Caray, Caray!

Pola Wed Aug 31

More battling… Caval saves Narino’s life when someone is about to kill him… then Caval yells ‘charge!’ and the royalists retreat… Caval and Narino comment that they were not facing townspeople, but military.. Narino says ‘officers!’
They steal food from the dead… Viviano, Pedrito and the others also steal from the dead.
AN: My God, up to a few months ago I was a man of words… look at me now. With a bloody sword and stealing food from the dead.
C: You are fighting for noble ideals, General.
AN: I am not a warrior. I should not be here.
C: Your excelency knows that no other man could replace him. None of your politician friends had the courage that you have. No military has the leadership you have over the troops.
AN: You are very generous with me, Caval.
C: No, my General, I am only telling you the truth.

Caval does not recommend they take the city of Pasto, they have few men, little emmu left, no food. They wonder how it went to the other groops…

We see that Leutenant Perez Delgado lost most of his men, he looks worn out, sad, tired.
Arellano is with him. PD looses it crying, saying they killed all his men.. They also wonder how it went for all others. PD says he assumes they had the same fate.

In Guaduas, Pola and Ambrosio’s brother receive a shipment.

Cata and Bernarda continue their search, they will have to go farther still. To Choco.

Narino and Caval stop their men at the outskirts of the city, to let the soldiers eat and rest. And they can wait for the other troops.
(commercial break about a new novela with Maria Margarita de Francisco (Gaviota from Café)… she plays a woman who has a dying child, and in order to get money for treatment, she has to carry drug in her stomach (work as a ‘mula’)…)

Leutenant Perez Delgado tells Tonito that the other troops probably also got caught or killed, including his dad. Tonito asks if they are leaving. PD says can’t fight without men, food or emmu. Tonito says he never left his father and won’t do it now… PD will move on with his troops back to the camp and then back to Popayan.

Antonio Narino won’t wait any more. Caval says Col Rodriguez did not follow his orders. AN wants to try to take Pasto with the men they have… Caval recommends not to. Recommends retreat, don’t take it as a coward act, take it as a sanity act. Once the artillery catches up with them then they will be able to take the city. AN seems angry. (this is pitiful… this man has lost all his good judgement… I can understand he does not want to go backwards, but it is purely suicidal at this moment). Caval tries to build confidence in the men. Outside the city, Tonito is looking for his dad among the woods.
He hears gunfighting, gets happy saying they are alive, they are still fighting.
 

Alejo tells Arcos that Col Rodriguez is a coward, he did not want to move forward even with the artillery… Leutenant PD and Arellano arrive to tell Rodriguez what happened. Rodr asks for the General. PD says don’t know, chances are he is caught or dead. Alejo says you can’t assure it. Rodr wants to leave back for Popayan. Alejo tries to convince them to wait a while longer, at least an hour. Rodr gets mad at him again, saying the Pastusians are coming after them. They have no men or emmu to confront them. If you want you can wait here for Narino. They all leave. Arcos comes and asks Alejo what they should do. Alejo says two soldiers can’t do much. Lets disable the artillery so the enemy won’t be able to use it.

At Guaduas Pola keeps making aguardiente… sierva comes to ask her about her brother Josecito. Pola says he always asks about her and sends greetings…

At Tunja(?) Jorge Tadeo confronts Camilo Torres about ordering a trap for Narino. Camilo says if Narino leaves the army, people like you or me will end up in peace.
JT: I hope it won’t be the opposite, that thanks to that decision, people like you or me won’t end up hanged. (leaves mad)

Narino, Caval and Tonito and some men arrive where they had the army earlier… where Rodriguez was waiting. There is a wounded soldier, says Rodriguez ordered to burry the artillery and to leave. The soldier says he is glad Antonio is alive. Antonio is irritated, ‘my god! Hatred and resentment won over. How blind (were they)! How blind (were they)!’ The pastusians catch up with them. Antonio sends Lopezito to catch Rodriguez and the men to give the message that Narino is ok and to return as soon as possible. Caval asks Narino what to do. Narino says we can’t do anything but go backwards…

Pola is at a rich woman’s house, trying to read correspondence, while waiting to the woman for a fitting/fix.

On their way out, Narino acts crazy, tells Tonito that his army will return and will confront the enemy. Tonito insists they have to leave. .Antonio has to physically push Tonito away and send him off… Antonio gets separated from the troops, apparently his decision was intentional. Caval won’t let Tonito go back for Antonio.

