Caray, Caray!

Brigitte is relieved to hear from Alonso that Alberto visited Rodrigo, but things didn't seem to "get very far" between them.  She wants him to call Al's parents, but Alonso doesn't want to worry them if he doesn't need to.  Brigitte decides she doesn't want to wait alone and calls Carmen, but Carmen is busy waiting for Natalia to come home.  "Natalia, Natalia, Natalia!" whines Brigitte yet again.  Hey, there you are, Brat…wondered where you'd gotten to!  Carmen says Natalia's had a rough day, what with finding out who her "real" parents are.  Brigitte and Lupita are both surprised to hear this.

Lupita goes to tell Paolo and drags him out to the living room so they can interrogate Carmen.

Carmen tells Brigitte who Natalia's parents are.  Brigitte says "Why's she upset, then?  This is like winning the lottery!"  Carmen gets tired of Brat's attitude, so Brat gives her some more, saying of course she's having a worse day that Nat.  Lupita wonders how Tad is Nat's father if he didn't, um, have anything to do with Carmen.  Carmen gives them the deets.  Paolo figures Tad and Irene must be thrilled to have found her.

Padre Juancho finishes giving her the story and apologizes on behalf of…pretty much everybody who knew…for not being able to find the right time to tell her.  PJ suggests she be thankful for having 3 awesome parents and just treat Irene with the same affection she always has.

Carmen keeps telling Paolo and Lupita about the great Telling Nat debacle.  Irene shows up and  Paolo and Lupita welcome Irene to the family.  PJ calls Carmen and tells her Nat listened to his explanations and seemed calmer.



Brigitte is even more agitated, now that she knows Nat is "a Cacares" and has everything she wanted.  "They should have been my parents, not hers!  I hate her!"  Heh, heh, heh…yeah, Brat, let it alllll out!

Morales shows up at work, apparently still able to walk.  El leaves him in charge of the office…and then asks who the lucky lady is…and then decides he's not that interested.  Morales calls Kimmy and says he's stuck at the office until Monday.  She doesn't want him to tell El…and starts making plans to make his forced stay at the office more pleasant.

Abdul gets back to the apartment and tries to pretend he's angry with Mally, but he cracks pretty quickly and tells her about his day.  He's going to wait and see how things go with Big Abdul, but at least they've made their peace.  An excited hug morphs into some quality smoochies.

The cops find Alberto and his car.  Everything's burned, so they don't know who he is yet.

Mally's already ready to say "This won't work!" because of her past, but Abdul says he'd be an idiot to care about that.  He wants to wipe the slate clean and just start from now.

Tiburcio isn't doing well and Hilda blames it on Rod for letting him sit out in the sun.  She tells Lala about Rod sending her for suntan lotion, leaving Tiburcio out, and then yelling at her for telling Alonso that Alberto came by for a while.

Rod is searching for news about Alberto and finally sees that they're pulling up the car.  He congratulates himself on a well-carried-out plan…and then he's visited by the hand of the ghost of Alberto the Incinerated.  Not gonna lie…I miss Live Al, but I do enjoy that Dead Al is going to stick around and torment Rod!  When Rod tries to turn and look at Dead Al, Dead Al's gone.  Rod makes sure to tell him that he's not going to drive Rod nuts…but when he looks again, Dead Al, looking pretty dapper for a dead guy, is staring at him.

Kimmy sneaks in to El's office.  She brought Chinese food.

Angela goes over to Mara's, where it looks like there's a LOT more room in the apartment now that she's packed up most of the tchotchkes.  Angela tells her that Abdul is living Jaiba-free now.  She wants Mara to come with her to visit him, but Mara is waiting for some of her mom's friends to come pick up the tchotchkes.

Nat goes over to Tad's to ask why he left Irene when she was pregnant.  He keeps it simple, saying he didn't know she was pregnant when he left.  Nat wants more.  Tad tells her about getting the scholarship due to Vicente's string-pulling.

Lupita wants to call Nat and tell her to come home already, but Carmen tells her to wait.  Instead of Nat, Abdul shows up and asks Carmen to forgive him.  He gets hugs from Carmen, Paolo, and Lupita.  Even Irene is happy for them all and Lupita hurries to include Irene by telling Abdul that she's Natalia's mom.  Abdul is about to give Irene hell for abandoning Nat, but she tells him the story.  Carmen explains that they're waiting for Nat to come home.  Abdul laughs about all these extra parents showing up…"We're only missing Brigitte's now!"

