Caray, Caray!

Felipe asks Garrido where he can get a lot of wine for cheap. Garrido recommends a guy named Jorge Arenas. Felipe needs an introduction. He swears it will be worth Garrido's trouble. They take off to meet with Arenas.

Teresa asks Diego to prepare a discreet burial for Baby #1. He picks up the phone, then pauses. We don't need a funeral.

Isabel stands in the hallway in yet another white dress. She sees wet Julio hustling out of Cecilia's room as Cecelia's voice calls from the other side of the door, "don't be a coward." Isabel makes as if to knock, but Mateo materializes behind her to say that Mrs. Limantur is waiting in the garden to meet her for breakfast. Also, a maid named Emelia needs help reading a letter. Isabel agrees to read them the letter on the way to the garden. (Standard letter-from-Mom stuff. Mom can write, but she doesn't know that Emelia can't read?)

Sofia looks bad. She knows what she did. She can't even look at the dead baby on the bed and she slides the bedroom door shut behind her without turning around. She leans (actually, sort of rubs up in a creepy way) against the door to the hallway and pleads, "come back, come back." Wow, that'll be a fine sight for Alfredo to come home to.

Andres wakes to the blissful sight of his live baby and sleeping prometida, but the pain kicks in and his agonized thrashing wakes Belen. She offers him his medicine, but he doesn't want it - he'd rather be in pain than sleep the day away. They debate where the baby should spend the day when they hear someone at the door. It's only Julio - still soaking wet. It's a welcome and hilarious sight as Andres and Belen laugh. "It's been a bad day," Julio explains, especially since he didn't even get to spend the night in his own bed. Belen takes off with the baby and Julio changes his clothes.

Cecilia enjoys chocolate-dipped strawberries in bed while musing that Julio is the only forbidden fruit she can't resist.

The servants are enjoying a relaxed breakfast until Benjamin shows up with his usual party-pooping scowl. Lupe has prepared something special for Angela, but grumpy Benjamin says they have 18 minutes to finish up. Angela sees Teresa and Diego pass in the hallway; she knows something's afoot.

In the garden, at first Mrs. Limantur is giving Isabel the same kind of advice that she's been getting from everyone else: the hospital is a nice little hobby for someone with lots of free time, but she's going to be too busy for that once the babies start popping out. But that's not exactly where Mrs. L is going with this conversation. In fact, she and some of the other ladies have agreed to help support the hospital and keep it going because surely Diego won't want to support the whole thing indefinitely and neither can the people of San Cristobal. Their first fund-raising event will be a concert by Mimi Peralta.

Mrs. L steps away momentarily, and Julio approaches to take away the empty plates. He wants to meet later. He notes that Isabel doesn't look happy, but she doesn't want to talk. Then Mrs. L returns and the conversation, such as it is, is over for now.

Isabel asks Mateo who's in room 45. He nervously apologizes for letting in "that class of person" and says he was just following orders. Ms. Gaitan, he means. The name is not familiar to Isabel, but Mateo whispers something in Isabel's ear. Isabel looks vexed.

Angela calls Belen away from the breakfast table and tells her to hurry up and go to her bedroom. There, she finds Diego standing guard while Teresa holds baby #2. "Amado," Belen says to the baby. "What poor taste," Teresa comments in exasperation. "I told you not to mess with me," She tells Belen. Belen is confused. She's done everything that was asked of her. Teresa's got her grandson, and Belen has her baby.

"That's the problem," Teresa says. "I don't have my grandson." "What happened to our child?" Belen asks Diego. "OUR child? Nothing," Diego scoffs. "We never had anything."

"You never had a baby," Teresa tells Belen. "The only baby in the hotel is this one, and he belongs to Sofia." Well I sure as hell hope they know a good babysitter. Belen goes crazy: "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!" But Diego holds Belen back. Teresa says Belen has till tomorrow to disappear and then she'd better never be seen around here again or she'll be left with nothing at all. (Which is pretty close to what she has now, actually.) Diego is a jerk. He and Teresa leave Belen crying in her room.

