Cap 13
Abigail takes both Diana and Fausto to the woodshed while Patricio
and Macaria get tea and sympathy from Renata. However, once Again Renata
and Mateo take being conned to an art form. (Viewerville loves a winner
and Abi apparently does not like losing! Yippee!! Could the tn gods
have finally heard our infinite prayers for a strong heroine? I think
so…..)
Across the way at Feisty’s ex-rancho, La
EnRamera…er…Enramada [the bower/branched canopy] Diego and Abigail still
have the town slut, aka Diana, locked inside the hacienda caged and pacing like a polecat (defined here for those of you unfamiliar with that animal species: any
of several carnivorous mammals [] of the weasel family). They enter to
face and confront the distressed Ms. Di. who contemptuously slaps Abi
across the choppers as the perpetual servant who doesn’t seem to ever
know her place. However, our Abi is not the slavish type and she slaps
back twice as hard. “—I may be dense but I’m no lying whore!!”
Crack! Diego steps up to keep DeeDee from attempting any further
undesirable physical expression of disrespect towards his new patrona.
Meanwhile, Renata supposedly has finally seen the light and is
bitching Macaria out for lying to her all these years about having been
Fausto’s lover. Mac gains her sympathy by admitting what a drag it was
having to bed ol’ Feisty--the ingrate. (We dutifully cue the violins.)
Though it’s true that Feisty was the only man Mac had ever loved and the
only one she’s ever fooled around with he has always taken other women to bed,
discarded them when he tired of them and publicly dissed Mac along the way.
She loved him but he never fails to humiliate her still, whenever.
Of course, he dumped her years ago (no worse whore than an old whore)
and now he’s humping DeeDee. “—How could you have fallen in love
with such a loser???” (Note to Ren: cuz she’s a baddie, just like
him.) Oh, how many times Mac has asked herself the same thing! But,
as those of us in Viewerville know well, you do not command the heart. It
commands you! She loved him desperately and the worst day of her life was
the day Ren and Fausto were married.
Mac sniffles some more and admits that’s why she was so willing to
help Pablo and Ren run away together. She never told Ren before because
she didn’t want Ren to judge her unfairly and taking care of the baby gave her
the opportunity to be near him, bringing him his coffee and ironing his shirts.
Didn’t matter what the people in town said about her. She
desperately was trying to make him love her again. Because Ren
married Fausto instead, and because she assumed the responsibility as unmarried
mother to Abigail she was the one tagged as the fast and loose town floozy and
not Renata.
Of course, after that Mac had no chance to marry anyone else
because no other man around would look at her twice. Yes, Mac sniffs, she
would have loved to tell anybody who’d listen the real truth, that she was
paying for a crime she never committed. (Awww! You were getting
paid, and a pretty penny, babe! And you were a fast and loose floozy!
Who you kiddin’ here--besides Renata that is.) Thus was Macaria’s
double sacrifice to ensure that Renata’s reputation would remain clean and pure
as the wind driven snow.
“—So if you wish to run me off the rancho, no
problem. Leaving my daughter now isn’t a problem. She won’t leave
you. I’ve brought her up to adore you, even more than me her supposed
mother. Anyway, given the choice, she’d choose you over me. Who
cares what more the town would say about me? So I will leave to pack my
bags…..” Ren asks Mac to stay. No need to leave. Mac smiles
to herself at another triumphal twisting of the facts to her advantage and
heads out the door.
DeeDee demands Diego let her out. He says it’s up to the new
landlady and throws a look over at Abi. “--You fool, let me out of here.
What right have you to lock me in here?” Abi asks Di why she’s
trespassing on her property, anyway? She then reminds the dissy prissy
that she now owns La Enramera and to watch her p’s and q’s cuz otherwise Abi would love
to tell everyone in town how and with whom she spends her evenings. Di
spits back that the only one hurt worse will be Renata. “--Don’t mess
with my madrina! She’s a lady, a Sra.! Now get the eff
outta here and don’t come back! Otherwise, the town really will find out
about the kind of low class broad you are."
