Caray, Caray!

Gracias, Vivi. This was a tough one.

MD shouldn't waste her sympathy on Danny-Boy and she should just tell him and his shark to go to another part of hell.

WTF is this about Orlando? Please, no more of these last-minute surprises.

.
 

Thanks, Urban. Well, we'll see how MD reacts tomorrow. Her ordeal is about to get a lot worse when the warden and Abuela know she can't count on the protection of Claudio, and Josefa joins forces with Honoria and Ursula. Ugh!

How ironic if Jacinto is the first to crack the Marta mystery.

Happy that Alma is divorcing Clod. It was very satisfying to see him on his knees in front of her, crying and begging.
 

Awesome thank you Vivi.

One part you cleaned up for me was the conversation between Doris and Orlando however with his continued help of Isela I don't care any more and think Doris better without him.

Orlando likely had to do most everything to survive whether it was physically forced or not.

I also think it shameless Isela asked Espy to see if MD would help her by poking around in prison and I guess that's what she'll do.

Dan as usual blames someone else for his behavior. Dan knows MD better than anyone and "pitiful Dan" works on her, she said it herself. I don't understand their relationship.

I also don't understand why MD does not tell Max anything but I've asked that question before and only thing I can think of is she doesn't totally trust him. As it sits right now, Dan knows more of what happens in her everyday life than Max does and she's about to make a deal with the devil without Max knowing.

The best scene was Josefa's pitch to Honoria. Both actresses had me spellbound.

What confounds me is why some are continuing to defend their silence by directing anger at Clara and Leo, dismissing their demand for honesty as a naive fantasy. Alma, despite advanced stages of cancer hasn't collapsed and the convenient use of her illness as cover for their own cowardice, selfish. Particularly those that do not really know Alma were making decisions ostensibly for her, looking at you Espy, Orlando & MD but they did it to protect Isela and saying otherwise makes them well, liars. Alma didn't deserve to be patronized, lied to and made a fool of.

 

MD fails to tell Max everything not because she doesn't trust him but because she's afraid he will beat the living daylights out of Danny-Boy and end up getting arrested again. She also knows that Mama Bear's money will buy Danny-Boy out of anything.

The relationship between Max and Claudio is now on its way to becoming oblivion, although MD may not know that.

I am also guessing that MD will become Isela's patsy one more time (finding out about Marta) before she finds out about Isela's betrayal.

So there better be a shrink in the finale episode instead of a church wedding.
 

Thanks, Tofie. I really hope after this second instance of harassment from Dan, that MD tells Max. At least he can chew someone at that prison out for letting people not on her visitation list in to see her.

At this point though, what might keep her quiet is the threat from the guard to really hurt her and make her miscarry if she talks.

I am so worried about the hell both the prison workers (on Warden's orders) and the prisoners (via Abuela) will put her through when they realize Clod is actually not on her side. I reserve my anger about all of MD's prison situation for him. From his helping to get Dan released, to his delaying MD's trial. So glad Alma kicked him out.

The decision not to tell Leo was Alma's. She's the one who directly asked Clara and Espy not to tell Leo. If Clara knew she couldn't do it, she should have said so to Alma.


 

I get why she believed Max would lose it when he found out about the rape, Julian attacked Dan too, but MD is in deep and I trust Max won't react the same again. I wished MD trusted him not to do something that would put him at risk again or her in more peril. Now MD has been presented an opportunity by Dan to fix this herself and she'll foolishly take it again, believing Dan will hold up his end. If she trusted Max she could have a serious conversation and discuss what happened and the risk of reprisal both as her "husband" and attorney. MD tells Max only when he is about to be blind sided or after. No wonder the guy has gone off.
 

I get your point Vivi if Alma was the only one requesting Clara remain quiet but Clara had been under intense pressure by both MD and her mother for months. Espy is still on her about it, chewing her out and marching right over to comfort Isela.
 

When Esperanza finds out how Isela betrayed MD to Ursula (by way of Maleny) and Hosefa (directly) I hope she feels like a real idiot. At least half of what has happened to MD can be traced back to this.

Isela does not deserve forgiveness. She knew these people were monsters. She knew that it was Hosefa who tried to kill Leo. In the US she could do time for not reporting that.