Tad shows Natalia the last letter he sent to Irene from Paris.  It was returned, like all the others, by Vicente.  "My Dear Irene, This is the last letter I'll write you.  The fact that I've never received any response from you can only mean that you've forgotten about me.  I don't blame you.  I understand.  You couldn't handle the distance separating us and you've gotten on with your life.  I, here, far away, have never stopped thinking about you, and I have you engraved on my skin, as if you were here with me, holding me, and telling me you love me.  But what else can I do besides resign myself to being forgotten?  My worst enemy has been the distance that ended your love.  I don't want to say goodbye, but I can't take your indifference anymore.  I'll go away from you loving you with my whole being.  Be happy, Irene…Irene of my heart."  Tad says if he'd heard from her just once, things would have been different.  And especially if he'd known Nat was on the way.  He realizes now, with the perspective of age, that he shouldn't have let go of his love for anything…not even the scholarship.  One day, he ran into Irene again and found out they had a daughter…and then thought she was dead.  When Tiburcio said she was alive, they started searching.  "I only wanted to find you and hug you, and call you 'daughter.'  Do you think I can?"  Nat says she's the daughter of the people she loves best.  She's willing to let Tad call her "daughter," but only if he lets her donate her marrow.  Score one for Nat!  Come on, Taddy…you can't say "no" to your little girl's first request ever!  He tries to, though.  Nat gives him the "I can't find you just to lose you!" and then follows it up by calling him "papa."  Nice work, Nat!  Lupita would be proud.

The cops have identified the car as Alberto's and the person who examined the body doesn't think it was an accident.

Angela is pissed that Mally is at Abdul's apartment.  She explains they live together and Angela fumes.

A guy in a white coat tells the cop who appears to be in charge of the investigation that the trauma to the side of the head, PLUS the seat belt, PLUS the fact that there was no other trauma to the body leads him to think this was a homicide.  Finally, El gets some work to do!

Angela puts Mally down for having been a prostitute and mocks her for thinking that once Abdul makes up with his mom, he'll want a woman like her around.  She says that once Abdul gets over his lust, he'll start thinking about how many men she's been with.  "Leave, before he breaks up with you…because he will."  Angela leaves Mally in tears.  I don't want to dislike Angela, but she sounded and acted like she was channeling Diana just then.  Not cool.

Kimmy locks the office door so she and Morales can have a proper dessert after dinner.  They bleep out whatever she says as she prepares to, uh, mount…er…join him on his chair.  One of the other guys comes over to tell him about the new case and he stands up so fast he knocks Kimmy onto the floor.  She ends up hiding under the desk while Morales answers the door and pretends he was taking a nap and fell out of his chair.  They leave and Kim re-emerges and starts cleaning up the containers from dinner as the Big Boss walks in, wondering QTH she's doing there.

There's another knock at the door of Garcia Central Station and it's Tad with Natalia.  Nat hugs Irene and cries.  Irene cries.  Carmen encourages her to call Irene "mama" and says she won't be hurt.  Natalia says something to Irene, but she's crying so hard I have no idea what it was.  They hug and cry some more.

Kim pretends she was surprising El at work and didn't realize he wasn't in his office.  She leaves, and the Big Boss realizes he has no idea why he was in El's office in the first place.

Nat tells Irene that she talked Tad into taking her marrow and they're going to go get tested tomorrow.  Tad jokes that Nat got Irene and Carmen's stubbornness, so what's a guy to do.  Lupita is finally getting some happy crying in and tells Nat she likes her parents.  Paolo and Abdul join the love fest.  Brigitte shows up and insincerely tells Nat she's glad Nat found her "real" mother.  "It's nice to have a mom you can count on 100%"  Carmen rolls her eyes and tells Brigitte they need to talk.

Carmen starts off by criticizing Brigitte's snotty attitude and then gives up.  Brigitte gets right to the point, saying she's pregnant.

