Caray, Caray!

Alternate Title: Maripaz Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Ivan and Camilo reignite their bromance and remember all the good times they had together as kids and teens. Ivan invites him out to dinner to catch up. The front desk girl brings Ivan the phone saying it’s Maripaz on the other line. He brushes off her call to head out with Camilo.

Outside of the hotel, Ivan asks Camilo about his ex-wife. She was a waitress in the same place as Carmen and that’s how they met. She was a cute, fun girl; they fell in love and married. They were happy until he lost his job (chamba) and then the fights started and she asked for a divorce. Ivan questions if they were really in love, since love means you stick with each other for better or for worse. Camilo reminds him of the saying (come dice el dicho), when hunger enters through the door, love flies out the window. At least they didn’t have kids. This gets Ivan thinking about his missing child and he tells the whole story of Maripaz’s pregnancy to Camilo for the first time. He did mention it in a letter to Camilo, but we know what happened to that.

At Casa Meandragon, Maripaz is busting David’s non-existent balls about getting her a new car. He’ll let her use his car which is only a year old, and he’ll use hers. Once this deal with the McGuires gets underway, he’s sure the family will have enough money to get her a new car. Maripaz is impressed that the McGuires are that loaded. She pumps David for more information about their wealth, Ivan (who David thinks is a good guy), and their reasons for coming to Sonora. Because Sonora has promise (posibilidades). Maripaz has heard all she needs to hear, now she wants to go out clubbing (antro).

At dinner, Ivan catches Camilo up on his life and Tony’s connection to Sonora. The business proposition is real and Ivan and Tony have a real interest in investing in the region. But Ivan’s main reasons for coming back are to prove that Juan Jaime Meandragon knocked up and abandoned his mom for a second time, and to find out what happened to his son. Camilo wants to know if he intends to kill JJ if he proves his theory correct. Ivan admits the hatred he’s felt for JJ all these years, and for Lucrezia. But he doesn’t intend to kill anyone. He just wants JJ to admit what he did and beg for forgiveness on his knees at his mother’s grave. Camilo doesn’t think that, or getting to the truth about his baby with Maripaz, will be so easy, considering how much work the Curiel-Lomelis have put into hiding that event. Ivan’s determined to find a way.

Over dinner, Carlota and Lucia discuss Ivan. Lucia wonders if Ivan will look up Maripaz, and says how surprised he was to hear Maripaz had tied the knot with David. Since nobody seems to have any problem spreading David’s business around, Carlota informs Lucia that Maripaz may be David’s wife, but she’s not his woman. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

Camilo’s also spilling the gossip, but about Maripaz’s party girl ways, and Lucia’s hardworking, good girl ways. Seems Camilo already spread the gossip about David being a twinkle toes, because Ivan wonders how in the heck he and Maripaz ended up married. And Lucia’s dating that imbecile Saul. Camilo’s sure both matches are due to their mother, who wants the money and prestige of the Meandragons. Engineer Gerry jumped the Curiel-Lomeli ship long ago, married, became a widower, and returned to town with his blind sister-in-law and son, and started a construction business. The BFFs head into the Galvan house.

Carlota can’t drop the subject of David’s impotence. It’s all JJ’s fault for taunting his son his whole life, but Maripaz isn’t being very understanding and thinks he’s a homosexual. As a psychologist, Lucia knows that kind of treatment by a parent can cause impotence. Carlota wants her to use her psychology skills to help David, but Lucia points out that 1) she’s a CHILD psychologist, and 2) it’s not really a subject that a brother-in-law would want to talk about with a sister-in-law. She could recommend someone that can help him.

In da club, Maripaz and Judith boogie, while David looks like he has an explosive migraine from the table. As if his night couldn’t get worse, Antolin slimes up and wonders why he’s not dancing with his “mujer.” He wants the gossip about the gringos too. It’s too loud to hear, and David is too annoyed to answer. His annoyance grows when his wife stumbles over demanding more liquor, and starts flirting with some guys in the rear of the club.

Celia and Carmen gossip about Ivan’s return over some late night coffee. In walks the man, the legend, himself, and he is greeted with warms hugs and kisses. Ivan admires the beautiful young woman Carmen has turned into. They all sit down at the table to happily reminisce about old times.

Sober David, tipsy Judith, and drunk off her stilettos Maripaz return to Casa Meandragon. David tries in vain to shush Maripaz and carry her to their room. She makes fun of his inability to do ANYTHING. He can’t even dance with his two left feet. (David has married the female version of his father.) Once in their bedroom, she insults him some more and passes out on the bed.

