Viewerville returns south of the border just as Ivan and Lucia are about to begin the bed-sheet bounce ‘n shuffle. In walks Lucia’s dissed big sis, Maripaz! Ruh-roh!! Cara de impactada de Maripaz!
Van angrily asks what MP’s doing there. “—A better question is what you’re doing here!” She turns to Lucia. “—So, Señorita Saintly, here you are taking a roll in the hay with another lover?” “—Ivan’s not my lover, he’s my fiancé!” Spiteful Merry Piece, with a catty smile, begins screaming for Mama at the top of her lungs. “—And did he come in the window like he used to do with me?” Van tries to shut her up but she says the family needs to realize what a hypocrite [mosca muerta] her kid sis really is!
In come Carlota and Lucrecia to see what the problem is, but MP—or maybe Carly--says, isn’t it obvious? Van, in a state of dis-dress distress explains he was just saying good-bye to his beloved since she’ll be gone for quite a while. For Lucrazia it’s just 2nd verse, same as the first. “—So, you couldn’t wait and maybe come through the front door to speak to her in the living room???” The Morality Patrol, aka Maripaz, sticks its oar in again, feigning shock, shock at such moral turpitude! Carly shuts her down. “--Like you should talk what with the orgies you’ve been hosting at that apartment!!” MP objects, saying they were only parties, and anyway what proof does she have? Lucrazia puts a halt to the sidebar discussion and switches back to the matter at hand, stating that certain standards in that family must be adhered to. (Hey, I’d say they pretty much have been, je-je!) Van offers to marry Lucia the very next day if Lulu wants. MP is quick on the uptake. “—Yeah, just like you did with me! Say, Lucia, don’t you feel a bit awkward being involved with the same guy who knocked me up?” “--Maripaz!!” Van shoots daggers of steel at her through the center of his eyeballs. He is totally disgusted with her. Before he succumbs to his unhealthy desire to take her by the throat and wring it (more’s the pity) he excuses himself and leaves the house. For better or for worse, Lucia's room thus remains a boff-free zone
Carly gets in MP’s face now. “—You just had to spit your poison at everyone didn’t you?” Lulu shuts Mama down again. She turns to Lucia and says she doesn’t sleep with Ivan until she’s married, and then struts angrily out of the bedroom. MP only wanted an aspirin, she taunts, but her headache’s gone now. She leaves. Carly turns to Lucia and smiles. Rotten luck that she got caught, she tells Lucia, and begs her to accept Ivan’s proposal and get married ASAP. Seems Lucia isn’t ready to yet.
Van takes his own sweet time getting home. Anthony is waiting up and gives him the third degree, wanting to know where he’s been at all hours. (Sorry, the dude’s 30 and I find this totally unbelievable.) Van doesn’t care to go into it, but eventually to make peace says he was visiting Lucia and Merry Piece surprised them. He walks off but a big smile breaks out over Tony’s mug.
Van gets back to his bedroom and decides to call Lucia to see how she’s doing. He tells her he was serious about getting married. ASAP! Lucia asks to wait till they get back from vacation and can see if Alex improves. Besides, she’s not too hep on town gossips blabbing about him dating her sister too. He says that was ten years ago and hardly anyone knows, anyway. Once he came back they only had a drink and dinner a couple of times, he explains. Nothing happened at all between them then. He asks why MP is living there again. All Lucia will say is that she decided she wanted to as she’d run into some hard luck. He asks if Lucia’s really bothered by what her sister said about having had his child. Lucia sighs and says no, she’s just as in love with him but she doesn’t want to rush into marriage. Iv doesn’t seem very convinced.
The next morning, Ivan and Tony discuss David’s return to the McGuire fold. Van suspects David’s objecting to the dirty way his dad does business, but he’s not in the mood to ask just yet. Tony thinks that’s wise.
Across the way, Maripaz whines about wanting to go to the gym. (Right. She’s just killed a person and the thoughtless airhead doesn’t think twice about it! Nooooo, she’s eager to go to the gym and chat it up with her friends!) Lucrazia (who's not exactly been model mother of the year herself) tells Merry Piece absolutely not--especially as long as they don’t know what’s what with the police. Besides, the car’s all dented [abollado] !! (What a bunch of dissolute, deadbeat elite!) MP thinks the I-hit-a-dog story should work. Yeah, says Lulu, a dog the size of a donkey! In walks Carly and Lucia on their way out to go shopping for their trip. MP asks to borrow Lucia’s car. “—Oh so you can use it to run over and kill somebody else? No thank you!” MP gripes at how snooty Lucia’s gotten since they caught her in bed with Ivan. Lulu tells her to can it cuz she’s ten times worse than her kid sis. Well, why is Mama so lenient now when ten years ago she wouldn’t let her marry anybody who was a servant’s son? Oh, Ivan’s changed, explains Lucre-zia. He’s got money and prestige. “--His prestige won’t last long when everyone learns that we had a child!” Lucrazia accidentally lets out that the baby’s still alive, but then has to do a little CYA with Maripaz. No, she tells MP, she doesn’t know where he is or anything else about him.
