Caray, Caray!

Randy Rod and his hot rod volunteer to find a romantic place to have his way with Natalia.

Irene is in a hideous mood and takes it out on Natalia, who shows up late.  Brigitte is loving that Natalia's the one getting yelled at today.

Randy Rod makes a hotel reservation for tonight.  He fakes his way through greeting Irene and asking about…um…er…Tad…whoever that is.  He then sends her to Vicente's office ahead of him to buy himself time to look for the paperwork alone.

Nurse Irma pumps Rod's doctor for info so she can keep Diego coma-ing on.  He thinks she's hitting on him and invites her to dinner.  It's so rare to find a woman who's interested in talking about coma drugs.

Vicente has been scouting and selecting fabric suppliers for Eskenda.  Irene's feeling blindsided by that and concerned about the quality of the fabric, since she assumes Vicente will be most interested in price.  Randy Rod asks for Eskenda to have control of, and funding for, its own budget and Vicente, surprisingly, agrees.  Of course, we all know he's doing it to bilk the company, but Vicente probably sees it as a way to keep the entire company from getting dragged down by Eskenda.



La Jaiba and the Crabettes are getting fingerprinted.

Paolo is looking for a job.

Randy Rod works his evil wiles, talking Natalia into spending the entire night at a hotel with him and not telling her mother about it.  When he fails, he calls Carmen himself to let her know that they'll be pulling an all-nighter since they've got to get production on the clothing line going.  Natalia looks both excited and terrified.  Viewerville is opting for terrified.  At the hotel, Natalia seems skeeved that "Diego" tells the clerk not to put Natalia's name down, just his.

Carmen and Abdul got the shopping done and Eleazar arrives with no news about the robbery.  Carmen brushes it off and tells El that she found him the cutest little apron.

In the room, Natalia tells "Diego" that what she's upset about is that he let it slip to the clerk that she's not his wife.  She wants to be well and properly seduced, but Randy Rod just wants to get to the main event.  She lets herself get talked out of every objection and ends up heading for the bathroom to change into "something special."   Crap!

The Als hang out at Alonso's and he hears that Irene is back.

Natalia's in her pretty, virginal, wedding night jammies.  The ghosts of Padre Juancho and Carmen show up to be the angel and devil on Nat's shoulders, respectively.  She waves them off and walks out to get an eyeful of Randy Rod's ready and willing rod.  That's enough to send her running back into the bathroom.

Alonso is desperate for Irene to answer the phone, but she refuses.  Even Vicente has noticed her bad mood, but he blames it on Tad.  Alonso ends up calling the home phone, but Irene won't take the call. Vicente thought bubbles that she won't be able to convince him that she's not like this because of Tad.

Natalia is getting dressed again, while Rotten Rod yells at her through the bathroom door.  She's pissed that he tried to make her first time all dirty by waving his randy manhood at her.  He calls her a "mojigata" (wet cat; wet blanket) and demands that she come out of the bathroom or he'll come in after her.  Natalia, however, has grown up with siblings, so on his count of "3" she opens the door and lets him crash into the counter all on his own, then runs out of the room with Rod, his rod, and a tiny towel in hot pursuit.  She hides in an employees-only laundry room and tells him to go away already.  He promises to treat her like a queen and swears if she gives him a shot, his rod will reel her in.  Two security guys threaten to escort him back to his room and he begs them to unlock the laundry room door and he'll go peacably, but Natalia hides in the bathroom, so Rod has to go back to his room alone.  Outside, Natalia catches…and I do mean CATCHES…a taxi.  In the room, Rod swears he'll get revenge.

Irma keeps up her interrogation of the doctor, but even he can't keep talking comas all night…he wants to talk about her.  Instead, she takes a call from Rod, who asks her to join him in his hotel suite.  She turns him down, despite him telling her that Diego can wait, but little Rod can't.  Rod is furious…how dare these women turn him down!  Don't let my coping-through-humor fool you.  The timing of this, after the events of this weekend, are making this episode especially creepy to me.  Is it possible that the writers thought they would be going too far, having Nat sleep with Rod under false pretenses?  I'm crossing my fingers that's the case, though I don't know how many more near-misses I can stand.

Natalia makes it home, practically running in as if she's being chased, and has to tell her mom that they finished work earlier than expected.  She's busted, though, because Irene called for her.  "Oh, she called from New York."  That won't fly either, because Brigitte told Carmen that Irene was back.  Natalia rushes off to her bedroom after reassuring her mom that she hasn't done anything stupid.

