Caray, Caray!

Good stuff, Jardinera.

Would it endanger Wendy's pregnancy to give her a bloody good hiding? Because that's what she deserves. Her snobbery is so out of place in view of how she created scandal in the courtroom by accusing Santos.

And how insecure does anyone have to be to attempt to publicly humiliate another person in a restaurant? I know I'm repeating myself but she gets on my last nerve.

I can so see her becoming friends with Elvirus.

Who is still not giving up. She really has no concept of self-respect.

Mirna and Aventurero get busted. I can't wait to see how this one plays.
 

I have to say I LOVE this site! You all do a wonderful job with these recaps!! I just wanted to say thank you!! :-)
 

Great job Jardinera!

Somebody please give Wendy a bitch slap!
Preferably Maria.

I'd bet Maria convinces JA to go back to the bar to sing Concho cleverly maneuvered to make her feel guilty in making the mariachies loose their jobs if they don't go back.

Aj-Aj so Amalia agrees that Justo is guapo, better beware Justo!
 

I think Justo is safe, He's still grieving for Altagracia who was far more attractive and who was sophisticated without being a snob.

Makes one wonder how Wendy turned out as she did.

Maria will probably convince Jorge Alfredo to return to JNTR. He will likely demand a substantial raise for both of them. Whether they will tell Concho about the baby is TBD, although the others know so he could easily find out before they say anything.

It would be better for them to hide until Justo can bring the proof of Santos' innocence to the attention of the appropriate authorities. Once that happens they can recover the missing money and not have to worry about getting the bills paid. However, that eliminates possible plot points involving Ruben and Elvira.

It would have been far better if they had turned Ruben in for kidnapping.
 

BTW, for the benefit of anyone who hasn't seen it yet, you must see Labios Rojos. It made me double over laughing in Starbucks yesterday afternoon.

Do not be fooled by the DVD's cover photo; Jorge is clean-shaven in the film.
 

Jessie: Welcome! Glad to assist. Wendy needs to be kept in an isolation ward, shunned till she gives birth and then the baby snatched up and delivered to Maria and Santos to be raised, just for spite!!! I know, it sounds cruel, but far crueler to have those extreme prejudices instilled into that child. What a foolish shrew! Talk about your regal aristocracy! Thank gawd this is just celluloid fantasy.
 

Don't fool yourself; Wendy's elitist attitude is real. I was a victim of it once upon a time.

One hopes that Maria and Santos will raise that child.
 

Urban I loved Labios Rojos, Especially the scene when Silvia is in the sex shop with a friend, that one is a hit!
 

The bedroom scene after that one almost had me falling off my chair!

I want those two in a novela together.
 

Jardinera- Thank you for this recap. I'm back to not watching again. Whew! For a bit there I thought I would get sucked in. :) Now with Justo on the scene I think he'll make sure these people don't screw up their lives too badly. Nice to have an intelligent, logical, clear thinker in the mix.

Labios: Urban that was such a cute movie with some hilarious scenes. The bedroom whip scene is my fave. I couldn't help but think of Regelio from LQNPA in that scene. LOL! I too would like to see JS and SN together in a tn.
 

Jardinera - Great recap. My favorite line: "that punk Panama Special which shows off Juli's swelled head to perfection."

Can't help it, I get a kick out of Juli's Rat Pack thing.

Yay, Santos' self-pity is gone. Enjoyed seeing him and Justo working together.

Altagracia would be so ashamed of Wendy. Does Wendy not realize how quickly Maria can learn about the proper fork, etc.? Then what will Wendy have to salve her own insecurity? I hope Michael wakes up to how empty she is.
 

I agree about Altagracia. She would let Wendy have it for her snobbish attitude. I think the only reason Justo hasn't been tougher with her is that he's still in the early stages of his grief.

To some people in that world, other people's capacity for learning is completely irrelevant. They need to have the idea that they are inherently superior because they are born to wealth and privilege. This could potentially be a really bad combination with Almira's insecurity and still has the potential to drive a wedge between Maria and Santos.
 

