Caray, Caray!

PABLO ESCOBAR, Viernes, Part 1

The ranch owner guarding Maruja finally brings her a tv, and now she'll eat. But to save her the trouble of watching, he'll bring her up to date. Carmina's dead, Berenice is fine, your husband is trying to negotiate with the bosses, and one of your daughters is trying to do some kind of publicity campaign to get you released. So you're all up to date. Aren't I nice to you? Maruja looks as if she's been hit by a brick.

Peluche has found a new headquarters for Pablo and the gang, an abandoned insane asylum called La Catedral. It's high in the mountains, so Pablo will be able to look down on all Medellín, but when the fog rolls in, the government won't be able to see them at all. Good escape routes, too.

Berenice gets a call, asking what medications Ms. Maruja takes. We then see the ranch owner give her the medications, again bragging at how nice he is. Maruja's looking pretty bad, hollowed out eyes, chain smoking, fatalistic.

Alberto writes a letter to Pablo, strongly urging him (I'm paraphrasing) to stop his horribleness and release Maruja and Fernán. He runs it by Pedro Motoa, who says it's a little strong. Sure enough, Pablo respectively declines to release the Señora. We then see a Father Gomez Herrera, to me very self serving, talking on tv on his program. With a big cross in the background, he says he's been asked to meet with Escobar. Should he go and bring peace to our land?

Pablo reads a childrens' story to Emilio and Daniela. The moral of the story is “If you use others for your own purposes, they'll use you for theirs.” Hmmm. I don't think the kids understood it at all. After they go off to play, Enelia asks Pablo if on that show, God's Minute, the Father really was talking to Pablo, and Pablo says it's true, Pedro Motoa wants me to meet with him. Pati jumps in, you should just give your self up, c'mon! Pablo says it takes time (right...). He's also been asked to meet with Alberto Villamizar, but doesn't feel comfortable with that. Enelia agrees. Meet with Father Herrera, they all say he's a saint.

Cut to the saint, complaining about his eyesight, not too anxious to meet Pablo, sitting down with Don Julio and Alberto, saying he's not waiting around. Don Julio says it could take days. The Father says call Pablo, if he doesn't come now, I'm leaving. Privately, Don Julio tells Alberto, Pablo is a good Catholic, so this could work. Well, asks Alberto, couldn't I go to the meeting too? Nope.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 2

President Gaviria is discussing the constitutional amendment with his adviser. It looks as if it could pass, the people like it, plus I think some of the delegates have been bought. But it's a mistake, he continues. Drug traffickers in the future would have nothing to fear. And I don't see why Pablo doesn't just turn himself in now, since we're promising no extradition. He just has to confess to one crime, but what if he just says he robbed a candy bar? The adviser thinks it'd have to be more than that.

The ex minister of justice is assassinated by Pablo's men. The news say he had issued warrants against the Medellín cartel, so Pablo says, see, he deserved it. But Peluche gets mad. Cut out this crazy killing! It's not helping anything! The two get into a shouting match. But here comes Miguel, you have to meet with Father Gomez now, or he's leaving. Pablo's ready. He tells Miguel to tell the Father they'll meet tonight in Pablo's wife's house. Back at Don Julio's, the father has had it. Take me home, now. But here's Miguel, Pablo's ready. Father Gomez tells Don Julio I may be killed. If this doesn't work out, heaven will get you back. Great guy, huh?

The Father arrives at the house, the guards usher him inside. How many of us think this'll work? Not me. In a far less luxurious part of town, Fermán wakes up in the middle of the night. His guards are both asleep! He creeps into the bathroom, tries to go out the window, but it's jammed shut! Damn! And his noise wakes the guard. Double damn! Defeated, he sits on the john, pants down, head in his hands.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR -- viernes

Thanks, Hombre. I really like the way you caught the weirdness of the television priest, the electronic-age saint, who, when push came to shove, was none too happy about putting himself in danger. From what I've read, the writers aren't making this stuff up! Stay tuned ...

About "La Catedral" -- the idea was to find a place that could be used as a prison acceptable to Escobar. Pablo says he'll pay a certain price to the owner and then sell the property back to the government at triple the purchase price. Even as he plans to turn himself in, he's figuring out how to make an extra buck off the deal!

So even Peluche, the last Yes Man Standing, is getting disgusted with Pablo's latest murder. Now we really know the end is in sight.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 1

This recap is hella long. I just gave up trying to condense and wrote it all.

Jesús Matamoros slowly and patiently tells his story to Sam. He is not Manuel Montoya. He is not a doctor. He is not a scientist. He has not been looking for the potion of eternal youth. He is not being threatened with death. He doesn’t need a bodyguard. He didn’t meet Samantha in Los Angeles. He says they met in Colombia. He was the one who rescued her from poisoning - tu salvador. He says he’s lived outside the law. He didn’t even finish high school. He doesn’t know who his parents are. He was found by a lake. But he is a survivor. Sam spits out that he’s a narcotraficante. He tells her that the only true thing is that he loves her madly.

Jessica tells Willy, Gus, Laura, Nicolá, and Nora that Dr. Montoya is Jesús Matamoros. Stunned expressions all around.

The Reptile and La Niña Bonita are watching Fabiola’s pole dance. Both are jealous, but say she isn’t sexy at all. And imagine if THEY were up there.

At the airport Loathsome Lagos tells Miggy he was about to commit a crime leaving the country with false documents. What an idiot! Miggy tells him he was about to do what all the narcos in the world do – travel all around, and the DEA can’t catch them! Miggy tries to move him by saying that he can help capture NB. No dice. You can’t fix stupid.

The Drag Queen Madam [could be the name of a metal band, ya think?] tells Fabiola her luck is coming to an end. Here, pointing to D8D, is her first client. He says that her luck is beginning; she won’t be untouchable any more. Gah!

Sam tells EM that guys like him don’t have a heart nor a soul. He puts her hand on his heart so she can hear how it beats for her. She faints.

In Switzerland JM tells the headmaster that D8D is a fugitive, and he himself wants to take the responsibility for his daughter. The headmaster says María Fernanda can’t leave the school without a judicial order until she’s 18.

We see the Reptilita sobbing and stabbing JM’s picture that she printed from the internet.

D8D tortures Fabiola a bit by saying he’s going to have Miggy come for her because he hates Ivonne so much. He makes some call to voice mail. Then he tells her that, of course, he won’t help her. He hates Ivonne, but hates Miggy much more. Fabiola is his weakness, and nothing would give him more pleasure than to attack him where it would hurt the most. He starts undressing her with his cane. And when she looks like resisting, he pulls a gun on her.

Sam’s fainting was a ploy. She calls the cops and says she has Jesús Matamoros and they should come for him. He’s come with something to revive her, and she points a gun at him. He laughs. He says he thought she wouldn’t betray him because, down deep, she knows he’s not as bad as they say he is. He tells her he wanted to have another life with her, that this third life had been given to him so that he could find her, to love her. He puts the gun to his head, then his heart, and then wrests it away from her. He asks her who she called. Then he says he knew how tough she was. He knew that falling in love with her would be the end of him, but he’s here anyway, loving her until the last second.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 2

D8D appears to be taking cell phone pictures of Fabiola. He tells her that resistance excites him. Ringo has arrived at the bordello/strip club and goes to greet NB and the Reptile.

FF tells D8D she’d rather die – so go ahead and kill her. Ringo is looking for her, but encounters Clara. He tries to ask Clara where FF is, but she’s catatonic.

Fabiola tells D8D he’s a monster, capable of taking his daughter’s child. He’s the reason Fernanda is the way she is. D8D asks her what she knows. She tells him she knows about the girl being in Switzerland. And also she’s not the only one. They all know. And when Fernanda finds out, she’s going to kill D8D herself.

Ringo bursts in just in time. He says that the memory of EV cannot be offended. Without even looking that way, he shoots the Drag Queen Madam in the heart. He then puts his gun to D8D’s neck and tells him that Fabiola is to be respected.

Miggy gets the photos and a text from D8D [who is apparently a one-handed texter since he had a gun in one hand the whole time]. Miggy shows Loathsome Lagos the photo and pleads again. He’s told to go home. But he has good news. EM has been cornered.

In Switzerland JM and Angie are led to MF’s room by the headmaster. She doesn’t respond to knocking, and when they enter, MF is on the floor. She stabbed herself with a letter opener.

EM ties Sam to a chair. When she says he did horrible things to her family, he corrects her. El Verdugo and NB did some things to her family, but he never did. He says he could have killed Miggy but didn’t. He saved her niece and saved her own life. He blindfolds her, saying it hurts him to cover those beautiful eyes, but he’s not the kind to give up easily. He seems to have some sort of secret exit behind a piece of furniture. The cops burst in firing like crazy. More dumb cops. How do they know Sam wasn’t in front of the door?

Willy and Gus free Sam. Willy right away gets in Sam’s face about “Dr. Montoya”. Way to rub it in, Willy!

I’m not sure if the secret exit goes to the Chinese restaurant or if he walked there, but that’s where he is. He tells the cook, who’s brandishing a big knife, that he’s a friend of El Verdugo. Then he calls Gigante to come pick him up. When Gigante arrives, EM gets in the car and muses about the theory of yin and yang – that some good comes with bad things. And hands him a bag of Chinese food. They have given Varoni the best lines since he first appeared in the cast!
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 3

The Reptilita is not dead.

We get to see Willy pouring it on with Sam. He says that she could join the bad guys. Her gang could be called The Bodyguard and the Narcotraficante. He gives her some advice: choose better. [I’m sorry. It’s one thing for Willy to want to be done with Sam; it’s another to kick her when she’s down.]

EM accidentally grabbed Sam’s phone instead of his own. Miggy calls. He says the DEA told him that Matamoros was with his sister. EM assures him he didn’t harm her. Miggy asks him to take him along to Colombia. They won’t let him leave the country, and Fabiola is in danger from D8D. EM agrees, but under his conditions. Don’t even think of betrayal. Miggy says he’s a man of his word.

D8D is getting ready to leave Casa Verdugo, dragging his suitcase. Fabiola’s words about the Reptile killing him are echoing in his head, and he looks plenty worried. When the Reptile comes in, he tells her he’s tired of being cooped up. Then he hugs her and says that he loved her in his own way.

We see JM kneeling by MF’s bed. When her eyes open, he tells her he’s her father.

Miggy gets into the car with EM. He’s handcuffed. He says there will be no tricks, no lies. He only wants to get to Colombia to rescue Fabiola. EM says that, before the whole thing is over, instead of being enemies and rivals, they are sharing a child these months, almost in-laws. Maybe they could even end up friends. Miggy says that, with everything that’s happened, he wouldn’t be surprised.

They teleport to Colombia. EM gives Miggy the keys to an SUV, says he’ll call him on the cell he hands him if he learns anything. And he’ll let him know when the baby is born. Miggy says he’d be delighted if the baby were a Matamoros.

Sam listens at the door while Lady tells Willy her tale of being from a humble family and having had nothing to do with “that life”. But she fell in love with EM, followed him around. But he was crazy for Sam from the moment he saw her. She says that EM is a good man. Sam comes in. Willy tells her he’ll always love her, even though she lies to him, even though she sleeps with another man. But he can never be with her.

NB calls someone and tells him or her to hide Fabiola. EM can’t know that she’s in the bordello. EM enters and Ringo tells EM he knows where Fabiola is. He protected her. But NB will kill him if he says that she is in a bordello. Whoops. NB overhears. EM asks where she is. NB says she’s not in the bordello. By now she must be smelling flowers, from below the ground. He grabs her by the throat. The Reptile comes out with a shotgun, protecting her only amiga. Ringo tells EM that D8D left, and that he’s getting married in 7 months. He points with his chin to the future Mrs. Ringo. EM: “Wow, just wow!”

We see Miggy going from place to place. He gets into some bar fights. He says 3 months have gone by and he hasn’t found her.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – VIERNES – Part 4

The screen says 6 months later.

NB is in labor. No doctor. EM is delivering the kid himself, while Piedad and the Reptile look on. It’s a boy. EM says the boy is definitely a Matamoros.

Miggy is at one more bar, and finds Camilo in the same place, looking for Clara. They don’t explain how he got from the flatline in the hospital to Colombia, but oh well.

Gus and Laura are arresting some people beside a pool when Willy calls to say he found a false book that could be the property of D8D. Sam comes in, there to pick up the children. She tells Willy she can open anything. And she does. It’s a videocassette.

We see Angie showing Génesis and Violeta some pictures of JM with a wool cap on his head. I’m thinking he lost his hair. The kids think he looks funny, but Angie says he looks like a prince. Lo and behold, JM enters, hair just the same length as before. He tells his little family that the tumor is in complete remission. [As if there were any doubt!]

There’s a knock on the door, and María Fernanda has arrived completely unexpected. She is smiling fondly. She says she finished her studies and came as a surprise. What she wants more than anything is to know her mother. JM and Angie exchange a look.

Miggy tells Camilo that they have to find the Reptile because he thinks she knows where Fabiola is. They can negotiate with her using the knowledge of her daughter.

Willy calls Miggy to say that he has a video that the family lawyer used to extort his father, and it tells everything. Miggy tells him the Reptile is getting married tomorrow [how does he know this?] and if Willy isn’t there with the video they won’t be able to convince the Reptile. Please come to Colombia.

We see “Doña Victoria” getting out of a car in her wedding dress. The people are applauding. Ringo doesn’t look thrilled. Why in heck is he doing this?

EM is holding the baby and says it looks just like him. NB says it’s a 10-1 shot. He says he’s calling Miggy. He brought him to Colombia. He said he’d call him when there was news. She’s stunned. He says that he didn’t call Miggy when NB said FF was dead. He doesn’t believe her. He tells her that, now that his son has been born, he can kill her. He starts to choke her and ask her where Fabiola is. She insists she’s dead.

The Reptile is standing with Ringo, champagne glasses in hand. Their images are projected on a screen. Miggy appears. He tells her he has another reason to toast her. Suddenly Willy, Nora, and Samantha arrive. Willy tells her he wants her to see the recording he converted to DVD.

Apparently JM and Angie have brought María Fernanda to Colombia. They debate if this was wise, and then see that she isn’t in her room.

We see the video projected onto the screen. D8D and the lawyer Torrez are talking about the baby now being in the school in Switzerland. D8D says this is a huge secret. If Fernanda ever wakes up from the coma, she is never to know that her daughter was born, and much less that he sent her to Switzerland. Torrez asks him: “Why did you do this to your daughter?” D8D: “Because this ninita is the daughter of a demon, a damned soul.” The Reptile has tears on her face. “Where is my daughter?” María Fernanda steps up, white cat in her arms. “Here I am!”
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE-

What a recap, Novelera, you outdid yourself. We definitely needed our beanies for this one.

When MF shows up at the wedding with her cat, I burst out laughing. She showed up in LA the day before, how did she know where the wedding was?

These time jumps are so awkward. I don't know it was so important for NB to have her baby but I guess we needed time for JM to have his cancer go into remission.

Since Camilo has reappeared, I guess that he and Clara will be reunited. The time jump also allows time for Clara to recover from being forced to be a prostitute. I wouldn't be surprised if she presents Camilo with a baby when he finds her. Tough for FF to be separated from her baby for so long. It is of course ridiculous for Miggy to have spent 6 months showing FF's picture to people in bars. He must have been in every bar in Colombia! It was also ridiculous that EM and Ringo couldn't find out where FF is.

I noticed that the world's most useless psychic didn't say anything, cryptic or otherwise, when NB had her baby.

Clear demonstration of the difference in acting skills between Miguel Varoni and Ximena Duque after he confessed his true identity. He expressed all this emotion and she just stared at him. All I did was admire her eye makeup. It is true that he gets better lines, though.

On to the gran final!!
 

LA MARIPOSA

So when you say "not a whit of overacting", I guess you're not counting Jimmy Bernal's "Price", right? jejejeje.

And the MundoFox website is still stuck at episode 13. ¡Me lleva!
 

Novelera and Jean,

I just wrote a long comment and lost it; so here's a recap.

Thanks to you both for all of your hard work and dedication. I gave up on this novela after it became apparent as someone pointed out that it was being dragged out until La Patrona starts.

Did anyone keep track of how many times people were hospitalized or kidnapped and near death?

I returned last night to watch all of it...definitely a Big Beanie night.

Whatever happened to
1) Ringo's protection of FF?
2) The story line with
Nora's narco boyfriend?
3) The suspicions at the school and by police that MF is a murderer?

I used to love the relationship between S and W, but that was horribly ruined for me...and terribly repetitive with their
almost getting together a number of times.

Re MV, I hated his character in Casa al Lado, but now his loose walk, deep, expressive voice, and soulful eyes are very appealing to me.

Thanks for hanging in until the end. I'll be there for El Gran Final.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Thanks, Hombre, for this excellent recap and all the others you've done single-handed.

I was in complete agreement about that priest. I'm pretty sure there's something "off" to start with about a priest who has a TV show!

I have a theory that priests in Latin America historically have been more corrupt and/or venal because they've lacked competition.

Although it was difficult to understand because they were yelling over each other, I liked mild-mannered Peluche finally blowing up at his psychopathic brother.

I'm sure it's probably how he really was, but I feel like screaming at the TV when Escobar has so little self-knowledge that he constantly portrays himself as the victim of the government.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

TGIGF!! Thank God it's the GRAN FINAL! I'm so glad Camilo's back, as unexplained as it was. Sam and Willy... ugh. I agree that this almost-getting-back-together and then not has gotten really old, and am so glad someone has mentioned Sam's wooden acting... I thought I was the only one who hasn't been impressed by Ximena at all.

The Fernanda's daughter storyline has been quite entertaining... with her identical white cat (and hair color), and then her subsequent transporting to Colombia via the CV Supersonic LA to Colombia Express. Actually, I had quite a good-natured laugh as the whole gang showed up at the wedding all of the sudden, where there just happened to be a screen and projector set up to show the DVD proof they had brought. Fabulous!

It seems we are not done with the dungeon scenes though... Fernanda wielding a chainsaw at a restrained Papito. That was creepy.

One of these days I'm going to comb back through these recaps and tally kidnappings, near-death experiences/hospitalizations, and false imprisonments. Just for kicks :)

LA MARIPOSA

I've gotten tired of waiting on MundoFox to post episodes and have gone back to Primicia. The video/audio quality is not that great, but at least I get an idea of what happens next. LOVE that Altagracia, and Martinez/Mariposa are such great actors! I'm loving these guys!

