Caray, Caray!

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 1

Sammy wakes up in a car after having been dragged away from the finca. She remembers having seen Willy prone on the ground after being shot. She also has a flashback memory of her kidnapping as a child.

Alas, no red satin sheets yet. Juan Marcos and Ángela are overcome by lust in the garage. Although this garage is about a thousand times cleaner and fancier than my own garage, I still wonder about rolling around on concrete with the likelihood of later needing to get oil stains off one’s backside. Ángela agrees to be JM’s clandestine lover until things settle down.

The Rat shows up to see his daughter. Diego makes him give up his gun. After a cursory hug with the Ratita, he demands to see Ángela, reminding Diego that they are still married under civil law, even if not by the church.

The Reptile and Bernie argue about whose fault it is Sol now knows she shot Gonzalo, Sol’s brother. Despicable Daddy gets in her face about all the killings. She tells him he doesn’t intimidate her any more. She isn’t that adolescent who was begging for affection from him any more. When DD tells her it’s Sol’s word against hers, and there’s absolutely no evidence, she shoots back that she doesn’t want JM to get wind of this because he was Gonzalo’s best friend. She says she’ll kill anyone who gets in the way [of her campaign to win and then kill JM] and, by the way, careful Daddy, that person could be you!

Emma tries to get it out of Sol why she’s so frightened, but as I think Hombre said, Sol shows all the signs of being the classic Death Wish minor character in a telenovela.

Willy is not dead. He tells the dense maid to forget about gunshot wounds and ambulances. “Call the cops! They took my Samy!’’ The kidnappers call. They don’t want Willy at all, they want plata.

While Sol is packing her maldito trapos the Reptile slithers in. Sol says she’s leaving because it’s over with Despicable Daddy. Emma is downstairs and has brought her to get the clothes she should have done without. When she tries to move past her the Reptile does the classic TN trick, a rag with ether on it to knock her out.

After receiving the call from the kidnapers, Willy tells the cops to beat it. If those guys see cops, they’ll kill Sammy.

The Ratita tells her mother she’s planning to leave to share the Rat’s rat hole, wherever it may turn out to be. Ángela pleads with Luis to have this conversation in private, but the Rat Father of the Year says he won’t hide anything from his daughter. [But he will shamelessly use her as a tool to hurt her mother.] When the Ratita says she wants to live with her papí and never see her mother again, the Rat smiles. He announces he’s going to soon have lots of money and will buy a house for he and Violeta. He’s also going to court to accuse Ángela of adultery and that her line of work is too dangerous in order to gain custody of the Ratita.

The Reptile sends a text to Emma on Sol’s cell phone that she’s changed her mind and is staying with Bernie. Emma isn’t convinced to leave. She goes upstairs, but Despicable Daddy has gotten into bed with the unconscious Sol, pretending some foreplay.

The kidnappers call and ask for $5 million rescate. I find it interesting that ransom in Spanish is a word very similar to rescatar or the verb to rescue.

Our noble JM is offering to transfer money to Willy’s account for Sam’s rescate. Just then a masked person comes into his office, shoots Diego in the head, and shoots JM several times in the chest! He was on the phone with Ángela who goes on for quite a while about how much she loves JM and then she notices he’s not saying anything.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 2

The Reptile sheds some crocodile tears telling a sob story to Sol about losing her baby while Bernie rolls his eyes in the background. After she leaves, Despicable Daddy tells Sol he’s partly responsible for a host of bad things because he ordered Fernanda pushed downstairs to lose the baby. [Come on! Babies don’t dislodge that easily in real life. I remember reading about lots of women throwing themselves downstairs to lose an unwanted child and it didn’t work. How could Bernie be guaranteed she’d lose the baby?]

The kidnapper whose mother is the maid at Casa Sandoval starts pawing Sam, saying she always attracted him, even though she never seemed to notice him. She bites into his mask and pulls it off. Félix, she says!!

Turns out both JM and Diego had on chalecos antebalas (bulletproof vests); but, since Diego was shot in the head, his did him no good. [Poor Lino Martone. He was shot dead in Mi Corazón Insiste, playing a policeman. And now he buys the farm playing a bodyguard.] Ángela shows up. They have REALLY fast cars in telenovelas. She asks if it was Luis.

Félix rips Sam’s blouse, but the other kidnappers come up behind and are pissed he’s forgotten this is about the money. Sam tells him his father was a good man, and he’d die all over again if he saw how his son turned out. The guy looks ashamed.

Willy assures Perla and Darío that they’ll get the ransom together. [Huh? This sounds like Darío isn’t ponying up anything to save his daughter.] Perla tells Darío he’s a miserable coward who’s going to do the same thing he did the first time Sam was kidnapped: nothing. Willy says he’s taking the ransom money himself and he tells them passionately how much he loves her. Fabián Ríos knocks this scene out of the park.

Sol staggers down the front stairs and runs into Ofelia. She says she has to get out of there. Ofelia tells her the front door is not a good idea, and guides her toward the back of the house.

Willy asks Perla to tell him exactly what happened when Sam was kidnapped before. I’m not sure what relevance this has.

JM tells Ángela that Luis was caught and arrested. As always, the Ratita overhears and accuses her mother of getting her dear daddy arrested.

Uh oh. Poor Sol is found floating face down in the pool. I’m pretty sure I know what happened.

It turns out the Rat has an alibi. He was in the hotel all night. He sneers at JM that he’s going to take Violeta away, and he’d like to see JM try to make Ángela happy after he takes her daughter far, far away.

Félix tells the other guys his mother is getting suspicious. He is ready to kill Samantha. After they remove her gag, she tells them she feels pity for them because they’re pitiful imbeciles! So she’ll help them out. Willy won’t give them even a peso if he doesn’t see or hear her. She says they’ll lose everything if they kill her now. Willy has come to the meeting spot and tells them they’ll get the bag of money when he sees Sam; otherwise, no deal. He also pulls out a gun and points it at them.

Luis has come to see the Reptile. She says she doesn’t want anyone to see them together. He tells her she’s not getting rid of him that easily, and his woman isn’t going to stay with that man. He tells Fernanda he’s ready to kill Ángela after she kills Juan Marcos!

A new character is introduced: Gloria Galván, JM’s new bodyguard.

The kidnappers are all ready to kill Sam and Willy after they grab hold of the bag of money. [Why did Félix bother to put his mask back on?] Willy tells them if he dies they all die. He opens his jacket and pushes a switch. I guess it’s one of those dead man switches we see in action movies. As long as the guy maintains pressure on the button, nothing happens. But if the someone kills him, he lets go and the bomb explodes.
 

Dangit! Poor Diego/Lopez, he can't catch a break--shot in Mi Corazon Insiste and again in this one! Even though he was a minor character, I was hoping he'd get a subplot someday. Boo.

AnotherAmy
 

Corazon Valiente
Many thanks for the recap Novelera!
I was puzzled about how Sol ended up floating in the piscina after Ofelia got her safely out the back door. At least Emma had the sense to smell a rat about Sol's death. And why didn't multi-millionario-Dario offer to cough up any ransom money?
J in Oregon
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS:

After killing Valentina, the assassin approaches Miranda, gun drawn. Please don't kill me, pleads Miranda, I'm pregnant! All the better, I'll kill your child! But just as he's about to fire, Olivares opens the door a crack and kills him! However, the guys' gun goes off, and Olivares is wounded in the shoulder. Miranda doesn't see him, but he yells at her to flee, which she does!