I noticed that they've got Santos dressing Rat-Pack style also. No offense, but I didn't care for it the first, second or now the third time around. It went out with greasy mulligans--or I think we called them ducktails.

ITA that Wendy to the manor born doesn't have the first clue that people are born with intelligence and can learn table manners and social etiquette but Wendy couldn't sing as beautifully as Maria in a million years because that is a natural born gift from Dios with which he saw fit not to endow Wendy!!

There is also something that Amalia referred to re: her mother's not wanting her to live a life of poverty by marrying Pedro which makes me think she may have come from a well-known family that had money at one time. We never have heard about her relatives otherwise, or Pedro's for that matter. Also, we are forgetting that she is unaware that Pedro owned part of the bar with Concho. That will be some anvil when it finally drops! Concho may have to sell his house or hand it over to Amalia to pay off what he's been stealing in the way of proceeds from the bar for all these many years.
 

No, we haven't heard anything about Amalia's or Pedro's families. Amalia's parents' concerns may not mean that they were much better off. They may have just wanted better for her.

Which means that Amalia's attitude now is really bizarre knowing that her daughter's Principe Azul is as rich as one.

Maria is no naca; she has manners and intelligence. She was trying to get her mother to help her prepare a feast for Justo and Wendy. She handled herself well when facing Lorena in the opening episode. She can survive in Justo's world. She only needs to learn its fine points of etiquette.

Which Wendy uses as a weapon against her.

I think the Rat Pack look suits Jorge Salinas very well. Now that I've said that I'd love to see him as the hard-boiled detective hero of the novela idea I had a few weeks ago. Particularly if I could produce that and cast Silvia Navarro as its heroine.
 

Shuffle, shuffle. I don't watch QBA consistently, but rely on Caray to keep me up to date on the plot. When I went on vacation to a TV-less, phoneless, cabin in the mountains with limited wireless access, I discovered I missed my TN fixes and I was thrilled when I could get through to Caray, and found that I missed it when I could not -- at least as much as the TNs themselves.

I'm not sure how much Spanish I am really picking up watching as casually as I generally do, but thanks to the recaps, when I do try to bear down, I have a good awareness of the context while watching, and a good resource to check with after the fact. At the least, I'm confident that the TNs help me keep up what little Spanish comprehension I do have.

Thank you to Jardinera and all the other recappers for the work you put in. I especially appreciate going beyond a bare plot summary and including key dialog, and, in QBA, the now distressingly rare musical numbers. (not to mention, of course, the commentary and "snark.")

Would it really be that much harder to write stories where the motivations and reactions of the characters were sensible, and generally comprehensible? Is it somehow popular with the Mexican audience for characters to react with blind jealousy, ignore sane advice, believe lies from known adversaries and ignore obvious clues as to who those adversaries really are? But then this is a remake of, what, a Columbian original? Are the exaggerated reactions a Mexican specialty or general to TN? I do seem to recall inexplicable "just plain evil/mean" characters on US soap operas, but am i forgetting the cluelessness of the leads?
 

Oops, I'm the anonymous shuffler.
Chris in FL
 

We need to know more about Amalia's backstory and how that relates to her dislike/distrust of Santos.

We know that she went against her family for Pedro, and that a concern was that Pedro was so broke;

We know that Pedro owned part of JNTR with Concho (but Amalia didn't know what)

We know that Pedro's been dead for about 10 years (if Isa is 8 & figured out that Pedro died 2 years before she was born).*

We know that Pedro used to sing at Cruz de Olvido before Concho stole him away.

How all of that is connected & relates to today, I don't know.

Elvira has always hated Maria and wanted what Maria had ever since they were children. I know Lourdes NEVER would have talked about Maria in their household except to disrespect her...I wonder if Concho has some special feeling towards Maria that Elvira picked up on as a child?