And now to Mexico City, where Alfredo is meeting with the estate lawyer to claim his inheritance, which comes to the grand total of... drum roll please... nada. His father was a terrible businessman, Alfredo is told. "Why didn't anyone tell me?" he asks. Why? Because he'd never shown any interest! And even his mother didn't know, because she didn't have access to the Vergara "fortune." What little money was left over was given to his mother for her monthly allowance so she wouldn't have to know the awful truth! In fact, she's down to her last pennies as well. As for when they'd get around to telling Alfredo - they didn't think they'd ever have to. They didn't think he'd fulfill the requirement!

All that's left is their house in town, which Alfredo can sell to cover his mother's debts and leave her with a modest pension. Oh, and of course there's the land near San Cristobal with the sulfurous (but hot) springs. Maybe that'll be good for something.

At the hospital, Natalia is visiting with her brother Gabriel when Violeta comes by with some clean bedsheets. Gabe recognizes Violeta's voice and asks Natalia if she looks as pretty as she sounds. Natalia very stiffly replies that the señorita is very pretty. Nat just sits there and makes faces as Violeta tries to change Gabe's sheets.

At the police station, Patrolman Ayala and the rest of the SCPD are exercising in their undies when the grumpy judge Barreda shows up and tells them all to get dressed. He says there have been reports of syphilis in town. He indicates a large trunk with a camera and supplies. "What does syphilis have to do with me?" Ayala asks. The judge replies, "you don't choose the job. The job chooses you!" So now it will be Ayala's job to keep a register of the "public women," i.e., the hoes. All the cantinas and their owners, and all the pimps, and all kinds of data on all these people, plus photos. For the whole state?? And if Ayala doesn't like it, the judge can write a letter to the Gobierno saying that Ayala thinks he has better things to do. "The whores are waiting," the judge taunts in farewell.

Ayala sullenly agrees, but throws a little fit after the judge leaves. Ayala knows Doña Teresa is behind this! "For this, you will pay," he hisses.

Isabel approaches room 45 again, but is frightened away by raucous laughter as the nieces approach the door to leave their room. Isabel flees and tries to look casual in the hallway.

Looking not-so-casual in the hallway is Sofia, wandering around absently, pressing her hair to her mouth. "I can't stay in there with my dead baby," Sofia tells Isabel. "My baby is dead."

But here comes Teresa, along with Diego and a live baby that is pretty blatantly not real, but let's just overlook that, shall we? Teresa says Sofia sent the baby down to be fed but then forgot about it. "Have you been stealing medicine from Dr. Vicario again?" she asks Sofia. "Yes!" Teresa tells Isabel to call the doctor at the hospital and let him know. "I was just about to go there myself," Isabel says helpfully, but Teresa takes the opportunity to scold her for looking out for those peasants instead of her own family for once.

Diego and Isabel go to Diego's office to phone the doctor; Teresa takes Sofia and #2 to Sofia's room. Teresa does her best to explain to Sofia that Belen had two babies. "Now forget everything you just heard and take your baby." Sofia doesn't want it. "Perfect," Teresa says sarcastically. "You never deserved to be a mother." "Why do you say that?" Sofia asks. "Because when a woman really, truly wants a child, nothing, but NOTHING will stop her. No pain or obstacle or sacrifice is too great to make her give up. But you've had two chances and you've acted like a spoiled brat, complaining and wanting to back out when it became inconvenient. There's a totally destroyed woman downstairs, a woman whose life you've taken away. Don't make that horrified face. You're the one who took it all away from her. And I'm going to give him back, to the one woman who really needs him."

Teresa makes as if to take the baby back downstairs to Belen. She almost makes it to the door before Sofia calls her bluff. "I need him, Mother. My baby. My lovely baby." And Sofia takes the baby from her mother's arm and even calls him her "amado," LOL. (Teresa has the good manners not to mock her poor taste.) She holds the baby, cuddles him, and praises him for coming back to her.

Andres fiddles with the contraption that's holding his leg up and cries out in pain. Julio wants to give him his medicine. Andres is frustrated, doesn't want the medicine and is starting to worry about Belen and the baby - he hasn't seen them since this morning. Julio promises to look for them and to get the priest to marry them tomorrow, but first he wants Andres to have his shot. Andres agrees.

