There’s a lot of wailing and renting of clothes at Juana’s apartamentito as first Refugio and then Juana herself arrive to find Teresa in tears over her daddy, Armando’s, lifeless body. All that’s missing is ashes and sackcloth. Everytime somebody asks Tersa what happened and what could have possibly led to his sudden [fulminante] heart attack, she washes her half truth with a great deal of white: they were just talking and he suddenly keeled over.
Aurora calls Mariano at his apartment to give him the sad news and lament over Teresa’s lamentations. He instructs her to give Refu her medicine before she gets the news, and he’ll see about giving the news to Arturo.
Across town at Aurora’s, Odiosa Oriana, who still is too proud to realize her part in all of this, has taken the morose and mousy Luisa out in the back gardens for a walk, trying to talk her out of her depression. Luisa says she wishes she were more like Odiana, strong and decisive. (I say careful what you wish for!) Odiana explains she got this way because life dealt her numerous blows, beginning with the loss of her mother at four and being sent away to a boarding school. (Yeah, sounds harsh to me, too—NOT! Considering the Brits do that on a regular basis.)
Aurora returns to Juana’s just as Refu has an attack and she and Teresa have to talk Refu into taking her medicines as it seems Refu would rather join her hubby in Heaven than remain alone on terra firma with Tere. (Many in Viewerville at this point are wondering who could blame her.)
At the same time, in the penthouse formerly affectionately referred to by some as Fernando’s Hideaway, Art of the Achy Breaky Heart is drinking like a fish, hoping to drown his sorrows in Scotch. The doorbell rings and it’s Mariano. Art drags him inside and babbles boozily about Mariano coming to make fun of him because he got screwed over the same way Mar did. Of course, that makes them buds instead of rivals! Teresa’s soused spouse then grabs Mariano and gives him a sozzled hug as Suckers in Solidarity. Why? Because they both made the same mistake of falling in love with Teresa, the wickedest woman of all!
Back at Aurora’s, Luisa and Odiana continue their heart-to-heart. Luisa finds out that Odiosa was never truly happy with Fernando’s daddy, only with Fernando. Hubby was too old fashioned [chapado a la antigua] and “tough guy” [macho] for her taste. She thus excuses herself for raising her son so badly. Luisa agrees it must have been a really rough life for her (though this part of Viewerville is still not convinced) and Odiana agrees. She girded herself with courage to keep from being defeated and so must Luisa! She has to make an effort to confront her son and Teresa!
Mariano leaves Art in an inebriated heap on the living room floor in sotted slumber.
Aurora gets the same story from Tere about what led up to Armie’s death as everyone else. Aurora races off to get her a tranquilizer also. She meets up with Mariano outside and they agree to put aside all that’s happened in order to care for both Refugio and Teresa as best they can. Inside, Refu wails that it should have been her to go first; what will she do without Armando now?
Odiana cautions Luisa not to think this is the end of the world. Instead of lolling around in bed and refusing to eat, she should forget Fer and concentrate now on how to keep Teresa and him apart so she doesn’t get her own way again.
Back in the vecindad, Johnny brings Juana a bag of collected cash from all the neighbors to help with the funeral expenses and then leaves to get Pati.
Tere cries on Juana’s shoulder. Nobody in the world understood her like Daddy and he was her whole world. He did all he could to help her get ahead in life, but she was unable to do anything for him. (Ok. Ok. She did selfishly keep the cash he needed to keep from losing his house and furniture for herself, but eventually did hook him up with Art’s law office and helped him pay his way out of debt with that gem of generosity, Gema. So, I’d say she evened out the score somewhat, considering her stunted and twisted world view.) “—I’m a bad daughter!!”
Meanwhile, Nando is sitting at a chic-chic watering hole, wearing his wounds like a badge of honor, and thinking back woefully about his first encounter with Teresa, his first passionate embrace and kiss with her, his resulting break-up with Luisa, and the beating he willingly took from Arturo for it all.
The wake finally begins at the Chavez’s. Mariano arrives and Tere, finally dressed in a more modest black button-down designer shirtdress, races over to him as Aurora anxiously observes from the sidelines. “—Oh, Mariano! If anybody’s sympathies [pesame] are sincere, it’s yours.” He tells her how sorry he truly is and walks over to join Aurora. Teresa then takes a call from Fer in one of the bedrooms.
