Caray, Caray!

Silvana

I'll put up a few lines - just the facts. I have book club tonight, but it's near my house, unlike the other one where I have to drive a ways.
 

SILVANA – JUEVES

Benji is going over Angie’s homework and being very flattering. Lupita gives him a list of boyfriend traits she wants him to have, while he smiles in an amused and indulgent manner.

Catalina comes to the Fish Market and we hear some wolf whistles. Poncho and Dominique tell her where to find Chivis, and Poncho escorts her personally.

Said Chivis is in the office with Less Than Stellar Stella in the most ghastly leopard print outfit I’ve ever seen. I swear my eyes bled. The motormouth keeps insulting Chivis, insinuating that she’s a hussy who went after Manuel. They start shoving. Poncho comes in and grabs the nutcase, who also tries to attack Cata.

After Poncho drags LTS (less than stellar) out, Cata tells Chivis she can’t believe what just happened. Hearing Manuel used to be with her, she’s aghast, saying that LTS looks like una teibolera (table dancer). Manuel comes in and Cata just about drools. She says she’s come to tell them she’s having a big party and she wants the three of them to collaborate on the food.

Manuel had found out what LTS did. He brings up the subject. Chivis is very upset that he told La Loca about being in love with her. She’s afraid of some tire slashing or worse. He explains that he had to try to get her to stop pursuing him. They do make up.

OK, Benji and the hotties in his convertible issue is solved. He’s not interested in Angie at all. He’s pursuing her as a favor to Margarita. Apparently he has a seduction reputation worse than Vicente’s. [Manuel told Jorge he shouldn’t make Margarita suffer. I disagree. The witch deserves to suffer. She wants Angie to fall madly in love with Benji. Then she grinned and said he then could wave bye-bye.]

Lucha tells Vicente she saw Majo and Andrés kissing at the college coffee shop. He’s very upset, of course. He bursts out that he doesn’t see what MJ sees in Andy. Lucha says she doesn’t see what Andy sees in MJ. These two are very good as brother and sister. Lucha senses something more in Vicente’s attitude, but he doesn’t say they were lovers.

Jennifer shows up with an ultrasound. She’s as insufferable as ever. She has Poncho running back and forth bringing her food. Stella’s totally on her side, telling Poncho he has to respond as a father. She also says Poncho and Jennifer can have her room when she moves in with Manuel [!]

Dominique is funny. Jennifer left the ultrasound. Dom looks at it and says the fetus looks like a rodent; he holds it up to Poncho and says Poncho does as well; he's the father! Poncho tells him if he doesn’t shut it he’ll ask Jennifer and the kids to move back in!

We get another balcony scene. Chivis is worried about what her daughters will think about their relationship. [As well she should since LTS already told her male roommates she was going to tell her daughters about their mother being a loose woman.] Manuel manages to cheer her up. He tells her he wants to take her camping. This does not thrill Chivis. Then he FINALLY asks if he can tutearla. She smiles and tells him yes. His first phrase: ¡Te amo!


Andrés and Majo are riding somewhere in his car. He stops the car, telling her he feels like it’s time for the next step. He wants them to make love.
 

Silvana

wow novelera, tell it like it is, you are the master!

speaking of rodents, did MaJo swallow one when Andres asked her about going to the next step?

 

Silvana. Excellent recap, novelera. You hit all the high points and then some! "Less than stellar Stella"--Love it! Also, "I swear my eyes bled." I totally do not buy the plot twist of Benji romancing Angie at Margarita's request. As they say in the tn's: "No manches, guey!' I mean, it's good to know that Benji's a womanizer and not a pimp, but if Margarita knows he's the neighborhood don Juan, why wouldn't Jorge? And even if he is a womanizer, if he doesn't change his ways to have a chance with Angie, he's an idiot! She is absolutely the best female character in the novela. And really, does Margarita have that kind of power with the under-20-year-old galáns of the neighborhood? (Another thing we learn is that Benji isn't 20 yet, so he must be a freshman or sophomore in college). At any rate, you are right novelera, what she is doing is evil and she deserves to suffer.
 