Di struts out but driving off in a huff (in her fancy new Jeep
Liberty, BTW, which Viewerville considers must have been a bit of Feisty’s bling
after banging the ditch-witch) as Diego takes off his hat and gives her a
vaquero salute .
Crazy Connie gets Amanda to agree to continue looking out for her,
Ren and her granddaughter. Unlike Ren, she’s thrilled that Mandy finally
told Abi the truth about her father. Connie then has a quick chat with “Bruno”,
something that Mandy wasn’t exactly expecting.
Back at the rancho, Abi has Diego help her take out the mattress
and the sheets and they make a bonfire out of them. (Good move,
girlfriend! Viewerville attempts a high five with the tv screen.)
Ren now gives grief to Amanda for going behind her back and
telling Abi her father’s name. “—She asked me and I couldn’t exactly lie
to her.” “--That was my place, my choice and not yours! I have
been waiting years to tell her and it’s not been the right moment! Now
you come back after all these years and attempt to take my place with MY OWN
daughter???? You upset Abigail and that was why Macaria had to take the
photo and show it to her. And, we all have our roles to play here.
Yours is to be the abuela!” If Mandy ever goes behind Ren’s back
again to tell Abi something she shouldn’t about their secret, she threatens,
Amanda will be given her walking papers, never to darken her door again.
Mac is in the wings waiting to rub it in with Mama. While
Amanda sulks in the hallway, shell-shocked, Mac walks up and gets all touchy
feely. With feigned sympathy she kisses her cheek and tells Mandy,
“—Thanks, Ma. Ren and I have never been closer friends than we are now!”
Mac leaves with a giant smirk on her face and struts off. Mandy
wipes the disgusting kiss off her cheek and scowls.
Down the road a bit, Di spies Mat on horseback and purposely
swerves, faking an accident. Eventually she gives up her little game and
Mat gets really pissed at the childish way he was played. He angrily
complains that you just don’t play hurt when dealing with a medical man!
He’s honor bound to treat the sick!” Awww, she was just having a little
fun, she giggles. “--I wanted to see if I really matter to you. And I
do.” Where’s she she been anyway? She wasn’t at home and her aunt
didn’t have any idea. What? Could he be jealous????? He
snorts in disgust and tells her he’s going to visit his Aunt Ren.
Now Di gets ticked off. “—Your aunt or that servant’s daughter?”
He walks away disgusted.
Patricio is chatting it up with Renata and she asks if they could
stay a bit longer with her at the hacienda. Suddenly out of nowhere,
Crazy Connie runs over to Ren and asks why she didn’t finally run that witch,
Macaria, off the place already? Ren tells her mama it isn’t the time or
the place to bug the doctor with their problems. Connie comes over and
says now this is a man her daddy would approve of. (That's a relief.)
He smiles patronizingly as Connie tells them she wants to introduce him
to Bruno in the office. Ren suggests it’s Connie’s bedtime. “—I
don’t understand you, Renata! After all Amanda has told you about her
daughter and you haven’t thrown her out!” “—She’s Abigail’s mother.”
Con hisses. “—YOU are Abigail’s mother! –For gawd’s sakes wake
up!” Connie takes Dr. Pats’s arm. “—And they call me the crazy
one!”
After Connie exits the room, Ren admits to Dr. Pats that she’s
really worried that with all the questions Abi’s been asking eventually she’ll
find out the truth and Ren admits she couldn’t handle it if Abi’s response was
to reject her for giving her up, forcing her to live a life she never should
have had to live. Dr. Pats doesn’t think it will come to that and says to
realize that at least her daughter is alive and that she’s able to live there
on the rancho with her.
On the other hand, the Doc confesses that he buried his daughter when
she was barely six years old. In fact, he killed her, his own daughter.
