Caray, Caray!

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Hi all,

It has been an honor to recap this novela with one of my favorite actors.
In tonight's episode I can't shake the feeling that something isn't quite right with Adriano's sudden death. I could be wrong but what the heck, it will be good food for a discussion.

 

TJ...yup...I think aliens landed and not only took away Eva...but Helena and all the dads! The dads are now inexplicably acting like dads and Helena is not acting like herself.

When Helena met with Adri in the hospital room and we never got to see the dead body of Adri....it raised a red flag with me. Also...Helena is acting toooo strange. This is a pretty decent actress. It is as if the director instructed her to act strange enough as to be so unbelievable that the audience *knows* something is up!

Remember "The Sting" with Redford and Newman? They did a nice job of fooling the audience. They aren't doing such a good job In this episode. All we can say is que, que what??

I just hope that Helena winds up being the hero and nailing PLuty useless winkie!! Our favorite hero, Eva is in jail...so it has to be Helena!! And I think PLuty is being set up big time. Gertie
 

Thank you for el recap!!

I think Adriano took a page from JC/Eva's book and faked his own death. Maybe that way he will be able to find out what Pluti is really up to, plus give JC a taste of his own medicine regarding how it feels to think you've lost someone you care about and get jerked around.
 

What Julia said!!

Peace to all, Tiempe.
 

Add me to the list of Adri is not dead. It is too hard to beleive, and Helena's behavior is just too weird. Getting back with Pluti, que, que, what???? I can't see it.

Lucia really does have some loose lips, I just knew she was gonna let that slip to Santi and Santi was gonna tell JC.

Really like how Renato stuck it to Pluti and Rebe, it was just right and what a hoot.

I am concerned for poor Mimi, who kidnapped her?

As far as the Dad's go, Mad Dad seems to be learning his lesson, as is Modesto, and Fern still has a way to go. It is interesting the advice Mad Dad gave to Marcela, and Modesto finally giving the Cabellero name to his kids. Also Fern taking the time to watch Kevin play the harp.

Can't wait for tomorrow to see the fall out from that boardroom meeting.
 

Ditto Julia! And I'm hoping the kidnappers were sent by Adriano to take Mimi to him and tel her the truth. Maybe it's wishful thinking but Mimi deserves good things.

Unlike mad dad. I know that scene with Marci was supposed to be nice, but it just annoyed me. How much patience and tolerance and love does it take? Fer did everything he could to hurt Marci, short of beating her. He should be alone for a while.

Kelly
 

I definitely think that Helena's taking Pluti back is part of the justice and revenge plan. She was just a little too cool and deliberate in how she was talking to him. Plus she doesn't seem to have the slightest affection for him now, and I'm sure she hasn't forgotten how nasty he was to her.
 

Okay, let's pull together the clues that Adri is alive and plotting against Pluto.

1. The investigator met with Adri just before his "death." He probably told Adri something he discovered.
2. Adri asked to see Helena and asked how she felt about Juan. I'm sure he asked her assistance to clear Juan's name. Notice how strong he seems when he meets with Helena. And he assures Helena that it will work out.
3. Helena leaves Adri's room and looks at Pluto strangely. Probably because Adri briefed her on Pluto's evil deeds.
4. Helena accepts Pluto's advances immediately after she met with Adri. Whereas look how angry she was with him in yesterday's show.
5. The doctor makes a point of saying that the operation is very dangerous.
6. They kidnap Mimi. Definitely not Pluto's people - they always look like thugs. The kidnappers were much classier. I'm sure Adri had her kidnapped for safety because Pluto found out she has Adri's heir.
7. Modesto's strange comments in the reading of the will.
8. Helena has turned into a dishrag when she tries to explain why she went back to Pluto. She barely even makes an effort to sound convincing.
9. The most compelling evidence? Lucia has turned into the smartest one in the room!

Okay, what else do you have to add to the list? Gertie, as the VP of lists, I'm sure you can add some.

 

Good list! Yes, Adri seemed quite stable when Helena was visiting with him, then as soon as she left she claimed he was very weak and hardly able to talk, and then immediately he needed an emergency risky surgery? Curious. The will was definitely fishy, not specifying the heir. And the investigator doth protest too much that he wasn't there for anything work-related.
 

Great list, Paula. When Lucia is the voice of reason then something funny is going on.

Will the boda finale be hers to reward her for this newly discovered common sense?

Kelly
 

Hi there. Although YOu all have done a great job with the recaps! I'd just say that as we've all learned, not everything is as it seems, and I think we're still in for plenty of surprises. And...I'm wondering if we've truly seen the last of Eva. Hmmm!
 

Thanks, TJ, for producing tonight's recap and all your work through the series.

Tonight's episode was confusing in terms of Adri's death and Helena's attitude toward Pluti. I'm waiting to see what else happens.

