Caray, Caray!

MP’s lawyer calls her and tells her that if she’s to convince the judge that she actually gives a damn about her son, then she actually has to know something beyond his name. (Does she even know that?) MP stares at the person she most loves in the world, herself in double (in the mirror and at her photo plastered to the mirror), and says she understands.

Shirtless Ivan sighting! And he’s in a towel! Woohoo! He and Lucia chat about the tough day ahead meeting with the judge. Lucia intends to talk to Caro again.

In the fields of Ranch Socorro, the workers are in a panic. The plague/infestation (la plaga) of screw worms (gusano barrenador) has hit their crops. Camilo is ticked because it’s all Lucrezia’s fault for not heeding his warning and buying the organic insecticide. He introduces his mom and sister to his cute right-hand man Ezekiel. He’s obviously smitten with Carmen. Poor sap. Carmen and Celia have come to clean the ranch house in preparation for the Curiels’ arrival in a few weeks.

MP steps into the local jeweler’s to sell the jewels she stole from Carlota. Unfortunately for her, this is a small town. The jeweler recognizes the giant pearl necklace he sold to Teodoro for Carlota many years ago. He’s incredulous that Carlota would want to sell it. MP lies that Carly gave it to her as a wedding present and now that she’s divorced, she wants to sell it. And no, she doesn’t have the bill of sale/ownership (factura). Without it, the value will go down, but MP doesn’t care. She brings out another stunning piece to sell. (I really hope this guy gets on the phone with Carly immediately.)

Lucia returns to Casa Lomeli for round two with the Blind Bomber, Carolina. Alex greets her. He’s eager to go to his swim lessons, but is worried Caro won’t let him. Lucia says she’ll take care of it. She asks Rosa to keep Alex occupied while she talks with Caro.

Camilo calls Carly about the infestation. “Santo Dios!” She tells him to come immediately to get the money to buy the insecticide. Unfortunately, this part of the harvest is lost.

Lucia tells Caro that she’s taking Alex out, whether she likes it or not. Caro tells her this won’t last long, since MP will have custody soon. Lucia can’t believe what Caro is saying; she’s actually favoring MP! Caro stupidly says it’s because MP will come live with them, and they’ll continue to care for Alex. Lucia tries to pop her delusional bubble and tells her she doesn’t know MP and will regret it. Caro continues. Thanks to MP Gerry won’t go to jail. Lucia points out that the price is that Alex will be living in hell. Caro thinks this is exaggeration.

Ivan’s lawyer advises him to keep his cool during the custody hearing. (Fat chance! Ivan can barely keep his cool now.) Seems that no one, except those directly affected (Ivan and MP), will be allowed to testify. (That sounds pretty stupid to me. How about character witnesses? What about Alex himself?!) The lawyer reminds Ivan once again that mothers get priority. Tony thinks that even JJ or David would testify to the kind of person MP is. Nope. Given that MP was married to David, they are not considered impartial witnesses. Ivan feels that his hands are tied (marado). The only out the lawyer sees is if Ivan testifies about the attempt on his life ordered by Lucrezia, which drove him to the States.

MP and Carolina bargain. MP wants Caro to give her the info on Alex in case the judge asks. Caro first wants MP’s promise that she’ll move into the house with them (when she gets custody of Alex). MP rolls her eyes, and then promises. She even fakes a bit of concern when she sees Caro’s bandaged eyes are obviously hurting her. Caro starts feeding MP info about Alex’s personality, friends, school, likes, dislikes, etc.

In Casa Curiel, Carlota and Camilo are talking business as she writes a check. They break the news to Lucrezia that their lands have been hit with the pest/worm that he warned her about and advised her to purchase insecticide to avoid. It’s hit the corn in the north fields. Lucrezia seems to think that just because they’ve been lucky enough to never be infested in the past, that it’s somehow magical protection against any current or future infestations. Camilo leaves to find the organic insecticide that the McGuires require. Ever needing to get the last word in, Lucrezia yells at him to just buy the regular non-organic (and cheaper) stuff if he can’t find the organic kind. Carly tells her to butt out since she has no more say, thanks to her irresponsibility. The only reason she didn’t give Camilo money for the insecticide in the first place was out of pride and arrogance (soberbia y arogante), and because she thinks she knows better than anybody else. Lucrazy really can’t deny it. Once outside the Curiel gates, Camilo calls David to get the word out about the infestation to the rest of the ranchers, starting with JJ.

