Caray, Caray!

Irene lays down the law and tells Natalia she's not doing herself OR Brigitte any favors covering up for her.  Natalia says she does it because Brigitte has always thought Natalia is the favorite and she knows Brigitte's insecure.  Irene says Brigitte's going to have to get ahead on her own merits and Natalia's silence isn't the way to fix things.  Irene's going to talk to Brigitte and if her attitude doesn't change, then she'll have to fire her.

Brigitte runs into a classmate at the mall and says she hasn't been around lately because she's been doing her "community service" which takes all day.  She complains about being "exploited" and paid a "pittance" at Caprico, but her classmate says most places don't even pay, so Brigitte's lucky.  Brigitte accepts her classmate's invitation to have coffee and complain about Natalia, who she's having SUCH a difficult time putting up with.  Yeah, 'cause Natalia's such a hateful, manipulative, scheming cow.

Natalia brings Diego to the fonda for lunch.  He's dying to try the empanadas.

The world according to Brigitte: Natalia has always been jealous of her, Irene's an idiot for believing in her, Carmen's in her pocket as well.  Diana, avoiding a bookstore, sits at a table behind Brigitte and gets to hear her delusional diatribe.



Alonso meets Irene for lunch. "So, how'd it go with Tad."  "Maybe you should tell me how it went with Karina."  Maybe you two should have gone to a hotel instead of a restaurant.

Brigitte's friend has to go, so Diana invites herself over to propose they join forces.  Brigitte refuses, but Diana says it's to her advantage.  And also, she'd better not tell anyone about Diana's offer or Brigitte will be on her hit list as well.

Irene and Alonso's lunch goes from bad to worse when Irene tells him about meeting Beatriz and Tad offering to bankroll the company.

Vicente goes over to Tad's to confront him and accuse him of never having good intentions toward Irene.  Tad mocks him for pretending to be the ideal father and being the one who always buys what he wants.

Alonso doubts Tad's intentions as well.  And lunch is over.  *sad face*

Vicente still thinks Tad's a nobody and Tad doesn't care.  He calls Vicente insolent, senile, and ridiculous.  He tells him that Irene deserves a better father.  Vicente says Irene's an alcoholic because he got her pregnant.  Sure, in your universe, Vicente.  Tad says if he had known, he would have taken care of Irene and their daughter would still be alive.  Vicente leaves Tad with a monster headache.

At the burger place, Paolo and his one true love preside over a kids' party with a very swanky cake.

Brigitte ponders Diana's words as she sketches.  Irene comes back from lunch and asks where Brigitte was during what were supposed to be work hours, regardless of the fact that they're working out of her house.

Natalia is upset after lunch and tells Diego that she's worried about the fallout from Irene's planned scolding of Brigitte.  Diego thinks she's due.

Irene confronts Brigitte about her attitude and about passing Natalia's designs off as her own.  She doesn't buy Brigitte's excuse, that Natalia's trying to make her look bad, since Natalia has done nothing but champion Brigitte and try to protect her from the beginning.  Besides passing Natalia's designs off as her own, Brigitte's just a lousy employee--blowing smoke about the designs instead of giving honest opinions, being lazy, and changing Irene's design without consulting her.  From now on, Brigitte will be doing the sewing, and if she doesn't put some serious effort into it, she won't get a chance to work on designing.  Brigitte storms out of the apartment, which I guess means she doesn't care for her new job description.  Pues, fine!  I have a feeling Natalia and Irene could get a lot more done without her.

Natalia sees Brigitte outside the apartment and Brigitte calls her a hypocrite and tells Natalia "you know perfectly well what you did!"

One of the moms from the party books a party with the sexual harasser for her own kid.  She liked how Paolo and Mara(?) interacted with the kids.  The sexual harasser chews out Paolo and Mara because Paolo was supposed to handle the party on his own.  As punishment, Paolo has to clean bathrooms for 3 weeks.

Natalia walks into the apartment and says she saw Brigitte outside and Brigitte was upset.  Irene tells Natalia that from now on, Brigitte will do the sewing and Natalia will help her design.  Brigitte can either get with the program or she's fired.  Irene won't discuss it further because they've got a lot of work to do to prepare those samples.  Yeesh!  And if they're going to get anywhere with Beatriz, I would assume they should also be looking for a factory to handle production NOW or she's going to love the designs, place an order, and be turned off by the long wait while they get that going.