The doctor recommends a specific mix of drugs to continue a coma long-term, when a patient has severe trauma.  Irma repeats the names to herself in her head over and over.

Alonso can't concentrate on the game of dominos.  Rod the Sod is downstairs with his bottle of champagne, hoping to share it with his buds, but…he didn't know Alonso had moved while he was in a coma.  So he's out on the street in front of Alonso's old apartment, alone.  But his phone has the new address, so off he drives.  Drunkenly.

Natalia doesn't know what to do--she's in love with a beast who ruined what could have been their first night together.  Carmen comes in with tea, and potentially also sympathy.  Natalia says she just had a misunderstanding with Diego is all.  Carmen says that's love, and things will get straightened out.

Rod shows up at Al's place.  Unfortunately.  He babbles about his grand conquest of Natalia--or at least, how easy it was to get her to the hotel--and earns himself a punch in the face by Eleazar.  I'm thinking the guys noticed that it's strange that "Diego" would talk about Natalia that way (a) at all, and (b) in front of El, who's practically her stepfather.  I'm also guessing that they'll write it off as him being drunk.

Irma shows up at work and starts Diego on his new drugs.

Alonso does end up asking QTH is going on with "Diego" and accepts the answer that he was "just drunk."  He tries to advise "Diego" to be patient with Natalia or he'll regret it, but doesn't really challenge him or think it's out of character when "Diego" tells him this was all Natalia's fault for getting him excited and they telling him "no."  Alonso offers to accompany him back to the house so he can talk to Irene…as her psychiatrist.  And because it's actually Rod, he gets away with that.

Brigitte and Natalia run into Eleazar the next morning at Caprico.  El ends up alone with Natalia and confesses that he and "Diego" had words last night and he'd like to talk it over with him.  El tells her that he couldn't stand the way "Diego" was talking about her and he punched him, but he wanted to apologize.  "Even though people say stuff when they're drunk, I don't think that was an excuse for him to say what he did."  Natalia tells Eleazar that she thinks "Diego" has been acting weird ever since he had that allergic reaction. El tells her to ask Alonso if that could be a reason for his change in behavior.  They're interrupted by Vicente, who tells Nat that she ought to be working.

Lala lets "Diego" and Alonso in and agrees not to tell Vicente that "Diego" didn't come home last night.  Alonso and Lala compare notes and say that "Diego's" behavior is reminding them a lot of Rod lately.  Irene comes downstairs and instead of telling him about Karina, she tells him she's been falling for Tad again in all this time they've been spending together.  Alonso whines that it's not fair.  Irene just tells him that she did love him, but now she doesn't and she wants to be with Tad.  Alonso leaves and Irene is upset that he kept pretending to love her and even managed to cry.

When "Diego" gets into his office, El is waiting for him, to apologize.  "Diego" says he was so drunk he doesn't even remember.  El wants it to be clear that Natalia's not alone in the world and "Diego" had better not talk about her that way again.  "Diego" pretends to make nice while mentally vowing revenge on El.  El lets him know that he told Natalia about the fight.

Sad Alonso gets to his office and doesn't even ask his secretary for coffee.  He gets all excited when his phone rings, thinking it's Irene, but it's Natalia, wondering about Diego's allergy attack and behavior changes.  Alonso thinks "Diego" is tense and irritated about something and it's the reason he's behaving this way.

Irma calls and gives Rod an update on Diego and thanks him for her latest paycheck.  Vicente comes in to Diego's office.  He believes Rod's story about hitting himself with the refrigerator door.  He wants to know what's going on between "Diego" and Natalia that she's got her cop buddy coming over and rolls his eyes at Natalia being almost-family with a cop.  "Diego" offers to play a game of something I didn't catch with Grumps and freaks him out.  That was totally a "Rod" thing to say and it's not lost on Grumps that lately Diego has been acting a lot like Rod.  Grumps was the only person who could even tell the twins apart.  They were identical in looks, but completely different in personality.  "Even though Rodrigo had a strong character and was more self-assured, I always thought he was the weaker of you two, with fewer virtues.  I had to protect him."  Somehow, I don't think Rod's going to assess the information and use it to think about how he could be a better person.