Esther answers David’s calls. His business is too urgent to chat. JJ reluctantly takes the call, and is mighty concerned when he hears the news. The Curiel north fields are near his land, after all. He calls the idiot Saul, who’s hanging with friends. JJ orders Saul to buy all the insecticide available. David, Ivan and Tony discuss the likely shortage of the organic insecticide in the area if everyone is going to be using it in earnest. They think they should order some online.

Saul runs into Camilo in Don Pancho’s store; Camilo has just asked for 10 gallons of the stuff. Saul tries to trump Camilo’s order, reminding Don Pancho that his daddy is the president of the Ag Association. He calls Camilo a Mr. Nobody (Don Nadie). Camilo doesn’t have the time or desire to argue with Saul about it, so he punches him in the gut instead. Don Pancho fills his order in record time.

Ivan and Lucia catch up on the day’s events regarding the custody case and the crisis at the ranch. Lucia is worried that this will prevent her family from paying the McGuires back on time. Ivan is not worried about it. Once they’re married, her family’s debts become his debts and he’ll take care of it. Lucia is not in agreement with this. IF she marries him, she doesn’t want it to be for gain/ulterior motives (interés). Ivan wants to know why she’s saying “if”, since he thought their getting married was a done deal. Lucia tries to get out of it by brushing it off as just a manner of speaking, but Ivan says they’re getting married, whatever the cost. She agrees with a total lack of enthusiasm.

JJ’s calling Saul an idiot since he wasn’t able to get his hands on the insecticide as instructed. Saul is saved from further verbal abuse when Tony calls JJ to inform him that more insecticide is on the way tomorrow.

Outside the judge’s chambers, Lucia hugs Ivan in support, and MP looks like the cat that ate the canary. The lawyers emerge and Ivan’s lawyer breaks the bad news that the judge won’t let Lucia or Carlota testify on Ivan’s behalf. MP is even more pleased. MP and Ivan are called into the chambers. Lucia looks so worried that Tony tells her it’s not the end of the world. She thinks, for Ivan, perhaps it will be.

Inside the chambers, Ivan’s lawyer makes the case that MP isn’t mother material, based on the kind of life she’s lived. Her lawyer makes the case that she was a free young woman (meaning this was normal), but she is now walking on the straight and narrow. She says she’s willing to move to her father’s house so that the child won’t suffer any trauma.

In Casa Curiel, Lucrezia has ants in her pants and is driving Carly crazy. Lucrazy is of course worried that the truth of her sending men to beat/kill Ivan may still come out. She accuses Carly of wanting to see her go to jail. Carly’s more concerned about what will happen to Alex. Lucrazy doesn’t give a damn about Alex! (Her own grandchild.) She only cares about herself. Carly tells her to sit down and shut up!

Ivan once again explains to the judge his desperate and confused emotional state when he left for the U.S. He does not mention the threat of jail due to his attack, but he does mention MP’s desire for an abortion and refusal to marry him. MP hotly denies it. Ivan asserts it. It’s he said vs. she said. Ivan starts getting agitated in the face of MP’s bold faced lies, and lets slip about being hospitalized when she left town with her family due to a beat-down he got on orders of… He catches himself, but the judge wants to know who ordered a beating on him. He says it was just someone he had a disagreement with. Now the judge is suspicious since this contradicts Ivan’s earlier statement that strangers beat him up to rob him. Ivan tries to explain that he’s just trying not to implicate people who have no involvement in this matter. He also claims to be nervous since the future of his son is at play here. Oh, the judge agrees, and it looks like he thinks that future is not with Ivan. MP gives the slightest of smiles.

Lucia paces outside the chambers and worries about how long it’s taking. David calls Tony to inform him the insecticide has arrived.

Inside the chambers, MP is giving an award worthy performance and Ivan continues to lose it. He points out that if she was so concerned about her son, she would have actually, you know, visited him from time to time. She cries and claims she just didn’t want to give away the fact that she was his mother, as she surely would have, being so emotionally attached to the little guy and all. Ivan calls bullsh!t. If she really cared so much about him, she would know SOMETHING about him. His likes and dislikes. MP is ready for this pop quiz and rattles off the stuff Caro told her. The judge is TOTALLY buying this. Ivan makes himself look worse by the second by going off on her and saying she must have gotten the info from her dad or Caro. He can bring a whole line of witnesses in here that would attest to the kind of lifestyle she was living. MP says that Ivan abused her and claims he seduced her with false promises when he came back. (That revenge scheme is not looking so good now, is it Ivan?) Then he dumped her and took up with her sister because he’s a bad person. (And you know she can get plenty of town gossips to testify to all that.) Ivan stupidly admits that he led her on, but says he didn’t make her any promises of marriage. And he only did to get the truth about his son, since she told him his son was dead a first. She denies it. She claims no one but she and her dad knew Alex’s true identity, and she didn’t tell Ivan in order to protect Alex and her father from being hurt by Ivan’s new found power and wealth. Ivan shouts that this isn’t true, and the judge shouts him down for it. (Can we end this torture now, please, because we know where this is going? Ugh!)