I also found another Colombian series, A Mano Limpia, on Primicia and elcarteltv.com. TOTALLY addicted to that one too, and once again, the acting is terrific.

AnotherAmy
 

Corazon Valiente -

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

Clara doesn't look so good,

the 6 months jump threw me, that Miggy hadn't been to the only girlie bar in Colombia, or met anyone that had seen such a phenomenal pole dancer, (shades of Flor Salvaje, another untouchable, but known far and wide), until I see you mentioned the call from NB, to hide her, a new management as well I suppose.

I have to say, I wasn't looking for a complete wrap up, but am pleased that they have given us yet another new event, the Reptile meets her spawn, (none of the other eggs hatched?)

we haven't seen Génesis and Violeta since their big sister has come home, are they still alive?

so while Angela looks under the bed for the reptilita, she appears in Colombia, and with lucy too,

actually I find the reptilita story a bit fascinating and curious how it will play out, (good casting here), and I somehow suspect that it will bring about the Reptiles downfall, but where is Bernardo, sunning himself on a secluded beach, tasting yet another forbidden fruit, he needs to be a part of this.

a controversial ending perhaps?

(María del Pilar Pérez plays Maria Fernanda del Castillo)
 

Pablo Escobar -

thanks so much Hombre !!!

to repeat some of the early promo from the wiki page,
"the series features 1,300 actors and more than 450 locations"
and you seem to know all of their character names...
whew!
 

Rosa Diamante -

I'm guessing that there are only about two weeks left of this but I suspect Telemundo won't make a formal announcement until after La Patrona is up and running.

this is fun to watch and easy to follow,
exceptional acting by Carla Hernández and Lupita Ferrer (the evil mother who wishes to change, all because of the love of her daughter)

plus an assortment of clowns,

a picture summary of last Fridays show is here,
http://foro.telenovela-world.com/n4/read-t.php?f=1123&i=8207&t=8207
 

Deb,
I laughed out loud when Angela looked for MF under the bed!

Didn't she have a white cat when she was at the internado? Maybe Lucy, too, has a daughter she didn't know about...

AnotherAmy
 

Pablo Escobar -

oh,
thanks NovelMaven for your explanation of "La Catedral",

interesting, as Hombre pointed out,
that is was a manicomio, (insane asylum)
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

De nada, Deb. Gabriel García Márquez describes the building on the property known as La Catedral as the former "Centro Municipal para Drogadictos", that is a drug rehab facility. Talk about irony.
 

ROSA DIAMANTE

I've lost a whole lot of interest in this, since Rosa got imprisoned, and then it seemed the whole thing fell apart. Her character started out strong, then got weak and stupid (imho) after that. If I were writer(s), I would have had her stay away from the ususal suspects for a year or two, or until she made something of herself, just to show them what she's made of.

Thank heavens this isn't 200some episodes long.
 

La Mariposa:

I just turned on my tv and found that I have MundoFox. I'm not sure if this is a new thing or if I've alwats had it. In any case, they seem to be showing a marathon of La Mariposa and it automatically has subtitles. I've never watched a tn with subtitles before. Since it's subtitles and not closed captioning, the quality of the transaltion is really good and in time with the action. They did translate "blondie" (guera) as "girl" though, so it's not perfect.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Thanks for a superb, awesome recap, Novelera!

Yes, this episode may have set a record for loose ends and improbable events, but they still have one episode left. Break the record!

I don't know why Sam picked EM's being a drug trafficker as the thing to criticize. How about liar? Fraud? Manipulator? Faking his own drowning, that he was shot, that he developed a medicine to help mankind? Just to get the girl? Is this juvenile, or what? I don't care if these things are illegal or not, to me they're what Sam should be upset about. Who cares if EM "loves" her, it's not love if your whole existence is a lie. EM loves to tell how he saved Sam, didn't kill various people when he could have. But what about all those he DID kill? And I'm not buying his tough upbringing. I've seen enough telenovelas to know that even if you start out some poor orphan, if your good, kind and earnest, 6 months later you get an amazing wedding!

I agree that Piedad hasn't been much help with her predictions recently. But I do remember one biggie. Way back, she said that Willy would be the downfall of EM. It seemed strange at the time, but now, anything can happen. Let's see if they remember that one. I'm excited about the Gran Final!
 

LA MARIPOSA

Vivi, welcome to the party! Yes, I also noticed that güera o güerita mistaken translation as girl. For those who don't know Spanish, it takes away some of the specificity of what El General Vásquez is saying to Alicia.

This novela is majorly addictive. It's especially super knowing that there are only 60 episodes.

I have to admit I depend on those subtitles for some of Amaury's dialog. I don't know if it's just me, but it sure seems like Michel Brown talks faster than any other character I can remember. It could also be that my long-time Spanish teacher, Graciela, is from Guadalajara and I just find Mexican Spanish easier to understand.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Wow, Novelera. What a recap!

I’m actually excited about the last episode, although I’m happy that the novela is finally ending. I doubt it will be satisfactory or that loose ends will be tied… but I like to keep my expectations low.


Hombre, I wished that Sam had thrown all that crap in EM’S face… Her handling of the truth was… pathetic. It’s funny how all these evil men who are into Sam (obsessed/in love with her) seem to think that they somehow “deserve” her and completely overlook the fact that if Sam really is what they “love” her for, she would NEVER overlook their actions

I liked that Willy told Sam off. She didn’t seem actually broken anyway. It would have been a little different if she had indeed been crying about her stupidity and humiliation, but she just… stood there. Besides, it’s not the first time that she has been tricked by a man. Frankly, I think Sam has deserved A LOT of stern lectures and certainly hasn’t had enough of them. Not that she seems to get anything through her thick skull anyway. Even afterwards she couldn’t own up to her mistakes and it really reflects bad on her that she wanted to get back together with Willy AFTER things didn’t work out with her new man. GAH. Granted, Willy needed to realise that she never ”cheated” on him, but since she ended up going with EM anyway, it made little difference at that point.
If neither can admit their mistakes, apologise and have a proper discussion, they shouldn’t be together. At least Willy has understood it (and has for a while). However, it was nice that they seemed cordial with each other after six months and that Sam actually mentioned seeing her kids… but I don’t know how on earth they can get back together in one episode, given what has happened in the past and lately.

Also, Miggy&Fabiola and Clara&Camilo (Hello, Camilo!) need to find each other again.
Or maybe not? In the last ep I’m expecting the villains to die… but perhaps a shocking death of a good guy (or more) could happen… (and there is probably isn’t enough time to reunite all the happy couples… who knows?)
I wonder how many deaths the last episode will have. :)
D8D has signed his own death warrant (how convenient that there was a video!) Maybe this time Fernanda will kill the right person. It better be good. I wonder if there’s time to address the fact that he killed Darío, El Jefe and Jessica’s adoptive parents, Thelma and Victor as well…. And that he robbed Ofelia of her inheritance. Probably not. Who inherited Rodrigo’s vast fortune (and the company) anyway??

Floridia,
Nora never had a narco boyfriend. D8D just made up all that crap. I usually skip parts with Fabiola, so I don’t know why Ringo decided he had better things to do… As for MF… well, I hope we’re not supposed to actually forgive her murdering her fellow student, because we’re supposed to feel sorry for her?

Oh gosh, I HATED&DESPISED Javier on La Casa de al Lado. (And not in a good way like I hate D8D). I don’t like EM, but he is a lot more appealing than Javier (not that it requires much:…)

When I was more into the novela I was keeping track of the number of deaths and murder attempts but I’d really like a list of kidnappings/attempted kidnappings and near death experiences and how many times the characters have been hospitalised and flatlined.
(And which characters have the most crap happen to them. ;) )
I have missed quite a few eps of the novela anyway, so I too would eventually like to go back and tally everything. :)

 

OFF TOPIC

Hi Vivi in DC!! glad to see you here every now and then.

re closed captioning, I find that T-mundo is way better (also in sync) with the dialogue, compared to Univision's. as for subtitles on La Mariposa, they are indeed sometimes off in translating, but still get the gist of it.
 

La Mariposa:

Shallowgal- The episodes I saw today (I believe the last two episodes) were very exciting. I'll have to set my dvr from now on, now that I know MundoFox exists on my tv. I enjoyed Salvador Z. in Abismo de Pasion. Nice to see him in a different kind of role. How many more episodes to go?

What I don't understand is if all the other "gringos" (FBI agents) can speak Spanish with no gringo accent, why do they feel the need for their boss (the guy who played Mr. Danger in Dona Barbara) to have a bad gringo accent? Is this just that actor's real accent?
 

LA MARIPOSA

Vivi, there are a total of 60 episodes. It started airing December 4. I calculate 20 have aired. Like Telemundo, I'm pretty sure they skipped both Christmas Eve and Day and New Year's Eve and Day. If anyone has kept an accurate count, chime in please!

Actually Price (Jimmy Bernal) is American, but spent his youth in Colombia. NovelaMaven and I both have commented on his unusual speech AND overacting. He sounds weird in both languages. And that snarling boss accent he uses drives me crazy. I can't believe he could get away with treating all of his employees like crap and not have repercussions. He begged Martinez to take the job of infiltrating Alicia's money laundering operation, and has done nothing but undermine and belittle him ever since.
 

LA MARIPOSA

Vivi, I do like Salvador Z in this show. I never thought I'd find him sort of attractive.

if you'd like to see it from the start, here's the site.......

http://www.mundofox.com/videos/la-mariposa-6112
 

Corazón Valiente:

Hear Hear! Bravo!! A standing ovation is hereby extended to Jean and to Novelera for your stellar recaps of this epic, incredulous but entertaining train wreck that has, whenever possible, kept me tuning in for months to get a good chuckle or three -- even though I have terrible headaches from so much beanie tightening!! I've cracked up at your commentary as much as at the writers' sorry attempts to sell this piece of crap as believable. I think even they gave up on it at some point. Kudos to all of the commenters for keeping me up to date and entertained, too.

Like all of you, I've hated how they dumbed down the protagonists -- especially the women. There was so much promise at the beginning. The rape, drug, and/or pimp storylines have been deplorable. It's amazing how supposed strong women who are trained bodyguards and soldiers haven't at least been able to put D8D (who's disabled!), permanently "out of commission" (if you know what I mean). A beating or even death would almost be worth it to *not* have a nasty creep like him slobbering all over you.

At about midpoint in the novela, I had actually entertained thoughts that the reptile's spawn was still alive. Children (pregnancies, adoption, surrogate mothers, etc.) have been a big part of the main theme of this whole mess --along with extremely bad parenting. I think the existence of the Reptilita might have made more of an interesting storyline than the stupid drug trafficking angle, even though I've enjoyed Miguel Varoni's acting and the references to his nose. I would have died laughing if NB's baby had popped out with a schnoz!!

Speaking of the children, just how much time has passed during the course of this novela? Juan Cruz should at least be in kindergarten, Violeta and Génesis should be in junior high school, and Nico and Jessie should be in college, right? The only adult characters left that I like in CV are Nora, Gus, Camilo and maybe Angela because she has been a victim throughout the whole thing, albeit an extremely low functioning, dumb one.

Yes, as long as I've played it mostly for laughs, I have enjoyed CV. I'll kind of miss the comic relief of it all each evening. It'll be interesting to see how they wrap this all up tonight. I think there's too much water under the bridge to save any of the relationships - or there should be. Hopefully death will be torturous and Dexter-esque for D8D with castration coming first, for sure. I want to see Angela finally waste Fernanda or at least whup her azz and break her face. I'd also love one last scene starring the magnificent Arturo!!

But, you know, I really think that the only thing that will explain the WTF-ery and infinite number of tonterías of CV would be for it all to have been an ongoing cathartic nightmare that the Reptile had while she was in her coma, with none of the murders and torture ever having taken place. Upon waking from her coma Fernanda should be presented with her and JM's daughter, and they should marry and live happily ever after, much to the chagrin of the people who were mean to her -- hahahaha! It won't happen, but it should.

 

Oh, btw, the comment above^^ is mine.

Novela Newbie
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Novela Newbie, I ditto everything that you said, except I didn't keep watching once this show reached the absolute heights of idiocy. A nightmare by the Reptile would be a fantastic ending!

Many thanks to our wonderful recappers. I relied on you to keep me in the loop after I stopped watching, and I really felt like I could picture everything perfectly.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

Novela Newbie: I like your idea of ”everything being just a dream” (and I normally don’t like those kinds of cop outs). It would be so fitting for this train wreck. :)

And yes! My main issue with the novela is how the strong female characters have become so weak, stupid, pathetic, objectified and victimised (and some were already to begin with). It’s not quite that bad with the dumb male characters.

I also like the characters you mentioned… although I’d also add Laura, because she really grew on me and actually developed as a character (and she was introduced as an unpleasant roadblock from JM and Angie) unlike quite a few that deteriorated. (Well.. there is still the last ep that can destroy that…) Camilo has really come a long way as well!! However, although I like Nora, I wish she had had more to do than babysit the toddlers.

With the time that has passed, I think Nico and Jessie should be about 16 and Génesis and Violeta about 12. The pregnancies help keep track of the time. ;) At least JC’s actor can be easily switched, but with the others, it’s a bit difficult, so they do look really young for their age. ;)
 

TELENOVELA WATCH: TeleFutura Relaunches As UniMás

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2013/01/telefutura-relaunches-as-unimas.html#more
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Thank you all, wonderful recaps, wonderful comments. I too stopped being a faithful watcher when the Reptile escaped for the 100th time. I'm glad this is coming to the end, but somehow I get the feeling it's going to be a frustrating ending. I can't believe how much they messed up Willy and Sam. But I do have to say I liked all the guest appearances thrown in there.

I wondered if Ximena's acting would get better or if Telemundo was going to keep her staring at the camera when she is asked a crucial questions. She has done this since the first time I've ever seen her act. But is it her or is it Telemundo. I recall Sandra Echeverria used to do the same thing. While Maite Perroni likes to twist her head to the side. I am wondering if they think they have to do this become known for that peculiar technique of acting - like another older actress who is known for her lagrimas, or the older actor who always uses a new catch phrase in his TN's.

I hope this ending surprises me, and I hope the Reptile does not meet her end like she has in the other 2 TN's I've seen her in.

I have said and will continue to say Uni and Telemundo should be grateful to this site, when we try to leave, this site pulls us back in.

Novela Newbie and Vivi, I loved your recent comments.
 

LA MUJER EN EL ESPEJO

Telemundo's digital subchannel Exitos started re-airing the 2004 novela "La mujer en el espejo" today, starring Paola Rey and Juan Alfonso Baptista and the fab Natasha Klauss. It's a pretty silly one - Paola is an ugly duckling who after a magical intervention from her dead aunt, turns beautiful, but the spell only lasts in the daytime, at night, she turns back into her plain self. It's airing at 7 am/pm, 11 am/pm, 3 pm/am ET.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Lunes, Part 1

Pablo finishes his meeting with Padre Gomez Herrera. Pablo's going to turn himself in, always thought if he did turn himself in, it would be through a man of Christ. He gives the Padre a letter for President Gaviria, and a nice white handmade poncho.

The Padre meets with Alberto, and assures him he made Pablo kneel down. What about the hostages? Well, says the Padre, that didn't come up. The Padre, still wearing his new poncho, meets with the President and the other leaders. He gives the letter to the President. It contains conditions for Pablo to turn himself in. So what does the President have to do? 1) Fire General Peraza! 2) Publicly discipline Pabon, Aguirre and Jairo Hernandez! 3) We've set up our own prison (El Catedral) near Medellín.

Ridiculous, of course. And no mention of the hostages. Alberto is furious. But the President seems to be going along with at least the prison of your choice condition, and Pablo types a press release that he's freeing the last two hostages. Topo isn't happy about this, but Pablo assures him they've won, they got everything they wanted. At El Espectador, Niki informs Juangi about the prison. They both think it's shameful. While Escobar held the hostages, the government issued three decrees, each one better than the last for the criminals. And now this “prison”'. Not to mention the congress is just about to amend the constitution to forbid extradition!

The news announces that Maruja and Fernán will be released, and they're jubilant, watching on their little tv's. The woman guarding Maruja is happy. Fermán's guard hasn't gotten the order yet.

Pablo tells Ramada it's a fact, he's turning himself in. And he's freeing the hostages, proving his war with the government is over. He tells Ramada that even though he'll be in El Catedral, the cartel will keep going. We need new routes, get the business going. Pablo will support them from jail. But in light of the situation, he needs 30% of all gross earnings! No problem, say Ramada and his partner.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 2

Maruja is dressed up to go. The woman guarding her asks her pardon, poverty forced her to do it. Maruja says okay, even agrees to a hug. The guard says he has to wait another day. Okay, says Maruja, at least give me my ring. He doesn't know about any ring, but says when she's freed she'll get her stuff back. Maruja resigns herself to smoking another cigarette.

General Peraza is called in to see the President, who has to make a painful decision for the good of the country. In other words, Peraza is fired. Hmmm. Cut to Pabon and Aguirre. Aguirre is through, he's packing his bags. Pabon says but Escobar's surrender is good, we should keep working. Aguirre would rather have brought Escobar down, or captured him. Pabon agrees, but they didn't. And maybe this is good for the country.

At Pablo's house, the family is enjoying the nice weather outside with some iced tea. But Enelia's not happy. Her son, going to jail! Pablo assures her it's not a jail, it's his own property he bought to guarantee he'd be okay. Pati's okay with it. Enelia asks Peluche, are you going, too? Sure, Ma. Enelia is mad that Pablo dragged Peluche into this whole mess. Pelunche jokes, I'm the big brother, I'll keep an eye on little brother Pablo. Pablo also reminds Enelia he WON the war. He then tickles his Mom, who's not in the mood.

Late that night, Maruja is being driven to freedom, struggling for breath under a ski mask. The guy tells her to count to 30 after they let her out. He says he put the ring in a little bag, along with a little money. The car stops, and shortly thereafter, Maruja rips off the mask, she can breathe again. She knocks on a door, and they help. She calls Alberto, who says it's the happiest day of his life.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – EL GRAN FINAL – Part 1

Holy Crossfire, Batman! They went through ALL the fake blood at Telemundo!