In Esperanza's position I would find it easier to forgive Honoria, who lost her only son. She was delusional about Julian's prospects for marriage and a family with MD. She should have gotten help for that. There have to be support groups for families dealing with this disease. Julian himself should have pushed for it, but it would have meant giving up his own delusions about MD, which he never seemed prepared to do.
 

Not sure an idiot can even know they're an idiot but the lesson I hope Espy learns is that silence is not always golden and truth has a way of squirting between the fingers of a clinched fist. I agree UA, Espy smacked Clara around with her consequences speech while unknown to her the consequence of MD's and Espy's silence sits in a jail cell.
 

If Maria Dolores isn't telling Max about Dan's visits, it IS because she doesn't trust him. She doesn't trust him not to beat Dan's ass. That means she doesn't trust him. Max might want to beat Dan's ass but he's not going to risk his freedom now that his mother is dying.

How old is Clara? 16? 17? It was wrong of the adults to expect Clara to keep their secrets. So Clara gets all the punishment of not keeping secrets from her partner while all of the adults (and Leo) sit around saying "See what you did?"

ALMA is the one who requested Espy & Clara keep quiet, yet CLARA gets the pain while Esperanza clucks her tongue saying "See what you did." (while never reproaching Maria Dolores for all of HER secrets and lies.)

I'm not blasting Alma here; she did tell Leo to forgive Clara and he won't, and that's because he thinks Clara is a lying liar who lies just like her sister Maria Dolores.

Esperanza wags her finger at Clara to stay out of other people's business, and to be fair, she has told Maria Dolores the same, but then why get into Isela & Claudio's business? Why involve Doris & Orlando in Isela's business?

Clara is still a child & shouldn't have been expected to keep adults' secrets. Whenever Maria Dolores lied & kept secrets, Espy was always like "Oh hija" but with Clara it's like "Well see what you did!"

I don't like how Maria Dolores constantly lying is given a pass but Clara telling the truth earns a "Well see what you did."
 

Maria Dolores is simply not someone I would want as a wife for my son, because she's not trustworthy. She might be a good person and I would know that Ursula & her gang & jealous Josefa were after her and that would be unfortunate but I wouldn't want my son involved with her...because she's simply not a trustworthy person. I don't care what happened in the past to make you this way, all I know is you're untrustworthy now and your constant lies are putting MY child in danger.

I'd share my opinion once and let it go, but I would not want her as a partner for my son.
 

There is a double standard Anon207 and agree with you.
 

Perhaps Clara gets scolded more than MD does because she's still a kid and no mom is going to let her teenager sass at her without putting her in her place-- right or no. Same with Leo. MD and Max are adults who get to make their own mistakes with less interference from their parents.


 

In general, Espy is just not a person who carries grudges. Look at what an open beyotch Josefa is, but Espy would still offer her food, a warm bed, and a kind word if she needed it. This isn't just something she's doing for Isela to annoy Doris and Clara. It's her nature to be giving and forgiving. Some may call that stupid or naive, but Espy is truly one of the happiest people in this tn because she doesn't hold on to grief, anger and hatred the way so many of these other characters do.
 

There does come a point where forgiveness is foolish and Hosefa's actions are a great example.

Isela now has a chance to avenge years of abuse dealt out by this piece of human garbage. She was the only person to hear Hosefa admit that she tried to kill Leo so she needs to report it. A good interrogator can break this slattern into little pieces. Why is Isela not speaking up?

You don't poison your own soul by refusing to forgive something this heinous.
 

The reason MD lied to Max about Danny was because she thought he'd do something stupid. And she was right! He ended up in jail and would probably still be there if he had come from the barrio. Unfortunately for Clara, Leo has the same explosive temper. But Max went after other men. Leo refused to shut up and listen to the girl he says he loves and then hauled off to the barrio to beat up a woman. Even if he forgives Clara, she shouldn't forgive him. At least not so easily.

Where is Ari going? And how much can he really fit in that carry-on if he's packing the hangers too?

Kelly
 

Vivi--Thank you for the detailed recap. Thank you also for treating the Gerry-Ivana scene with thoughtfulness and gentleness. I thought it was one of the best scenes and really tugged at my heart strings. I want Gerry to convince Ivana they do not need Danny's baby to each be happy doing what each wants most--to have a child to raise. Will she say yes or won't she?

