Caray, Caray!

These short scenes are exhausting. I think that's why so many people have such short attention spans.
 

Urban:

This is a wonderful recap. I know it is hard to recap with the flipping scenes back and forth. They do that in AV quite a lot too and PEAM come to think of it. It is hard to keep up, but you did a fab job. Only one thing, what did Concho tell Oscar about JA working longer hours?

Amalia and Mancia are too over the top. Really their children are grown, let them fly a bit, stop trying to halt all their steps forward. I think Susanito needs to move out and Maria too for that matter, but I understand why Maria stays with her family. It is really to make sure her Mama stays healthy. But then again Amalia could give herself those shots, unless she is too weak.

Oscar does need to get over himself. He needs to fix this relationship with his son and move on to find another lady love. Enough already with the Maria illusion he has.

Same for Rueben the putz! Maria is mine forever, and ever, juarever! Basta ya! I hope JA keeps thwarting this plans every chance he gets.

Ana is another one that needs to grow up. I can understand she is in love with Fernando, but please, if he's not into you, move on and find another and see what happens, as long as it isn't Fabian!
 

I really hate having to do this on the fly; just rewatched the episode and made some revisions.

I don't think Ana will fall for Fabian and he's not that into her. She's pretty and fairly smart; she knows that Ruben is a stalker and should avoid anyone associated with him.

The keychain has now served its purpose, which is to lead Justo to JNTR. His reaction will be interesting.
 

Urban:

I am scratching my head, lol. Wouldn't that key chain be evidence since Bruno was murdered? Derecho just gave it to Justo? I hope this isn't a trap where Derecho or those other cops don't follow Justo right to where JA works. Although, come to think of it, the cops saw Bruno there and no Santos, so maybe they won't do that.
 

I wouldn't be surprised but remember since the OJ Simpson case the El Lay Pee Dee doesn't have the greatest reputation for intelligence.

We might still see Justo hand it back to Derecho, but it doesn't matter. He now knows where to find Santos. There is likely to be an issue over Santos' choice to renounce his identity and become the self he is now creating. I hope he can get his money because he will need it.
 

Mancia and Amelia really need help. Both of them nosing about in the sex lives of their adult children and lecturing them like rebellious teens is way over the top. Butt out ladies, you raised your kids now leave them alone.

I had to laugh at the look on Fabnot's face when Ruben was ranting on about Santos taking Maria's virginity. Obviously it was his plan so like the villain he is he has been foiled again. Fab just wants to get on with the dirty business of making money and couldn't care less about Rubens fantasy about Maria being his.

I guess the writers have decided our galan and galanette must both be twits. Maria goes all Victorian when JAntos disappears and JAntos goes into a nervous swoon when he finds out Bruno has been murdered. That is the first time they made him look like an idiot.

I love the Ana Fernando dynamic. She is crazy about him and it is mutual but he won't admit it, even if someone put his feet to the fire. She nailed him on the commitment issue.

Obvious the rap on the head by the car hood isn't enough, a load of bricks needs to fall on Oscar for him to get it through his thick head that Maria isn't his, never was and now obviously never will be.

I'm really looking forward to Justo arriving in the DF and finding Santos has morphed into JAntos the mariachi. The previews made it look like his son was rejecting him but I think it was Santos' way of warning him to call him by his new name and not give away who he really is. Should be interesting.
 

I don’t understand what Derecho was doing with that keychain from JNTR. I don’t see how it is evidence against the murderer, and even if it were somehow, Derecho shouldn’t have given it to Justo. Bruno’s personal possessions would have to be returned to his family. The police can’t just keep stuff that catches their eye and then give it away to someone else. Just another QBA QTF moment, I guess. Derecho could have just told Justo the name of the bar. I bet we haven’t seen the last of that stupid keychain.

Regarding Amalia, I saw a loving mother in a culture that doesn’t consider a parent’s job done when the kid turns 18 (or ever, for that matter), who disagreed strongly with her daughter’s choices, but ultimately told her she would support her no matter what. That takes strength of character. Slamming the doors in poor JAntos’ face was very rude, but I think she will regret it and apologize to him.

