Caray, Caray!

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ROSA DIAMANTE, viernes 13 julio

San Miguel de Allende:
Rosa is enraged when she overhears the odious José Ignacio boasting to his friend about seducing Eva and ridiculing her for being such a fool.

When Rosa tries to tell Eva what she heard, Eva turns on her, accusing her of spying on her. Slimy lecherous Ramón, who’s been Miss Margaret’s kept man at the Internado for the past 20 years, overhears the juicy parts of the conversation.

Eva’s grandfather, Eduardo, comes upon his nieta and “Adán” smooching outside the hotel. He insists that the young man dine with them so he can get to know him. José Ignacio has a hard time sustaining his lies in front of Eduardo; besides, he has the feeling that he has seen the old guy somewhere before. [Like maybe at his fiancée’s house?]

Eduardo senses that “Adán” is not to be trusted and seeks out Rosa to find out what she knows about him. She pleads ignorance at first but ultimately admits that she is also worried -- Eva’s supposed boyfriend is a huckster (embaucador) whose real name is José Ignacio, although she doesn’t know his apellido. Eduardo has pressing business in the city so he has to leave; but he asks Rosa to protect Eva from the predatory José.

Meanwhile, José decides to cut his visit to San Miguel short. The old man has made him nervous. Rosa catches him in his hotel just as he is ready to make his escape.

[Note: Eduardo knows Rosa as Eva’s best friend in the internado but he doesn’t seem to know she is his long lost granddaughter.]

Mexico City
Remember Andrea (Sofía Stamatiades), the bespectacled young woman who was so uneasy in the icky nephew’s company? Tonight we find out she went out with him as a sort of spy. She reports back to an as yet unidentified young man that “Rodolfo” (for that is the nephew’s name) does indeed want to be president of the Venus company. The young man replies that if Rodolfo is dying to be president, maybe they should grant him his wish (to die, that is.) Hmm.

Evil old fake-blind Rosaura summons Raquel Altamirano to Casa Sotomayor and they snarl at each other across a desk; they realize the baby girl they abandoned is now 18 years old.

Rodolfo’s mother reminds him that he isn’t the owner of their share of the family business. (He can’t be trusted – he’d just gamble the money away.) His kids, Martín and Barbara, are the real owners. And it’s Take Your Worthless Son To Work Day – it’s time for Martín to learn the business.

And Rodolfo reminds his mother that if Barbara marries José Ignacio Altamirano, her share in the business will be gobbled up by his family.

Meanwhile Barbara whines that she still hasn’t heard from José and Martín tries – without success -- to hit her up for some money.

Not tonight dear, I have a headache
Apparently Raquel has a lot of headaches when hubs Gerardo is around. He’s fed up – he needs a woman in his bed, not a “momia” (mummy) so don’t blame him if he seeks a little comfort elsewhere.
------------------

So ends the first week. This is a very slight, wispy kind of show. I’m not sure I’m really feeling the love.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 1

After Depraved, Despicable, Detestable, Disgraceful, Debased, Degenerate, Disreputable Dad drops his bombshell, Willy asks Lorena to please say it’s not true. Sam says she’ll never accept it. The Heinous Hound puts on a show of being sad to deliver this news.

The Reptile is not exactly terrified of Vicente’s threat. She asks what’s his problem; he always knew she loved Juan Marcos. He rightly says that she constantly used him. He takes her away at gunpoint.

Gabriel Porras has a knack for comedy. As Miggy, he does a tennis match back and forth between Cecilia and Natalia as they both say he prefers them. He says he has to go pick up his niece from school, and they think it’s adorable!

DDD tries for some pity because he pursued Sam as a woman and has discovered she’s his daughter. Willy tells him to shut up. Evil/Estúpida Estela has made a remarkable recovery from her grief and is enjoying rubbing it into Sam, saying she’s disgusted at the incest. Sam throws her out and shows admirable restraint by not punching her in the mouth first. Sam sobs, Willy looks grim, and the miserable bastard who caused it all isn’t changing his story. “Acéptala, Sam”, he tells her.

Pablo tells Emma it’s silly her working in a café. She tells him she’s showing she can earn her own way, causing Peralta to smile in spite of himself. After screwing up another order, Emma makes an announcement to the whole café that this is her first job and please excuse her. She also tells them she’s a millionaire and is doing this only for love! Some guy comes on to Emma and Pablo, of course punches him out. Naturally, Emma is fired.

Not content with her little show with Sam, EE comes to spit some venom on JM about not believing in Ángela.

Vicente has taken the Reptile to some apartment and wants sex.

Violeta has asked for Génesis to come to Tío Miggy’s apartment for a sleepover. And they both need help to prepare for tests the next day! Miggy looks frazzled. The writers must realize we need the comic relief.

DDD tells Sam he’s willing to start the paperwork to declare her his legal daughter. She tells him she doesn’t want anything from him. And he should get out! Willy sinks to his knees, destroyed.

Cecilia has gotten her job back because she knows too much dirt on DDD. All it took was a text message. Good.

The Reptile tries to make a crack about Vicente’s “little problem” and gets a fat lip for her trouble. She then bashes him with a vase, but gets slapped hard. She isn’t getting away with it this time, and Vicente rapes her. Sorry, I can’t muster up an ounce of sympathy.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 2

The two miserable jerks, EE and DDDDDDD are gloating together over Sam and Willy’s suffering, completely heartless both of them.

El Jefe is already browbeating Lorena. He harps on this being their big chance. [Like all ancillary characters in telenovelas who love the protagonists, Jefe remains convinced that separating Sam and Willy will result in Sam loving him, instead of some completely different person.]

Natalia tells JM that Fabiola is alive but has been kidnapped either by Colombian guerillas or narcotraficantes. [Come on! This is SO left field.]

Fabián Ríos knocks his scene with Ximena Duque out of the park. He tells Sam he’ll never see her as a sister. He’s not a pervert, but a man in love. Sam, as always the first to give up on their relationship, tells him they’ll have to get a divorce. Willy asks her what they are going to do if Lorena is pregnant. Sam says she wants custody.

DDD has been wheeled by Estela into JM’s office. Natalia is there and recognizes him, although he denies knowing her. The reason DDD is there is to announce to JM and Miggy that Samantha is his daughter. Maybe EE can push him door to door to every household in LA so he can announce it more widely.

We all knew what was going to happen when we saw Vicente lay down the gun in order to lay the Reptile. When he turns his back on her, she grabs the gun and puts it to his temple, telling him not to think of begging. She says she’ll kill him. He tells her he loves her. And we don’t see whether she shoots him or not.

Miggy comes home with Natalia and the two little girls. Natalia remembers where she saw DDD before. He was a friend of the narcos at Luna Azul, the strip club.

Jefe doesn’t give Sam even a chance to dry her tears. He’s right there telling her he loves her. Willy is at the door and hears this. He punches El Jefe and tells him that, if he takes advantage of this awful thing to move on Sam, he’ll kill him.

The Reptile runs to JM and tells him that her bloody lip was caused by a friend of Ángela’s who beat her up as revenge for her relationship with JM. What? They think Ángela is dead; why does she need to come up with more crap against Ángela? JM later asks Camilo if he knows of any friends of Ángela’s that would do that. Camilo says Vikingo is in Brazil, and he doesn’t know of anyone else.

Miggy is feeding Génesis and Violeta hot dogs. We get another PSA about not drinking sodas. Génesis asks for juice. One of Violeta’s teeth comes out, and we learn that the Latino version of the Tooth Fairy is El Raton, who also brings money. Sam has come to spend the night, and Miggy tells her this (the girls) is his most difficult mission.

Emma and Pablo end up in bed together. But he leaves before she wakes and leaves her a note with the usual stuff about rich and poor don’t make successful pairs.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 3

DDD elaborates a bit on his plan to Ofelia. She asks him if he’s happy (with what he’s done). He says not happy, but relieved. With time Samantha will become closer to him and they’ll have a beautiful father and daughter relationship until…something happens. Life is full of surprises, he says. He also tells her Miggy is next on his revenge list.

The Reptile is slightly hoist with her own petard. JM says that, if she’s being threatened, maybe they should stay apart for a while. Naturally this is met with a chorus of noes.

Morning at Miggy’s. The girls are getting a healthful breakfast. Sam tells him she’s going to go back to work and get back to looking for her son. Miggy tells her she’s a strong person.

Lorena tells Willy she didn’t want to hurt anyone. He tells her he might have thought she did the surrogacy for him because of the way she felt. But he now realizes she feels nothing for him. She did it because she’s generous. Her face, of course, says the opposite.

Miggy and Peralta are at the shooting range. Miggy doesn’t think he should leave Emma because of the money. When asked, he admits he once had a wealthy novia, compañera.

Sam has gone pretty radical on Willy. They both agree they want the pregnancy to continue, if in truth Lorena is pregnant. But Sam says she wants custody of the baby. And she tells Willy she’s going to tear him from her heart.

Emma tells JM his decision to marry Fernanda is precipitate. [Duh!] He whines on about being hurt by Ángela and he’s not sure what the truth is about what she did. Emma asks if he’ll come to love Fernanda with time. He says no, never. Emma says: then don’t marry her! The Reptile, of course, is listening from the stairs.

Sam tells Willy she’s going to begin a relationship with Esteban. Now this is too absurd for me. One day after the ghastly news, she’s tearing Willy from her heart, demanding custody of a hypothetical kid, and ready for a new man.

As a final straw, Miggy is stopped by some cops and they discover cocaine somewhere in the framework of his motorcycle. Sheesh!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Wow, Novelera, great recap of a frustrating episode!

We should have realized that if the incest thing WERE over, Sam and Willy would have nothing separating them, since Lorena is now good and Jefe is a weak second to Willy. But it was too early in the show for this. So this has to go on for a while. In the meantime, Sam and Willy can get madder and madder at each other over Jefe, Lorena, the baby and Nicolas, so that when they finally do find out they're not related, they hate each other (for a while).

When Peralta told Emma she shouldn't work as a waitress, she said, but what else can I do, I want to earn money. He reminded her "your art". Of course.

This show seems to be getting to the part where they have to drag things out for a while, since they're not ready to finish it. I mean, how long are Angela and Nora going to be missing? In the past, it would be resolved by now.
 

"This is a very slight, wispy kind of show. I’m not sure I’m really feeling the love."

This is an Enrique Torres tale (Amarte Asi, Muñeca Brava). Expect a mix of sentimentality and comedy in a Cinderella story, with mujeriego (boys will be boys, trampa de los anillos), female protag to love him tho he has had 10,000 women already (& not to worry about STD's), an addicted gambler, rich in mansion, female protag to become a maid), skeleton in closet involving a child born out of wedlock with mistaken/unknown parentage, 2 brothers/cousins after same woman.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 1

Pablo's little brother is dead, and the family mourns him at the crypt. Pablo is hardened. When some cops stop him and Gonzalo in their car and ask for papers, Pablo says, "I don't have any". When the cop asks for proof that he owns this car Pablo says "I don't have it." When the cop says why do you have a gun sitting out in the middle of the car, Pablo says "Because we're gangsters." (he says bandoleros). The cop gulps, says, okay, you can go. (!)

All the guys decide to go on a motorcycle trip of about 200 kilometers to check out a new farm. Pablo tells Chili to stay behind and keep an eye on Paty. Paty wonders why Pablo is always gone, thinks he has an amante. She asks Pablo's Mom what to do. "Do nothing. They all have amantes." This is not good enough for Paty.

She approaches Chili, says don't you have a sister? Yes, her name is Mirella. What does she do? She's a hairdresser, he says. Does Pablo have appointments with her? Oh, Patrona, I can't discuss that. Okay, then I want an appointment with her. Take me to her. No, Patrona, the boss would be mad. Well, you take me, or I'll tell him you were discussing him and your sister.

Chili grudgingly takes Paty into the barrio, where she meets Mirella. Mirella says I'm not going to lie, I'm a prostitute. My husband is Pablo Escobar, says Paty, do you service him? You'll have to ask HIM, says Mirella.

Out on the moto trip, we see some problems with some of the family members. First, one of the minor characters crashes his bike into a donkey, which lies groaning on the ground. The owner of the donkey is distraught. Pablo pays him more than the donkey is worth. Then he tells Peluche to shoot the donkey, put it out of its misery. Peluche is gun shy, never shot anyone or anything. But Pablo forces him to do it, to prove his loyalty.

Then Fabio (Paty's brother) goes all haywire, picking fights everywhere. Pablo takes him aside. Bro, you gotta stop your drug problem, you're messing things up.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Thanks for the recap!! I felt a bit better about this episode after reading it. Also, the comments were awesome and spot on. I like that you added more adjectives beginning with D for emphasis!

The dastardly, devious, designing, deceitful, dishonest, dreadful dreck is delusional as well. Didn’t he hear what Sam thought of the idea of his being her father? She’ll never accept him. Willy is his son since birth and not even HE accepts him anymore. (I wonder what Dear Daddy will think of Sam’s relationship with El Jefe.)

Willy has the greatest family. His father was behind the whole fake incest plot, his sister was an accomplice and his aunt remained quiet. I hope if/when the REAL incest issue is revealed, Sam and Willy can throw that in their faces.

Of course the similar dynamic continues. Willy remains steadfast in his love and Sam decides to move on. Bleh. (Although I suppose it won’t take long before Willy will be fooling around with random women again.)

Wouldn’t an annulment be more suitable for their situation than a messy divorce?

Anyway… it looks like this crappy incest story is going to last for a while. Everyone seems to have given up and there’s apparently no doubt now. Something unexpected and coincidental has to happen.

I didn’t understand why Sam would continue looking for her (their) kid after the news she just heard. Then she tells Willy she wants custody of the possible baby? That just made me mad. She is doing it again! WHY is her status as a mother more important than Willy’s as a father? The right thing to do would be to give the baby up for adoption. Or heck, maybe Sam could have shown some selflessness and decided to give Willy custody.
El Jefe could even reveal to Sam that Nicolás is her child to ensure her sticking by his side. (And of course Nico and Willy would never have to know.)

I liked that Willy attacked El Jefe. The creep didn’t waste any time. How many hours was it before he was sliming all over Sam? Of course Sam doesn’t think that there was anything wrong or inappropriate about that. Instead… she makes a decision to start a relationship with El Jefe the NEXT day? It was just too radical even for a rebound. (And I agree that her whole beahviour regarding the situation is absurd) I’m not sure I can stand watching. Knowing that Sam is with the guy, who spied on her and drugged her and took advantage of that situation to sexually molest her, is just nauseating.

