Caray, Caray!

Eva

So…a mixed bag. The trial is going very well. Pablo is being a star, and the snarky fiscal who keeps throwing in barbs about Pablo not knowing what he’s doing is being outmaneuvered beautifully. He was even stupid enough to gripe about Pablo calling his witness seeming to forget he got away with the same thing. Pablo’s questioning of Marlene was terrific. He didn’t lose control and rage at her, but he carefully showed her up as an ungrateful b*tch. He got the people in the courtroom laughing.

He laid the groundwork for the fact that someone else was after Sofía and that, in her hour of need, Sofía reached out to her auntie.

I suppose something will prevent Adriana from the abortion she wants. It looks like Pancho’s conversation with Bobby about how he accepted Soraya despite her having been forced into prostitution may have borne fruit. That scene with Andy the Asqueroso was awful. Please, writers, let him die an awful death!

Esteban was a bit too pleased at not having to marry Noemí. I think she deserves better.

Ojalá tonight finishes up the trial. They’ve been dropping hints about a new etapa to go along with the new time for the novela. But that’s not until April 18. I suppose they might drag the trial on all next week.
 

?QUIÉN?

Thank y'all for the heads up about Quien moving to daytime in a week. Otherwise, I would have been wondering 'QTH happened to this show and our DVR?' Too bad the ratings did not keep it in the evening slot, but it really does not fit the level of drama on primetime T'mundo. Except for the Justino character and his storyline, this is light and watchable, and probably better suited to daytime. Thank the telenovela gods for DVRs!

Silvana Sin Lana looks like it will have a great cast, so I'll have to give it a try. Thank you for the info on this one.
 

Eva. Thanks for the very perceptive mini-recap, novelera! I was shocked at how much hearsay was allowed in that courtroom! Also, the fiscal was actually taunting Pablo, which in no way would be allowed. How hard would it be for the writers to hire some Spanish-speaking recent law school graduate from Florida or California to advise them on basic US courtroom procedure? He or she could do so while studying for the bar! Anyway, Pablo has now entered at least 3 pieces of physical evidence into the court--Sofía's phone call to Eva, the video of her asking for help at the police station, and the evidence of the 2 men who saw her being almost run down by 2 guys whom they could not identify--but who certainly weren't Eva. Now he just needs the bloody handprint and the police detective's stopwatch timing and he will not just have gotten Eva off but conclusively proved her evidence. Also, he obviously has the sympathy of both the judge and the jury. Way to go, Pablo! Really creepy scene of predator trying to drug both his wife and stepdaughters. I'm betting the older girl will throw out the drink and call Marisol--but who knows. I too think that Adriana will not go through with the abortion, but it may be because the fetus is so damaged from drugs that she miscarries instead. Or her "abortion" may be like Wendy Davis's--the removal of a dead fetus. I can actually understand Bobby's not wanting to raise an offspring of Andy--i.e. a spawn of Satan--but it probably won't be necessary. Another wonderful scene of Pancho advising Bobby. That man is a saint!
 

Eva. Proved her innocence, that is.
 

Eva. What upsets me (mildly) is that now that Gran hermano has finished, there will only be 1 week of Eva repeats at 11 PM Central.
 

Eva

SpanProf, thanks for mentioning Evil Stepfather's attempt to drug the girl. I am a bit confused. I know he put something in his wife's wine. But did he drug both the girls or only the older one? If that's what he did (only one girl), what's to prevent the younger one realizing what is going on. I agree, since she took the drink to her room, that she's probably not going to drink it. What would be great is if she saved it as evidence!

I was wondering if Pablo was going to present the hospital video to the two witness guys so they could get a gander at Andy and recognize him as the guy chasing Sofía. But that evidence might not be permitted, as it's part of evidence of a crime that wasn't even called a crime, Carmen's death.
 

Eva

Thanks, novelera, for a fine mini-recap and thanks too to SpanProf for insightful comments. Sorry I haven't been able to comment until now. I spent all day at the hospital with mi esposo, who had an operation on his back. It seems to have gone very well. I'm exhausted but much relieved.

Novelera, I think Evil Stepfather put stuff in both girls' glasses, as well as in his adoring wife's wine glass. Fortunately, one of the girls (I think it was the one who seemed most affected by Marisol's talk) said she was tired and took the glass up to her room. We don't know whether she realizes that it's been drugged, nor whether she'll drink it in her room (turning Viewerville's cheers to groans).
 

Eva

Another mini-cap just to get the conversation started.

