Caray, Caray!

Mariano sees that Lorenza is wearing a groove in the marble floor and asks her to confide in him.  She tells him that she's worried because a man his dad had thrown in jail is out now and wants revenge.  Mariano doesn't see what the big deal is because his dad is perfect, right?  He tells her to calm down and stop crying.  Once he leaves, Lorenza says she knows there's suffering on the way.

Pablo is up in his room staring blankly out the window.  He's now seen Esme two days in a row, according to Mariano.  He claims to be "embrujado" (bewitched).  His love is stronger than he is, and even though he has no idea what her intentions are, he can't stop seeing her.

Esme, on the other hand, is telling Silencioso that she doesn't want to see Pablo anymore.  It's too hard for her to pretend to be lighthearted when she'd rather be screaming at him.  Silencioso tells her that if she loves him, she's going to have to fight for her love.  Because if she doesn't, he'll marry Monica and be lost to her forever.



Ines and Garabato prepare for their first "job" alone.  Ines seems to have lost her taste for it, but goes along anyway.  Once a nice looking car comes by, she gets in and drives off to a secluded spot with the guy while Garabato follows, holds the guy up, and Ines runs off, looking like she's completely innocent.  This gets Ines all excited again and she and Garabato drive off into the night, looking for more marks.

Augie is drinking directly from the bottle again, feeling sorry for himself, and pulls his gun out of a drawer.  Note to Lorenza: if you don't want to face justice alone, hide the booze and hide the gun!  Virginia comes into the study after having a dream that she was calling for her dad and he wasn't there, and somehow she knew she would never see him again.  Even though they all act like she doesn't exist and barely treat her like part of the family, she knows something is up and she loves her family.  She thinks as long as they all stick together, everything will be ok.  Augie thankfully puts the gun down before she can feel it.

Esme wakes from a dream about Pablo wanting to be with her and the babies.  She wakes up to little Leti crying and comforts her as she says that Pablo doesn't want any of them.  Oh, that's comforting.

Silencioso was waiting to have breakfast with Esme, but he hears from Meche that she and Damian left early to look for Fela.  Silencioso now gets the whole story about how Fela just showed up one day and Esme started taking care of her.  And now Fela has gone missing.

For no apparent reason, Damian suggests that Esme take a break from searching for Fela and go pray in a nearby church.  Time stops when she turns back to him and Damian cautiously turns down an offer to go into the church with her.  Inside the church, Esme has a long chat with La Virgen praying for, among other things, help finding Fela and for the Virgen to watch over the babies and send them good life partners, "not like Pablo," and for Pablo to love her again one day.  Outside the church, Esme finds Fela.  Because the Virgen is THAT good.  And possibly because for once someone asked for something realistic.

I'm displeased to have to tell you that Damian and Esme take Fela back to Dumpsville.  I really wish they would have taken her to the house.

Rita keeps guilt-tripping Maria into taking care of her, but since Maria is too nice for her own good (like Gata before her), it doesn't take much.  Some vieja chismosa (gossipy old hag) shows up with the news that Fela is back.  As a side note, Maria has learned how to read and knows the meaning of the word "preambulo" (preamble).  As Maria runs out to verify the news, Rita wonders how the hell she's going to manage to stay relevant to the plot.

Fela gets a nice bubbly bath and chats with Esme about how the bubbles remind her of snow and how sometimes she wishes Esme were her daughter.  After she's clean and has her new dress on, Esme brushes Fela's hair.  Fela doesn't remember why she left now.  Maria feels responsible, but Esme says she never should have asked Maria to take on such a grown-up job as taking care of Fela, since Maria's just a kid.  Rita shows up and asks to take care of Fela.  Because she's been doing a good job of pretending to be nice lately and Fela has forgotten that she was running away from Rita, Esme agrees.  She warns Rita that she'd better not hear that Rita is saying anything mean to Fela.  Damian looks doubtful.

Rita continues to play on Maria's sympathies and to pretend to be a decent person.  Even going so far as to make breakfast for Maria and Fela.  She thought bubbles that she'll take Blanca to Fernando and get herself accepted into the household as Blanca's caretaker.

Esme and Pablo have suggestive spaghetti, winsome wine, longing looks…and a month passes.  Now they're having dessert, but Esme won't kiss him.  At least not while he's engaged.  And if he won't break off his engagement, this is their last coffee date.  She also refuses to move out of Silencioso's house.  Pablo accuses her of playing with him like a mouse and refuses to break off the engagement…until Esme gets up to leave.  And then he admits he's still in love with Esme and is going to break off the engagement.  He's being rude and it's making Esme get all misty.  She asks him to stop talking to her that way and refuses to kiss him again.