END THIS SOON!

And now Miggy has been arrested and he can’t help. I thought it was interesting how everyone seems to flock to him. :) The women... the kids... and both Sam and Willy for support.

Fernanda is raped again. I suppose that was the only way Vicente could manage to do it with her. So, what does it say about him??

Fernanda continues being pathetic with JM. I did like how her senseless and useless "plan" backfired. Hah!!

Pablo needs get over his issues. What age does he think he’s living in?
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 2

They finally reach the farm, and the owner says it's not for sale. Well, if it WERE for sale, what would be the price? 35 million pesos. I'll give you 70 million. No, not for sale. Pablo then offers 100 million, says you better take this offer or "you'll regret it", and sold!

They call the place Napoles, and they hoist a small airplane on top of the front gate! Pablo comes home and gives his Mom a helicopter. Business is good, and they have a big party at the ranch.

At the party, Paty goes over to Chili, saying, either you lied that your sister was a hairdresser, or she lied. Chili is getting nervous. Fabio roars over, drugged out, and grabs Chili in the crotch, stop talking to my sister! Chili pulls a gun on him, don't you mess with ME! The commotion upsets all sorts of people who thought this was a nice party, and Pablo rushes out, calm down everyone, show's over, let's get back to our party.

Out of earshot, he reams out Fabio, don't you ever cause a problem again. He then reams out Chili, if you ever threaten one of my family members, I'll kill your mother, your sister, your brother, your whole family. Finally he reams out Paty. She asks if he's been unfaithful, and he says of course not, I promised you're the only woman for me, and I've never strayed and never will. But I'm giving you two rules. 1) Never talk to my men. 2) Don't mess in my business affairs. Or else. And you've gotta do something about your brother. You apparently don't realize it, but he's heavy into drugs. Paty is shocked.

We see a white haired newspaperman (whom we've seen before) okaying a headline. The next day's paper says "New treaty between Colombia and the US about extradition". Pablo has a henchman with blond hair tied back whose name is something like Frenelio, who gives the paper to Pablo. Pablo isn't happy, tells Gonzalo the US doesn't like its money flowing to Colombia, and since the biggest part is going to Pablo and family, they could be targeted.

He calls a huge meeting of all their contacts, including Graciela and a number we haven't seen before. One guy is a leftist guerrilla commander, and Pablo takes pains to point out he's a leftist, too, always cares for the people (of course, he's ultra rich, basically using capitalism for his money, but let's not quibble).

Next week we'll see how Pablo handles the new threat from America.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Excellent recap and points novelera. Thanks.

Sam "deciding" to start a relationship with Jefe was the most ridiculous writing I can imagine!

Loved the scenes of Miggy with the kids. They saved the episode. Cecilia and Natalia confrontation scenes were also funny.

Hombre, I guess Angela's missing was a response to the criticisms about the actress.
 

Pablo Escobar – viernes

Hombre, I’m really glad you decided to recap this one. I love your style and I admire your fearlessness in the face of the sometimes daunting dialect with its gentle, sing-songy rhythm that is weirdly at odds with the harshness of what is being said. Thank you!

The casting of lead actors (and actresses) whose physical appearance ranges from ordinary to nearly grotesque is very different from what we usually see on tv shows.

And then there is Pablo’s mother, Enelia, a woman unburdened by sentimentalism or fear. (Didn’t we expect the aging campesina to react to the gift of a helicopter with “I’m not getting into that thing!” and not “Woo hoo, let’s go, boys!”? On the other hand, Enelia’s dismissal of Paty’s worries that Pablo might have a lover – “Pfft. They’re all like that. Just play dumb,” was not surprising.)

It’s the economy, stupid.
Last night we heard the story Pablo tells himself about what he is doing – and I’m sure it’s not the last time we’ll hear it. His business is about economics, not morality and not public health. (If health were really the concern, governments would be banning cigarettes and alcohol.) His exports to the United States earn more gringo dollars for Colombia than any other commodity or enterprise. What’s good for Escobar is good for Colombia.

His meeting with the two leftist guerillas was interesting. I think Escobar really does see no contradiction between his enormous personal wealth and being a “man of the people”. But he’s also shrewd enough to realize that by throwing wads of dollars at these guys, he’s neutralizing a potentially dangerous enemy.

Our poison is meant for gringos, not for us
Pablo’s cuñado, Fabio, with his predilection for product, is a problem for the organization. And that’s on top of his long-standing propensity for jealous, violent outbursts when any man gets near his sister, Paty. But he is family. What to do?

So they’re going to start a zoo? With elephants and rhinos and hippos and lions and tigers? Some might say they have already done so.
 

I'm liking Rosa Diamanté so far and get ready for my spoiler prediction. I don't think Rosa is Raquel's daughter, I think Rosaura is her mother. Remember when Don Eduardo called Rosaura a vagabunda, so she had to have cheated on him or something. Furthermore, we never saw the face of the woman giving birth and Don Eduardo was adamant in that the baby's existence be kept secret. He seems like a rational man and I think he would have accepted any illegitimate grandchild of his even if it as Raquel's. In the Rosa Diamanté forum, I mentioned my other reasons for this predictions.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE –

thanks so much novelera, for your wonderful recap !!!

you have a much larger vocabulary than me, as I've found myself looking up a few words today.
I was not familiar with the term "petard"
"The Reptile is slightly hoist with her own petard."

the free dictionary says, "to blow oneself up with one's own bomb",
but the origin of the word is more like, "a loud discharge of intestinal gas"
how appropriate for Fernanda.
Love your humor!

Really enjoying the girls. big and small, fighting over Miggy,
Cecilia, if we remember, slept with Willy for money,
and helped out DDDDDDDDD with his games, so no sympathy there,
but I like that she is still in the hunt,
her and FF's style, is so unlike Fernanda's.

I'm so hoping JM is ahead of us all in putting the pieces together,
but if he is, he sure hides it well.

the Sammy/Willy meltdown was sooo heartbreaking,
great scenes,
no body even considered another test,
what is it about DD that everyone lets him work his tricks, again and again and again and again...
aren't their any hills, or long stair cases around for a drunken EE to be wheeling DD around.

on the maybe baby,
what about letting Lorena have custody, she is doing all the work,
but then, the whole reason for not being incestuous is the risk in not having a normal baby.

are Angela and Nora really dead?
 

ROSA DIAMANTE -

thanks so much for your recaps NovelaMaven !!!
I'll probably stick with this till it goes to an hour at least,

this is kind of an oatmeal novela I guess you could say,
as compared to something like La Casa de al Lado,
is the censoring more strict in Mexico,
was it Mexico that cut out the scene in La Reina del Sur when Teresa and Patty kissed?

did Eva and JI do the deed?
was she a virgin?

love the location shots,

it seemed like Rosa was smitten with JI at first,
I mean she still hasn't thrown the ring at him,
but as a person who has never had a family, she is much more defensive then Eva,
as two girls that have lived their whole life in an all girls boarding school, JI really has the upper hand,
and didn't Rosa and Eva go to town in the first place to troll for boys, in an innocent way I mean,

so I think Rosa and JI will be scratching at each other for quite awhile,

I'm wondering what it will be like when all of the characters end up in the same room.

.............................................
btw,
am I the robot the Blogger is trying to foil,
I have no idea what some of those letters/numbers are.
 

ROSA DIAMANTE -- VIERNES

My pleasure, Deb, though I'm not sure I have many more of these minicaps in me.

So YOU are the robot!!! Hah!

Yes, Eva and JI definitely DID IT.

Was she a virgin? That's not clear. Rosa said something like "You did it/fell for it again" and I wasn't sure if she meant that a. She had already warned Eva that JI was a player or b. Eva had a history of falling in the clutches of lying SOB's.

Is Mexican tv more prudish than American tv? I think yes, when it comes to homosexuality, they are (or at least Televisa is) squeamish. On the other hand, a recent episode of "Abismo de pasión" included a bedroom scene in the Mexican version that was cut -- with some damage to continuity, I thought -- in the American version.

I agree that Rosa was enjoying JI at first, but that was before she found out he was playing Eva for a fool. So yeah, I think you're right:

" Rosa and JI will be scratching at each other for quite awhile."
 

PABLO ESCOBAR -

thanks so much for the recaps Hombre !!!
I don't think I could follow this one with out them,

Pablo's mild mannered way of dealing with things,
and his loyalty to his family,
as well as his over all concern for the small people around him
makes him an endearing character,

but his threat of untold violence is down right scary
and how he softly pats his Hitler hair do out of his face,
this character is being well played (by Andrés Parra)
http://www.lanegracandela.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ap.jpg

and I'm really liking how Christian Tappan is playing his cousin, Gonzalo Gaviria.
this guy is really intense,
(which softens our view of Pablo),
when both were stopped at a check point,
"nah, we don't have any ID"
wow!

can't get enough of Luces Velásquez as Graciela Rojas,
and her laugh,
playing board games with the guys,

and loved the car race, hah!
poor guy that was winning.

and the casting in this show is amazing,
Pablo
http://www.kienyke.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/pablo-escobar.jpg
Pablo's mom
http://www.kienyke.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Hermilda-Gaviria.jpg
the newspaper guy
http://www.kienyke.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Guillermo-Cano.jpg
etc., etc.

as I mentioned earlier, I've read a bio of Pablo's life,
which I wouldn't recommend if you are following this as a novela,
and I'll try not to mention real things in his life till after they have occurred here,
this was interesting,

"In 1975, Escobar started developing his cocaine operation. He even flew a plane himself several times, mainly between Colombia and Panama, to smuggle a load into the United States. When he later bought 15 new and bigger airplanes (including a Learjet) and 6 helicopters, he decommissioned the plane and hung it above the gate to his ranch at Hacienda Napoles."

"His reputation grew after a well known Medellín dealer named Fabio Restrepo was murdered in 1975 ostensibly by Escobar, from whom he had purchased 14 kilograms. Afterwards, all of Restrepo's men were informed that they now worked for Pablo Escobar"

"In May 1976 Escobar and several of his men were arrested and were found in possession of 39 pounds (18 kg) of white paste after returning to Medellín with a heavy load from Ecuador. Initially, Pablo tried unsuccessfully to bribe the Medellín judges who were forming the case against him. Instead, after many months of legal wrangling Pablo had the two arresting officers bribed and the case was dropped. It was here that he began his pattern of dealing with the authorities by either bribing them or killing them."

(I think they started out by buying the cocaine paste in Ecuador and Peru, then brought it to Medellin to refine it into a more acceptable product for the U.S.)

it's interesting how this novela is skirting around his real life, telling day to day stories, and is trully a novela, rather than a documentary, well done.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR:

Thanks, Deb and NovelaMaven, for reminding me of two things I forgot to mention. Yes, Pablo plans to have a zoo at Hacienda Napoles.

And he's so obsessed with winning everything that in the car race, he let the best driver get ahead. Gonzalo and Peluche jumped out of the bushes, spread tacks or nails on the highway, and the first guy got a flat. Then they swept it off just in time for Pablo to zoom into first place. He had no regrets when shaking the winner's champagne, letting it spurt all over the place! Whatta guy :)
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Oh my lord. Samantha is so annoying!! She seems like this intelligent, level-headed, strong woman; her reaction to the "how long would it take you to remarry" discussion was so ridiculously overblown, and now this whole jumping into a relationship with the jefe thing... idiota!! I hate how they are writing her character!

I guess they need Angela back to fill in that hole in JMs life, but I really don't miss her that much.

I, too, LOVE the Miguel/Violeta scenes (although Violeta is awfully chipper for a little girl who just lost her mom)! I love Miguel's "spark". I may be in the minority here, and I know it's a longshot, but I'd love for him to wind up with Cecilia... she's so adorable and quirky. I hate it when they bring in a new character (Alejandra or Fabiola or quien sea) more than halfway through to be someone's true love. I have a really hard time caring about characters I haven't been watching all the way through (although Camilo has won me over...I think they're setting him up to wind up with Lorena even though it will take him a while to cure her of her case of the Willies. I think he's adorable, even with his unnaturally high voice and dark eyebrows).

I really could do without Natalia, even though I really liked the actress in Relaciones. The character does nothing for me.

Lord have mercy, ENOUGH with the incest. There is pushing the envelope, and there is beating it into the ground with a sledgehammer. PLEEEEEEESE put this plotline out of its misery!! I do have to say though that Fernanda's expression when they told her over dinner that the test was negative was PRICELESS. Aylin is growing on me, as annoying as her character is, I think she is really doing a good job of playing a complex baddie with abandonment issues. She also totally sold me when she found out she had killed her mother in the prison fire.

Sorry if I'm rambling... just caught up on a whole week's worth and had to VENT!

AnotherAmy
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Hombre:
Do we really need a separation though? (There is an actual plot to deal with even without the breakup/separation drama) I like Sam and Willy when they’re together and working together. When they're apart they (mostly Sam) are less appealing and if they will just get mad at/hate each other and if it won’t be solved even when they do find out that they’re not related, that would be even worse.

I miss the times when things were solved quicker. I’m surprised that Angie hasn’t turned up yet.

Deb:
The whole maybe baby issue could be interesting. I assume that the contract says that the biological parents are the baby’s legal parents and will raise the child together. However, the situation has changed and there are three parties involved, as well as the issue that the biological parents are related. (Although I suppose it would only be relevant after the baby is born and hopefully by then Sam and Willy know the truth… Unless of course there are more timeskips)
Good point about Lorena. :) And I doubt she'd be cool with Sam’s decision. ;)

AnotherAmy:
Sam annoys me at times as well. (And the end of the latest episode was one of the times she really got on my nerves.) She came off as a lot smarter and considerate early on. Now, although still smart, emotions cloud her judgement and she can be unreasonable, mean, selfish and unforgiving, but on the other hand blind to the faults of some people (e.g. El Jefe, Nicolás, Miguel Sr.). I actually thought that Sam’s reaction to Willy’s answer to her (stupid) question was funny. ;) (And expected.) This whole thing with the creepy boss is on another level. Even if she doesn’t realise how inappropriate it is, she still knows that her ex-boss is in love with her and she is shamelessly using him. (Not that I feel sorry for El Jefe, who is shamelessly taking advantage of the situation)
I still like the character (and I like that she has obvious faults), but I have a feeling that the incest story might change that for me.