The danger to Maria and her whole family IS real. Amalia still doesn’t know anything about him, his background or his family, but she now knows that JA is mixed up with mafia, narcos, or some kind of thugs who would kidnap and beat him up, and she is right to believe that they would certainly do the same to one of the Mendozas. Kidnapping is a very real threat. Moreover, Mexicans have had something like 60,000 people die in the narco wars in the last five years and they are pretty jumpy and understandably so. Since Mexico has about 1/3 of the population of the US, that would be the equivalent of 180,000 deaths in our country. You don’t think people would be nervous if that were going on in our country? Amalia is a single mom with three young daughters to protect. I think the Mexican audience would be very sympathetic to her concerns. Very. Just my take.

I really enjoyed Ruben’s impotent rage. I wonder when JA is going to figure out he was behind the kidnapping/attempted murder.

Thanks for the recap, UA. There were a lot of little bitty scenes. They must think it makes it more exciting or something.

 

Urban--On the fly; you sly one--this covered all the action we really needed to keep us up to date.

Here are some of my musings:

1. We didn't see all of it, but when Oscar and Fernando got together it looked like Fernando promised to tell Oscar all about Jorge Alfredo. (I hope that wasn't it--Oscar isn't trustworthy with TMI about his rival.)

2. Amalia was worried why Maria hadn't come home all night. She tried to reach Oscar thinking he would know where she was, but he wasn't answering his phone. (Instead of pacing around for hours, it would have made more sense for her to call Concho, no?)

3. It was a sweet proposal by JA. The two actually pledged their troths to each other infront of the Virgin. So, when Maria shows her mother the ring, Amalia is really taken aback--you married? Te casaste? Maria had to plead her case strongly before Amalia got with the new program. (Of course, this will cause problems with Oscar and Ruben.)

4. Concho doesn't want to admit that JA singing brings in more money, so he sidesteps Coloso's demands that JA gets punished for not showing up on so many occasions with having to work extra hours. (How that works beats me, since the bar hours are the same and Concho is the one that contracts the serenatas.)

5. Ruben was more surprised than pithed when he saw Maria arrive back home with JA in tow. He jumped to the conclusion they spent the night "together." (I'm not sure, but I think Ruben showed up on his own, thinking JA was dead and Maria would need comforting.)

6. It was actually Rodrigo that fixed the Mariachimobile and JA insisted Oscar pay Roddy, although Roddy tried to decline the offer. (He was a little embarassed, but at least Oscar treated him decently, which made Roddy reflect later when he was with Paloma.)

7. (I hope Daniela Romo will be in another telenovela soon. She has such presence. Hmmm. I think I'm going to have to go watch Alborada and Sortilegio again to get my DR fix.)

 

It was a sweet proposal. I can't believe I forgot to say anything about it. I loved it.

I also thought that Ruben had shown up at the Mendoza's on his own, thinking that JA was dead and wanting to admire his handiwork, so to speak. However, I thought Amalia told him when he arrived that Maria had been missing all night. She was so distraught, she didn't care who she was talking to. Then JA&M show up and Ruben puts two and two together.

I've never understood how the staff and performers at the bar get any time off. But if they do have regular days off, then JA could be required to work on his day off as punishment. I don't think Concho was buying this, but I don't know why we were shown it, either. Other than Coloso is opening a new line of attack? He is one stubborn dude.
 

Anita

When Oscar and Fernando had their little confab I thought that Fernando was going to tell him about Gloria not about JAntos. He knows all too well about that rivalry but he did tell him that JAntos has problems.

I agree that slimy Ruben showed up hoping to "comfort": Maria in her time of need and he was then back to see JAntos of the Nine Lives with her. Amelia let the cat out of the bag about her having been gone all night which was uncool to do in front of someone who is an outsider.

It will be interesting to see how the Quince party evolves. JAntos, Oscar and the boys are planning a surprise while Maria and Amelia are trying to figure out how to get the money together. Looks like the two groups should get together and give Amelia another chance to misjudge JAntos and his money supply.
 

Decie--I'll have to go back and check because Fernando didn't have the right to tell Oscar what he knew about Gloria after Roddy was so against his knowing anything about her. Fern wasn't privy to that conversation, but still, it's Gloria's and/or JA's right to tell their stories and not through a third party.

 

"7. (I hope Daniela Romo will be in another telenovela soon. She has such presence. - Anita"

Daniela Romo is in LA TEMPESTAD - the new Mejia production starring William Levy. Promos have it starting next month on Univision when AMORES VERDADEROS ends.
 

Amalia also called Coloso when she was wondering where Maria was in one of the very early episodes. The night that JA&M sang together on the street and he rented the room from Dona Pru. Coloso seems to be an old family friend and Amalia seems to rely on him, though he doesn't seem very reliable to me. Concho and her don't exactly get along and his wife and her even less. I could see why she wouldn't call him in the middle of the night.
 