Eva arrives in time to talk Andrea out of the abortion. [I’m sorry. I hate the way they did this. They made the abortion clinic sordid. And some woman who looked like a prostitute is there at the same time. They made it look like Adriana would have been scarred for life.]

La Alacrana seems to be worried Adriana aborted the meal ticket for her brother.

Pablo, Martín, JJ and Marisol get there in time to save the young girl from Evil Stepfather. And the girls’ mother is convinced of his guilt. It appears Camila will be freed soon.

When Eva leaves for the trial, Soraya and Pancho are about to leave as well for Texas, I think. Something to do with the contamination lawsuit. They had waaay too emotional a parting scene. As I said before, they BETTER not kill off Pancho and/or Soraya. I hope they're just trying to get our blood pressure elevated.

Armando despises Marlene at this point in the novela. He tells her he spent the night with another woman. And the only woman he respected enough to lie about his infidelities was Eva.

Fajardo is terrific in his testimony in Eva’s trial. He states it’s virtually impossible for Eva to have killed Sofía, raced to the pallets to hide the weapon, and gotten back there before Evencio returned. He also mentions the man’s handprint.

Betty comes to the courthouse to poison Evencio’s mind that Pablo might be willing to let him be blamed for Sofía’s death to save Eva. We don’t see what Evencio decides, but I think Fajardo’s testimony would serve even if Evencio runs off without testifying.
 

EVA
Thank you novelera and everybody else who's been keeping this conversation rolling forward. I guess we saw the prevailing telenovela ethos surrounding the issue of abortion played out last night. I think it's realistic that a desperate teenager would opt out of an unwanted and potentially disastrous pregnancy (threat of drug-induced damage, being too immature to handle responsibility, etc). But I don't think I've ever seen abortion handled with dispassion in the world of TNs. And I'm not even sure the bias against it has anything to do with religion, but rather the culture at large. As novelera and I discussed earlier, I hope my remarks are not offensive to any of our readers, and if the discussion of a hot topic like this causes discord among the group, we would be best off to drop it.

Having said that, I think the real point of it all was to demonstrate Eva's boundless love for her children. Notice she never criticized Adri for her callowness or self-centeredness. She just opened her arms to her and in so doing, perhaps taught her about the unconditional commitment that motherhood entails. (I personally think Adri would be better off waiting for a time when she IS ready and wouldn't have to suffer the remorse, guilt & shame that characterizes this "toxic" pregnancy. And speaking of toxic pregnancies, our girl with toxemia sure put on a good show last night terrorizing Evencio before his testimony. Yikes! He's done a great job of sobering up and setting things to rights; I don;t think he has the emotional (or intellectual) wherewithal to stand up to such an assault.


 

EVA
And furthermore...just remembered the part where Eva, hugging the tear-streaked Adri, spoke about how she didn't see Fabi as damaged in any way. Instead that she lit up her life, was her "sol". So beautiful, what a tear-jerker! I was a mess over that scene.
 

Eva. Thanks for the succinct but pithy mini-recap, novelera and the excellent comments by Juanita and LXV. I hope your husband's back heals quickly, Juanita. My husband too has back problems but has so far been able to avoid surgery. Very satisfying scene when the predator got taken down and arrested! And what an incredible older stepdaughter! Great job of not drinking the drugged drink, of calling Marisol and pretty much holding off the jerk until help could arrive! I hope there were cameras outside the courtroom filming Betty trying to scare Evencio out of testifying. Thank goodness that his testimony now seems a bit less necessary than it was. I hope Eva's acceptance of Adriana's pregnancy doesn't mean that Adri won't miscarry--especially given all the horrendous drugs that Andy forced on her and that could make Fabiola's high-functioning autism seem like nothing. And is it too much to hope for that Armando will beat Andy to a pulp? I believe that Pancho's lawyer had gotten a change of venue to Arizona, so he and Soraya won't be driving quite as far. Touching scene when Bobby, thinking things over in his room, accepts what Pancho had told him about what it means to be a real man and calls Adri, presumably to tell her that he accepts her baby to raise as his.
 

EVA

SpanProf Agreed!: "I hope Eva's acceptance of Adriana's pregnancy doesn't mean that Adri won't miscarry--especially given all the horrendous drugs that Andy forced on her and that could make Fabiola's high-functioning autism seem like nothing."

Why has la Alacrana not yet fired the two maids she finds so distasteful and inconvenient? In what capacity is she the deuña of that casa? I'm worried about Noemi. Also, I noticed that Berta's name was Soler, when they called her as witness. So she's a real tía after all, on Eva's side.
 