I don’t miss Angie either, but I do want her back at some point. (I miss Nora though!)
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

I don’t miss Angie either!
And agree that we don't need a separation in Sam & Willy's story, but it's a very common telenovela technique to make the female protagonists suffer.

AnotherAmy, I'd like for Miguel to wind up with Cecilia too :)
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Another Amy, I like how you said Lorena has a case of the Willies! LOL!
 

Corazon Valiente
I can't believe the whole spy camera thing was just dropped with no one questioning who placed them in Sammy's apt. I realize that's about the time things started heating up with DDD in the hospital, etc, but still. Also, what about Camilo's girlfriend in Mexico, the one that Luis hinted would be killed if Camilo didn't do what Luis wanted? And WHERE IS RODRIGO?
J in Oregon
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Hombre, I'm up to speed now. First of all, I'd like to put up a link to an excellent documentary I saw on ESPN several years ago, called Los Dos Escobars, a portrait of both Pablo Escobar and Andrés Escobar, the Colombian soccer player that was shot to death after an own-goal in the World Cup held in the United States. It's fascinating viewing, and fortunately the whole thing is up on You Tube. I recommend it. Be sure you select the whole documentary, which is up on You Tube rather than the parts that are up in segments.

********

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKAevl6hrQk

So far, I think the telenovela is excellent. Friday's episode in which Paty got suspicious of Pablo's possible relationship with Mireya, the prostitute, was particularly suspenseful and well acted. There's something "off" about Fabio's jealousy of any man who comes near his sister.

I suspect that, because the novela was filmed in Colombia, they are giving us less explanations than we would like. Colombians probably can fully understand some of the relationships that I find confusing.

Do we think Pablo really is getting it on with Mireya? I haven't seen any evidence of it, unless I missed it.

The scene of Peluche and Gonzalo putting tacks on the roadway was hysterical. And I hated that he made Peluche kill the burro. I kept saying: Peluche, get out. Go back to the bicycle business; it's where you belong!

Thanks so much for your recaps, Hombre. I watched the 3 episodes I was behind and, after each, read your recaps - which really helped with some of my questions.
 

Corazón Valiente:

^^ J in Oregon has posed some darned good questions. I have another one: What the heck was that flashback about where Camilo saved Emma from committing suicide?

I know I'm most likely a minority of one here, but I DO miss Ángela. Her deer-in-the-headlights naïveté drove me up the wall sometimes, but I enjoyed the loving family scenes with JM and the girls. Being a romantic, I want to see them all back together again soon with JC. It will provide some. normalcy to cast of dysfunctional nuts.

I'm also hoping that she returns from prison as a more edgy, slightly harder Ángela -- one who shows some smarts and a "don't-even-THINK-about-effin'-with-me" attitude (like her papi and brother). I know it may be a pipe dream, but maybe Ángela will have found a clue in prison and will end up kicking Fernanda's fake, implanted, unnaturally hiked up, bulbous azz! I'd love to see Nora do the same with EE. That would be awesome.

Btw, I abhor how rape is used in a lot of novelas. I agree that Fernanda deserves a serious beat down, but the rape scenario always makes me cringe. Did she pull the trigger? Vicente would deserve it, but I hope he has written out a confession and a detailed accounting with evidence of the Reptile's serial crimes and put it somewhere safe. Btw, didn't Luis do the same thing? Where's THAT letter?

Now that Samantha has lost her danged mind and Miggy is possibly going to jail, it is even more imperative that a vengeful Ángela comes back strong with Nora as an ally (possibly presumed dead and working undercover) to help crack the Columbian connection and to exonerate Nora. Maybe Ángela can work with Natalia -- and hopefully the magnificent Arturo -- to find Fabiola and finally set the stage to bring down D-9 (or D to the nth power. I wish I knew how to type exponents).

Speaking of Samantha, I loathe the way the telenovela writers always dumb down otherwise intelligent people -- especially women. The WTF-ery of their decision to have Sam, who just found out that her husband is also her BROTHER, immediately start a relationship with another man is astounding. Throw in the fact that Sam and Willy could soon have TWO children together and the whole thing becomes lunacy. If novela conventions dictate that they must be separated for a bit, why can't Sam just drop out of sight for a while and go somewhere to ponder her situation and what can and should be done about it? Why not have her resist Willy and especially the slimy Jefe until she sorts things out? Why does it have to go down this mentally deficient path? Insanity!

NovelaNewbie
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

NovelaNewbie, tell us how you really feel!!

I agree. Even though Samantha is shown as being very squeamish about having a relationship with her "brother", there's no reason she has to torture him. She's behaving as if somehow it were Willy's fault, pushing him vehemently away, insisting on custody of the maybe baby, and making 3 people miserable by starting something with El Jefe. Even he is going to ultimately be miserable because she won't ever love anyone but Willy. They've made that clear.

But this is not the first time I've seen this in a TN. They all seem to fervently believe that un clavo saca otro clavo; i.e. getting a new pareja will make you forget the old one.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

I think we’re supposed to assume that Camilo broke up with his girlfriend or something? At least that would be a reasonable explanation. As for the cameras, I honestly hope that they haven’t been forgotten. The viewers haven’t forgotten, so the writers shouldn’t either. It doesn’t make sense why Sam and Willy wouldn’t try to find out who was behind them. Of course the timeskip was conveniently right after. (Sam did know that she gave El Jefe a key to the apartment, but she never suspects him of anything. Bleh.) I hope all the other stuff the creepy boss did hasn’t been forgotten either. He hasn’t done anything questionable (other than rooting for incest) for a while. It seems like the writers are trying to portray him as obsessively in love, but otherwise not a bad guy, which I won’t accept considering what has happened in the past. I will forever see him as the creepy, slimy sicko.

I hope Rodrigo will show up eventually and there will be some explanation to what on earth was going on with Camilo and Emma.
(But I don't think either of these would have been introduced, if they weren't going to have relevance later on.)

What bothers me the most about rape in this telenovela is that only Fernanda has been actually raped. As if she "deserves" it or only bad ones get raped. (Yeah, I know it’s probably a coincidence, but it still sticks out to me.)

About the letter… didn’t Vikingo have it? I can’t remember anymore. It probably doesn’t matter, since Luis turned up alive, there was no need for the letter, then he went along with Fernanda anyway and was shot before he could write a new one.

Completely agree with what has been said about Sam. I remember when she chastised her mother for needing a man. So why does SHE need one now? The supposedly independent woman is now clinging to the first man who tells her he loves her? It’s ridiculous. I agree NovelaNewbie. She has lost her mind.
It’s not exactly new that Sam hurts Willy, blames him for everything and pushes him away without a reason (although here she would have a good one), but her attitude at the end was too much.

I would have hoped for this telenovela to not need the "separation" novela convention. (Not that it’s unexpected. But I prefer to be happily surprised when novelas don’t go down the predictable road). I also agree that if it absolutely must be included, at least make it somewhat believable. Shouldn’t Sam suffer a little bit more? It looks like the only one suffering is Willy. Sam seems too insane to recognise what’s going on.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – Part 1

Miggy tries in vain to tell the cops that the drugs found on his moto aren’t his, but they haul him off to jail.

The ubiquitous Jefe shows up dripping fake sympathy for Sam’s predicament and saying he’ll accompany her to the office. [Doesn’t he ever go to his OWN office?] When Sam leaves the room Willy tells him a real man wouldn’t make a move on a woman in an anguished state. Jefe admits that he loves her and says that Willy has lost her forever. Sam will see how perfect he is for her and come to him.

Fernanda can’t stand any more and interrupts JM and Emma’s conversation about his potential wedding. She starts pushing, telling him it will be what she needs to get over “her” problems. Huh?

The cops talk to Miggy about the penalties for trafficking in drugs. Miggy is about 100 IQ points higher than what we’ve seen so far of the LAPD, and tells them the most they could charge him with is possession. And furthermore, he wants his phone call. Of course, it’s to JM, conveniently interrupting the Reptile in full court press to get the wedding date set. The Reptile can’t resist a crack about “that family”, not very well received by JM.

The Reptile tells Emma that she loves JM and wants to make him happy. Emma says he’s not in the right state of mind to remarry. With a bit of a threatening look, the Reptile tells Emma not to give JM unsolicited advice. Emma says she’ll tell her to her face; she doesn’t think she’s the right woman for her brother!

Emma gets a call and says that she has a job.

At the office Sam tells Jefe she can’t even look at Willy; it hurts too much. Jefe volunteers to help her forget him.

At the police station Miggy tells JM he’s sure the one who set him up was DDD. JM asks him to retrace his steps that day. He tells him about the shooting range and coming out and the drugs were there. Miggy tells JM he knows someone who knows DDD’s secrets.

Willy dreams that Sam has come back to him, and then wakes up. Lorena has come to say that this afternoon will be the result of the pregnancy test. Lorena advises him not to renounce his rights to the child, as Sam has asked.

Jefe fusses over Sam and says she should come back to live at his house. He uses the pretext that Nicolás needs her to guard him! She tells him she wants to forget Willy. Jefe finally moves in for a kiss. She pulls away, upset. He babbles on about waiting as long as it takes. She says she can’t give him false hope; all she can offer is friendship.

The Reptile goes to DDD and asks for a favor in return for the switched blood. She wants Emma out of the picture and gets a phone number from him for that purpose.

Emma has started working at the boutique where she used to buy her clothes. She’s a great success, having a good eye for what will suit each client.

Pablo has a new job guarding a spoiled brat named Luciana. Can’t tell if she’s high school student or college student. She has her eye on Pablo immediately. Tells him he’s her “Paul”. Emma calls him, and the brat overhears the name of the boutique and insists on going there. Sigh. Emma and the brat get into a hair pulling fight and Emma again loses her job.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – Part 2

Lorena tells Willy he has a right to the baby. Willy is being too sweet, and tells her Sam needs something to hang onto right now. Willy says Jefe is putting the moves on her. Lorena says he’s always been crazy for Sam. And he even asked her not to go ahead with the pregnancy.

Cecilia comes to see Miggy in the jail. She has an idea who may have planted the drugs and gave that name to JM. She once took some money to one Raul Fuentes.

Ofelia is overjoyed to see the Reptile there, but is told by the Reptile that she’s dead to her. Sam shows up and Disgusting, Depraved, Despicable Dad’s face lights up. Sam tells him she came about Miguel. She knows he did it and why. Because Miggy is looking for proof of your crimes. She tells him that, if he considers himself her father, he should get Miggy out. He smirks and says he also wants her to do something for him.

JM is reviewing the security cameras at the shooting range.

DDD says all he wants is for Sam and he to spend some time together, for her to get to know him. He reaches for her hand and she jerks it out of his reach. She says she doesn't want to know him. What she wants is Miggy out of jail or else she’ll be there as well because she won’t stop until she destroys DDD.

Willy insists to Lorena that Sammy also has to be there for the news about whether she’s pregnant. While they wait, he asks her about birth defects because the parents are related. She says there is a higher possibility.

The bald guy on camera has come to the police station. He saw Raul Fuentes put the drugs in Miggy’s motorcycle. As usual, the cop tries to hang onto Miggy, but JM shows him the newspaper with the guy’s picture, the same guy that was seen planting the drugs. Miggy is free!

DDD is showing Sam pictures of Perla, trying to get some connection going. Sam can’t stand it and gets up to leave. The Reptile says to her dear daddy that she enjoys seeing Sam suffer. He warns her not to try anything against Sam.

Miggy shows up and looks DDD in the eye. The two of them exchange threats.

Sam arrives for the results. She tells him Jefe asked her to return to his house. Willy asks if he also told her he’d asked Lorena to interrupt the pregnancy. Sam doesn’t believe Willy! Estúpida! Lorena is pregnant. They are all so happy. Sam breaks down and hugs Willy.

Emma is, of course, on a dark street talking with Peralta about her having been fired because he brought in the ditz. Some guy comes out of an alley and grabs her.

Willy tells Sam he’s not going to give up his rights as a father, especially if she’s going to be with El Jefe. She talks about his being able to see the child. He says he wants more. He wants to raise the child, to be part of his life. Sam tells him that will be her role. Willy looks her in the eye and tells her that if she doesn’t let him see his child, he’ll go after her in court.

The Reptile’s story about her fat lip is backfiring all over the place. JM tells her Miggy is going to be her bodyguard from now on!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE-

Thanks for the great recap, Novelera. Like everyone else, I hate this incest story. Sam has a history of giving in to despair, though. She was devastated when she thought her child was dead but she came out of it. But Willy is a fighter. Why can't he do like Jefe did, get a hair from Sam's hairbrush and get the test redone. It's such an obvious step when dealing with someone like DDDDDD.

I liked it when the Reptile started talking about wedding plans with JM and he said that there's no big rush.

The somewhat interesting Emma/Peralta story has deteriorated into repetitious silliness. Why does Emma has to be so stupidly jealous of Peralta's female clients? Why not just have the satisfaction of urging the girl to buy something expensive and ugly rather than attack her.

If Miggy is going to bodyguard the Reptile, maybe he will start to discover some of the truth about her. At some point the pendulum has to swing back from the bad guys getting it all their way.

We're at episode 92 and no hint of the end - no "etapa culminante" or promos for a new show. Mi Corazon Insiste went 133 capitulos, Herederos 128 and Mas Sabe El Diablo, 182.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 1

A gripping episode, as the harsh realities of living outside the law start to kick in!

At the big meeting, Pablo asks for ideas to avoid the consequences of US/Colombia extradition. Several ideas are thrown out, not always in sync with each other. Pablo says the most important thing is to work together. We're like one big business, and whatever we do, it has to be coordinated. Everyone agrees.

Shortly thereafter, a young girl, Irma Montoya is kidnapped! She's the sister of Pedro Montoya and his other brother. They and their father were a big part of the meeting above. Pablo organizes everyone to try to get Irma back.

Through their contacts, they quickly realize that the paramilitary organization with the 2 guerrillas Pablo had met at the ranch are behind the kidnapping. Pablo brings the frizzy haired guy (I think his name is Lionel) in, and says where are you holding Irma? Lionel says we just want to help the people, we would never kidnap a young girl. Pablo doesn't believe him, and says, if I ever find out you lied to my face, you'll be sorry!

Lionel meets with the other leftist, I think his name is Norberto, and tells about his doubts. Norberto says be quiet and do as you're told. They ask for $12 million dollars from the Montoya family. But Pablo and his friends, including Pedro Montoya, refuse to pay one cent, believing once you start paying, you never stop.