Silvana. She's a telenovela villainess in a school girl's uniform!
 

Silvana

J and novelera, thanks VERY much for your wonderful recaps. I've finally gotten to see an episode (Thursday's). Novelera, you really nailed it. And I love all your extremely accurate references to She-Whose-Name-Should-Not-Be-Mentioned: "Less Than Stellar" St---a (aka LTS), "motormouth," and "nutcase." With each one, I mentally shouted "YES!"

And then there's Margarita, whom SpanProf nailed beautifully as "a telenovela villainess in a school girl's uniform." What a perra! I totally agree with you, novelera, Margarita deserves to suffer. Oh well, where do I go to turn in my TeamBenji uniform? For Angie, better the wuss than the weasel. Though she really deserves better than either.

And thanks, too, for "una teibolera." I couldn't remember what it meant, so I went to look it up but misspelled it, so I didn't get any result.

I was a bit surprised that it was Andrés who suggested that he and Majo make love. Ever since she decided to go back to Andrés, I've been expecting that SHE would suggest to him that they do so, in order to mask any problem that might result from her becoming pregnant via Vicente. My guess now is that she'll "give in" to Andrés's suggestion, either right away or when she finds out she may be pregnant.
 

SILVANA:

Many thanks for the last few recaps, J and Novelera!

I missed the first 15 minutes of this last episode, so I missed learning that Benji is on M-Arg!'s payroll. Ugh! What a beyotch. Each episode makes me love Angie more. She has been a rock for Chivis. She deserves WAY more than either Benji or Jorge. Can we have bachelor #3?

I actually don't think MJ will have sex with Andres. I think she will find any excuse she can not to. I had to concur with Lucha, questioning what in the world Vicente and Andres see in her. I certainly don't see the charm. Especially not when she's acting like a 5 year old and disrespecting her mother.
 

Silvana

Thanks for the recap, novelera!

So long Team Benji. We hardly knew ya. I still don't understand how Margarita knows Benji when Jorge doesn't...

Looks like we'll have another large party soon, to raise money for Juanito's family. Did Manuel mention a salsa competition?
 

Silvana

J, that's right. They're planning to have to benefit for Juanito and his family at the salsadromo. I don't remember if he talked about a salsa contest, but he did mention being a decent salsa dancer. I have looked at that cartoony list of cast members a couple of times, and he has the best moves there. When he danced with Silvana at the welcome-to-the neighborhood party, it was a slow dance so we didn't see Ponce dancing. He's from Puerto Rico, so I suspect he is quite good at salsa dancing.
 

Silvana

have A benefit. Proofread, novelera!
 

Silvana sin Lana - Friday, September 16 - Capítulo 43, part 1/2

Majo lies to Andrés about how important it is to her to still be a virgin when she gets married, so she wants them to wait on the whole having sex thing.

The next morning, Majo has trouble loading the van with the coolers so she asks Vicente for help. He refuses, saying she needs to learn to do it by herself. She doesn't understand why he's acting strange. He thought he knew her, but he was wrong. She already got back together with Andrés, practically the same day that they were together. She reminds him that he knew it was going to happen, and he has no idea how hard everything is for her. Vicente is the only person she has never lied to in her life. He admits to messing things up with her [umm, how? pretty sure Majo did everything wrong...], but she knows that he still cares about her, right? He's upset but he wants her to be happy. So he advises her to learn how to do things on her own, and moves the cooler even farther away from the van.

Lucha invites Mauro to the benefit for Juanito's family at the salsodromo. They are laughing and getting along great when Andrés interrupts to talk to Lucha alone. She already knows that he and Majo are back together, and she thinks they should keep their distance because of how Majo is. Andrés is a bit upset that she doesn't want to be his friend anymore.

Chivis and Manuel are in the office when Stella comes in. She keeps going on about how Chivis was wrong to get between her and Manuel after she was sooooo nice to Chivis. Majo comes to get Chivis so they can leave with the deliveries, but Stella stops them from leaving just to tell Majo that there's something going on between Manuel and Chivis. She's always flirting with him even though she's married. Stella will leave them alone to talk as a family. To Majo, she says cuando el camarón lleva corriente, el agua se duerme which the English subtitles translated as "there's plenty of fish in the sea." The actual expression is camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente (the current takes the shrimp that sleeps - you snooze, you lose).

