Wednesday, September 03, 2014

La Gata #3 - Wed 9/3 - La Discusión

It's Wednesday, so here's your discussion thread for tonight's episode.



Well, that was the plan, anyway, so that Sara and I don't end up with carpal tunnel, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that to you during a premiere week, and on the first day that the raven-haired goddess (TM gringo) herself, the magnificent Maite, was scheduled to make her appearance.   (Yes, ok, Daniel Arenas, you're pretty too, don't get jealous.)

Doña Rita is mega-bummed because her precious son got arrested again.  And he'll probably end up spending the rest of his life in jail when they tack on the extra years to punish him for escaping.  The idea that her father was out for revenge seems to get Inesita's attention.  Esmeralda thinks it's a darn good thing they busted Tilico before he did anything rather than after, or he'd be even more screwed than he already is.  Doña Rita says that Esme's pretty smart…and soon she's going to be the one to save them.  Dun, dun, dun!


The next morning, Rita wakes Esmeralda and Centavito up early so they can start bringing home the big bucks.  Esme decides she's going to do that "bathing" thing Pablo was telling her about, with her fancy new soap and everything.


Pablo is ready to sneak out again, aided and abetted by Virginia.  Poor kid is really sacrificing herself…she offers to hang out with her mom all day and have a girls' spa day.


Pablo's impressed with the results of Esmeralda's application of soap and water.


Jarocha comes over to Rita's to bring Esmeralda a dress that doesn't fit her anymore.  She's fixed it up so it's all ready for her to wear.  Rita tells Jarocha that one day Esmeralda will dress in silk and she'll be the one giving Jarocha her castoffs.  Jarocha scoffs at that, saying it's never going to happen if Rita can't even be bothered to send Esme to school.


Pablo's all ready to give Esmeralda her first reading lesson, if he can pick his jaw up off the floor and wipe off the drool.


Back at the shack, Esmeralda has her new dress on and Rita is thrilled with the day's take.


Lorenza goes to her husband to gripe at him for Pablo's behavior.  And not only that, but he's getting Virginia involved in his schemes.  Blah, blah, blah, poor people are horrible.  Stuff it, Lorenza.


Rita talks to Gata about her mother.  Some rich guy was her downfall…and what a waste, since she was so pretty and had such a good voice.  Rita's tired of talking about the past, though.  She's ready to consult the cards and find out Esmeralda's future.


Pablo, who overheard his mother's harping, looks out his window and vows he won't be kept away from Esmeralda, especially now that he's teaching her to read.


There's a man in Esmeralda's cards…an older man, from far away.  The rest of the cards in the future are the same ones the keep coming up every time…even after the years pass and our junior grubby urchin is transformed into Maite.  Well, as on every telenovela, the cards don't lie (drink!)…but Rita won't tell her what it is that they say, just that her life will change.  Esmeralda keeps wanting to know about her mother, but Rita never gives her any details about that either.  Esmeralda demands to know who her father is.


Mariano has grown into his full potential as a partying wastrel.  His cards are maxed out, his account is empty, and can Mami please please please transfer him a little extra?  She follows him outside to beg him to at least call if he's going to come home late.  So not gonna happen.


Rita's furious that Esmeralda would dare demand anything from her.  And her take is getting smaller every day because Esmeralda is tired of the innuendos she gets from men while she's out begging.  Rita says it's that or…work.  And I think we all know what she means by that.


Another day.  And today is the day that Esmeralda is done with begging and ready to look for a job.  She doesn't seem to have told Rita about her reading lessons, because Rita mocks her for thinking she could get hired when she can't read or write.  Centavito (hubba, hubba!  Nice to see you again, Pierre!) joins in, saying it's Rita's fault for never sending them to school.  He's got a steady job selling chicle and he's off to get to it before somebody takes his spot.  Rita tells Esmeralda that she'd better not come home without money today and shoves her out the door.


