Caray, Caray!

At the police station: "You're the father of that loser? Your daughter's just an assistant, a maid to the whole agency." Luciana blackmails Nacho into retracting his complaint [that she knocked him off the road in the sporty little yellow company car], otherwise she'll make sure Lichita never advances at any ad agency. Nachos sadly complies and tells the desk sergeant he was mistaken and Luciana leaves exultant.

Robert says Alicia's supermarket campaign is more than perfect. Alicia thinks things are going well at the police station but we know she's wrong...

Roberto takes Alicia with him to meet the clients at the Mas supermarket. He's gracious to Elsa. Here come O and his henchpeople. O remembers Alicia but not as a competent member of the advertising team. Rather, as - a cow. All laugh at her, Roberto included.


Roberto is horrified to see Gumaro is also at the grocery store, flirting with some bimbo and very clearly not in a wheelchair. He has to exert himself to keep Alicia from seeing.

Luciana overheard the social worker, "Venus," [heh] sarcastically asking Roberto "When was it, exactly, that you acquired skills and experience in publicity?" Senses an opening, she snags a copy of his resume, checks it out, and finds it massively false.

Roberto takes Alicia to the pool and teaches her to swim, a very cozy scene. He takes her home and she gloats to him about Luciana going to jail. "Though who knows, people who go to jail come out worse than they were before." Roberto objects.

Roberto yells at Gumaro for having been at Mas supermarket. Gumaro says, you're always saying it's good to shop there, publicity works, oh and by the way, somebody's been calling to check out your resume.

And just then that "somebody" calls: Luciana tells Roberto he needs to come see her. When he shows up, she mocks his lying resume. He says everybody puts some "makeup" on the little details... "I've found out some little mysteries and will find more." "Don't threaten me, why don't we get to know each other better?" "I'll do what I can to make sure my uncle doesn't find out your lies - depending on how you treat me," she purrs, and her face is truly frightening (as it is throughout this episode).

Alicia tells her mom Elsa: "I'm madly in love with my boss." Ximena and Elsa make fun of her for being so head-in-the-clouds in love. Magos is jealous that Ximena enjoys Lichita's company so much. Elsa thinks it's a hopeful sign that Magos even cares! "Enter the competition!" she advises grouchy Magos.

Roberto agonizes to Gumaro about the bind Luciana has put him in. Soon she'll figure out he was in jail, and figure out who "Venus" was, and then his work to recuperate his son will have been in vain. Gumaro suggests he give in the the Argentine (even though she'll eat him alive). "How can I do that? Alicia hates her, and I still need Alicia for the campaign. Think, Gumaro!" He pretends he doesn't care a bit for Alicia. "There's no room in my life for women now, all that matters is my son. I'll put Alicia at a distance."

Next morning, Lichita dresses up special, in an outfit that's worse than ever, with a plastic flower in her hair, because she is in lurvve. Before breakfast Nachos is quiet and sad; he brushes her off when she asks how it went at the police station.

Luciana is putting on the last half-cup of makeup when her cousin Daphne appears at the door, Gothed-up, making Luciana scream "I thought you were La Llorona." Daphne asks lots of questions: why did you leave Argentina, how are your parents (who my parents never talk to), etc. "Well, I was in the jet-set, but then the crisis came and one thing led to another..." "Crisis, hmm, you mean you were poor?" "That doesn't matter, now I'm here to alleviate the solitude of your poor mother." They trade insults for a while.

And now we come to the anvil that's been waiting for a few days to drop: the fact that Alicia never got her promotion. She hasn't told her family, they all think she's important now and that her salary has increased. So when Ximena's teacher says the whole class is going to the place of work of one of the kids' relatives, Ximena volunteers her very important aunt Alicia...

... who has arrived at work and is being ostentatiously ignored by Roberto in his new campaign of Keeping His Distance. Deflated by his callous behavior, she slinks off and is attacked by Luciana, who hints that things did not go as expected at the police station "but you'll have to ask your father for details, I don't want to spoil that special father-daughter moment."

Roberto drags Luciana away to remind her to get cracking on the Japanese account and then snarls playfully in her face and says "Let's talk of the important things in life, that is, about YOU and ME." Revolting flirting follows.

At the supermarket some agency types tell Elsa and her co-workers there will be commercials getting filmed soon. They overhear Elsa saying she's the mom of someone who works at the agency and come back and ask how long she's worked there. "25 years." She gets hauled into the office. "Due to new changes in company policies, we are liquidating most employees who've been here more than 20 years."

It's a bad day getting worse. The bank calls Lichita and nags about the money the family owes and can't pay. And after Ximena nags her mom to take the class to Lichita's office, they all arrive, way underdressed for Take Your Daughter To Work Day, and demand to see the VIP Alicia Guttierez. The evil receptionists want to send them away but Luciana scoops them up in service of her campaign to humiliate Lichita to death.

Tomorrow: Ximena and Lichita cry, and there is a crisis at the meeting with the Japanese cosmetics guys.

Previous: Episode 9
Next: Episode 11

Labels: lichita