I'm afraid for MD. It seems everyone is out to get her. Now Honoria is actively going to go after her.

Thank you also for illuminating the Doris-Orlando convo. I got the virgin part, but not the rest of it--that he had been used and used sex to survive a life on the streets. If he and Isela had known each other since childhood, I'm not sure I understand his timeline--or is that something the writers forgot? As I recall, he got quite randy with Isela a couple of times in the very beginning, but she put a stop to it. Now he's taking the high moral road? (tee hee I typed RODE first).

This is such a layered, complex, character-driven telenovela. It's not the plot-driven ones we're used to--at least not what I thought at the very beginning when we were introduced to the various families and the various couples' relationships. I never expected the heroine to be experiencing real prison time.

Kelly--Good question. I wondered WHY Ari felt he needed to leave. When I thought about it, he has no family to speak of, no friends left in the barrio, nothing for him at the club, the Santibanez, or the Bustamantes. All he has is his good looks and an ability to play and teach tennis well. Where does he go with that? The job is gone, Maleny is gone and he's persona non grata in the barrio and at the Bustamantes and he and Orlando can never be friends again. (P.S. Truly, I've often wondered about hastily packed suitcases--the hangers always seem to fit in, and so do all the clothes in the closet, at least from the subsequent wardrobes they wear.)
 

Anita- It had been mentioned from the beginning that Orly's parents (whom they all seemed to know) both died when he was young. Since no one then said he went to the orphanage after that, it seemed obvious he was on his own with no guardian after that. I'm guessing he might have been 13 or so. Old enough to work odd jobs, but not young enough for anyone to put him in an orphanage. It was actually always Orly who put a halt to the make out sessions with Isela, except for the one time after he already knew about Clod, when he got near raping her.
 

Ari is definitely up the creek. Anita, that's his exact situation.

Thanks also for calling attention to the timeline of Orlando and Isela. In the scene where I thought they met for the first time they didn't look like kids; it was the same two actors. This is in conflict with the flashbacks of Isela and MD playing with Esperanza's bridal veil. The only way both make sense is if Orlando somehow left and came back.
 

Impression corrected. Even so, if Orlando and his family lived in the barrio, I'm surprised no one took him in or kept an eye on him--Espy or Honoria would have (see Espy's protectiveness toward Isela now). But we can't have every possibility covered, so I'll suspend belief and go with he was a teenager when he arrived in the barrio and when he and Isela got to know each other.

I wonder, though, where he learned to fix cars and have the capital to start a successful, legitimate, repair business in an actual shop. Maybe I'm forgetting--he may have had a partner who died or left him the business, so never mind.
 

Orly was somewhere after his patents died, and that wasn't necessarily the same hood where he spent his early childhood with MD, Isela, and Julian. For example, we don't know when and where he met and became friends with Ari. Ari never mentions his family (flat out refused to when Doris asked) and seems to have gotten to where he is on his looks and athletic ability (on and off the court).
 

Anita- Orly definitely spent his early years in the hood. Little MD and Isela speak about him in flashbacks, and Espy has mentioned to him how proud she is of him that he built his own business and how proud she knows his parents would be.
 

Thank you Vivi, great job as always. I'm very intrigued by Dan's proposal. I said as much yesterday that Dan could go either way. I'm going to throw myself in the camp of Dan actually being furious with his mother and will end up helping MD. And she's going to need it more than ever with Claudio, Ursula, Josefa, and Honoria all working against her. I wish I could guess Claudio's game. I'm crossing my fingers that he will end up doing the right thing by her and he's going to take Ursula down.


 

Danny-Boy has done too much evil to deserve redemption. Unless Mexico has a stature of limitations on murder he goes down one way or the other.

Not to mention the rape and many other things he can't necessarily be in prison for.
 

cathyx it creeps me out even reading about Dan coming to MD's rescue and if she makes a deal with Dan to protect their child I wonder why she didn't just save herself and everyone else the bumpy ride and forgive him and get back together sooner. All this was for nothing.

