Caray, Caray!

Ezra:

I'm so sorry about your contact lenses. I'm hoping you get those replacement glasses quickly.

You aren't alone about Trofeo. I have a hard time understanding him too half the time.

I'm so happy to know that that USB has good, useful info about Ahole on it. I can hardly wait for his anvil. He's gotten away with far too much already.

I'm glad that Diego is part of the vacay now. Love him and Leo. Can't stand AS' attitude toward Diego. She treats him as she treats Lupe, like crap. Wait till she finds out about Frida and Tizoc. She thinks she's in porca miseria now, just wait. It will be her mini piecart, I'm hoping.

So did Tizoc have a moment of singer's block? Frida wasn't there to hear him this time. What the heck happened to his voice? It reminded me of writer's block, hmmmm......

I didn't like the Maitre d' Hotel's attitude toward the familia group. What a putz. I am glad Lupe, and Tizoc both spoke up. And Ana Chofi (Ana Sofia) was included with that, too funny. She didn't get her usual VIP treatment. Good!

Mini and her big mouth. I think she just shot herself in the foot, so to speak.

I am worried for Mati, now that Ahole knows where the Menchaca are. I'm not liking what happened with MA, but then again, the head cop that arrested MA is the same one that can't stand Ahole. I just don't want MA to be in the jail for the rest of this TN.
 

Oh, and Ezra great part one. Can't wait to read your take on part two : )
 

copying my comment here. about to read the recap. thanks Ezra!

SO Perla is about to make front cover on the RP fashion magazine!! too funny!! esp when all of them (Mini, Vilma, A-hole) had chances to look at the photos and refused to!! LOL!! can't wait to see A-hole's face and Chuy's face if he sees it!!
so sad for Lupe... she was getting so pretty for MA then all heck broke loose and when she went running to try to let him know he would not let her speak with his kisses. Hopefully the Menchacas will be a good stronghold for her now... she will need strength to resist A-hole's shenanigans.

 

Ezra, thanks for part 1!
when the Menchacas and RP were together at that table and Leo and DA came by, Leo invited everyone to breakfast (at a restaurant) with part of his earnings as tour guide. AS was surprised he invited ALL of them, and this is why MA hugged him and said he was proud of him. AS kept telling Leo he was starting to make his transition to the dark side... and she was not happy about it... lol!
I am totally with you when AS accepted DA treating them to dinner but did not follow along Leo's suggestion to thank DA and instead kept calling him names and making racist remarks... 'we ALL are xxxx but some (of us) are MORE xxx (like US)', still drawing the line as if that made any sense at all.
 

I think Nepo needs to watch the youtube clip 'Newheart Stop it!' or visit a shrink that will charge him the $5 for 5 minutes of 'SNAP OUT OF IT!!!' shakin'
 

I also liked how Don Chuy comforted Leo and Frida and of course Lupe after MA's arrest. Don Chuy is a great father figure to them. I hope they stay with him.
 

Thanks, Ezra! I hope you're back to full vision soon!

A lot of fun in this episode, but also a huge dose of racism. Kind of a downer. I could hardly believe that horrible maitre d'. Although it was a teeny bit funny that AS found herself on the excluded side of the color line. It is also slightly funny to me that no one ever notices that Lupita looks nothing like her siblings. I have nothing against Zuria Vega, but if the family is supposed to be so indigenous and all, would it have killed the producers to hire an actress who looks like the natives for the lead role?

AS is the worst. She appreciates NOTHING. Diego is so nice to her, and she treats him like dung. First she complains that he isn't taking them to a fancy enough restaurant, then she refuses to thank him or be the slightest bit polite to him when he's treating her to dinner, and THEN she steals the money he left to pay for it? Ugh. It is nice to see Leo getting fed up with her behavior, though. Since MA is now detenido, she should consider being nicer to Leo and Diego since they are the only ones with any money willing to support her!

Those cops sure know how to amp up the drama. Did they really need all those guns to arrest an unarmed, nonviolent guy in an isolated spot? Plus, they climbed over the wall when they were RIGHT NEXT TO the stairs leading up to the terrace. I guess they have to make themselves feel badass somehow.

Bummer that Tizoc choked in the contest finale.
 

Ezra, thank you for the recap. Good luck with your contact lenses. They can be a real pain.