I was wrong, Carmen DOES approve of Olivia. And apparently she's 23, not 24, so she's only 6 years older than Mau. And Carmen doesn't really want her boy to end up with a police officer, but at least she can PUNISH that horrible Miranda! Manuel is back in town, wearing his Docksides shoes so we remember he works on a boat, and disagrees with Carmen, Mau has to make his own decisions, or you'll be sorry forever. Carmen disagrees.

Patty DID IT! Joaco must know what buttons to push, because they make beautiful love, and she actually cries from being so happy. She never knew the first time would be so wonderful. Let's see what we can do about the SECOND time, smiles Joaco, leaning down to kiss her passionately.

Miranda has run into the woods. She is able to call her Mom's cellphone, and Soledad tells her not to go back to the hotel, to go to this other place near where she is, and Gregorio (the family friend who met her at the airport) will pick her up, which he does. Soledad is shocked at Valentina's death, is sorry she asked Miranda to come to Mexico, and Miranda should probably go back to the U.S.. It's better to be alive in jail, than free but dead.

Soledad says Antonio did NOT kill Remigio, the other guy who was jealous, and loved Soledad, and was there when Antonio infiltrated the drug gang. But he died, and his family wants revenge. He had two sons (how much you wanna bet that JP is one of them?!).

Nena observed a little of Liz and Leo's getting too close, and warns them about Gonzalo.

Gonzalo is visited by a beaten up Javier, who tells him he's in deep doodoo, which he already knew.

Mau wants to go to Mexico to save Miranda, but can't go without his parents' permission as he's under age. He wants Joaco to get him a fake passport, which Joaco won't do, but Joaco is going to help him somehow.

Gil tells Ana since Ana makes more than he does, she'll have to pay him alimony. Ana is resigned to this, but cheers up a bit when Teresa shows her Julia's earring, left on Teresa's couch.

Olivares calls JP, tells him he's wounded, he actually saved Miranda's life. JP is grateful, but the real source of all the money he's going to pay to Olivares is the BABY Miranda is carrying! What? Here's a long shot guess. Maybe Remigio had a will which said all his money went to his grandson. So if JP gets everyone to think Miranda's kid is HIS, they get the money??? Okay, I'm probably totally wrong.

That's all I can remember for now. The show is definitely going on all cylinders, and I can't wait to see what happens next!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Great recap, Novelera. They HAD to introduce a new character, since two were killed off! BTW, I don't have any idea what happened to Sol. When we find out, tell us if your guess was right. The only thing I can think of is that Ofelia did it. Even though she's always acting so moral, she DOES keep quiet about everything she knows, and since we now know Bernardo is her brother, maybe she's not as good as we thought!

I guess it could also be Fernanda or Bernardo, somehow, too.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Thanks for the recap, Novelera.

I too am impactado over Diego's death. darn shame! one less eye-candy. and why another female bodyguard? puh-leez.

I don't even care to guess what happened to Sol.
 

I'm confused as to who's trying to kill Willy?

Is is the same mob guy that found out that Willy had slept with his wife?

Seems strange that he's getting threatening calls and being shot at everywhere he goes...I must have missed something. Is it just to give purpose to some more bodyguards?
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Rand, this business with kidnapping Sam is a whole different plot device than the mob guy who was trying to kill Willy.

Through nearly the whole novela, this mobster Carreño was trying to kill Willy as revenge for his sleeping with his wife.

A couple of episodes ago they said Carreño had been killed in an attempt to escape prison. So, unless he faked death somehow, it seems like Willy should be in the clear. In a sort of joking way, when they were in Mexico, Willy said he wanted Sam to be his bodyguard. I don't think he needs one any more, just to have her around.

When Sam and Willy came to HER family's finca in Mexico for Ángela's wedding, this guy Félix was grumbling resentfully about how his father had been killed all those years ago during Sam's kidnapping as a child. His mother works at the finca, as does this guy apparently. But he is angry his father was killed to protect the little rich girl. He felt he deserved some money for that.

The newest bodyguard is another woman, who will be guarding Juan Marcos, whose mysterious enemy has been killing and trying to kill hs family members. So JM still needs a bodyguard. Ángela is Génesis' bodyguard. I know, the plot device of having every single family member having their own personal bodyguard is pretty strange. But, this is a TN, so what can we expect.
 

Thanks Novelera.

I understand the whole deal with Felix, it was kind of nice to see another plot line introduced and more characters.

I guess we can only assume that as far as Willy goes, Carreno may still be alive becaue Willy received more threatening phone calls recently. Remember how Bernardo got all upset when he found out, like how could you keep this from us!

I like the Emma/Pablo scenes when she isn't hysterical or inventing. I feel bad for Nelly though.

I don't think they sell Angela's character very well as a bodyguard.
I think she's beautiful but I would have liked to see her without the implanted cheekbones, seems a little too much. Her eyes are gorgeous.

I haven't commented much lately but have still been watching and enjoying for the most part this one.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Thanks for the great recap Novelera. Poor, stupid Sol takes all her secrets with her to her watery grave. Darn! I was thinking Ofelia is the killer too. I guess at some point they will reveal the killer.

My question is, who tried to kill JM? The Rat has an alibi. Maybe it was Vicente? So sad the bodyguard had to die. I had hopes that he and Nelly would eventually get together.

Anyone else notice that now that she and JM have had sex, she wears her hair loose all the time. She used to only wear it like that for special occasions. Otherwise it was in that tight french braid.

To answer your question about why Willy wanted to know all about Sam's 1st kidnapping: Willy has probably guessed that the kidnappers know all about how Sam's kidnapping as a child went down-- that the kidnapper all died because the bodyguard strapped explosives to himself and blew himself up with them. If he goes into this situation with an explosive strapped to him (I'm guessing it's fake), the kidnappers will be more likely to take him really seriously and do whatever he demands. They will not want a repeat of history. That's my take on it.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Correno didn't die weeks ago. They only learned of his death while in Mexico the episode before last. That's when Sam and Willy got happy and giddy and went into the pool fully clothed, because they think thay are now out of danger. That's why the next scene with the shootout and kidnapping was so dramatic because just two seconds before they were celebrating being safe now.
 

Corazón Valiente

Vivi, I didn't say a couple of weeks since they learned Correño died. I said a couple of episodes. It probably was Wed, and we didn't get any Thurs, so in my mind it seemed like a couple of episodes.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Is that what they are? implanted cheekbones (Angela). i couldnt quite put my finger on it. i'd seen pix of that actress when she supposedly had a thing w/Luis Miguel way back, and she did look different.

Emma/Pablo are my fave. they only get all of about 3minutes average air time.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Novelera, that's right. It was Wednesday's episode.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – Part 1

Two of the amateur kidnappers take off their masks and freak out about Willy’s bomb. Félix is beside himself that his revenge/big bucks scheme is not going as planned. He thinks Willy is lying. Willy says he has 3 detonators, one in his jacket, another in his wristwatch and the third is set up so that, if his heart stops beating, 3 seconds later – BOOM!

The Rat challenges the Reptile to kill Juan Marcos first and then he’ll kill Ángela. I think he wants her to get rid of his rival. They start sucking face again, both saying that talking about death excites them.

Willy tells the kidnappers they should leave first, but Sam stays with him. The fat and ugly thug thinks it’s a trap and moves toward Willy only to get a fierce kick in the beer gut from Sam. This guy finally gets disgusted and moves toward the door, only to be shot in the back by Félix.

Emma says that Sol was not the type to kill herself – she was bubbly and happy most of the time.

Ofelia tells Bernie she killed Sol. She describes [and we see in those gray flashback scenes] that Sol went out. Ofelia had to go back inside for some reason, and when she came out Sol was feebly trying to keep her head above water. Ofelia watched her drown. The sleeping pills apparently interfered with her ability to swim properly. When Bernie asks why she didn’t save her, Ofelia said she doesn’t know how to swim. What? Then why did she say she KILLED her?