Natalia wonders what's going on, but all Irene knows is that Brigitte called a while ago.  Nat is hurt that Brigitte was throwing it in her face.  Tad has had about all the excitement he can stand for one day.  Nat gives him permission to go home and reminds him they have to get tested first thing tomorrow.  Before Tad and Irene can leave, Abdul insists on taking a picture.

Morales meets with Lab Coat Guy, who explains why he thinks the guy was dead before he got into the car and the crash was staged to cover it up.  Morales recognizes Alberto's name.

El shows up at Alonso's…awww, it just hit me that they're not The Al's anymore…and repeats Brigitte's suggestion that Alonso call Alberto's parents and play it cool.  They don't answer.  El thinks they must be out somewhere together.  Maybe Alberto just left his cell phone at home or the battery ran out.  He tells Alonso not to worry because bad news travels fast.  On cue, Morales calls El…who acts like Morales has to be walked through how to conduct an investigation…Morales explains how little info they have, but the car's owner is Alberto Campos Salgado.  El repeats this and looks at Alonso.

Carmen is surprised, but a baby is a blessing, not a problem.  "It is for me," counters Brigitte.  Carmen says she's not the first or the last…"Hey, I had 4!"…and says she's not going to chew Brigitte out for it.  "It's no problem!"  Carmen suddenly seems to remember what fun babies are to have around and her face falls a bit.  Brigitte's face would fall, but it has nowhere left to go.

El tells Morales he's on his way and tells Alonso that Alberto is dead.  Alonso throws something and picks up the phone.

Carmen assumes it's Alberto's baby, and won't that be great…then she thinks Brigitte is upset because she broke up with Al.  "It's not his baby."  "Then whose is it?"  Before Brigitte can answer, Alonso calls Brigitte, tells her Alberto's dead and it's all her fault, and curses her.

Alonso tells Brigitte she killed Alberto.  "Are you happy now!"  El takes the phone away from him and hangs up.  Alonso curses Brigitte and Rodrigo both.

Brigitte starts screaming that it's her fault and goes running out of the house.  Carmen has no clue what's going on.  She asks what's going on with Brigitte and Alberto and tells Paolo to leave the room with Lupita.  Nat knew about the pregnancy…and then, since she's questioned directly, says she knows who the father is, but she does NOT want to be the one to tell Carmen.  "Please don't make me have one more problem with Brigitte!"  Carmen insists she's going to support Brigitte, and she hopes Brigitte will stop making mistakes.  Abdul says he's definitely learned his lesson.  He's doing ok on his own for now, though, so he's not looking to move back home.  He goes back to his place.  Nat tells Carmen, "You wanted a man…looks like you've got one."

Alonso wants to see the body and El reluctantly agrees to take him.  Somebody's cell phone gets left by the coffee pot.

Abdul gets to his apartment to find Mally packing.  Ay, la pobre!  She's only got enough stuff to fit in one plastic grocery bag.  She's still crying over what Angela told her and tells Abdul that Angela is right.  Abdul won't let her go unless she says she was only fooling around with him and doesn't love him.  Well, she can't do that, but she doesn't want to hurt him.  Abdul says Angela is jealous and he doesn't care what she or anyone else thinks.

El and Alonso go to the morgue.  Morales tells them not to look.  "There's no way to recognize him."  El slooooooowly unzips the body bag while Alonso remembers Alberto's greatest hits--volleyball on the beach, finding the booze when they unpacked at Alonso's new apartment, setting up the surveillance  to bust Diana, the futbol game, dancing like a doofus, eating pizza, telling bad jokes, hauling a drunk Alonso around, throwing a drunken tantrum of his own.  Alonso cries on El's shoulder.

El and Alonso go back home and find Brigitte out in the hallway. El tells her they're sure Alberto is dead.  Alonso ignores her and goes into his apartment.  El invites her in to his place and tells her they're sure it was murder and he's not going to rest until he finds out what happened.  He calls Carmen to tell her that Alberto was murdered.  He says Brigitte is with him.  Carmen can't imagine anyone wanting to kill him…he was such a nice guy!  Brigitte doesn't want to talk to Carmen right now and El says he'll take her home in the morning.  Carmen says she's coming right over.  She cries for Alberto.