Chivis tries to convince Majo that there's nothing going with Manuel and that her decision to leave AJ has nothing to do with Manuel. Majo doesn't believe her. Chivis suddenly decides that they will no longer work at the terminal because she's tired of the Stella situation. She asks Vicente to help Majo while she's gone delivering orders. Majo tells him they aren't going to work there anymore.

Don Benito asks Trini to help him sell things at the event for Juanito's family. She agrees. He calls her an angel, kisses her, and runs out.

Lucha returns to lunch with Mauro. She is obviously upset and he asks again if there was ever anything between her and Andrés. She eventually admits she used to like him.

Benji asks Angie to go to Juanito's party with him. He'll teach her how to dance salsa. She gets a little nervous and heads downstairs to get juice. While she's gone, he texts Margarita en el salsódromo me la rumbeo (she'll fall for me?? at the salsodromo) and she replies asegúrate que Jorge te vea (make sure Jorge sees you).

Majo tells Vicente about what Stella said. Vicente retorts that it will never work anyway - fresas with fresas and nacos with nacos, right? Majo protests that she's being serious. Vicente eggs her on; that's her argument for not being with him, isn't it? They get back to talking about their parents. Chivis has decided to divorce AJ, and Majo thinks it's because of Manuel. Vicente asks if that's even possible when the other person isn't even around, and Majo replies yes, apparently it is. Majo is upset that if what Stella says is true, that means her mother is being unfaithful to her father. Vicente notes the irony: Perdon, pero qué horas traes (sorry, but look who's talking). Majo protests that her mother is married and she is single, so it's completely different.
 

Silvana sin Lana - Friday, September 16 - Capítulo 43, part 2/2

Mauro cheers Lucha up a little, calling Andrés menso (stupid). He suggests they go to class to get her mind off him, and offers to make Andrés jealous by giving her un par de besucones (a bunch of kisses) in front of him.

Benji asks Angie why she seems nervous around him. She's not sure what she's feeling, and he's always being flirtatios and trying to speed things up between them. Benji decides to take the first step and kisses her, just as Lupita comes in and sees them.

Angie is a little angry. Benji backs off and asks if she still likes Jorge and if he should step aside. Does she want to be with him (Benji) or not?

Lupita runs next door to tell Pedrito what she saw, and of course Jorge hears all about the kiss between Benji and Angie.

Angie likes being friends with Benji, and she needs more time to see if anything develops between them. She doesn't want to force things. Benji assures her that he can trust her [what a good liar!], and they get back to studying.

Even though Jorge totally doesn't care about the kiss, he keeps asking Lupita questions. Was it romantic? Did it last long? Did Angie seem happy? He leaves and Lupita asks Pedrito if they can talk about their own relationship. They head to the kitchen for ice cream.

Trini is in confession with the padre. She admits to having feelings for a man who is not her (dead) husband. The padre assures her it is not a sin and she asks if he's a hippie. He knows that she likes Don Benito.

Jorge goes to see Margarita but Juanito stops him to talk about the fire and asks him if he'll make a promotional video for the benefit.

Chivis packs up her things in the office. Manuel tries to stop her from leaving. She needs to get away from Stella, from him, from everything. She doesn't want him to talk to her about love anymore, or for them to talk on the balcony, or for him to knock on the wall. Manuel says it will be impossible for him to not keep loving her. They start kissing passionately and Majo walks in.

Majo calls her mother a liar and runs off. Manuel stops Chivis from going after her. He advises her to let things calm down a little. Majo is really upset and asks Vicente to take her home and to not ask any questions.

Poncho tells Chivis where Majo went. She's afraid that Majo will tell her sisters and Trini what she saw. Manuel says he will always be there for her and they will get through this together. Chivis isn't so sure about the together part.

Jorge is really affectionate with Margarita when he finally gets past Juanito. Margarita says she has a present for him.

