Caray, Caray!

Paloma tells Ricardo that she can't talk to Inés about her past, she doesn't want to embarrass her.  She figures Inés must be upset still because of the anonymous letter, but Ricardo disagrees.  Lina shows up to chastise Ricardo for not taking her to the fair and buying her a hamburger and a ginormous milkshake.  Ricardo says they can go right away, but she needs to get her mom's permission. Paloma begs off joining them.  As Lina goes off to get permission, Paloma tells Ricardo she's also supposed to be throwing Lina a party, though she hasn't gotten started yet.  Ricardo fills Paloma in on Maria's new medication and Sebastian's same crappy attitude.

Inés doesn't want to go to the fair and she doesn't want Lina to go either.  Lina tries yelling, then she tries pouting, but Inés won't budge.  Even pleading won't work.

Ricardo tells Paloma that he's wondering if Sebastian is really his son.  He explains that when they were young Maria once ran away from the house and when he found her, she was flirting with some guy, so now he's wondering if maybe Maria was "promiscuous."  Paloma doesn't believe it.  She suggests asking Celio what he knows, since he's been with the family for so long.  Inés shows up with her fake excuses why Lina can't go to the fair and raises Paloma's suspicions…Paloma assumes the blackmailer has been in contact and is now threatening Lina.  This forces Inés to admit that, no, Lina hasn't been threatened, but the blackmailer has been in contact.  Paloma wants to just pay them, but Ricardo argues that they'll never be able to stop once they start.  Ricardo wants to look at Inés computer and Paloma tells her to have Lina come to her (Paloma's) room to play.

Ricardo works on tracking down the IP address so they can find out where the email came from …survey says Hermosillo, but Ricardo's skills can only get them that far.  He wants to take the computer to an expert to track it down further.  He asks Inés if there's something else bothering her and with the power of his smoochies…he FAILS to get an answer.  He reminds her that they're in this together and he's not going to leave her, but he's sure something is going on that she hasn't told him about.  He begs her to trust him and says there's nothing he wouldn't do for her and nothing is impossible when two people love each other.  So she hits him with "Jose Luis isn't dead."  She's freaked and she thinks the flowers are from him, he's in town, he knows she's going by Inés now, and he knows where she lives.  OK man, fix that!

Ricardo consults with Padre Plaid…and Piero.  Padre Plaid sums up that the blackmail and the husband are two issues.  Piero doesn't think the husband can do much, since he's being hunted by the cops.  He offers to go to San Carlos and talk Manolo into starting a super-secret investigation.  He figures they can enlist Lucina to help them get Manolo to keep things quiet.  I don't know why Ricardo thinks that Lucina knows Jose Luis and would thus be helpful in that way as well.  Padre Plaid brings up The Maria Issue, and Piero looks uncomfortable when PP suggests that there's a possibility that Sebastian isn't Ricardo's biological son and that a DNA test would tell them for sure.

Paloma pouts in Inés general direction for not trusting her enough to tell her what's going on, but Inés says it's hard for her, what with her dirty, complicated life. Paloma says she may be an old broad, but she loves Inés--not just for her blood, but because of who she is, the good mother, the good granddaughter, the decent person.

Padre Plaid takes his leave to go chat with Fidelia and maybe Maria.  Piero leaves to prepare for his trip to San Carlos tomorrow with the gun that didn't kill Gabriel.  Ricardo will talk to Lucina.  After the guys leave, Ricardo calls Celio and asks him about Maria.  Per Celio, Maria only went to school for a little while, she used to handle the shopping, but she wasn't good with the money, she was a bit of a flirt--even with Celio. Celio remembers that Benigno used to get drunk and say that Maria was a slut like her mother.  So what he's saying is Benigno has always been the same drunk, verbally abusive asshat for years.

Padre Plaid gives Fidelia a hard time for not going to church.  She blames losing Ruben to Matilde for her reluctance to spend time in the presence with other humans outside her own home.  She tells him that Sebastian pretty much forced her to let Maria live there and says she's scared of her.  She shuts up as Maria walks in.  Maria greets Padre Plaid with a kiss on the cheek and tells him that he's handsome.  She gets reprimanded and bitches that she'd better go back to her room with her dolls already.  The nurse explains that she really likes her dolls.  Nothin' personal, Padre.  Padre Plaid encourages Fidelia to think of what she's doing as an act of charity.  Fidelia wonders if maybe Sebastian inherited some crazy from his mom.