Irma has now been held for 50 days! Pablo has been publishing articles in the paper, denouncing the guerrillas as lowly kidnappers, but still no results. He comes up with another idea. Every 3 days, the kidnappers call, and they always use public phones. We'll get an army of helpers to watch all the public phones, and report by radio if there's something suspicious.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Thanks for the recap!!

Thank goodness Sam actually hasn’t started anything with El Jefe. I dislike her behaviour, but at least it’s not as insane as I thought it was (yet).

And yeah, seriously, I’ve wondered how Jefe gets any work done when he’s constantly around Sam. Is his own office anywhere close? Does he ever go there? Does he care? Why doesn’t Sam feel suffocated? (Oh yeah of course, Esteban is being caring and "good" to her. Urgh.)

Yeah, Sam knows Esteban really well. So she'd believe him over Willy (who she should know a lot better)? What an idiot! Why wouldn’t she ask Lorena? (I think Lorena should just spill everything she knows about the creep, even if Sam won’t believe anything.)

Great that Willy didn’t decide to give custody to Sam! And she is the selfish one, who just expected Willy to let her have her way. Gah. To think that he was actually considering it! To be honest, judging by how Nicolás has turned out, the possible baby would be better off with Willy than with Sam&Esteban (and Nicolás).

Jean, I too wished that they had retaken the test (in secret), but at the moment it seems like there is no doubt and that they have accepted "reality". Something has to happen for them to consider it again.

I thought Emma had found a great job that actually suited her. (And it looked like she was having fun.) Pity she had to get fired on her first day again.
Luciana was being annoying, but it wasn’t like she was all over Pablo, so Emma’s jealousy was a little over the top. (Not that it was surprising. Emma has always been extremely jealous) I actually expected that Emma would advise her to buy something silly. ;)

So Fernanda decides to get Emma out of the way so that she won’t come in between JM and her? Not only is it a little excessive, but also JM is going to not be in the mood for a wedding if something has happened to his sister.

Miggy as Fernanda’s bodyguard should be interesting. :) (I also hope that he will discover something. :) )

Hmm… yes. Corazón Valiente doesn’t show any signs of ending yet. At the moment I’d guess it could end up being maybe about 160 episodes? But who knows… (There’s quite a lot to go and Rodrigo hasn’t showed up yet..)
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 2

Sure enough, after a bunch of misfires, Lionel is on the phone with the Montoyas, demanding the money, and he's been spotted by Pablo's guys. Pablo speeds there in his jeep, telling them to keep the guy on the line. Irma's father wants to pay the money, but Pablo gets on the phone, swears to him that he'll save his daughter!

They catch up to Lionel, and several armed men surround him and take him to see Pablo. Pablo now knows Lionel did lie to him, and is not happy. Some of the guys rough Lionel up, but he still says, yes we kidnapped her, but I don't know where she is (a lie). No matter what they do, they can't make him talk.

They round up some more of the military guys, and even kill a few, but no one's talking. Chili and his group actually find the hideout where Irma's being held, but Norberto escapes with her, although Chili's guys killed several of the military guys. In one of these operations, Frenelio, the blond henchman with his hair tied back, gets shot in the stomach and dies.

As Irma is being taken away, she screams at Norberto, why are you doing this? We knew each other in high school, and you knew my father was rich, right?!!! (So it's not even about the revolution so much, after all).

Pablo's guys and Pedro try various kinds of torture, but still no one's talking. Pablo is concerned, because he promised Mr. Montoya he'd save his daughter. He goes to his Mother Enelia for advice. She asks, what do those guys really want? Not money, but political power. Of course! says Pablo. He's going to try to get political power himself. (I don't know exactly how that'll save Irma, but this should wild, if a known druglord runs for office!).
 

Jean

El Rostro de veganza will be replacing Corazon. La Patrona will take the 10pm spot after Pablo. We should be getting "etapa culminante" soon because they have been advertising Rostro for 2 wks now.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE,

DELICIOUSLY DETAILED AS ALWAYS. MIL GRACIAS, Novelera ..

Let's hope that sooner rather than later the return of Nora/Dora
will blow the lid off the incest
farce and DDD's power...to seal his
doom once and for all.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE-

Anonymous 10:17- I have seen reports that Rostro will follow Pablo Escobar so who knows.
 

ROSA DIAMANTE – lunes

I’m not going to be writing about this show after today. It just hasn’t grabbed me. Sorry, guys. But here, very briefly, is what happened last night:

San Miguel de Allende
Eva tries to drown herself in the lake and Rosa jumps in after her and rescues her.

Rosa drags her friend to a doctor and they find out she is pregnant.

Rosa forces Miss Margaret to keep her mouth shut about Eva’s pregnancy. If she doesn’t, Rosa will go public about Maggie and sleazy Ramón (though I don’t know why Maggie would care at this point since she has a fist full of priceless diamonds and her obligation to stay and “look after” Rosa is coming to an end. Why does she need her crummy school job anyway?)

Rosa declares that Eva will have her baby and the two of them will raise it.

Mexico City
Eduardo calls in his trusted young lawyer, Gabriel, and updates his will. Eva is his sole heir. (Which means that Barbara is not Ed’s heir, as I thought before, but her mother’s heir.)

Eduardo knows that Eva is vulnerable and asks Gabriel to make sure she is always protected, even after he is gone.

Wicked Rosaura tries to get Gabriel to show her the new will he drafted for Eduardo. He refuses and Rosaura vows to get even.

Raquel’s husband Gerardo is obviously cheating on her and says it is because she is so bitter. She says she is bitter because he is cheating on her.

Barbara brings her prometido José Ignacio to the Sotomayor home. He meets her brother Martín and her father, Rodolfo, whom he treats with snotty disrespect. Rodolfo doesn’t smack the smirk off JI’s face. Missed opportunity.

Eduardo is going off to visit Eva for a few days. He calls his three underlings – Andrea, Rodolfo and the guy who said he wanted Rodolfo dead – and tells them they’re in charge for a few days. And heads up – one of them will be his successor.

Have I forgotten anything?
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Great recap, Novelera! I'm glad Miggy's "crime" got solved so fast, unlike some of the others.

Cecilia is causing lots of problems for DDD. But I don't think he'll have her killed. Why? She's too cute. They HAVE to keep her around!

Are there now 2 bodyguard companies, or three? We have Sam's company, and Jefe's. Does Peralta work for Jefe?

Just what WAS Emma doing walking alone in a dark street at night? It that crazy?
 

CORAZON VALIENTE -

thanks so much novelera for the recap !!!

I noticed Aylin Mujica (Fernanda) and Manuel Landeta (Bernardo) were on Levántate, err, now known as Un Nuevo Día., this morning. Manuel Landeta was up and around, so it looks like he made a full recovery.
 

ROSA DIAMANTE –

thanks so much NovelaMaven !!!

as always, I really enjoy reading your comments.

I don't plan on watching this, especially when it goes to an hour, which the local listings still say will happen next Tuesday. (I still have not seen a gran final promo for Una Maid en Manhattan)

although,
Carla Hernandez ( Rosa ), a new face for me, I am enjoying watching her, she presents a good well rounded character, from jumping into a river to save Eva, to kissing/slapping JI. I would like to see more of her.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR -

thanks Hombre !!

kind of a quiet show this one, all about the kidnapping and rescue of Irma who we don't know. I'm not quite sure about the part where the kidnappers were checking out Pati and her son at Pablo's place first.

in a bio of the real Pablo, I see that he married his wife when she was 15, and so was romancing her when she was pretty young. this explains Fabio's initial jealousy, and since Pablo has sheltered her every since, makes for an interesting relationship which they have been developing very well.

I was intrigued with the part where Pablo was stuck, and struck up a conversation with his mother. I wish I could have followed that more closely. Those two seem to understand each other very well.

back to Irma, with all of the violence, I'm surprised no one considered that Irma might be hurt, or outright killed, in any of the rescue attempts, there seems to be an unwritten law that she won't be harmed, a quiet insight into Colombian culture.
 

ROSA DIAMANTE

Thank you NovelaMaven for your recap. I finally saw my first episode last night. I think the lead girl is pretty good. I don't like the overacting of Rosaura, old style acting, but as long as she's not crying like she was in Eva Luna I think I can handle it.

I do plan to watch this, your recaps helped me figure out who was who. I had a dreadful time with my DVR trying to capture this. I only had 10 minutes of Friday's episode on my DVR, so this will be a realtime viewing for me and will have to tape Uni's Eva episodes.

So sorry you won't be recapping.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Thanks for the great recap, Hombre. I thought last night's episode was excellent. The acting was great, and we got to see some of the confusing players in Colombia: revolutionaries, drug traffickers, and a hint of political things to come.

I was definitely rooting for Pablo last night! As you said, this show makes one examine one's values! The writers created nothing but contempt for the guerillas, calling each other comrade all the time and asking for $12 million bucks. I thought for sure they'd find her last night, but no.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Hombre, there are two bodyguard companies. At the beginning of the novela Sam was working for El Jefe's company. They showed his office a couple of times. At that time there was NO indication he had a crush on Sam. I think that got written in later! Then Ángela left the cake baking and nursing professions and joined Sam at Jefe's company. They showed some scenes of her training regimen. Pablo did and still does work for El Jefe's company.

Sam decided to start her own all-female bodyguard company. She wanted Ángela to join her, but when she opened the firm Ángela was planning to move to England with JM after they married. Well, we know how that turned out.

Emma HAD to be on that dark street. The Reptile's evil plans always work, at least at first. I think Pablo Peralta will somehow save her, as she was on the phone with him when they grabbed her.

Floridia, I think Nora may be DDD's downfall, but she probably can't disprove his claim to be Samantha's father. She can't know for sure when he started boinking Perla.

Jean, I agree 100% about the stupid repetition of Emma's and/or Pablo's jealousy causing her to lose her jobs. Remember, it was Pablo who started the fight in the coffee shop. I think they're probably going to set it up so Emma really focuses on her art and is a big success.

Kihaku, you hit the nail on the head by finding the big flaw in the Reptile's plans. JM will be devastated if his sister disappears [switched baby or no switched baby, he loves her]. And he won't be up for a wedding any time soon.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Thanks so much for the great recap novelera

I hope nothing bad will happen to Cecilia. She's one of my favorites!
But I can't say the same thing for Emma :|
 

ROSA DIAMANTE

Deb and Nellie:

I'm glad you've enjoyed these little mini-caps. And Nellie, I'm sorry to leave you in the lurch. I don't dislike this show -- it's just that I need to set some limits for myself. Maybe someone else will come forward and keep Rosa alive???

If nothing else, it made me determined to check out San Miguel de Allende the next time I'm in Mexico. I've always avoided it because of its reputation as being gringo-infested and consequently pricey and a hard place to practice your Spanish. But it sure is pretty.
 

GENERAL

NovelaMaven, I had the same opinion of San Miguel de Allende. I traveled around Mexico by bus for 3 weeks a couple of years ago, staying 3-4 days here and there. I finally went to SMA as my last visit.

It is a beautiful town, and the gringo infestation has resulted in some very nice coffee shops and breakfast places. There's also a wonderful public library!

But there are plenty of Mexicans living there, and I had opportunities to speak to lots of people in Spanish.

But I have to say my favorite town that I've visited so far was Zacatecas.
 

Corazón Valiente:

Muchísimas gracias for the recap, Novelera.

I got some false hope last night. I was momentarily distracted and did not realize that Willie was only daydreaming about Sam coming back to him. I thought she had come to her senses. She's really getting on my nerves. She lost even more points with me when she didn't even give Arturo a pat on the head before she lef.

I feel so bad for Willy. Sam doesn't seem to trust her own husband - something that is essential in marriage. She's always testing his love as if she's not convinced that he's dropped his womanizing ways. Ironic in that she hardly waited until the ink was dry on the fake DNA test before she ran into another man's arms. God help Willy if he'd been the one to bolt. Now that this idiotic incest side story is in full swing, she's driving a wedge between her and her "brother" too, and soon there will be a battle for the custody of their second child. Lovely.

I agree that the Emma side story is tired. How old are she and Pablo supposed to be? That childish catfight with the college student was as ridiculous and unnecessary as Pablo's fight the other day. Now that she's on the Reptile's hit list, I wonder what will happen to her? I don't think her character will be sacrificed, but I do hope her kidnapping will help to chip away at JM's trust of Fernanda. Miggy will connect some dots. Does Emma know that she and Fabiola were switched at birth? Maybe that suicide flashback had to do with her reaction to the news.

Fernanda's love/hate, symbiotic relationship with DDD is sick, yet interesting. In the end, maybe they'll enter into a murder/suicide pact.

DDD's repulsive addiction to younger women reminded me that he was humping JM's alcoholic wife (Isabel?) in the beginning. Wasn't there a scene where JM saw him at the cemetary weeping over her grave? It implied that he had been in his version of love with her. I wasn't watching regularly then so I don't remember any details. What was up with that and could it connect to something that's going on now?

Will the man who planted the drugs on Miggy's bike be the one who segues the plot to and DDD's Columbian drug trafficking operation?

¿Dónde estan Ángela y Nora?

NovelaNewbie
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

NovelaNewbie, DDD never did get it on with Isabel. He was in his version of love with her.

The story they revealed, extreeeemely slowly, was that Isabel's crazy mother had slashed her face because she was refusing to enter any more beauty pageants. I think she was high-school age at the time. DDD rescued her and paid for reconstructive surgery.

He wanted to jump her bones, but she always said she loved JM and wouldn't be unfaithful. Of course, she eventually had sex with her bodyguard out of spite. But DDD never got to even first base.
 

Corazón Valiente:

@novelera - Oooooh, I see. So DDD wanted her, but couldn't have her. Thanx. That must have been another backhanded slap to Fernanda's face. Her father pays for the plastic surgery of her beauty queen rival, who marries the guy the ugly duckling reptile has always been in love with despite the fact that he had slept with her as part of a dare. Then daddy has someone push her down the stairs so she'll lose her baby, but pays for her plastic surgery to make her feel better, and later develops or tries to follow through on an earlier urge to sleep with the rival. Did I get that right? That's totally messed up.

