Caray, Caray!

El sees Carmen's frantic mouth-to-mouth of the Mushroom Man and as usual, comes to the wrong conclusion.  He kills a perfectly innocent bouquet of roses.  Carmen tastes Paul's soup to see QTH kind of spice wimp he is and not only notices just how spicy it is, but notices the innocent face of Lupita peeking around the counter.

Grumps wonders what Rodrigo is living off of, out there in the cold, cruel world.  But, oh, well, whatevs.  Diego brings up his plan to partner with another company and Grumps heartily approves.  Caprico's reputation should earn her the interest of plenty of suitable suitors.  And, in the meantime, there's enough cash in the safe (dun, dun, dun) to cover their expenses for 2 months.

Rodrigo ponders how far he's fallen, having to buy suits…off the rack!  At the mall!  He runs into Karina, who mistakes him for Diego, but still wonders why he's at the mall, buying a cheap suit.  He makes an excuse about it being a present for the chauffeur, for his daughter's wedding, and Karina goes on her merry way.  She's already showing a little bit of a bump.

Karina was on her way to meet with Alonso.  She jokes that she's getting fat and happy and mentions running into Diego.  Alonso asks her to wait while he runs after…Rodrigo!  Rod gets away, but Alonso calls Eleazar to tell him where he saw Rod.  El says he needs details…in person.



Natalia goes to Andres' office to talk.  Nat doesn't even tell him what she decided about going back to Caprico before he accuses her of deciding to go back and wanting to get back together with Diego.  He won't listen to her explanations and wants her to say that she was just using him as a "paréntesis" (parenthesis; rebound guy?).  "I tried to love you, but…."  He decides to make it easy on her and ends it.  "Go after him, but don't come running to me when he hurts you again, because I'm not going to be here to console you."  He says he loves her enough that he would have accepted any crumb of her love.

Alonso tells Karina that it was actually Rodrigo, and he's on the run for killing Alberto and trying to kill Vicente.  Karina's impressed that Vicente actually turned him in.  Alonso asks for details and Karina tells him about the suit.  She turns down his offer of a ride and decides to just hang out at the mall.  She gets a pain and thinks something she ate must not have agreed with her.

El has a good idea of where Rod might be hiding out.  They wonder QTH the suit is for when casual wear would have been easier/cheaper to buy.  Neither has any idea.

Karina's pains are getting worse and she attracts the attention of another woman in the mall.

Irene and the woman putting the show together walk through the same mall, talking about all the details Tad specified, until she sees Karina being loaded onto a gurney and goes running over to see what's wrong.  Karina latches on to Irene, and Irene promises she'll stay with her.  Irene tries to call Alonso, but gets a busy signal.

Alonso fills Diego in about the recent Rod sighting.  Too bad for Rod, Diego is emptying out the safe in Vicente's office.  He sends Rosa to take someone from security with her and go down to the bank to deposit that money in Caprico's account.

Karina is freaking out and having pain and Irene is taking charge, trying to get her to calm down, and trying to reach Alonso.

Simona, who has been upgraded to "Mi Amor," shows up at Diego's office and he proposes…the partnership…of the companies.  She has to check with her higher-ups, but she loves the idea of getting to work with him.

Alonso shows up at the hospital and Irene tells him Karina had a scare, and a lot of bleeding, but from what the doctor said, she's not going to lose the baby.  Al is still freaked out.  They hug.

Rodrigo shows up at Caprico and bluffs his way past security.  The same security guard who let Diego in when he was pretending to be Rod and commented that "Rod" was an ass now comments that "Diego" is really a nice guy.

Karina's doctor comes out to talk to Alonso and tells him they saved the baby, but it's now being held in by a "cerclaje cervical" (cervical stitch), and the pregnancy is high-risk, so Karina needs complete bed rest until the baby is born.  Alonso goes in to see her and Irene gladly accepts the offer to go with him.  Well, sure, because she's going to be one of the baby's two mommies.  Karina is relieved to see Alonso, but freaked out in general.  She's worried about having to go to work, but Alonso says they'll figure it out.  Karina thanks Irene for being there for her.  A nurse kicks them out.  Out in the hallway, Irene keeps insisting there's nothing to thank her for.  Alonso says something about he and Karina being practically strangers and only having the baby in common.  Irene tells him taking care of Karina *is* taking care of the baby.  She takes her leave, and takes a call from Nat.  She fills Nat in on Karina's scare, because there is no such thing as privacy on this show, and says she's headed home.

