Caray, Caray!

Reprise:
Padre Juan Pablo warns Bernarda that if she won’t tell María Desamparada the truth, he will oblige someone else to come forward – someone who knows all about Bernarda’s crimes. And Bernarda will spend the rest of her life in prison. Padre Jerónimo appears at the door at that very moment and Bernarda fixes him with a look of intense hatred.

Tonight – What a night!
Back in the familiar hospital waiting room where the Sandoval clan have wept over Fer and little Osvaldo and fretted over Linda and Ximena, they are now huddled in misery while Osvaldo's fate hangs in the balance.

The doctors have bad news for the family. Hemorrhagic shock has left his heart severely damaged. He is in intensive care but his survival is uncertain. Only the closest family members can see him – Fer, Max… Victoria steps forward. I’m his wife, she says.

In the vecindad, Alonso fawns and comforts and blathers to his ‘ternura’ and tells her to look on the bright side of PJP’s revelation. She did get what she most wanted – now she knows who her parents are. María corrects him: JP refused to tell her who her mother is.

Osvaldo’s condition has worsened. The doctors appear with a tragic announcement: El señor Sandoval is dying. The family can go in to say their goodbyes.

Nati is with María and little Juan Pablo in the vecindad. María has just declared that she never wants to see PJP again – not him or his mother (and his little dog too, if he had one!) when a knock sounds at the door. It’s doña Bernarda! Aren’t you going to hug your grandma? she asks pleasantly, if delusionally.

La familia Sandoval – Max, Fer and Victoria – gather at Osvaldo’s bedside. A monitor alarm sounds. Sufrió un infarto! (He had a heart attack!) The medical team calls for a crash cart and as the horrified family huddles in a corner of the room and watches, the doctor shocks Os again and again and again. But Osvaldo doesn’t respond and the line on the monitor is flat. The doctor speaks the words they have been dreading:
El sr Sandoval acaba de fallecer. (Mr. Sandoval has just died.)

Victoria calls his name over and over: You can’t leave me with this terrible guilt, she says. She takes his hand, kisses his brow and then steps back to allow Fer and Max say their farewells.

Back in the barrio, Nati takes the baby into the bedroom so María and the Demented One can talk. María isn’t intimidated or overwhelmed by Bernarda anymore and she gives it to her between the eyes. You may be my father’s mother, says María, and you may be my son’s godmother (though the CarayCaray theologians are disputing this point!), but by withholding the truth about my parents, you gave up your right to be a grandmother. You knew your son seduced my mother!

To the contrary, rants Demente. It was your whoring mother who seduced my son. He was a pure soul until she dragged him into her abyss of fornication!

Cállate, says María, but Demente is on a roll and won’t shut up. María’s mother was a sinner, María is the fruit of sin and is herself a sinner. QED.

¡No! ¡No! ¡No! ¡No es cierto! cries María angrily.

And in the hospital, the doctor draws the sheet over Osvaldo’s face.

But wait…something is happening here… Osvaldo is knocking on heaven’s door…

We see a tranquil white-shirted Osvaldo in a field of white clouds. We hear a baby crying. And then Osvaldo’s voice: ¡mis nietos!

Now there are images of Max and Fer and we hear Osvaldo again: My children need me!

There is Victoria’s image too and she is begging him not to die, not to leave her alone.

Finally we hear Osvaldo himself pleading with God to let him see his family – his children, Victoria, his grandchildren. Then comes his joyful shout: Gracias Dios!

He gasps and sits up throwing the sheet off his face and asks his family: Why are you crying? They tell him: You were dead!

He explains to them: The children brought him back to life!

Celestial reprieves notwithstanding, there’s still plenty of evil afoot. And now we’re back on the dark side. We see Osvaldo’s black camioneta pull up to Guillermo’s retreat. A knock at the door pulls him away from his cognac and his Beethoven. He starts to open the door, then quickly tries to close it again. But his visitor pushes hard enough to enter and knock him down. Leonela! he says in astonishment.

Osvaldo describes his near-death experience, how he felt he was in a tunnel, hearing celestial music and was moving towards a light, longing to reach the light. And then the music was mixed with an infant’s cry – his grandsons! And he knew he still had a mission on earth – to look out for them. He couldn’t leave his family alone in their moment of need.

The family reminisces about Os’s travels with the children when Victoria was busy building her company. They laugh over how independent Fer was and how she was in a hurry to grow up. And look how I ended up, says Fer ruefully. But Victoria reminds her to count her blessings.