Ricardo summons some dude named Thomas to his house to have him check out Inés' laptop and find out where the emails are coming from.  He comes to the same conclusion as Ricardo--it came from Hermosillo.  A cyber café, he guesses, and puts in a disk with superspecial tech dude tracking software.  Just go with it.

Paloma wants to go with Inés to the money drop and she threatens to have a heart attack if she doesn't go.  She begs Inés to at least tell Ricardo when she's going or she won't go.  When Inés refuses to do that, Paloma says, "Fine, then we won't pay the guy.  Let him air your dirty laundry.  We'll just move to another planet or something!"  Paloma thinks if all the guy wants is money, then it shouldn't matter who delivers it.

Raquel tells Lucina that the invitations to their…grand opening?...will be there tomorrow and Lucina insists they need to deliver them by hand. Cesar comes into the kitchen and Lucina leaves him alone with Raquel as she goes to find out what's for dinner.  Raquel comes on to Cesar and he tells her that yeah, he's decided to be come a priest and yeah, that night together did mean something--it reinforced his decision to become a priest.  He doesn't say it like a diss, but I imagine it that way.  When Lucina comes back, Raquel asks her to tell to make Lupe some tacos for her, too.  Lucina can see that Raquel is giving Cesar some hungry eyes, so she tells Raquel to do it her damn self and Raquel claims to have lost her, ahem, appetite.  What she actually says is that Cesar is a guest, but they (Lucina and Raquel) have to scratch themselves with their own nails (paddle their own canoes, says my closed captioning)…I can't say that's not a euphemism, given that it's Raquel and Lucina knows what she's like.

Inés goes to the bank to get the cash for the drop.  I'm sure the bank doesn't keep $5M in small bills on hand!  The manager fusses, but says he has to get a telephone authorization.  He calls Paloma and gets permission.  He gets the OK from Inés to make it in 20s and 50s.

Bearded guy whose name I never remember, bitches to Piero about a job that Ricardo is trusting to somebody named Manrique instead of him. Piero claims no knowledge about exactly what the job is, but we hear it's in Columbia, so Piero assumes that must mean there's a pending contract in Columbia. Bearded guy continues throwing his tantrum and Piero distracts him by telling him he ought to be more worried about what's going on with Maria, that Ricardo is starting to suspect that Sebastian might not be his son and he's on the verge of finding out about "that night."  Bearded guy says, "Whatever.  I'll just tell him I used a condom."  Classy, that one.

Inés comes out of the bank with the cash and is accosted by Ricardo, who gives her a hard time for doing the hand-off alone.  Inés tells him to stay out of it, but Ricardo refuses.  He's working on tracking down the person who sent the email and Inés cracks and gives him until the time of the handoff to see what he can find out.  She's not making any decisions at the moment.

Raquel goes to Francisco Castro's hotel and the receptionist points him out to her.  She's instantly in lust.  Because he's a man.  Who walks upright.  She invites him to the party and he accepts and asks her to have coffee with him.  She is apparently not turned off by the mis-matched nearly-Amish beard (that I don't think is really his) and the moustache (that I think is).

Back at the house, Ricardo has Jorge leave the money in Paloma's room.  He and Inés get into yet another argument about Inés making the drop-off alone and he runs off to appeal to Paloma.  The older maid whose name I can't remember listens to their argument from behind a column.

Ricardo and Paloma gang up on Inés.  Inés asks them what happens to Lina if they don't pay the guy and he can't be intimidated into not talking by Ricardo.  Cause kids find out EVERYTHING and they are MEAN!  Ricardo suggests if the guy talks, they conduct their own press campaign saying it's all lies.  Paloma points out that when her daughter ran away, there were rumors flying, but they died down.  Ricardo suggests moving Lina to a different school if they have to get her away from it.  Inés refuses to be separated from Lina.  Paloma once again insists that if they all have to leave Hermosillo, they'll leave.  I feel like Ricardo has forgotten what's at stake and that the blackmailer is threatening to make the identity theft public and not the alleged history of ho-ism or he might not be arguing so hard that if the news comes out it's not such a big deal.  I do agree with him, though, that paying off the blackmailer isn't the way to go and they'll just come back for more.