Meanwhile, Antolin tells Gerardo that he’s taking Carolina to Mexico City to do medical tests. Gerry says he doesn’t have the money to pay for that or any surgeries. Anto says not to worry, that he’s got it covered. Gerry asks if he and Caro are an item. Anto admits that perhaps they might be in love with each other, but it’s not love per say, because love can come and go and what he feels is deep and eternal. She, in her way, may be blind but she sees deep into his soul and accepts him for who he is. Anto asks why, when his wife died, Gerry never thought to marry Caro. Gerry sniffs and says it never crossed his mind because she’s not his type.
Back at Casa de las Curiel, Maripaz asks about the trip Carly and Lucia were buying things for. Lulu explains and MP harrumphs. “—Oh, no doubt Ivan’s going too and they’ll be able to finish what I stopped [frustrar=foil, frustrate, thwart] last night.” Mama tells her to zip it and walks away in a huff.
Later that day, Caro is at the park with Alex. She lets him know that she’ll be on vacation in Mexico City while he’s on vacation with Sr. Anthony, and that she’s going to see an eye doctor, to try getting her sight back and that Anto will be taking her the next day around 9AM. FF>>
Across town at the Ag Association, Juan Jaime is pissed that he’s going to have to reimburse Cutberto with his own money since the Association coffers are empty!! (Cosmic justice, if there ever was—and besides, JJ pilfered it from the insurance funds to begin with during one of his many ongoing schemes. Yep, parts of Viewerville agree. It definitely serves the son of a slug right!) If the idea had at least worked, says JJ, it would have been worth it to him; or if the McGuires would have offered to cover the costs, but as it is, it’s just a waste and a shame. JJ then starts complaining about having to work doubly hard now that David’s gone back over to the Dark Side again. Saul’s surprised he left and wonders if Dave left because of the fight or the other stuff he found out about, i.e., their double-dealing with the Ag Association membership. JJ is sure #3 son had a bug up his backside because of all of it. “--The useless twit doesn’t know how business is really done!” Then he asks Saul if he thinks McGuire actually got rich being honest. (Certainly this is a rhetorical question. Nobody else has all the answers except JJ himself, and certainly not numbskull Saul.) JJ doesn’t think it’s possible. As far as Juan Jeil-me is concerned, all business on the other side of the border is just as crooked, what with all the mafia, drugs, and gambling up there.
Saul suggests that they try blackmailing Lucracia for money that the American’s will surely give her, or that she could take from the loan the McGuires gave her. Then they could pay Cutberto for his damages with that! JJ tells him to try using his brain for something (other than to wipe toilet tissue on, that is). He wants her water, not her money! Well, says Saul, the only other way to get the money necessary is to take a loan from the McGuires themselves.
Finally Cam finds water in one of the wells [pozo= well, shaft, manhole] he dug on his ranch. The engineer he hired to dig the well says he’s certain there’s plenty more where that came from!
Meanwhile, Ivan visits his mother’s grave. He “tells” her about Alex and Lucia and the problems he’s having. He prays she can lend a hand from on high. FF>>
Antolin walks into some sort of Kinkos’ wannabe—or more like oughttabe-- and has the picture of MP at the scene of the hit and run blown up.
Tony learns from Maripaz’s ex-landlady that Lucrazia picked her daughter’s stuff up and said MP was giving up the apartment. She is there to hand him back his deposit. (What? No delousing? No repairing broken walls, windows, doors, window shades, or furniture to use it for?)
Cam stops by the house also to tell Ivan the great news about finding water on the property. Afterwards, Van tells him about the scandalous events of the night before in Lucia’s bedroom. He’s worried, he says, about Merry Piece asking for legal custody of their son. Cam tells him that he can handle going up against MP since, not only does he have the bucks to hire the best lawyer in all of Mexico, but everyone knows she’s a lush and sleeps around. Heck, she even made a play [tirar la onda] for him the other night!