Brigitte slept in one of El's chairs.  Carmen and Nat show up, early.  Carmen hugs Brigitte and the Brigitte accuses Nat of being there to mock her.  Nat says they're all sad about Alberto's death, so she can only imagine how Brigitte must be feeling.  El takes Nat over to Alonso's so Carmen can talk to Brigitte alone.

Alonso is looking at pictures of the Bros and crying.  It doesn't look like he's slept or changed his clothes.  Nat and El come over and Nat gives Alonso her condolences and talks about what a great guy Alberto was.  Alonso is sure Rodrigo killed him because of Brigitte.  El swears they're investigating.

Brigitte tells Carmen she never wanted to hurt Alberto.  "Then why did you cheat on him?"  Brigitte says she doesn't know, but she feels terrible about treating him so badly.  She even thought he would be able to accept the baby…whose father is…Rodrigo.  Carmen now unleashes a tirade that seems to come almost directly from the comments on every recap for the last several weeks.  "WHAT?!!!!  HOW COULD YOU GET INVOLVED WITH HIM!!! HE'S TERRIBLE!!! HE WAS GOING TO RAPE YOUR SISTER!!! HE ALMOST KILLED DIEGO!!! HOW COULD YOU!!! HE'S THE MOST NEFARIOUS MAN I'VE EVER MET!!! WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR HEAD?!  You did it for ambition, didn't you?  Because of that jealousy you have for your sister.  Or, because of that jealousy, did you think you were getting involved with Diego?"  Brigitte weakly says it doesn't matter.  "Doesn't matter?  How far you've fallen.  I don't even know who you are anymore."  "Your daughter!  Who else?  Your daughter, who you're going to have to forgive and accept, whether you like it or not.  Sorry, mom, but that's how I am.  There's nothing to be done about it."  (She used the phrase "Que le vamos a hacer?" What are we going to do about it? Implying there isn't anything to do.)

Angela opens her door to an angry Abdul who tells her he wants her to stay away from Mally.  Angela…oh, Angela, why?!...lies and says she didn't say anything and Mally is making it up.  When Abdul reminds her of what she said, now Angela says it's true and Mally's just a ho who's just like Jaiba.  Abdul says he made a mistake with her and he wants her to stay away from him AND Mally.  Angela swears revenge.  Goodbye, Angela.  You were awesome once, back in the Good Vibes Kiosk days.  I once supported your hooking up with Abdul and was angry at the way he treated you.  But now it seems that since our beloved Alberto has been taken from us, leaving us a man short on this cruise, you have been sacrificed to keep the numbers closer to even.  It's a shame the writers have completely ruined your character this way, and I hope you make your way back to Team Garcia before you do anything that renders you unredeemable.

Alonso, El, and Nat look at the pictures while Alonso talks about his memories of Alberto.  Nat wonders if Diego has heard. She cries as she says he's going to be so hurt.  El says he hasn't been answering his phone.  Carmen knocks on the door and cries on El's shoulder after saying she knows the whole story now.

Rod peruses the morning papers and finds nothing.  He seems most upset that without any news reports, he doesn't know how much they know.  He says to himself that he has to pretend to be really upset.

Carmen goes over to PJ's to ask what she did wrong.  Alberto is dead and it's Brigitte's fault…because Brigitte was cheating on him and when Alberto found out, he lost it.  Carmen cries about what a selfish, jealous daughter she has and can't understand why Brigitte turned out that way.  The short version of PJ's explanation…"Free will."  He tells her Brigitte is a grown woman and if she wants Carmen's help, she needs to act like one.  Carmen hugs PJ and cries.

El goes over to Alberto's looking for Brigitte.  She lets him in and he neutrally says he needs Alberto's toothbrush to do an DNA test.  Brig asks if his parents have been informed already and El's professional demeanor cracks as he tells her she maybe could have thought about how she didn't want things to end this way BEFORE she slept with Rod and why didn't she just leave Alberto instead of cheating on him.  "Don't you see what your actions have led to?"

El brings the toothbrush back to his office.  Morales hasn't found any evidence.  It doesn't help that the crew who got there first didn't treat it like a homicide.  El swears that Rodrigo HAS to pay, and he doesn't care if there's no evidence.  He tells Morales to round up the posse…they're going after Rodrigo NOW!