My computer was out of action for the last 3 hours to fix a problem, but now I can comment.

Amalia is incredibly stupid to not realize that Ruben is the greater danger to Maria. He's a still-married man who is obsessively pursuing Maria against her will. Why is Amalia refusing to recognize that?

If Jorge Alfredo doesn't say anything to Maria about Ruben being responsible for the kidnapping it would be because of a realistic concern that Maria would try to tell him off.

And since Derecho and Curtis are still after him, Jorge Alfredo can't risk getting Maria involved by knowing too much. So telling Maria is not the answer after all.

Now for Mancia. She needs a giggle jacket and a padded room at this point before she turns Susanito into Norman Bates.
 

UA, I think JA thinks Guilano is behind the kidnapping. I don't think he saw Ruben in the basement maze, just Guilano, and he asked the thugs if Guilano was going to be man enough to show his face before they killed him. Unless I missed something, I don't think that JA knows Ruben and Guilano even know each other.
 

Didn't he hear Ruben's voice, though?
 

He could have. If he did, he still didn't realize Ruben was behind the plan because I definitely noticed that after that he said 'Guilano' to the thugs in the SUV.
 

I don't think JAntos saw Ruben either. He heard voices and hid and then saw Oj. I would think he would recognize Ruben's voice but I guess not. If he had I'm pretty sure he would have told Amelia just to be sure that she was warned but then again she wouldn't have believed him.

Coloso may be an old friend hence her call to him but he is so unreliable why bother. As for Concho she should have called him to see if Maria and JAntos even went to work in the first place

Read that La Tempestad is doing so badly in Mexico that they are considering a time change. Rating are much lower than AV which I think is awful but TPTB are presumably hoping US ratings will be better. Otherwise looks like another Talisman on their hands.
 

Prior to that scene in the maze Jorge Alfredo wouldn't have known that Giuliano and Ruben knew each other. In fact, I don't think those two snakes ever met in person before this occasion.

I think we're stuck with both of those vipers until the end. We will be at the midpoint of the series next Wednesday.
 

"Prior to that scene in the maze Jorge Alfredo wouldn't have known that Giuliano and Ruben knew each other."

ITA. The question is, does he know that NOW?

I also would have thought that had he known, he would have told both Maria and Amalia that Ruben had him kidnapped instead of whatever he said about friends betraying him. Maria might have flipped out and/or wanted to go the police, but at least he could have told them something straightforward instead another troubling, vague half lie. But I don't think he has figured out yet that Ruben is behind it. Nor have Ruben and Guilano figured out that they're after the same guy.
 

I'm with Carolina on this one.

However, "should" he know, he probably wouldn't tell Maria or Amalia at this juncture, based on all those known facts, re: money owed, hard feelings between the two men, and the women's reactions (either don't believe him or want to confront him or go to the police).

 

Jorge Alfredo would still be risking his freedom if the Mexican police got called in on a kidnapping. Since they had him in the drunk tank once he's already on their radar and there is the chance that Derecho and Curtis would find out. He already knows that those two are in tight with at least one Mexican counterpart.

Amalia wouldn't believe him about Ruben either. Maria would believe it by now, but Amalia would just blow that off as Maria being a naive child again.

Re La Tempestad: Are time-slot changes common at Televisa? Why is this doing so badly? As much as I love Cesar Evora and Daniela Romo I have to say that William Levy does nothing for me at all.
 

It'll be interesting to see what he does with that info once he does figure out that Ruben tried to kill him.
 

Urban

Don't know if time changes are common. Only saw it with Talisman. I did see one novela years ago, during the afternoon when we'd get new ones from South America not reruns, where they suddenly cut four months out of it. We got a one or two sentence summation of what had happened which was useless. New couples had formed, one woman was pregnat and who knew by whom. Unreal.

In any event don't know why Tempested is doing badly but there have been omments about Levy's horrible hair extentisons falling the face of the galanette and obscuring her so it sounds bad all they way around. I too find nothing in the least bit appealing about him. He strikes me as muscle bound, minimally talented, full of himself and his so colled looks just don't do it for me on any level. Sorry WL fans such tell it the way I see it LOL
 

I think it's time Jorge Alfredo proposed a pact with Oscar: They both need to protect Maria from Ruben. Oscar threw Ruben out of JNTR at least once that we know of and he would be more than willing to do it again.