Over at the Meandragon’s, Mama and Judith are listening to David’s explanation why he left to go back to the McGuires’. He can’t work with somebody, he complains, who does business the dirty, underhanded way Juan Jeil-me conducts business at the Association: by stealing from and playing dirty tricks on everyone! He says he wouldn’t put it past his dad to have paid someone to start the fire at Cutberto’s just to blame it on the McGuires! Judith backs up her brother and says she believes it. Esther doesn’t want to hear such blasphemy about her husband. Jud is exasperated. How could her mother be so blind to her husband’s faults, she asks her? “--He treats us like animals! He is rude and tyrannical!” Oh, Esther says, he has his personality traits, but he’s used to working with farmers and country folk (Excuse me? Tell me again, lady why that should matter?!) Well, says Judith, we aren’t farmers and country bumpkins! “--We’re his family, his children! Take off the blinders already! [¡Quitate la venda de los ojos! = lit. Take the bandage from your eyes!] He’s sadistic, cruel and dishonest!” Esther calls them ungrateful children and then stomps off and out of the room.
David tells Judith that a woman in love always blindly defends her man. Jud doesn’t understand how a woman could continue to love somebody who insults her and treats her like dirt [ningunear]!! He even beats her, she exclaims! Davy says there are just some folks who accept relationships like that. Well, she’s not one of ‘em. Judi wants out. He’s got to help her meet some decent guy she can marry so she can move the hell out of there already! Maybe, she can work as a receptionist somewhere or meet some of his buddies. Dave says he’s always been a loner, so that won’t fly. Fine, then, she says. Introduce her to somebody he works with that she likes…er…like Camilo Galvan. Dave says yeah, he’s a decent guy with a good position, but no way their dad would accept him. He’s from the lower middle-class. “--Class, shmass! I just want a boyfriend!!”
That night, Ivan and Tony are discussing why Merry Piece would have moved back home and gave up the apartment, not to mention why Lucia wasn’t straight with him about it when he asked. Perhaps, says Tony, her mother got tired of the situation and convinced Maripaz somehow. Or, says Van, Maripaz is trying to rehab her reputation in order to get legal custody of Alex! Tony tells him not to start imagining things. He’ll find out from Carlota once they’re on the beach sometime the next afternoon. Be patient. Easy for him to say, says Iv! Those women are always protecting each other, like a pride of lionesses!
The next morning while Tony packs up the van, he asks Lucia go to his office under the pretext of retrieving his cell phone. Of course Ivan is there and the two of them kiss hot and heavy while saying their good-byes. Lucia says she hopes that their vacation is useful in gaining back Alex’s trust for Ivan. Iv wants to know if she’s upset about the nasty things Merry Piece said to her the other night when she caught him in her bedroom. Lucia assures him with another passionate lip-lock that she isn’t in the least!
Sometime later, Cleto finds an envelope by the front gate addressed to Lucrazia and hands it over to her. Lucrazy opens it and sees the picture of Maripaz next to the dead body of the woman she ran over. She screams for MP and shows her the blown up picture. “When in doubt run around, scream and shout”!” Panic strikes the two of them. Lucrazia tries getting hold of Lucia on her cell so that they’ll have to come back home immediately. (Why for gosh sakes? What the heck good will that do????) Lulu can’t get through because there’s no signal. So, MP suggests they use the ranch money they got from the McGuires. Mama reminds her it’s a loan, not a gift, so it’s got to be paid off! She’s so disgusted with her older daughter she can’t even stand to see her face and shoos her out of the room.
Maripaz wanders through the backyard and Cleto races up to her, asking MP if she is going to send the car out to get fixed. She snipes back that she has no money now! (Yeah, drunken, spendthrift grasshoppers: 0. Sober, thrifty ants: 10.) Merry Piece starts to get an idea and calls Antolin to see if he can help her. Yes, she’s being blackmailed again. Oh, no, she’s not mad at him any more. Of course not! She tells him then all about the hit and run and the photo the blackmailer sent. Anto, (being the one blackmailing her) smiles and suggests she just go ahead and pay it cuz he’s got no way of tracking this one down like the last time. Click. He finishes packing his car, enjoys a wicked, self-satisfied snicker, and calls Caro’s up.
Carolina’s worried that she won’t have the money for the treatments. Anto tells her he’ll worry about that. She doesn’t need to. The money will be there. She says she doesn’t want him doing any of his funny stuff to find the money. She doesn’t know how she’ll ever be able to thank him. He tells her when she’s finally able to see again and can see his face, that will be payment enough.