Reading lessons, huh?  Is that what the kids are calling it these days?  Pablo is reading Esmeralda some of his poetry as she innocently snuggles up with him.  I'm not sure she realizes she's his muse.  I can't help noticing that her "dress" is way too short to cover much of anything.  Pablo keeps trying to get a good selfie of the two of them together.


Virginia is still giving away everything she can to the poor ("los mendigos" per the maid; the beggars), despite her mother's objections.  The end of the argument, with Lorenza griping about "muertos de hambre" (the dying of hunger, the starving) plays over Esmeralda walking into a café.  She scandalizes a couple of snooty girls when she excuses herself to lean over the counter and ask if they're hiring.  She tries a few other places…a tchotchke shop, a clothing store…but they take one look at her and it's just "no."  As she walks back into La Barranca, a bunch of guys start following her.


Pablo is having writer's block.  He looks at the pictures from earlier and they get his creative juices flowing again.


One of the guys who was following her catches up to Esmeralda.  Jarocha hears her screaming "suéltame" (let me go) and pounds the guy in the back of the head with a rock.  They hear sirens and Jarocha chews Esmeralda out for being out so late.  "Look for a job during the day!  You don't know how dangerous it is at night!"  Esmeralda cries that she's just going to have to keep going out until she finds something.  Jarocha comforts her.


The next morning, Esmeralda gets a ride from a cart driver and joins a bunch of other people sorting through the garbage for anything potentially useful.  Later, she drives a cart into town and tries selling stuff door-to-door.  She makes a few sales.


A couple of snooty blondes--mother and daughter I presume--show up at Pablo's.  Blondie the younger is Monica and she just graduated from somethingorother in Spain.  She hopes some other girl hasn't stolen Pablo away already.


Keep hoping, Blondie.  Esmeralda is arguing with Pablo because he doesn't want to climb trees anymore.  He's a man now, and apparently men don't climb trees or go cardboard sledding.  Is it just me, or is he having a hard time looking at her because that skirt is hiding nothing?  Mariano shows up with Monica and Pablo tells Esmeralda not to hide.


Silencioso gets summoned to the director's office and the guard thinks it's good news because the director was looking over some paperwork.  The director says a relative of Silencioso's has died and he was the only heir.


Monica ends up nearly falling down the hill and Esmeralda tells Pablo to let go of her.  Mariano starts picking on her and Pablo unhelpfully explains she's an uneducated urchin.  Esmeralda tells them all to go to hell.  She scrambles up the hill and collects the ever-patient Principe.  Mariano calls her a "gata salvaje" (wild cat) and Pablo agrees she is "salvaje" (savage) and he doesn't know why he bothers with her.  I kick Pablo in the shin.  Mariano takes his leave, allegedly to go study at a friend's house.  Monica says she thinks what Pablo said hurt the girl's feelings.  For some unknown reason, he tells Monica Esmeralda's whole story.  Monica thinks she's pretty and they're about the same size, so maybe she could give Esmeralda some of her clothes?  Pablo thinks she'd like that.  They make their way back up the hill.


Some uncle of Silencioso's left him all his money.  The director wants to hire a lawyer to collect the inheritance.  Silencioso is bitter because he asked that uncle for help before and he never came through.  The director would really like it if Silencioso dropped this whole "revenge" thing and just focused on getting out.  He promises to do everything he can and hire some lawyers who can work on getting him pardoned, but it's not going to happen quickly.


Pablo hangs out on the hill, drawing, and ignores Esmeralda's attempts to get his attention.  She thought bubbles that she's not going to speak to him and sleds down the hill to sit by a nearby tree and read.  She's miffed that he didn't call her his friend yesterday.  He apologizes and reminds her that she didn't exactly speak up either.  Esmeralda is determined to stay mad at him and punish him with her poutiness.  The powers of the Pout are strong with Pablo as well, so I'm sure a truce will be declared soon.  And that saying he loves Monica "like a sister" will help.


Monica and her mom come over to the house again.  Pablo was supposed to be there to take Monica to the movies.  Oops.


Esmeralda can't stay mad at him and is ready to make up…mostly to get a look at what Pablo was drawing.