Wealth & status is all Wendy has and she's going to use it. Santos was always the good child, so smart, so loving, so this and that. Wendy doesn't have anything else to offer and she sees Santos' & Justo's attentions going to Maria so she's going to lash out.

Santos gave her the buh-bye on Friday. Maria can give Santos things, um, Wendy never can.

I'm actually worried that Maria & Wendy are pregnant at the same time.

*If Isa was born 2 years after Pedro, then Amalia certainly knows Isa wasn't Pedro's child (...Concho couldn't have dropped the kid off and claimed it to be Pedro's).


 

I think that Elvira's resentment of Maria is about being compared to her by others. Maria was always getting the highest grades in school, may have had more friends, may have been praised by the teacher at thingss Elvira wasn't good/didn't make enough effort at. Pedro probably bragged about this at work. Concho may have made the mistake of saying "Why don't you study, like Maria?" when Elvira just wanted to hang with her friends.

Pedro's ownership of half of JNTR will not remain a secret.

Isabel's parentage needs to be resolved; my opinions on that are already on the record.

Santos was the perfect first-born son: Smart, responsible, empathetic, creative, ambitious, and $ucce$$ful. Any younger brother would always have been in his shadow.

Wendy may have felt invisible because he was the Perfect Son. I don't have the impression from either parent that he was favored because he was male. He would have been favored because of his positive qualities.

Is it possible that all of Wendy's female peeps made friends with her because they wanted her perfect brother?

We still have time to find that out.
 

Great recap. Thank you, Jardinera.

Don Justo launched a charm offensive, while Wendy simply launched offense. I guess she didn’t inherit the diplomat gene.

I’m afraid that things with me and my Justito aren’t going so well. The other day, when I informed my current husband that I was in love with another man, he nearly fell off his chair laughing (yes, that really happened), so this husband upgrade trick might be a bit harder to pull off than I thought. Having no experience with this sort of thing, I had no idea. Plus, while they are both silver foxes, there are a number of things that I do like about my current husband and he is the foxier of the two, so I think I’ll keep him. :) Unless, of course, Carlos from AV becomes available.

We may actually see Amalia and Don Justo making goo goo eyes at each other before this shinding is over. Why else did they have that bit of dialog with Maria asking Amalia about Justo’s attributes and looks so pointedly? It will be a while before Justo is ready, but it would be a nice resolution to see him in another happy relationship by the end, instead of single and lonely and having no reason to live once he’s solved JAntos’ problems. I agree that Amalia is no Altagracia, but I really think she is meant to be seen as a well-intended but flawed person and not the horrible villain that quite a few people around here seem to think she is.

Is Maria ever going to return to school? How come JA has never mentioned it to her again? Ignoramus Coloso, of all people, brought it up fairly recently, but not JA. Very odd. And also, he said to her during that snuggle session on the couch that he had a doctorate. That would make him at least 30 and possibly much older. He comes across as educated, but not at the PhD level, and what has he ever been interested in other than his business and cars? So, a doctorate in what? In general, people who have PhDs are obsessively interested in their field, and can’t or don’t know how to stop thinking and talking about it. Most of us are really geeky ;). He’s never gotten professorial and pedantic about anything. I could see him having an MBA, but that doctorate claim was plain weird.

Have JA&M never heard of make up sex? After that gigantic spat and melodramatic make up, aren’t they about due for some? Silly, virginal Maria promised her mom to come home that night, but it seems to me that JA may be counting on a hot time in the old pigsty tonight.

With JA&M doting on their little bebe so much, I am starting to fear that there may be a wee little baby-sized anvil hanging over its wee little unborn head.

Anon207, that’s a great list. We also know that Pedro was murdered, but not by whom or why. I think we are going to learn a whole bunch of back story about the first generation of this TN.
 

I hope Maria does finish law school. However, I'd say that her and Santos' immediate priority is to insure their collective safety. We're not rid of Ruben yet.
 

Chris in FL: I would suggest that the totally evil and the totally clueless flaws are common to all Latin American telenovelas, not just Mexican ones.