Carlota and Lucrezia talk about the move, which will happen in a month. Lucrezia goes off to the ranch to check on the infestation. Carly calls Gerry’s house and gets Caro. She wants Gerry to work on the renovations of the ranch house.

MP emerges from the judge’s chambers and smiles her creepy satisfied smile at Lucia and Tony. Ivan looks totally defeated. Lucia gives him a tearful hug. The lawyer breaks the news to Tony that the judge ruled in MP’s favor because Ivan couldn’t keep his cool, and wouldn’t rat out Lucrezia. Tony hugs Ivan and tells him he’s sorry. Lucia wants to testify, but as the girlfriend of Ivan, the judge would expect her to speak in his favor. Other family members aren’t looked on as reliable witnesses either. (WTF?! Isn’t this a family court case? Should family members’ opinions be taken into account? What about Alex? He’s not a baby! Why hasn’t the judge asked to speak with him?!) They head to Casa McGuire to get official documentation of Ivan’s financial status so that MP can get her play money (aka, child support). “We lost. We lost.” Ivan says sadly.

At the ranch, Lucrezia tries to put the blame on Ezekiel for not catching the infestation before it spread. (Someone needs to tell the workers that she doesn’t really have any power anymore.) She spots Celia emerging from the ranch house with a bag of garbage and wonders who she is. Instead of greeting the mother of her ranch partner, Lucrezia just demands to know when the cleaning of the house will be done. Celia nicely explains it will take a bit of time since the house was in such bad shape from being abandoned so long, and there’s been some damage due to humidity. Celia introduces Carmen, who politely answers Lucrezia’s rude questions about them being able to work in the house on a regular basis. Celia can’t, since she has her own house to take care of. Carmen’s available, but Lucrezia doesn’t want her to bring Lechita around.

David arrives looking for Camilo, since the insecticide has arrived. Lucrezia questions him rudely too and makes him explain why Camilo has first dibs on the insecticide, while his own father, the president of the Ag Association, has to wait. David explains that the ranchers who actually signed a contract with the McGuires logically get first consideration. She calls him a traitor and a coward, but he walks off leaving her in the middle of her rant. Celia explains that David is just doing his job. Lucrezia tells her to mind her business and that she won’t be needing their services after all. Celia, who was only doing her son a favor anyway, happily leaves Lucrazy with her garbage. Lucrazy remembers that Antolin is a member of the Galvan family and decides to play nice and apologize for her behavior. She asks Celia to stay and then leaves to find Camilo. Carmen thinks Lucrazy is, well, crazy.

Ivan and Lucia look like they’re at a funeral. Carly’s waiting for Tony in his office, so he goes in to see her while Ivan and Lucia hug. Tony tells Carly the news, and they hug too.

Lucrazy for some reason thinks she has a right to scold David and Camilo for not getting insecticide to JJ first, even though he did NOT sign a contract with the McGuires. She insults David again and says that’s why MP divorced him. Camilo sets her straight about the kind of person her daughter is, while actually avoiding directly calling her a whore. But he does point out that his brother Antolin knows plenty of things about her (like a hit and run murder). He gets back to talking about work matters. JJ will have access to the insecticide when the next shipment comes in. Camilo has every right to make this decision as the general manager of Empresas McGuire. (Why are they even wasting their breath arguing with this crazy woman?) And the only reason why the Curiel lands will be spared is thanks to Carly and not Lucrazy. Camilo walks off before he can hear more of Lucrazy’s insults. She threatens to call David’s daddy to tell on him. He tells her to go ahead and do it. He leaves too.

Lucrazy calls JJ and tattles on Camilo and David. (Get a life already woman!) JJ thinks Camilo is putting on airs just because he’s dating his daughter. Lucrazy is once again scandalized by the thought of a society girl dating the son of a servant! JJ doesn’t have time for this right now. He’s ticked that Tony is screwing him (jugando chueco/playing crooked).