Lorenza and Monica's mom both go on and on about Pablo's terrible behavior, but Monica thinks they're overreacting.


Finally, Esmeralda gets a look at Pablo's drawing…and it's her.  With better hair, according to her.  He pshaws that he's not a very good artist.  Especially not when it comes to faces…even though he knows hers from memory.  And from being, like, three inches away at the moment.  Hormones rage, but nobody makes a move.



Tomorrow: Mariano rats; Rita pimps.

Previous: Episode 2
Next: Episode 4

Labels:


Comments:
Hmmm...bit of a slow-down today, as I guess we needed more setup time. I can't believe Pablo and Esmeralda are still having the same argument after all these years...5? 6?
 

Kat (can we refer to you as La Gata for the duration?), that was a terrific recap. I wanted to kick Pablo in the shins, too.

Could Jarocha explain to Esmeralda that wearing a longer skirt or even jeans might be a better outfit for sifting through the trash?

Right now, Pablo is too wimpy, a poetic dreamer. La Gata is tough, not to mention dirty. Mariano may be a rich boy, but he looks dirty too. Maybe just his character leaking out from his receding hairline. He doesn't have much to offer in either the looks or charm department.
 

Thank you for the recap. I saw this show for Univision's lineup for 2014, but I thought it wouldn't be interesting and I wasn't sure about the chemistry between the two protagonists. But now I am warming up to it.

Is it just me or does Silencioso look like Mike Myers in The Love Guru?
 

Thanks for the recap!

I love Virginia. She was a real trooper for going on a girls day out with mom. I love how even as an adult she is still giving to the poor and doesn't care what her mother thinks.

I wanted to kick Pablo in the shins too. He should have defended Esmeralada.

Is Monica too sweet to be true? Only time will tell I guess.

Mariano looks like a slimeball. I don't believe for a second that he went to study. He doesn't seem like the type that would study.

I'm glad we didn't have to wait long for the time jump.
 

Really appreciate this Kat.

"the cards don't lie (drink!)"

Glad the jump happened but the timing weirded me out and looks like Esmeralda ran out of soap or didn't create the habit of bathing. Bless her heart, immediately attacking Monica, instinctively defending her turf, only to be rewarded with the first of many upcoming denials from Pablo.

Rita - Mamasan in waiting

Mariano - wasted your money joining Hair Club for Men

Pablo - Strike One

Esmeralda - that dress makes you a walking billboard

Virginia - yes Virginia, is a Santa Claus

Monica - don't tune your competitions car

Jarocha - no, honey there's a long don't do list

Silencioso - you sound like a broken record
 

Thanks, Kat! I had an awful migraine last night and it really interfered in my comprehension. Thanks for filling in the gaps.

PIERRE IS GRACING MY SCREEN AGAIN!!! I'm so happy!

Like tofie, I felt like it was a weird jump forward. I kind of expected it to be while they were sliding down the hill (like they would morph while slidig) or during the reading lessons (again, another morph.)

I assumed a jump of at least 10 years. Pablo made a comment Tuesday about Esme being 10 or 11. Was he being sarcastic?

I really with that instead of trying to make Maite's hair look bad, they had just told her "leave it alone for a couple days". I suspect she still would have looked fabulous, though!

 

I assumed about a 5 or 6 year jump and would make Esmeralda 15 or 16. Thinking Pablo now maybe 18 (hard for Daniel to be a convincing 18 yr old though but with that silly naive grin almost pulled it off), haven't heard he was at university yet. Made me queasy when she passed the bar and looked inside after a day of trying to get a job in dirty rags. Wished Jarocha would clue the girl in on what Rita has planned for her. The warning bells are going off.
 

Thanks, Kat! I had this on in the background last night, and missed quite a bit (like Pierre), but did see the awkward time jump.

I kept thinking during that last scene that of course he does want to kiss her if her face is covered in garbage dump grime. I am once again bemused by Ms. Latereloo (whatever) thinking poor people don't even know how to wash their faces.

Esme has to be older than 17 if Virgina, who is younger, already looks like she is 17+.
 

