[This was definitely a Yuletide yummy for those who had to wait till today to watch and/or to read the recap. Forget that thrilla in Manilla! This had enough unexpected suspense to satisfy and warm the Christmas cockles of even the Scrooge-iest of holiday hard-hearts. –ed.]
As we head for the hills in the back of Ivan’s SUV in this episodio, Carlota is lighting a couple of candles at Teodoro’s shrine under his painting in hopes from wherever he is in Heaven, he’ll manage to finagle a couple of much needed miracles from The Guy In Charge. Lucia walks in on her and tells her not to expect much in the way of miracles. They have a brief metaphysical disagreement on the existence of miracles and the workings of fate.
Meanwhile, in town at the McGuire compound, Antolin suggests looking for Alex with Bruno. These two are amateurs at kidnapping and more dangerous than professionals. Look how they screwed up Sra. Lucrecia’s kidnapping, so who knows what they’d do with Alex! Anyway, he’s made some inquiries and knows that El Gordo has an abandoned family farm somewhere outside of a town called San Isidro which, coinkidinkily, you get to by going through Hermosillo. (Duhn-duhn-duhnnnnn!) He’s found the area on a map and surely some old codger in town will know the family or Gordy’s grandfather. Heck the guy lived there for forever!
John Gringo supports Antolin’s plan since Bruno’s breed, according to him, is a crack tracker and sniffer-outer (and second only to Lassie, apparently, in the rescue arena). Fine, but Anthony insists on going with them since Bruno doesn’t obey anyone but him and, he makes sure that Anto packs his pistol!
Unbeknownst to anybody but Carmen, meanwhile, Camilo is still behind Ivan on the highway. He follows him all the way to Bahía de Kino, aka Kino Bay, in his rented, unassuming white truck.
El Gordo’s cuz suggests they should just divvy the money between themselves and leave Saul to suck eggs. He’s nothing but a lazy boozer who’s done nothing but screw up and be a pain in the ass the entire time! Naw, says Gordy. Saul was a real buddy to him back during that fiasco of a kidnapping and didn’t give him over to the fuzz when he could have, so he’s not taking Saul’s cut no matter what. Saul shows up in the meantime (after taking a bath and a leak—his words, not mine) and says a friend of his owns a yacht and he’s willing to give them-–for a price—passage to Guatemala; but Saul won’t tell them the guy’s name or tell them how to get in contact with him until after they’ve divvied up the ransom. He wants to make sure there’s no funny stuff.
Tony pays a visit to Carly’s to tell her that he is going to make a rescue attempt for Alex. She’s not to say a word to Lucia for fear of worrying her more and of possibly letting the cat out of the bag.
Gordy calls Ivan and tells him to get some rest at a hotel since he’ll be making a big hike the next day. He’ll wake him the next day and give him the directions.
Lucia tells Carly she is worried that they’ll kill Ivan. Carly gives her the same telenovela pablum as always: ten fe. [Have faith.]
Anto and Tony also arrive and check into a hotel, but a different hotel. (Viewerville thus notes that this ain’t just some one-horse town after all, all things considered. Just a casual observation to pass the time.) After some lengthy discussion about Bruno’s being house-trained or not, the desk clerk remembers that Gordy’s granddaddy, Esteban Hernandez, was a friend of her father’s, and that he wasn’t exactly the kind you’d expect to see hangin’ at the iglesia on Sunday’s, either. The rancho’s name was something like Saguaro/Zaguero [which may mean something akin to back-assed end of the boondocks].
Ivan calls Lucia just to hear her voice again. He tells her what instructions the kidnapper’s given and where he thinks he’ll be heading—I think.
Meanwhile, Cam camps out in the front seat of his truck and keeps a half an eye open just in case.
Gordy puts a new chip in his cell phone so that his calls can no longer be traced. El Cuz tells Gordy again that it’s just not right sharing the fruits of their illicit labor with a lazy pain in the ass like Saul. He nearly lost them the kid and blew the whole deal, for cripes sake! And now he’s refused to trust them with the name and address of the guy with the yacht. Besides, the guy could just as easily throw them both to the sharks even if they do really get on that boat to Guatemala. How do you trust a rich snob like him, anyway? Gordy decides El Cuz is right. He plots now with Cuz to skip out on Saul.
Next morning, Gordy calls Van again and tells him to meet him with the cash at a place called Lomita de Peñasco. He’ll have to walk quite a ways on foot to get there. It’ll take a number of hours.
Cam notices Ivan packing his back pack with water and food and does the same a few minutes after, then follows him on foot from a distance.
At home, Carmen plays dumb and doesn’t let on where Cam has gone or why. She tries calling him on his cell and nearly gives him away. Cam turns his cell off and catches up to Ivan.
Back at Bahia de Kino, Anto and Tony finish breakfast. Anto heads out to see what information he can scrounge up from the townspeople about the location of the abandoned Hernandez farm.