Alonso visits Karina and says Irene told him that Karina was at his apartment. What?  When?  "Well, you know I have to keep trying.  I didn't actually say there was anything going on between us…."  He demands that she call Irene RIGHT NOW and tell her the truth about why she was there.  Too bad, the line is busy.  Alonso vows to stay there until the call goes through and Karina talks to her.  Neither one of them looks very happy about this.  They get through, but Irene yells at Karina and hangs up on her.  Natalia gets whiplash from gaping at Irene and then having "Diego" angrily storm in and demand to speak to her in his office.  Don't go, Natalia!  She goes.

He wants her to make public, or to at least tell El, that they didn't actually sleep together last night.  He blames her for everything that happened, him getting drunk, and telling El anything in the first place.  He warns her that he's a MAN and he needs a WOMAN.  Natalia sticks up for herself and says she's plenty of woman for him, but she refuses to let herself be treated like just any woman.  She's not only upset about him freaking her out by flashing his stuff at her like that, but his change of behavior too.  She says he's acting like an animal, as if he were someone else.  Rod tries to turn on the charm, but it's too late.  Natalia has decided that he changed when he proposed to her.  She assumes he wants to sleep with her before he marries her so he can get rid of her afterwards.  Otherwise, why is he in such a hurry?  And why has he stopped being in as much of a hurry to actually get married?  He makes some noise about rushing into things and this confirms Natalia's suspicions.  She storms out of the office, leaving Rod to think that Diego's an idiot for wanting to get married.

Next up in the Baby Daddy Chronicles…Paolo has an appointment with his dad (yes…seriously…and no, I have no idea where this came from), though he doesn't seem to know it, where he apologizes for not being able to accept the job Bambino Daddy is offering him because he already accepted one somewhere else.  While Bambino Daddy likes that Paolo has integrity, he tries to offer him a higher salary than the other place.  Bambino Daddy writes down his cell number so Paolo can call him when he makes up his mind.  After Paolo leaves, Bambino Daddy is nearly in tears at the thought that he has a "figlio" (hijo, son).  And I'm sure someone actually knows Bambino Daddy's name, but I'd like the joy of getting to call him Bambino Daddy for a little while longer, since this show is determined to suck the joy out of almost everything else.

Like the next scene.  Where we're back to Alonso insisting on calling Irene over and over until she talks to Karina.  He gives up on the phone and drags Karina over to Caprico.

Irene and Natalia are both crying in the Bathroom of Tears, Recriminations, Pep Talks, and Confrontations.  Natalia confesses that she can't handle "Diego's" demands and personality shifts.  She remembers that he was almost like this back in Tuxpan.  But, anygüey…Natalia wipes away the tears and says she'd better get back to work before she gets a scolding.  Irene thinks to herself that in Tuxpan there were actually two of them, but now…what the heck is up with Diego?

Irene goes into Diego's office to confront him.  She's surprised at "Diego's" crappy attitude about the things he used to find charming about Natalia.  Rod thought bubbles that Diego liked it, but he only thinks about [something the censors don't think our delicate American ears can handle].  How ever will we figure out how to fill in the blank?  Irene tells him she's grown very fond of Natalia and doesn't want her to get hurt.  "She noticed the difference in your behavior and it's reminding her of Tuxpan.  I think if you tell her about Rodrigo it might help her understand."  "Diego" thanks his aunt for her advice and then growls to himself that his brother never told Natalia about him, nor did anyone talk about the attack on him.  He's determined to find out who attacked him and fondles his letter opener for extra emphasis of both his violent tendencies and fixation on certain parts of his anatomy.

Paolo calls Don Gino, a.k.a. Bambino Daddy, and accepts the job.  Bambino Daddy is thrilled!

Abdul literally runs into La Jaiba and knocks over her shopping bag full of stuff.  Even though she knows her niece is into him, she oozes in his general direction and smears bright red lipstick on his face with her botoxed lips.

Carmen and El go to pick up Lupita, while Carmen tries to avoid a conversation about something that was edited out and that she insists she's said everything she has to say about.  Lupita wants an ice cream and she and El work on Carmen, but she won't agree, so El picks up Lupita and says "Let's see if she can catch us!"  He takes off running down the sidewalk with Carmen in hot pursuit.

Rod invades the women's restroom, expecting to find Natalia, but he finds Brigitte instead.  And, like the song says, "You can't always get what you want," but if you show up in the women's restroom at Caprico at the right time, you might find Brigitte.

Irma is reassuring a comatose Diego that everything is under control.  The doctor hears her, so she has to lie and says he called him Rodrigo, of course.  He gives her a book, presumably about comas and/or coma drugs and she says it's all so fascinating that maybe she should have studied medicine instead of nursing.  This is sad.  He's a nice guy.  And he brought her a BOOK!  Just for that, I hope he ends up with a hot female coma specialist just in time for Irma to realize what she could've had as she's being dragged off to jail for kidnapping Diego and practicing medicine without a license.