Eva. Of course, the first thing Adriana needs to do now that her family knows about her pregnancy is to see an actual doctor.
 

Eva

I suspect the continuing employment of Celeste and Noemi is so they can bear witness to some of the goings on at Eva's former home.

I think Evencio will stand firm and that the worried expression on his face was a red herring. I like the way they've shown his increasing affection for Diego. He isn't exactly a shining star of enlightenment, and made at least one inappropriate comment about the child. His stay with Pablo and Martín has done lots for him. He's staying off the booze. He's seeing how a loving family functions. He loved Sofía, but I suspect Carmen's toxic jealousy of her sister didn't make for a happy home.

I'd like to see Armando give Andy another beatdown. I'd like to see her tell her father in the same trembling, sobbing way she told her mother about Andy forcing drugs down her. I don't think he's ever really known about that. He didn't buy Marlene's attempts to portray her as the one choosing to use drugs over poor Andy's vain attempts to stop her. But, knowing exactly what the two of them plotted to do to his child, I don't think he's fully aware. He hates Andy and doesn't want him near his child, but he needs to know what really went down.

Terrific idea, SpanProf, that Betty's conversation with Evencio could have been filmed.

Too bad Betty couldn't be in the courtroom to watch Pablo dice up the prosecutor she'd tried to push into a high level of zealousness.

LXV, we're obviously on the same page about Adriana's pregnancy. I agree we'll just leave it at that. One thing is for sure, assuming Adriana gives birth to a child, healthy or not, she'll have a STRONG support system in place. Bertha has been a major caregiver for Fabiola for many years and would be delighted to care for a baby while Adriana went to school.

I can also see Soraya as a very happy grandmother, even if the child is not Bobby's.
 

Eva

Many thanks, novelera, for another excellent mini-recap, and many thanks, too, to LXV, SpanProf, and you for the terrific ensuing discussion. I don't have anything to add, except to say that I too am still hoping that Adri miscarries. The writers did a good job of making the case for keeping the baby, as I think we all expected that they would. But for all the reasons others have already expressed, I hope that when Adri has a baby, it will be when she's ready to be a mother, and when the father is someone she loves rather than detests. And, of course, I want to see Marlene thwarted in her plan to benefit from the baby's existence.
 

Eva

thanks so much novelera!

I'm pretty much watching the show next day online so I can have captions, so I'm trailing along behind you guys, love reading everyone's comments.

the legal term Pablo used the day before that seemed to impress the judge was "mutatis mutandis".

I was totally mesmerized by the continuous string of insidious comments Marlene was coming up with as Eva was flipping through the address book, and totally amazed when Eva walked right passed her, stopped, turned, and spit on the back of her dress, or was it the floor?

and even more amazed to see the flashback of Armando delivering Adriana in the drivers seat of Eva's rig, pulled over while they were on the road, that's love.

Teresa, the abused girl, I believe she said it was going to happen AGAIN, as if she had already been through this scenario before, brave of her to fight back, but wow, this would be really terrifying.

I noticed Martin had his gun, so his license is ok, and Marisol had hers, not sure what her real job is but the equivalent of a policewoman, and of course Lawyer Pablo had his phone cam on, and JJ picks the locks, the fabulous four! (with Evencio in the wings)

Bobby and Adriana are doing this young people come of age thingy to a T, and that thing Adri does rolling those teared eyes to look off into space, speaks volumes.

I can see Betty the DA taking down the worst serial killers in the world, what went wrong here?

 

Eva. Marisol seems to be a District Attorney's Office investigator--like Munsch on Law and Order SVU or the job Brenda leaves the police department for in The Closer.
 

SECRETOS

I caught up on all the episodes of this and it is good. It is very suspenseful and interesting, and I usually don't like mysteries, and has that heavy touch of realism Turkish dramas seem to always possess.

It's about the kidnapping of a teen, Efren, and how his family and household members' secrets may or may not have contributed to his kidnapping. The guy who played Erdogan in Fatmagul plays the kidnapped teen's dad and he's still shady in Secretos, though not as despicable as he was in Fatmagul.

One funny thing, though: the hero, the investigator trying to bring the kidnapped teen Efren home, keeps getting knocked upside the head by the baddies whenever he gets too close to solving the mystery.
 

Secretos

J desde NYC- there are some recaps and comments here,
http://5ftlatina.com/cohete/

 

Thank you, Deb for the tip to see 5FtLatina's page. I am so commenting there.