Fer is angry at Teresa for keeping him waiting all afternoon after they agreed to spend the night together. What’s she trying to pull? Is she just toying with him? (Ohmanohman! On a sexual frustration scale of 1-10, this guy’s at least a 15+.) She begins crying uncontrollably and tells him she won’t be coming because of her father. What???!! Yes, Daddy died and she’s at the wake now. He asks what her dad died from, but she won’t go into it. “—What does it matter now [¡qué más da!] He’s no longer here with me! So, like I told you, don’t wait for me!” Click! Cara de impactado de Fernando.
Back at the penthouse, Art’s awake again and knocking down a beer. The doorbell rings again. This time it’s Lucia, but in his drunken haze he thinks it’s Teresa. He grabs Lucia and lays a lip-lock of lust and love on her. Lucia makes a half-hearted effort to correct the error of her bodacious and besotted boss, then decides to go for the gusto.
At Armando’s funeral, Cutberto tells Juana to stay strong for Refugio’s sake; they must remember what a good man he was! Buttberto especially will remember how Armie always won against him at dominoes. (Really deep guy, Bertie.) And, while the others pray, Aurora and Mariano have escaped into the kitchen for a little sidebar discussion about how decent the adult Chavez’s had been to her. Just then Daddy Director—Hector—walks in and he immediately spies the two of them canoodling in the kitchen. He races over to give Mariano a piece of his mind. Aurora tells him to back it down a bit because she realized she was wrong and it was all a big misunderstanding on her part. Tere has managed to finagle her way over while hugging her madrina, to get a good ring-side seat of the dust-up. Mariano swears that he’s never before felt what he does for Aurora and if he’d allow it he’d marry her right now! Tere is suck-it-in impactada at the double-dose of dolor.
Back at Art’s, Lucia drags Art into the shower and gets him to sober up a bit. He finally recognizes her, and she ends up slipping and falling into his arms. Neither fights it much—Lucia in particular. She smiles as he appreciatively caresses her face and the warm water envelops them both.
Tere, in between bouts of heartfelt tears, mentions to Juana that she still hasn’t let Arturo know about her father’s death. They are so angry with each other still, she says, that she’d rather Juana make the call for her. She really needs him with her now. (Whether it’s for really realz or for appearances’ sake is not quite clear to Viewerville). Just then Fer shows up at the wake and Tere panics. She runs over to Juana and says she’d probably better make the call herself instead. Juana sees Fernando and naively says he probably already knows if Fernando’s here. Mmm-hhhhhm. Tere races over to Nando and falls into his arms.
In the kitchen, Hector is giving heck to Mar and Aurora. No way he’d allow Mariano to marry his daughter! Aurora may be fooled, but he’s not! Juana notes the ruckus and pulls Hector away for a chat. Mar tells Aurora that he was dead serious about wanting to marry her. Aurora says she loves him but wants to take it slow still. They look over just then in unison and notice Tere making good use of Fernando’s overly broad shoulders. Aurora looks away in disgust and says it just takes the cake that Fernando would have the gall to show up here. Mar mentions that Art was so drunk he just left him lying asleep on the floor. He didn’t have a chance to tell him about Teresa’s dad. Better the guy doesn’t make an appearance!
Across the room, Nando is feeling guilty and asks if her father catching them together precipitated his heart attack and his sudden death. Teresa definitely can’t deal with the guilt. She tells him absolutely not! It had nothing to do with what he saw. “--Daddy was already ill.” Tearfully, she begs him not to talk any more about it.
Arturo now is out of the shower and fully dressed. He begs Lucia’s pardon and says he hopes there weren’t any other silly stunts [desfiguros] on his part. Lucia discretely says to just consider it all in the past. She mentions that he really needs to stop the drinking. Art’s cell rings and it’s Esperanza to apparently inform him about the wake.
In another part of Elite Estates, Odiosa has stopped by Aida’s to give her the bad news about the cancelled wedding and the root cause: Teresa!!!!! Odiosa says she hasn’t time to waste on tears right now. She’s got to help Luisa and Arturo get over this tragedy and to try talking some sense into her son. Aeeeeda says she can’t understand how Teresa manages to cast her spell over [embrujar=bewitch] all these men! God willing [¡Ojala!] Mariano will get a chance to speak to Fernando and tell him about Teresa and what happened to him! La Odiosa says that’s a pretty good idea. Let him hear it from the horse’s mouth.
