Caray, Caray!

El Talisman, the new show, is starting January 30 - so this week and next week there will be double sessions of Una Familia, 7-9.

Vince's first tasks for Lamberto: to reactivate the Vince-and-Enzo personal credit cards. Glad he's taking his job seriously.

Pancho, brooding, considers Chela as a possible novia: after alll, she knows him so well and has been with his family so long. Lupe tells him it's ridiculous, though, because he loves Rebe, and he agrees.

Enzo tries to tell Moni she doesn't need a mother, *he's* all she needs. She disagrees. He insists he knows nothing of her mother's whereabouts, but we know from his thought bubbles: it's a honking lie.

Pina wants nobody to ever see Avispa's puppies. Mean!

Manuel asks Ana what she feels for Freddy - he saw her drooling over him, but can't understand why she likes him. She has no good reason, her reason is "what can you do?" Elsewhere, Freddy smirks, realizing Ana has the hots for him.

Sandrucha brings Vince his fancy new business cards and asks if they can celebrate alone, somewhere intimate, with less clothes on. "Didn't you just tell me you don't want to be a sexual object?" he asks. She says she feels differently now that she's secretary to the president.

Fernanda's health continues to deteriorate as she notices how lonely and empty her house is without Pancho and his family. Suddenly she hears Ana and her band practicing for their audition. She goes to listen happily. Soon, however, she remembers Rebe accusing her of arrogance the previous night and has another little attack.

Candy, who couldn't get past Sandra the previous day, texts Vince from the antechamber; he comes and gets her. She wants to know what's going to happen with her radio program, Also, she's furious: "You treat me like an old rag..." He apologizes and flatters her and then kisses her. She points out he's married, "and I don't want to be another floozy like your Sandrucha. How far would you go for me? Would you respect my family, would you lose everything - your presidency, your marriage, all your money? I love you like crazy but I won't be 'the other.' "

Fer ruefully tells Ana she's feeling poorly because she interrupted her treatment in Germany to come back to Mexico "and wreck your dad's life" and now she's feeling the consequences.

Meanwhile, for Adoracion's benefit Pina models a Parisian negligee bought to seduce "... the plumber?" asks Adoracion. "No, obviously my husband!" "How can you still love him after all the things he's done? I'm worried because you suffer all the time." "This time I'm sure everything will be super different."

Rebe peeks in Pancho's window and sees the Lopez family enjoying Chela's delicious food. Chela lets her in - uh oh, Pancho is still mad! "I'm eating with my family," he informs Rebe frostily. "I just came to bring your last check; good night." He feels remorseful later and Lupe points out he forgave Fernanda, so why not Rebe? Rebe's crime didn't deserve such punishment. "You still love her, why hang around crying?"

Rebe cries in her car and Chela sees her.

Fraud wanders into Moni's office again and is irate that her screen saver is a picture of her and Pepe kissing. He reads the stuff on her desk. Moni and Pepe come in and catch him spying. Freddy: "Moni! You went to Valle to Bravo with him!?? I threw four years of my life in the garbage." Moni: "Well, I feel the same." Freddy: "Well, now I see you're pretty low class, Moni, look who you hang out with. You're no better than a cualquiera," which means literally "any kind of somebody" but is used to mean "hussy/floozy." So Pepe punches him but good. They leave and Freddy, rising from the ground with very thick red blood all over his face, vows Pepe will rue this day.

Pancho regrets being mean to Rebe and remembers her saying "I'll love you whether you're a grocer or an astronaut." His reverie is interrupted by the arrival of ... a new character. Named Chato. I guess the actor playing Chacho's pal has gone off to some other job and the jolly goings-on require a new sidekick. Anyway, this Chato is an old friend of Pancho's, come back to Mexico after discovering that with the recession there was no more work in the States. They admire his panzon (big belly).

Vince moans over Fraud's bloody nose and pledges vengeance against the mecaninaco. Freddy says he has a plan to make Pepe suffer but we don't hear what it is.

Pepe tells Monica he couldn't let Fraud talk trash about her. Monica points out Pepe was noble not to call her dad a hypocrite during the "you are a naco" diatribes - Pepe knew Enzo himself had been a mere naco car-washer as a teenager. Pepe says he was just following the Golden Rule. He gets kisses.

At Pina's house, Vince is in a bad mood and not receptive to the low-light sexy atmosphere Pina's tried to set up. "Is this a voodoo session?" He ignores Pina in her "baby doll" nighty. He's sulky and sad. She gives up.

Back to Chato, who can't believe Pancho gave up the Avon presidency. Pancho denounces the "venemous insects and vipers" who worked for him there. More about Chato, in case it later turns out to be important: he's been gone seven years (which is why they recap the whole plot for him). He was practically starving in the US. Chacho and Chato trade baldness / long nose jokes. Of Avon, Pancho muses: "Now I'm where I should be, it all seems like it was a dream." But Chacho points out he still loves Rebe...

... and that causes Pancho to rip off his apron and stamp off to see his bombon. Of which, more in the second hour.

Things go well in the recording studio. "Your band's not bad," says the producer who is Manuel's father, "But I'm only interested in you, Ana, as a soloist." Uh-oh. "I could make you a big star." Through soundproof glass the boys in the band are watching hopefully.

Chela tells Lupe: "I want to finish high school, learn how to dress, become cultured, get a job and become a boss so Pancho will find me interesting."

Pina asks Vince: why did you receive Candy last night? He says she came to get authorization for her radio show. "If you give it to her, I'm asking for a divorce." But if he doesn't let Candy's show go forward, Candy will disappear. Dilemma! Enzo points out: Vince will be ruined if Pina divorces him, so there shouldn't be a question. Vince doesn't look convinced.

Monica goes through her dad's papers to try and find clues to her mother's whearabouts while Pepe watches. They find no marriage certificate. Maybe they were never married? Over to you, Ezra...

Labels: familia