Caray, Caray!

• Our little dove (palomita) Luciana is dressed like a little devil in a red dress and red wig, when in walks our galan Rodrigo, enjoying a 21st century stag party with his bffs, their girlfriends, and his fiancé, Gala. The girls got to choose the fancy restaurant for dinner, so the boys got to choose Club Inferno for the after-party. Does our galan recognize our little dove? It’s not clear, but he’s clearly attracted to her, and is the only one of his party who treats Luciana with respect and kindness. He says out loud, to his fiancé, that the waitress is a very good looking girl. (We question our galan’s will to live, as his very possessive fiancé shoots daggers at him and the little devil girl waitress after this remark.)
• The bartender thinks Luciana is cute and nice and wonders why Violeta would bring her to work in a place like El Inferno. Ivan, the manager also thinks she’s just right for his favorite client, Mr. Lastra, who looks like a comic book version of the Devil. Lastra orders Ivan to bring Luciana/Joana to him for a little up close and personal time on his lap. The fact that she’s fresh off the bus from het het is even more of a turn on for him.
• Rodrigo tries to talk to Luciana/Joana alone by pretending he needs some cigarettes, but gets cock blocked by his fiancé Gala.
 • After refusing his advances at his private booth, Luciana is cornered by Lastra in front of the bathrooms. She yells for help, hits him with her sparkly spike heels, and scratches the side of his face. He’s got her pinned to the wall when Rod comes to the rescue, fists flying. Lastra has bodyguards who start attacking Rod, but soon Rod’s two bffs join the fray. Luciana locks herself safely in the ladies’ room as the fight spreads onto the main floor and turns into a full brawl. The cops are called, and Rod and his peeps get the heck out of Dodge. Gala is none too happy that Rod started a fight for that little devil girl. She bitches at him all the way to her house. He says he couldn’t let any woman be disrespected like that.
• The cops arrive and Lastra raises a stink and tries to get Luciana arrested. First he accuses her of attacking him and scratching him. She gets up in his face and puts him in his place. When he insults her, she slaps him hard, right in front of the cops. You go girl! She refuses to be intimidated and the cops seem to be siding with her. Then Lastra claims that his wallet is missing and accuses Luciana. He wants her to strip, right in front of them all! Luciana of course refuses. Violeta takes her to the ladies’ room to cool down while the men search for the wallet. The nice bartender quickly finds the wallet, but Lastra still wants to get Luciana thrown in jail for assault.
• Having heard enough of this bs, Licenciado Linares, a loyal customer of Violeta/Coral, steps up and flexes his lawyer muscles. He calls Lastra on his bs, and says he will defend Luciana/Joana if need be. He gives Luciana his card, and Lastra blusters off. Lic Linares later offers Violeta and Luciana a ride home. He tells them he defended Luciana because she could have been his daughter. (Viewerville’s tn radar goes off, because these things are usually significant later.)
• Doña Estela/Estelita stays up late praying for the safe return of the girls. She’s not really worried about Violeta, who can take care of herself in rough places like El Enferno, but she’s really worried about innocent Luciana. The next day Luciana confides in Estela that she hated it and refuses to work there again. Violeta is more concerned about Luciana paying for her keep, and making sure Ivan doesn’t fire her because of Luciana’s antics. She forces Luciana to accompany her to the club the next day to apologize to Ivan.
• At the club, Luciana does NOT apologize to Ivan. He’s pissed; so is she. Rodrigo arrives to ask how the little devil waitress is. Ivan hustles Rod out before he sees Luciana, but Luciana knows exactly who he is and is flattered that Rod cared enough to check up on her. Downstairs, Ivan spews lies about “Joana” and tells Rod that she’s basically a thieving whore. And if Rod likes her, he’ll find out her fee and get her for him. Rod is disappointed and disgusted. He refuses the offer and quickly leaves. The nice bartended hears it all. Once he returns to the girls in his office, Ivan pulls the same trick on Luciana and tells her Rod wanted to know her fee. She has the same reaction as Rod.
• Brigida whines to Matilde about all the extra work in the house. She convinces Rosaelena to get an extra maid for the house, but is then annoyed when Rosaelena puts Matilde in charge of finding someone. In our small tn world, Matilde’s sister happens to be Landlady Estela, and she knows just the girl for the job. On her first morning on the job, Luciana gets a hearty welcome from sweet Hannah, who pulls Luciana into the living room via the front door. Rosaelena is livid. How dare a servant enter through the front door! Brigida convinces her that they can scare the bejeezus out of the new girl, pay her a low salary, make her life miserable, and fire her whenever she wants. Rosaelena likes this plan.
• Basically the whole episode, Rosaelena is a bitch to her husband, her servants, her daughter, her future daughter-in-law, and the mother of her future nuera. She’s a bitter control freak who wants to control her grown and teenage children’s lives. For example, she gets in a snit that Rod, a man in his 20s-30s is out late with his friends and fiancé. Max, her husband, tells her many times to shut it. Then he goes off and meets his sexy mistress in a bubble bath. He calls her “Licenciado” on the phone to throw off suspicion. I’m not hating on him. I’d stray with that harpy at home too.
 • Gala plays coy with horny Rod and basically tells him, if you like it, then put a ring on it. They decide to have the big engagement party that weekend. Gala is NOT willing to jump through hoops to get her first marriage annulled in order to make Rosaelena happy with a Church wedding. She’s also not interested in Rod’s money and wants to marry with separation of assets/goods. She’s got her own money and her own career. The only thing she wants is HER man. Her mama Julie wants a lot more than that, and is salivating thinking of all the Torreslanda $$. She thinks the 2 years + that Gala and Rod have been dating is more than enough.
• In a series of near misses, the brothers Torreslanda do not see that cute Norteña girl Luciana is the new maid hired to help in the house and with Patricio. Patricio refuses to let anyone but immediate family come into his room and see his pitiful self. Luci only sees his side profile from outside his room. He does not see her at all. Later, Rod rushes home to quickly pack a suitcase for a last minute Miami business trip to buy shares in a golf club. Matilde sends Luci off to find Rod’s red sweater. He is in too much of a hurry to wait, and is about to get in his car when Luci rushes out the door, sweater in hand, and sees him. “It’s him!” We end on that cliffhanger and cara impactada de Luci.

Meanwhile in the outskirts of Chihuahua (aka Het Het):
• Don Aquiles’s lackey, Procopio, may have trouble counting (they really need a calculator for adding up their ill-gotten gains), but Don Aquiles can add 1+1 and get 2. He’s figured out that the only person Luciana knows outside of their Podunk town is Violeta in Mexico City. He lounges around in his purple and black satin robe, fondles his gold, almost starts crying about the loss of his palomita, and tries to figure out how to get Violeta’s address. He tries to trick little Ariche into telling him, but the kid is too clever to fall for it.
• We find out that Magda has never told anyone, not even her bff Paz, who Violeta’s father is. In fact, she never even told HIM he has a child. Viewerville files this away in our memory banks. Magda is sure Violeta will never return to her land and her people. In Mexico City, Violeta confirms this and proudly tells Luci that she’s a city girl now, not a Norteña.
• Procopio continues to eavesdrop on Lorenzo and Paz to try to find out Luci’s location.
• Paz’s hand needs an operation and the family has no money (since she makes money with her hands making pottery). Lorenzo leaves a message with Estela for Luci, spilling the beans about their mama’s hand. Luci frets even more about finding a job.

Labels: refugio