Gloria and JM say they won’t say a word to anyone about “us”. ¿Qué? Then Peralta immediately solves the problem for us. He says he knows she’s not Gloria Galvan, but Gloria Ferreira, a detective who recently made a big bust that he read about. She's apparently pretending to be a bodyguard to solve the crimes against JM and his family.

The kidnappers finally, finally take the bag of money and go out of the barn. They are confronted with a bunch of cops pointing guns at them, and they are arrested. However, the fat thug is not dead. He reaches out and detonates Willy’s leather jacket. BOOM!

Darío and Perla are having another of their charming conversations as a married couple. He says he took the baby from Sam so she would not mess up her brilliant future. They get into a shouting match and she tells him Sam is NOT his child. Good acting by Katie Barberi as she tells Darío she was pregnant when she went to bed with him and lied about the dates. She did it so her daughter would have money and an opportunity to be an empresaria and have the opportunities she never had.

Willy and Sam are taken away on stretchers, but appear to be fine. These two definitely have more lives than a dozen cats with nine each.

The Reptile marches in to JM’s house in her usual high-handed manner. She’s none too pleased to see JM has an attractive female bodyguard.

Darío is trying to get Perla to tell him who Sam’s father is. He guesses Miguel Valdez, but she won’t tell him the truth. Then he guesses Bernardo del Castillo. They have flown to Mexico to see Sam, but she doesn’t really want anything to do with them. When Perla thanks Willy for saving her daughter, he looks at her coldly. He has no use for them because they gave away his child. After they leave, Darío tells Perla that, if Bernie is the father, then those two are brother and sister.

At Casa Arroyo, the Reptile pulls a gun on JM, but Gloria comes to the rescue. Then we are treated to a totally ludicrous scene. Fernanda says the gun had balas de salva (blanks). She says she wants to save his life. She goes on to say Luis came to see her half out of his mind and said he was going to kill JM. Her big idea is to pretend to shoot him so Luis will leave him alone. Gloria and JM are rolling their eyes in unison.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – Part 2

Violeta faints. The little Ratita has been on a hunger strike, and manages to scare Génesis pretty badly.

Vicente and the Rat talk. The Rat as much as tells Vicente he’s not much of a man if he tolerates Fernanda’s other lovers. HE would want to kill anyone who touched Ángela. Vicente looks at him in an interesting way and asks him what makes him think he doesn’t feel the same. This gives the Rat pause.

Willy tells Despicable Daddy that Sam won’t be his bodyguard any more. Now she’s his woman. DD looks like he needs an antacid. When Sam says she’s tired, Willy says she’s sleeping with him tonight. DD has a hard time controlling his face.

The Ratita has been admitted to the hospital because of her hunger strike. Social Services shows up and says that the Rat has denounced Ángela for putting Violeta at risk, and he’s also asking for custody. Ángela bursts out that Luis is violent and using drugs. JM quiets her, saying that she needs to be careful. There’s evidence that his house is not a safe place, and Luis obviously isn’t a fit parent. Violeta could end up in an institution.

Emma tells Peralta she’s afraid of losing him because they haven’t made love. Nelly, of course, is listening at the door. Later she offers to provide what Emma can’t, saying how much she loves him. Emma, of course, hears this.

When Willy and Sam are about to make love, her cell rings. Ledesma, the crooked private detective calls to say he’s found their son. Right after Despicable Daddy hears they plan to look for the child themselves. Coincidence? I think not.

The Reptile gloats over her plan to her stooge, Vicente. She’ll pretend to shoot JM with blanks. Luis will then follow through and kill Ángela, per their pact. Then she’ll send him out of the country and he’ll never know JM is still alive. After she leaves the room, Vicente goes into her lingerie drawer and takes out her gun. From what he said, it looks like he plans to change the blanks for real bullets.

That SNAKE Ledesma comes and tells Willy and Sam that he couldn’t tell them this over the phone, but he found their child and he’s dead.

Ángela begs the Rat not to take her child. He lists all the things she’s done to him: leaving him at the altar, being with another man, stopping loving him. He says he’ll give up the custody fight if she’ll give him a night of hot sex. Bah!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Great recap, Novelera! I love the names you keep coming up with, Rat, Reptile, Ratita and now DD for Bernardo.

Yes, Willy and Sam have been shot numerous times, blown up, as have lots of other characters (JM, Angela and Fernanda have all been shot, I think. But some characters aren't as lucky. Emma was in a pool, in the ocean, but was saved. Not so for Sol. And the bodyguard job is really risky, unless you're one of the main characters.

How long are we giving Gloria in staying alive? A week? :)

Based on what we've heard between Perla and Estela, Perla lied when she told Dario that Miguel wasn't Sam's Dad - he was. But even if Dario believes Bernardo is Sam's Dad (quite a stretch, since doesn't everyone know Bernardo has the hots for Sam?), we don't really know who WILLY's parents were, either. Or Fernanda's (okay, we think we know, but people could be lying:) If the writers can actually make this all make sense by the end of this show, they deserve a medal.
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS, Part 1

The pace slowed a bit, as characters are sort of consolidating their positions. Olivares seems to be working with JP. He seems to know the picture of Miranda's "worst enemy" according to Valentina, is JP. He asks JP, if you hate the family so much, why not kill Soledad? JP says something like hate has an expiration date, when lots of money is involved.

JP sends a private plane for Miranda (to bring her back to the US). She can't understand how he can afford this, but goes on it anyway, especially since some black vans have been sighted (also provided by JP to scare Miranda). I think Olivares may end up on the private plane, too, with some cover story that Miranda won't believe.

Mau goes to Yesi's trailer and no one is home. He rummages through Yesi's things and sees the photo of Leo's Dad with a woman not his wife (Monica). Yesi comes back and chews him out for going through her stuff. And no, she won't tell him about her new boyfriend, just that he's "way above" Mau. But he's much older than you, cautions Mau. Well, says Yesi, Liz and Gonzo are the same age, and look how THAT's turning out!

Not too well, as Gonzo still has his gun (Leo sees it) and Liz and Leo still want each other, but can't have each other.

Hector tells Diego he has to get cured of his "disease", especially when Diego gets grossed out by some blood (I guess straight guys can't get freaked out by blood. Okay). Also, he has to invite Nora and her Mom over. Now.

Nora tells her Mom they have to go to Hector's for dinner, although Nora will have a hard time lying about her immigration status (does that come up at every meal these days?). At the clinic, she asks "What kind of people come to this clinic?" Amazingly the nurse answers this question. People without papers, or who are hiding something, like a pregnancy. Hello, Miranda!
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS, Part 2

JP asks Orlando to ask Ana to give Miranda's job back. Ana wonders if Orlando is friendly with JP. No, says Orlando, actually, I don't trust him much, he just asked me to put in a good word.

Soledad says Miranda should marry JP, and then announce the pregnancy. That way no one will ask for a paternity test (dream on).

Patty is so in love. She and Joaco are great together. This of course means danger ahead!

Ricardo just about gives up on the formula for the new drug. Even after a year it would still be fatal. Victor says, sorry, bud, solve the problem NOW!

Yesi looks in Victor's bag and reads the file in which it says the drug caused 5 deaths so far. She wonders if her brother works at a company which is producing bad stuff.

Henry the chauffeur is getting closer to finding out that Gonzo killed Rafael. Bad cop Pedro is helping, since he has access to the cop info.