Days later Antonio is alone in the woods. He grabs Isabel’s doll, remembers when she gave it to him. Then he gets caught (well, he gives himself in) by the pastusians… but he hid his general jacket so they confuse him for a simple man, promises them if they keep him alive, he will give them Gen Narino. He gets brought to Gen Aimerich (Antonio mumbles that he is the replacement of Gen Samano). Narino begins to chat for info about whether the king has been freed or not. Then turns the card on Aimerich asking isn’t it silly that we keep killing each other when we don’t even know what is going on in Spain? He suggests a truce of at least a year until the fate of the king is determined. Aimerich does not feel authorized to decide on those issues. Antonio then asks to see the one in charge, Quito governor, Toribio Montes. The people outside get noisy and startled. They begin shouting ‘we want Narino!!” Antonio asks to speak to them. He tells the pastusians that Narino’s intention was to free the city, not to put chains on it. But pastusians did not understand it and decided to confront him. In any case, he congratulates them for having the courage to defend their city. Says that reminds him of the achievement of Santa Fe people. You have beat a trained army just to defend your city. He then tells them all his real name. Aimerich is shocked that he made that revelation in front of a town that wants him dead. He gets scared and asks for more guards. Antonio tells Aimerich that it was not him who defeated him, he watched as Aimerich was retreating toward Quito. Aimerich admits it was the pastusians who beat him. Antonio says the pastusians and the cowardness of my enemies.
 

In Popayan, the troops have gathered again with Leyva, who has received notice that Antonio is in Pasto in jail. Leyva sent a note that if they kill Antonio we will kill the officers in our watch. Leyva asked the federal council for resources. Tonito tells them not to expect any help from the federal council. He tells all of them that the federal council must be behind the Col Rodriguez behavior/actions.

Pola receives letter from Alejo. The troop was defeated, Narino is caught. And that it was Rodriguez treason…

Camilo Torres tells them about Narino being defeated, but it was not benneficial, The Santa Fe government, headed by Narino’s uncle, has decided to leave the council. Camilo wants to use Simon Bolivar to force the Santa Fe folks to stay in the council. Camilo hummiliates Baraya when he protests about using Bolivar. Camilo says Bolivar is coming to talk to us. He will be in Tunja within a week.

At Popayan, Alejo tells Arcos that they have to wait to see what happens to the king. Juliano tells Alejo about supplies Pola has been sending, but they never reached the troops. (aguardiente, grain and even enmmu)…
A: And how did Pola get all this here for us?
Arc: Someone must be helping her.

Pola tells Ambrosio the news that Alejo wrote to her… she is upset that there are treasons between them. They can’t see that the enemy is another… Ambrosio says ‘see? People have their own interests in this war, and Antonio Narino’s goals are not the same as other people’s.’ Pola says she’s even losing the will to fight. AA is surprised to hear her give up. He says it all depends on what the king does now that he is free… He might recognize the councils that formed while he was away and accept the liberal government, or he will consider all that high treason, get them all executed and take over absolute control again. Both he and Pola think the 2nd option will happen. AA tells Pola that now more than ever they have to get together and be prepared to defend their countries. Pola says defend our freddom. AA says defending the one you defend the other. He thanks her for all the work she has done for them already and says he would like her to keep working with them. She appreciates his words. She was thinking maybe he did not think women could contribute as much as men. He does not think any less of women contributions. He grew up in a house full of women and they all were treated equally. She says same here. She tells AA that Alejo and her will marry the day that freedom becomes reality. She now believes she can contribute more from where she is, so she will help him.

Baraya is reading some communication from Bolivar, and says the man has no shame. He wants to go back to Venezuela and free it with ‘our’ money!? Pei says they don’t have money anyway. Camilo says we don’t but Santa Fe does. And if we can get Bolivar to force Santa Fe to stay with us, we can give him their money. Baraya again volunteers to lead the group to submit Santa FE. Camilo reminds him that even with all the troops he had back then he could not do it. Why would you be able to now? Baraya whines that Bolivar is being given a 2nd chance but not him. Camilo says don’t take it personal but I choose Bolivar. The rest of the council agree, to Baraya’s dismay.

Aimerich visits Antonio in jail to tell him he will be moved to Quito and then to Spain… Antonio thanks God that Aimerich ignored the order from the governor to execute him. Aimerich says governor changed his mind when he learned about Leyva’s threat. Aimerich says hopefully will be able to get you on the ship alive…

Camilo announces to the council that Santa Fe is theirs… they will all return to Santa Fe right away. Pei asks how the city is. Camilo says Bolivar had to go in by force, could not avoid the city some damages… But at least Santa Fe is ours… and without Narino.

Narino is escorted, chained, through the city of Pasto. He looks back and half smiles.

Pola is working alone at night, some soldiers come in the house, someone grabs Pola’s mouth with his hand…
(end of ep)
 

Thank you Marta (and Pasofino) for the recaps - your hard work is very much appreciated.

I get so nervous watching this novela every night. My husband and I are just mesmerized. I've done my history research and know what's coming, but he doesn't. I'm not prepared for this novela to end. I will miss our novela "friends" for a long time.

I think it'll be a long time before any novela can top the quality of La Pola.
 

What a disheartening episode!

Once more, thanks to you, Pasofino, for posting and to you, Marta, for the details. I especially appreciated them today because I was overwhelmed by the shifting fortunes on the battlefield last night.

Anon:
"I think it'll be a long time before any novela can top the quality of La Pola."

Absolutely!
 

Anon & NovelaMaven & Martaivett: Thank you all for you comments. I started to do the historical research but stopped when I realized I knew too much. Anon. You are correct - this one will be hard to top. It is just so good in so many ways - the acting, the casting, the costumes, the scenery and the mix of the historical with the fictional.

And, what I have learned - that our history is so different.