Yes! Duhn-duhn-duhnnnn!! (Aha! We knew Pats had a
mysterious past!) Ren doesn’t believe he’s the type of person who could
hurt a fly, let alone kill his own daughter! His voice tells her so.
She’s mistaken, he tells her, and leaves hangdog and with his tail
between his legs.
A few minutes later, Ren is outside chastising Feisty for dumping
poor, helpless servant Macaria all those many years ago after filling the girl
with such hopes, all to marry Ren! What a disgusting pig! (--And
your point is?) Feisty says “--But you had money!" Anyways, he is
dumbfounded she should even know that about that. Must be Mac’s mama who
spilled the beans. Right? “—Well, yeah. I had her time
and time and time again, and all under your nose right here in your own
hacienda. And why? All the nights you refused me!! A husband
has to get from somewhere else what his wife is incapable of giving!”
Awww, that ended years ago, anyway, he muses. He got tired of her
cheap perfume and the dirty way she tasted. (Ugh! What a picture.)
You took advantage of her, says Ren. “--Oh, but you know how to
take your revenge pretty well, don’t you? And I never even saw it
coming!”
He redirects the subject to Abi, “that brat” of hers, and why in
the world would she ever have taken ownership of his rancho just to give it
over to that brat bastard as a birthday present??? “—Because it is what
you love most in all the world!” Feisty grabs her threateningly but then
lets her go and is left to fume and spume.
An excited Lucio shows up with the news that there’s a fire over
at La Enramera. On his way to Ren’s Mat also spies the fire there and
heads over.
Ren then goes into dinner. Dr. Pats comes in and apologizes
for sticking his nose into her family business which obviously should not
concern him. She doesn’t mind, she says, because she could have easily
denied a secret that is getting harder for her to keep silent about.
Instead, he has inspired her trust of him. Well, it has engendered
a need to open up and to confide in her in detail all the grievous details
about his secret pain as well.
Meanwhile, Feisty has arrived with Lucio back at his triple
ex-rancho and demands to know what the hell she is doing! Diego
tells him not to diss his patrona. Feisty warns him not to mess with him
so Diego defiantly punches Lucio in the gut. Feisty pulls his gun on him
and cocks. Abi begs Feisty to back off and see reason! Just then
Mat gallops up, jumps off and joins the fray. “Before killing him you got
to kill me!” Again he yells at Feisty to put the gun away.
Feisty turns around and now aims the gun at Mat. “—Ok.
Whatever you want, you poor crazy bastard [pelado]. No penniless
beggar threatens me, not even my own nephew!!” “—You still cannot accept
that you blew it! Ok. Then go ahead and shoot me!” Abi clings
to Mat and begs Don Feisty not to shoot!
Feisty finally uncocks his pistol and congratulates Mat for his
bravery. “—No doubt at all that you are my blood. You definitely
are brave enough to defy anyone who challenges you!” Diego yells over at
him. “—That includes anybody who takes advantage of others, like
yourself, right?” He comes over, ready to fire Diego, but Diego tells him
not to waste his breath. He knows where Fausto’s going with that.
“—I quit!” Feisty tells him he’ll “never work anywhere around the
area again as long as I live.” Abi steps in. “—Yes he will.
He is now my capataz. He works for me!”
Seems Dr. Pats was a very happily married and successful surgeon,
world renown. So much so that he became arrogant, thinking he was the best
surgeon in all of Mexico. One day he and his daughter were at the playground
and she fell off the wrong way the jungle gym when he had momentarily looked
away to buy her an ice cream. At the hospital, he refused to let other
doctors operate on her, demanding to do it himself, despite being so
overwrought with grief and anxiety. After four hours on the table she
suddenly died. To this day, he admits, he cannot understand what he did
wrong and how he could have lost her in there. (Guess there’s still a
tidbit of arrogance amidst all the humble pie, huh.) He blubbers…er weeps…
over his lifelong grief in Renata’s willing arms.