Armando gets in his car to drive to the hospital to donate bone marrow to save little Bea's life. Of course Julia cut the brakes, and he's in a terrible accident. But he's not dead (it was his blood which freaked out Diego in the hospital). Hector tells Santiago, you have a choice. We can either save Armando's life, or have him donate the bone marrow to Bea, but not both!!!!!
 

Corazon Valiente

Thank you Novelera. I am simply captivated by this novela and enjoy reading your recaps. I wish they would just have a marathon of this novela one weekend, so we can see it in one shot. But I am STILL not a fan of Emma. I just hope they don't destroy Nelly's character in order to make Emma seem nicer.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Bah is right Novelera! I'm going to throw something at the tv if Angela actually lets the Rat have his way with her.

I'm also very frustrated with the way their "loving" parents keep meddling in Sam and Willy's lives. Indeed, this latest news of the missing child's death has Bernie written all over it.

Sol's death was way less interesting than I'd thought. I hope Ofelia does turn out to be some mad murderess who has been fooling everyone, including Bernie and the audience. The "I can't swim and couldn't save her" excuse is so lame. Why didn't Ofelia call for help? Don't the have security all around the house?

But the lamest excuse of the night was the Reptile's excuse for pointing a gun at JM's head. Really?! And he still let's this woman waltz into his house whenever she wants to?

Oh Nellie, give up already.
 

This comment has been removed by the author.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Nellie, my last comment was not meant for you. It was meant for Nellie the character.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Thanks for the great recaps for Friday and Monday, Novelera. I was away for the weekend and only just saw the episodes. I will do a recap for Tuesday´s episode. It might get posted kind of late.

The body count is sure adding up. When we talk about the novela in my Spanish class, my teacher always starts out by saying, "¿Cuántos muertos?" "How many deaths?"

I agree that Ofelia's explanation of Sol's demise was an anticlimax.

I couldn't really follow the Reptile's plot. It would seem like if the Rat shot JM with blanks, it would be obvious right away that he wasn't dead.

If Emma really wanted to have sex with Peralta, they could go to therapy or something. It doesn't make sense to just hope her fear will go away. But we've got all three couples (JM/Ángela; Sam/Willy and Emma/Peralta) acknowledging their love for one another. We´re not at the end of the novela so there will be problems.

I also don´t have great hopes for Gloria´s longevity. She is already looking with far too much suspicion at the Reptile.

Darío thinks that he is Willy´s father. Wasn´t that why he was trying to keep Willy and Sam apart? I guess he is pretending that Willy and Sam might siblings for Perla´s benefit. We know that DD is not the Reptile´s father. I wonder if Ángela is really Miguel´s daughter? You could have a clean sweep of false paternity for that generation.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Thanks Novelera for another great recap.

again, my fave Peralta is very keen. I just love this man. he does not miss a beat.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE - LUNES

Yeah, the Reptile's plot was confusing. I guess you thought the opposite of what I thought. I thought the Reptile herself was going to shoot JM with blanks, giving the Rat the impression she'd carried out her part of the bargain. Then he would do his part, killing Ángela. That was the challenge the Rat made to her. Also, if the Rat killed Ángela, then he would definitely need to flee the country, as the spouse, spurned or not, is always the first suspect. This piece fits with what the Reptile told Vicente.

Plus, if the plan was for the Rat to shoot JM with blanks, why would Vicente have found the Reptile's gun in her drawer, preparing to replace the blanks. The rat has his own gun.

It sounds like you think the Reptile plans for the Rat to shoot JM and then flee the country thinking JM is dead.

I'm totally confused about whether Darío really thinks Willy is his son. He was VERY convincing when he told Perla he took the child so being a single mother wouldn't interfere with her brilliant future. Not sure if he thinks that child was the product of incest or not. Plus, he's never seemed to have the slightest interest in Willy. Even rotten villains usually perk up at the sight of their illegitimate children.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE-
I guess my confusion about the Reptile's plan is how the Rat is going to believe that JM has been shot if the gun is firing blanks, regardless of who the shooter is.

I guess if the Rat were outside the room and heard shots and then the Reptile came out of the room and said, "I shot JM," he might believe it. But if he is the shooter or present at the shooting, he is going to see right away that JM has not been hit by a bullet. JM wouldn't even fall down and appear to be shot like he was the other day when he had the bulletproof vest on because there would be no impact of bullets.

I'm sure that I'm missing something here. because of course, the Reptile is smarter than me
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE - Lunes

OK, this plan is totally full of holes, thus the eye rolling of Gloria Ferreira and Juan Marcos Arroyo.

I'm also not clear if the Reptile meant to tell JM about her "plan" or if she made it up on the spot after Gloria made her put down her gun.

Since she told JM what her plans were, saving him from Luis, then maybe she means for him to pretend having been shot and fall to the ground, thus convincing the rat to go ahead and kill Ángela.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE- martes Part 1

Ángela capitulates to the Rat's demand for sex in return for getting her daughter back and his not killing JM. The Rat gives her the keys to the apartment and tells her to come without underwear.

Sam is destrozada to learn that her child is dead while Despicable Dad feigns sympathy.

Peralta tells Nelly that he loves Emma and it doesn't matter if they can't have sex. He advises Nelly not to stick her nose in his affairs.

The Rat brags to the Reptile that he is going to bid farewell to Ángela with a night of sex before he kills her as part of their plan. The Reptile is bummed. JM is obsessed with Ángela and has no time for her. Then she has an idea.

Ofélia tells the Reptile that she let Sol drown to protect her and that she would do anything to protect Fernanda.

JM receives a set of keys and a letter presumably from the Reptile. The letter says that if JM is interested in who Ángela is sleeping with, he should use the keys.

Emma is surprised to see Peralta getting ready for bed in her room. He tells her that they are going to sleep together - just cuddling, no sex.

Willy tries to comfort Sam. He says that he knows he can't experience what she is feeling but he shares her grief.

DD pays the detective for his work in convincing Sam that her baby is dead. The detective gives DD the real info on Sam's child.

JM shows up at the apartment where the Rat is getting things going with Ángela. At first, he hears Ángela telling the Rat to take his clothes off but then she conveniently says that the Rat is forcing her do this so that the Rat won't kill JM and will give her back her daughter.

Darío comes to see DD. DD tells Darío that his grandson is dead. Darío tells DD that Sam is not his daughter. He says that Perla is a prostitute. DD disagrees saying that Perla never asked for money. Darío wants to know if DD could be Sam's father. DD says that it is possible. Darío then says that Sam could have had a baby with her brother.

JM bursts in on Ángela and the Rat. The Rat manages to pull a gun on them but Ángela disarms him. Ángela asks who gave JM the info about the apartment. JM replies that it was either someone who cares for them a lot or someone who hates them a lot.

Sam gets up in the middle of the night leaving Willy asleep. She says that there is nothing left of the strong, courageous woman she was. She says that she has to be together with her son and with Miguel, her guardian angel. She takes a lot of pills.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE- martes Part 2

Guess who's back in the story? Gabriel the sleaze. Presumably with the help of Nelly, he barges into Emma's bedroom to see Emma and Peralta together. Emma tells him that she and Peralta are novios. So guess who the next problem for Emma and Peralta will be?

Willy finds an unconscious Sam.

The Ratita is getting out of the hospital. JM tries to sweet talk into cutting her mother a break but the Ratita isn't really buying. The Social Worker shows up and says that the Ratita has to an institution until her parents' situation is resolved. Ángela is devastated. JM reads the order and notes that it says that the Ratita can be given into the custody of a responsible person. He says that he will be the responsible person. This ignores the fact that part of the Rat's case against Ángela was that the frequent attempts on JM's life made it dangerous for the Ratita to live in his house.