Dan's got selective memory anyway and so does MD when it concerns a weeping Dan. He told MD early his mother was to blame for pressuring him to marry Ivana and treating MD but Dan all along was playing with MD. Dan tried to date rape her (that MD doesn't know), stole the dress, burned her shop and still holds the deed to her mother's house so his treatment of her didn't begin with or was caused by Ursula but by his obsession with MD.
 

True, but Ursula is responsible for him being the amoral creep that he is. It begins with her either way.

Which does not relieve him of responsibility now because he's an adult.
 

Thanks Vivi, a rough one to recap to say the least.
What the hell is claudio up too? His rep is still
Garbage. Is he he that hard up to look good in public, that he'd destroy someone's life? A
Woman his son loves? He is a sorry piece of
Sh*t. Isela need to cut him loose. She might
Would if she knew what he was doing to MD.
Maybe. I like to think she's not completely gone.
I commend Orlando for wanting to wait for marriage. If doris doesn't want to stick around she can just walk away she'll find a man out there that just want to sex around. And she should remember she has Moved UP from ari.
 

I'm not talking about Dan getting any redemption, don't read something in my comment that I didn't put there. All I was saying was that I could see him helping her get out and keep her child, all in order to get back at Ursula, perhaps working through Max to get that done. Maybe even agreeing to abandon his charges against Corina. But I foresee a tragic death awaiting Dan at the end. Maybe he will be "brave" enough to commit suicide too.
 

cathyx--Danny is a weakling. He needs his mother to lean on and for physical and emotional support (in this case abuse). Even if he gets angry enough with his mother and believes he can best her by going against her, he won't last long on his own with his emotional immaturity. He's never really been allowed to grow up.
 

Thanks, Vivi. Terrific recap. My favorite: Espy goes white as a sheet. Not like Isela really cares, because she presses on and tells Espy she wants to ask MD to show Marta’s picture around in the prison and see if any of the old timers remember her.

I don't blame Clara at all for telling Leo. She was too young to be expected to keep this secret and, after all, Leo is the guy she expects to be with for life and didn't want to let him down.

So Orlando had sex in his tough adolescence that he's not proud of. Nobody goes to a shrink here, but he should.

MD, you are locked up in prison. You need your loved ones on the outside (Max, Espy, Clara) to know what's happening on the inside so that they can try to protect you. If you couldn't protect yourself on the outside, what makes you think you have the wit to deal alone with vultures like the warden, the abuela, and Dan?

My favorite scene: Alma telling Clod to git! and leave her with her two sons. After years of saying "yes" to Clod, I hope it felt empowering for her. How ironic that if not for the two blabbermouths Ari and Clara, Alma would still be heeding Clod with Isela underfoot.
 

Cathyx- I can see Dan wanting to do that to spite Ursula. But MD would be a fool to trust him to follow through. No matter how desperate she is, she should never trust him again.

ITA that Dan is too weak to really stick to going against Ursula, or even to kill himself. Remember Ursula said she pinned the murder on Mal because she felt Dan was too weak to handle it and Mal was stronger. Perhaps this is the root of her hatred of Maleny-- her core of strength and rebellion against Ursula.
 

Nina and Niecie- I so loved those scenes of Alma freezing out and kicking out Clod. I could definitely watch that again.
 

This is what makes this show so good. We have no idea, we can't even really guess very accurately, what is going to happen.
 

Yeah clod should move into that apartment
He was going to give isela. He's a miserable
Cus. I really wish alma wasn't dying. Why not
Josefa? Shes just takin up valuable space. Noooo. She has to stay there and partener up
With poor mean honoria and coldblooded urs. Revenge has nothing to do with this, these women are stone cold evil. I give it to
Hon the first week, now shes just being down
Right nasty and mean. And unless she changes she deserves the same punishment those other two heffas got coming. Poor old
Fermin, he's tryin to hold it together in spite of that mean woman he's stuck with. Maybe
He should leave so he wont fall off the wagon
If there's going to be a grandchild, there sure should be at least one stable grandparent.
 

WTF is up with Claudio? He walks around with the best 'hound dog' look I've seen, but wants to keep MD in jail, says he thinks of nothing but having Isela in his arms when he is with Alma, and now seems to be involved in a bank robbery/cover-up?????

There has to be something I'm missing.