First we see the Reptile all teary-eyed at the sight of her daughter. She says she feels like she’s changed her skin. [Really, skin changes? She must have been reading our recaps.] She says she’s a new woman, re-born. [Wait until later, folks!]

Gus says the chip is working – the one they hid on María Fernanda. But where are Ángela and JM?

During the Reptile and Reptilita’s big scene together, Luci Jr. keeps “meowing” loudly. They should have fed the cat before the cameras rolled. Reptilita tells her mamí how many lonely years she had, feeling abandoned. Fernanda promises nothing but love and happiness from now on. [Wanna bet?]

Jesús Matamoros keeps choking La Niña Bonita asking where Fabiola is. She asks if he’s going to kill her. Of course, he can’t do it. He says he has to get Alma’s mother back for her. Grinning evilly, NB says es un animal. She says she’s put her back in the jungle where she should have stayed. We see FF chained in a cage with barking Rottweilers outside. EM warns her that, while she may play at turning FF into an animal, Miggy won’t play. He will be a wild beast and finish her off.

Willy tells the Reptile at the wedding scene that she has to let his friends go. He tells her that Cecilia told them about María Fernanda. Miggy asks about Clara and Fabiola. She says that D8D made Clara work as a prostitute and later killed her. And she saw Fabiola a few months back working at the same bordello, only once, and never saw her again.

The Reptile lets everyone go, but says her daughter comes with her. After she’s gone, JM rushes up: “Mi hija, mi hija!”

When Fernanda gets back to Casa Verdugo, D8D is sitting on the sofa grinning away. He says he arrived too late for the wedding. Fernanda tells him he arrived just in time to meet his granddaughter: the one he took from her womb when she was in a coma; the one he stole from her; the one he left abandoned in Switzerland for 18 years; the one he made her believe had died; the one he denied her. Ringo puts the gun to his head, begging to kill him. D8D looks pretty green around the gills.

Miggy and Camilo run into the bordello, guns drawn, and throw out all the clients. They start searching for Clara and Fabiola. A new madam tries to stop Camilo and gets a gun in her face for her trouble. Clara is slumped, leaning on the bed. The madam says she did it to herself, stopped eating and drinking. Camilo carries her out.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – EL GRAN FINAL – Part 2

EM calls Miggy. [I’ve been noticing how much easier cell phones have made the telenovela writers’ lives. People don’t have to drive places for confrontations any more. They just threaten each other over the phone.] EM says he had promised to call when the baby was born; it’s un macho. He then says he knows where Fabiola is. Do you know where La Cruz del Águila is? Miggy’s lips curl. [Of course a man from Mexico knows about this Colombian landmark.] Camilo tells Miggy that Clara is dying.

Gigante announces the arrival at Casa Verdugo of a supermodel: Lady, all gussied up, saying she still loves Jesús. Doña Piedad says the apocalypse is nigh.

JM chews out Gus and Laura for getting María Fernanda mixed up in this. Laura reminds him that she got away from him! Nora tells them to stop fighting about this; Fernanda won’t let anything happen to her. Apparently the chip has worked, and they know where Casa Verdugo is.

Ah, how sweet it is! D8D himself is strapped into the well-worn wheelchair in the dungeon. The Reptile asks if he wants to explain himself. He says he did it for her well-being. She was the product of incest. Her daughter should never have been born. The kid was conceived because of a bet, and is the daughter of a mother who should never have children. He tells her that her womb is cursed. Ringo injects him with something that appears to make him high as a kite. Ringo tells him he’ll be conscious, he’ll be able to hear, but he won’t be able to move from the chair.

The Reptile asks: “Who did you love, old trickster? And, if you loved, with whom were you good? You treated Nora badly – put her in jail. You took Ofelia to darkness. You killed Clara. And you made Sam and Willy’s lives impossible. But with me you were the worst. You destroyed my life. With whom were you good?” He replies: “con Isabel Uriarte, Juan Manuel’s wife. She was the only one who saw my good side.” Then he imagines himself on some beach in heaven, re-united with Isabel. She says she loves him too. Kiss, kiss. [I sincerely doubt this afterlife for D8D.]

The Reptile says she wants to see if he has a heart. He laughs. He says he has no heart. She fires up the chain saw and goes after him, blood spraying all over her wedding dress.

We get a boring maudlin scene with Clara telling Camilo how much she missed him and his telling her to resist.

We see Miggy running past some big ol’ cross in the middle of the woods and see Fabiola inside a cage. She looks extremely feral again and appears not to recognize him.

We see the Reptile squeezing D8D’s heart with the blood dripping through her white wedding gloves. Whoa! In the next scene she’s gone all “Bride of Dracula” with a purple gown and black cape with a huge stiff collar. Why she’s taken a leaf from Hannibal Lector’s book! She’s flambéing D8D’s heart in his favorite liqueur, cackling demonically.

Willy is hanging with his best bud, Arturo. This doesn’t last long. There’s a knock on the door, and it’s Sam. She gives it one last try. She says he’s her love. She needs him like air. Willy finally succumbs because it’s the last episode.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – EL GRAN FINAL – Part 3

EM tells NB that he always dreamed of leaving “this life” with her and his heir. Now, here they are, and it’s nothing like he dreamed. She asks if she stopped being his dream and became his nightmare. He says she did give him a son. He smells him and knows he’s his. That’s one amazing nose! When she asks how much he loved Sam, he replies that some loves that never are fulfilled, that remain an ideal, never end.

Clara and Fabiola are in the hospital. Miggy tries to snap FF out of it showing her cell phone pictures of Alma. [I’m surprised he can recognize her himself!]

Oh boy! The Reptile has the flambéed heart on a plate, a nice Chianti, but I don’t see any fava beans. She digs right in.

JM is in the bar telling everyone he wants to speak with Doña Victoria; he’s the father of her child.

Ringo comes to tell the Reptile that JM is looking for her. She tells him to fetch him in the morning. He begs her to calm down, to have their wedding night. He takes a bite of her dinner. The Reptile: “You like it? It’s my papito’s heart.” Ringo rushes to the sink.

Laura tells Gus this should be their last dangerous mission. She’s pregnant. Gus, needless to say, is overjoyed.

Ringo comes in to tell EM that the Reptile killed her father. EM says he doesn’t really care. He also tells him he’s going to pay a huge price for falling in love with such a bitch. This wounds Ringo, who throws it back at him about being in love with Sam. He tells EM that Sam is here. Doesn’t he want to see her? Jesús: “How can I forget someone who took my breath away?” I’d give my life to see Navarro if only once – the last time.

Sam and Willy are arm in arm. He tells her she has no idea how he suffered. She only saw him laughing, but his life was a desert. He says he always knew they’d be together. And right then Ringo shows up, giggling away. He has the thugs take Sam away. He has hit Willy on the head and then puts a clip in his gun and puts it to Willy’s temple.

Ringo is hitting more stops than Santa Claus. He next shows up at JM and Angie’s hotel room. He tells JM he wanted to see Doña Victoria, so they’re going. Angie isn’t allowed to come.

Miggy is getting ready for the big assault. Camilo says he’s not a coward; he’s coming along. After they leave Fabiola remembers NB putting her in that cage, laughing at her, and throwing her some food. She spits out a pill and gets out of bed.

JM appears before the Reptile. María Fernanda: “Papa, you came!” She then puts her arms around the Reptile, telling her she’s wonderful. The Reptile says it’s a shame; they could have been a marvelous family, the three of them.

Piedad the Sorrowful Seer tells EM that everything is coming to an end. [For once she’s right.]
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – EL GRAN FINAL – Part 4

JM tells Fernanda that he brought María Fernanda so that she could know her mother, but her life is with him. The Reptile says she won’t give up her daughter. JM tells her the cops are looking for her. She has to pay for her crimes and also be cured.

Ringo takes a hood off Sam in front of EM. Surprise! EM puts his head in his hands. “What did you do, baby? Have you gone crazy?” Sam starts in on him, saying he asked Ringo to do it. He tells her that he’s enough of a man that he doesn’t have to send for any woman, much less make her do what she doesn’t want to do. Ringo realizes he’s screwed up. EM tells him to take Sam to Willy. He then asks her if she has the medal with her. He says it will protect her and, if it suits her, maybe someday she’ll pray to the Virgin for him.

We see the Colombian version of Seal Team Six moving toward Casa Verdugo. Why do our TN heroes need to go if they’ve got this much firepower? Miggy and Camilo arrive. And Fabiola jumps out of the back of the SUV as she’s done a couple of other times before.

Ringo didn’t shoot Willy. He’s also there with a gun. Ringo comes out with Sam as a shield. Then he pushes her away. “Let it be God’s will!” and starts firing. He shoots Willy in the neck and then gets more holes than a colander himself. He staggers back in and gets a pretty good death scene with EM. He gives EM a piece of paper that El Verdugo gave him.

EM tells Lady to go to the “catacombs” with his son and Piedad. Save his son! NB comes in and actually asks about the baby. EM tells her to save herself and leave. We see her running away, and Miggy goes after her.

Uh oh. Three wedding cake looking boxes are left outside Ángela’s hotel room. The accompanying note says that this story began with a cake [We see JM and Ángela’s first meeting when she delivered a cake to his house.] and it will end with a cake. The cake blows, and we see Ángela fly out the window.

EM is on the roof, waving a helicopter toward him. Miggy is chasing and yelling: “Stop, Ivonne!” Instead she shoots him twice in the chest. But she gets tackled by Fabiola who first punches her in the face and then chokes her.

The Reptile tells MF that she’s going to give herself up. Take care of Luci, please. MF: “Luci is gatita?” The Reptile: No, he’s male. Luci is short for Lucifer!

Fabiola needs choking lessons! NB gets away, produces a knife and then stabs Fabiola in the stomach. She goes back to finish her off, but Miggy shoots her twice. It looks like Miggy and FF are ready to die together, but we know better, don’t we?

The Reptile says she wants María Fernanda to be happy. But the Colombian assault team manages to shoot both JM and MF. The Reptile screams NOOOO!
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE – LUNES – EL GRAN FINAL – Part 5

Jesús gets shot off the roof before he can get into the helicopter.

The Reptile comes out of the house with two machine guns and gets off quite a few shots before getting shot full of holes by the Colombian assault force. She has on a white dress for full effect! Unfortunately she shot Gus before she was shot.

We hear Jesús Matamoros, El Mesías, reading the Epilogue. There’s a funeral for Gus with a 21-gun salute. We don’t see any of the main characters at the funeral.

We see Emma in Barcelona. She’s at a gallery, and her show is a big success. Pablo has their little boy on his shoulders and Emma is pregnant with the next one.

Now we’re in Sicily. Jesús intones: “Ay, El Verdugo, who was the pupil and who was the master?” We see EV, in perfect health. Someone has brought Jessica to him. He says he was hurt badly after the duel, but the doctor who saved him is now in his heart. He points to a hot doctor. He says power and money aren’t important; family is. He’s now a decent man.

Jesús says that there are hearts that turn into legends. He says that after 3 days El Mesías rose again! We see an empty grave.

We then see a bunch of snapshots instead of actual scenes. Guess they ran out of film, the novela’s been on so long. We see Ángela, JM, Génesis, Violeta and Juan Cruz baking something in the kitchen. We see Laura holding Gus’ photo with one hand and her baby bump with the other. We see Nic in his cap and gown. Who’s that kissing his cheek? It doesn’t really look like Jessica.

We see Cecilia listening to a doctor’s heart with a stethoscope. I guess she snagged a doctor while recovering. We see Lady on a magazine cover with, I assume, baby Matamoros in her arms. We see a white van labeled C&C Gardening, with a picture of Camilo and Clara on the side.

We see Miggy, Fabiola, Alma, and Cielo in Ushuaia in Argentina, bundled up in warm clothes. We see Sam, Willy, Nicolás, Luz, and Valentín smiling on a beach. The last picture is of the three brothers and sisters dressed as bodyguards: Ángela, Samantha, and Miguel.

Jesús says: This is the end of the story, or is it? Someone comes to Fernanda’s grave in a black cape and places a red rose there. We hear the Reptile’s voice: Un demonio es un ángel al que echaron del cielo. Fin!
 

Corazon Valiente -

thanks so much novelera, for this and all of the wonderful recaps you and Jean have done!

this gran final moved along pretty quickly and I missed quite a bit, but your summary really got it all,

Aylin Mujica (Fernanda) was great with the heart scenes,
as well as the white dress, death scene.

Angela getting blown right out of the building, pretty much summed up her relationship with Fernanda, for this whole story.

Loved seeing Fabiola take down NB.

Odd that Verdugal lived, easily overlooked because it was Gregorio Pernía, always enjoy watching him.

Nice that they tied up the little bit where Luci is a male cat.

Nice to see Emma and Pablo again,

Sorry to see Gus die, what did he ever do that was bad.

and the photos at the end, most of that went right by me, but after reading your detailed accounts and then watching them again, it really gave me the happy endings.

thanks again!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Novelera outstanding. I could not figure out what happened to most of the "good" guys, they focused so much on the bad guys. I had no idea what happened to Clara, glad to see you noted the truck. D8D's death was interesting, I too was looking for the flava beans. (I'm sorry I kept asking myself how much they must have had fun filming that scene) While they had FF take her licks on NB, I had wished that was Angela taking her licks on The Reptile.

Best wishes to all that will see the new one starting tonight.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE- A fabulous, funny and fact-filled finale, Novelera. As I recall, Doña Piedad predicted that there would be "mucha sangre" and she sure was right! That must have been the day the producers ordered the giant economy "bucket o' fake blood."

I totally agree with previous comments about how the strong women at the beginning of the show were dumbed down to helpless, stupid victims. So we had Angie, a trained bodyguard, who gets a mysterious cake that's acutally ticking and she sits down and reads the note that comes with it!

25th time is the charm, I guess, for Willy to forgive Sam and take her back. There was nothing to make him change his mind except that, as you said, it was the last episode.

Why did Gus have to die and never to get to see his child and EV, who actually killed a bunch of people, gets to live and be happy with his daughter? That was muy injusto. If a baddy had to live, I would have prefered EM to EV. EM killed the bad doctor to save Alma but EV killed what's her name, Miggy' former lover, in cold blood because she saw his face.

Not too smart of the police to just fire blindly into the house when they knew that innocent people, like MF, were in there.

I was hoping for a more lingering punishment for D8D. Unpleasant as having his heart cut out with a chain saw was, his suffering didn't last that long. I would rather have seen him go to jail and be brutalized and raped for years and years for the suffering he put on others.

It was nice to see Emma, Pablo and Arturo one last time.
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:

What an amazing and fabulous recap, Novelera! Made me feel a lot better after watching the episode.
Massive thanks both to you and Jean for keeping up with the recaps!!!

On the grand finale:

GUSTAVO!!!!!
I knew that the finale would be disappointing and all sorts of loose ends would remain untied and forgotten, but if Gustavo had lived, I might not care that much. I thought that a “good guy” would be killed off, but did it have to be Gustavo, who was arguably one of the most decent people? On top of that, the damned El Verdugo is “redeemed” or something. To me he’s still a villain and might have even remained an interesting one (although the whole Fabiola obsession was disturbing and asinine) without this redemption BS. If they needed to redeem a villain, how about EM? Not that I care that he’s dead, but he definitely had more redeeming qualities than EV. It’s sickening to see dumb Jessie be so happy with her dear father, who tried to kill her boyfriend. Great. In addition, now that Laura has lost her boyfriend, there is still the possibility of her reuniting with Javier. At least I didn’t get to see that, but I hate that the option is still there. Out of all the couples it’s the healthy one that doesn’t get their happy ending. Of course, it was a safer option, considering that less people care about them and they were never portrayed as amazingly passionate and as each other’s one true loves. I actually cheered when Laura told Gus that she was pregnant and was pretty sure that she was safe thanks to pregnancy immunity, but I was worried for Gus, although I hoped that he wouldn’t be killed off, because it would seem too cruel. In the end Fernanda got her “revenge” for Ofelia, although it was really Fernanda's doings that got her killed, not Gus, who was trying to save Angie from being killed by Ofelia on Fernanda’s orders. Stupid logic. I really didn’t need Fernanda to succeed in that and it takes away from her otherwise okay demise.
I like that Emma and Pablo were back for the finale. That was one highlight for me.
D8D’s demise was never going to satisfy me, but I did like his creative death. Cannibalism! I wish he had been more conscious for it, but I suppose that might have been too gruesome for the novela.
Sam and Willy got together just like that without discussing any issues. Okay. I did like their sex scene though. Pity it had to be intercut with EM and NB's talking.
Basically, the novela got everything quickly wrapped up by killing off people in a shootout and not explaining anything in an aftermath, but by just showing pictures of those who survived.
By the way, I do think it was Jessie with Nico in that pic (I’m pretty sure they weren’t old enough to graduate though) and don’t know why it would be anyone else. Sam also looked pregnant again. Of course.
I suppose the good guys were still in hospital, because it seems a bit cold that they weren’t present at Gustavo’s funeral.
 

Corazon Valiente
Novelera--biggest thanks EVER! I missed lots of the stuff in the photo montage at the end, it went by too fast. Your summary revealed some more happy endings, whew!
Am still processing it all...
J in Oregon
 

Corazon Valiente
Jean and Novelera-- for all the time and effort you have put into this over the last many months, "thanks" doesn't quite say it all. You were our safety net when we didn't understand the dialogue. When we missed an entire episode because our mother-in-law came to dinner, we could always count on you. I really enjoyed this show despite its flaws, and both of you put the icing on the cake. Thank you.
J in Oregon
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE:
Continued thanks to long comment:

I wanted the women to do something in this finale, but I suppose it was an amusing testimony to how their portrayal has changed (in a bad way) during the course of the novela and in the end the men will do what men do, because they’re men.
Even Willy, who has been depicted as someone too soft to be able to kill anyone, got to kill Ringo and was there with the police despite having absolutely no qualifications. Camilo used to be a gardener, still is, but even he was more bad ass than the female bodyguards.
To summarise the doings of the “heroines” in the finale:
Angie: Can’t stop JM’s kidnapping, doesn’t do anything about it afterwards and is blown away by an exploding cake.
Sam: Moans to Willy to take her back (we don’t know if this has been going on for 6 months, but it probably has), gets kidnapped and cries after Willy after he’s been shot
Fabiola: Actually finds her spunk and tries to take down NB, but would have been killed if Miggy hadn’t rescued her
Clara: Completely broken and rescued by Camilo
Laura: The only woman, who gets to be part in taking down the bad guys, alongside Gus, who is killed.