The Reptile comes over to JM's house. JM isn't there but she and Gloria discuss the plan to frame the Rat for killing JM.

Sam recovers from the overdose apparently without having to go to the hospital and have her stomach pumped. DD says that she is young and can have more children. Willy tells him to go away. He holds Sam and tells her that if she dies, he will die.

There is more discussion of the bizarre plan to frame Luis by the Reptile pretending to shoot JM. The second part of the plan that JM and Gloria don't know about is that the Reptile expects that the Rat will then kill Ángela. Meanwhile, Vincente switches the ammunition in the clip from blanks to real bullets.

Willy asks Sam to marry him.

The plots creaks into action. Ángela asks the Rat to come to the house to discuss something with him. He is suspicious since she usually doesn't want him in the house. They are all outside when the Reptile drives up and shoots JM.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Thanks so much Jean. Bernardo continues to disgust me even more each episode. If the lie of Sam and Willy being siblings wouldn't also mean HE had no chance with Sam, he would use it in a heartbeat to separate Sam and Willy. He's so gross in his persuit of her.

The scenes with Sam and Willy were very moving. Those two have come so far in their relationship. I really hope they find out soon that their son is alive.

The fake murder plot is so idiotic. Angela even asked why Luis would think the Reptile capable/willing to kill JM. That should have already sent up red flags for JM and Gloria. Why didn't it? The reasons the Reptile gave for why the Rat would "think" she'd kill JM were very real, and should have set off alarm bells for JM and the others. But they just stupidly believe the Reptile that she is so over all the resentment she had for JM. Please!

Peralta is such a cutie. Loved the cuddling/sleeping scene. But they really should see about getting professional help for Emma.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Thanks, Jean, another great recap. Good thing Estela, Angela's Mom, was there, since she's a nurse. She apparently prescribed milk, which probably takes care of drug overdoses these days. I'm not sure why Sam carries a bottle of sleeping pills in her purse anyway, but oh well.

Why does Ofelia say she'll do ANYTHING for Fernanda? Besides the usual loyalty of family servants, I think there's more. Maybe, Ofelia is bi, and is in love with Fernanda (can't imagine why, but I'm just sayin') We know she also loves Dario, but why not spread the love a little? :)

When JM was shot, there did appear to be blood, so I'm guessing he wasn't wearing his bulletproof vest anymore. Why not? Oh well, there are at least 3 possibilities: 1) paralyzed 2) coma or 3) yes, he's hurt, but recovers in 2 episodes (probably after his heart meter flatlines, and they miraculously bring him back). Let's see how many telenovela conventions come into play.
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS:

Miranda's back in the US. JP greets her at the airport, and kisses her, but she's not feeling it. Mau also happens to be there observing. Miranda tells JP she'll let him give the baby his last name. Back at the apartment, Cortez arrives to tell Miranda the best thing to do is just marry JP, cuanto antes. She grudgingly agrees.

Olivares had picked up the picture of Miranda's "worst enemy". He meets with JP, who is now his ally in getting the money from somewhere. We see the picture, it's not JP, it's Ignacio (now dead)! I have no idea how JP and Igacio were related. Could JP actually be good? Nah! I'm not even so sure Miranda's MOM is good these days!

Teams of people are sort of facing off these days. We have the Mau/Miranda supporters, Manuel, Orlando, Sofia, Patty, Joaco, and the Mau/Miranda haters, Olivia, Carmen and Yesi. Interesting that the haters all sort of want Mau for themselves. Carmen slaps Orlando for trying to get Miranda's job back. If that cualquiera comes back to Cervantes, there'll be hell to pay!

We're still waiting to see what happens with Armando. Santi has to decide whether to operate on Armando's spine, with a 50% chance he'll live, but almost none he could donate bone marrow, or not operate, and he donates the marrow now, but probably dies right away. Even though Armando wants to do this, Santi can't bring himself to "play God".

Andres tells Henry to do whatever Victor wants (which is to kill whomever killed Rafael). Henry's getting closer to figuring out that it's Gonzalo. But GONZALO sees Javier meet with Henry, and HE may realize that Leo's Dad is the drug kingpin!!!

Mau doesn't believe for a minute that Miranda loves "Mr. JP." So why would she marry her? There has to be another reason. Will Miranda break down and tell him the truth, she's carrying his baby?
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE - Martes

Thanks, Jean, excellent recap.

I liked the way the Reptile's plan backfired. She intended for JM to catch Ángela and the Rat doing the deed, but instead she saved her rival's life. The Rat was planning to off her in the morning.

Even the crooked detective Ledesma was disgusted with Despicable Dad. Maybe there's a chance this guy's conscience might kick in and he'd tell the truth. It's interesting that Darío was apparently paying more that DD for information. Will he then also find out Lucas' whereabouts?

I thought Vicente said something about some of the bullets he changed out being real and leaving some of the blanks in there. And then he said something about JM's luck. So maybe only some of the shots fired really did any damage?

Apparently DD believes in the joke line: "incest is best". He didn't even turn a hair hearing that Sam might be his daughter.
 

CORAZON VALIENETE:

Hombre, since Bernie and Ofelia had that conversation about her being his sister, at the very least she has aunt-like feelings for the Reptile. But who knows, maybe she's really her mother and for some reason Bernie and his wife adopted her as their child, while his sister Ofelia remained in the shadows as nanny/servant to her own child.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Thanks, Jean for the lovely recap.

Every day, I love Peralta more!!! he certainly should cure anyone's hang-ups.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Following my last line of thinking, if Ofelia is the Reptile's mother, then Dario could be the Reptiles dad! Ha! I think every single one of the "kids" should get DNA tests done, asap.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Vivi, I've been thinking since the beginning that Ofelia is the Reptile's mother.

That's been done a lot in telenovelas: the snotty rich kid is really the illegitimate daughter of the servant she's been badmouthing the whole novela.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

I agree, Vivi, it's very possible Ofelia is Reptile's mother. As usual your deductive powers are superb! One funny thing is that all the mothers of the various "kids" know the truth (but they never tell), while many of the "fathers" are totally in the dark.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE-

Thanks, all. I will do the recap tonight.

If JM gets paralyzed from the gunshot wounds, he and Génesis could do wheelchair races!!

I didn´t catch that Vincente was only replacing some of the blanks with real bullets. That sort of gives a Russsian Roulette aspect to the already ridiculous plot. Isn´t it weird that Gloria, a police officer, would promote a plot that essentially frames the Rat for murder (she doesn´t know about the other part of the plot where the Rat is supposed to kill Ángela) and would involve a whole lot of people perjuring themselves?

I don´t think I´d let anyone shoot at me unless I was 100% sure the gun was fake or the thing was loaded with blanks. Maybe not even then. I saw an episode of CSI recently where a freak accident led to someone being killed by a blank round.

It does sort of look like Ofelia is Fernanda´s mother and she doesn´t know. Maybe Bernie is the father and he committed incest with his sister since the possibility of incest doesn´t seem to bother him all that much. Bernie only said that the Reptile was illegitimate.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE- miércoles Part 1

I left my notes at home so this is from memory.

Against all predictions, the plot to make the Rat believe that he will be accused of killing JM works perfectly. JM wasn´t really shot. He was lucky that the bullets that the Reptile fired at him were blanks. [But this doesn’t really make sense. The gun wasn’t a revolver where you spin the barrel and take a chance on what bullet goes into the chamber. The Reptile’s gun has a clip. So Vincente should have been able to tell that he didn’t replace the first two bullets in the clip, the ones the Reptile was most likely to use against JM, with blanks. But whatever.]