Doesn't want to kiss her...
 

Vivi, I keep thinking how bad she must smell. That dump ain't a rose garden
 

Yeah. At least Maricruz in CI had the river to bathe in each day, and the dirt on her face was just clean earth from the potato fields. But was Esme is covered in is not something anyone would want to get close too. It must be love.
 

Thank you 5ft for this recounting of last night's episode. Your usual snark was busting out everywhere.

I really identified with last night's circumstances. It was eerily like what I saw when I "won" an all expenses paid trip to Korea from Feb '67 to Mar '68 compliments of the U.S. Army.

Any time you walked off post there was a host of filthy street urchins who would say "Hello money." Korean society was rigidly hierarchical, so an American soldier (meegook sahrahng) could never keep company with a "nice" "innocent" Korean girl.

A Korean prostitute was called a "moose," which I understood was an American corruption of some Japanese word for prostitute. Another example of us fiddling with their language: The normal polite Korean greeting meaning "hello" ahn yoong hahsh ahm neekah was rendered by us soldiers as "on your horse, amigo."

I am sure that the story line in this TN will not permit Esmeralda to become a prostitute, but I have seen the economic conditions that caused a whole underclass of Korean woman to choose that option.

David
 

HA..Vivi...,clean dirt form the potato fields"...Thanks for the morning giggle. I grew up on a potato farm and picked a lot of potatoes as a kid. ..wearing jeans and scuttling along on my knees. I remember my dad always correcting me when I said "dirt., He would tell me , ,Dirt is what the vacuum picks up; the fields have "soil."

I don't know how much longer I can stand watching gata pick through those piles of trash and the people, including children! wandering over those hills in the dump....very depressing.

The Silent One was the mob boss in Tempest.
 

I also thought the time jump was weird. I almost missed it. I had to rewind it. Esme is so spunky I can't believe she lets Dona Rita treat her like that.

I also cringe at her choice of clothing. Pants can't be that hard to find.

I cringed at the attack scene last night, she really is defenseless. Thank god for Jarocha. Not looking forward to Dona Rita's pimping today. Yuck!
 

And so it starts ... with the main theme of good old CI ... tadaaa ... VENGANZA! revisited. Here we go again, fasten your seatbelts!
 

5ft - Thanks. My favorite line: The powers of the Pout.

With all his hygiene lessons, you'd think it would’ve occurred to Pablo by now to give Esmeralda some clothes. Dong, ITA that pants would be even better for sorting through a dump yard.

So Virginia is the brains in the family. From the opening credits, looks like she will meet up with Centavito (Pierre). Can’t wait.
 

I was so happy to see that little Cent grew up to be Pierre..the guy we all loved on Te Quiero.
 

Thanks soooooo much La Diva. I'm loving EVERY MINUTE of La Gata.

Sorry I had to miss yesterday but as I said Monday I would read everything and I did.

David---I saw your comment yesterday. Yes you can bring a chair to the patio but if you forget I'm sure that there will be an extra one or two already there. And yes bring some snacks,
Nachos, tacos, whatever. We will all be watching La Gata from the patio and enjoying a pina colada, a tequila sunrise or a margarita or two as the movie progresses.

Mauricio---I agree with you, Mariano has slime ball written all over his face,

Tofie you're at it again---love it
Mariano wasted his money joining Hair Club For Men.
Virginia is a Santa Claus
Monica--Don't tune your competitions car. So funny.

La Divia---Esme decides she's going to do that bathing thing. Where? there's no bathroom in the shack? No plumbing and I am still wondering where the electricity comes from? There is no electrical
overhead wiring anywhere. Has the building and safety inspector been around lately?

OMG!!! RBD's raven haired goddess
has arrived. Maite is here. That was quick although I must say that the actress that played the young Esmeralda did a very good job.

Oh no!!! La Gata get attacked by a dirty old man. I knew that was going to happen sooner or later.
Esmeralda is just to pretty. Yes, pretty even with dirt or grease smudges on her face. Gata needs to learn how to use her fingernails. She's not strong enough to duke it out.

