Caray, Caray!

All the best clandestine operation planning happens in mall cafés.  Which is why Morales, Diego, and Rosa meet there to discuss The Case of Rotten Rod.

Toño makes a brief appearance to help Carmen bring some groceries into the fonda and let her know that El left her a present.  It's a puzzle.  El texts her to say when she puts it together, she'll know what he's trying to say.

Morales explains that they're having particular difficulty busting Rod because Rod has the authority to move money in and out of the company.  An audit would help.  Morales brings up the payment to the shady shrink.  Diego gets curious about the drugs when he hears that and calls Alonso away from Tad's deathbed to talk about it.

Tad reiterates his plea, but Alonso says he can't promise anything, especially because he doesn't know how Irene feels.  "Just because you're gone doesn't mean her love for you is just going to go away!"  Well said, Al!  Tad just keeps pleading for Al is not to leave Irene alone.  The lady in question comes in without hearing anything.  Al takes his leave and Tad starts 'splaining.



Brigitte pretends concern for Tad.  "Is he going to die?  Aw.  Your luck didn't last long.  It's about time you suffer, after everything that's just fallen out of the sky for you."  Nat tells Brat to shut it or she'll deliver a smackdown.  She goes into the closet and smacks down the bag of Brat's work mementoes.  She finds a wig, remembers Diego's accusations, does the math, comes to the correct conclusions…and asks how much Rod paid to have Brat help "ruin" Nat's life.  "I'll never forgive you for this!"  She slaps Brat and says she's happy for once that she and Brat aren't sisters.  She's always covered for her, and forgiven her, but now, Brat could get struck by lightning and she wouldn't care.  Brat would likewise love it if Natalia disappeared, since she's been nothing but a "desgracia" (misfortune) in her life.  "Too bad.  We live together.  If all we have in common is our hate…bring it!  Stay out of my way.  If you do the crime, better be prepared to do the time."  (El que la hace, la paga.)

Irene tells Tad he shouldn't have asked Al to look after her.  "I don't want you two to waste your love."  Irene says she has no way of knowing what her feelings will be.  And, besides, Al has moved on with his life.  "I've been happy with you, and that's enough for me."  Tad just wants to make sure she's happy.  Irene is sure his memory will be enough for the rest of her life.  Tad thinks that's stupid.  His doctor comes in and Tad says he wants to go home.  The doctor says sure, he can have the same drugs at home.

Nat gets a call from Andres and tells him she just had a HUGE fight with Brigitte.  She doesn't want to talk about it.  Of course not.  What's she going to say?  "Well, honey, I just found out my ex called me a slut in front of all three of my parents because my sister impersonated me while doing the nasty with his twin, so about our engagement…."  She tells him Tad's dying, but he's keeping it together.  Nat's the one who's having trouble dealing.  Andres is going to finish up his work and get there as soon as he can.

Alonso shows up at the mall for the Operation Rod Removal meeting and Diego starts filling him in about Vicente's odd behavior.

Carmen is getting frustrated with the puzzle.  It was a cute idea, but not as easy as he thought it would be.  Paging Lupita!  Lupita!  Your assistance is needed, as once again the adults are incapable of resolving their problems on their own!  Abdul and Mally are back from their honeymoon.  They sigh sadly upon hearing about Tad.  Abdul notices the puzzle and points out that Carmen has never liked puzzles.  He teases Carmen that maybe El's using the puzzle to ask her to marry him.  Mally offers to finish it for her.  Abdul says he's going to leave the suitcases at "home" by which I think he means Garcia Central Station.  No word yet on where his and Mally's permanent living quarters will be.

Nat calls Irene, who tells her they're working on getting Tad discharged so he can die at home.  Nat starts to tell the taxi driver to take her to Irene and Tad's, but changes her mind and decides to go give Padre Juancho his daily dose of "Ay, esos Garcia!"

Alonso thinks Vicente's being drugged.  He advises quitting everything cold turkey until they can confirm with his doctor.  He agrees that side effects are a possibility, but this doesn't sound like side effects.  Diego sends Rosa home to do what she's supposed to be doing--guarding Vicente--and Morales back to his little closet office to squint at his screen and dispense love advice to El.  What?  That's what he does, no?  Alonso somehow manages to be surprised by Rod's behavior.  Alonso, Alonso, Alonso…have you not been paying attention?

Brigitte thinks about Nat's words and calls her stupid.  "You're not better than me, Natalia!"  Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Alonso tells Diego about Tad's deathbed request.  Diego thinks Al is Irene's true love, so…no worries.  Listen, dudes, there are far more important things going on, like Vicente's safety, Rod's crimes, Tad's actual death, and supporting Nat and Irene.  Can we leave the matter of who's getting paired up with whom for another time?  Diego calls Vicente's doctor, who's out of town.  He calls Rosa and asks her to check the written prescription against the bottles.  Everything matches.  Alonso tells Diego to tell Rosa to stop giving him the medication anyway, since Rodrigo could have replaced the pills themselves.  Rosa gives Diego the info so Al can write a prescription for the same pills.  He tells Diego to swap them out and bring him the ones Vicente was taking so he can have them analyzed.  Thank you for finally doing something intelligent!