Irene, in her company car, tries to leave Caprico, but she sees Karina and Alonso arguing outside and assumes they're there to torment her.  Alonso leaves Karina behind as he races off behind Irene, shouting at her out his car window.  She holds up her phone so he can see her ignoring the call.  Dudes!  Dudes!  Please don't do this thing with the reckless driving!  She answers the phone long enough to tell him she knows what she saw and refuse to discuss it any further.  They both end up stopped in traffic, but Irene speeds off in another lane when Alonso gets out of his car to try to talk to her.  Miraculously, the other drivers wait patiently for Alonso to get back in his car and don't honk at him.

Brigitte is heading out of the bathroom as Karina is trying to head in.  Karina tells Brigitte that Alonso's insisting that she tell Irene the truth.  Brigitte is pissed that she's going to look like a liar, but Karina tells her to just say that Karina lied to her and she just passed it on.  Karina goes into the bathroom.

Rod had, apparently, left before Brigitte did.  He's in the workroom, apologizing to Natalia for the way he treated her last night.  She forgives him too easily, but brings up his change in attitude.  Rod blames it on the deal with the plant in Monterrey not working out the way they wanted.  "What can I do to get things back to the way they were before?  Tell me what you like about me, what you don't like…your ideal Diego…and you'll have him."  I'm going to start with "not comatose" and "actually Diego."

Bambino Daddy Gino shows Paolo around his bowling alley.  It looks like a reputable place.  The employees can't figure out why the boss is taking such a shine to the new guy.  Bambino Daddy takes Paolo back to his office so Paolo can tell him all about his life while Gino gazes at him, enraptured, in awe that his genetic material helped make up this wonderful young man.  And he is pretty amazing, our Paolo, so it's hard to blame him.  But don't get cocky, Gino!

Alonso attempts to convince Irene to listen to him by forcibly kissing her.  And then he does it again after she hits him.  Because sexual assault is the best way to convince someone you're in love with them.  I dislike being so harsh where Alonso is concerned, but if the writers want to change his personality and forget that he's a trained mental health professional who knows damn well that what he's doing could push Irene to drink again, then I reserve the right to call it as I see it.  This demonstration of a dating "don't" is interrupted by Vicente.

Natalia talks to "Diego" about liking that she felt he would protect her, being understanding, behaving like a gentleman, not scaring her by being violent.  "Like in Tuxpan?"  "You remember, then!  If you remember, then you should realize that you're treating me now the way you tried to then."  "Diego" tells her that it's not worth such a fuss and Natalia says he scares her when he has the expression on his face that he's wearing now, but she ignores her gut for about the thousandth time this episode and says "Well, why relive the past?"  She has trouble kissing him, but puts on a smile and asks him to take her to lunch.

Irene explains the scene to Vicente, saying she and Alonso were arguing because she's decided to quit therapy, but she's made up her mind.  She escapes up the stairs and Vicente asks if Alonso is in agreement.  Alonso says Irene has made her decision.  Vicente asks him to stay.

Upstairs, Irene says she hates him, but she can't forget him.  "He doesn't deserve for me to love him.  Am I doing the right thing?  He sounded so sincere."  Another one who's ignoring her gut, but in the opposite direction.

Vicente doesn't want Irene to quit therapy…ever!  He's afraid of a relapse.  Not just of her drinking, but her "obsession" with Tad and being his nurse.  "That man is dangerous to her and she doesn't even realize it.  I need you to help me get her away from him.  You're her therapist. You have to get him out of her head.  Irene's main problem is Tadeo Vargas."  Alonso unenthusiastically says he'll do what he can.

Doting Bambino Daddy Gino is still listening to Paolo talk about his home life.  And his amazing mom who raised five kids on her own.  And who Paolo would like to bring over, so Gino can meet her.

Rod ignores Natalia's conversation at lunch while he tries to figure out who put him in a coma.  Natalia noticed his distraction.  He doesn't remember Angela, even though he's met her several times.

Karina complains to Brigitte that Alonso's an idiot, turning her down after she offered herself to him on a silver platter.  She's tried everything to win him over and nothing works.  "You have to figure out what he likes about Irene."  Karina disdainfully says he likes that she's "ruca" (old; a cougar) but she can't compete with that.  Brigitte suggests that men who like older women are looking for mommies, so Karina should work that angle.  Show of hands--who wants to see THAT hit the cutting room floor?  Actually, if we could just edit Karina out of the entire rest of this show, that would be great.

