their marriage. But it’s not like she’s the one who has to pick up all those shards and splinters.]

María sits with Milagros and tries to distract her from her grief by getting her to talk about her consultorio sentimental (lonelyhearts or matchmaking service).

The JJ search has been fruitless so far. The neighbor lady has to go home but Max and Nathy keep looking.

Milagros tells María that love is sometimes sweet, sometimes cruel, sometimes bitter, but nothing is more beautiful than love. Soulmates wander about the world looking for one another – although sometimes they encounter problems. Like Milagros and Corazon Solitario, her mysterious correspondent – he may be her soulmate, but they never connected.

Max and Nathy are in a scary part of town checking out the street people sleeping on the ground, peeking under blankets and newspapers. No JJ.

Does your consultorio sentimental make people happier? Does it bring them together? MD asks Milagros. Yes, she answers. Well then, follow your own advice, says María. If Corazon Solitario is your soulmate… But Milagros is not ready to think about romance -- all the joy left her life when she lost JuanJo.

A hero is found!
Just when they are about to give up and go back home, Max sees one more figure sleeping under a pile of newspapers. He removes the papers carefully from the man’s face and uncovers -- JuanJo!!! He excitedly calls Nathy over. JuanJo, she cries, you’re alive! Milagros was right!

They help him to his feet. JuanJo, filthy and disheveled, stares blankly at Max and Nathy: Who are you? I don’t know you. They tell him they are his friends, that his mother, Milagros, is suffering: She thinks you’re dead! I don’t know any Milagros, he mutters.

Then the fog in JuanJo’s alcohol and misery-besotted brain begins to clear:
Mi mamacita Milagros…¿Dónde está mi mama? ¡Quiero ver a mi mama!(My mama Milagros... Where’s my ma? I want to see my ma!)
And JuanJo weeps on Nathy’s shoulder.

Sweet William Levy in a kayak.

Labels: triunfo