Silencioso takes a cranky phone call from Augie.  Basically, Augie wants Silencioso to either, uh, sue or get off the pot.  He feels like he's being played with and Silencioso admits to enjoying having Augie in his hands.  He tells Augie that that's where he'll stay until Silencioso is ready to have Augie thrown in jail.  Augie drinks some more and says there's nothing he can do until Silencioso makes a move.  He berates himself for not being able to end his own life and picks up the gun again.

Meanwhile, out in the living room, Rita has been scoping out the goods and has decided that a squat, fat candlestick is the best thing to filch.  Silencioso is surprised to see her since Damian takes her cash every month and he knows that Esme has been giving her money as well.  (Where the hell is that money going?!)  She's so excited to tell him her "news" that the candlestick falls right out the bottom of her apron.  Silencioso takes her to task for stealing from him and Rita says when he's done being angry he should go to her house and find out what her news is.

Ines comes home (after how long?) and throws Maria and Fela out of "her" room.  Rita pretends to care about Fela, Maria defends Rita from Ines, and everyone but Ines decides that Fela and Maria should go back to Fela's jacal (shack) at night and just hang out with Rita during the day.  Yeah, 'cause Rita's way less scary in broad daylight.

Pablo has just decided to write the story of him and Esme…well, as he knows it anyway.  Mariano shows up fussing at Pablo for standing him up when they were supposed to have lunch together.  Mariano says this is all just a trick and Pablo needs to wise up.  But Pablo really doesn't care.  He wants to go out with Esme to nice places, he just can't help himself.  Mariano keeps insisting that Esme is screwing with him.  "Why are you so interested in keeping us apart?  Are you in love with her too?"  Mariano doesn't answer.

Esme is frustrated with Pablo's behavior and she feels like what she's doing to him is terrible, but Silencioso keeps telling her she has to do it.  "But I luuuuuuurve him!  And I don't want to hurt him!  Because it hurts me toooooo!"  Silencioso just hugs her.

Mariano says that's an "incoherencia" (nonsense) and it's just that he feels sorry for Pablo.  Pablo says he's going to break it off with Monica, even though Mariano thinks that's part of Esme's "revenge."  Lorenza hears Pablo saying he's going to break it off and comes into his room to threaten him.  She refuses to "allow" him to break up with Monica.  Pablo says he's not going to marry a woman he doesn't love and she needs to stop making him do things he doesn't want to.  Even Virginia gets in on the action, saying they need to treat each other like family and that Pablo's marriage is doomed to failure if he doesn't love Monica.  Lorenza threatens to throw him out if he doesn't marry Monica, but Pablo doesn't care.  She accuses Pablo of having no pride and Esme of having "arrastrado el fango" (dragged [him] through the mud).  Pablo won't let Lorenza insult Esme, which upsets her, and admits he's been seeing her and will continue to do so.  "If you keep this up, I won't be responsible for what I do!" declares Lorenza.  "Why do you hate her so much?" Pablo asks, and Lorenza's "response" is to whack him across the face with her fan.  "If your father finds out about this, he'll die and his death will be on your conscience!"

Later, in the living room alone, Lorenza thought bubbles that she shouldn't have smacked Pablo and that Esme is getting everything she wanted.  She says that Pablo is like someone who's sick and needs her understanding.  She can't leave him in "that woman's" hands.

Virginia cries to Mariano that the family is falling apart and nobody's doing anything.  "We can't do anything.  Pablo has decided to love Esme and Mom has decided to end their love."  Virginia is upset that Lorenza doesn't recognize that they have a right to love whoever they want to and not whoever she decides they should love.  Mariano asks who Virginia is in love with.  She tries to lie and say she's just talking about Pablo, but he can tell she's speaking for herself.  He doesn't know how he can expect her to trust him if they're a failure as a family.

Pablo calls Monica's, but she's enjoying a bath with her headphones in and doesn't hear the ringing.  He leaves her a message that he needs to talk to her in person.

Lorenza tries to talk to him again and Pablo refuses, saying he's always told them "con Esmeralda, todo; sin Esmeralda, nada." (with Esme, everything; without Esme, nothing)

Tomorrow: Monica ignores; Rita tells.
Previous: Episode 27
Next: Episode 29

Labels: gata