Stella gets the bright idea to make herself seem like a fresa, in the hopes that she will attract Manuel again. She finds a ritzy store to go shopping at, scaring off women on the street with her Stella-ness.

Trini goes to the bakery to yell at Don Benito, but does end up forgiving him for kissing her. She also agrees to go to Juanito's event with him, but only for Juanito.

Stella comes out of the shop wearing a blonde wig and green jumpsuit. She talks directly to the camera that Manuel va a tener a la top de las fresas (is going to have the best of the fresas/rich snobs).
 

Silvana. Excellent recap, J! Excellent explanations of Spanish expressions also. Yep, I'm pretty sure too that MJ was the one who did everything wrong. I agree that Benji is a convincing liar, although since we learned that he's a womanizer trying to seduce Angie at Margarita's request, he seems a lot sleazier. I'm not sure if that's the writers, or if knowing what we now know, I'm just interpreting his actions more negatively. I hope Mauro doesn't also turn out to secretly be a sleaze. Padre Sanchez seems a little frivolous for a priest. And how is Chivis going to support herself and her family if she's no longer working at the terminal?
 

SILVANA

novelera & J

Thank you for these recaps!
Maybe Benji will get run over by a bus.
Maybe Marga will find some new guy to bother.
Maybe Majo will get a brain transplant. Maybe Stella will, too.
Maybe Trini will get over herself.
Argh.... these people! (LOL)
 

Silvana. I thought of a Spanish proverb which sums up Stella's transformation (I'm feminizing it here): Mona que se viste de seda mona es. A monkey dressed in silk is still a monkey.
 

Silvana

Wonderful recap, J! I'm running out of superlatives.

I was really disappointed in Manuel last night. Stella was intolerable, and he just stood there and said next to nothing. IMHO, he should have told her her behavior was disgusting and totally inappropriate for an employee, so she's fired.

Also, given the number of times Manuel and Chivis have been interrupted in his office, I'm surprised he hasn't arranged for the door to lock automatically. People would have to knock if they want to see him. Of course, that would probably be against telenovela rules :-) .

BTW, I saw a thread in WordReference.com where someone claimed that normally rumbear just means to go dancing or go to a fiesta, but used as a reflexive verb, rumbear can mean besarse con alguien, at least in Colombia (see http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/rumbear-en-colombia.2030515/)
 

Silvana

Thanks so much, J, for the terrific recap! I need some sort of slow-down device on my TV when Less-than-Stellar speaks. From what you wrote, it sounds like she committed a malapropism on the “shrimp that sleeps” saying. On that one I just let it wash over me and made no effort to understand, so thanks for the translation!

Good point, Juanita, about Manuel just letting Stella rant to Chivis and Majo. The appropriate thing to do would have been to absolutely crush her by saying that he broke up with her because she’s totally unappealing and something he would have done if Chivis had never become his neighbor. But, it sort of seems like he has some residual guilt about the breakup and doesn’t ever figuratively slap her down.

I guess the writers are going to let Majo continue to behave awfully toward her mother until some time waaaay in the future when she finally reforms. Chivis should not have lied to her, of course. I guess this is meant to show the extreme moral values of a telenovela good-girl. She thinks seeing Manuel while married to AJ is a sin, so she CAN tell the girls she’s separating but not yet that she loves someone else. Maybe now she’ll be forced to own up.

I agree. It’s stupid that she has to stop selling fish because of what Majo saw.

Incidentally I’m confused about the hierarchy at the Fish Market. They call it the “Terminal”. But several times, especially when Stella was Miss Havishaming in her room, it was remarked that she, Dom and Poncho were losing money because the fish was rotting. So I’ve sort of had the impression that the Terminal was like a center where each vendor had a station and sold their own fish. But they call Manuel jefe so he appears to run the place. Vicente sells the fish at a station, presumably the Gallardo station. Oh well, telenovelas don’t spend much time elaborating on ANY character’s method of earning a living. When they do have jobs, they spend nearly every moment gossiping. plotting, or kissing one another!