I did appreciate Eduardo's support for Helena and his advice to Marcela. For me, his key point was that machismo destroys husbands as well as wives.

The boardroom premiere of the Pluti and Rebe show was just the scandal Pluti needs to send him to his downfall. Yay, Renato!

La Paloma


 

TJ: Forgive my bad manners : ) Thank you so much for this marvelous recap and all the recaps you have done for this TN. They were all wonderful and so detailed. Thank you so much.

Paula: What you put on your list was what I thought too in a nutshell, that's exactly it and you are so right about Lucia being the smartest person in the room, who knew?
 

The fake death plot, delivered subtlely (instead of employing big red flashing arrows) was truly worthy of a Colombian script.

What was NOT of that quality, was the rest of the episode. Ed and Fer with their sudden change of heart? It was so poorly written, it makes me wonder... I suspect it was a Mexican variation and that in the Colombian original those two are never redeemed. And if it WAS a Mexican variation, it was scripted by the writers from Tontas!

Ed gave his list of what will change a macho's heart. He forgot one ingredient - Ultimos dias of a TN. In fact, both wives gave them all the patience, understanding, etc. that Ed listed, and they didn't change one bit, ni cinco! What made them change? Being kicked out on their sorry butts, doors slammed in their faces, by wives who proved that they could survive just fine without them. Only then did the men begin to change.

My husband predicted how Pluto's story will end, based on the miniscule scene we see in the previews. He's driving down the road in a fury because he's lost everything. He thinks he sees Antonia standing in the road, so he tries to run her over. What is actually in the road is not Antonia but a "Bridge Out" sign, and in aiming for Toni, he drives over a cliff.
 

Ooooooohhhh!
wonderful and quick recap TJ! I am totally not buying Helena's dependency on P. And I hope it was Adri's men protecting Mimi, but I hardly think she would have needed such rough treatment, unless he wanted it to look like a kidnapping? One other little tidbit was that Modesto and Adri both used the phrase, "tarde o temprano", which made me think they are in cahoots. I hope I hope.
 

Thank you TJ for the terrific recap, and for getting it up so quickly. I was thrilled to read everyone’s comments. I thought at first that the death was a fake, but as the episode went on, it seemed to me it wasn’t, and I was plenty steamed about how quickly they killed off Adriano and buried him, all within 5 minutes. I thought at first it was all a daydream Pluti was having in the hospital waiting room. No such luck! Finally I put it down to severe editing. And Helena suddenly deciding Pluti is un buen hombre? Unbelievable! After all the months we put into watching this, and this is the ending? And we don’t even get to see all the scenes – you can tell a lot is missing.

So in that dark frame of mind, I rushed to my computer to see what the Caray gang had to say, and here you are all suspecting it’s a set-up. Oh joy! Now I can’t wait for tomorrow’s developments.


 

Tablet Jefa, thank you for your detailed recap. You did not miss a thing! I especially liked your comparing Pluterco to Sylvester the Cat. He does need someone to slap Tweety out of his mouth. He sure has that smug expression.

Pluterco was in the rarest of form with his shiny shirt and suit as was Rebecca with her final fashion choice of a shiny black leather dress. These two snappy dressers should end up together if nothing else for their "sense of style." :0

It irritated me that Silvia had to inform Bastardo (I don't know which adept recapper dubbed him as such early on; but he will always live in my memory by that name)about Helena's pregnancy. Couldn't they have had him run into Marcela somewhere elso so he could then give his "machos can change" speech. Lucía's loose lips are always annoying even if it is just to push the plot along.

I agree with everyone that there is a lot going on behind the scenes and that Adriano is the puppet master here.

Here is to Onésimo getting something out of being treated like garbage by Pluterco: the money? Rebecca? a gift card to his favorite restaurant?

Jarifa


 

What a scary but true thought, Paula, Lucia being the smartest one in the room.
 

I cracked up at TJ's comment about Rebecca just waltzing in to GI like queen of the jungle, and "where is security?"..."oh yeah....this is a TN"!

Honestly, TJ, I love the way you wrote this recap as this particular episode was way too bizaar to be taken literally. To me it certainly warranted multiple rewinds, sarcasms, and "que que what's"!!

Loved Paula's list....there isn't much to add but a lot to comment about for sure!

I think it is fascinating that Modesto let PLuty know that the heir to Adri's fortune is yet to be specified. I think Modesto and some others ( investigators...etc) are waiting in the wings to watch PLuty hang himself. I am definitely thinking that Mimi is being protected and not kidnapped because they know that if PLuty finds out she is carrying Adri's heir -baby, PLuty will go after the unborn baby. I really think Modesto and the investigators must already know this.
Also...as Paula pointed out, the kidnappers were too classy looking...the kidnap van was high tech and had very dark....CIA-like windows. Only Adri's friends could afford that!

