Caray, Caray!

It's yet another double-header tonight, squeezed into 90 minutes of horror, humor, and irony.

Part 1: Paybacks and Payoffs
Helena and mom are on the phone. Mom has an exam tomorrow. Everything at Playa Majagua reminds Helena of Juan. Someone (like we can't guess who) slips a note under her door. It's a mushy note from Pluto.

Rebeca sneaks around Pluto's office and finds a photo of Helena, which she curses enthusiastically. She is interrupted by Renato, who didn't bother to knock. Each has a lame excuse for being in Pluto's office. Rebeca kicks him out.

Morning. Another freakishly large breakfast for Lalito, with lots and lots of milk.

Eva and Helena talk about the day's plans. Pluto wants to know where Adriano is. Eva goes off to look for him. Pluto flatters Helena so profusely that it seems to make her nervous. But maybe I'm misreading her, because a minute later she's thanking him for the nice note he left for her last night. Oh, yes, he couldn't sleep last night! "Why not?" she asks. Dummy. Cuz he was thinking of her smile. Blech!

At the office, Marcela questions why Santi doesn't seem very enthusiastic about the party his wife is throwing for them. (Renato wanders in and invites himself.) Marcela and Fern are trying to get Santi more enthused about married life.

Eva visits Adriano in his room. He's barely conscious after a very long night of drowning his sorrows, but he's not too drunk/hung over to remember that Eva broke his heart.

Silvia is taking her exam. She flashes back to Mad Dad "Eduardo" Bastardo telling her that she's a useless idiot wasting her time on all this edumacation hooey. She is so frozen with doubt, the proctor asks if she's all right.

Speaking of useless idiots, Eduardo is charming his new maid with his winsome smile and sweet temperament. NOT. He complains about the quality of her work. She counter-complains that he did not provide any cleaning supplies and the place is filthy. She needs the job, but she's not a miracle-worker. Ed says he's doing her a great favor by allowing an old lady like her to clean up after him, but if she's gonna be useless she can turn in her housekeys and leave.

She hands him a long-neglected, half-full coffee cup and tells him she doesn't have to put up with his rudeness and foul temper. She drops the keys into the cup. She tells him he's the one who's old and useless. Ha! She leaves the house, still muttering in disgust, and he fishes his keys out of the nasty drink.

Eva drags her dejected would-be beau across the floor, towards the bathroom, to encourage him to shower and go to breakfast. Then she notices that his head is under her skirt. Yikes! She tells him she'll wait for him to come out of the bathroom, but then she leaves. Adriano sadly notes her departure.

Now Eva, Helena, and Pluto are at breakfast with the regidor, sans Adriano. Eva assures them that Adri will join them for the big event this evening. El regidor seems satisfied now, but he also flashes back to the night Pluto tried to bribe him many months ago, when the regidor said he would deal only with Helena. He glares at Pluto, who grins cluelessly. Eva silently takes in the whole scene.

Rebeca tries to make an unauthorized visit to Pluto's house. The guy who's remodeling the house doesn't want to let her in, but she threatens to have him fired. Onesimo intervenes and kindly suggests that they call Pluto to ask if Rebeca is allowed inside. Rebeca says Pluto must be too busy or else he would have called Onesimo himself. She and Onesimo trade a few insults, and then she slinks off with her tail between her legs.

The regidor makes nice with Helena and leaves. Helena asks Eva why Adriano didn't join them for breakfast. Meanwhile, Pluto catches up with Adriano, who is depressed and wants to get away from it all - so he's going to sell his shares to Pluto. "FINALLY!," Pluto wants to blurt, but instead he just says "I don't know what to say." "Say thank you," Adriano replies. It'll be announced tonight, to the local authorities and the media, that Pluti will be the new president of Grupo Imperio.

Helena tells Eva she's glad her big plans for Playa Majagua are finally coming true, even if she does have to share the credit with GI. Plus, she read Antonia's thesis and it was very similar to her own plan. Eva asks if she can read it when they get back to the office. She also asks to spend some girl time with Helena since Adri and Pluto are off doing their own thing.

Adri is telling Pluto to find a new woman to have a family with. Ha. He also tells Pluto not to try to talk him out of leaving everything in his hands. Ha ha.

Renato approaches Lucia, all earnest and apologetic. He's soooo sorry for the way he treated her the other day. It's just that he didn't know what was going to happen to his job. And he still doesn't, hint hint. Lucia says she can use his help with the project. He invites her to dinner - at Santi's party. "Oooh, like a date?" she squeals pathetically. The ambitious mousse-boy has no choice but to agree.