Not that I want to read into it (except I do), but out of the female good guys it’s the one, who isn’t making her life about her man or being rescued by one, who doesn’t end up happy with her man. But hey... at least she has his child. Kind of like the pathetic Lady has EM’s child.

Wasn’t the girl in the end Maria Fernanda? I guess the point was that now SHE has become a demon thanks to what happened. Although she kind of already was. Kind of like Fernanda was as well, and used her “suffering” as an excuse to murder people.

Jean, I agree on the unfairness of the situations concerning Gus and EV (I wanted to point that out as well, but couldn’t fit that into the first part of my comment). Maybe it was supposed to be ironic?
And yes, a more prolonged death and suffering for D8D, would have been better.
Didn’t the police know that JM and MF were in the house?? Didn’t anyone bother to inform them??

Overall… I think I did enjoy this novela and all its craziness, although my interest died down a lot, mainly because I couldn’t stand Fabiola, the Miggy&Fabiola couple together and their drama with EV. The novela had a lot of potential, but really didn’t utilise it and IMO didn’t go in directions that I liked. A LOT of the stuff was predictable, although I appreciated the few surprises. As mentioned many times, I hated how the “good guys” were dumbed down and got away with some questionable actions just because they were “good guys” and that the women (besides Laura) were reduced to weaklings and emotionally dependent on their men, or other men, while the men (no matter what job they’ve had in the past) became stronger and meaner. Actually, I’m okay with some of the positive development the men went through, but it highlights the negative development of the women even more.
I ADORED Sam and Willy in the beginning and even stuck with them through all the crap, but I hate that I ended up hating my once favourite character, although I didn’t end up hating the couple. (I spent too much time rooting for them to not want them back together.) I think, in the end, Laura ended up as my favourite (for obvious reasons) and although D8D and Fernanda should have been offed long ago, they were over the top villains really suitable for this over the top novela and I did love to hate them. (Can’t say that for all of the villains) In general, I liked how different all the villains were when it came to their level of evil.

I usually have problems staying interested in telenovelas even as long as I was into CV (but I was REALLY into it. :), so I don’t know if I’ll be following the new ones… or maybe one of them. I’d like to follow at least one (and I do want to listen to Spanish), so I hope I will. (Might check out the first episode of La Patrona. I don’t know).
It’s been fun reading the recaps and comment on this site, so…. Thanks a lot, again!!!
 

Novelera, Incredible! a 5 part Gran Final. Want to express my appreciation to you and Jean for your devotion to the service you continually perform for all of us.

For me this novela ended as a Horror Show. I stayed in it for the romance of Willy and Sam and how attractive they were as a couple...both physically and with their mild bantering back and forth which showed healthy arguments between the two. However, all that deteriorated to a horribly broken relationship. I did enjoy the final love scene because they do that so well. Both of those actors were new to me as were most of them with the exception of JM who was in DA.

NO! NOT GUSTAVO! I think having GUS die was a bad move (among many) on the part of the writers. He was a selfless, caring, courageous character throughout the tn and he absolutely deserved a better fate. I guess he was the only character I really cared about although I loved Willy's looks and found him endearing and more physically appealing.

The one funny part for me was seeing that Arturo also made the journey to Columbia in this moment of life and death struggles. PU-LEASE!

The first novela I ever watched was La Mujer en el Espejo, followed soon by La Madrastra.
At the time I was enchanted by both of them.

Now, however, I vow to be more discerning in my viewing.

Many thanks, again, Jean and Novelera..You are indeed Pro's.

HOMBRE - I am a few episodes behind with PABLO. The kidnapping of the reporters was indeed tragic and is extremely heartbreaking to watch. Thank you for your assistance. I pull up your page and watch part of the program alternating with the reading of your recap.

Happy New Year!
Happy New Novela!

(I love the looks of Jorge Luis Pila but don't plan on watching La Patrona regularly.)
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

I guess i'm the only one that feels like this but i'll say it anyway.
I did not like the ending.
At all.
This novela turned out to be a bigger train wreck than LCDAL.
I was only okay with NB's death. But the rest no. Apart from killing the doctor EM didn't even seem like that bad of a guy. I dont think he deserved to die.
Ringo didn't either considering he tried to help Fabiola.
Bernardo should've been tortured slowly and painfully(The way Marcial tortured Mauricio Contento. Remember Sin Senos?).
I guess considering her actions Fernanda had to die, but i wanted to see a Angie vs Fernanda smackdown. Would've preferred to see her burn alive (Like Julian and Adolfmael). But when she realized she had a daughter i was hoping she went to the Loony bin. But no.
Verdugo alive!? I never liked this actor. Too one dimensional.
If a good guy was going to die then it should've been JM. This guy was just like Mariano Altamira from DEE?. An asshole.
Gustavo did not deserve death. Poor Laura. Maybe she will go lez with Cecilia since she has bad luck with men! Did Clara get better?
Looks like MF will continue her mothers serial killing legacy (Was glad to see Emma and Pablo one last time).

Even EL ROSTRO is more entertaining than this. Currently i am watching the sin senos rebroadcast on mun2.
 

EL SECRETARIO - Episode 90 - Jan. 8:

Emilio's been kidnapped!!!!!

Lorena is on the warpath and cursing Emilio. Frank is running back and forth from the apartments to the front gate looking up and down the street wondering where Emilio is, why hasn't he arrived home?

Mario is drinking cosmos at the bar and waiting for Emilio to arrive. After 6 or 7 drinks, he tells another customer to leave then checks his watch. He has the bartender also check his watch. It's late and Emilio still hasn't arrived. Where could he be?

Felix is trying to impress Toni with a homemade gourmet dinner at his home. With one bite of the horrid stuff, they both realize Felix can't cook. Toni tries to put her best spin -- it's the thought that counts. He puts his best flirt moves on her and pushes her into a kiss and then takes her to the bedroom.

Meanwhile, Nelson has taken Paula out for a night at a hot, hip nightclub. She is insulted when the security guard frisks her and slaps her butt. They go inside. Nelson wants to dance but Paula doesn't like/know the music. They sit down. Nelson pops out a packet of white snorting stuff. Paula puts her foot down and says she doesn't need stuff to loosen up. She takes his party hat and pulls him out on the dance floor. In the middle of dancing, she makes a phone call.

Felix and Toni are interrupted by a nagging phone ringing. Felix tries to get Toni to ignore it. She can't. She answers but no one responses. Felix pulls the phone from her hand and Paula talks about how much fun she's having with her new boytoy. She hangs up abruptly. Felix continues to yell into the receiver -- long enough for Toni to disappear into the bathroom.

While all this is happening, Conde is calling and calling Millie's phone and only getting the voice mail. He seems worried. Millie is out at the arcade with her son, and who do they bump into -- Aguirre playing one of the dance machines. Son thinks Millie and Aguirre are lovers. Aguirre and Millie convince him they are just friends and this is a chance meeting. Aguirre and Sebastian walk over to another video game to challenge each other. Millie is impressed.

Episode ends: Toni appears from the bathroom fully clothed. She says he's too tense and she should leave. He reminds her they are married and asks her why is she leaving? What's the matter?
 

UNIMAS TELENOVELAS:

Last night, the new telenovelas "Made in Cartagena" and "Quien eres tu?" started on UniMas (Telefutura). If anyone is interested, I posted a recap for episode one of "Made in Cartagena" and a short note about "Quien eres tu?" in the TW forum for "El Secretario".
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

Thank you so, so much, Novelera, for a wonderful recap. I also missed most of the photo montage at the end.

NovelaMan, ITA D8D should have suffered like Mauricio Contento in Sin Senos. I remember in that show the bad guys offering any cop (such as Contento) $2 million to work with them. Contento refused, and over many episodes was beaten and tortured, never talked, and was killed! But that show was supposed to be hard hitting, and CV is supposed to be silly. Which it was.

Jean, I agree with every one of your comments, exactly the points I was going to make.

The writers did go for the obvious and the cute, with Maria Fernanda carrying on the Reptile's tradition, and EM rising from the grave (since he's the Messiah).

D8D's one true love was Isabel? Give me a break. I think the person D8D loved most of all was Bernardo del Castillo.

Never let it be said that writers can't wrap up all the story lines in 10 minutes. They can. Just not very well!

But, all in all, I enjoyed the show, especially with the beautiful Sam, Clara and Fabiola (and Natalia).

And thanks again, to Novelera and Jean, for your super recaps!
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Hombre you messed up. Mauricio Contento was the doctor who put drugs in Catalinas implants. The policeman who was tortured was Capitan Salgado he brought down El Titi (Verdugo in CV). and the remaining men from his drug clan tried to torture him into telling who was the snitch.
Contento was tortured by Marcial when he learned Cats implants were infected.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE-

I liked this novela quite a lot. It went downhill a bit when it was extended but I have yet to see a novela that doesn't suffer when that happens. I guess I'm not as picky as some other commenters. I have seen much, much worse.

I liked most of the characters and the plot moved along briskly, which is really important.

I don't think that the storylines involving EV and EM really worked. Both of these supposedly tough narcos were much too nice and it was ridiculous that their downfalls were because of their obsessions with two women that they loved at first sight. Many other novelas have shown how vicious these narcos are. CV should have stayed with cartoon villians like D8D and the Reptile.

So it was a good run. I enjoyed it while it was on but I am not devastated now that it is over. Thanks for all the good wishes and good comments.
 

SIN SENOS:

NovelaMan, thanks for the correction. I guess there was a LOT of torturing goin' on in that novela!
 

Corazón Valiente:

First and foremost, big ups to Novelera whose epic recap of the finale made the CV gran finale pale in comparison.

Well, pure and simple, it STUNK!!! It stunk up my TV, my family room, and my thoughts but, realistically, I suppose that's what sh*t does. I literally sat there dumbfounded at the bloodbath as it unfolded before me. I, too, am thankful to Novelera for breaking down the ending because in my quasi catatonic state, I wasn't even listening to the narration, so I truly thought that most of the good guys had died.

I was saddened that they murdered Gus, the most honorable man in the novela (especially after his euphoria from learning that he was finally going to be a father) but, then again, we're talking CV so why not? The writers were obviously going for junior high school level shock value rather than any semblance of satisfaction for the loyal viewers. I guess the joke is on us. Here we were anticipating vindication for the good guys after all they've been through and the writers said, "Nuh-uh. Our gift to you is one final 'eff-u' for hanging in there with us for months." I almost feel violated!

As others have mentioned, I got no satisfaction from Fernanda's final tribute to her dad. I, too, wanted him to suffer and, as a vegan, I was doubly disgusted by the cannibalism even though her witch cape was a nice touch. I did laugh out loud when she seemingly pulled that chainsaw out of her fake, bulbous hindquarters. At least we know now what was packed in that thing!!!

The reappearance of EV made no sense but it went well with the "crime DOES pay" theme of CV. Jessica will probably end up being a murderer and drug trafficker like her daddy dearest. If she's still a minor, just who has legal custody of her? Introducing Fernanda's daughter made no sense except if there is a sequel. (Please, Telemundo. No ... just no!) Regarding EM, (a lousy, deceitful murderer, etc.) being resurrected as some sort of Messiah? Um ... ok.

All in all, though this novela was entertaining mainly because of its infinite and comical absurdities, the finale left me cold. Fernanda's last scene with two high powered assault weapons blazing was chilling in today's world even though she was finally silenced. (I'm not quite convinced).

In this tale of good vs. evil, if the entire body count, the kidnappings, rapes, tortures, and deceit of this mess are all tallied, I'd say that evil won. Even JM with his subsequent, simple-minded and cruel treatment of Angela didn't deserve to have so many of his family members murdered with his beloved eight-year old daughter nearly murdered and disabled for a while. Angela, who seemed to be best at baking cakes, was a kind woman and didn't deserve a physically abusive husband (Luis), a conniving mother, a period of wrongful incarceration with more abuse, mental issues while living on the street, emotional abuse from JM, and constant harassment by the Reptile. Boo and quadruple boo to the writers for not letting them be the ones to waste the Reptile.

But the upside of the finale for me was that I did get to see the glorious Arturo (who was teleported to Columbia) one more time. In his final scene, let his less than enthusiastic reaction when Sam walked into the room be a metaphor for this entire novela -- "Whateva."

I'm not feeling La Patrona, but I will watch the premier episodes. My winter break ends Friday, and it's back to my fifth graders and lesson planning, so my evening TV watching will be erratic unless I completely ignore my family.

Thank you again to Novelera and Jean for your dedication to recapping CV and adding snarky asides that kept me giggling. Thank you to all commenters for keeping me informed and smiling.


 

Corazón Valiente:

Yikes! I did it again! The above comment^^ is mine.

NovelaNewbie
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

I appreciate all the kind remarks on this and other recaps. And hats off also to Jean. We shared recapping this, and I loved every one of her recaps.

I also feel that, if one of the baddies had to survive, it should have been Jesús Matamoros. El Verdugo was extremely brutal and personally shot lots of people in cold blood – including Jesús himself. They also made sort of a metaphysical theme of his third life. The first one was as the dreaded El Mesías; the second was healing, staying with Doña Piedad, Lady, and Gigante and sort of putting violence behind him. At least that’s how I interpreted what he said. Then, when he had the usual instant love at first sight for Sam, he wanted still a third life, as his character stated, to spend with her. He wanted out of “the life”. So did El Verdugo, but he didn’t deserve it as much!

I agree that it was a shame they had to give Gus an opportunity at being a father and then kill him off. He WAS noble all the way through.

I was somewhat confused at the very end. I thought it was María Fernanda putting the rose on her mother’s grave, but they never showed her face. And the speaking voice was Fernanda del Castillo. I guess she was speaking from the great beyond! But, since El Mesías rose from the dead, I wasn’t quite putting it past the writers to have the Reptile do the same.

I agree with Jean. I have very much enjoyed this novela. I’m not that critical a viewer. These are, after all, soap operas, not Shakespeare; and, in my opinion, should be judged on their own merits. I was never bored. Lots of action and plot twists, and as someone here said once, the novela is like a shark – always moving.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Thanks, Hombre, for your very descriptive recap. They're saying últimos capítulos, so Escobar's end is getting close. I hope it's not quite as anti-climactic as they portrayed it in the very first episode. He needs to suffer some more.

That priest got on my last nerve. He gave a BENEDICTION to Pablo Escobar and accepted that poncho! And wore it to meet with the President of the Republic!

One thing they said, but didn't emphasize, was in Escobar's letter demands. He said that he wanted Peraza out because he had sold himself to the Cali cartel. Gaviria fired him, but his corruption wasn't mentioned during that interview. He should have been prosecuted!
 

UNI-MAS

Jody, I recorded the two novelas that started last night: Made in Cartagena and ¿Quién Eres Tú?

But, what with recapping the final of Corazón Valiente, there was no time to watch.

Basically, I'm novela shopping this week. I'm definitely in for La Mariposa until the end. I enjoy it very much. I'll be sampling La Patrona, and the two I mentioned above to see if anything catches my interest.

I offered to recap Mondays of La Patrona, but didn't get enough offers to make it worth while. So, that's off the table.
 

Pasión Prohibida -

I'm not 100% sure on this but I thought I saw a preliminary announcement by Telemundo on Pasión Prohibida,

"Gran Estreno Enero 22-8pm/7c."

so this would begin Tuesday, two weeks from today, following Rosa Diamante,

I'm curious to see Mónica Spear (from Flor Salvaje) in a different role, and doubly interested in seeing her interaction with Jencarlos Canela.
 

UNI-MAS:

Novelera, thanks for the note. I'm not going to be doing recaps full-time for the two telenovelas on Uni-Mas. MIC goes really fast and I have to pay close attention or I definitely miss something. QET? is based on La Ursurpadora. After watching La Ursurpadora over and over again, i should know that basic storyline by heart.

As far as La Patrona, I may do my own brief recap of just the first episode for it and post it over on TW.com in the El Secretario forum.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR -- lunes

Thank you, Hombre, for another superb recap.

To add a small detail that reminds us that the government is negotiating with a murderer -- When the president joins the meeting with the old priest and Villamizar, he has just come from the funeral of Escobar's latest victim, the ex-minister turned university professor.

To me, the priest seems more senile than corrupt. (That's the impression that GGM gives in his account too.)

Andrés Parra is doing loathsome so well, he must have needed an exorcist after he finished filming. Ugh.

This is an exceptional novela but it can't end too soon, as far as I'm concerned.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Some final thoughts....
This (Like LCDAL) started strong but the novela soon became a joke.
Adrian Fonseca im sorry to say wasn't that impressive. Either she is a horrible actress or she just couldn't handle Angelas personality.
Jose luis Resendez wasn't too impressive either. His acting was better in FLOR SALVAJE.
Didn't like Angeline Moncayo as Laura. She gave a better performance in MAS SABE EL DIABLO and FS.
I found it kind of ironic that the Isabel character was a perfectionist wife and Cecilia was a secretary (it was the opposite in DEE?).

That being said here is a list of 5 actors and actresses I wish were added in this Novela.

5 actors
David Chocarro
Tony Dalton
Rafael Amaya
Roberto Mateos
Melvin Cabrera

5 actresses
Gaby Espino
Ana Layevska
Catherine Siachoque
Maritza Rodriguez
Cynthia Olavarria

well that's it for today.
 

UNI-MAS

Jody, are you Eeyore on TW?

I don't want to read your recap of the first episodes of the new novelas until I've seen them, but you mentioned you'd posted something under El Secretario, and some things under Eeyore were what I found.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE:

OK. I just watched my recording. First of all, thank you so much Novelera for this amazing recap. Thanks to both you and Jean for keeping us entertained all these months, and for keeping such a great attitude about this show, even though many of us could not.

I have to admit, I laughed through almost this whole finale. It was fantastic comedy! I laughed when the Reptile managed to pull a Disney evil witch outfit out of nowhere. I laughed when dummy Angela brought a ticking cake into her room and sat right in front of it. I laughed when Fabiola ran right into NB's knife, for no particular reason! I laughed when it seemed like every single good guy (minus pregnant Laura) had been shot, blown up, or stabbed. I think they should have ended it with everyone being dead. That would have been brilliant and would have shown me that the writers understood what they were doing and purposely meant to give us comedy.