Alonso stews.  Diego's surprised to find him at home.  Alonso asks about Tad's offer and what Diego thinks.  Diego says he and Irene both want to keep business and "affection" separate.  "What?  She has affection for him?  Awffffffff…."  Alonso throws a tantrum and heads off to his bedroom and if Diego has a pair of brain cells to spare, he'd realize why.

Brigitte the Brat goes to the fonda to complain to Carmen that Natalia is making her look bad and Irene demoted her to sewing.  "But I'm a designer, mommy! Natalia, Natalia, Natalia!"  Abdul isn't buying what Brigitte's selling, but Carmen just soothes her little spoiled brat.

Vicente laments to Rodrigo that Diego and Irene aren't being their usual malleable selves.  Poor Vicente is all alone and he doesn't even know if Rodrigo is dead or alive.  He needs his evil golden boy!  The doctor comes in, but there are still no changes.  Vicente doesn't see any good reason to keep Rodrigo like this and is becoming more convinced that he's effectively gone.  In Comaland, Rodrigo hears that they're going to "disconnect" him and screams that he's alive.

Carmen goes home and asks to speak to Irene, alone.  Carmen repeats Brigitte's lies.  Irene has to break it to her that from the beginning Brigitte hasn't contributed much.  When she joined the "team" the designs were already done.  They're all Irene's, except for one that's Natalia's.  She also got the job in the first place by presenting a portfolio of designs that Natalia helped with and claiming them as her own.  Carmen agrees Brigitte's not going to get anywhere like that.  Irene makes sure that Carmen knows that Natalia hasn't bad-mouthed Brigitte at all, but on the contrary has been trying to protect her.  Carmen apologizes for letting her love as a mother cloud her judgment and walks out.  Irene calls Natalia out from the bedroom and says Carmen understood why Brigitte got a scolding.  Irene gets a call from Tad.

Abdul scolds Brigitte for getting Carmen upset so that Carmen would fight her battles for her.  Brigitte is completely sure that Mommy's going to get her that toy she so desperately wants.  Abdul's disgusted that even after Natalia got her the job, she still won't quit messing with her.  Brigitte ignores him and updates her job description on Facebook to "Head Designer y Mera Mera at Bratgitte Designs".

Tiburcio tries to sneak out to church, but Hilda busts him and he can't get out before Vicente comes home.  Hilda says Tiburcio's spending a lot of time at church lately, so Vicente's antennae go up and he tells him to go into the office.

Alonso apologizes to Diego for his outburst and says he was just upset about a case that's gotten complicated.  Guess Diego didn't pick up on the vibe, because he buys it.

Vicente scolds Tiburcio for looking for Padre Juancho.  He reminds him that if he tells what he knows, he can be sent to jail.  Do it, Tiburcio, do it!  Fight The Man!

Brigitte is basking in the "likes" when Carmen comes back to the fonda.  She's upset at the shame of accusing Irene, having to hear from her that Brigitte lied about the designs, and on top of all that Brigitte keeps trying to blame Natalia for her own mistakes.  "I'm very disappointed in you.  If I were Ms. Irene, I wouldn't have given you a second chance.  When you get back to the house, you're going to apologize…I'm not asking you, I'm TELLING you!"

Mara's upset about Ricardo (the sexual harasser) sentencing Paolo to bathroom duty, but Paolo is made of sterner stuff than to let even the horrors of the men's restroom get him down.  Ricardo busts them talking, so, ni modo...Paolo will just have to hook up with his burger queen after work.  I know they're just doing this to try and cheer me up after messing with Alonso and Irene, but it's not working.  Well, ok, maybe it's working a little bit.  How sad is it that Natalia and Diego are being all lovey all over the place and I don't even care?