La Jaiba and the Crabettes are grouchy that Carmen is getting back on her feet.  They can't afford to do anything further just now or it'll raise suspicions.  La Jaiba is content that they've had some profits and have some clients that are loyal to the restaurant and loyal to "the house" which was their primary objective.  Is she running a brothel?  I think some of the girls hinted about working the night shift, but I thought they were working as independent contractors.  Anyway, one of the Crabettes is nervous about being fingerprinted the other day because she has a record.

Team Fonda have some pizza and soda in the newly-repainted fonda.  Eleazar teases Carmen about needing to exercise and maybe going running together some morning.  Angela and Abdul exchange a look, because Carmen and Eleazar are fooling no one!  Paolo comes in, looking sad and tells Carmen he has to tell her something, but he doesn't want her to get mad.  He finally admits he got fired from Burger Rex, but...he got a higher-paying job at a bowling alley and the hours are the same.  Carmen just isn't happy that she couldn't jump in and defend him when he got fired in the first place.  Paolo apologizes and Eleazar declares the matter closed and asks Paolo to tell them all about his job.

Alonso goes to El's office.  Morales offers to call El and find out where he is.

Carmen and Eleazar can't keep their hands off each other as Paolo tells his story.  His phone rings and it's Alonso calling to beg for help.  El excuses himself and leaves for the office.  Carmen brushes it off, saying that's what cop life is like.

Rod drops Natalia off at Caprico and then calls Alberto.  He fumbles about not knowing where Alberto's office is, but Diego is so organized that it's in his phone.

Irene is grumpy at work.  Natalia comes back from lunch and wants to gossip.  Irene gives in and tells Natalia about finding Karina at Alonso's apartment when she got back from New York.

El gets to his office and dismisses Morales.  Alonso tells him what happened with Irene and Karina.  Even El doesn't buy that nothing happened with Karina, but Alonso swears nothing happened.  He tells him about the whole ridiculous falling down the stairs thing.  "What was I supposed to do?!  Just leave her lying there?"  Eleazar gives him a cara de "duh!"  Alonso tried getting Karina to explain to Irene, but that backfired and now he can only think of one more thing to do, but it's crazy, and he needs Eleazar's help.

Irene tells Natalia that she doesn't believe Alonso, but Natalia thinks there has to be some explanation.  She encourages Irene to at least talk to him and get rid of any doubts.  So, Irene leaves to do that right now.  In the middle of the workday.  When they've got a bunch of orders to fill.  That's how they roll at Eskenda.  Natalia wishes her luck and then looks absolutely emotionally exhausted.  Or maybe that's me.

Rod goes to Alberto to fish for information about what happened after he was attacked.

Natalia, wisely, lies to Brigitte and says that Irene left to see a client. She asks her if she's really close to Karina, but Brigitte downplays the relationship.  Though, she keeps up the fiction that Karina and Alonso are dating and that he's sooo good to her.  Brigitte thought bubbles that she hopes Natalia tells Irene.  Natalia thought bubbles that NO WAY is she going to tell Irene, cause it's probably all BS anyway.

Rod, as Diego, is furious that they never found out who attacked Rod.  Alberto defends Team Diego, saying they were more concerned about Rod's actual survival than finding out what happened.  And time passed and trails got cold and there's nothing they can find out that will change the fact that Rod's life was taken away.  "Well, revenge will help me feel better."  "Diego" goes on to tell Alberto his theory…"Couldn't it have been Natalia who did it?"

Bambino Daddy Gino knocks on Carmen's door, but the neighbor says Carmen's not home and Paolo is at work, but she'll take a message.  Gino says he'll come back later.

Alberto doesn't think Natalia's strong enough, nor would she have been able to live with the guilt without it showing on her face.  Alberto jokingly suggests that a few sessions with Alonso will get "Diego's" brain back to normal.

Morales reports to Eleazar that Irene is leaving Caprico now.  El asks Alonso if he's sure he wants to go through with this….

Tomorrow: Diego is semi-awake and Rod taunts him verbally and physically; Rod finds out about Irene and Alonso and confronts Natalia for not telling him; Rod lets his fists do the talking when he confronts Alonso, and Irene busts up the fight and tells Rod he's not Diego.

Labels: te-quiero