Art tells Lucia he doesn’t know whether to go or not to the wake all things considered. Teresa really screwed him over royally (or better stated, gave him the royal screwjob). At times he really feels such hatred for her but then he realizes he’d die without her because he loves her so much! Lucia tells him that he can’t let the likes of Teresa demoralize and destroy him [hundir] this way! He says she’s right, but he just can’t imagine his life without Teresa. Lucia advises him to get off the booze and go back to courting basics with her. Win her back.
Meanwhile, the love of Art’s life is with his BFF as her mother thanks him for coming to the wake and offers her best to Nando and his bride-to-be. She hopes that they’ll be as happy together as she was with Armando. Tere breaks into this semi-soliloquy to let Mama know that Luisa and Art have recently broken off their engagement. Refusio’s eyes go saucer-size. “—But why???” Teresa quickly brushes over that, telling Mama they’ll talk about that later before abruptly dragging Fernando off to another part of the room.
Art tells Lucia then that he doesn’t want to, and that he can’t give up Teresa. He’s got to keep her from getting her way with this. Lucia says, no, more than that he’s not going to divorce her because he LOVES her. Think things through! If he truly loves her he’s got to make an effort to fight for her.
Nando gets an urgent text from Oriana that they need to see each other. Tere tells him to try to calm her down and make her see that what they have is really luhhhhv. He says he will try. He whispers “I love you” in her ear as she looks cautiously around the room for the umpteenth time.
Mariano is aparrently two steps ahead of Aeeeeda and La Odiosa. He races outside after Fernando and yells for him to stop. “--What’s up?” Mar says he wants to discuss something with him. “--Like?” “--Like you know what! “ “--Come again?” “--Like what you and Tere are doing to Arturo and Luisa.” “--Hey, I got no reason to discuss my private life with you!” “--Seems you do know what you’ve done.” (Ok, Mariano. I’m about up to here with your holier than thou attitude de metiche! Course, I realize it’s all a part of the Brotherhood of the Screwed Dude, but still…..) “--What’s it matter to you? Why are you sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong?” “--For Teresa! So she doesn’t make the same mistake again!” “--No, more like you still have the hots for Teresa! And what in Hell gives you the right to say that having fallen in love with me is a mistake!!” “–It’s obvious that you feel conflicted about falling in love with your BFF’s wife.” (Not fair, Mariano, using those psych classes you took in med school. It’s really rubbing me the wrong way, man!) “--What gives you the right to involve yourself with me, Teresa or Arturo??” “--I only want to warn you--“ “—I don’t need yours or anybody else’s opinion! Got it?” He storms away. Mariano shrugs.
Inside, Aurora tries the same intervention with Teresa. She asks Teresa what kind of relationship she has with Fernando. Tere says she thought Aurora could’ve cared less about her. Yes, they haven’t been close lately, but only because of Teresa’s attitude. Well, says Teresa, it turns out that Aurora doesn’t understand the way she is. Lord knows she tried to often enough, says Aurora. She asks Teresa again about her and Fer. Tere says that this isn’t the time or the place to discuss the subject. Aurora cautions her not to go do something that she might be sorry for later as Arturo loves her and Luisa is her best friend. “—Besides, think of your mother!” Teres just gives her the evil eye.
Outside, Hernan and Espe arrive. They chat with Mariano. Yeah, Hector’s upstairs and in a rotten mood because he and Aurora are back together again. Hernan goes on up. Espe stays back a moment. Mar admits he’s really in love with Aurora and so happy. “--This is going to be forever and always. You’ll see!” Espe says she’s glad to hear it. He encourages her to have faith that her baby will be back with her soon. FF>>
Teresa tells Aurora that she’s thinking of taking her mother away from the vecindad and all the bad memories, maybe on a cruise. Aurora tells her she’s nuts to do that. The woman’s whole life and all her friends are here in this place. Doesn’t she realize that she’s only doing what she would want to do and not what her mother would be happiest doing? It’s not that everything Teresa does isn’t for the best of intentions, says Aurora, it’s just the way she goes about it most of the time is where she goes wrong. "--Again, think of your mother and then think about what you’re doing to Arturo because it’s just not right!"
Art and Lucia are still in deep discussion. It’s now about Fernando’s betrayal. No he doesn’t hate him, counsels Lucia, it’s only that he’s hurting cuz the guy’s like a brother to him. Well, he still can’t assimilate all that’s happened. Everything was going so well. When did it all change? He still doesn’t understand why Teresa’s doing this to him. Only she can answer that, says Lucia. He needs to make an effort to find out why. She’s right. He hasn’t had a chance to talk to her about it yet, but he will. She’s an angel, taking the time to support him this way. Lucia just cringes as if she’s thinking “always the bridesmaid but never the bride.”