Lucia and Carly hug and cry about the custody situation. Carly thinks about speaking to the judge since he was good friends with Teodoro. Lucia encourages her to do it and tries to cheer Ivan on. Ivan looks shell shocked.

JJ calls Tony to whine about not getting first dibs on the insecticide. Tony explains that more is coming tomorrow. JJ thinks it might be too late, and that the most important/largest ranches should have consideration. Tony thinks the little guys need just as much consideration. Tony tells him he’s got important family stuff to attend to, since the judge ruled in MP’s favor. JJ points out that they should have listened to him and paid off the judge. “That’s not our style.”

Ivan’s lawyer is impressed with the money Ivan is pulling in, and the fact that he will inherit all of Tony’s assets and businesses. He thinks they can use money to try to make a deal with MP one last time. Tony’s game.

A while later in a restaurant, Ivan’s lawyer meets with MP and her lawyer. She’s so happy to hear Ivan is rolling in the dough, that she orders another double whiskey. Her lawyer gives her the side eye. She starts to make her demands: big house, servants, pool, Jacuzzi, fine furniture, etc. Ivan’s lawyer doesn’t think that the child will need a Jacuzzi, but MP says SHE will. He lawyer tries to explain that what they’re bargaining for are things for the well-being of the child. She says she also has rights since Ivan ruined her life. Ivan’s lawyer points out that she’s already getting money from her ex-husband. Her lawyer tries to draw her focus back to her child and the things he’ll need like schooling, clothes, and food. MP sucks on her drink and doesn’t seem to be listening. She continues her demands. She wants two chauffeured cars—one for her and one for the kid. Her lawyer tries to rein her in, but Ivan’s lawyer says she can have all she wants, and more, IF she gives up custody of Alex. She says, “NEVER! Ivan knows what I really want.” She wants the judge to keep Ivan away from Alex.

Carly goes to see the judge, who greets her kindly. He thinks she’s coming to thank him for helping MP out. She tells him he made a mistake since MP is the least qualified to take care of Alex. The judge points to Ivan’s bad attitude, but Carly lays it out for him. MP is unfeeling, bad, and a drunk! The judge is open-mouthed impactado.

Ivan’s lawyer reports the failure to negotiate with MP. What she wants is to marry Ivan. The lawyer says she’s totally nuts.

Judge Porfirio thinks Carly is just exaggerating things. She assures him she is not, and wanted to testify during the proceedings. He gives her his lame excuse about not having family members testify in these cases. They are usually on one side or the other. (What’s the problem if one side is just plain old wrong?) He’s had over 30 years of experience, and he has NEVER been mistaken. (Get over yourself judge.) Carly lays into him and calls him arrogant, but she thought he was an honest (recto) man. He emphatically says he is. Carly doesn’t doubt it, but he’s letting his pride and arrogance get in the way of admitting he made a mistake. He’s used to family members coming to him trying to get him to favor one side or the other, he says. What would happen to his reputation if people found out he made a ruling to favor her? “Who the HELL cares about your reputation!” (LOL!) The judge's mouth is so wide open, I think a few flies made a home in it. “The happiness of a child is at stake here.”

Carly wants the judge to be man enough to fix his mistake. And she’s not just being motivated by family ties, but by good judgment. She knows her granddaughter MP. She knows she’s a promiscuous bad seed. Only her other granddaughter Lucia is worthy. All the rest of the Curiels, including her daughter and herself, have skeletons in their closets (cola que nos pise/a tail that follow us). Judge Porfirio thinks that she’s just favoring the granddaughter who’s engaged to Ivan over the other. Carly wonders if he thinks she’s stupid, or what? But he once again points to emotions influencing people’s judgment. As a judge, he’s got to stay completely impartial. “This time you’ve made a mistake Porfirio. You’ve ruined the life of a child and his father. And of Lucia too, since she adores that child.” She brings up honoring Teodoro’s memory and then drops the bomb on the judge. Ivan is Teodoro’s true and only grandchild! He’s really impactado this time.

Avances: Antolin is hopping mad in Casa Mondragon. He tells JJ, in front of Judith, that Saul knocked up his sister and he wants justice! MP rudely interrupts Alex’s swim lesson to assert her parental rights over Ivan. Ivan and Lucia take off with Alex, much to MP’s displeasure.

Labels: Fuerza