I loved this episode because we found out that the USB actually does contain information (Alejo's bank transactions and questions about the origin of money in his accounts) that can help MA. MA's arrest (so long in coming) is really going to get the action moving. I liked don Chuy's opinion that the good thing about the arrest was that finally for once and for all MA was going to get his business all sorted out. Diego was a great help lending his car to Frida and Lupita to get back to DF. Guendy proved herself to be a great friend by giving Lupita the call to warn her about the impending arrest. Funny that Minerva is already thinking about conjugal visits.

I also enjoyed:

Leonardo coming into his own having earned some money and being willing to pay for breakfast; taking a definite pride in it.

MA telling Leonardo he was proud of him.

Leonardo choosing to go with Diego rather than give into AS "the being who gave him life" who also told him "no te me amenchaques" (Don't turn into a Menchaca on me!)

Leonardo clearly tiring of AS's criticisms of Diego with her going so far as to say he looked like a hamster and was an inconvenience. It looks like he and Diego are going to have a good influence on each other. Leonardo did have a temporary but funny setback when he started to complain about having bean and egg sandwiches for supper and then having to sleep with all of the Menchacas. Very funny.

The competition of Tizoc Frida, Diego and Leonardo riding on the "banana" towed by a boat and the "bet" between AS and Perla. AS knew Leonardo was going to fall off first. With the tip money AS stole it looks like she will be able to wet her whistle tonight.

AS waking up with quite the hangover today moaning all the way about he mosquitoes, etc., having to use don Chuy's "champu", etc.

AS has never having broken with her sense of entitlement. When Leonardo asks her if religion does not teach us that we are all equal she answered yes, but some of us were more equal than others and that was why there were social classes. Then there was her "guero" demo trying to get into the restaurant. I wonder if her character will ever have a major change of attitude.

MA being quite clever in getting a romantic table set for Lupita: stealing the couple of daisies, sweet talking the fabric vendor for the material and crashing a poor child's birthday party to steal those two candles. So funny!

Tizoc singing to Frida during the contest performance. She sure found his tent that night but she said she slept very well the next morning.

Don Chuy and doña Mati reminiscing about don Aureliano and the old days thirty something years ago with the fights but then feeling like he was still there with them. Doña Mati remembering something but then not being able to remember what she had remembered. Could it be the location of those papers? I hope Alejo doesn't find her.

Tizoc started coughing in the contest and the Menchacas started compalining that somebody was cheating. Was the contest fixed somehow??

Jarifa

 

The banana thing was silly. I did like when they were discussing it beforehand. It did sound very much like innuendo, and also kind of taunting Leo over his fear of the Banana King. Who knew riding those things could be "scary" or that one could fall off without being pushed off or jumping purposely? I always thought of them as the baby option for little kids who can't water ski or wakeboard. They all looked like they were working hard to make it look bouncy and Leo did pretty much have to jump off.

I also liked when Leo was treating everyone to breakfast and he said this was what he missed about his old rich life, being able to treat his friends to nice things. I think at heart he is generous, unlike his very selfish mother. I'm not sure we will ever see her attitudes change at all.
 

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I wonder whether we will find out that Ana Sofia was born on the wrong side of the tracks and has concocted this whole upper-crust thing to conceal it. WOuldn't that be great?
 

I wouldn't be surprised at all! That's a running theme in telenovelas, and usually it's the ones who are faking a posh background who are the most snobby and brand/money/status-obsessed and rude to poor people.
 

Ana Sufrida is basically Graciela from LQLVMR, with the pretentious airs and the supposed rich Italian family, except funnier and slightly less evil. Maybe her mama was a poor seamstress? Have any of her kids met any of her extended family? Or is everyone conveniently dead? It would be funny if she were originally from La Nopalera and any of her relatives made an appearance.

I'm still waiting to meet Diego's mother, too!
 

Thanks for part 1 Ezra.
Jarifa, you listed all my favorite parts.

My favorite nicknames, Tizoc called Perlita, la hermona, when she wanted to check out the guys at the club.
Mati called AS, Ana Sufrida, lol.

What Jarifa said, that AS told Leo after he complained about her treatment of DA that everyone was equal, she said that that's true, but some people are more equal than others.
I'm really feeling hatred for her more than ever. She steals, lies and is a total snob. And she's not learned anything yet.