Ivan wishes the Galvan’s good night. At the gate he offers Camilo a job with his company as an agronomist (tecnica agricola). It’s not a favor. They need skilled people they can trust working for them. They’ll meet tomorrow morning in the hotel and then head out to see the packing plant JJ wants them to buy. Inside, Carmen marvels that Ivan is still the same good guy, despite being rich now. Celia is sure his mom is looking down and proud of him. Camilo brings the happy news of the new job. They are sure his luck is now changing.

The next morning, he shows up bright and early to meet with Ivan and Tony. Tony’s not bothered that Ivan hired him without consulting him. He trusts Ivan’s judgment. They head out to the plant.

At the school, Lucia works with a student and remembers when Ivan broke her heart when she found out he and her big sis were novios. Her student brings her back to the present.

At the Meandragon ranch, the gang’s all there- JJ, his two legit sons, Ivan, Tony, and Camilo. The packing plant is in bad shape, and it’s right on JJ’s land. Ivan thinks the plant they use should be on more neutral ground, where all the planters/ranchers have equal access. JJ doesn’t give a damn about fairness and doesn’t care to hear David’s suggestions. Tony defends his sons judgment and he, Ivan and Camilo leave. JJ is livid. Why in the heck didn’t his two idiot sons say something? David tries once again to make his suggestion, but JJ shoots him down before two words have left his mouth and starts in on Saul. Good for nothings! (Buenos para nada.) Saul then gives David a hard time about not having his truck to drive them back.

Ivan asks Camilo to do a study on the state of the local packing plants. Once in town, Tony informs Ivan that he wants to look for a rental house for the two of them, and a car for himself. Camilo takes him to the real estate agency, and Ivan heads back to the hotel, where Maripaz is laying in wait. The front desk gives him a work package and tells him he got a call from Señorita Lomeli. “Maripaz?” Nope, Lucia. Ivan looks a bit disappointed, but doesn’t have long to wait to see the Señorita Lomeli he was hoping for. He turns around to the sudden sound of Maripaz calling his name. She looks at him with big, sad eyes and says, “I missed you so much. We have so many things to talk about.” Ivan is impactado. “Aren’t you happy to see me?” Ivan claims he is. Maripaz continues her sad act and then asks to go to his room with him, since they have so much to “talk” about. Note: The dress she is wearing is short, low cut, backless, and sparkly. It’s morning time. She also asks to have a beer as soon as she’s in the room. Did I mention, it’s morning? Ivan reminds her that it’s a bit too early to start drinking. She remembers her good girl act.

Ivan sadly remembers how she treated him and how they parted. She blames it all on her mother, being young, and being scared. But she NEVER forgot him or stopped loving him. Ivan can’t believe she would have treated him that way, left him without his child, or married David if she was SO in love with him to this day. He (rightly) guesses that she’s giving him this story because he’s now rich. She gets teary and denies it. Her marriage with David is just for convenience, to get out of her mother’s house where everyone just made fun of her because she didn’t continue with school. They called her ignorant and aimless (vago). She turns on the waterworks about how hard it was those months as their child grew inside her. “Then you didn’t have an abortion?” “No. Our child was born DEAD.” Ivan is destroyed by this news.

At the school, Saul comes to harass Lucia during recess about spending time with him. She agrees to meet him for dinner after school is out.

In the hotel room, Maripaz continues her sob story. She only became a party girl (clubs and drinking) to forget the pain of losing their baby. She then got a bad reputation as a wild party girl, and David had a reputation as being gay, so they married to stop the wagging tongues. But there’s nothing between them—they live like brother and sister. Ivan looks like he’s buying this. He asks where they buried the baby. Maripaz claims she doesn’t know as there were complications from the birth, she was also crazy with grief, and they kept her in the hospital for a while. Her parents buried the baby during that time and didn’t tell her where, since she was in so much pain over losing him and their baby. But now he’s back, and they have a right to be happy together. They hug, she goes in for the kiss, and then comes right out and asks him to make love to her! Ivan doesn’t say anything, but he also doesn’t resist when she takes him by the hand and leads him to the bedroom. They look like two unsure teenagers going all the way for the first time. Ivan decides to go with the flow.

Esther and Lucrezia continue gossiping about their two grown kids. Esther is not pleased with Maripaz’s partying ways and wants her mama to talk to her. But Lucrezia thinks the fact that David can’t get it up is a bigger problem. Touché.