Of course, the other part of the plan that doesn’t work, fortunately, is that the Rat is unable to kill Ángela. He escapes and goes to see Vincente who shows him a fake news story about JM´s death. The Reptile is disappointed that the Rat didn´t kill Ángela but Luis swears that he will kill her.

So now of course, to keep up the deception, JM has to stay out of sight so that the Rat can´t see that he isn´t dead. But, of course, JM has to go and sign some papers to get custody of the Ratita. Ángela drives him there with JM in the trunk of the car. However, the Rat follows them on his motorcycle and after JM is back in the trunk for the return trip, the Rat gets in the car and holds Ángela at gunpoint. JM gets out of the trunk. [The car must have one of those inside trunk releases or maybe Ángela surreptitiously released the trunk latch.] Anyway, JM and the Rat struggle and the Rat escapes again but now he knows that JM isn´t dead.

Bernie puts the moves on Estela and she is more than willing.

Sam refuses Willy´s marriage proposal. She says that she can´t focus on anything like that now. Willy is understanding. Sam says that she wants to go back to being a bodyguard again but not Willy´s bodyguard.

Willy tells Despicable Dad that he recognizes the way that he looks at Sam and that he and Sam are moving out of DD´s house. DD goes to the office and bribes the receptionist to seduce Willy. What a guy!
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE- miércoles Part 2

Ofelia brings the Reptile some food and says that she is too thin. The Reptile reacts as usual – chewing Ofelia out. Finally, she pulls the gun that she used to shoot JM and fires it at Ofelia, thinking that the gun was loaded with blanks. Ofelia is not as lucky as JM: she gets a real bullet. It´s not a fatal shot, however, and afterwards Ofelia says that it was worth getting shot to hear the Reptile saying how much she needs her.

The shooting of Ofelia causes Sam to investigate the gun that the Reptile used. The Reptile protests but it is too late. Sam finds the mix of blanks and live rounds and says that this has to be investigated.

Perla tells Darío that she is leaving him. She says that Sam´s rejection of her is all Darío´s fault. It was he who insisted on taking Sam´s baby. Sam is ´sangre de mi sangre´ - blood of my blood, not Darío´s since he isn´t the father. Apparently, Darío got a vasectomy after Perla had Sam so now he can´t have any more children – a situation that he blames on Perla. He beats her up so badly that she has to be hospitalized.

If we avoided novela conventions in the plot to shoot JM, we get them in spades with Nelly. She tells Peralta that she is pregnant. Peralta tries to tell Emma about this but she says that she doesn´t want to know – no matter what it is, she still loves Peralta. Later, she tells Peralta that she is ready to have sex with him. Then he does tell her and Emma is obviously impactada.

JM does know that Gloria is a cop but Gloria doesn´t want anyone else to find this out. This includes Ángela after JM tells Gloria that he is in love with Ángela. After the failure of the plot to get the Rat to leave town, Gloria starts asserting her authority, which Ángela can´t understand. Then, she takes a bedroom next to JM´s bedroom causing Ángela to be jealous.

The Reptile correctly concludes that Vincente switched the rounds in the gun.

The Rat figures out that he was being set up in the plan to kill JM and he tries to strangle the Reptile.
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS, Part 1

Andres is a pig and an idiot. He's been so smug, poisoning kids with drugs for money, having people killed, beating his wife and son with a belt, cheating on his wife...But his downfall is beginning.

Benita decides she can't remain silent, and shows Nena the jacket Andres gave her to clean, with a great big lipstick mark on the collar. Across town in a hotel room, Andres tells Monica he's not divorcing his wife, he likes things just the way they are. She finds he has a gun, points it at him playing, and he says don't point that gun at me, it's loaded! Sure enough it accidentally goes off, and he's shot in the shoulder! He calls Victor to get him a discrete doctor. But this may not be easy to explain to Nena. He's also mad at Monica now (and she could talk if he dumps her).

Victor is "entertaining" Yesi, who does admit taking some dresses, but she's no thief. While he's on the phone, she sees he has a gun hidden in a cabinet. She also sees a picture of a woman. We recognize her as Gia. Earlier, Victor had flashed back to when he KILLED Gia, after they had sex! Could Yesi be next? Yesi take a photo of the photo with her cellphone. If she shows it to Mau, he'd recognize it (Olivia, too).

Just about the whole cast is in the hospital awaiting Armando's fate. I'm not even sure what Santiago decided, but either way, the operation fails, and Armando dies without donating bone marrow to Bea. Julia is ecstatic, coming into Armando's room, talking to the dead body, saying "You deserved it, you old crone. I'll do anything to recover Santi, and you couldn't stop me!" But Diego just happened to overhear this!

His Dad Hector had been showing Diego Armando's charts, and was mad that Diego cried (again, Hector thinks only gay guys cry). But the police tell Hector and Orlando that they think Armando's car may have been tampered with! Diego is in the room at this point, and is about to speak up about what he heard Julia say, but Nora calls him from the hallway.
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS, Part 2

Meanwhile, Carmen has a confrontation with Miranda, saying you could never understand a mother's love for her child. But Miranda says, she DOES (but can't tell why!). Carmen goes away realizing she ignored Olivia's advice, and has pushed Miranda more into the arms of Mau. At this point, the idiot nurse from the free clinic shows up, and very loudly says to Miranda, "I know you. How's your pregnancy? How come you didn't abort?" Ana hears this, and Miranda pulls her aside, says yes, I'm pregnant, it's JP's, but let's keep it quiet.

Then the nurse runs into Nora. I know you, you were in the hospital looking at the pregnant woman over there! (Miranda) What a jerk this nurse is (but it's good for our story :) JP overhears this, and realizes Nora knows Miranda is pregnant. He accosts the nurse, and gives her a big wad of cash to tell him about Nora. Oh, she's illegal. Her mother, too! So JP then goes to Nora, if you tell ANYONE about Miranda's pregnancy (which is my child, btw), I file to have you and your Mom deported! Nora is shocked beyond belief.

The school was going to have a celebration of Mau getting his scholarship, but that was put on hold because of Armando's dying.

Gonzalo observes Andres kissing Monica in a parking lot! (not sure if this was before he was shot, but it's one more problem for Andres).

JP (stupidly) gives Miranda a present, baby booties, right in the hospital. Miranda tries to hide them from Mau, who says tell me the truth, what are you hiding?

Later, Miranda is approached by Carmen again, and drops the booties to the floor. Carmen sees them by Miranda's foot. Miranda, what is going on?!!!!
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS:

And the upshot of all this is that JP wants to marry Miranda immediately. Will we have a quickie wedding?
 

Corazon Valiente

Thank you for great recap. I switch back and forth with Abismo and I missed the last 15 minutes.

I have to ask since I've been going back and forth, has there been an episode without anyone being shot?

Ofelia reminds me of Mrs. Danvers (Dani) in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rebecca.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Wonderful recap Jean. Well the JM is dead ruse didn't work for long, did it? I'm glad it's over because it made NO sense. Questions I asked myself: Why would the Rat think he needs to be on the run, while the Reptile was free when she was the one who shot JM, plain as day? Where's my extra strong telenovela beanie?!

Anyway, the older adults continue to be pathetic. Dario's beatdown of Perla was shocking and disgusting. Ofelia clutching on to the scraps of affection thrown to her by the Reptile after it shot her was cringe inducing.

Nellie- I record CV while I watch Abismo. Then I switch over to CV because it always runs over by a few minutes past the recording time. This means I always see the last 4 mins of the show before I watch the recording. It's a fun way to watch. I was really curious about how Perla ended up battered in the hospital and Ofelia in a sling, and then was horrified to actually see how it all happened.