Otherwise, they should have let ALL the good guys live (I HATE that they killed Gus before he even got to meet the child he wanted so much), and left all the bad guys dead. What the heck was the point of EV turning up alive anyway? And the empty EM grave? Might was well have shown Bernardo living it up for real on a beach somewhere with Isabel, with a new heart provided by one of the many EM henchmen who got shot. The only thing I would have left is the Mini Reptile at her mama's grave foreshadowing future evil. That was a nice predictable, and laughable, twist. It would have been the perfect ending without all the philosophical voiceover crap about “corazones valientes”, and EV getting weepy about changing for Jessica. Couldn't they have used the time wasted on EV to actually show our main characters living their lives, instead of those silly photos that went by too quickly for most to understand?

I did love seeing Emma and Pablo again, looking happy, healthy, and guapos, with their cute little boy.

 

Corazon Valiente (or, Corazon Delicioso...)
Gripes and Groan on the Gran Finale:
A) they didn't give Luci a happy ending; B) they didn't let Angela have a hand in Fern's demise;
C) the character of Mary Fernanda was confusing--she's evil, then she's nice, then she's a gunshot victim (dead? not dead?), then at the end she appears to be carrying on her mom's legacy; D) the final wrap up was crammed into than ten minutes; E) What was the note that the dying Ringo gave Jesus?
J in Oregon
 

CORAZÓN VALIENTE

J in Oregon, you made me laugh out loud with Corazón Delicioso!! Good one!!!

I thought the note the dying Ringo gave Jesús had to do with EV being alive in Sicily. But, thinking about it, didn't Ringo grieve like crazy when EV "died"? Oh, wait, my beanie isn't tight enough.

They didn't literally explain what the note meant, at least that I noticed.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Martes, Part 1

Maruja awaits the reunion with her husband, thinks she looks horrible. She searches the bag for her ring, but it's not there (the original guard stole it). Fernán is anxious to leave, but his guard still has no orders, and threatens him if he later talks.

Niki interviews Peraza, who's very evasive. After relating how Escobar tried to kill him, and then put a huge bomb on a bus which did kill lots of people, Peraza says he'll just say that he won't question the government's actions now. He's supposed to celebrate Escobar's surrender, so he will. Niki relates how Guillermo Cano taught her that it's what the interviewees DON'T say that counts most. What is he hiding? She even turns off the recorder to try to get him to talk.

Alberto is finally reunited with Maruja, kissing joyfully while way too many reporters try to get scoops. As usual, we get to see the real Maruja, and as usual, that part tears me to pieces, as it's so tragic and raw. Fernán is also released, the guys taking him almost get caught in a checkpoint, so they tell him to get out, and he's then reunited with his family.

The next morning, Alberto wakes Maruja, who jumps, but then glows with happiness, realizing the nightmare is over. Alberto had promised that if Escobar released Maruja, he'd go to Medellín immediately, so he has to go now. He's being driven there, and reads El Espectador, which has a headline saying something like “Peraza was negotiated with by Escobar”. Maybe Peraza DID tell this to Niki, we know how po-ed he is. In fact, Juangi congratulates Niki on this scoop, although he wonders if it's wise to print something so sensitive. Niki affirms that the people have the right to know the price the government was willing to pay. Juangi thinks Niki's trying to make editor. She jokingly says she is, but then says, seriously, I have other plans now. I'm going to New York to get a masters degree in journalism.

Pablo's henchmen are griping over breakfast. They don't want to go to the slammer. Even if they get a monthly stipend, the real money's on the street. Marino says they'll be safer in jail. But Topo says he's king of the bandidos, no way is he going in. Enter Pablo, looking dorky as usual as he shovels food onto his plate. Don't worry Topo, I need you on the street, you're my warrior. Things will be pretty much the same, I'll be running everything from the Catedral. The only guys I need inside are Marino, Candongo and El Buitre.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 2

Alberto meets with Don Julio who confirms that the main reason things worked was that Alberto was a man of his word. The phone rings, and it's Pablo. Alberto tells him he has to check out the prison. Pablo wants action on disciplining Pabon and the others, but Alberto urges him not to worry about little things, he already got Peraza's head on a platter. By the way, when's the date of your surrender? Pablo sets him straight. Not until the constitution is changed to prohibit extradition. Oh.

Topo and Candongo lay down the law to some low level guy. Even though Pablo will be in jail, you'll still get all orders from him. The only thing that'll change is that the money will go to the jail. The guy asks if the government will allow that. Look, dummy, you think we're going to TELL the government?

Alberto checks out the jail, it doesn't look too luxurious. He tells the President Pablo does want guards to be from Medellín. But he'll allow the army to have an outer security ring. The President goes along with all of this. Enter Peraza, tells the President he had absolutely nothing to do with that article in El Espectador today. The President gives him a look which could peel paint.

It appears that Padre Gomez IS a little senile, as he gets on the air, on his regular program, still wearing that poncho!! and says Pablo Escobar is a pornographer and a child abuser! Whoops! Pablo and Pati see it, and Pati throws up her hands, as Pablo is about to explode. He calls Alberto, who also heard it, and the whole deal's off! In fact, that preacher is DEAD! At the very least, that priest has to appear in person before me and apologize! Or else! Alberto tries to calm him down.

Niki's having dinner with the Cano's, Ana, Juangi and Fernando. The discuss the priest's remarks. Niki wonders if this'll delay Escobar's surrender. Doña Ana Maria says she hopes it DOES. Huh? She explains. Look, I want Guillermo's murderer behind bars. But like this? Is he surrendering to the government, or is the government surrendering to HIM?
 

PABLO ESCOBAR -- martes

"Tragic and raw." Yes, Hombre, that's exactly how that news footage feels.

I imagine the dinner scene at the Cano home was fiction but I was glad it allowed Guillermo's widow to express what the viewer is feeling: that Escobar is the winner and Colombia is the loser in this deal being cobbled together so desperately.

By the way, Hombre, thanks for clarifying what Nikki meant when she said "Me voy a especializar a New York." I didn't get it that "especializarme" meant, loosely, "do graduate studies".

And thank you again for taking on this whole project single-handedly. You have done an amazing job with a novela that is a challenge on many levels.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE
A world of thanks to you dear ones , Jean and Novelera , I really thank you for the all great recaps you have done for this Novela, I don't know how to thank you both, just I declare my Corazon Valient playlist in youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1BE4CC1E3E1D29D5&feature=view_all
----------
I will come back to Caray Caray by coming back of Gabriel Porras in any his coming Novela!! (hope a near future!) yes!! I am just a watcher of any Gabriel's Novelas!....bye everyone until then....
 

UNI-MAS

I took a peek at Made in Cartegena and Quien Eres Tu. They both look good! Now what to do? I'm almost definitely going to watch MIC (have to catch up), since it has Carmen Villalobos, my all time favorite. It also has Miguel de Miguel, from La Reina del Sur, and Fernando Solorzano, who was fantastic as the druglord in Munecas de la Mafia. Once I catch up, I may post some minicaps here while also checking that other site mentioned by Jody.
 

LA PATRONA:

I don't know if anyone is going to post a summary for this one, but I watched the Gran Estreno, and enjoyed it quite a bit.

They sure did introduce lots of characters! I didn't take any notes, but here are some thoughts.

The main character, Gabriela, didn't seem as wonderfully goodie two shoes as most heroines. Far from it. She was somewhat disgusted with her father, Tigre, who has remarried and with his mean new wife, they have a son, who is Gaby's half brother. Gaby herself has a son, David, and they get in arguments, too. David gets bullied at school until Gaby's half brother protects his "nephew".

Gaby works in a mine, the only woman, and just about everyone thinks this is bad. Of course, the leading man, Alejandro, immediately is taken by this feisty woman, whom he meets at the funeral of the old owner of the mining company. Alejandro is the son of the evil Antonia (La Patrona), who married both the two original partners of the mining company, and is now widowed by both. Alejandro has a drunk brother, Fernanda, who is mean to his plain (but snobby) wife.

Two rich sisters, Irene and Julia, seem to have an eye on Alejandro. Or maybe the second sister is Patricia, I forgot. Another bad guy is a Senator, Anibal.

Antonia has an ongoing affair with hunky young Alberto, whom we saw in Relaciones Peligrosas. He's supposed to run the mine, but although he has degrees, that means nothing compared to the experience of Tigre and Gaby.

So Alberto puts up substandard supports in the mine, and Alejandro (fresh from defending Gaby in a bar) and Gaby are caught in the mine when it collapses, and they're pressed together. She tells him if they're not rescued in four hours, they'll run out of air. Time for a little mouth to mouth!
 

UNI-MAS:

Yes, Novelera, my nick on TW is eeyore.

My El Secretario recaps that I posted here, I repost over there.

Diana just opened forums on TW for MIC and Quien Eres Tu? I posted a brief recap/basic notes for Quien Eres Tu? in both the El Secretario and the new QET forums over there. I also reposted my recap of episode one of MIC in the new forum.

Hombre, I'll be looking forward to reading your mini-recaps for MIC. It definitely does look interesting.

Novelera, I probably won't be doing recaps for QET, but if I do, I'll post it over there with a generic title to avoid giving away any spoilers.
 

CORAZON VALIENTE

Vivi I decided that i like your finale better. 80% of the cast dies and Bernie is alive with Isabel thanks to EM's heart!
 

I'm actually working on a recap for La Patrona; albeit coming after some soap burnout and this being a longer episode than normal, it'll be done later. Stay tuned...
 

This is going to be a long one (the episode ran over 50m in its own right), so you might want to get that drink now...

La Patrona, or

The Girl, The Gold Mine, And Exposition Hell

Welcome to San Pedro del Oro, a picturesque small Mexican town--or so the opening montage tells us, anyway. It's nestled in some hills, lights twinkling in the night, and it is home to a nearby gold mine. Off we go into the mine and see the usual stock dirty men toiling away with pickaxes and carts--wait, hold on, one of the miners is smaller than the others. And they're sporting a little (okay, more than a little) extra underneath a tight tank top and a strategically buttoned shirt, not to mention looking gratuitously...smudged...like a model on a photo shoot. Okay, this has to be our protagonista...

Meet Gabriela Suarez (Aracely Arambula), who within ten seconds of our seeing her is already being picked on by one of her male co-workers for daring to comment that they should tell the mine's chief engineer that a ceiling support brace needs to be reinforced. The same co-worker decides to grab her ass just to cheese her off, which is apparently a common act; Gabriela yells at him and his friends about their constant harassment and threatens to go tell it all to her godfather and the mine's patron, one Marcelo Vidal.

Voosh goes the camera of dramatic portent as it takes us to a lovely manor house, Hacienda la Dorada (with its own big CGI sign), and we go inside to see an old man sprawled out on a rug, gasping for breath as he reaches for a bottle of pills barely out of his grasp. Oh, hi, Marcelo Vidal...dude, you're having a really bad day. Two women are to either side of him, a frumpy dark-haired woman and a clone of Morgan Fairchild in a slinky lavender dress. Marcelo gasps for Antonia, the Morgan Fairchild clone (Christian Bach), to get him his pills; the frumpy gal, who is named Poncia, begs Antonia to help him. Throughout all of this Antonia is rocking the standard villana "I'm going to live to watch you die" look, and so she naturally does nothing except yell at Poncia to not move when Marcelo begs her to call a doctor. Poncia, cementing her status under someone's thumb, cries out that Marcelo's dying and that he's el patron; Antonia squishes some more of Poncia's self-esteem with said thumb as she declares that she's (wait for it) la patrona now. And a couple of seconds later...yeah, there goes Marcelo. We're not even two minutes into this show and somebody's dead.

FF to a sunny day after, and the miners are getting off work. This means more cracks from Gabriela's piggy co-worker about partying at her place and more of her going "STFU! I warned you!" before stomping off in a huff. And then we're vooshed to Mexico City, where someone's cell phone is getting a call from Antonia. This someone turns out to be a man named Alejandro (Jorge Luis Pila), who answers it and is promptly told by Antonia that Marcelo, his stepfather, is dead. Alejandro refers to Antonia both as "Mama" and as "Antonia Guerra," so their relationship is apparently not that great. Apparently Marcelo had been having heart problems before he kicked off, since it's mentioned that he had had surgery at some previous point; Antonia reassures him that the surgery had gone well, but Marcelo just up and died. Alejandro promises that he'll come to La Dorada that day, since it's the day of Marcelo's funeral. (Damn. Bitch works fast.)
 

La Patrona, martes (p. 2):

Antonia is having her end of the conversation in a slinky black dress (I sense a theme emerging) in her and Marcelo's bedroom, with a very dead Marcelo now in his pajamas in bed behind her and a black-clad Poncia standing over him. When she gets off the phone Poncia declares that Marcelo was a good man and that Antonia has no heart; Snow Miser retorts with "If I didn't have a heart, you would be in prison." Anybody surprised that Antonia would have something on Poncia? Show of hands? Okay...Antonia reinforces that thumbsquish by declaring she hasn't forgotten everything Poncia owes her, and orders her out to go locate one of Marcelo's nicer suits for the funeral.

After Poncia slinks out Antonia talks to Marcelo's corpse about how his funeral will be "a burial for the ages" and how she's now "free" and can "reclaim her life," and at this point while trying to figure out what the hell she's talking about I'm thinking that Christian Bach has an awesome disdain face that is amazingly enhanced by her wonky hairstyle.

Meanwhile, back at the mine, Gabriela (now cleaned up, but still rocking the same tank top-under-buttoned-shirt
look...I sense another theme emerging) runs into a guy friend named Manuel and kvetches some more about the pigs she works with. She's just trying to make an honest living to give her son a better life, after all. (That thumping noise you hear? Yeah, my head's meeting the wall again.) She reinforces her urge to run to Marcelo's house and tell him about the harassment, which is Manuel's cue to tell her that he died during the night. Gabriela freaks and dashes home (nice place, very roomy) to find her father and tell him what happened, but he's not there.

Back to La Dorada we go, and now we see a lovely young woman bringing some coffee to a man all but passed out on a bed. The man, Fernando, knocks the coffee out of the woman's hands; Antonia pops in right after this, demanding that Fernando get up and that the woman--Julia--get him sober and shaved and dressed. Since people are already showing up for Marcelo's wake, she needs her younger son with her. Fernando grumbles his way to alertness, if not sobriety, at all this while Julia sports the same doormat look as Poncia...just without the frump.

Casa Suarez: Gabriela wakes up her son, David, for school and urges him not to be difficult today. David immediately endears himself to us by retorting that he hates her, though for what we don't know yet. And thanks to this we get to see Aracely Arambula trying to pull off "anguished and sad" with this one perfect glycerin tear coasting down her face; I'm not sure whether to thank him for the unintentional comedy or smack him.

LD: Fernando is getting dressed and bitching about how Antonia only cares about appearances, specifically family appearances, and how she not only doesn't care that Marcelo died but didn't care when his father died. Julia says that Antonia does care, but that she's "just not that expressive"; in a rare moment of ppropriateness Fernando immediately asks her if she's really that stupid. He also gets to blast her for asking him which of a pair of shirts he wants to wear to the wake, though that leads directly into his making her feel about an inch tall by ranting at length about her apparent lack of beauty, brains, sexual prowess, and fertility; the only thing she ever did right, according to him, was marrying "a loser like me." Julia ever so briefly insists she won't take his abuse any more, and Fernando proves he's his mother's son by declaring that she'll stay because her family--the Montemars--are broke, and she won't leave the Beltran family gravy train.

And this gives me my first certainty: Julia and Fernando will not be together at the end of this thing.
 

La Patrona, martes (p. 3):

Mexico City: Alejandro and a clean-cut friend, Ricardo Villegas, are talking about Marcelo's oddly sudden death and what it means for him--going back to San Pedro and dealing with both his mother and his idiot brother. They meet up with Ricardo's father, Anibal Villegas, who kind of blows Ricardo off to give Alejandro his condolences about Marcelo. Alejandro refers to Anibal as his godfather and the only father he really had (Ricardo isn't crazy about the blowoff, but he keeps it stoic) and the trio gets onto a helicopter bound for San Pedro.

Meanwhile, here's another new location in San Pedro--a building with a sign identifying it as "Quinta las Princesas." In we go...this must be Julia's family, the Montemars, since they're talking about how Julia told them about Marcelo's death. The mother (Prudencia, I think) uses that to segue into talking about how Alejandro and Ricardo are coming back for the funeral, how Julia lucked out by marrying Fernando, and how one if not both of her other daughters can take a cue from that (barely one minute and Prudencia can already go to hell). The apparent youngest daughter isn't too crazy about Mom trying to marry them all off, but the middle daughter notes that she's looking forward to seeing Alejandro again; she refers to him as "obnoxious, but handsome."

At the same time Gabriela (now rocking a tight black dress--though her hair is still prettily undone, just to reinforce that she's a regular girl) is driving David over to the house of a woman named Francisca, who is packing her own son--Max--off to school. Gaby insists that Francisca go get her father so she can talk to him; Francisca claims that "Tigre" has the right to sleep in her house, and Gaby retorts that Tigre, a.k.a. Tomas Suarez, is still her father and she has the right to talk to him. Francisca reluctantly goes to fetch Tomas, while Max wonders why Gaby hates him and his mother--and refers to her sarcastically as "hermanita." Oh, lord. (Thump, thump, thump.)

So Tomas wombles onto the scene looking like Captain Lou Albano and Gaby first blasts him for leaving David alone at night so he could creep over to Francisca's and then gives him a change of clothes and tells him about Marcelo's death. Gaby then drops David off at school; David continues to be all the brat he can be by wondering why she can't send him to a private school and declaring her the worst mother in the world before stomping off. Max shows up in time to see this, and he confesses to Gaby that David is being bullied by some classmates--but that he's trying to stay out of it, "with things as they are." Okaaaaay.

Tomas and Francisca have a talk later about how she feels that he cares more about Gabriela and David than her and their son Max, since he's "hiding" them (more accurately, if I caught this right, she wonders if he's embarrassed by her since he rescued her from "the doll house"--I'm assuming that was a CC3 wonk and it's really "brothel").

Tomas tries his best to reassure her while stuffing his face with breakfast, like real men do on TV, but no dice--she wants to feel like they're truly important to him, so she also gives him an ultimatum: either Gaby and David move in with her and Max, or they move in with her. In American soap operas, I think this is called "the skank suddenly wanting respectability."
 