Pluto calls Onesimo to say that thanks to Eva, of all people, breaking Adriano's heart, he's now president of GI, and first thing he'll do is kick Eva out. Onesimo tries to tell him about Rebeca's latest stunt, but Pluto doesn't want to hear about it. "That's what I pay you for." Then he throws a kiss up to Antonia in heaven and says that all the sacrifices he made with her are finally paying off. (I hope his payback ends up being an ACTUAL cart full of scorpions.)

Helena shows Eva a keepsake box she bought in a shop, like the one she had with Juan, where she can keep her memories of Juan. Eva tells her that it's a good idea to remember the good things and forget the bad ones.

Mimi tries to visit Eugenia at home, but Modesto has forbidden her any visitors when he isn't home. The maid tells Mimi that she's been cooped up in her room, watching her old movies and not talking to anyone. Mimi says she'll come back when Modesto's home and try to get him to let her visit.

Helena and Eva walk along the beach. Helena remembers dancing there with Juan. She asks Eva to dance with her!

Pluto meets privately with the regidor to thank him for not telling Helena about the attempted bribe. He apologizes effusively for behaving so ham-handedly. The regidor reminds him that the only reason they're doing business with him is because of Helena's involvement. Pluto wants to shake hands. After a lengthy, suspenseful pause, the regidor agrees.

Eva goes to her room and takes off the wig and mopes. "Mi Helena. You are my love, but you are not my friend... you are Eva's friend."

In her own room, Helena takes the silver box out of her luggage (not the new green one she got today) and holds it thoughtfully.

Eva looks for Adriano and finds out he's on his way to the airport. She phones him in a panic. He tells her he's quitting the presidency of GI forever because of her. Impactada, Eva asks a resort employee to help her get to the airport ASAP.

Part 2: An Evening to Forget or Not Remember

Helena takes Juan's silver keepsake box to the beach and, after a painful wave of flashbacks, raises her arm to hurl the box into the ocean. But she can't quite bring herself to do it.

Eva finds Adriano at the airport. He is hoping that she will give her heart to him. Nope, she just wants to try guilting him into dropping his plan of abandoning the company and the project. She mentions Antonia, and that seems to do the trick. He agrees to stay on at GI, but only if she'll agree to remain at his side through the whole thing. He's sure she'll fall in love with him, given enough time.

Santi's sparse but tasteful bachelor pad has been transformed into Angie's Place: Where Dollar-Store Taste Meets Gold-Card Extravagance. It is a confusing jumble of crappy knickknacks, gaudy tchotchkes, and tacky trinkets. It is sad to think that Angelica actually put time, money, and effort into this decorating project. Given the same resources, a team of capuchin monkeys would have done a better job and not had so much attitude about it.

Lucia arrives with Renato, who ditches her at the door. She makes small talk with Santiago. She awkwardly tries to say positive things about the interesting mixture of Oriental, plush, and pink design elements. Other GI coworkers trickle in.

Finally, Angelica makes her grand debut as Mrs. Santi. She has big hair and a short purple dress that looks like it fell out of a 1980's time warp in a strip joint. She is also wearing even more makeup than usual. She tells the guests how great she looks, but there are a lot of skeptical faces.

Meanwhile, at the Playa Majagua event, Helena wonders where Eva is, and Pluto says "she's not important. You're the only one who's indispensable here." If Pluto had ever had friends, he would understand why that wasn't a nice thing to say. He hints around about a big surprise and approaches the podium to make his announcement.

But before he can say anything, Adriano arrives with Eva on his arm and cheerfully informs Pluto that he's changed his mind. The event proceeds with no big announcement from Pluto. The press swarms around Adriano, who introduces Eva as his [business] partner. Pluto pulls Helena aside and flatters her with hot desperation. Eva watches warily.

Helena asks what was the big surprise. Pluto says not yet, but she'll be the first to know when the time comes. She wants to talk to him in private; they go outside. She tells him what a great guy he is. "But there's a 'but'," he prompts. "Not any more," she replies, and they kiss. She looks as though she's making her best effort to enjoy it; and she's making it look like a real project.

Mimi returns to Eugenia's house for another try. The maid tries to keep her at bay, but Eugenia hears a visitor and wants to know who it is. She looks right at Mimi and asks, "do I know you?" Mimi tries to jog her memory: they worked on the telenovela together; she has a cousin Eva; etc. Eugenia doesn't remember. Then Modesto interrupts and demands to know what the hell Mimi's doing in his house. He kicks her out. Then Eugenia asks who Modesto is, too. Husband? What husband? She insists that she's single. Modesto tells Chepino maybe it's time to put Eugenia in a home.

After the extremely difficult-looking kiss, Helena forces a smile that is way too big and insists that it was for real. "Yes, I really want to begin a formal relationship with you," she assures him. He is convinced. I'm not so sure that she is. He asks her to keep it a secret until he has a chance to tell Adriano.