Francisco/Jose Luis and Raquel have drinks and banal conversation.  When Raquel brings up "tragedy" FJL doesn't dig much.  He asks about who the partners in the new hotel are and Raquel brings up their maybe-but-not-quite third partner who she hopes won't become an official partner.  She gets to the part where she asks if he's married (right, like she cares!) and finds out he's "divorced" then she says she's single and available *wink*.  He seems slightly ruffled, but she cuts things short, having many more invitations to hand out.  Raquel is being annoyingly gossipy…I mean, on what planet is there any point to her complaining about how Lucina kept her van but sold Raquel's car?  If she's treating him like a business contact, it makes her seem SO unprofessional. If she's treating him like a potential sexual conquest, it's SO unattractive!  She lets slip the name "Inés" as the not-quite-third partner, and bitches about how Inés is so ungrateful after everything they did to help her when she got there, penniless.  Shut up Raquel.  Just shut up.

Ricardo calls Piero and asks him to get a picture of Berto from HR to show to the café owner.  Piero agrees, but this will delay his trip to San Carlos.  Lucina shows up and Ricardo explains he wants to get Manolo involved and, well, basically use him to get Jose Luis out of the way.  He wants Lucina's help to convince Manolo to leave Oriana out of his investigation.  Lucina says that Manolo may be her friend, but he's a cop first and she doesn't know if she will be able to sway him.  Her eyes look really amazing with this color she's wearing.   Between that and the cleavage…maybe a couple of beers…I think she's got a shot.  Ricardo suggests giving the gun to him first, so he can verify that Oriana's fingerprints are not on it and she couldn’t have killed Gabriel, then explaining to him everything that she's been through.  Lucina suggests that it might also help if she were the one to give the gun to Manolo and tell him she found it during the move.  She doesn't think she can get away with pretending she doesn't know where Oriana is, though, and there's the big party coming up, so she'd rather go after.  Ricardo agrees.  Raquel walks in.  She tells Lucina that she met Francisco who's hot and rich, and did she mention rich?  She invites Ricardo to the party and gives him an invitation.  Ricardo splits and Raquel asks what they were talking about.  "What's it to you?!" hisses Lucina.  Raquel goes on and on about Fernando and Lucina (and I don't think she's joking) says that Raquel would find an orangutan charming.  I'm not sure orangutans would find her attractive.  Raquel says she hasn't given up on Ricardo quite yet, but Fernando's a more-than-acceptable consolation prize.  Lucina wishes her luck that this doesn't become another one of Raquel's romantic fiascos.

Ricardo gets the picture of Berto and heads to the Internet Café with Piero, where they tell the guy that their "friend" is missing and they're looking for him.   The guy admits Berto was there yesterday and used a computer for a couple of minutes.  Out in the square, Ricardo fumes and Piero tells him to calm down.  He insists they think about it and be calm.  Ricardo says there's no way that jackass is going to get his way.

Ricardo tells Paloma and Inés that it was Berto.  Paloma demands to know how he would have found out, and from whom!  Inés tells her she doesn't think it was Lucina, but, well, maybe Raquel…and Ricardo admits that she might have done it because he made the mistake of sleeping with her that one time before he and Inés were together.  Paloma smacks him and asks if he couldn't keep his pants zipped!  He already has one child out there, damnit!  Paloma says this is what happened to her daughter, not that she's not grateful for Inés, but back to Berto…what's the plan?  Everybody's fighting over who's going, whether they're going alone, etc. No conclusion is reached.

The younger maid tells Jorge that the older maid told her about Ricardo and Inés fighting in the courtyard.  Jorge wonders if it has to do with Inés cheating on Ricardo and just then Matilde walks in, spoiling a nearly Matilde-less episode for me.  Thanks, Matilde.  I knew I could count on you.  She wants to know about Inés' other man.  The maid says they don't exactly know, but Jorge brings up about the flowers.  Matilde threatens to fire him if she finds out that he's not telling her everything, so Jorge says that the card said something like "I can't forget you."  Matilde is appeased and tells them to get back to work and quit gossiping!

Padre Plaid refuses to do something that Piero and Ricardo are asking him to do, but he finally agrees.  Ricardo says once they catch him, he's going to interrogate him about Oriana, the death of Gabriel, and Lila's involvement.  Padre Plaid is pissed, but he asks for the details of the plan.

Inés is pacing in Paloma's room.  She's worried that Ricardo's plan might go wrong and he might get hurt.  She feels guilty that he's risking himself.  Paloma thinks Inés is a dumbass for breaking up with Ricardo when she's obviously still in love with him.  Inés cries that everything is just sooooo complicated.  Paloma tells her to just let it out and they'll get through this together.  "Besides," she says, "Ricardo's not a total dummy…have a little faith in him."

Tomorrow: Jose Luis witnesses smoochies, Berto pulls a gun on Inés, Ricardo pulls a gun on Berto, and Berto fires at someone.

Labels: mentir