So this flash drive that Saul and Tomas have, is it the first one that Minerva gave him that was information from Alejo's laptop?
 

Someone should tell AS that when she quotes Animal Farm like that, she looks like a pig.
 

Ezra- Good luck with the eyewear issue. I can relate! Thanks so much for the great first part of the recap.

Jarifa- Thanks for pointing out the highlights (and some lowlights) of the episode. I'm sad that MA and Lupe didn't get their romantic date before half the Mexican SWAT team showed up. Especially since MA worked so hard to set it up, and Lupe made herself up for it.

I am also starting to believe that AS will never change. *sigh* I want Lupe or the RPs to spill that it was she who took the money. She doesn't deserve to be protected.

Loved seeing Leo's growth.

I think Tizoc choked because he didn't see Frida in the audience. He was looking around for her.
 

Excellent second half! Worth the wait! I hope this means you're all set with new glasses or contacts.

I'd forgotten about Frida's protester past bubbling back up. She wanted to raise a ruckus and demonstrate against the restaurant racist. Everyone else was like, "eh, we have to deal with racism every day. We're on vacation."

Did they actually take that recliner to the beach? That seems like excessive packing even for los Menchaca. Plus, upholstered indoor furniture at the beach seems like a bad idea.

It really amuses me that Perla keeps trying to give Lupita advice on how to attract and keep a man. Has she not noticed that Lupita has hordes of men after her? Maybe Perla should look to Lupita for tips instead!
 

I am disappointed that they didn't sing the Banana Boat Song. And I agree with our esteemed recapper: there is nothing impressive about riding on that thing!
 

Great second half Ezra! I'm so glad you can see again. :)
 

Thank you, Ezra. Sorry to be commenting so late, but I did enjoy the recap. Especially the way you were able to highlight the better moments of this very uncomfortable episode.

The racism was unpleasant, and AS's treatment of Diego was unpleasant, and Tizoc choking was unpleasant, and the arrest was unpleasant; but the worst part for me was AS buying a drink with the waiter's tip. (Paid by Diego.) OW. I'm not sure if that's what SHOULD bother me the most, but for a moment there I wished that I was related to her so that I could disown her!

I didn't like how she tricked Perla into betting on the wrong banana-boat rider, either, but Perla needs to learn how to protect herself from her own gullibility.

Yes, Perla as cover girl. Maybe her mini subplot will finally start to go somewhere.

I ditto what Julia said about Zuria Vega not looking much like the other Menchacas, but I guess we're supposed to compare her with Mini and saying "ooooh, what a contrast." Yeah, no, I don't buy it either...

When I watch AS's antics, my only consolation is that her bad behavior doesn't make her feel any better. And her lousy attitude hurts her more than it hurts anyone else. Even when the Menchacas lost all the cash they had, they Menchacas got over it and moved on. Meanwhile, AS blew it all on overpriced thrills and scammed plenty more in fraudulent purchases, and she's still griping!
 

Will we finally have an actual dark/brown skinned protagonist in ANY tn from Mexico or the US (or even Brazil for that matter!)? I don't think so. The closest we get are the ones with black hair. I'm actually even shocked that they have someone Tizoc's color among the main cast, and Perla's got some color too.

In any case, I do like Zuria's unique, natural look, and her big eyes.
 

Thanks for the wonderful recap. I haven't seen the episode yet. Would it be possible for AS to end up in rehab or AA? Does that happen in Telenovelas? La carcel would break the hearts of her children so I don't want to see that. But she has something coming.
 

Yes, rehab does happen in telenovelas, and I think AS is headed there. In Al Diablo Con Los Guapos, Luciana (mother of the protagonist) was a super mean drunk villainess most of the show, but she finally hit rock bottom and then went to rehab and was redeemed. She still died young of liver failure, but died as a sweet and humbled lady. She even gave up the family's riches to live with the kids in their modest little house.
 

Vivi, the racism of these TNs is infuriating to me and this seems to be the first time I've seen it addressed, although as a joke.
 

Racism seems to be addressed the same way as homophobia in telenovelas: "everyone is equal" and "don't be prejudiced" messages in the stories themselves, which the production does not live up to.