Adriano is still busy entertaining the press with Eva, who keeps telling them that Helena is the real brains of the Playa Majagua project. Later, Eva finds Helena standing by the pool, in the same spot Pluto left her earlier. Eva tries to talk about the press conference, but Helena is still stunned and distracted and replies that it doesn't matter who gets the credit. Only the results matter.

At the party, Angelica is dancing in the middle of the room. Everyone else just stands there in shock because it's impossible to look away. She's vaguely aware that no one else is dancing and tries to get them to join in. She takes a drink - clearly not her first of the evening - and Santi tries to get her to dial it down a few notches. She calls him a party-pooper and suggests a game of spin-the-bottle (which in this case I think is about taking off clothes rather than kissing, but I don't really want to know). Then she comes on to Renato - everyone is watching - but the arrival of some of her friends (drunk) distracts her, and Renato escapes unscathed. Lucia watches from the sidelines in disgust, and Santi silently contemplates what has become of his life.

More of the GI employees are being persuaded to join the conga line. Lucia tries to cheer Santi up. Renato also offers his congratulations. They tell him how fun and festive his wife is. Santi tries to agree. Fernando and Marcela are ready to leave, but Angelica rounds up all these chatty people and gets them to join the conga line, too. (Hmmmm. Does she have better organizational skills drunk than most people do sober?)

Pluto asks Adriano why he changed his mind so suddenly. But he insists that he's really glad that he'll be staying at the helm! Later, Pluto tells Helena he probably won't be able to sleep tonight, he's so happy. (Hint hint.) Adriano is happy too. He finds Eva and cheerfully scolds her for leaving him alone too long.

Marcela and Fernando come home to the lurid sight of Jennifer and her boyfriend... fully clothed... sitting opposite one another at the dinner table, playing cards. (Marcela told Jennifer earlier that she and Kevin couldn't have any company at the house tonight.) Seriously, Jennifer is not only fully dressed, but wearing a beret. Doesn't matter; Fernando goes crazy and kicks out the boyfriend. Jennifer storms off, furious. Marcela says even her own father wasn't that bad at his worst.

It's very late. Everyone else has gone home, but Angelica's two friends are still at Santi's place. They want to go out to a nightclub. Santi wants to go to sleep. Angie says she's independent (really? with whose money?) and she can go out if she wants to. He says he's not making her stay; it's just that he would like her to. Then she throws a fit and says she embarrasses him, he's ashamed of her, he doesn't like the way she dresses. He admits that he wouldn't mind if she covered up a little more and didn't drink so much and would stay in with him for the night. "I'm not a naca!" she shrieks. "I am a dama!"

Eva and Adri dunk their feet in the pool. She tries to give him a little compliment and he takes this as a signal to try to kiss her, so she throws him in the pool.

Angelica sulks; Santi apologizes. But she keeps egging him on to air his grievances, and he takes the bait every time. Yes, again with the dress, and the way she was dancing. She tells him it was HIS idea for them to get married. She's dressing the same way she did before they got maried. And why does he keep throwing it in her face that she cheated on him, considering that he was going to marry Paty... but "I love you" and "me too" and if he wants her to change, she will. They love each other, she says, and that's why they're fighting. An energetic reconciliation ensues.

"It's the first time in his life he's ever been in love," Juan tells Mimi on the phone, "and look who he fell in love with." He tells her how weird it was to have his "second father" wanting to kiss him. Mimi wishes it could have been her. Then Mimi tells him about his mother's odd behavior at the house tonight. More rehashing. Juan says he's newly motivated to clear his name and get justice for Helena too.

Helena thinks about her poolside kiss with Pluto. "Yes, yes. Yes, why not?" But it's not a rhetorical question. She seems to be looking for a reason why not.

Lucia and Renato talk about what a great start Santiago's marriage is off to. (This reveals a lot about their own attitudes towards marriage, doesn't it?) Renato says sure, at least Santi has a good job. Lucia hints that Renato does too, and therefore if he wanted to he could start a family with a woman who loves him too. He tells her she's an angel. She's been so good to him and he hasn't been as good to her. He appreciates her friendship. She professes her undying love. He says maybe he ought to go now. She puckers up for a kiss. He gives her the lightest peck possible and leaves. She's not sure whether the kiss was real or a hallucination - I think she says something about wanting an instant replay.

Marcela berates Fernando for his poor behavior with Jennifer. He doesn't want to hear it. He wants to lock up his daughter in her room like a princess. And something about having the ears of a fish, whatever that means. She tells him the kids are growing up and someday they'll have to use condoms. That doesn't make him feel any better.

Jennifer's boyfriend tells her he has a plan. If she goes along with it, her father will be thrilled to see them together.

Next time:
A very uncomfortable-looking courtship begins.

Labels: por-ella