Teresa questions Angela, literally over baby #1's dead body, about the second baby. She wants to know how it's possible that Belen could have been hiding an extra baby on Angela's floor without Angela knowing about it. With her usual poker face, Angela says it's possible the same way that Belen was nursing two babies without Teresa knowing it. "It seems that the Gran Hotel never runs out of secrets," Angela adds solemnly. Angela takes the dead baby and promises that no one will know about the baby. The only thing they can offer him now is his peaceful rest.

Alone, Teresa prays to God for help.

Remember Felipe and Garrido? They've been waiting nearly two hours for their wine guy to show up. The wine guy and his posse are actually watching from above. Jorge Arenas has a very young face for such a reputed tough guy, but he also looks like the kind of guy who doesn't suffer fools gladly. They prepare to greet a couple of fools.

Julio is looking for Belen. Angela is in Belen's room. Belen is holding baby #1, crying. Angela is comforting her and muffling her sobs with her hand so Julio doesn't hear.

Natalia is saying goodby to the priest, I'm not sure what they were talking about, at church. Violeta rushes to meet her. Natalia (nice, sweet Natalia) nastily says that Violeta has "two jobs" - one as a nurse, and the other as - "a singer," Violeta says. "I'm not what you say." Natalia basically says that it doesn't come off. Natalia agrees not to tell Gabriel about Violeta's past, but not for Violeta's benefit. It's to avoid breaking her brother's heart. And if Violeta really cares about him, she should leave him alone.

Angela leads Belen out the back door and gives her directions to where she can lay her baby to rest. Belen asks why Angela is doing all this. "Because nobody deserves the thing that they did to you."

Garrido is back from his errand. Uh... did I miss something? What happened with Felipe and Arenas? Oh well. Garrido is watching Belen.

Julio is smoking outside, waiting for Isabel to meet him as they agreed at breakfast. Isabel sneaks up behind him and spooks him. They share a rare laugh. She takes a hit from his cigarette, which disagrees with her as usual, and is Diego going to find that on her breath? Anyway, Julio shows her Cristina's key. He says it's the key that Isabel's father gave Cristina, the key to the furniture (he says "mueble") where he had hidden the letter. He doesn't know why Romulo gave it to Cristina, but it must have been something important.

Isabel points to a window upstairs. That was his room, but now it's used for guests. It's too late to go up there now. Julio proposes that they wait till those guests come down for breakfast and then check it out.

Julio says goodnight. Isabel smiles and says good night, too. There is a kiss in her eyes.

Garrido reports to Diego. Yes, Belen left. Alone, apparently to the cemetery, holding something hidden. It looked like a child. "At last, you did something right," Diego says with a sarcastic smile.

Cecilia and her nieces go to the cantina without Felipe. Ga... uh... I can never remember his name. He's not happy to see them. Melibea gives them a facetious welcome. Cecilia says she's not here so much for the place, as to hear the singer. "What time does she sing?" Melibea is genuinely speechless.

Belen carries her dead baby up a country lane when she runs into two guys on a wagon. They ask if she's okay; does her baby need to go to the hospital? Belen says she'd like a ride to the police station!

Cecilia is getting kind of loud about wanting to hear the singer. Other patrons are beginning to clamor as well. Gazpacho, whatever his name is, doesn't like it. He announces to all that Violeta won't be singing tonight. Cecilia demands an explanation. Melibea says Violeta has two jobs and the other one is at the hospital. Cecilia hands Melibea some money and buys a round of pulque for the whole house.

Ah, Genaro. That's his name. Genaro, Gazpacho, what's the difference?

The two men in the wagon try to make small talk with Belen, but she's not feeling chatty. They're almost at the police station when a car approaches. "You're in luck," one of the men says. "Surely they can get you into town faster." But it's Garrido and Diego.

Andres is more agitated than ever. He's gotten out of his leg-sling-traction-thingie, and he's mad at Julio for not fetching Belen. Julio says maybe she's looking for a nice dress to get married in tomorrow. He puts Andres' leg back in the sling and Andres cries that he can't even care for his own family. Julio tries to strap the head-thing around him.

Garrido is digging a grave. (They're not at a cemetery!) "Make it bigger," Diego taunts as he restrains Belen. He pulls a gun on her and tells her to shut up.

Next time: Belen is missed. Cecilia and Isabel meet.

Labels: hotel