I think there have been a few (very few) episodes where someone was not shot, but I don't think there have been any where someone didn't handle a gun.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE - Miercoles

Wow, Jean, your memory is impressive. If I'd forgotten my notes, I'd get about six lines from MY brain. Great job!

Speaking of memory, I hope this was in the episode, and not in the advance. But Ángela comes to speak with JM, who comes toward her in his bathrobe which is partially open. Gloria is in his room with her hair down and also in a bathrobe. Ángela jumps to a probably wrong conclusion and runs out of the room. I was hoping and hoping that they'd avoid the cliché that every woman around has to fall for the galán. But Gloria seemed to have some facial expressions that seemed like jealousy of Ángela and budding lust for JM.

I'm ready for the Rat to be exterminated. I'm really tired of his too-white teeth, his wolfish grin, and his constant escaping justice. Some gossip I read about his personal life [which we don't discuss ever on the blog] makes me want him gone even more.

I thought Aylín did a good acting job last night. I loved when she played Russian Roulette with Vicente. He was scared out of his mind after that click. It was also interesting that she told Ofelia that she loved her. That was another refreshing moment.

I can't figure out how they're going to resolve Despicable Dad's character. I hate him so much! They portrayed his character as really loving Willy at the beginning. So it sort of seems odd that he'd do everything he can to take away the woman his son loves. But Ofelia said it: Bernie is only capable of loving Bernie.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE - Miércoles

I forgot to say that I agree 100% with Jean about the crappy cliché of Nelly saying she's pregnant. I have never liked her, and like her less now. I sure hope it's a big fat lie! It probably is, because it would be far outside the spectrum of normal TN plots for a guy as young as Peralta to have a kid on the side while still ending up with Emma, which we know he will.

I'll do tonight's and Friday's recaps.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE-

Thanks, all.

I think taking notes helps my memory. At least it´s some reassurance that I´m not getting Alzheimers since I can´t remember a lot of other things!!

The scene with JM in his bathrobe and Gloria in her nightie was right at the end of the episode. It´s stupid of Ángela to be jealous but this appears to be the result of JM not telling her that Gloria is a cop.

I had forgotten about the Reptile playing Russian Roulette with Vincente. I´m surprised that she didn´t just kill him since he was clearly trying to get JM killed. But I guess she still needs him.

I agree that the Rat has lost any usefulness he had in the story. The obvious thing would for him to be killed in such a way that Ángela is accused of murdering him.

I think my notes say that Ofelia told Perla that she and Dario are and have been lovers. That is, Ofelia definitely told someone this and I think she told it to Perla.

Oh yes, and Estela and Perla had one of their cat fights. Estela takes pleasure in reminding Perla that she has lost her daughter and Bernie. Perla replies that she will get both of them back and Estela will go back to being what she always was - a servant.

Also, Gloria surprised JM by saying that she wants to investigate the Reptile. Gloria´s life expectancy just got a lot shorter.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE- I totally agree with you about Nelly, Novelera. She has gone from an innocent to a schemer. I doubt that she is really pregnant but if she is, there are always those miscarriage inducing flights of stairs. She would blame Emma and put guilt on Peralta. Let´s hope it doesn´t go that way.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE-

Jean, thank you for another great recap.

I fast forward most of this tn; only watching Peralta/Emma, and bits of JM. So reading the recaps is much better than the viewing.

Maybe the Gloria/JM end scene was a set up to get a rise out of Ángela, and weed her out as a suspect.
 

Corazon Valiente

Thanks Vivi. I now record Mas Sabe el Diablo, and Corazon Apasionado, which I watch on the weekends since I can't sleep past 6 a.m. - so I can't record too much more for fear of burning out my DVR.

I knew they were going to make Nelly intolerable so he will make a clear choice of Emma. Why do they do that? Why can't both women be good. But I still don't like Emma.

Despicable Dad, he started by claiming he was on his deathbed, maybe that's what's coming up for him, he will be surprised when he finds out he is sick. I think he wants to hook up with Sam because he wants to be one better than his son, or he really wanted to take over Sam's family business. Maybe there is no money that's why they had to ask JM for Sam's ransom money?
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – JUEVES – Part 1

Ángela thinks the worst, finding JM and Gloria in his room in their bathrobes.

The Rat has appeared in the Reptile’s office and starts to choke her. Of course, we veterans of TN’s know she’ll be saved until probably the next to last episode. The building guard starts knocking at the door. She doesn’t tell the guy about Luis choking her. She talks him down about the fake death of JM, and they start making mad, monkey love.

Ofelia and Perla snarl at each other in Perla’s hospital room. When Perla tries to convince Ofelia how far above her in class she is, Ofela comes back with one of my favorite axioms in Spanish: Aunque mona se viste de seda, mona se queda (Even though the monkey is dressed in silk, it’s still a monkey or you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.) That grinning snake Bernardo is eavesdropping at the door.

JM pursues Ángela and tells her about Gloria being Marshall’s replacement on his case. They make up and then Ángela leaves the room. Then Gloria tells JM that Fernanda and Luis are together at the office together and maybe they are lovers and accomplices.

Emma reacts as we would have expected, yelling hysterically at Peralta to leave her room. Nelly shows up at Gabriel’s apartment and is presented with a fake pregnancy test stick and some written pregnancy test. She’s new at being an a-hole, and has to tell Gabriel that she’s doing this only because she’s madly in love with Peralta. She asks why he’s doing it, and he says: For love, of course. [It’s for the lifestyle to which he wants to become accustomed.]

Sam is thinking about going back to the hospital. Willy tells her he hates and abhors violence toward women, but he doesn’t want her to return there. She’s already been there once, and Perla has been completely self-centered as her mother.

Darío shows up at the hospital saying he can’t believe what she turned him into (Gah!) She tells him he’ll end up with no one. She tells she knows about Ofelia, one of his cheap women. He tells her he doesn’t know why he didn’t leave her for Ofelia.

Bernie torment’s Ofelia. He says he maintained her “hijo” and sent this hijo to the best schools. And this hijo is Darío’s? Sam has overheard and asks if it’s true Ofelia has a child by her father. Do I have a brother? Ofelia says she swears she doesn’t have a brother. So what are we to gather from this? Ofelia was able to lie because she had a sister of Sam’s? That is, Fernanda. And when Bernie kept saying hijo, did he mean child instead of boy?

JM catches the Rat and the Reptile in flagrante in her office with Gloria right behind him. The Reptile starts saying it isn’t what he thinks. She comes up with the story that she “cooperated” with Luis to save his life. He manages to grab Fernanda’s gun, but Gloria has the drop on him. He then grabs the Reptile and holds the gun to her head. JM plays the noble idiot and volunteers to be the hostage so Snake Woman can go free.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – JUEVES – Part 2

Sam tells Willy that everything around her is a lie. So maybe it’s a lie that their son is dead.

Willy goes to tell Despicable Daddy that Sam has doubts about Ledesma’s story that their son is dead. [Why, oh why do the good guys always have to telegraph their new plans to the bad guys so said bad guys have plenty of time to thwart them?]

Nelly comes to see Emma to work on her about how hard it was for her growing up without a father in the house, trying an end run around Peralta’s obvious plan to still be with Emma and maybe just acknowledge the child.

JM tries to reason with the Rat in the car, telling him that killing him would doom him, and that he’ll give him a lot of money if he lets him live. When they get out of the car, the Rat has JM kneel before him. Just then the phone rings. It’s Fernanda. She’s sent the Rat a photo of her with the sleeping Ratita. She calls his attention to the sharp knife. She tells him he knows what she’s capable of and that she’ll slit the Ratita’s throat if he doesn’t spare JM.