Lucia cannot be part of the plot because of her big dangerous mouth. Helena wasn't even making eye contact with Lucia ..which tells me that Helena is lying to Lucia and knows that her friend will repeat every damn thing she says to the *right* people this time! Gertie
 

Fabulous recap TJ. Loved all your interjections.

As soon as Helena walked out to the hospital waiting room and told Pluti that Adri was so grave, I knew it was a set up. It was confirmed to me by everything on Paula's great list. Adri, Helena, and a select few are totally laying a trap for Pluti. Yay!

I also love that Renato showed the video to all those important people. I wonder if they actually showed the video to the Mexican audience? The screen on the wall seem cleverly blurred out, and it seems that they blanked out some of the more passionate sounds. Can't wait to see the fallout from that meeting.

I am also not buying the sudden change in Modesto and Bastardo, but I don't care about them that much. Their wives moved on and I like that. Let's case bugs me though, because there were so many reasons to save this marriage. But the writers left his change till the very last minute, which makes both Marcela and the audience incredulous about any change.
 

That's Fer's case, not let's case. Stupid tablet.
 

Thanks, TJ! Great recap! I loved the talking-to Lucía was giving Helena. Can she hear herself? Maybe she'll wake up and realize the wisdom of her words.

Paula, you're right that the secret ingredient in character change is últimas días. That's also how we know that nothing bad will happen to Mimi. Miscarriages and threatened miscarriages are for mid-season -- it's too late to leverage that into ongoing angst, so it's not gonna happen.

Vivi, I wondered about the blurry screen too. Presumably the people in the meeting could actually see the video...? I hope so! Renato's face as he plugged in the disc was priceless.
 

P.S. I think I really, really have to have a t-shirt that says QUE QUE WHAT???
 

Excellent Blue Lass!! Gertie
 

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Thanks for the inside (outside?) info, Mads. It really would have been better if they had at least shown us a glimpse -- as it stands, we were left wondering if it was audio-only.
 

Madelaine, thanks for the info on the jacuzzi scene. I tried to track it down on Youtube but it as well as many other telenovela episodes that used to be posted have been removed and now we just see the sad tv face saying that the content in unavailable. :(

Blue Lass, I love the t-shirt idea.
¿Qué? ¿Qué? What? does have the possibility of having a long life after Eva ends.

"La malquerida": anyone interested in the Rebecca anthem: the Mariana Seaone cd is on sale at Target.

This has been so much fun watching with all of you!

Jarifa
 

Blue: I removed the comment, but yeah suffice it to say, they didn't need to fuzz it out. You really couldn't see anything.
 

TJ, I agree with you. Whether Adriano is dead or not, I'm desperately hoping Helena has a cunning plan. The incredulous look on Marsela's face during the meeting (when Helena was agreeing with Pluti on everything) was just priceless!

I mean, Helena didn't even tell Pluti about the baby, did she? You'd figure she would if she were playing it straight with him.

Anyway, if Helena DOESN'T have a cunning plan, that means Lucia is the voice of reason - and that's scary! (Ah - reading over the other comments, I see I'm not exactly the first person to think of this. :)

Another possibility is that some of this is just Pluti's drunken, deranged dream. But that doesn't explain everyone else's scenes...

Anyway, it does seem most likely that Adri is faking his death. He really didn't seem all that terribly upset with JC at the hospital. The heart attack does seem to have been real - but perhaps both his body AND his mind recovered quickly.

And what is UP with Mad Dad? Was there an additional, secret little anvil that hit his head in just the right place just in the last few days? Who is this guy?? I think the timing of Fernando's change of heart makes a little more sense - recent emergency with Jennifer, freshly kicked out of the house, Marcela considering a job in Miami - but there's really nothing new in Mad Dad's life these couple of weeks. So, I'm going with bump on the head/alien body-snatcher.

I find even the timing of Modesto's dramatic change more plausible than Mad Dad's. His wife dumped him and he needed a place to live. Presto, lesson learned.

Anyway. I will be counting the minutes till tonight. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5....
 

What makes me suspicious about Helena is that when Pluti went on and on about their new life together, he didn't mention Lalo ONCE. Helena is much to good a mother to overlook that.
 

Muchas gracias to all the excellent recappers of this TN.

PESE has been my first TN, and you all have made it so much more fun than if I had done it all alone.

I will miss Eva so much, I already do...just don't care that much about JC, he was a pretty bad in the beginning...Eva was his redemption. Jaime Camil's portrayal of Eva has been one of my favorite pieces of television. I just found out that the DVD goes on sale at the end of May; this is one I have to own.

I believe the producers/writers have let us know, through Adriano that, no matter what we see unfolding, it will all be ok, somehow, it will all be put right.