Meanwhile Guillermo is struggling to understand Leonela’s apparent resurrection. He bought Osvaldo’s story that the couple had gone away on vacation in the midst of a marital crisis. And she had died. Leonela corrects the record: Osvaldo found out she had a lover – not her first! --. She ended up murdering the lover and was sentenced to life in prison. Osvaldo did his best to free her but he was unsuccessful.

Recently, her new lawyer got the case reopened and they were able to convince a judge that she had acted in self-defense. And that, combined with her ‘good behavior’ and her putting on an act of a suffering mother longing to be reunited with her son got her a Get Out of Jail Free card.

She tells Gui: The only thing that kept her alive all this time was her desire for revenge.

She hasn’t seen Max yet. As for Osvaldo – here Leonela laughs and pulls out her gun and aims it at Gui’s face – Yo misma le disparé! (I shot him myself!)

Back at the hospital, Osvaldo tells Victoria he turned down a chance to make a film in Europe – a chance he would have jumped at in the past – because now his family comes first. He wants to repair the harm he has done, and help Vic rebuild Casa Victoria. And he hopes to regain her love and ultimately, her forgiveness. They clasp hands and Vic’s face softens but she says nothing.

Out in the waiting room, Max spreads the good news. Oscar, with a little nudge from Pip, leaves for dinner with Toni; Fer’s galanes will take her home. Max will stay with his father.

Padre Hottie is in church with María’s painful rejection still echoing in his head. He is surprised when Victoria enters. He notices her face is tear-stained but when he asks what is wrong, she brushes off the question. She picks up The Crucifix That Burns Those Beyond Redemption and it brings back a flood of memories. (It doesn’t burn her though, so for all her flaws, she hasn’t passed to the dark side. Yet.) You were such a good man back then, so sweet, so kind, so understanding – that’s why I hated you so much when I thought you had repudiated me and the child I was carrying – your daughter! When I believed your mother’s lies!

Sadly, JP’s mother is still on the loose and still causing harm. Right now she is in full rant mode: María is a sinner who gave herself to Max without the benefit of marriage, had a child out of wedlock and now is a single mother. (This, of course, is Demente’s own story – except that María didn’t try to incinerate Max, Ximena and Osvaldito and then marry Alonso to give her son a name.)

María tries to defend herself but Demente isn’t listening. She just keeps spewing: You haven’t behaved like a decent Christian woman! You have no right to that child! So I’m taking him right now!

María blocks the door to the bedroom with her body. (And I for one am glad to know that Nati and her pugilistic skills are behind that door with little Juan Pablo!)

Meanwhile Padre Hottie and Victoria continue their aggravating conversation. She bemoans the fact that her prayer to be reunited with her daughter hasn’t been answered. He replies cryptically that he lost a daughter too, maybe twice. Victoria doesn’t know what he’s talking about – he’s always so mysterious.

By the way, she says, I see that María Desamparada rejected you. Now you can understand what an ingrate that girl really is! He wonders how much she really knows about MD. Enough, says Vic. Enough not to be wrong in my judgment of her. That’s why I tried to buy her child.

Whoa! PJP is taken aback. But Vic continues as if bidding for babies were the most normal thing in the world. After all, Bernie did the same thing – she tried to buy little María years ago. (And Bernie, of course, is someone to emulate, right?)

PJP, who specializes in trying to reason with the unreasonable, says: If my mother’s behavior is so horrifying to you, maybe you should reflect on your own behavior; and maybe you should learn how to forgive.

Victoria sets down the crucifix. Forgiveness doesn’t come easily, she admits. She still hasn’t forgiven Osvaldo even though he’s in the hospital.

This is news to JP. Vic tells him about the shooting – they were after the car, it seems. And that’s why she came to see JP: For some reason, Osvaldo wants to talk to him.

Fausto spots el Alacrán lurking outside María’s place. El Alacrán tells him that the boss lady, doña Bernarda, is inside and tries to shoo him away. But Fausto is steadfast. He’s there to protect María.

Inside, Demente rants on. With Little Juan Pablo it’s as if God has given her another chance – a chance to make up for (resarcir) the sin her son committed because of María’s mother. I won’t permit you to take my son, declares María stoutly. No one’s asking permission, retorts Demente. You aren’t prepared to give him what he needs and to raise him properly.

She will raise her son with love, counters María, and with the freedom to choose his path in life. He’ll have the chance at happiness that Demente herself denied to MD.

Demente puts on her self-justifying face – it’s just that her feelings were confused… if only your mother hadn’t seduced my son…but you’re so much like me:
You are the only one who deserves to bear my name!

Forget the kayak. Cue the garbage scow and load it up with Demente, Leonela, Ximena, Roxana, Guillermo, Alacrán, and Padilla. And just to be on the safe side, set out a leaky canoe for Alonso and Victoria.

Labels: triunfo