NovelaNewbie
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Deb: Good to know that DDD might possibly be out of his wheelchair eventually! (Or turn out to have been faking it. ;) )
And of course it's great that the actor is feeling better. :)

NovelaNewbie:
Yeah, Sam seems to have different standards for Willy than for herself. (Basically, she can treat him like crap and not consider his feelings, but he must always think of her, or else!) She’s learnt to deal with her jealousy, but I agree that it seems like she’s always needed reassurance of his love (and needed him to take the first step). Ironically SHE is the one who pushes him away when problems arise and not vice versa. I think the one who’d need reassurance is Willy, but he has a lot more faith in her than she has in him it seems, despite (again ironically) the fact that Sam has lied to him SO many times (and is lying again) while Willy has almost always been honest. Yeah, she doesn’t trust her own husband/"brother" but ironically, blindly trusts the obviously sleazy Esteban.

I guess Emma and Pablo are supposed to be in their mid-twenties or so? Emma is probably a bit younger than Pablo. I think Sol was Emma’s age and she was just a little girl when Gonzalo was murdered. Emma is supposed to be quite childish. ;) As for Pablo.. I don’t fault him that much for getting aggressive with the intrusive guy, but punching the chef Emma hired was too much.
I agree that they’ve both been ridiculous, but I’m not that annoyed and now with Emma’s kidnapping at least they have a story. :)
I don’t think Emma knows about being switched at birth or at least I don’t remember it being mentioned. However, now that you mention it, it does seem like it could be a possible reason for her attempted suicide.

On Isabel, I don’t get why Bernie didn’t try to scheme her away from JM, although JM obviously didn’t love her that much but then he gets in between Sam and Willy, although they obviously love each other, and Willy is his son. Or maybe that’s the reason. DDD is twisted like that.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

POR FAVOR... END THIS TRAIN WRECK ALREADY!!!!!
 

ROSA DIAMANTE –

Thanks, NovelaMaven.

I will stick to this show until I can no longer stand it.

I'm enjoying JI's jerkiness, and I'm hoping Rosa really gives him hell for a very long time before she gives in.
 

Well, why in the world would Sam and Willy accept without question the DNA results handed to them by DDD, whom neither of them trusts? They already know he hired a fake investigator to obscure the results of their baby search. And wouldn't they wonder why a medical lab would release the results to DDD just because he asked? C'mon writers! Remember how spunky and independent Sam and Willy wre in the beginning? And by the way, how come Sam is in that little hot pink bathrobe every time she is over at Jefe's????
J in Oregon
 

i agree sam is getting carried away with selfishness but there will be a time where she will regret it and beg willy for forgiveness or to take her back im starting to dislike her actions and attitude towards willy and she think Esteban is right for her pleaseeee
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Shallowgal - I join you. I stopped watching it when the incest storyline continued and they completely and utterly destroyed Sam and Willy. Seriously, writers/producers/Telemundo, go stand in the corner. This was a mess, but when it came to Sam and Willy it was enjoyable. I now read the recaps to find out when this foolish incest has stopped so maybe I can go back to watching it for Gabriel.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 1

Pablo takes his Mom’s advice about political power and goes to visit Javier Ortiz, who is either a local politician, or a power broker who knows politicians. He tells Ortiz that Irma’s father won’t pay the $12 million, so he wants Ortiz to use his contacts to do something. What’s the alternative? asks Ortiz. “We kill all the rebels in the entire country.” Oh. Ortiz knows what to do.

He calls the President of Venezuela, the ex-president of Panama, or something like that, and soon thereafter, the order comes down from on high “End this.” We see Norberto wake up Irma, take her out onto a highway, and just set her free. That’s it. She rushes to a phone, calls her brother, and soon she’s back home, safe and sound!

I’m not sure exactly what the deal was, but Pablo and his guys have to let all the prisoners they have (Lionel, etc.) go, no retribution. Also, I think the military guys, who are called MR20, agree to stay out of Medellin. So it was all one big political deal. When Pablo goes back to Ortiz, says how much do I owe you? Ortiz says, not money, I have something better, I want you to run for Congress! Pablo likes this.

But first, they have another family party to celebrate Irma’s freedom. Pablo makes a speech in which he thanks the Montoya family, and thanks his own family, especially his lovely wife Paty. The entertainment at the party includes horses parading through the backyard, and a hot young male singer called “El Pantera”, who to me, looks a lot like Jose Rodriguez “El Puma”, who in real life was a young singer from Venezuela and could have been starting his career around this time. Paty is totally enamored of El Pantera, and this is not appreciated by Pablo, who has the guy removed from the party. After the party is over, Pablo says he has to go back to work. Now? asks Paty. What are you doing? Pablo says butt out, I don’t ask you what you’re doing. And how do you think I get the money to pay for parties like this? She gets disgusted with him, says “Fine, go off and work. See if I care!” After she leaves, Pablo gets a big grin, gives himself a thumbs-up sign. Yes!

Pablo gathers Gonzalo, Peluche and Pedro Montoya, and they’re off to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! Here we see them relaxing at the pool, with 4 or 5 hot Brazilian girls, clad in bikinis, high heels and feathered headdresses, dancing up a sexy storm for their pleasure. The weather is fine, the food and drinks are fine, life’s fine!
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 2

We now see one of the up and coming politicans, Luis Carlo Galan, or maybe Carlo Luis Galan, I can’t remember. He’s in the Liberalism party, and wants to change from the staid policies of the current leaders.

It turns out that Ortiz wants Pablo to be in Galan’s party, the congressman from Pablo’s district (Galan is running for President). I’m not totally sure of all of this. Pablo discusses his political plans with everybody, and EVERYBODY is opposed. Pedro, Gonzalo, Peluche all fear that if Pablo gets in politics, people will find out he’s a drug dealer, and their business will be ruined. Pablo tells them, if I get in politics, I can change the laws of this country. Maybe our business will be legalized! (think again, Pablo). Even his mother is opposed, saying politicians are vipers, and you’ll be eaten alive. Mom, I’m not afraid. Yes, but there’s a difference between fear and prudence, she counsels.

Irma also has an argument with her brothers. On the one hand, she is glad the guerrillas were set free, because she doesn’t like anyone to get hurt. Her brothers wanted revenge, are surprised by her forgiving attitude to those monsters who put their family through hell. She’s also not too grateful to Pablo Escobar. Huh? He’s the one who saved you, you should be eternally grateful to him, says Pedro. No, she says. Pablo Escobar is dangerous. He’s getting very powerful. Watch out for him.

At the end of the episode, we see a small private plane taxi into the Napoles ranch. It slowly comes to a stop. Who’s going to emerge? A famous politician, some military guys, a rival drug dealer? Nope, it’s the girls from Brazil, still wearing their bikinis, as they strut out on the runaway and begin their wild samba gyrations. Pablo smiles at Gonzalo. Yes, life is fine!
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – martes Part 1

JM hires Miggy to be the Reptile´s bodyguard. She tries to get out of it but having claimed to have been attacked, how can she deny JM´s concern for her safety? As we will see, lies can get you in trouble.

Sam tells Willy that they have to work out a custody agreement for their baby. Willy refuses to discuss it saying that he wants to be a full time father. Sam can´t resist kissing him and then pulls away angrily.

The kidnappers are dragging Emma off when up comes Camilo. He fights off the kidnappers with his gardening tools and rescues Emma.

The Reptile tries a new tack to get rid of Miggy as her bodyguard. Since Miggy is Ángela´s brother and the Reptile´s supposed attackers were “friends of Ángela,” she suggests to JM that Miggy might not be the right person to protect her. JM replies that he has confidence in Miggy’s integrity.

As usual, no one has thought about Violeta. Bodyguarding the Reptile means that Miggy has to live at JM’s house. Violeta begs not to be sent back to her grandmother’s house. She makes the obvious suggestion – she will live at JM’s house, too.

Estela tells Depraved, Deviant, Despicable, Detestable, Disgraceful, Debased, Degenerate, Disreputable Dad (henceforth D8D) that she is angry that his plan to send Miggy to prison didn’t work. She hates it that a son of Miguel Sr. is alive and well while her daughter by Miguel is dead. D8D reminds her that another child of Miguel Sr. is alive – Sam. Estela replies that she doesn’t want Sam dead. She is “pagando en viva,” “paying while living.”

Sam moves to El Jefe’s place. Jefe asks Sam to let him help her get over Willy. Nicolás spends the night at a friend’s house so she is alone with Jefe. Willy is not happy to learn this.

JM is ok having Violeta stay with him. When Miggy asks how JM can believe that Ángela was guilty, JM replies that he has to believe it so as not to mourn her death too much.

Miggy continues his relationship with Cecilia. She says that she loves him and he tells her that long ago he swore that he would never love anyone.

JM asks Peralta to return and be Emma’s bodyguard. He refuses.

Willy brings a bunch of stuff that Sam “forgot” over to Jefe’s place. Sam is in her bathrobe. The stuff in the box are all reminders of their love and sexual attraction. The way that Jefe will “help” Sam get over Willy is to appear in a towel. Willy draws the obvious conclusion and Sam lets Willy believe that they are having sex.

When Willy leaves, Sam is remorseful about lying to him and making him believe that she and Jefe have done something that they would never really do. Jefe doesn’t appear too happy about that last part.

Miggy asks the Reptile for the details of the attack on her and right away it’s clear that she hasn’t thought out the details of her story that well. She claims that she never saw the face of her attacker and then says that the attacker made her drive out to the country. Later, when Miggy is driving the Reptile someplace he notices that the car has a navigation system.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – martes Part 2

The guy who failed to kidnap Emma comes to D8D’s house and demands money. D8D is not pleased to see him. The kidnapper says that he is planning to go to Colombia and D8D tells him to be careful or Verdugo will see that he ends up dead. [Does this confirm that D8D is involved with narcotrafficers in general and this Verdugo in particular, or did we know that already? I can’t remember.)

Miggy tells Jefe that he needs info about the Reptile’s comings and goings from JM’s house. He doesn’t believe her story about the attack.

When Violeta innocently mentions her mother to Génesis in the Reptile’s hearing, the Reptile grabs her and tells her never to mention the name of her mother, the murderer, in the house again. Poor Violeta is terrified and Miggy tells the Reptile not to interfere with his niece.

Willy and Sam are together uneasily for the first sonogram of the baby. [Kind of early for an ultrasound isn’t it?] They see a blob and hear the fetal heartbeat.

JM gets a call from a person whose grubby arm we see hanging up without saying anything. We all know who this is, don’t we.

Willy tells Sam to think of their lovemaking when she has sex with El Jefe.

D8D comes to see JM. JM tells him that only a person with power and money could have arranged to have coke planted on Miggy. Someone like D8D. D8D denies that it was him.

Emma has a job doing phone sex. She calls Peralta to tell him and he nearly crashes the car with his bodyguarding client in it.

Sam asks Miggy to help Willy forget her by introducing him to other women.

JM tells Willy that D8D denied involvement in trying to frame Miggy but JM doesn’t believe him. A guy who would have his own daughter pushed down the stairs would do anything. Willy didn’t know about this.

Miggy gets info from the car navigation system. It shows that the car was not taken to the country. Miggy asks Cecilia to find out what a certain address has to do with the Reptile. She doesn’t need to look it up. She knows that it is Vicente de Madrid’s address.

Nicolás is sick.

Miggy comes to see Vicente. Vicente admits that it was he who attacked the Reptile because she is a monster.

Finally, we see that Nora and Ángela are alive. Apparently, they are street people getting food out of the trash. Ángela appears to be catatonic.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Great recap, Jean! Yes, the fun continues. Emma's scenes are definitely entertaining, if a bit juvenile.

What chance is there that Vicente will actually tell Miggy why Reptile is a monster? Not much.

I wonder if Angela has lost her memory, since this often happens in telenovelas.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Emma/Pablo are the only enjoyable characters since the start(IMHO)...
love them; especially him.
 

ROSA DIAMANTE

glad the story skipped to where Eva already gave birth to a baby boy.

hope this novela goes to 1hour soon.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Thanks for the great recap, Jean.

Nellie, you mean you missed Miguel's scenes with the kids? Here's a recap on youtube.

Emma's scenes are too juvenile to me. I can hardly stand them.

Seemingly Sam will know his creepy son soon, but she won't be able to tell him the truth.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Thanks, Hombre, great recap.

What I gathered from the political situation is that Ortiz is the local member from Congress for either Medellin or the rural area where Pablo has his finca. He appears to be pretty corrupt. Pablo agreed to give him a big check for his campaign and the guy is urging Pablo also to run.

The Presidential candidate is Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento, and he is the candidate from the same political party, the Liberal Party (the actual name of the party) as the party Pablo Escobar plans to run under.

Another interesting thing was that Irma's release was partially brokered by the infamous Manuel Noriega of Panama, deeply involved in drug trafficking in Panama. He was the head of the military junta ruling Panama until the US invasion in 1989 removed him from power.

I thought Escobar's behavior at the big party was outrageous. It's a definitely sign of his increasing megalomania that he couldn't allow his wife to be serenaded by a handsome singer (and enjoy herself) without becoming enraged. She did absolutely nothing wrong and is repaid for this by having him take off for Rio to have revenge sex with likely prostitutes posing as Carneval dancers.

I also liked Irma's wisdom. She rightly guesses that Pablo Escobar will have even more power for having brokered her release, and she doesn't like them sucking up to him.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

THANKS, JEAN,

I has missed some important details. Since I do not want D8D to be Willy's dad, I made up the following theory: Nora married D8D
either because she was young and innocent at that time or because she was forced to do so for some reason. If she were naive, then she soon learned what he was really like and fell in love with a good guy who became Willy's father. D8D had him killed and threatened to kill Willy and decided to pass off Willy as his own - possibly D8D is impotent.
Eventually Nora was framed for a killing and/or a drug deal and sent to prison. Nora was slenced from revealing the truth much in the same way that Angela was forced to keep quite because she feared that her son would be harmed. Her entire sacrifice in jail has been for her son.
 

Corazon Valiente

CORRECTION:

Nora was SILENCED.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE-

Excellent theory, Floridia. Unfortunately, we know from the DNA test that Willy is D8D's biological son.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Thanks, Jean, excellent recap!

The Reptile had better be careful grabbing Violeta like that. If JM gets wind of it, her idea of being Juan Cruz's mamá goes right down the toilet!

Yeah, I think they're going with Ángela having amnesia and Nora caring for her. Sigh.

I liked the way Willy handled himself in El Jefe's apartment. He didn't go ballistic about El Jefe in his towel. Instead, knowing the chemistry the two of them have, he reminded Sam of what THEY had in bed together and simultaneously tortured El Jefe with never being able to match that!

Yeah, it's too early for Vicente to tell Miggy the whole story. But at least he's caught the Reptile out in a BIG lie.