La Patrona, martes (p. 4):

Along the way we briefly see David being taunted by some other students about not knowing who his father is and how he won't show up because his mother's a slut. Gaby shows up in time to stop it from progressing, though no doubt a mother's intervention doesn't help David's case; afterwards she and Max talk about how the school principal likely won't do anything about it. Max apparently is touched by Gaby's intervention, though, since he says that he'll now stand up for David and teach him how to fight like him and old man Tigre, who was a boxer back in the day. Gaby thanks him for standing up for his sobrino, and how they are all Suarez. Awww (thump, thump).

And now it's off to La Dorada for Marcelo's outdoor wake, where Fernando is two seconds away from a meltdown and thoughtbubbling over the casket about Marcelo exhorting him to "get out of the abyss--save yourself!" He quietly dashes off, though Antonia sees him go; she catches him in the house and stops him from getting his full drunk on. Fernando then initiates the standard Ariel Lopez Padilla crybaby freakout about how Marcelo loved him like a son, though Antonia isn't having it--but when he wonders if she killed him like she killed his real father, we know it's once again time for the Ice Queen to keep her pimp hand strong. Whack, right on the cheek, and she follows it up with moves straight out of the Lifetime TV-movie playbook: "Why do you misbehave? Why do you make me hurt you? Let's not fight any more."

The fact that she looks about as sympathetic as a Terminator while saying this kind of takes the drama out of it (and replaces it with creepy), but hey...

Afterwards, Antonia wanders back out by the casket and runs into San Pedro del Oro's chief engineer, Alberto (owner of an intensely punchable face), who gives some ridiculously halfhearted condolences about Marcelo before the resident priest comes over. The padre exhorts Antonia to honor Marcelo's memory; Antonia is wearing some fashionably large sunglasses, so nobody can see her rolling her eyes while she verbally agrees with him or death-glaring at Poncia, who's nearby looking unhappy as hell about all this.

And that's the cue for Poncia to flashback to Marcelo's death the previous night; as it turns out she woke him up to check on him and he in turn found out that Antonia was having company in their study--namely Alberto. (Thanks for the leg porn here, Senora Bach. I appreciate it.) Alberto beat a hasty retreat and Marcelo managed to put Antonia on blast for about ten seconds before collapsing on the nice rug, and it was her who put his heart medication just out of reach--right before kicking the bottle across the room. Poncia sort of slinks away as we come out of the flashback, and we finally get a genuine "Yeah, I got this" smile out of the Ice Queen as she watches her go.
 

La Patrona, martes (p. 5):

At this point we're abruptly introduced to some guy named Gaston and his lady friend, apparently worker bees, who helpfully provide some moderately heavy and kind of clunky (yet oddly snarky) exposition about the world of San Pedro while wandering the grounds and watching the filthy rich...

1. Marcelo Vidal and Alejandro and Fernando's father, Marcos Beltran, were the first people to work the gold mine and later the owners of La Dorada; Antonia married them both, in reverse order (hmm...how did Marcos die?).
2. Alberto and his punchable face came from Mexico City a year ago, and he apparently is a bit power-mad at the mine.
3. Fernando is "a spoiled brat who never grew up because of his mother"...okay, Gaston may just be calling it as it is there...
4. "Dull lady" Julia's father, Julio Montemar, is actually the mayor of San Pedro; his other two daughters, Irene and Patricia, are actively seeking husbands.
5. Anibal Villegas is a senator in the Mexican Congress, and a corrupt one at that.
6. Marcelo had one child of his own, a daughter named Valentina (her mother is also dead), who we see here crying into Poncia's blouse.
7. Poncia's official title is finally revealed--she's the chief housekeeper, like there was any doubt. And on top of that
8. Alejandro is heir to both La Dorada and the mine, making him Eligible Bachelor #1 in the area (in fairness, Ricardo is number two).

Alejandro, who shows up at the end of this, is greeted by a still crying Valentina. He tries to soothe her before the Ice Queen slides over and demands that Valentina stop crying or go to her room; she runs off and Ale blasts her for both that and not caring in general that Marcelo is dead.

This is Fernando's cue to drunkenly rag on "the prodigal son" for coming back from his securities business in Mexico City and deigning to grace San Pedro with his presence. Ale merely suggests that Fernando might consider rehab, which of course leads to him stomping off by himself and declaring that he's not an alcoholic while taking a swig from a flask. (Why am I reminded so much of the Mercenarios from Pecados ajenos here?)

Irene, the aforementioned middle Montemar daughter, tries to get close to Ale--which lasts about ten seconds before Gabriela finally shows up at the wake. She is immediately intercepted by Fernando, who immediately declares her the one good thing in San Pedro; he insists that he could make her a queen if she asked, let alone his unhappiness that she won't even give him the time of day now while back in the day she did an unspecified more-than-that, but she demands that he just leave her alone. (Julia is herself intercepted by Irene before she can break up Fer and Gaby's powwow. Like we really needed another sign of her perceived status, show.)

This is also the first of three times in this episode that Ale sees Gaby, and each time he gets this intense "Dammit, who are you?" look on his face. It's kind of adorable, in a weird scrunchy way.
 

La Patrona, martes (p. 6):

After all this we finally get to Marcelo being buried in a cemetery, which is punctuated by Alberto making sex-me eyes at Antonia and Prudencia not very subtly pointing out Ricardo to Patricia, her youngest daughter. Afterwards Irene and Patricia run into Gaby and they have the standard "It's been too long, girl, let's get together sometime"
talk--it turns out they all went to school together--before Gaby leaves. Julia comes up and squanders some of the good will she earned (well, comparatively) by referring to Gaby as a "bum" and blasting her for being a single mother, let alone a single mother working in a mine surrounded by men--who knows what she could be doing with them? Irene and Patricia earn brownie points by calling her old-fashioned, and Patricia insists she'll continue being Gaby's friend. Good for you, girl.

Ale is greeted by Captain Lou, who proudly states that Marcelo and Marcos Beltran were magnificent bosses and even better friends. Captain Lou thinks that Ale will make a great boss, though Ale notes that he only came back for the funeral; CL tells him that if the mine doesn't have a good boss, it and San Pedro itself are doomed. CL and Gaby leave after that, and Irene manages to latch onto Ale again using the "Your friends are here for you" card.

Now it's nighttime, and back home at Casa del Suarez Gaby fixes David dinner while they talk about his being bullied and her being a miner. Gaby defends herself and her job as honorable, and then David asks one of those questions: "What does 'bastard' mean?" Gaby tells him that a bastard's mother loves their child so much that it counts twice--they are both mother and father--and, when he presses her on it, admits that David's father left her before David was even born, and that's really all he needs to know. (I'm wondering if Fer is too obvious a target for this now.)

La Dorada: the Ice Queen is putting a full court press on Ale to take over running the mine. Ale's not liking the idea--he doesn't care about the mine, and he'd end up fighting with her all the time. Fer shambles up in the middle of this, still drunk, and says he could run it; Antonia shoots him down, declaring that she couldn't trust him with it due to his drinking (though after he leaves in a huff and Ale states that his general state is getting worse, she blows him off). Ale finally agrees to think about the job, pretty much just to shut Antonia up, and bails--right before Anibal wanders in and asks Antonia if he accepted the job. Anibal is apparently a very old friend/partner of Antonia's, since he not only comments on her and Alberto (she in turn asks him if he was jealous "after all these years") but also that Marcelo died in a very similar manner to Marcos Beltran way back when. Antonia doesn't openly confirm his suspicions, saying instead that she's not that dumb.

We now go to the local watering hole--or, in CC! tradition, The Only Bar in San Pedro. Captain Lou is here with a friend named Ramon, getting hammered and drunkenly bemoaning how Gaby went to boarding school--on Marcelo's dime--and yet ended up a miner, on top of the uncertain future of the mine. Ale and Ricardo show up (maybe La Dorada doesn't stock Negra Modelo beer or something?) and CL yells at them about not caring about SPDO.

Francisca somehow finds out offscreen that her Tigre has his drunk on, and she sends Max over to Casa del Suarez to ask Gaby to go get him before he does anything really stupid like driving. (And you can't go get your man yourself. I see.) So off Gaby goes to the bar (Ricardo finally tells Ale who she is at this point), but she gets waylaid by the Pig Posse from work. The head pig as usual starts harassing her, which prompts Ale to step in to back her up; he ends up having to punch out two of the pigs, though Gaby gets to bust a beer bottle over the head of the ringleader.
 

La Patrona, martes (p. 7):

Naturally, Gaby declares to Ale that she doesn't need anybody to stick up for her and never has while all but dragging Captain Lou out the door. Ale calls her a grouch. Ah, sweet sweet love is in bloom in San Pedro del Oro.

The next day, Captain Lou is talking to Alberto in his office. Rather, CL is bitching at Mr. Punchable Face over some sort of report Alberto wants him to sign--apparently a viability study or some such--which CL calls an outright lie. The mine isn't producing as much gold as stated. This is followed up by his asking Alberto how much he was paid to lie with it. Alberto plays the boss card and orders CL, "the idiot," to sign it. The next thing we see is CL pushing him out of the mine office and punching him, then getting Al to say that he's the idiot in front of some other workers, then quitting his job, then punching him some more and finally stomping off like a boss. On the way out he runs into Ale and reiterates that the mine is doomed.

The next time we see Captain Lou, he's driving an ancient pickup truck onto what a sign identifies as private property apparently belonging to "El Chamuco" (the Devil). He pulls up near a steep incline, loads up with what appears to be partial miner's gear, and sets off on foot into a rather picturesque valley. After some time he gets to a tiny brook, where he fishes out a small gold nugget by hand; on he goes to a badly concealed cavern, which he enters.

Picking a particular section of cavern wall, CL chips out what appears to be a palm-sized chunk of gold and crows about how Gaby and his family will be rich, rich! (Hmm. A secret gold vein nobody knows about. I suddenly fear for you, Captain Lou...)

In the middle of all this David, once again at school, is again accosted by the jerks from the day before. But this time Max pops up to get his back, putting the ringleader completely on blast about picking on David and adding that "we all know you still pee your pants." Go Max!

Back at SPDO Ale goes in and talks to Alberto, who naturally spins the incident so that he fired CL before he went off on him over the report, which is intended for a group of foreign investors. (Anibal and Antonia briefly referred previously to "the English" with regards to the mine as well.) Ale notes that CL wouldn't have refused to sign the report without cause; Alberto goes into full "Tigre is old and a brute--he no longer knows what he's doing" mode, though Gaby happens to be wandering by (yup, tank top and buttoned shirt again) to overhear it. This earns Alberto an overly theatrical slap from her, which she follows with blasting him for wanting to do things "the wrong way" and downplaying a mineshaft collapse that happened some time in the past. Ale naturally wants to hear more about this, while Gaby's going "Who the hell are you?" at him in her own right; he finally declares that he is the new owner of the mine, and her new boss. Not counting the fight at the bar, this is Ale and Gaby's first staredown. Yup, sweet sweet love.

LD: Antonia (no slinky dress, but she's rocking a tight leather jacket and similarly tight pants--Morgan Fairchild and Natalia Streignard would approve, I suspect), Anibal, and Ricardo are talking. Alejandro has apparently agreed to stay in SPDO for an additional two months, no more, and Antonia is trying to think of something--or someone--to get him to stay permanently. Anibal notes that Ale is very stubborn and won't listen to him, as does Ricardo. This is the perfect time for Irene and Patricia to show up, the former bearing a cake as a gift--and that apparently gives the Ice Queen ideas, for her next comment is that "this cake is just what we needed"--and suddenly Irene, a computer expert, and Patricia are the newest employees of the mine.
 

MADE IN CARTEGENA, Episode 1

Jody, thank you for the recap on TW. I'm going to list a few minor corrections here. It's VERY hard to understand the accents, and the action is fast and furious. But here goes:

This show is super exciting, and there's way more than meets the eye. Lots of things aren't explained yet.

We do know that there's a precious golden work of art, an antique treasure, found at the bottom of the sea, called the Santa Helena. Vicente, a Spanish national, has this guarded at a bank in Cartegena, of which he's the President. Vicente's wife was killed by sicarios a while back.

Harvey Noriega is a ganglord. He owns the club where they're having the dance contest for the local dance called La Champeta. He also enlists 4 young people to rob the Santa Helena. There's his son Robinson, a girl named Mireya, a computer geek with green glasses, and Candelario, whom I think is his godson.

Candelario is the brother of Flora, the heroine of the show. She and her boyfriend Watusi win the dance contest, and Watusi later proposes to her on the beach. She accepts.

But the robbery of the Santa Helena goes bad. First of all, the cops knew it was happening. So someone in Harvey's group is a snitch. And it could be Mireya. The computer geek put a little camera on her blouse, but I think she removed it. She kisses Candeleria, then pretty much lets him be shot by a cop. Then she says the exact same thing to Robinson (let this be our last kiss, I hope we make it). She then KICKS him out into the line of fire, causing him to be killed. And he's killed by a cop. Later, she LIES, and tells Harvey that Vicente killed his son Robinson! What's her game? BTW, she looks a lot like Vicente's dead wife.

Since Harvey thinks Vicente killed his son, he wants revenge. But higher ups tell him Vicente is untouchable for know. He recruits Flora to get close to Vicente through Sofia, whom I think is Vicente's stepdaugher or niece, I don't think she's his real daughter. Since Flora is honest, she refuses at first.

But Candeleria, her brother escapes from jail. He calls his and Flora's Mom, asking them to bring money and clothes to a safe place. But both the police and Harvey's right hand man show up immediately. The right hand man kicks Candelaria, making him get caught. So Harvey WANTED this. But Flora is so disturbed by the police and her brother's fate, she agrees to help her godfather. We all know that she'll probably fall in love with Vicente, who is after all, a good guy (I think), and muy guapo.

 

La Patrona, martes (p. 8):

SPDO: Gaby explains to Ale about the shaft collapse, which occurred due to insufficient ceiling support braces placed as per Alberto's instructions. Alberto claims that the braces were fine and both she and her father have no idea what they're talking about; Ale sides with Gaby and orders Al to bring him the shaft plans so he can review them.

While he's off doing that, Gaby shows Ale around the new mineshaft dug out (even deeper than the original one, I think) to replace the collapsed one; they bond a little over Alberto's bad luck with los Suarez and talk about the fight in the bar. Most notably Ale comments that Gaby doesn't like to be treated like a lady; Gaby admits that she does, but that it doesn't happen nowadays. (Considering some of her co-workers, well...)

Their bonding moment is rudely interrupted by history repeating itself--the new mineshaft decides it's fed up with the world and collapses, followed by the only remaining exit passage. Ale and Gaby are unhurt, but Gaby notes that they're very likely still screwed: the electricity went out in the collapse, which meant the mine's air circulation equipment is off. As a result, they only have about four hours of air left. Gee, I wonder if they'll make it...
 

CORAZON VALIENTE and general stuff:

Haven't posted here in ages because the current tns haven't grabbed my interest like MI CORAZON INSISTE (despite all its flaws).

I agree with all the great comments by everyone here about CV's over-the-top finale and preposterous plot. I didn't love any of the good and bad characters in CV as I did in MCI. Although I had a ruined childhood and adulthood similar to the Reptile's, her murder spree made no sense. Wasn't returning to LA as drop-dead gorgeous enough revenge? And why did Angela completely drop her new nursing career? Did the writers forget what they wrote? Although I missed many scenes, I'm pretty sure she didn't combine her nursing skills with body guarding. I was also put off by the constant kidnapping, rescuing, re-kidnapping, escaping, coming back from the dead, organ transplanting, undead stillbirths, secret half-siblings, prison escapes, and torture do-overs. I probably missed it, but what became of the treasure map on Fabiola's back? Most of the female leads didn't convey gut emotions in their faces -- which is what I loved about all the characters in MCI. MCI's later annoyance of constant unneeded flashbacks could be edited out, but such editing couldn't fix CV's repetition of silly kidnappings, escapes and returns from the dead. Gus's death was unfair, especially since the two drug lords resurrected at the end. And Mini Reptile deserved more episodes. She most likely did survive because she wasn't multiply shot like her mom. The poetic picture montage reminded me of the baffling, wrongly-cancelled flash forwarded images of ABC's sorely missed sci-fi/terrorism mystery "FlashForward". Now a Spanish tn version of "FlashForward" could be very interesting.
--Mary in DC/Greenbelt, MD
 

LA PATRONA

Bill, I was eagerly gobbling up your multi-part recap as it came "hot off the press".

Wow, excellent work! You got it all and described and named the cast to cement things in our brains.

I liked the first episode better than I expected to. The general outline, overused beyond belief by Univisión, of a poor, but honest and hardworking, girl who falls for a rich, but basically kind, guy turned me off. And it had the usual hateful mother of the rich guy. Sometimes there's a variation and it's the hateful father who tries to separate the Romeo and Juliet pair.

But the mining aspect made it more interesting. And I thought Aracely did a pretty good job, at least so far. I haven't seen her in anything since Abrázane Muy Fuerte

I loved Pila's line when they were "bonding" in the mine: hija de tigre pintita, or the tiger's cub also has stripes or the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree, to refer to her being as tough as her father.
 

QUIEN ERES TU:

For those who are interested, Novelas Lounge has the first two episodes of Quien Eres Tu, with clear English subtitles, on their site:http://novelalounge.com/nn/2013/01/02/quien-eres-tu-capitulos-1-y-2/
 

MADE IN CARTEGENA, Episode 2

Well, Sofia IS the daughter of Vicente. He also has a secretary named Silvia, who seems to have a thing for him (which isn't returned).

Flora is prepped by her padrino Harvey for getting info about Vicente by befriending Sofia. Flora will be in Sofia's dance class. This is modern dance, not the champete Flora loves (btw, I think she and Watusi only qualified for the finals, which haven't happened yet). Flora has to get her hair straightened to look like a high class girl. In the dance class, she and Sofia don't get along at ALL. She finds that Sofia takes pills of some sort. The other rich girls make fun of Flora's not knowing modern dance.

Her brother Candelario, now in jail, at first gets defended by a tall guy. But what does the guy want in return? He gets Candelario transferred to his cell, and maybe he's gay. But Candelario isn't there long, because two thug prisoners try to intimidate him in the kitchen. As usual, Cando wins, but the cops blame him, and he's put in the hole. At the end of the episode, he may have found a secret passage in the hole!