Jorge could barely spend a moment speaking with Juanito because he needed to rush inside and start kissing Margarita in order to convince himself he doesn’t mind about Benji and Angie.

God, Stella is an idiot! She transforms herself into Silvana’s twin. That outfit she had on looked quite a bit like the black one Silvana wore, complete with the long necklace that had a silver tassel on the end. I expected an expensive outfit, but thought she'd get her own hair straightened. That would have been a better look than the cheap, doll-hair wig she ended up with.

I hope the benefit at the salsadromo is Monday so I get to recap it!
 

SIN SENOS II summary part I

I agree with Deb that this sequel has been awesome! Since I don't know Spanish and my local station has had English subtitle problems, I couldn't do it justice in recapping. Sequels can be boringly derivative and implausible, but this one is doing a good job exploring the heartbreaking loose ends of the original series. While I understood Cata I's fury with her many betrayers, besotted well-meaning Pelambre didn't deserve being set up as her assassination plotter. When police saw his name as her cell phone caller, I wondered if they would soon arrest him. His story turned out to be much, much sadder.

Cata I's demise made Hilda and Albiero determined to raise little sister Cata II to be her opposite. Alas, living near Yesica's enabling mother doomed Cata II also. Cata II can't outrun the toxic rivalry of Yesica's spoiled daughter Daniela, born after greedy conniving Yesica ratted out her father Marcial to the DEA.

Madam turned mobster Yesica terrorizes the town living off Marcial's wealth while he rots in a U.S. prison. Her brat is livid that local crush Hernan prefers sweet Cata II over her surgically enhanced brattiness. Yesica marries the mayor and has Hilda, Albiero, Cata II and Hernan arrested just for being alive and naturally cuter. Mysterious copies of Cata I's marriage certificate to Marcial pop up everywhere to torment Yesica about her ill-gotten "marital wealth."

When fed-up Cata II learns her real family history, she plots revenge with the daughters of Cata I's pre-paid girlfriends. Ximena tells her the sad saga of loyal Pelambre who has been keeping a Hachi-like vigil for Cata I for the past 18 years by visiting every Thursday the cafe where Cata I tricked him into assassinating her as Yesica's double. Cata II, her friends and Ximena take a bus to Bogota to stake out Pelambre's next visit. They sit at Cata I's famous last spot and Pelambre approaches them to recount the tragic tale of his lost love. Cata II reveals her identity and recruits guilt-ridden suicidal Pelambre to assassinate Yesica yet again. He accompanies them back home and talks his way into Yesica's old barrio house where he shoots her. Her body guards shoot him, and I assumed he was dead.

Not quite. Yesica’s husband has him revived so she can torture him for info on Cata I whom she fears is still alive. Then he dies again!

Not quite! -- his “torturer” Franklin is an infiltrator planted by non other than his ex-boss, the DEA-released Marcial who has promised Yesica’s head in exchange. Marcial has been secretly meeting with Hilda, Albiero, Cata II, Yesica-ruined journalist Daniel and girlfriend Lucia to line up his ducks for revenge and rescue brat Daniela from her monster mother.

Sadly, Cata II has been side-plotting her own revenge by agreeing to sell herself to mobster Gato Gordo for hit man-hiring money which Pelambre would have refused anyway! If only she had re-introduced Pelambre to Marcial instead!!

--Mary
 

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 

Sin Senos

Mary, I think it's great that you've offered a summary of Sin Senos II. I'm not watching that novela, but I think others are and will be happy to have your summary. I'm writing mostly to respond to what you said at the end about previews. Some time ago, I was told that the policy on the Telemundo y Más page is not to talk about previews. Surely the world won't come to an end by your having done so, but I think in the future it would be better not to.
 

Sin Senos

Juanita, thanks for your advice. I will follow it and remind everyone that previews are often misleading smoke and mirror teasers anyway.

--Mary
 

SIN SENOS: @Mary. Hi, I am the moderator of this page and I just noticed that you posted what appears to be a preview. Not to make heavy weather over this issue (I don't particularly mind them myself), but out of respect for our Telemundo audience's stated preference, I will have to ask you to edit your post to remove the preview verbiage. Please don't take umbrage and don't take it personally. This is a long-standing policy over here. So no hurt feelings? Please.