Later that morning, Ivan meets with Cam out on his portion of El Socorro, aka, Suckers’ Ranch. Cam shows him the well and where it is in relation to the fields. Van suggests getting the irrigation lines set up. Just then Juan Jeil-me and Saul come walking up the lane. Ivan starts frowning. “—Now I wonder what that prying busybody [fisgón= snoop, spy, eavesdropper] wants!” JJ says he understands he’s found water, and quite a lot of it. Cam says yeah, and he’s looking to put in a second well also. El Meandragon asks if he’s thinking of going with hydroponics then, but Cam says nope. It’s way too expensive. Oh, JJ guffaws, my son’s rolling in dough [harta de plata= lit. overloaded with silver]. He can easily foot the bill. Ivan gets pissed and tells him not to call him “son”. “--Oh, it’s well known [de confiar], and Cam’s your trusted sidekick, so don’t tell me he doesn’t know. BTW, when’s the wedding with Lucia?” Soon, says Van. “—So then, tell me, what about the boy, Alex? Are you going to take him away from Gerardo?” Van doesn’t answer. Meandragon knows he’s made his point and leaves.
Ivan wants to know how the hell that son of a slug found out about Alex!! Perhaps Lucrazia told him, says Cam. Could also be Saul or Maripaz, adds Van. They decide to head over and ask Lulu. Lulu tells them she didn’t say a word and doesn’t know either, but since MP’s in the house he needs to lower his voice. Lulu stretches the truth a teensy-weensy bit and says that MP doesn’t know anything about Alex. Well, then how the hell did Juan Jeil-me find out? Lucrazia insists she doesn’t know. In fact, he’s already threatened her with letting word out that Ivan and MP had a child ten years ago unless she gives him some of her water. With the drought [sequia] she’ll be lucky to squeeze out 3 drops left for her own use! Cam offers to give her water himself from his wells, as long as the gossip doesn’t go anywhere. Lucre-azia goes all willowy and smiles those huge horse teeth at Cam. She pats him suggestively on the shoulder and asks how she’ll ever show her gratefulness. Viewerville notes how Cam immediately looks like he just got the weak-kneed willies but is too polite to show it.
We get lots of footage of Tony, Carlota, Lucia and Alex enjoy their vacation on the yacht. FF>>
Cam and Van go back to the Casota and try to figure out who spilled the frickin’ frijoles. No way will Ivan submit to being blackmailed by that SOB, he tells Cam. Once they discount the cowardly Gerry, the secretive Curiel’s and close-mouthed Arcelia, the only one left is spiteful Carmen. Cam agrees it’s most likely his sister because he remembers Carmen being in the kitchen when the others in the family were arguing and Anto let it slip. Ivan is sure she did it to get back at them for firing her. He almost lets it out about Saul and her and baby Lechita making three, but stops himself. He takes another tack instead and asks if Cam thinks there might be some connection between Saul and Carmen. Cam seems to remember that when she worked at the restaurant, Anto and Saul would come in there together; that’s perhaps how she met Saul and made the connection with the Meandragons, but he doubts there was ever any friendship started. Just then Ivan gets a call from the Herdez Corp. about a new ad campaign. He leaves to see the campaign. (Viewerville gets a Uni placement promo for Herdez, who must be paying a pretty peso for it, too!)
Meanwhile, Merry Piece manages to get the phone number of the hotel Tony and the family are staying at from Ivan. While they’re waiting for their number, Merry Piece confesses to Mama that she’s still interested in Ivan’s hot-pants and his piles-high pesos. She says she can’t understand what he sees in her boring little sister. Lucrazia says men always prefer their serious female conquests to be unsullied. MP snickers at that. She says she knows that Saul was boffing Lucia. He told her so himself! So no, little sis is not exactly the Virgen de Guadalupe everyone thinks she is! (Only one way to find out for sure.) Lucrazia is curly-lipped impactada, but hey, it’s just one more thing in a long line of bad and disgusting news items in this household!
Lucrazia finally gets hold of Carly and tells her about the supposed blackmail and the picture. Carly can’t talk right then. She’ll get back to her when she’s had a chance to think about it and hangs up. Carly then lies about what the call was about.
That night Carly calls Lucrazy—whose frantic as hell by now--back and says to wait and see if they even get a blackmail call and how much the person wants. Carly doesn’t want to use the ranch money and let the place go under all because of a worthless piece of human debris like her granddaughter. Not the answer Lulu wants. Carly says she will try to figure out something in the meantime and get back to her.
Anto now makes an anonymous (note Anto’s use of the ol’ handkerchief over the mouthpiece trick) late-night call to Lucrazia from a payphone. The light shines eeerily on his eyes. (Ewwwww! It’s just enough to make them glow in the dark and to look like his demonic altar-ego! Kudos to the director and the lighting crew.) He demands five million pesos or he’ll give the picture to both the papers and the police. She has one week to get the money together or else!!
Labels: Fuerza
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