Harvey's right hand man, a guy with a shaved head, is named Blacho. The black guy in the gang is Max. And maybe the young guy with green glasses is Agua Mala. Flora hears Sofia and her Dad talking about moving the Santa Helena to the safe inside Vicente's mansion. So Harvey and gang are going to try to rob it from there.

Flora tells Watusi she can't marry him right now, with all this stuff going on. Later, Watusi enlists Dixon, Flora's little brother, to find out what's going on.

Harvey has the guys kidnap a cop who was at the scene. They torture him, and he doesn't tell who shot Robinson, but he does say the cops knew about stuff in advance. So Harvey thinks there's a sapo, and just about kills some of his crew until they figure out that the his office is bugged. They find bugs all over the place.

BTW, they kill the cop by putting him in a sack, dumping him into the sea, and shooting him. Nice guys, huh?
 

La Patrona - (the first show)

WoW!

great summary Bill C. !!!

and what a wonderful introduction to the characters and the plot,
(which is always so difficult for me to sort through at the start)

loved your take on things as well,

thanks!
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Miércoles, Part 1

The government leaders are quite upset by Padre Gomez's remarks. The Padre has no idea why he said it, he was just zoning out. Now he has to apologize. While they wait for Pablo's call at Don Julio's, Maruja thanks the elder Motoa. The phone rings, and Pablo grills the Padre on why he did it. The Padre fumbles around, apologizes, tries to convince Pablo to continue with giving himself up. Pablo hangs up on him.

Peluche and Pablo have a heart to heart talk at Gonzalo's crypt, both telling each other how much they meant to each other. Peluche thinks they might both be dead soon. But Pablo thinks no, they're going to live it up with all their money for years to come!

Alberto and the Padre go in a helicopter to pick up Pablo, who IS turning himself in. Pablo broadcasts a self serving speech about how great he is for the country. He meets the helicopter with a full complement of guards armed with machine guns. El Espectador isn't too thrilled about it. The President gets the news, the Constitution was changed to ban extradition, and the vote was 51 to 3, with 5 abstentions. This large margin means even with Pablo buying votes, the people must have wanted to close this violent chapter in the history of Colombia.

In the helicopter, Pablo is acting like a rock star, holding court with the Padre and Villamizar. He gets out of the plane, with Marino, Candonga and Buitre, and strides into his new home. Enelia and Pati give him kisses. We hear the theme song in the background. Gustavo Betancourt, the Warden, greets Pablo, asks for his license. Pablo doesn't have a license, but he ceremoniously takes a gun from his ankle holster, and delivers it to the warden, again giving a flowery speech about how great he is.

At El Espectador, Nicky is saying goodbye, as some little gifts are exchanged. It's ironic that she's leaving the same day Escobar is turning himself in. It's a tearful farewell between Nicky, Juangi and Fernando.

 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 2

Pabon is clearing out his desk, looks at the chart of the Medellín cartel on his wall. At the “prison”, Pablo is walking the grounds, talking to Alberto. He says Alberto is the only one he can trust. Alberto asks him why did Pablo kill Galán, kidnap his wife and try to kill him? Pablo says if he was tough on Alberto, it was all the government's fault. I was the victim. Galán started in on me first. And I didn't kill Galán. Alberto says I know you solve problems with murder. No, says Pablo, I've never killed anyone. Well, probes Alberto, didn't you try to kill me? Look, Sir, with the topic of extradition in hand, it's logical you'd become a military objective of the Medellín cartel. But that's all over now. Tell your wife I'm sorry about that ring thing. Let's be FRIENDS. Alberto struggles to remain calm at the sheer hubris of this monster.

July, 1991. Pablo wakes up in his new digs. He gets out of his plush bed, enters the BOWLING ALLEY to pal around with Marino, plays a few rounds on the new state of the art ARCADE VIDEO GAME. Then it's outside, where the guys are playing soccer, looking fine in their crisp new soccer outfits. He reams out Topo (thought he was staying on the outside) for being a little slow in the latest shipment. There's a prison guard following Pablo around, holding an umbrella over his head (!), but since Pablo's talking in code, the guard is oblivious to what Pablo just ordered.

Inside a church, a sermon is being given, as we see someone familiar (maybe the right wing guy who double crossed Pablo a while back?). Anyway, he's gunned down, along with his bodyguard. Looks like being in jail isn't cramping Pablo one bit!
 

Made in Cartagena:

Thanks Hombre for the recaps for Eps 1 and 2. You've definitely cleared up a lot of the details I missed/didn't understand.


 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Thanks so much, Hombre. I'm continually amazed at how much more you get out of what's going on than I do.

I was quite confused about what the newspaper headline meant and how it fit into the picture.

Actually, I thought Pablo's prison DID look fairly luxurious. I didn't see any bars or cells. And in the book "Killing Pablo" there were some photographs of how luxurious it became.

Of course, Escobar DID abuse minors. But they said niños, which made it sound like he was sexually abusing little boys. Or maybe they used the masculine to mean both male and female victims. He specifically asked Marino to bring him very young girls and then had them killed afterwards so they could not reveal his location.

They were making such a fuss about the father of the Motoa members of the cartel. Are we to assume he was never involved in trafficking? Alberto seemed to treat him like the greatest guy in the world.

Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought the warden wanted to fingerprint Escobar when he arrived, and he deftly evaded this.

When I saw Andrés Parra (Escobar) in El Cartel, he was quite heavy. He looked much lighter when the novela moved from the younger actor who played him to Parra. He's looking a LOT fatter. I'm thinking this was a strategy to portray him getting older, like the grey strands they're showing in his wig. Parra is bald.
 

Telemundo -

Pablo Escobar - it looks like this series will run out of episodes by the end of next week or so, (at least 7 episodes left), but I don't see where Telemundo is cooking up a replacement.

Rosa Diamante - gran final, Monday the 21st.

Pasion Prohibida - premiers Tuesday the 22nd in the RD time slot,

"Adapted by Juan Camilo Ferrand ("Pablo Escobar, El Patrón del Mal"),
tells the life story of Bianca Santillana (Monica Spear), a young and beautiful woman who lives with a deep resentment towards her mother, Flavia Santillana (Rebecca Jones), whom she blames for the death of her father. To take revenge, Bianca marries Ariel Piamonte (Roberto Vander), a millionaire twice her age, in order to keep her mother from seducing him and using him to pay off the debts that her husband left after he died. However, Bianca never imagined that destiny would deal her a bad hand by making her fall in love with Bruno (Jencarlos Canela), her husband's nephew, with whom she starts living a forbidden love."

"Only a month into production, Canela and Spear' chemistry already jumps off the screen as they capture the attention of the telenovela-loving audience from the very first episode."

"Jencarlos Canela not only has the leading role in this production, but also performs and is the co-writer of the song "Dime (Tell Me)," the main musical theme of this telenovela."

(btw, I think an earlier rumor was that Jencarlos Canela accepted this role to complete his contract with Telemundo)
......................................................

possible future novelas -

El Señor de los Cielos -
"Telemundo and Caracol will begin filming El Senor de los Cielos in 2013. This new production tells the story of Damian Torres, a man of humble beginnings who dreamed of having it all. Through relentless will and fearless determination, Damian transforms himself from a poor peasant into one of the world's richest men and a powerful drug trafficker, wanted by the DEA. Damian embodies the entire spectrum of what the human soul is capable of, from the virtuous to the unthinkable, all fueled by his immeasurable desire for power and wealth. Damian's life turns into a quest for survival when his numerous enemies start hunting him down and the DEA closes in. He realizes that his only way out is to start a new life as literally a new man, so he decides to undergo facial reconstruction. Damian will discover that on the dangerous path to riches he chose to take, there is no turning back."


Marido En Alquiler - formerly called Reina Madre, a remake from Fina Estampa
starring Sonya Smith.
.........................................................................

the far future -

Dama y Obrero -

"In an interview, the president of Telemundo Internation, Marcos Santana, confirmed that they currently working in the adaption of Dama y Obrero, a TVN Chile production that aired in 2012 making it one of the biggest hits of the year.
This original story was written by Jose Ignacio Valenzuela and Rosario Valenzuela and will be adapted by its original writer, Jose Ignacio Valenzuela, who joined Telemundo late last year after his big success with La Casa De A Lado. The telenovela will air late this year."

other news,

"Pablo Illanes, the famous writter of Donde Esta Elisa and Alguien Te Mira, leaves TVN in Chile and joins Telemundo."

"Now Pablo has signed for 3 years with Telemundo and he will move to New York in the first semester of 2013 to begin writing his new suspense story.A source from Telemundo claims that he has full liberty to write anything he wants."

[the majority of the quotes here are from "the Novela Channel" blog, found here],
http://novelachannel.blogspot.com/
 

PABLO ESCOBAR -- miércoles

Thanks again, Hombre. Excellent, as always.

Novelera, the headline read: "General Peraza Negociado Por Escobar". I took it to mean [The government] gave up/traded/sold out Peraza in exchange for Escobar's surrender.

The prison apparently really did look like a prison at first. But Escobar quickly renovated it to his liking once the news cameras were gone.

When the director of the prison tried to "process" him the way he would any other prisoner, Escobar just blew him off. Cedula? (id card that every Colombian citizen is required to carry) -- don't have one. Fingerprints? -- not now, I'm busy. Escobar was marking his territory from the moment he set foot in La Catedral. There was never any doubt about who was going to be in charge.
 

GENERAL

Deb, thanks so much for the updates. Pasión prohibida has an appealing cast. That's one I'll be checking out.

I'm glad to hear about the writer, Pablo Llanes, joining Telemundo. As many of us have said here, no matter how good the actors are, a novela stands or falls on the writing.
 

LA PATRONA
Not sure if Bill plans on any more recaps. I thought I’d just post something in case anyone watched and wanted to comment.

I don’t think Fernando is David’s father. When he was imploring her at his step-father’s funeral, he alluded to their having “something” when they were kids. She emphatically told him he was crazy; there never was anything.

I liked the detail of El Tigre’s having taught Gabriela that banging on metal was more effective than screaming. This effectively saved their lives.

Patricia is much more likeable than her sister. She says that Antonia is insufferable and she isn’t willing to put up with crap. Irene would do anything to impress her future suegra. And Ricardo likes her. He tells her she’s intelligent and sincere. Not clear if she reciprocates.

I enjoyed seeing El Tigre take charge, get rid of Alberto, the incompetent engineer, and demonstrate his abilities. He wasn’t impressive in the first episode, basically a sloppy drunk. His partner, Francisca, reveals herself to be much nicer than shown in the first episode. She definitely wants Gabriela to be rescued, and is very kind to David.

Ricardo overhears his father, Senator Villegas, telling the mayor of San Pedro del Oro that Alejandro is like him, strong, high achieving, while his own son is an ineffectual weakling. Poor guy.

Down behind the derrumbe (collapse), Alejandro is obviously intrigued by Gabriela. He asks who the father of her son is several times, only to be told she won’t discuss that ever. He wants them to be friends; she insists they’re only boss and employee.

The scenes of Fernando running toward Gabriela, with his neglected wife on his heels are getting repetitive. The woman has zero dignity.

Not sure if I misunderstood, but I thought Gabriela told her son, David, that she wasn’t going back down the mine to work again. Then later, in the same episode, she told him she wasn’t like other mothers and would be mining. Confusing.

Alejandro seeks out El Tigre and offers him a position as General Manager of the mine. He refuses, saying he wants to spend time with his family. But I think he’s thinking about that gold he found.

Speaking of the gold, I was confused in the first episode because it appeared that El Tigre was trespassing and found the vein of gold at El Chamuco. It turns out that mine belonged to his deceased wife, Gaby’s mother. But now he has to find a will showing it did belong to the family. Now that’s a very common weird legal detail that TN writers love to throw in there.

Alejandro comes to Gabriela’s house looking for El Tigre and catches her fresh from the shower in a bathrobe. Fernando is right behind him, having told Poncia he was going to “follow his dream”. He’s immediately insane with jealousy at finding his brother there.
 

Pablo Escobar -

thanks so much Hombre !!!

and novelera, I too thought they wanted fingerprints,
didn't they also ask for his license as well, which he didn't have,
so he could have actually paid Andrés Parra, or someone, to go to jail for him ??? huh?

I'm not comfortable with this jail arrangement at all, and really don't see how anyone could be, the government must have been in really bad shape after their war with Pablo to close their eyes, and go along with this.

on the Motoa's, from what I've read about the real guys in wiki,

Pedro, (Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez)
"whose family was in the cattle-breeding and family restaurant businesses"
"assumed leadership of what was basically an Ochoa family operation, in 1976"
and entered into an alliance with the Medellin cartel after,
"the kidnapping of Ochoa's sister, Martha Nieves Ochoa Vasquez, by the Colombian guerrilla organization M-19"

his father, Carlos Motoa "El Patriarca" (Fabio Ochoa Restrepo),
"is generally assumed that Ochoa himself was not linked to drug trafficking, although his sons are well known for their involvement in the trade."

but...

.
 

La Patona -

thanks novelera !!

I didn't watch all of this, but found the mine scenes touching,
where both Alejandro and Gabriela presented the other with their facades, so to speak, the way they present themselves to the world, only to be chipped away by duress and survival instincts, to slowly reveal an essence, and possibly, a true connection of souls.

and didn't Alejandro casually tell Alberto, the engineer, to hit the road.
 

La Patrona:

Thanks for the summary, Novelera. I didn't understand Tigre and the will, but now it makes sense.

They really are making a lot of use of Gaby's buxom assets.

Par for the course, both our leading man and leading lady already have multiple people desiring them.

What was the deal with Gaby smearing mud on Alejandro's chest. Does that really help you breathe better? :)

Alberto may have been fired, but I don't think he's going away.

Julia reminds me of the youngest sister on Los Herederos del Monte, where the young brainier sister fell in love with the younger, shyer brother.

Francisca (Tigre's girlfriend ?) was indeed nicer this time. It was also interesting she practices some kind of folk religion or natural medicine.
 

MADE IN CARTEGENA, Episode 3

I'm not sure I'm really going to write something on this show every day, but it's so amazing, so adrenalin-filled, I just might.

First, here are some characters' names I wrote down. Matilda is the head maid in Vicente's house (probably been there for years). One of the head guards in the jail where Candelario is held is Ramirez. Perez is a guard there who is corrupt. The prisoner who is strangely protecting Candelario (whom I'll call Cando) is El Profe. The dark skinned gal who is a dancer and is Flora's rival for the affections of Watusi is Celina. Vicente's right hand man/guard is Giovany. Watusi's father is Sabroso. The name of the dance club is Bazurto. Another high up guy in the jail is Colonel Torres, who's very close to Vicente. Sofia has a cousin named Marcos (blond curly hair), and she has a friend named Liliana. She's introduced to a dark haired boy named Pablo. And yes, the computer geek in Harvey's band is Agua Mala.

Cando: There's no exit in the hole, but he does get released from it, and Profe cautions him to play it cool, he'll protect him. Later, Colonel Torres offers Cando a deal – tell us who's in the gang, and where they are, and you can be in the witness protection program, outside of the country, with your whole family. Will he talk?

Celina: When Flora oversleeps and misses her normal class of teaching the kids (pelaos) how to do the champeta, Celina volunteers to help Watusi with it, and he later starts teaching her some dance moves, which gets Flora jealous. Flora won't tell Watusi what's really going on. Harvey brings in Susana, an expert in fine manners, to train Flora, so she'll fit in better with the rich kids.

Max checks out Vicente's house, posing as a photographer. When Vicente grabs his camera and demands ID, he says he's Ronaldo, a Brasilian journalist. He names the leading paper in Rio, and since he's wired, Agua Mala instantly creates a fake identity and posts it, so that when Vicente checks his computer, it checks out! The next day, the whole crew comes to the mansion disguised as utility repairmen, arriving just after Vicente and Sofia have left. They cut the power, trick Matilde into letting them in, then tie up Matilde and another member of the house staff. They start looking for the safe.

Unfortunately for them, Vicente forget his briefcase, and comes home, running into them. They chloroform him, but as they have orders not to kill him, they split. Giovany comes in just too late. He later tells Vicente he'll try to track down these people, they're obviously connected with the photographer of the day before. Vicente has Sofia's guard bring her home, and rather than feel sorry for her Dad, she says the whole thing was his fault.

We also get a really cryptic scene in London from the past, in which an American guy tortures some crook to get a code. The crook gives him the code, which the American uses to release a girl who had a bomb hooked up to her. This girl looks a little like Mireya, but I'm not sure. The guy then calls Vicente on the phone. So there's some big mystery in the past. Somehow, I think Mireya wants revenge on Vicente for something.

I love when they show fast motion foreshadowing of the action to come, and there's lots of splitscreen stuff. This show is dynamic. There's also a word everyone uses, “vaina”, which can mean just about anything, from stuff, to a person.
 

La Patrona: miercoles

novelera beat me to it, it seems, but that's good. We can share. :) If nothing else this episode gave us more of that freaky Pecados ajenos vibe from Antonia and Fernando (only with more overt obsession and self-loathing from Fer, about the same level of "Sucks to be you" from Antonia, and no self-respect at all from poor Julia).

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned how clingy Poncia was with Fer near the end of the episode, though. That was long-lost-mother clingy, though coming this early in the show I'm wondering if it was accidental or a misdirect.

Hombre: I'm not entirely certain what was up with Gaby giving Ale a mud bath beyond fan service (see also her drizzling water across her chest...mmm, drizzle...), but I think the idea was that it would help keep him cool(er) and that might help with his breathing. Maybe? I dunno...
 

LA PATRONA

Bill, I didn't mean to jump the gun on you, but I didn't know if the premiere was going to be your only recap, just to get us in the swing of things.

If you plan to do more recaps, I'll lay off.

I also thought the mud was meant to cool Ale off. I think it also established (for both of them) a desire to touch each other.
 