I like your new nombre: D8D!

What I wonder is why they haven't shown Miggy looking at what's on that thumb drive Cecilia gave him with details of D8D's movements. I think El Verdugo is his main connection to the drug trafficking. D8D probably was involved with El Verdugo and trafficking all those years ago and used him to arrange Samantha's kidnapping.

I was SO relieved we didn't have to live through a couple of episodes with Emma tied up in a warehouse.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Thank you NovelaObserver, wow, on Gabriel, like I used to say to my Mom when there was a hot dude on TV, "Can I have him?". LOL - Thanks for sharing, much appreciated. Gabriel is giving FC and my bad boy Mario a run for his money, hot, hot, hot.
 

ROSA DIAMANTE

I was very much surprised to find out that Miguel Varoni was directing. Right now watching him in the final episodes of Mas Sabe El Diablo. Pretty good TN, except it got offtrack there for a bit.

Scroll to middle of the page
http://www.latingossip.com/
 

CORAZON VALIENTE-

Thanks, Novelera. I added "Deviant" to your seven appellations of Bernando:
"Depraved, Despicable, Detestable, Disgraceful, Debased, Degenerate, Disreputable" for D8D.

JM is going to know about what the Reptile did to Violeta because I didn't mention that Genesis called JM and said that Violeta wouldn't stop crying because of what the Reptile said to her. Let's hope it opens JM's eyes a little bit about her but it probably won't.

No, there's not much chance that Vicente will tell Miggy the whole story about the Reptile's past. I suppose that Miggy will tell JM that Vicente was responsible for abducting the Reptile. The Reptile could explain away not wanting to reveal that it was Vicente who abducted her considering their past history but it is going to be harder to explain why she put the blame on "friends of Angela." That just looks like spite on her part.

Yeah, we haven't heard anything about the info that Cecilia gave Miggy just before D8D barged in.

I also agree that Angela probably has amnesia. I don't see either Angela or Nora going back to prison.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Thanks for the recap!

I felt sorry for Sam. (Although I don’t like that she has given up. I prefer Willy’s attitude.) She seemed so deflated the whole episode.

So Nicolás has some illness and can only be saved by one of his biological parents?

Gah, writers! Ofelia already told Willy that Bernie was responsible for Fernada’s losing the baby. (It did seem like they had forgotten about it, so at least that was cleared up.)

D8D’s connection to Verdugo was established before (he helped frame Nora for murder and drug trafficking), but I don’t think it has been completely clear if D8D himself was involved with any drug trafficking, but it does seem likely. (I'm not sure what kind of involvement you mean??)

Nora and Angie are back!!!

Floridia: I wished for a long time that D8D wasn’t Willy’s real father and the DNA test was my final hope. *sighs*
 

Corazón Valiente:

Thanx for the great recap, Jean!

I just watched last night's episode on a Telemundo Novela iPad app. It's pretty cool and quite easy to navigate - much moreso than I find the Telemundo website to be, and less restricting than having to sit and watch a DVR. Even though I missed a lot of the dialogue, it was nice to easily be able to FF through most of El Jefe's screen time.

I was glad to read here that Willy won the psychological pissing contest with Jefe. I guess the writers are going forward with this incest nonsense for a while to keep Sam and Willy apart. It's a pity because the whole jealousy and custody battle thing stinks.

@kihaku - I thought the same thing as you about NIcolás's sudden illness. Will the writers take that route?

Emma's kidnapping was thwarted by a garden tool wielding Camilo - lol. I'm slo-o-owly beginning to warm up to him. I guess he was supposed to give her a ride home. Like you said, novelera, at least we were spared a kidnapping scenario, but it might have been worth it having Emma and her junior HS antics bound and gagged for a while. Again, thank goodness for the FF button. At least the phone sex gig could be explained by the fact that she's a victim of childhood molestation.

@ novelera - I've been meaning to tell you how hilariously on point your "mask of tragedy" description of Ofelia has been. Brilliant! She holds just about all of the incriminating information about her family's dirty little secrets. Is there ANYTHING that will finally make her do the right thing? Her complicity makes her as culpable of their crimes as the actual perps. ¡Qué asco!

With the dumbing down of Sam, this novela has left us with *zero* strong, sensible women who don't have a self-serving hidden agenda of some sort. It looks like Nora might be the only hope unless somehow Ángela has a more focused change in personality when she comes out of her apparent amnesia.

Miggy is chip, chip, chipping away at the Reptile and D8D's lies. I wonder if Cecilia's days are numbered now that the Reptile seems suspicious of her. I hope that Fernanda's cruelty to little Violeta will have serious repercussions with JM since Génesis ratted her out to him.

@Floridia - I like the part of your theory where D8D might be impotent. We know about the actor, but was it ever explained why the D8D character is confined to wheelchair? It was funny how he was able to physically intimidate that goon given how frail he is. Here's hoping he has a permanent case of ED that even a quadruple dose of Viagra won't help. Pervert!

As crazy and all over the place this novela is, I find it to be entertaining as long as I don't take it seriously, concentrate on my Spanish comprehension, and keep my expectation low.

NovelaNewbie
 

Corazon Valiente

Thanks for the comments re my incorrect theory.

If Fernanda is the secret product of incest between D8D and Ofelia,
why does Nora refer to her as her daughter? Was she raising her as her own?

Thanks for your input.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR:

Novelera, thanks for the clarifications. I knew I heard them talking about Noriega, but couldn't put together that it was the same infamous Panama leader I remember hearing about years ago.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Floridia, that is the big question about Fernanda's parentage. They've dropped a LOT of hints about Ofelia and Bernardo having committed a big sin. And, disgustingly, Ofelia once said something about D8D being the most important person in her life, someone she'd never betray.

So why did Nora appear to claim Fernanda was her daughter? It may be that Nora agreed to cover up the incest by pretending to have given birth to the Reptile and even coming to love the little girl. If Nora is really her mother, then all these broad hints, including Ofelia's blind devotion to the Reptile, have been red herrings.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Friends, our esteemed recapper, Jean, is going on vacation for two weeks. She'll be gone next week and the week after.

I'd be more than happy to recap Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of both weeks.

Would anyone else or a combination of others be willing to do Tuesdays and Thursdays of those two weeks?
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – miércoles Part 1

I believe it was Novelera who called it. Ángela has that tried and true novela favorite: amnesia, but she remembers a fire.

Vicente tells Miggy that he has loved the Reptile since they were children but she only wanted him to help her with her plan to get JM.

Jefe and Sam take Nicolás to the clinic and they are told that he has a renal insufficiency, that is, his kidneys are not working properly. I see a kidney transplant in his future from one of his parents. Sam would do it in a second but there would be more drama if Willy were the compatable donor. There would be more blood testing perhaps showing that Sam and Willy aren’t related – let’s hope so.

The Reptile is showing Génesis how to dance [basically shaking her gigantic booty]. JM comes in and is happy about the way she is taking care of his children. [Where is Violeta? What about the Reptile being mean to her?]

Vicente goes on to tell Miggy that the Reptile married him only to be able to get close to JM as a non-threatening friend and when Ángela was out of the picture, she dumped him. Miggy brings up Vicente’s relationship with Paula. Vicente tells Miggy that he seduced Paula on the Reptile’s instructions to keep her away from JM. Miggy is no dummy. He draws the obvious conclusion that Ángela was a much bigger threat to the Reptile’s plan than Paula so did the Reptile have anything to do with Ángela ending up in jail? Vicente remembers the Reptile telling him that if she falls, he falls; they are both guilty of murder. He denies that the Reptile had anything to do with Ángela being accused of murder but he says it in such a way that Miggy is instantly suspicious.

Willy tries to warn Sam that El Jefe and Nicolás will do anything to keep Sam with them. Sam replies that they don’t need to, they already have her. Poor Willy walks away, defeated.

JM tells the Reptile that he was unjust to her and they kiss, etc.

Lorena comes over to keep Willy company. She tells him that he will find someone else to love. Willy says no. He will never love again. Before he met Sam, he was a guy of many women but no love and that is what he will be again. Willy is interested in Lorena as the vessel of his and Sam’s child, though. He invites her to move in with him so that he can make sure that everything is ok with the pregnancy. Lorena isn’t sure Sam will like her living with Willy.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – miércoles Part 2

Miggy is finally getting around to reading the information on the data key Cecilia gave him. He is in the kitchen of JM’s house. The Reptile comes in to get a drink. He asks her why she lied about the attack on her.

The Reptile denies that it was Vicente who attacked her. JM comes in. Miggy tells him that he has a witness and proof (the GPS) that the story the Reptile told about her attack was a lie. The Reptile asks JM if he believes Miggy and JM replies that he does.

Vicente goes to see D8D to tell him that Miggy is on the trail of the Reptile. D8D says that Miggy is the most dangerous enemy the Reptile has.

Peralta tries to get Emma to stop doing phone sex. She refuses saying that he is not her husband or her boyfriend and she’ll do what she wants.

Ángela asks Nora who she is and Nora tells her that her name is Lourdes.

The Reptile bursts into Miggy room and says that she will kill him. “So you are capable of murder,” Miggy responds calmly. He tells her that he knows she is hiding something and that their war has just begun.

Peralta calls Emma pretending to be a phone sex customer. When he suggests that they have a physical relationship for money, Emma hangs up and apparently quits the phone sex job.

JM asks the Reptile why she lied and blamed Ángela for the attack on her. The Reptile responds that she blamed Ángela because JM was sanctifying her. She says that the dead become good and Ángela wasn’t good. She gets on her knees and begs JM to forgive her.

Willy and Miggy [who was supposed to be going to Cecilia’s place] have a drink so that Willy can see Sam’s text message to Miggy asking him to find some women for Willy. When Willy grabs two bimbos and has Miggy send a picture of them to Sam, Sam is angry.

JM won’t forgive the Reptile. He tells her to leave his house.

Ángela tell Nora that she can’t remember her own name. Nora says that her name is Milagros (a name based on the Spanish word for miracle).
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – miércoles Part 3

Miggy finally makes it over to Cecilia’s. Miggy has questions about a $100,000 payment he found in D8D’s bank records. Cecilia tells him that Estela forged D8D’s signature on a check but D8D let it be cashed. D8D investigated and found out that the payment was made to a hit man. Miggy works out the dates and flashes back to seeing the body of Jiménez (airplane hangar guy – the Wikipedia entry for CV has a very handy list of people who have been killed on the show by whom and in what episode). [I assume Estela wrote a check to cash and paid the hit man cash. Even Estela wouldn’t be stupid enough to write a check to a hit man.] Miggy want the name of the hit man but Cecilia wants sex first.

Sam goes back to her apartment at a time when she assumes Willy won’t be there. She wants to see Arturo and get some more stuff. Willy is there, though and comes out of the bedroom after having a had a good time with the two bimbos. Sam throws the bimbos out and hits Willy.

Peralta returns as Emma’s bodyguard.

Nora leaves Ángela to try and get some food. An amorous bum puts the moves on her. Using her bodyguard skills, Ángela knocks the bum out and runs away with Nora in pursuit.

Miggy and JM (why is JM there?) visit the hit man’s house and Miggy asks him at gunpoint what Estela paid him to do.

El Jefe tells D8D that Nicolás is ill and asks if he can tell Sam and Willy that they are Nicolás’ real parents.

Lorena has apparently accepted Willy’s offer to move in and she shows up at the apartment with a suitcase while Sam is there.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 1

As Pablo and the boys party with the Brazilian babes, back home, Paty gets suspicious and orders a helicopter pilot to take her to Finca Napoles. The boys hear the helicopter approaching, and smell trouble. Chili is sent to greet Paty. When Pati arrives, Pablo takes WAY too long in opening the door. But when she gets inside, it’s just Pablo, Gonzalo, Pedro and Peluche in their swimming trunks. Who did you think I had here, women? spits out Pablo. Well, those were your words, retorts Paty. Look, honey, I’m trying to have a meeting here, and you came all this way for nothing. So pack your bags, and turn around. And next time, call first! Paty still doesn’t totally believe him, but gets back in the helicopter and leaves. We then see that the Brazilian “dancers” were just circling in their plane, and Pablo calls the pilot, come on back and land your plane, already. The food’s getting cold!

Luis Carlos Galan is talking to his chief advisor, Rodrigo. My career’s going great. Mayor at age 23, then embassador, congressman, senator, now running for President. Boss, we may have a problem, says Rod. You know that guy Ortiz is pushing, Pablo Escobar? Well, I’m almost certain he’s a drug trafficker, and you wouldn’t want to be associated with him. Well, check it out, says Luis.

Galan is definitely an honest politician. He has a rally, everyone’s wearing his party’s colors, red and white, even his three little cute sons. He tells the public we’re going to change the corrupt practices of the past.

Back in Medellin, or wherever Pablo is, Ortiz and he give a speech to the locals. They praise Galan to the skies, they’re proud to be a part of his team. After the speech, they go through the crowd, handing out cash to all the voters!

Back in Bogota, Galan lays out HIS campaign promises. 1) He WON’T ever buy votes. 2) He won’t accept any contributions over 500 pesos, and 3) He wants to debate his rivals publicly over the issues, unlike the fixed elections of the past. I’m not too sure these policies will mesh too well with Ortiz and Escobar’s ideas.

Pablo’s buddies are still opposed to his candidacy. Pedro Montoya says this could really hurt our business. Nah, says Pedro, it’s a long term investment. Besides, you all agreed I should run our group. So, I’ve made up my mind, and you’re all going to back me. Right? That shut them up. But Enelia also repeats her doubts. She tells Pablo he’s not aware of the cost that’ll accrue by trying to align himself with Galan.
 

PEDRO ESCOBAR, Part 2

Rodrigo consults Don Guillermo Cano, the wise, white-haired editor of El Espectador, a large newspapers, whom we’ve seen before. Don Guillermo says no, we don’t have absolute proof that Escobar is a drug dealer, but I’ve seen these things before. Sooner or later, the truth will come out, and it won’t be pretty.

Pablo tells Ortiz he wants to meet Galan, and he’ll do anything to make Galan happy. What does the guy like? I could let him ride on the animals in my home zoo. Or does he like babes? I can definitely set him up with some hotties. No, Pablo, says Ortiz, he’s not like that. He’s actually a straight arrow (something foreign to Pablo).