Rodrigo opens up the safe in Vicente's office and finds…nothing!  Jajajajajajajajaja!  I would be lying if I said I didn't cackle at the sight of the empty safe, even though I knew that was coming.  I would also be lying if I said I didn't giggle when he looked like he wanted to cry.

The next day, Simona comes to Diego's office again.  Her bosses want a full report, and Simona will be the one writing it…when she's not busy playing tonsil hockey with Diego.  Nat walks into the office, and I'm reading a LOT into this, but I'm pretty sure she thought she would be happily announcing her return to Caprico and maybe even slipping in the sad, sad news that her engagement is over and possibly hinting that she'd be available for dinner.  Instead, she gets an eyeful of Diego's tongue down Simona's throat.  They break apart like guilty kids.  Nat snippily tells them she had no intention of interrupting, she just wanted to tell Diego she's coming back to Caprico.  Simona smiles like she's sure this is good news, even if she has no idea why, or why Nat needed to announce it to them, but she's very happy about it and would be even happier if Nat would go away so they could snog some more.

Brigitte meets with Mushroom Man and he asks about her "job interview."  "And what was the company name?  But didn't you say the man's name was Cacares?"  He tells her he knows she's a lying liar who lies and tries to con people.

Diego welcomes her back and introduces Simona.  "You've got a bad memory.  You introduced us at the art show."  Diego ignores her snotty tone and says that Simona will be doing a report on Caprico for Telermann, in the hopes they'll agree to a partnership.  "Oh, and I guess that report includes a…deeeeeep…knowledge of the executives?"  Simona decides it's time for her to go and Diego says he'll walk her out.  Nat stews.

Brigitte insists even if she WAS just trying to get money out of the baby granddaddy, so what?  Someone's got to keep her in fashionable maternity wear!  Mushroom Man says it is no one's job to support Brigitte but Brigitte's.  And the baby is no one else's responsibility but hers.  He says he was going to give her money because he thought she was making an effort, but now that he knows she's not, he's not going to give her a cent.  He doesn't understand why she behaves this way.  "Don't you think it's too late to ask me that, DAD?  Do you think it was easy for me to grow up without a father, in the middle of a family of crazies?"  MM is prepared to pay for his mistakes, but not with money, or she'll get worse.  Brigitte accuses him of taking Carmen's word and accuses Carmen of never loving her and preferring Natalia.  MM says Carmen has been a great mother, and he can tell from looking at Abdul, Paolo, and Lupita…and even Natalia, who isn't her daughter…are "better" than Brigitte.  Ouch!  Brigitte is FURIOUS!  Natalia, Natalia, Natalia!  Even her own daddy likes Natalia better than her!  MM tells her she has to accept that Natalia grew up without resentment, with a big heart….  Brigitte storms out.

Diego apologizes for Natalia's behavior.  Simona says she knows Nat is jealous, but if Diego isn't going to worry about it, neither is she.  She reminds him the company partnership is one thing and the two of them are another.  She'll email him later for some of the info she needs for her report .

Hot Rod wakes from a nightmare of a paying customer waking him with "Hola, Precioso."  (Mr. 5ft thinks this was a missed opportunity to have Big Al's ghost wake him with "Hola, Precioso."  I'd pay to see that.)  Once he's fully awake he says he can't go on this way!  He needs to choose his customers better before putting forth so much effort for so little profit.