No problem, novelera. I plan to close out the week recap-wise, though I'm admittedly not sure about after that right this second.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Jueves, Part 1

Alberto visits Pablo at the Catedral. They meet outside, Pablo claiming it's because a pipe broke and it's smells bad inside. As we know, he doesn't want Alberto to see how he's transformed the inside into a playground for fat narcos. Alberto tells him he's been named Ambassador to Holland, so he's leaving. But there's something else. Pablo confessed to the crime of smuggling cocaine into Paris. But he was already sentenced for that in Paris. Hmmm, says Pablo, since you can't be convicted twice for the same crime, I guess I'm a free man, right? Well, Pablo, I don't think that'd work. Fine, says Pablo, I could legally get out now, but I'm a man of my word, so I'll stay for now. How many presidents do you think I'm gonna see before I get out? Alberto offhand says maybe this one and a few more. Okay, says Pablo, 10 years.

The news reports that President Gaviria's chief of security, Ismael, is going to be Minister of Defense. They also report that General Peraza has resigned.

Mauricio Restrepo, a rival narco with a white sport jacket and long pulled back hair, meets with the Cali cartel brothers. We see a flashback to when Pablo sent two of his guys to kill Mauricio, but Mauricio was ready for them, captured them, tied them up, then let them go with a lecture. Anyway, he tells the Cali guys now is the time to take down Pablo. But the Cali brothers don't want to rock the boat, they're happy with Pablo in that jail.

Several of the other narcos, including Ramada, are visiting Pablo, playing pool. They ask if he meets with the Priest. Sure, the Priest comes in, but most of the time we swim, play squash, just have fun. But I need a little more money. What, asks one of the guys, you need a loan? Nope, from now on you'll contribute 50% of everything you earn. This does NOT go over well
 

PABLO ESCOBAR, Part 2

Pablo has the family over for a nice Christmas celebration. They give him a big cossack hat, which he loves. Daniela gives him her present, something she wrote. But the phone rings, and of course that comes first. It's Gildardo (Cali) Gonzales. Gildardo wants to make peace with Pablo. Pablo says no way, I'll NEVER forgive you. Well, we're willing to pay you $3 million. Pablo first says forget it. But then he thinks about how much money that is, and considers it.

Most of the narcos have agreed to give Pablo his 50%. But Mauricio thinks this is nuts, you guys are fools. He tries to get the others to be independent, forget about Pablo, he's taking advantage of you. You can even take him down. Now's the time. But Ramada, Arellano and the others say no way. And they warn him not to cross Pablo. Mauricio tells them, don't say I didn't warn YOU.

Pablo and the guys are living it up with babes, coke, the works. Pablo, wearing his cossack hat, tells the guys he decided to accept the Cali offer. Topo, though, disagrees. At first, Pablo and Peluche say don't question the boss. But Topo continues, what about your dignity? The craziest thing about this scene is the “Warden”just walking around, observing the utter debauchery, powerless to act. Pablo then calls the Calis, but Manuel, the tough one answers, rather than Gildardo. Pablo tells him he's considered their offer, but he wants $5 million. Manuel tells him to go to hell.

Pablo has what may be the national soccer team invited to play with the guys, who also get those blue and white striped shirts. Pablo is nervously looking around. Peluche tells him to calm down, there's nothing to worry about. We have all the guards on our payroll, the ones in here and the ones outside. There's an electrified fence, and the switch to the power is in your room. The airspace is restricted by the army. Who could ever attack us? Pablo seems to relax a bit, maybe he'll play soccer, too. But two guys ARE lurking in the bushes, with a bazooka. Before they can act, some army guys come up behind them and detain them. The two are brought over to the football bench for questioning. Who sent you? Initially, they stay mum. But Pablo orders Buitre to shoot one in the arm. He then admits it was Gildardo and Manuel Gonzales. So Candongo and Buitre shoot both guys dead, smiling all the way.

Things are heating up again!
 

PABLO ESCOBAR -- jueves

Great job, maybe one of your best, Hombre. You absolutely nailed the Poor Man's Fellini kind of atmosphere in La Catedral.

Last night the actor looked as if he had borrowed one of those fake bellies from Univisión and stuffed it under his jacket.

Over all, things seem very gloomy. Whatever may happen to Escobar (well, okay, we know what will happen, but still ...), it's clear that the bad guys, as a species, have the survival ability of cockroaches. I don't know if any of you watched "La Pola" but if you did, you can understand why I keep thinking: Look at what these bastards are doing to the Colombia that the patriots died for.
 

PABLO ESCOBAR

Thanks, Hombre, terrific recap!

I think I may have a memory of Pablo wearing that cossack hat in the photographs inside the book "Killing Pablo".

Mauricio Restrepo is a nasty piece of work himself!

NovelaMaven: Nice one on "Poor Man's Fellini". It was deeply weird that the warden just wandered around watching the general debauchery.

I guess we're meant to believe that the army guys are only supposed to be in the "security ring", but they were very close when they apprehended the two would-be assassins. It's just incredible that Buitre and Topo murdered the guys inside a prison with apparently no consequences.

Off topic, I've had an extremely busy week and haven't gotten to Made in Cartagena, nor the week's episodes of La Mariposa. I hope to get a good look at MIC this weekend.
 

La Patona -

(just a teaser, hopefully Bill C. will do a real summary)

so el Tigre quits the mine, but fires his daughter first, with dreams of having their own mine, but he keeps this all close to his chest, only he and Francisca know, he gives Gabriela his life savings to live on, she returns the money.

la Tigrita, upset by it all, calls her stepmother, Francisca, a prostitute in front of their sons, not good...
she gets a good smack.

we see that Gabriela was raped at an early age, she saw his face, (but we didn't), and she never revealed who it was.

Fernando continues to pursue Gabriela, warns off Alejando.

la Patrona seems to have eyes everywhere, and a finger in every pie,
she gives Irene the idea that her friend Gabriela may be her enemy,
and has el Tigre followed,

Alejandro chats with la Patrona, agrees to hire Irene, not good, he agrees to hire back the engineer Alberto, way not good, but he only wishes Gabriela would return...

La Patrona stops by Gabrielas' for a visit...
 

Pablo Escobar -

thanks so much Hombre !!!

--> NovelMaven
HA!
Pablo in prison a la Fellini

the whole prison thing is so unreal, this is a much better setup than Pablo had while on the run.
 

La Patrona: jueves

We pick up from the end of the previous episode, where Alejandro and Fernando have walked in on Gabriela in her bathrobe. Gaby understandably freaks and throws them both out of her house, and they basically have the following conversation:

Alejandro: "Crazy Gabriela! I was looking for your father!"
Fernando: "Did you say you came here to see Gabriela? You want her, don't you?"
Ale: "What?"
Fer: "I said you want her! But she's mine, you understand? Mine, all mine!"
Ale: "Even if I wanted to, man, it's not your business."
Fer: "Down, down, down! Mine, mine, mine!"
Ale: "Uh...you're married, bro."
Fer: "Like I care! Gabriela is mine! Mine, mine, mine!"
Ale: "Fer, man, what happened to you? You had everything, and you turned out...well, you."
Fer: "I'm the stock loser brother! I'm required by law to hate you for being successful and beloved, and setting a standard I can't possibly meet!"
Ale: "Fernando, seriously, you need help. It's still early in the show...you don't have to go full retard."
Fer: "Shut the hell up and stay away from my Gaby or I'll kill you!"
Ale: "You saw that, audience. I tried."

Meanwhile, over at Francisca's she and Tigre finally locate Lucia Suarez's will. Captain Lou is ecstatic, even as he exposits that Lucia inherited El Chamuco because she was a distant cousin of the Beltrans; Fran isn't crazy about the area at all, since she notes it's evil--people have claimed to see the Devil himself walking around there. (I guess El Chamuco borders La Malquerida.) CL admits that he started the stories about seeing Satan in order to keep people off the property, since he's known for years about the gold vein on it--why, it's even bigger than the remaining veins in the San Pedro del Oro mine. And thanks to it he and the entire Suarez family will be filthy rich!

Casa del Suarez: Gaby decides it's safe enough to pop outside and turn the water back on, which is the perfect time for Fer to pop up like a Predator and demand to know what she's been up to with his brother--at home and in the mine. Gaby's attempt to get it into his titanium-lined skull that nothing is going on with Ale lasts about eight seconds before Fer blurts out that he and she have "a history"--which lasted two dates, according to Gaby, before she had the obvious "bitch crazy" realization even as a teenager and bailed. Fer declares that she drove him crazy, that he never wanted anybody like he wants her--which he tries to punctuate with an embrace, but Gaby instead punctuates with a knee in the junk and "Leave me alone or I'll call the police!" before dashing back into the house.

Once inside and alone again, Gaby sits down and has a flashback to one night when she was a teenager, when she was attacked and raped by an unknown man in a ski mask. (Prime suspect #1: Fer, but I do wonder if that's too obvious.)

La Dorada: Antonia (still rocking that tight leather jacket and large sunglasses, which make her look suspiciously like a Visitor from V...and I think Antonia would actually eat a hamster if it benefited her) is assuring a pouting Alberto that he will get his job back at the mine--just leave it to her. Al reminds her that Julia saw them kissing in the previous episode before he leaves, which is her cue to track down Julia.
 

La Patrona: jueves (p. 2)

Julia asks Antonia if "her engineer" is keeping her sufficiently...satisfied...which she confirms--but then adds that each person's level of satisfaction is different, and that Julia's must be really low because she's dry and infertile. Julia denies that she's infertile, and the Ice Queen states that she better not be--the only thing keeping Julia from being bounced like a check from her marriage and los Beltran is the promise of a grandson. Julia halfheartedly threatens to spill about the kiss unless she gets treated better by Antonia, and Antonia mockingly declares that Julia's "hormonal crisis" is making her see things, and not to try to use her "visions" against her.

Later, Irene shows up to ask Antonia for advice on how to appeal to Ale...no, that's not descriptive enough...Irene shows up to kiss Antonia's skinny jeans-clad ass like it was William Levy and then ask for advice on how to appeal to Ale. Antonia actually calls Julia's sucking up cheesy, but gives her some pearls of wisdom anyway: Ale is a cynical man, and thus can't be seduced "through the heart." Irene continues to play innocent up until Antonia flat out says that Julia was an idiot, but willing to do whatever it took to land Fer; is Irene willing to do the same to land herself a Beltran? Irene proudly declares that she's nothing like her older sister (uh, but if you're willing to go full skank to land a guy...), and that apparently impresses the Ice Queen enough to get a chuckle out of her. Kindred spirits are drawn to each other, I guess.

Fran's: Captain Lou and Fran are still talking about the Chamuco gold when David shows up. He tells CL about his water prank on Mom, though he does explain that he did it because he was mad about her still working at the mine even after the shaft collapse. CL declares that Gaby is stubborn and doesn't need to be risking her life--and he promises that ends today. And that means we're going to the mine, where Alberto and Ramon (CL's gossipy cohort with the Fu Manchu mustache) are talking about how CL quit his job and declared that he would be rich. CL shows up to interrupt them and officially hand in his resignation, with one caveat--his final act as chief miner is to officially fire Gaby. CL then again proves he's an idiot by declaring that the next time they see him they'll have to call him patron, and exits.

Check the clock, because I think the deathwatch starts now: the next time we see CL he's coming out of a local bank and heading off in his truck. He goes by Ramon, who meets up with some other mine peon with a huge bullet head and brings him up to speed on CL's latest activities--which now include withdrawing all the money he had in said bank. (Ramon also notes that he'd been following CL for "some time," which could mean anything.) Bullethead suggests that perhaps CL inherited or won some money, though he ultimately agrees with Ramon that it's all kind of strange. They then head off to tell Antonia about all this.

By this time Ale is in his office at the mine and having a pleasant flashback to Gaby giving him the mud mask and nearly falling out of her pink bathrobe. This is interrupted by Antonia and Irene, though even Antonia revealing she hired Irene as his assistant (and Irene rather subtly, by her standards, trying to suck up to him) can't initially wipe the big goofy grin off his face. It takes Antonia telling him that he can't fire Alberto to do that; Ale insists that Alberto is an idiot, but Antonia replies that he's got a contract. Firing Mr. Punchable Face means they have to pay him out, and they can't afford that. Ale grumpily agrees, but decides to put Alberto "in a position where he'll want to quit." Okay, good luck with that. Ale also astutely guesses that Antonia is trying to fix him up with Irene along the way, though he lets it go.
 

La Patrona: jueves (p. 3)

Fran's: David and Max are just chillin' on the stoop when a pissed Gaby, who found out a couple of scenes earlier that she had been fired and by whom, rolls up in her jeep. She demands David go wait in it, since this will be the last time he ever comes here, when Fran comes out; Gaby lights into her for turning her dad against her and getting her fired. Fran backs up CL's statement that he decided to do it because of the shaft collapse and that she had nothing to do with it, but then goes off on a tangent about how he became distant from Gaby because she ended up a laborer instead of a professional woman. Gaby flips out and answers one small niggling question of mine at the same time by declaring in front of both younger Suarezes: "You don't know anything about me! How dare you judge me--you're a prostitute!"

And whack goes the Fran to the Gaby, because she did have it coming.

This leads to the highlight of this episode, where after hustling both kids off Fran puts Gaby on total blast for saying what she said in front of Max. What if she told David that his mother "opened her legs to some stranger"? Yes, she had been a prostitute in the past (I think--I'm fuzzy on this), and Gaby had no right to judge her without knowing what she had gone through in her life that took her down that path, but now she was an honest woman now and utterly devoted to her man and her child. She wasn't trying to keep Tigre away from Gaby, since the love between a father and daughter is different than the love between a man and a woman. (Geraldine Zivat, girl, you rock.) Gaby is still too mad/hurt to really absorb it, though, and she storms off with David in tow.

Later, Captain Lou comes by and finds Fran crying her eyes out; she explains about the argument she had with Gaby.

SPDO: oh, hey, it's Gaston! He's a real character after all, having a snack-chat with CL at an outdoor cafe and everything. CL is looking for a lawyer to register a gold mine, and he enlists Gaston's help to find one.

Back at the mine Alberto reports to Ale on Gaby's firing. Irene gets to see Ale grab him and go all "What the hell did you do?" over it, which prompts her to later suggest that she talk to Gaby and get her to come back to the mine. Ale decides to randomly drop by Fran's after that, presumably looking for Gaby, and gets told to GTFO by a popsicle-wielding David (more on that in a bit).

Along the way Ramon and Bullethead report to Antonia at LD about CL. Antonia basically orders them to keep following him; this unfortunately is not accompanied by the throne room music from Return of the Jedi.
 

La Patrona: jueves (p. 4)

CDS: David apologizes to Gaby for the water gag, also admitting why he did it. Captain Lou shows up right on the heels of that, shoos David off to go buy some ice cream (which is why he ends up at Fran's with the popsicle, bonding, and he and Gaby have a talk to clear the air: he fired her because he was worried for her after the shaft collapse. She thought he did it because Fran pulled him away from her. He thought she distanced herself from him a long time ago, when she got pregnant by a man whose identity she has never revealed and basically torpedoed her professional hopes to take care of her child. He wanted her to have a better life than he did. And she was just fine with her life, because she got to follow in her father's footsteps. (Honestly, this would have been the highlight of the episode except for Gaby doing the standard "Oh, if only you understood why I did what I did--but of course I can't actually tell you why I did what I did" thing even harder than after Fran smacked the taste out of her mouth. Here, that was a fizzle.)

This is where CL also gives Gaby a large envelope full of cash--his withdrawn savings--and says that she won't have to work as hard any more. Dude's got plans, you know, though of course he doesn't explain them to her. After he leaves Gaby is visited by Irene, still in Dyson constant suction mode. Gaby isn't really having it, and after she leaves she ends up going over to Fran's to drop off the money with Max for CL.

SPDO: new location alert--there's apparently has a tennis/athletic club, which we next see Ale and Ricardo coming out of. This filler is entirely Ale is waxing poetic about Gaby's unpredictable and intriguing nature, with a side of curiosity about her "connection" to his brother. FF>>>

Over at Fran's CL is loading his truck with camping and mining gear. His current plan is to retrieve a large amount of gold from El Chamuco and use that to set up the new mine and related company. He reassures Fran that Gaby won't come by to insult her again while he's gone and that she regrets what she said before heading out, which is witnessed by Bullethead in full creep mode in a Dodge Neon. Fran appears to notice him, or at least the top of his head since he's in creep mode, but that's about it.

LD: Irene reports to Antonia about her chat with Gaby (which actually was mostly offscreen) and how Ale was really concerned about Gaby's firing. Antonia wonders aloud if Ale is interested in Gaby, which Julia initially denies--Ale's a man of the world and all, and her "friend" Gaby's...not. Antonia drops some more wisdom on the human vacuum: "Never underestimate your enemy."

Later Antonia runs into Poncia, who informs her that Valentina is headed back to boarding school. Antonia almost literally goes "whew!" at this before connecting some mental dots and grilling Poncia about a girl that Fer was obsessed with back in the day--a girl that Poncia identifies as Gabriela Suarez. This leads her to go to Casa del Suarez, where David takes a break from bitching at his slow laptop (I'm guessing SPDO's public wi-fi is slow as hell and he was trying to download some episodes of Soñadoras) to open the door to the Ice Queen looking like he's the first hamster she wants to eat...
 

La Patrona:

Bill- I'm not even watching the show, but I had to stop after reading your hilarious take on the conversation between Ale and his brother Fer (which I could totally picture in my mind) and say bravo! You're recaps are fabulous and funny, and I hope you keep doing them.
 

LA PATRONA

Bill, thanks a million! I love the funny comments you salt your recaps with! The Daffy Duck clip was inspired!

But, first of all, who is Captain Lou? I don't have a frame of reference to compare El Tigre to this apparently mythical persona.

Yep, I hope El Tigre has a small life insurance policy because I don't hold out much hope for his survival if, and certainly when, Bullethead and the grouchy mine worker find there's gold in them thar hills.

I know it's plot service, but I'm not best pleased with Alejandro for caving in to his mother on both Alberto staying on at the mine (to gum things up some more) and Irene being his "assistant". I expect lots more scenes of Irene in Ale's office with her tongue hanging out like Jim Carrey's character in "The Mask".
 

Gracias for the kind words, ladies. And a belated mea culpa for not adding a proper reference point when I first mentioned Tigre and Captain Lou Albano. It's one of those things that didn't just leap out at me, though--it was catapulted. :)
 

LA PATRONA

Thanks Bill. Wow, just wow! El Tigre is definitely a dead ringer for Captain Lou. [Whoops, hope that isn't foreshadowing.]