Galan gives another big speech. I’m not sure if it’s in Bogota or Medellin, but Pablo, Gonzalo, Pedro and Peluche are there. They’re all ready to hear how pleased Galan is to have Pablo in his party. But Galan has heeded his advisors. He very publicly says HIS party will not include any shady characters. His party will not include people who use money to get ahead. His party will not include Javier Ortiz or Pablo Escobar!!

Pablo is shocked. The traitor! But I’ll show him, we’ll start our OWN movement! Nah, says Ortiz, impossible. But, says Pablo, I’ll just totally clean up my act, and be respectable, and we’ll go that way! Nah, says Ortiz, impossible. The only way to get ahead is to ask for some favors. You know I have contacts. Pablo is wary, once you start asking for favors, one day you have to pay them back.

They go to meet with Senator Alonso Santolini (I think in Venezuela). Pablo says, wait a minute, I recognize you! You visited El Alguacil when I was in jail. No, says Santolini (lying), I was never in any jail. You never saw me. Got it?

We’re about to learn about the other side of politics. The dark side!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

First thank you Jean for your excellent recap. Have a great vacation.

Floridia, Novelera, Reptile's origins has long been a question mark for me. I believe both Ofelia and Nora gave birth to a daughter, there maybe a missing girl somewhere. Unless D8D took her from Ofelia and gave her to Nora. This has been the 100,000 question for me. I hope we do get an answer. I have to agree with Novelera this may be a red herring.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR -- miércoles

Great job, Hombre! Thank you.

I cringe every time I see candidate Galán out in public with his wife and children. Not only is he oblivious to the stakes of the game, he hasn't caught on to this truth: humiliating Pablo Escobar is a capital (as in "off with his head!") offense. He might have been able to let Ortiz and Escobar down gently, behind the scenes and still live to tell about it. But now he's a goner, I'm sure. (And if you know what happened, historically, please don't tell me, ok?)

Overall, this remarkably skillful production is uncomfortable to watch. One minute you're chuckling over the bedroom farce of the three stooges, the feather-fannied Rio girls and clueless Pati; the next you see the offices of El Espectador and its earnest editor, you remember the overview from the first episode and shudder at what lies ahead.

Only slightly off-topic: About the character based on "El Puma", the one who sang at Pablo's party and then got beaten up for "flirting" with Pati -- as many of you probably know, the real "Puma" is Genesis Rodriguez's father. Genesis was Marisela in Doña Barbara and stars in Will Ferrell's comedy, Casa de mi padre.
 

ROSA DIAMANTE

yeah, Nellie. I did notice from the start that Varoni is director.

I'd say he was doing a good job w/ Carla Hernandez, being that she is a novice.

So abuelo is on to JI... ha! but not good that it'll cause him to have a heart attack.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Thanks, Jean, great job! And you and I were wondering about the same things.

I guess the writers thought JM would think Fernanda's lie about who hit her would matter more to JM than her roughly grabbing Violeta and saying hurtful things to her.

I thought the bar conversation between Willy and Miggy was hysterical! Willy wanted to know how many women he'd been with. Miggy said he was a gentleman and didn't count. Upon being pressed, however, he came up with 300! The actors seemed to really enjoy this funny scene.

I didn't really think El Jefe asked D8D about telling Sam and Willy Nicolás is their son. I thought he just told him. Of course, it's completely ridiculous that he would even come to tell the SOB about something that only concerns Sam, Willy and Jefe himself.

I loved that JM threw the Reptile out. In the avances the night before they showed her crying on his shoulder, so I thought she was going to wiggle out of it saying she was too embarrassed to tell him she'd been raped.

Why do they always show people living on the street with dirty faces? And the wool hats and shivering are a bit much for LA!

I suppose Nora is giving poor Ángela a false name for both of them because they are basically escaped felons and she can't trust Ángela with their true names since she's so messed up.

Sigh. Sam specifically asked Miggy to get Willy some bed companions, but when she sees them face to face, she punches him out. I suspect Willy didn't really do anything with them and will tell Miggy that. That would match perfectly with Sam's pretend sex life with El Jefe.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE-

Novelera, you wrote:
In the avances the night before...

You watched the avances??? ;-)
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Jean- Have a great, well-deserved vacation! Thanks to both you and Novelera for keeping these great ecaps going.

I'm not back to watching, but am still enjoying the recaps and comments. Looks like they've slowed things down-- Angie is still a convicted criminal and Sam and Willy still think they're sibs. I'm not happy at all with these two storylines. I am glad to hear that Miggy is spicing things up. That's my only reason for taking a peek during comercial breaks, but now enough to draw my back in fully.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Jean Thanks for the excellent recap.

novelera, great points!
I rarely laugh at comic scenes of novelas but that bar scene of Miguel & Willy was "hysterical" indeed! Especially Miguel was increible! By the way they were amazingly natural :D

While, quite conversely, Angela's scenes were cliched, artificial and boring to death!

And Fernanda... esta guerra apenas empieza :)
 

Corazon Valiente
Jean your great recaps as always, much appreciated.
Oh, the indignities the poor actor that plays Arturo is subjected to. Poor Arturo--he needs a new agent!
Anyway, good point about the homeless Angela shivering and needing extra blankets in Southern CA. And, it's hard when the lives of both Angela and Sammy are crumbling at the same time. Back in the beginning, they had alternating problems. That was easier on the nerves
J in Oregon
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Jean, yep! I watched Tuesday night's avance. Occasionally I just don't bother to switch off the DVR recording before it shows it. I always have 5 minutes more on the recording because of the stupid odd beginning and ending times of TNs.

J in Oregon, good point about Arturo. That scene with the red bra on his head was pretty funny!

I love Arturo and often wonder if that's his real name. It's kind of cute. A lot of German Shepherds are named Duke or King or some other macho name.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Thanks for the recap! (And have a fun holiday!)

Not a fan of the amnesia trope, but we’ll see where this goes. (And how long it will last.)

So Sam can be in a relationship with another man, but as soon as Willy (presumably) has meaningless sex, she flips out? Well, of course! That’s how she rolls. But she should really cool it with the domestic violence. Arturo’s whining after that was a nice touch. Poor dog. He's been quite upset since the incest drama started.
I did think it was funny that Sam started fuming at seeing the picture of Willy with the women only minutes after asking Miggy to introduce pretty women to him. (Also, it was just a picture and nothing had even happened.:D) Nicolás’s reaction to it was also great. :)

I also really liked Miggy and Willy hanging out in the bar. It was a lot of fun! (I really like it when the two have scenes together and yes, I agree that they seem natural. :) )

I agree that Willy will probably be the one to save Nicolás. (The kid has been such a jerk to him that something big is required to change that attitude) I also thought that the blood testing could lead to the truth. At least we can hope!

Great that JM hasn’t got blind faith in Fernanda. Her lie was absolutely pointless. (But I was a little surprised that he was that cold to her.)

On the maybe incest: There are too many hints for them to be just red herrings. I’d be disappointed anyway, since they would't really make much sense otherwise.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE-

Thanks for the great comments, all. I did omit the cute scene where Miggy asks Willy how many women he has had. Wasn't there something similar with Casanova? I can't remember.

If Willy didn't have sex with the bimbos maybe they were playing chess all night because wasn't it the next morning when Sam came over?

I have my DVR set to record 15 minutes after the scheduled end of the program because sometimes even with 5 minutes over, I would still miss the very end (I love the avances). I'm glad I have a DVR that records 2 programs at the same time because the Telemundo scheduling means that you can't record a 10pm program on another channel if your DVR can only record one program at a time.

You are right, J in Oregon. It was better when Sam and Angela alternated their problems because they would call and support the other.

Arturo with the bra on his head was funny. At first, I couldn't figure out what it was.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Jean, in Don Giovanni, the Mozart opera, his servant Leporello, sings an aria about all DG's conquests. He lists the various countries, the numbers, and the last one is "en España 1003. I also thought of that when Miggy said 300.
 

Corazón Valiente:

@Jean - Have a great vacation! Thanks for the recap.
I don't have too much to add to what has already been said.

I was especially glad to see all of the love everyone has for my favorite character, Arturo! I'm sure he would much rather have had a steak to eat and a tennis ball to play with than to be used as a lingerie holder. He's very well trained because my GSD's would have immediately shaken that bra off of their faces. Too bad he didn't run those bimbos out of there. Arturo's da man!!

Will there ever be a novela that has a lead couple that works together to solve problems and doesn't play childish mind games with each other? Seriously.

I was also quite pleased to finally see JM beginning to get an active clue by kicking the Reptile to the curb - and right after using her for sex, too. That was cold-blooded. I hope it's permanent and he doesn't fall for the crocodile tears and "perdóneme Juan Marcos" crap.

Agreed that the amnesia convention is overdone. The victims only seem to forget who they are but never that they're toilet trained, etc. Hopefully Angie will snap out of it to conclude Friday's episode as part of the weekend teaser.

Did EE or *anybody* for that matter do anything other than shed a few tears to mourn Ángela's death? Was there ever a memorial service to give poor little Violeta some closure? We know Angie'll be back, but nobody else does. Did the Reptile lock Violetita in her room at Casa Arroyo?

Y'all might laugh, but I live in Southern CA (San Diego) and 90% of the time, it cools off in the evenings no matter how hot it is during the day, especially in the "winter" or when there is no cloud cover. A few weeks ago hubby and I went to a nighttime SD Padres game downtown and we passed many unfortunate homeless souls -- some wearing ski caps -- sleeping on the street under blankets or in sleeping bags. I was raised in Chicago, so I feel like a wimp telling people that I put on a hoodie in the 58-62 degree evening air - lol.

NovelaNewbie
 

ROSA DIAMANTE

Shallowgal, I guess you and I are the only ones watching this. Although expected, I really did not expect last night's death, so sorry to see the actor go so early in this TN, I would have loved for a different turn on this, to have him hang around a bit and give the "bad" ones a run for their money.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – jueves Part 1

We finally got rid of the godawful Estela!! That’s a plus. Too bad she didn’t get to reveal any of her secrets.

Sam says that she is ok with Lorena staying at her apartment with Willy but it’s clear that she is not really ok with it.

The hitman tells Miggy and JM that Estela paid him to kill Jiménez. Miggy says that he has to tell this to the police or Miggy will kill him.

D8D tries to convince El Jefe not to tell Sam and Willy that they are Nicolás’ real parents. He warns that Sam and Willy will try and get custody of Nicolás and does he really want to tell Nicolás when he is sick that his biological parents are brother and sister?

Emma is all happy that Peralta is back as her bodyguard and clearly expects him to be her novia as well. He bursts that balloon. He will only be her bodyguard.

Willy tells Sam that he is picking up jealousy vibes from her. He very earnestly tells her that there will be nothing between him and Lorena. He is only interested in the baby. In a funny scene, Sam wants to take Arturo but Willy says no. The dog obeys Willy and not Sam. Willy says that single guys like him and Arturo have to stick together.

Duval tells Miggy and JM that the hitman confessed to killing Jiménez on Estela’s orders.

Estela slithers in as El Jefe leaves D8D’s. She tells D8D that she thinks it is time they got married for real. The police, accompanied by Miggy and JM come to arrest Estela.

Willy wants Lorena to take maternity leave from work. Lorena points out that maternity leave is usually taken after the baby is born. She tells him that she wants her independence and makes up another boyfriend.

Sam fusses over Nicolás and he tells her that he would like to have a mother like her.

The stupid police let Estela scoot out of the room. She threatens to tell all but she finds a gun and we hear a shot and Estela is dead. Miggy warns D8D that he is next in the crosshairs.

After many scenes of Ángela running through the streets and Nora chasing her, Ángela finally gets hit by a car driven by an actor who I remember from El Cuerpo del Deseo.

El Jefe gets Sam alone and asks her opinion about whether he should find Nicolás’ biological parents. There might be some family history. Sam is doubtful. Jefe tells her that Nicolás’ condition is worse than he told her before. The medicines he is taking probably won’t help him. He will need dialysis and maybe something worse.

Ángela claims that she isn’t really hurt but she keeps clutching her head. Nora doesn’t want to go to the hospital so car guy (if they said his name, I didn’t hear it) takes them to his house.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – jueves Part 2

The Reptile and D8D agree that Miggy is too dangerous to have around. The Reptile asks, are you going to kill him or shall I do it? Once again D8D claims that he is not a killer and the Reptile agrees to do it.

Nora tells car guy that she and Ángela lost everything in a fire and ended up in the street.

Willy tells Sam that he is worried about their child because Lorena has a boyfriend. Sam tells him to chill.

Miggy tells Violeta that her grandmother is dead. Violeta tells Miggy that she hopes no one will kill him because everyone she loves ends up dead. Miggy reassures her that no one is going to kill him.

The Reptile goes, where else, to Vicente for help in killing Miggy. She proposes a final alliance.

Willy apologizes to Nicolás saying that he didn’t know Nicolás was sick.

Car guy’s late mother had a cake shop [what a surprise]. Ángela is excited about cakes but she doesn’t know why. She tells car guy that she can’t remember anything but a phone number. Car guy hands her his phone and Ángela dials. JM answers and Ángela says, “Hola.” Stunned, JM asks who is calling. “Milagros,” replies Ángela and hangs up. The caller id is blocked. She tells car guy that the person that anwered the phone didn’t know her. Nora and Ángela get cleaned up and put on car guy’s late mother’s clothes. Nora cleans up nicely. She looks so much better without that head scarf she wore all the time in prison.

JM was with Génesis when Ángela calls. JM tells Génesis that he knows the voice.

Nicolás is worse and has to go back to the hospital.

There was a lot more silliness with Peralta, Emma and Luciana that I am not even going to describe because it was so stupid and annoying.

Camilo tells Lorena that he is concerned that she is in love with Willy while he only wants her around because of the baby. He tells Lorena that he likes her a lot.

Miggy tells Cecilia that he is not afraid – it’s them or me.

Vicente doesn’t have any confidence in hit men. He is going to kill Miggy himself. The Reptile doubts that Vicente can kill in “sangre fria,” “cold blood.” Vicente tells her that Miggy will die tonight.

JM tells Emma that the voice of the person who called him sounded like Ángela but of course it couldn’t be.

Willy calls Sam. She is at the hospital and tells him that Nicolás is dying.

JM asks Peralta if he can find out any information on who made the call. Peralta says that he will try.

Miggy takes off from Cecilia’s on his motorcycle and Vicente follows in his car.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR Part 1

Luis Carlos Galan’s wife says what’s the big deal about not having Escobar on your ticket, you’re going to lose the election anyway. Yes, he replies, but 1) we could be in some danger by disappointing a character like that, and 2) I know we’re going to lose, but we’re fighting for a noble cause, so we’ll keep going.