The Saucy Wenches know that Ruben is a predator. They would also be willing to help.
 

Speaking of falling hair. Did anyone notice what Wendy did when poor Bruno was dying in her arms? What should have been a very sad, tragic moment, turned into a haha moment when she stopped to push the hair off the left side of her face, the better for the camera to see her anguish, then she grabbed Bruno again.
 

Decie--At least they let us have our fun with El Tal by moving it rather than just ending it in the middle. It irks and annoys me when American series will pull it in the middle of the 1st season, after I've invested time and brain cells getting the story and the characters, just to be left dangling. Uggh.
 

Decie--I do remember that they cut about 20 episodes from El Tal, but it was a disaster anyway. At least they gave us Cam's green tongue and Pedro's Por Fin.
 

Anita, I think that was to show us what a twit Wendy really is. I am not pleased that Jorge Alfredo forgave her.

I neglected to address this before but I don't think he was an idiot to blame himself over Bruno's death; he's stressed and it finally came out over that news rather than the horror of the kidnapping. I don't think he quite realizes that the Italian mob is involved.
 

I can't with Amalia, and the reason I can't is because while she has valid concerns about Jorge Alfredo, both Oscar (less so) and Ruben also are concerning, and she hasn't treated either one of them as rudely as she's treated Jorge Alfredo. She knows Ruben is a married man with a crazy wife who's sniffing around Maria, and she is not as rude to Ruben as she is towards Jorge Alfredo.

Ok, that could be because Ruben is of a higher class than they. But she also knows that Jorge Alfredo is of a higher class than they as well.

Oscar is a mariachi (one of Amalia's first concerns about JA) but that doesn't seem to bother her, and he's running around denying his child, and she's still not as rude to Oscar as she is JA.

Because JA is The One who is taking Maria away. It wouldn't matter if JA was on the up and up from the beginning, if he was just plain ol' Santos Martinez de la Garza just visiting Mex. Cty and fell in love with Maria, she'd have a problem with him being from a rich family.

But what irks me the most about him is she's willing to take his money to pay the rent & medical bills but happily slams the door in his face. Lady, if you really want nothing to do with man, you never would've accept his rent money or medical bill money.

Amancia needs to get a life. Irasema needs to arrange for Amancia to see her and Susanito in bed so Amancia can catch the vapors for real.
 

Thanks to all the recappers.

Does anyone know the song and the singer that plays over the credits at the end?

Thank you.
 

Great points, Anon207. Amalia is a hypocrite and an opportunist with regard to Jorge Alfredo's money.

At this stage I'm willing to say that Maria is better off leaving Amalia. Helicopter parents don't do their offspring any good.
 

Anon207--Good one, for Mancia to get a real case of the vapors! Agree about Amalia and the way she treats JA vis a vis how she treats the other two men in Maria's life. I think she's been hoodwinked by Ruben because he only wanted to "help her get ahead," by offering her the job. She doesn't know about the scene in the bar where he tried to force a relationship. And with Coloso, Maria has said over and over, including Amalia, that Coloso is a good friend but she never had any "feelings" for him, even though Amalia urged her to commit to him.

I did go back and check on what Mil Amores was going to tell Coloso.

In the scene of the two of them in Coloso's apartment, Coloso wants to know what's the real skinny on El Pochito and his "disappearance," which he obviously doesn't believe. Fernando answers that it is serious and he will tell him, but he has to promise to keep his mouth shut. Oscar does the kiss the fingers thing, showing he promises. Then we cut to another scene. When we come back, they are still talking about the danger that JA is in. Oscar is worried that Maria will be harmed and Fern assures him that Oscar is in danger, but Maria isn't (he said as much to Amalia when he met her on the street). The last words from Oscar are something like he doesn't care one whit about JA, but that nothing should happen to "his" Chiquita. If he didn't, Fern should have done an eye roll.

P.S. UA--What ever happened to your beautiful headliner photos? This is crazy--Photobucket has replaced it.
 

It's late, I meant JA is in danger.
 

It seems that all my linked photos are being accessed to the degree that I have maxed out the allowable monthly bandwidth for the first time. The photos should reappear tomorrow, as the 20th was the date I started my account.

What this will mean is that I will have to cut down on links to my Photobucket account in the long term. Photos here may need to be limited to the fan or the cast shot until I can resolve the issue differently.