Feisty smirks and says running a rancho is way beyond her ken (and
above her pay grade). No, Diego pipes up. He will give her
all the support necessary. Mat suggests that Unc realize the place
just doesn’t belong to him any longer. Unky tells him he’s forgotten
where he comes from and how he got there. Nope, says Mat. He
appreciates his raising him and enabling him to get that medical degree, but
he’s tired of always having to tell Unk that he’s right and if that means he
loses his Unk’s support then so be it. Feisty tells him to have it his
way. Mat says he still respects him but it doesn’t seem to be mutual.
Feisty’s still pissed at Mat for helping his wife to buy his rancho and
give it to Abi. He says that has consequences. Anyway, "she was
about to burn the place down!”
Nope, corrects Abi, only the bedding. Mat turns around and
asks why. Because she found vermin had been wallowing [revolcar= slang
for screwing/rolling around, etc. ] on it, she says with a knowing glance over
at Fausto. “—Best to kill it all,” adds Diego with a similar
glance his way. Abi delivers another low blow to Feisty. “--A pity
you disagree with my actions, Don Fausto. However, I can do what I choose
to with my property.” “—Sell me La Enramada. Put whatever price you
want; I’ll pay it right here, right now.” She tells him, sorry, but it’s
not for sale. He starts screaming at her that the rancho has belonged to
his family for years and years and that he has a right to get it back.
She gives as good as she gets and stands her ground. “—You don’t
have a right to do anything!” “--I will get it back! You’ll see!
One day it will belong to me again!”
Once Feisty and Lucio drive off, Mat and Abi discuss the fact that
she now knows her dad’s name. He tells her maybe it could be a problem
learning the truth about her dad. Oh, but I prefer to know the truth,
painful as it might be. And what about you? Wouldn’t you like to
know the painful truth, like that about your girlfriend?” Mat’s not
having any of that. “—Again with the gossip! You too?”
In town, Di and Tía Polar Bear discuss the worrisome evening’s
events. Abigail is certain to run to her madrina to tell her about how
she found her and Feisty had been knocking knees together at her new rancho!!
DeeDee says she’ll simply deny it. She may drop Mat as punishment
for a while, especially since he’s got nothing financially to offer. On
the other hand, Fausto does and they have to admit that they really need the
money badly. So, once Mat becomes wealthy will she drop Fausto? Di
may have to give that some thought.
Back at La Enramera, Abi screams back at Mat that she’s not a
gossip. He doesn’t want to listen because he’s simply got the hots for
her in bed. Not at all, he insists. He LUHVS her! But ever
since he returned all they’ve all done is bad mouth Diana! And he’s tired
of it! Diego rushes over and tells him to stop fighting with each other.
Mat gets a (subconsciously) aha! look on his face and says
he’s leaving. He rides off. Diego mentions Mat left in a bad mood.
Possibly because of what she told him about their finding Di there with
Fausto? Nope. He didn’t even give her a chance to mention it, she
tells him.
The next morning, Abi wants more answers and Amanda has turned
tight-lipped thanks to Ren’s warnings and tells her she refuses to tell her
anything more. Abi storms off. More secrets!
Crazy Connie wakes up from another dream about the injured Pablo
trying to kidnap Ren and run away with her.
Dr. Pats has just accepted her invitation to stay there at the
hacienda a while longer. (Hope he remembers to call and cancel all
appointments for him and Mat.) He wants to thank her for listening to him
last night. Feisty walks in on them and makes a big deal about their
seeming intimacy. “—Do you mind your wife and I being friends? “ He
says not at all and then obnoxiously coos and cuddles Ren’s head.
Just then Crazy Connie comes racing in from her nightmare to tell
them all that she forgot that that night ‘that man’ had come back to kidnap
Renata and to take her away with him. The camera pans as Mat and
Abi have apparently heard the commotion and arrive in time to receive Connie’s
“news flash” along with the others. Mat asks Connie who she
means with ‘that man’. “Pablo! Pablo Ramos!”