Guillermo Cano, the newspaper guy, tells his assistant Niki to go to Medellin and find someone who’ll spill the beans about Pablo Escobar.

Pablo and crew tour a slum. They decide that since the government isn’t doing anything, they personally will build houses for these poor people.

Rodrigo (the advisor to Galan)’s wife has a baby.

Pablo has a beach party at Napoles. Apparently his ranch is so big it has a lake in the middle, and everyone’s lounging around in bathing suits. Pablo and his buddies look especially atrocious in the skimpy bathing suits of the 80's, especially with their big, out of shape bellies. But he sees a young lady who’s in MUCH better shape. This is Regina (with her friend Angelita). Regina is a woman of class. I think she’s the national TV reporter. Somehow she was invited to this party. Pablo puts some moves on her. She says you’re barking up the wrong tree. He says I always like a challenge.

A few minutes later, somehow she’s half drowning in the lake, about 20 feet out. Pablo rushes in, saves her gallantly, and I think he’s already making some headway in that challenge.

In Medellin, Niki approaches that lady judge whom Pablo threatened. She won’t talk.

Pablo knows that Senator Alonso (who is going to help him win) collects canes. Pablo gives him a hand carved one which Alonso appreciates. Alonso thinks that by giving special favors to the rich, Pablo can advance. But Pablo says they’re already rich, let’s help the poor. Then we’ll have their votes for life.

Pablo tells a creepy guy with glasses I have a job for you.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR Part 2

Apparently Pablo’s plan to help the poor with houses has hit a little snag, in the Bogota is requiring all sorts of permits. But Pablo goes ahead anyway. The first phase has 60 houses, eventually there will be 1,000. He’s bought the land anyway, how can the government stop him. The poor people are very grateful, treat him almost like a god.

It’s the night of the elections. In Galan’s race for President, he comes in third. The Conservative Party candidate got 2 million votes, the Liberal Party person got 1.5 million, his New Liberalism Party got 780,000. But he’s ecstatic! So is his wife, and all his followers. They never DREAMED his honest movement would do so well. In the future, they might even win! Galan’s son says how can you be happy when you came in third? No, son, says Luis. By all those people voting for us, we really won. Our party of change and honesty will now have a political voice.

Alonso also won for Senator. And for Congress, Ortiz definitely won, and although I didn’t hear them announce it, Pablo must have gotten elected, too, based on what happens afterward. Ortiz’s party is called Alternative Liberalism.

We see Pedro Montoya meeting with Mariachi (one of Pablo’s helpers who wears a Mexican hat). I think they’re not exactly going along with Pablo’s plan.

Since Pablo won, he tells Pati he’s invited to Spain. Sorry, but she can’t go. We see him and Gonzalo partying it up in Madrid, and then in Las Vegas. Wow, this political thing is fun!

But there is still the matter of getting back at that goody goody Galan. Pablo meets with Alonso and Ortiz, says I’ve been thinking a lot about something called “character assassination”. The other guys know exactly who’ll be Pablo’s first victim!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Thanks for the recap, Jean. Yes, the police were stupid letting Estela go into the other room. Forget the gun, she could have tried to escape. Aren't you supposed to restrain the person you're arresting? Also, she was stupid to kill herself. She was going to bring everyone else down. What's the fun in just shooting onesself?

I sure hope Miggy doesn't get killed. I'm sure he won't, but if he does, I would probably stop watching this show. There have just been too many murders, and not just of minor characters. Dario, Perla, Isabel, Luis, these were MAJOR characters. The show is just getting ridiculous in some ways. And let's not even talk about all the telenovela retread ideas such as amnesia or needing a kidney transplant (sometimes it's bone marrow). C'mon!
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Thanks, Jean, excellent recap.

I agree, the triangle with Emma, Pablo and Luciana is beyond ridiculous. But that actress playing Luciana is gorgeous! Anyway, apparently her father has lots of juice and El Jefe asks Pablo to please go back to being Luciana's bodyguard for the good of his security company. [It might also be good for his company if he spent some time there himself instead of 24/7 stalking Sam!]

I'm sure Miggy will make it to the end, Hombre. Gabriel Porras has been like an injection of B12 into this novela. There might be pickets outside Telemundo's offices if they killed him off.

Ding, Dong, the witch is dead [Estela]! I wasn't sure at first because they didn't bother to have any fake blood on the floor.

I loved that Arturo chose Willy. Right now Sam doesn't deserve a great dog.

The new guy is Pablo Azar. I also remember him in El Cuerpo. He was also in El Talismán; I watched one week and then gave up. He's been in quite a few TNs, so I guess he's another device for extending the novela. I suspect he'll fall for Ángela.

Willy's behavior around Lorena is kind of ridiculous. The implanted embryo took and there's no reason to suppose she won't have a normal pregnancy. No reason she can't work. And I'm not pleased he doesn't want her to have a boyfriend. What's that about? A boyfriend would make her more likely to hand over the baby at birth.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Thanks, Hombre. Excellent recaps of this complex novela. I caught up with two last night.

They have definitely shown Pablo as more and more villainous - a good thing. I think the actor is very good in this role.

It WAS confusing how Escobar got a seat in Congress when the people voted for Ortiz. They did show a TV announcement that Ortiz had won and then Pablo got congratulated.

I don't want to say too much about Galán because I know from the documentary I saw and other things about the outcome. But he sure comes off as heroic.

Pablo's cousin, Gonzalo, appears to be getting more and more suspicious of Escobar's megalomania. At one point last night Escobar was ranting on about what a great guy he himself was and his great political future. Gonzalo was blunt. "Have you forgotten who you are?" This was not well received by Pablo Escobar, seemingly deep in his heroic fantasies.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

Totally agree about Emma and Pablo. I can't stand this storyline anymore!

The amnesia cliche was completed with Adriana's awful acting. She looked like a stupid crazy woman rather than an amnesiac.

Without Miggy there wouldn't be much to watch!
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE -

thanks so much for the recap Jean !!!

interesting show last night,

Emma has been nothing but trouble for Pablo, who couldn't be a nicer guy, and her stunts have almost cost more than one person their lives, Pablo should have left town the day he met her,
but I do enjoy when he plays along, and foils her plots.

Willy and Sammy, with their supporting cast of Arturo, Lorena, etc, really is the heart of this show,
not sure about Willy's jealousy with Lorena,
he is very protective when it comes to his family,
in a way it is really sweet.

Angela, with her deer in the headlight looks, for some reason this really works for me now that she has amnesia and was run over by a car.

Pablo Azar, who is playing the new guy with Angela and Nora, was in Aurora, playing the much loved second couple, like Willy and Sam here. So happy to see him again.

couldn't believe how the coppers were tagging along with Miguel as he made all of the accusations, arrests, etc., good bye Estella.

Aylin Mujica (Fernanda) is really a magnificent actress if you give her a part to work with, I am totally enjoying all of these facial expressions she is coming up with.

Vicente is such a dummy, having fallen under Fernanda's spell, always trying to prove his worth to her,
an interesting guy to watch.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Deb, I saw your excellent real photos of Pablo Escobar posted at Telenovela World. I thanked you there, but it came out Anonymous instead of with my "handle".
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Thanks for the recap!

I wish Estela had had a better end. Suicide seemed sort of useless and anticlimactic and I expected more from her demise. It’s over now and that’s it. Maybe the police just let her leave, because they didn’t think she’d do anything or be able to get anywhere (or were just too slow to react). Yeah, I thought it was a little unbelievable that she didn’t just reveal everything she knew before killing herself. She obviously thought she had nothing to lose anyway. It probably wouldn’t have been enough to incriminate D8D, but at least something would be out there to make the plot a bit more interesting.

I loved the scene with Sam, Willy and Arturo and yes, I also loved that Arturo chose Willy. He is, after all, the one who has been taking him for walks and is least responsible for the drama. Also, why would Arturo leave his home to stay at the place of two individuals who apparently don’t care about him? Sam was (again) being selfish with her sudden decision, but at least she did listen to Arturo’s wishes in the end. :)

D8D probably still doesn’t think he’s a murderer even though he told Fernanda to kill Miggy. (According to his "law" that probably doesn’t count.)

Yeah, I think Miggy is safe. To me he’s part of the main characters.

I also suspect that the new guy will fall for Angie.

I like seeing Angie and Nora back, but their story isn’t particularly interesting at this point.

NovelaNewbie, I have the same issue as you do with the "amnesia" convention. The sufferers forget and remember whatever suits the plot. Obviously they have all their "skills". Angie remembered her bodyguard moves and I bet she’ll be great at baking.
I’m also with you on wanting a couple that actually sticks together while solving problems. (I thought Sam and Willy had the potential to be that and they’re great when they work together, but noooo… it was time to resort to something less original.)
 

ROSA DIAMANTE

Nellie - I did not expect abuelo to go so quickly. I really liked him (I remember him from Sortilegio).

As for Mauricio Ochmann, I swear I'm not a fan of his stupid facial expressions; just as in El Clon.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

oh I was happy to see Pablo Azar in the avances the night before. so glad it really is him.
 

Corazón Valiente

NovelaNewbie - I too live in SoCal, and have to say that the extremely dry desert air contributes to the chill factor. I've lived in the east coast for 15years, and here too for that length of time, and 60degrees here feels completely different than 60 in the east (due to humidity).
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Thanks so much Jean. I finally got to watch this last night, so I was suprised to see the guy from El Talisman and Aurora, and the little firl (who has grown a few inches and lost her braces) from Eva Luna who is the girlfriend of Nicolas.

Although I have been wishing, hoping, praying for the death of Estela for quite a while now, I was majorly annoyed by how she went out without even reavealing ONE secret that she knows to anyone. What was the point of keeping her around this long if she wasn't going to help the story along at all? It would have been better to have her cause trouble for a few episodes and then kill her quickly, like they did Isabel's mom and all the other people they killed off after a few episodes.

I can't believe that Jefe is asking D8D for advice about saving his son's life?! A true parent doesn't hesitate. So the hell what if the truth comes out. Sam and Willy represent 2 chances for saving his son's life. It's just a stupid premise.
 

...that's little girl, not firl, whatever that is. LOL!
 

Corozón Valiente:

Thank you for the recap, Jean. I needed it because I just now half-heartedly watched the episode, distracted, with my finger on FF button.

Wow! Who knew that EE would go out like that? Interesting that the writers would choose that method to get rid of her. The horrific nature of the Colorado tragedy has kept me from getting satisfaction from it, however. I feel so bad for victims and their families. It's made me reflect on why TV and movie murders etc. are so popular as "entertainment" and if and why I'm entertained by them.

The thing that struck me as being oddest about EE's suicide was the fact that there was a loaded gun just lying around in the open (wasn't it?), as if it was there on the off chance that someone would need it.

Lol @ Arturo opting for the bachelor life with Willy. Serves Sam right because Arturo is her dog. That was the best scene of the episode for me last night. I actually rewound it to watch a second time - something I almost never do. I think that the adorable Willy is getting to Sam. He knows her much better than she knows him and knows herself.

@deb - I'm with you. Even though the amnesia angle is hackneyed, in this case it works for me too, if only to explain why Angie is alive and has not tried to see her children from afar, and to contact Sam or Miggy. There's probably no way for Hollywood or Telemundo amnesia to be realistic for me because I don't how actual amnesiacs behave.

The new character does seem to be interested in Angie. I hope he's random and doesn't work for the Reptile or D8D. Lol @ kihaku's snark about Angie's baking skills.

I don't have any strong feelings for or against Angela. I kinda like her doofus character because she's one of the good guys, though she frustrates the heck out of me at times. IDK if it's the ability of the actress, the dialogue she's been given to work with, or the directing that makes her come across as weak. It's probably a combination of some or all of those factors. In the few novelas I've watched, most of the lead protaganistas have been that way all or most of the time. I'm waiting for a showdown between her and the Reptile, and how Nora will figure into it all. I also want to see JM eventually do a some groveling.

I agree that it's unlikely that they'll kill Miggy off, but I hope he doesn't end up in the hospital on life support for a few weeks. Miggy's so smart that Vicente might end up killing or seriously injuring himself! Nobody has flatlined lately. Nicolás seems to be the most likely candidate.

@shallowgal. You are quite right about those dry winds in So Cal. It's been somewhat humid in SD for the past few days, so even though the temperaure drops 10-15 degrees at night, it seems warmer than usual.

NovelaNewbie
 

Thanks Jean, for the great recap!
Kihaku: I agree that Estela's death had no plot value. Recall that the same thing happened with Dario: he died in the hospital without revealing a single secret. Right before she died Estela said "if I fall, all the others will fall with me". But that was a moment of false hope for the viewers. Meanwhile, Angela with Amnesia is coming across as a bit crazed: eyes are bulging, and lots of hair-tossing. Her prison scenes were convincing--last night, not so much.
Oh--who said Gabriel Porras was like of shot of B12 for the plot--YES! He lights up every scene.
J in Oregon
 

Maid en Manhattan Gran Final Lunes a 23 Julio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After Lunes "Rosa Diamante" goes to 1 hour.
Lo siento el abuelo estas muerto en "Rosa Diamante" porque yo quiero mucho. El es un buen hombre y protege las nietas. Que lastima.
As for Mauricio Ochmann. So far his character has been more "villano" and less "galan". I actually like it when he plays evil vs the innocent romantic lead. Shows he has more acting chops than just being a pretty face! My observation is that Rosa is the stronger character. I am going to stick with this one (on tape) and also "Pablo Escobar". Even though it is violent, I am captivated by the characters and the history surrounding the Colombian drug trade/elections, etc. It is very interesting.
Adios Maid, Bienviendos Rose Diamante y Rostro. Tambien las telenovelas a Univision )Amor Bravio). Yo soy un "adicto de las telenovelas en la amario" (closet).
Buena suerte
sfchicabointa
 

Una Maid en Manhattan...

Gran Final is this Monday,
(also posted by sfchicabointa with some interesting comments but her post is on the tail end of last weeks page)

as far as I can tell this will only be 1/2 hour,

I watched it tonight (Friday), lots of action, fun to watch,
the show ended with hairless Lalo, who was being kidnapped by Sara and the bad guys, escaping on foot with his dad, closely followed by Sara and a bad guy with a gun, closely followed by Marisa without a gun.