A sad-faced Nat gets to Tad and Irene's.  She missed the morning appointment.  She tells them that Alberto died, but says it was an accident.  Later she admits it might have been a murder.  Tad immediately thinks it had something to do with Alberto being a lawyer.  Irene worries about how Diego and Alonso are taking it.  Nat says they need to reschedule the tests, so…where are they meeting tomorrow?

The cops show up at the Cacares Manse, but Hilda insists Rod isn't there.  El breaks it to Vicente that they're there to arrest Rod on suspicion of murdering Alberto.  Guys…have you learned nothing?!  Never give Vicente ANY information…EVER!

Rod calls Nat after Irene and Tad drop her off at home.  He's watching her from his car, parked across the street.  Nat says she knows he faked being with her to drive Diego away and that's why she and her mother left Caprico.  "Oh, so you know we're cousins now," he laughs.

Vicente blusters about not forgiving El for barging into his house without a warrant.  El counters that if Vicente warns Rod, he'll face charges for obstruction of justice.

Diego, in an anonymous hotel room, ignores his phone.  But not the text that says "Diego, you have to come back.  Alberto died."

El and Morales get the call that Rod is coming back and they run out to the driveway to point their guns at him before he's even out of his car.  He does get out of the car and pretends he's just hearing that Alberto is dead.  Vicente comes out to bluster.  Rod keeps swearing he didn't do anything and Alberto was his friend.  El ignores all of Vicente's threats and carts Rod away anyway.  Vicente watches them go, confused that for once his powers of intimidation didn't work.  Mr. 5ft: "Have your heart attack now!"  I agree, now would be a good time.

Nat is setting the table when Andres comes over with tamales.  She tells him about Alberto.  He offers his condolences to Nat and Carmen.  They look away when he says Brigitte must feel terrible.  He offers to leave, but Carmen calls Paolo and Lupita to the table.  Nat tells Andres that she's going to take him up on his job offer, since she figures her mom won't be ready to start working until her dad is recovered from his transplant.  Andres has no idea what she's talking about, but congratulates her once Carmen fills him in.  "So…Diego and Rodrigo are your cousins?"  Nat thanks God that Irene's an adopted Cacares.  She tells him about the transplant.

The next morning, Nat, Irene, Tad, and Carmen, show up at Tad's doctor's office.  He takes Tad to the lab and says he'll come back for Nat in a minute.  Nat says she's not nervous, but happy to help her dad.  She fills Irene in on Andres' new business and how she's going to help him out temporarily.  The doctor comes back for Nat and Carmen and Irene wish her luck.  Irene pumps Carmen for info about Andres.  Irene admits she's thinking about Diego and how foolish he was for leaving.

El doesn't buy Rod's innocent act.  Rod's story is that Alberto smacked him around a bit, but then left his house alive.  El tries to draw a line from Rod's lack of giveacrap for his own brother, his willingness to sleep with his "best friend's" girlfriend, and killing Alberto.  Rod denies there's any connection, pretends he wants justice for Alberto, and refuses to talk anymore since El has dragged him in there without any evidence.

Nat is optimistic she and Tad will be a good match and he'll be recovered in no time.

Angela goes to the fonda to complain to Toño about Mally and Abdul.  She wants him to spy on Mally and catch her with another guy.  Because, of course, someone like her is BOUND to be sleeping with SOMEBODY.  And Toño agrees to do it, for Abdul's sake.

Alonso lobbies to be allowed to interrogate Rodrigo and El finally gives in, but he's going to send one of his guys in with Alonso.

Vicente can't get a hold of his BFF the AG.  He's on vacation and unreachable.

Alonso and Cenudo(?) go into the interrogation room.  Alonso's strategy is to criticize Rod for sleeping with Brigitte.  Rod repeats his made up story…now adding that Alberto might have killed himself.  Alonso says he was dead before he went over the cliff.  Rod says Brigitte was probably sleeping with some other guy/s too and maybe one of them killed Alberto.  Alonso resorts to grabbing Rodrigo by the lapels and screaming "You killed him!  Admit it!"  El drags him out of there while Rod gloats that whoever loses their cool, loses.

Tomorrow: Diego is back in town and Nat takes him to a hotel to prove she didn't sleep with Rod by sleeping with him.  It doesn't look like it goes well.  Prepare for emotional trauma.

Labels: te-quiero