That night, while Hernan and Espe talk about being strong for Refugio’s sake despite the kidnapping, Fito the Maldito Kiddie Bandito, pays a visit to Ruben and Genoveva looking for hush money. He tells them about the numerous fliers and news bulletins offering a boatload of bills for the return of Espe’s baby. El Bigotes lipfur begins to convulse. “—You’re crazy!” Fito pulls out the gold medallion and suggests that could be, but it would be interesting to see the expression on Hernan’s face when he sees that medallion and Fito tells him he knows where Espe’s baby is. Duhn-duhn-duhnnnn!
Back at the wake, Art finally arrives. Tere races over to him and kisses him on the mouth. He responds, tho’ pained about it. Aurora notes it a bit skeptically but when Espe mentions that it’s obvious Teresa does love Arturo, she’s quick to agree. Espe is surprised that Aurora knows about their personal problems. Aurora says she’s tried to talk some sense into her, but Teresa just refuses to listen to her. Maybe, since she and Espe are childhood friends, she can persuade Teresa to stop the self-destructive path she’s on. Maybe she could convince her not to leave Art over money. WTH? Espe wasn’t expecting that from Aurora.
Tere takes Art into the bedroom. “—What’s going to become of me now that my daddy’s gone? He was the only one who ever totally understood and supported me.” Art tries to comfort her. She kisses him again and holds on for dear life. Art starts off a bit puzzled that she’s kissing and hugging him as if she really loved him, but then the bit with Fernando-- Teresa begs him not to talk about that right now. She really needs him--and that shoulder of his.
In the meantime, Fernando gets back to the casota where Mama is waiting to intervene for Luisa and their financial empire. She expects him to speak with Luisa who’s extremely upset and very depressed. She doesn’t blame her either for not comprehending what’s happened between them. He tells Mama it’s not exactly rocket science. He simply fell in love with another woman. “--What a disappointment you are, Fernando! Just look at what’s become of Arturo!” You don’t command the heart, he tells her. “--NO, but reason and decency do!” So, is he calling to cancel or what? He answers that he’s already had the company secretaries calling to explain it’s been cancelled due to forces beyond their control [por causa de fuerza mayor].
Oriana insists in making Fernando reconsider his situation; she tells him that he has to think things through because he could end up being hurt. He angrily tells her not to start with the blackmail. His mind’s made up and he’s not about to change it! The best thing for her is to respect it and to accept Teresa. (Yeah. Good luck with that!)
Back at the wake, Dr. Magpie, aka Magda, being that cardio is her specialty, is put in charge of Refugio, while Mariano and Aurora take a break before returning to stick it out for the night there.
Again at the casota, Odiosa suggests that Nando at least take precautions where Tere’s concerned. He loses it and screams back at her to stop treating him like a child! She’s always second-guessing every step he takes. The woman he loves is Teresa! Too bad about Luisa! Odiosa sniffs at that with a supercilious eyebrown and then threatens that tho’ she doesn’t seek to “control” him (riiiiight) she is the majority stockholder in their joint businesses. Not only will she pull out and take what’s hers with her, but she’ll advise her friends to do the same and to shun him. Later on, Odiosa Oriana tells Fernando that if he insists in having a relationship with Teresa she is going to break up her business association with him and all their business dealings they hold together, especially since she prefers giving all she has to stray dogs [perros callejeros] before letting a gold-digger like Teresa get her hands on it all! Is this what he wants?
Aurora and Juana have a little chat where it’s agreed that they will treat each other still like step-mother and step-daughter despite her having married Buttberto. Hector has even given the idea his blessing. FF>>
Tere tells Mama that she wants to cremate Daddy and keep some of his ashes with her. Her mother refuses because they’d decided that they wanted to be buried together. Art talks her out of it. (Whoo! Another scene avoided.)
Mariano, meanwhile, has invited Aurora to meet him at some fancy restaurant for a late dinner. He brings her another white rose. Tonight he’s going to prove that there’s nothing and no one more important to him than her. She says she has no doubts now. This rose has a sparkling diamond ring in the center of it. He has her look more closely at it and then uncovers a bottle of wine. “--Shall we offer a toast?” The bottle has a message printed where the label should be, asking her to marry him. She allows him to put the ring on her finger and smiles back at him with the biggest dimples ever.
Labels: Teresa
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