OK, I was wrong.  Nat goes to Padre Juancho for consolation about Tad's impending demise.  PJ advises her to be happy for the time they had.  Nat doesn't want to give in, though, 'cause it's not fair!  She admits Tad's the one keeping her and Irene from falling apart.  PJ says Tad's a super guy.  We know, PJ.  We know.  PJ offers to go to the apartment with Nat, since he'd like to have some time with Tad as well.

Carmen sends Toño out to buy some oil and Mally comes into the kitchen.  She admits she didn't dare leave the puzzle assembled since she was embarrassed to have anyone else see it.  She wrote down what it said on a piece of paper, which she gives to Carmen.  Abdul comes in and teases Carmen about the puzzle being disassembled.  She won't tell Abdul what it said and calls him nosy.  Mally won't tell him either.  "It's personal.  Let's just say, Eleazar is reeeeeally in love with your mom."

The puzzle was El's way of asking Carmen to "give" herself to him.  Y'know.  As in…giiiiiive.  Because nearly thirty years of waiting and 100+ episodes of torturing the viewers with "Will they or won't they?" wasn't enough time to heighten the anticipation.  Carmen ponders how to respond without seeming "ni muy muy, ni tan tan."  Neither too [excited] nor not [excited] enough.  See above re: anticipation.  Ya basta con the games!

El starts to call Carmen to ask if she's finished with the puzzle, but talks himself out of it.  Mushroom Man pays him a visit.  "I came to tell you, to your face, that I'm going to try to win Carmen back."  Puh-leeze.  He thinks she's only settling for El because she doesn't have any better options.  He does say he'll drop his suit (no, not the plaid one) if he hears directly from Carmen that her relationship with El is better than the one he and Carmen had before.  Otherwise, it's on.  The real MM departs and the Mushroom Devil makes a reappearance.  This time, El just picks him up and deposits him in the wastebasket.

Tad is getting settled in at home when Nat and PJ show up.  Tad says there's no need for PJ to hear his confession…Tad and God have said all they need to each other.  He's happy to just chat with PJ, though, and Nat and Irene leave to give them privacy.

Nat calls Carmen at the fonda to update her.  Carmen passes the news on to Abdul.  He tells her she should go support Nat and he'll take care of the fonda.

Tad thanks PJ for being his daughter's father figure and doing a great job at it.  PJ says helping look after Nat was a blessing.  Tad's not feeling bitter about the little time he has left, that he won't see Nat married or see his grandchildren.  He's grateful for the time he's had.  PJ says he's extraneous to the process, it seems.  Tad has made his way to God on his own.  Tad entrusts Irene and Nat to PJ's care.

PJ tells Nat and Irene there's nothing left to do but wait.  Tad's ready to meet his Maker.  He's at peace.  He's asked to see Irene, so she goes in to see him.  PJ tells Nat she needs to be strong.

Tad says it was good to talk to PJ.  Irene mentions Tad's great spiritual strength.  He wants to know if she'll be ok.  "I'm going to miss you.  I don't know how I'm going to live without you."  He says she has Nat to live for and take care of in his absence.

Diego and Rosa swap out the drugs and I'm waiting for Rodrigo to come in, but he doesn't.  Grumps tells Diego to go away.  Now Rod shows up.

Nat joins her parents and Tad wants to give them instructions about the art show.  It's bugging him and he wants every detail taken care of.  Nat takes notes as Tad says he wants the last painting in the space he designed and tell the "museógrafo" (the person designing the show, who is responsible for deciding how to arrange the space and how to arrange the paintings in the space) he'd better not put anything else there.  The lights need to be rearranged so there aren't shadows.  He wants wine and canapés served, and make sure there's white and red because everyone has different tastes.  And get the canapés from La Ciruela, but especially the salmon ones, his mouth is watering just thinking about them.  And desserts and some really big bright floral arrangements.  *sob*  I'm trying to keep it together here, Tad!

Diego and Rod squabble about Diego being there and Diego thinking Vicente was out of it last night.  Rosa plays along and tells Diego that Rod is right, they'll be noticing Vicente's improvement soon enough.

Carmen meets PJ at the door to the apartment building and they talk about how Tad is ready to go and Nat isn't ready for him to go.

Tad tells Irene and Nat about how he was soooo poor when he got to Paris, that he'd go to every show he could to feed his soul…and his belly!  "There were some really good appetizers in the galleries."  He thinks he might be hungry, but he doesn't want Irene to ask Elena to fix him anything.  When Carmen shows up, he thinks maybe she brought some food…but she brought Nat's baby pictures.  Tad gets teary.  *sob*

Diego and Rosa, as blandly as possible, get Rod to agree that Rosa should also stay with Vicente at night.  Rod tells Rosa the only reports she'd better give Diego are that Vicente is improving.  "Yes, Rodrigo," she says, innocently.  Heh, heh, heh.

ULTIMAS SEMANAS!
And tomorrow: The final goodbye to Tad, and Rod tries to kill Tiburcio again.

Labels: te-quiero