Ivan and Maripaz continue to make up for lost time. Off come the clothes, and then they are naked under the sheets. Just as things are really cooking, Ivan pulls away. (That’s twice in one week that Maripaz has been left high and not so dry.) Ivan thinks they are moving too fast. “But if we both want to, what’s the problem?” Ivan says it will have to be another time and bolts out of the bedroom. Maripaz tries the understanding approach (guess David isn’t rich enough to get this approach) and agrees with Ivan. But she looks majorly disappointed.

The suegras continue to gossip about David’s little problem. (Jeez Luise!) Esther thinks that as a wife, Maripaz should want to help him through this problem. She begs Lucrezia to speak to Maripaz. It seems she’s not a total idiot, so she dangles a threat Lucrezia will understand. If Lucrezia wants in on the deal with the gringos, and the chance to make lots of money, she’ll see to it that the marriage between their kids, and the ties between their two families, stay strong, with no scandals.

Lucia says goodbye to her students and calls up Ivan, who is still trying to process the story of his son being dead. Lucia apologizes for being rude to him at the restaurant. She was just being an idiot when she pretended not to know him at first. Ivan’s over it. He still has the same affection (cariño) for her as he always did. She barely avoids saying she feels the same, and says farewell instead. They both have huge smiles on their faces after hanging up. Tony and Camilo return victorious from finding a rental house. It’s big enough to also serve as office space. The only drawback is it’s near the Curiel-Lomeli house. Ivan has no problem with that. Camilo sees that something is up with Ivan. Ivan promises to tell him later.

In a restaurant, Saul checks out a young woman at a neighboring table until her boyfriend/husband arrives. He then scolds Lucia for being late when she runs in, and yells LOUDLY for the waitress. He criticizes the service and blames Lucia since she chose this restaurant as it’s near her university. He then goes right into whining about his problems—his dad, the McGuires, etc. Lucia wants to know why he has to take his frustrations out on her. “I have to take it out on someone!” (Con alguien me toque que desquitar.) This is the last straw for Lucia. She informs him that she’s not his mother, who takes that kind of crap from his dad. He’s a LOT like his dad and has the same defects. When the waitress arrives, he rudely and LOUDLY orders for himself and Lucia, and then criticizes what Lucia orders to drink as being too country/unsophisticated (she ordered agua de horchata). Saul’s criticism moves to Ivan, whom Saul thinks is gay because he won’t go out drinking, partying, or picking up women with him. Lucia has had enough. She says she wants them to take a break. Apparently, NO ONE breaks up with Saul Mondragon, and he tells Lucia so. She’s not listening anymore, takes her things, and hightails it out of the restaurant.

At Casa Curiel, Carlota and Lucrezia continue to gossip about David’s problem (give it a rest people!), and Esther’s request. Carlota suggests Lucia can help him. In the meantime, Maripaz needs to play the good wife and help David out. Speaking of the King of Rome (el Rey de Roma), in slinks Maripaz for a much needed meal. She brags about David giving her his car. Lucrezia thinks that’s great. What a gentleman!

JJ doesn’t share the same opinion, and rubs it in David’s face that the car is HIS (JJ’s) at the family dinner table. Esther suggests that he actually, you know, PAY David for his work so that he can buy a car (and other things) for himself and his wife. JJ doesn’t agree. He criticizes Tony for not being a real man because he puts too much trust in his son and lets him make decisions.

At the hotel, both Camilo and Tony warn Ivan about trusting Maripaz too much. Camilo knows she’s no angel (blanca paloma/white dove). Tony thinks Ivan should push to find out where his son is buried.

In Casa Curiel, Maripaz lies that she just casually ran into Ivan on the street, and that she did what was asked and told him the baby died at birth. Carlota is horrified.

At the university, Ivan shows Tony around his old school and they run into Lucia. Tony comments on how beautiful Lucia is, and Ivan seems to really agree.

Carlotta is still upset about the lie they told Ivan about the baby being born dead. It’s cruel. She’s going to tell Ivan the truth! The volume rises, and so does Lucrezia from her chair. The truth would cost them the investment from the McGuires. If Carlota opens her mouth, then Lucrezia is going to tell them that Carlota is a crazy old lady and lock her up in a nuthouse!

Tomorrow: Ivan shakes the truth about the baby out of Lucia.

Labels: Fuerza