Sue in Florida
 

What Maggie Said !!!! I went through the same set of emotions. I couldn't believe that they so quickly offed Adriano -- I was sure it was Pluti's daydream we were watching. Then it went on & on. And it was obviously reality. Then there was Helena's bizarre change and attitude. I was just P-I-S-S-E-D. And yet I kept on thinking -- this is so bizarre that it has to be a second faked death.

It's one or the other. It's the worst writing ever -- or it's the best plot twist ever. And I agree -- if we are right about the setup -- then Lucero is doing a terrific job of walking the line. Is she really so shocked by what she has been through that she is actually ready to take Pluti back? Or is she lying through her teeth in order to take Pluti down? She is playing it so well that we can't be sure.

I stand by my melting snowbank theory that I posted a couple of days ago. I think that the transformation of Eduardo is well written. We have seen the small signs of the melting under the surface for weeks now. When the temperature at the bottom of the snow bank reaches a critical point the whole cold mass just collapses -- often suddenly. The divorce was heat enough to make him rethink everything. I believe in this change. Modesto -- a little too fast, but he too had some serious pushes toward sanity. There's Eugenia's new attitude, Adriano's urging of forgiveness, Renato's demonstration of competence, Eva's admonitions -- and the shock of the Eva/Juan unmasking. That's enough to make a person rethink their whole life. Even Fernando has been learning a lot all along -- he just kept falling back into that "I'm the man her" attitude. He still has time to add it all up in a believable way.

TABLET JEFA, YOU ROCK! This was stellar -- as always. I have enjoyed your recaps so much.

Güera


 

Maybe you're right, Güera. I don't know.

But there's another thing I don't like about Ed's instant-soup conversion - this man who has been a raging bull his entire life suddenly becomes a sage philosopher? Que que WHAT??? Like somehow, all those years of throwing plates on the floor to prove what a man he is, under the surface he was contemplating the wisdom of the ages, and it just bubbles out as he speaks to Marcela? I think not.

 

Paula:

Maybe this is silly, but ya know how some people have to hit bottom before they wake up? Maybe for Eduardo and Modesto both, it took them losing their wives, that had been married to them for years, finally "woke" them up? Eduardo always relyed on Silvia for everything and when he figured out she was definitely not coming back, he thought back on the error of his ways and slowly changed. He didn't really change overnight, there have been tell tale signs he's been changing. Modesto on the other hand, Adri woke up. Telling him about losing one son and not to lose the other, and plus Eugenia kicking him out of the house truly showed him how alone he could be.

Now Fern is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. I think it will take till the last capitulo for him to wake up. At least now he went to see Kevin play the harp, something he had never done before. I can't wait to see when his moment comes.
 

Paula, I don't think the thaw began until Sylvia went to CODA and began to stand up for herself. From then on we saw tiny moments of humanity in Eduardo -- even though he held onto his macho pride for a long time. His grip was more desperate & the grudging smiles of affection popped up more & more frequently. It's been a baby step forward & two giant steps backward for months now. I don't think it was sudden at all.

Güera
 

I'm not arguing the softening of his heart. That all makes sense. What I'm arguing is that he suddenly became a philosopher and deep thinker, when in the past his deepest thought was, "ME WANT BEER!"
 

Paula:

I get you, lol. Loved the phrase "Me Want Beer:, lol.
 

I'm throwing my vote in with the folks who mentioned that they thought Fernando would end up as a chef. The scene with him cooking for the kids and then later telling Kevin "you have to do something you love" were nicely arranged.
 

Yep. Fer just needs to finally admit that he hates working in an office-- that's why he never did it...work that is. He is at his best whipping up meals for his family. Hopefully, he'll learn to clean too. If he can embrace his natural skills and talents as a house-husband, then it won't matter where Marce's career takes them. He can pack up and go and support the family anywhere, even Miami.
 

Make that beer a Modesto Negra-- my fave!! OMG.. was that ever Freudian of me ??....I meant Modelo Negra!! Gertie
 

hey Gertie, are you still there? email me if you don't mind.
paulah88@hotmail.com
 

Me want beer. -- Love it. Point taken.

Güerra
 

Thank you, TJ. I've enjoyed recapping with you. And I see I'll be following your exploits on Porque el Amor Mand, so I'm glad.

I did thoroughly enjoy last night's show. I didn't mind all the redemptions- Bastardo, Ferni, and Teflon Modesto- I even liked them. I just wish the writers had spread them out over time. Really, to give us three changes of heart in one episode was a waste. It robs us of the chance to focus on any one.

I also knew that Helena was faking, and was sure when she pushed away Plutarco's kiss. I could see her thinking "THAT much faking I can't do." So it has me hoping Adriano's death is a red herring. I miss Eva.

I like Paula's husband's prediction for Pluto's end. It seems fitting.

Blue Lass, great idea! Que, Que, What? t-shirts.