The Amazons of Alamos are half dead from lack of sleep due to worrying about Ivan and Alex. Lucia mentions Ivan’s call. Tony calls to let Carly know that he’s with Anto who’s gone looking for info from the town folk. So far they don’t have a lot to go on. Lucia says Ivan didn’t either because they aren’t giving him instructions till today. The women worry that the criminals will double-cross Ivan, take the money and kill Ivan then do the same or worse to Alex.
Gordy keeps Van walking, wearing him out on purpose and making sure Ivan doesn’t get there until dark falls.
Cam continues to secretly–if not exactly silently--follow Van along the trek. Alex overhears as El Cuz and Gordy discuss their plans to have Cuz fake out Saul and then leave Saul scratching his gonads and holding the bag (an empty one) along with the kid. They’ll meet up and hightail it out of the scrub with the dough, though.
Anto takes a couple hours asking for information on the town square of San Isidro and discovers the general area where Gordy’s family farm is located. When he returns he tells Tony what he learned from the people in town and thinks it’ll be best if they wait and then go once it’s dark out. Tony asks where Anto learned to shoot. “—In the street, but I have a dead-on aim!”
Anto calls Caro to let her know where he is and promises her that he’ll come back in one piece and with Alex to boot.
In town, meanwhile, Juan Jaime proposes marriage to Lucrecia again, but she again refuses, saying that neither of them were made for marriage, considering how badly they both failed at it. They prefer to stay simply good friends rather than badly botching their friendship by actually tying the knot. (Well, nothing wrong with the two of them becoming FWB’s if they’re feeling “frisky.” They’ve owned up to their mistakes often enough according to telenovela rules by now, and reaped enough of the familial whirlwind as it were.) JJ tells her sincerely that she’s the only one left and he doesn’t want to ever lose her.
Saul suspects Gordo is going to cheat him. Gordo’s cuz says he doesn’t like the way things are shaping up either and he’ll go after Gordo cuz Gordy didn’t let him know where the rendezvous point was and could skip out on them both and pocket the whole pile of pesos! Saul says to get a move on and catch up to the S.O.B. for the both of them. Fine, says Cuz, you stay here with the kid. He grabs his things and makes like he’s off to secretly follow El Gordo.
Tony and Anto arrive finally at the old abandoned farmhouse after nightfall. Bruno is given the scent off one of Alex’s old shirts and let loose to track him down. Alex hears them outside. For once Saul isn’t sauced and snoring his head off. He immediately hears the ruckus and goes for his pistol and a look-see around. Anto sees Saul with his pistol in hand. Saul turns around but realizes too late that Anto’s got his own pistol and means to use it. Anto aims his piece and shoots first. The shot makes its mark into Saul’s gun hand and afterwards, both kneecaps. Boom! “--Owww!” Boom! “--Owwww!” Boom! “--OWWWW!!!” It’s a triple cripple play. “—This is what you get for getting my sister pregnant, for raping Lucia, and for what you did to Alex! I’m not going to kill you. I’ll let you experience what it’s like in jail for a guy like you!” (Viewerville thinks Univision is long overdue making this guy the galán in something. He’s the only macho man really carrying this show right now! Umm-Umm-Umm!) They then free Alex and leave Saul sucking wind, flat on his ass, and hyperventilating.
During the wee hours of the morning Tony calls Carly to let her know the good news. Anto has him ask Lucia to call Caro to let her and his ma know all is well with them and Alex.
Celia gets the call and is surprised since she didn’t have any idea what Anto was up to, let alone risking his life like that! Carmen confesses that Cam was also following Ivan and that he also took a gun.
In a three-hankie scene, Anto, Tony and Alex return home after sunrise to the waiting arms of Lucia, Caro, Celia and Carly. (Viewerville cried, cheered, and cried again.)
Lucia and Arcelia still worry about what fate awaits Ivan and Camilo.
After the second sundown, Ivan finally arrives at the arranged meeting place. taunts Ivan by telling him that he’s already given him over to the American who wanted him. “--That wasn’t the deal!” (No duh! Why do the heroes in these things always expect the bad guys to play fair???) He throws the ransom on the ground and tries to rush Gordy who is one step ahead of poor, naive Ive. A shot rings out and wounds Ivan in the ribs and afterwards, Gordy takes off his mask. Ivan falls to the ground.
El Gordo takes aim at the hapless and helpless Ivan. Suddenly another shot rings out and it’s El Gordo who slinks to the ground, blood pouring out of each corner of his gruesome grimace. Cam had arrived just in the nick of time and shot Gordy in the back (apparently through the heart). He dies instantly. He runs over to check on Ivan, but Ivan has lost consciousness. Suddenly Gordy’s cuz arrives on the scene and Camillo is shot twice in the back. He falls face forward over Ivan. El Cuz sees that Gordy is dead. He runs over, grabs the 6 mil, and then races off while Van and Cam lay bleeding in the dusty scrub.
Labels: Fuerza
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