Oh no again!!! The blonde competition had arrived. Gata's going to have to fight for Pablo now because it is starting to look like Pablo is a wimp. CI all over again? Wait till blondie puts the moves on him. I can see a lot of tears on the horizon.

One last thing---I agree that pants would be better for Gata in her situation but Maite/Gata is a goddess and goddesses with beautiful legs don't wear pants.
the gringo






 

Gracias, La Paloma, Caroline, Mauricio, tofie, Sara, Vivi, David, Susanlynn, Dong, Niecie, and gringo, for sharing your insights and observations!

I'm a little concerned about Esmeralda's obliviousness and how that's going to continue to be played out. She's supposed to be intelligent and observant, but she went out looking for a job without taking a shower first or noticing how the people she sees on the streets are dressed. If they played it off like she was being rebellious, I would buy that, but she's acting more like she just doesn't notice and that's not in keeping with her overall character.

As for her skimpy skirts...she could probably be covered from head to toe and those skeevy guys would treat her like a piece of meat anyway. I can't fault her for wearing the only clothes she's got, but yikes...wouldn't some jeans be slightly better protection considering the environment. How has she avoided dying from tetanus or getting random infections in cuts and scrapes?

They're making her out to be clueless about why the guys at the pulque shack are interested or why Pablo averts his eyes when she's climbing up and down trees, but I think she's smart enough that she would know. Pablo kept calling her a little girl, and it seemed like he didn't want to take advantage of her, but isn't she way past the age where she would be having urges of her own? And here's Pablo, ready and willing, pero nada de nada? It's a little odd. (Or maybe I'm just a perv who would have jumped Pablo's bones by now.)

gringo, the only thing I can come up with is that the water has to be brought in from a well...because if they're using that lake we're seeing, that's full of sludge from decomposing garbage, so I really hope not! Maybe when someone says they're going to take a shower or a bath, what they really mean is they're going to go pump themselves a bucket of water and find some privacy. As for electricity...a generator? Is that the justification for "rent"? That the landlord provides electricity?

It's all pretty bleak right now, but I am looking forward to Centavito and Virginia getting together as well, Niecie.

David, one of the secondary characters who had a pretty big role in Que Bonito Amor was a prostitute, but I agree, they probably wouldn't go that route with one of the leads.

Dong, I don't get it either...Esme and Centavito are plenty old enough to fend for themselves and Rita has done nothing but mistreat them all their lives, so why not strike out on their own? I guess it's a case of "the devil you know...."

tofie "Mariano - wasted your money joining Hair Club for Men" so very, very true. He's supposed to be, what, 20? If it's already thinning at that age, might as well start buzzing it, dude! I'm almost offended on behalf of dudes with receding hairlines that they use "receding hairline" to telegraph "evil!"

Mauricio, I agree, Mariano's not studying. I'm betting it's drinking or gambling. He does seem to go through money really quickly.

Caroline, I had to go look for a picture, but yes, Silencioso is an older, less floral, Love Guru!

Paloma, I'm so the high-maintenance type of cat...I'm no Principe! I need my crystal food dish and my velvet pillow.
 

Rita, entertaining for $$$
No please!!! Cover the tv screen

I like Virginia's role in all of this. Such a good heart. I would like to see her and Esmeralda become friends.

La Diva---They have a landlord in a garbage dump? What?
the gringo
 

Yep, gringo, Rita whined to Jarocha about actually having to pay the rent and implied that Jarocha and others are able to pay with sex. I'm inferring a landlord from that.
 

Well then I'm a perv cause I would have jumped Pablo by now, too!
 

He's cute! And he's writing love poetry! What's not to jump?!
 

perv squared
 

I know it's been one day, but I'm thinking I will like Daniel Arenas better in this.

I just don't think he does douchebag very well. I get the impression that in real life he's just a nice guy and those are the roles he's seemed best in. Ok, so I've only seen him in one nice guy role: William Guillermo Pinzon....but he was great!!
 

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