Back at Garcia Central Station/Irene Cacares Designs, Irene gets a call from Tad, who's there to pick her up.  Ummmmmm…I hope he's over his headache.  Before she can leave, Carmen, Brigitte, and Abdul walk in.  Abdul, more kindly than she deserves, leaves the room so he doesn't witness Brigitte's forced apology.  Mr 5ft: "That's going to be expensive."  Dude, totally.  Irene accepts graciously and then goes off to join Tad.  Carmen then demands that Brigitte also apologize to Natalia.  Oh, dear…Natalia, instead of just accepting, somewhat…slightly…patronizingly…erm…explains?...to Brigitte that she really needs to understand that they're not in competition and even if she knows more, because she's studied, she still has to demonstrate it…"And if Ms. Irene tells you to make a dress, and if she asks you to…." See, I was trying to avoid the word "lecture" but, oh Natalia!  I think you just signed your own death warrant!  I'm not even remotely siding with Brigitte, because I think Natalia's absolutely right, but after all these years, I would have thought that Natalia would realize that there's no point trying to share any, uh, wisdom with Brigitte because it's going to have the exact opposite of the intended effect.

Alonso goes to Natalia's, but he sees Irene kiss Tad hello and get into his car.

Hilda brings Diana the phone.  Brigitte decided Natalia is, indeed, a bother for both of them.

In Comaland, Rodrigo works himself up into consciousness by cursing Diego for wanting to "disconnect" him.

Diana and Brigitte plan to meet tomorrow for lunch and plotting.  Diana lies to her mom and says it was Karina on the phone.

Rodrigo lies in bed with his eyes open, remembering telling Diego he'd been put in charge at Caprico.  Diego says he's just as qualified, but he doesn't begrudge him.  "Yes you do.  You're jealous of me.  You're even jealous of my prowess with women."  He remembers some random girl in a club saying she just likes Rodrigo better and Diego having an angry look on his face.  "He's always envied me. That's why he hates me," Rodrigo thought bubbles.  Behold the power of delusional thinking.

At dinner, Irene apologizes for her dad's behavior.  Tad says he thinks Diego and Irene are being WAY too optimistic to think Vicente will change his mind.  Tad changes the subject to Irene's pregnancy.  "She was my daughter too. I need to know everything.

Karina calls Alonso and invites him to her place for apple pie.  He'll pick her up from work in an hour.  To him it's just a distraction.  We alllll know what it is to Karina.

Irene tells him about being exiled to Tuxpan, overhearing that Tiburcio was supposed to give away her baby, getting out during the rainstorm and giving birth before she could get to town or to any shelter.  She tells him passed out with the baby in her arms and never saw her daughter again.

Rodrigo tries to remember why he's there and, unfortunately, remembers the fight with Andres.  "But…who was I fighting with?  Diego!  Damnit!  No, I can't fall asleep again or I won't wake up!"  Rodrigo struggles to stay conscious.  I don't know if it's better for him to assume that Diego put him in a coma or to remember the truth.  It's a hot mess either way.

Alberto comes over to Garcia Central Station and accepts an invitation to stay for dinner.  Natalia doesn't mention the day's difficulties.  Brigitte brattily comes out of the bedroom and drags Alberto outside to talk to him.

Diego calls Lala to get an update on Diana.  Lala knows she and her mom went shopping and she assumes they ate while they were out of the house.

Rodrigo continues to ponder Diego wanting his death, beating the snot out of him.  He decides Diego can't know he's awake, for now.  Yeah, try hiding that from the doctors.  Though, I suppose the lovesick nurse will help.

Alberto can't figure out why Brigitte's upset at him.  "I needed to talk to you about really important stuff!"  "But you hung up on me."  "Because I was upset that you never have time for me!"  Alberto apologizes, but Brigitte doesn't want to "talk" anymore.  Alberto still refuses to argue and says they can talk when she's calmer.  He leaves.

Alonso picks up Karina and might be realizing what trouble he's in when she casually calls him "muñequito" (little doll).

Irene says she can still feel the warmth of holding their daughter.  She woke up two days later and Tiburcio told her the baby had died.  Irene cries and Tad comforts her.  "None of this would have happened if I'd been with you."  "But you weren't.  And ever since then I've been living with the memory and blaming myself for going out that night.  If I hadn't wanted to escape, our daughter would still be alive."  "Don't blame yourself.  Of course you tried to get away!  In your place I would have done the same thing."  "I wanted our daughter to be born somewhere else.  I knew my father would take her away from me…I wanted her with me and now I only have her memory…her memory."

Monday: Rodrigo wants revenge; Diana buys rat poison; Brigitte says Diego and Natalia will be separated soon.  "En capitulos de dos horas!"  Don’t sound so excited about that, promo guy!

Labels: te-quiero