Natalia is back in Irene's old office fuming about how Diego waited just long enough to make sure that she wasn't coming back before he got Simona in there and what an idiot she is for thinking her triumphant return was going to be a big surprise for him.  No, Nat, that's not why you're an idiot.  What happened to "It's over"?  What happened to  "I'm not going back to Caprico for Diego?"  Diego walks in, ready to talk….  Nat spews venom at him about how he and his girlfriend can be happy together, she doesn't CARE….  "I didn't come to talk about Simona.  I came to talk about work.  I need to update you about the company so you can reintegrate properly."  I might have responded to that with "BUUUUUUUUURN!"

A floppy-haired nurse?  Orderly?  Comes into Karina's room with a wheelchair and wakes her up.  He tells her she's been released and can go home now.  She cries that she's alone, that Alonso's just the baby daddy, she can't go to work, she has to be on total rest, she doesn't want to lose her baby.  The reasonably attractive dude says she won't lose her baby and starts helping her out of bed so she can change.  Alonso should be there soon.

Natalia agrees with the plan to get another collection out in a few months, but she needs to see how much work has been done while they were gone.  She knows Brigitte was in charge, so…she makes a face.  She remembers that Tellermann was one of the companies they got fabric from back when crappy second-hand machines were the biggest problem they had.  Diego says they need designs first, and Nat talks about just needing to adjust the designs they had for the season.

Alonso finally shows up and Karina bites his head off.  He got there earlier, but he was settling her account.  She's anxious and angry that he didn't even call and wants him to at least pretend he cares and she's not just an incubator.  Alonso ignores her tone and just says they should go.

Morales goes to El's office to get caught up on the gossip.  El doesn't want to talk about what happened with Carmen.  So Morales hands over what he found on the case instead.  Rodrigo did use his credit card to buy some things after the time of the murder.  He bought some stuff at a convenience store near where they found Big Al's car.  They go to find out what he bought.

Brigitte is still fuming about how even her dad likes Natalia better than her.  She sees Rodrigo coming out of a pawn shop and she's sure it's him.  She gloats over how he must be completely broke and starts following him.

Alonso and Mr. Floppyhair get Karina settled in at her place.  Karina freaks out about being alone all day.  Alonso tries to interest her in watching videos and playing solitaire.  Karina thinks she was an idiot to accept their deal, because now she wants love and affection and somebody to go running to the store at 3am for ice cream.  Alonso, instead of being understanding (of the pregnant lady hormones, if nothing else) just says that was their deal and she can't change it, and she can't ask him to pretend an affection he doesn't feel.  "Fine, then, just go!"  So he does, and she cries.

Rod is treating himself to a nice meal in what's probably the kind of restaurant he would have thought beneath him before resorting to a life of gigolo-ing.  Brigitte smarms up and greets him.

El and Morales are able to confirm, by using Rod's credit card number, that he bought an accelerant at the convenience store.  And, luckily, the place also has security cameras and they keep the recordings for 3 months.

Rod threatens Brigitte to stay quiet.  She reminds him that they were always allies, but he doesn't buy it.    "Entre gitanos, no nos leemos la suerte."  (literally, "Gypsies don't read each other's futures"; it means the two of them are too much alike, so neither can fool the other)  He had ordered more food, but now he throws some bills down on the table and leaves.

Irene shows up at the office and Natalia gripes about how Brigitte made a mess of things.  Irene was hoping to hear that Diego was happy to see Natalia back, but Natalia has to break it to her that Diego really didn't care, since he was busy snogging Simona when she arrived.

Diego marvels over Natalia being back after everything that's happened.  He wonders if fate is trying to tell him something, but reminds himself that he's with Simona now, and Natalia is with Andres.

Irene didn't know that Simona was part of the Tellermann deal.  Natalia pretends to not care, since it means Diego will let her work in peace.  Irene pretends to agree that fewer distractions will be better.  She grins as Natalia starts talking about the changes that will need to be made to the clothing line.

The security cameras got a clear look at Rodrigo.  They watch him go straight to the accelerants, pay for them with his credit card, and put them in the trunk of the car…with Big Al's body!

Tomorrow: Rod keeps hustling to get his passport money; Rod's picture is on the front page of the paper; Diego asks Simona to go steady; Diego gets mugged outside Simona's apartment.

Labels: te-quiero