Gloria organizes a massive manhunt. Meanwhile Cecilia comes to a bar with a briefcase full of money. JM shows it to the Rat and tells him to take it and never come back to LA.

Sam tells Willy she’s going to see Lucas’ adoptive mother.

JM and Ángela are kissing, so happy to be together. He tells her that the Rat was forcing Fernanda to have sex with him, just as he tried to do with her. Ángela tells him that the Rat and the Reptile were already lovers quite a while before that.

Sam and Darío quarrel about his beating Perla. He tries to justify himself by citing her infidelity. Sam throws it in his face about the child he had with Ofelia. He’s stunned. He can’t help himself and says he didn’t think he had children. Sam says what about me?

JM speaks to Gloria on the phone and tells her to keep investigating Fernanda. He and Ángela start kissing passionately when Fernanda and the Ratita walk into the room. Nobody every shuts or locks a door in a telenovela.
 

Corazon Valiente

Vivi, LOL, I knew your comment was not for me. But that's okay, I've been told many times by my family and friends to shut up already. LOL Thanks though.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Great recap, Novelera, lots of good observations. When Sam said to Willy everybody lies around here, I said out loud, that's for sure. That whole thing with Ofelia and her "child" is typical. I agree, she could have been referring to Fernanda.

At one point, I thought when Luis turned off the road and a big truck came up, Gloria would be killed. But apparently no, she just lost track of Luis at that point.

Luis definitely is guilty of "threatening people with a gun". But then again, just about everyone in this show is guilty of that. In fact we could make a drinking game out of every time someone uses a gun, but we might not make it through the show.

I also thought Fernanda had kidnapped Ratita, but I guess she was just taking her somewhere for a ride until it was time to surprise JM and Angela.

I also like how fast JM had Cecelia come up with a big suitcase of cash. I don't think we actually saw Luis take it (the editing in this episode was a little weird), but I guess he did.
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS, Part 1

The tension continues to mount, episode by episode. I'm really enjoying this.

Orlando tells Santiago someone seems to have cut the brake line on Armando's car. No way, says Santi, my Dad had no enemies. But later, when he tells Julia, does her nervous reply give him some doubt? Possibly. Diego heard Julia threaten Armando's corpse, wants to tell someone, so he tells Nora. But she's not listening, she's still shocked about JP's deportation threat. She tells Diego about Miranda's pregnancy, swearing him to secrecy. Mauricio sees them talking, what's this about Miranda? (I doubt they'll tell).

Miranda's restraining order has been lifted, hurray! She can go back to Cervantes, but she'll be a librarian, not a teacher. And Mau is going to be a student teacher (they used the word docente). This infuriates Carmen, who tells Olivia, I don't care about the law, whether Miranda could sue me, I'm going to bring her down. In fact, I want to KILL her!

Nena is mad that Andres has been unfaithful, calls him over and over. He doesn't answer. When he gets home, he blames HER for his ten stitches on his arm, saying her calling and calling made him slip and cut his arm on a metal chairs! (Give me a break). She's too cowered to bring up the infidelity.

But Gonzalo knows about the infidelity, and starts putting together more of the pieces. He tells Javier he killed the guy, and Javier freaks out - they'll kill us both! He pulls his gun on Javier, you work with me, or I'LL kill you! Gonzo spies on the Maximo house, sees Henry the chauffeur come out, and throws himself on Henry's mercy, admitting he killed Rafael, but it was in self defense. Henry gets threatening, and Gonzo says "if anything happens to me, I'm Leo's best friend, it would be like killing his brother." Then Gonzo says, wait a minute, your boss Andres if behind this whole thing, isn't he?!!

It's really strange that I used to hate Gonzo, but now I'm sort of rooting for him. But it may be too late. Leo tells Liz he removed the bullets in Gonzo's gun (to keep him from getting in trouble), but I bet Gonzo is now in BIG trouble!!!!!!!!!
 

RELACIONES PELIGROSAS, Part 2

Hector sees Diego and Nora together, and says to Nora, how'd you like to marry a future doctor? Nora says she's a little young to get married. Hector thinks they'd make a great couple, and think of all the money, Nora! Diego is speechless, but interesting, although Hector just wants Diego to be not gay, if Nora married him, her immigration problem would be solved.

Alejandro finds out that Hector has given Diego a book called How to cure Homosexuality, and is not happy about this.

Julia tries to poison Bea against Ana, saying promise me you'll tell Daddy you don't want to be with that bad lady. Ana is taking the high road. But if she hears about Julia's threats against Armando, I'm sure she'll tell Santiago. Santiago tells Julia again, I don't want to EVER make love to you. If we have to have a child, we'll use the inheritance from Armando. Julia says, well how are you going to pay for the funeral?

Mauricio is in Yesi's trailer. He previously saw a picture of Andres and Monica that Yesi had. This time, when she goes to take a shower, he looks at her phone and sees the picture of Gia! She gets mad at him, and he tells her, I know this lady, from when I was undercover. She was involved in that whole drug thing, and she was murdered! I don't want you to be the next victim. Who is the guy you're mixed up with? Yesi is still defiant, although she flashes back to the report of the drugs, the drug vial, the other things from Victor. But all she says is that her boyfriend is someone important. Look out, Yesi!

Andres is disgusted with reports from California schools, showing that 10% of the kids who try their drugs died. Get Ricardo to fix that formula, now, he tells Victor. Ricardo tells Olga he thinks Victor's in some kind of mafia. Ricardo also realizes that Andres must be Victor's boss, so that HE could be in some kind of mafia, too. Look out Ricardo!

And in Mexico, the bad guys know that soon they'll have Miranda's location, and can kill her in the US. Miranda is worried that the press will cover her coming back to teach at Cervantes. Look out, Miranda!!!!!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Fabulous recap Novelera. I was yelling at my tv when Willy blabbed to Bernie that he and Sam were going to continue the search for their son on their own. Why?! Why?! Tell him AFTER you've found your kid and proved him a liar.

I was kind of convinced that Ofelia and Dario's kid is a boy, since surely Bernie knows the sex. If it was the Reptile he would have just used the feminine, right? But, who knows! This biological child/parent storyline is so darn muddled. I'm expecting at some point that JM's and Angela's paternity will be in question too. Join the party.
 

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CORAZÓN VALIENTE

I remembered something at the end. Bernie has come into the office, a rare event for him, and goes into Willy's office. Cecilia comes in as well for some reason. On his way out DD winks at Cecilia. She then pretends to faint in Willy's arms in her attempt to seduce him for a bunch of DD's bucks while the grinning DD looks on.

Vivi, I'm ready for your suggestion of a few episodes ago: DNA tests for every single character in the novela!
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE-

Thanks for the excellent recap, Novelera.

Yes, indeed. DNA tests all around.

At least the police are getting interested in the Reptile.

Somehow, I doubt that the Reptile is Ofelia's child. Didn't DD say that he paid for her child to be educated in Scotland? No mention of paying for the plastic surgery that created the Reptile. So if some guy shows up in a kilt or speaking Spanish with a Scottish accent, we'll know that it's Ofelia's child.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Jean, you cracked me up. Yes, I had forgotten the mention of Scotland. Maybe the abuse Ofelia takes from the Reptile is just because she's her niece and not her daughter. But they sure have been making a lot of us think she's her mother.

A couple of years ago there was a woman from Scotland in my long-running Spanish class. She spoke Mainland Spain-type Spanish with a Scottish accent. It was amazing.