Oh and by the way, welcome! I am a bit of a stranger during the summer because of no Wi-Fi or TV, so we haven't met before. Thanks for your generous summaries on Sin Senos. I'll be back in regular communication in a month or so and look forward to reading more from you.
 

SIN SENOS

LXV, hanks for your very kind words, but YIKES! -- my outdate internet browser and OS won't allow me to edit posted comments! Can you delete the last paragraph of my Part II summary? If you are able to do so (or know how I can do that), I would be very grateful.

If not, keep in mind that I don't know Spanish and there were no English subtitles for the previews, so I was guessing based on images. And recent previews turned out to be misleading teaser fantasies.

--Mary
 

Oops!

"LXV, hanks" should be "LXV, thanks" and "outdate internet" should be "outdated internet." Sorry for the misspellings.

--Mary
 

SIN SENOS @ Mary, Yes, I will take care of it. Thanks for pointing me to the exact spot. It's not just you, nobody can edit an already posted comment except the actual owner of the blog. The best I can do is to copy it and re-post after deleting the preview part. Since I have good wi-fi and a reliable browser (for the moment) I'll be happy to do this.

And I'm also more than happy & relieved that you did not take offense at our wacky rules around here. Actually, it's only one of about 3 or 4 (mostly having to do with respect for others). In the future, I'll try to remember to post a reminder up front.

JUANITA, are you listening? It might be a good idea to remind our fabulous audience & contributors about the "no previews" rule when we put up the pages each week.
 

SIN SENOS II summary part II edited post from (Saturday, September 17, 2016 at 8:29:00 PM EDT) 

Because Cata II didn’t re-acquaint the estranged duo, Pelambre is REALLY, REALLY DEAD THIS TIME! Big time bummer! Pelambre deserved peaceful later years for all of his lonely heartache, even if he was a hit man. He was a hit man with a big, big heart.

Franklin pretends to bury “dead” Pelambre, then helps him escape. But at Franklin’s safe house, where kidnapped and tortured “dead” Lucia has already escaped to, tortured Pelambre doesn’t survive. At least Lucia summons Marcial to bid him a kind farewell. Marcial and just released Titi give him a respectful burial.

Marcial has meanwhile kidnapped his daughter Daniela for deprogramming. Cata II herself is missing because of her foolish money deals with Gato’s pimp Martina. Martina drugs her so she can be involuntarily surgically enhanced with the dreaded silicone implants that ruined her older sister.

Hilda and Albiero believe Yesica has kidnapped Cata II and Yesica believes they have kidnapped Daniela. Meanwhile, smarmy pedophile Octavio, lawyer/politician/confidante of Cata I and Yesica, has been playing both families off against each other and continually outsmarts himself. Yesica has him arrested and police find child porn on his computers. He tries to placate Yesica with tales of seeing Cata I AFTER her famous death.

Previews are very misleading because they often turn out to be teaser dreams or fantasies. A recent preview tricked fans into thinking bad-guy-turned-good-guy Marcial shot our beloved Hilda to save his bratty daughter. That turned out to be a dark worry of Marcial who wisely declined Hilda’s request to meet up with kidnapped bully Daniela.

--Mary

 

SIN SENOS & GENERAL:

LXV, thanks so much for fixing my problematic Part II Summary! A "no spoilers" rule can mean to some confused folks: "Please don't divulge the printed book's ending or original Turkish or Portuguese language telenovela ending." There have already been many versions of Sin Senos by Gustavo Bolivar himself. And actors have switched roles in the different versions.

--Mary
 

LXV, we're really on the same wavelength. A couple of hours ago, before I read your suggestion, I prepared the Telemundo y Más pages for the coming week, and I added a short statement about the "no talking about previews" policy.

They say that great minds think alike--and apparently not-so-great minds as well. :-)
 

I agree that I prefer to not know what the previews show. This is one thing I miss about the (apparently) now-defunct telenovelaworld site; spoilers could be posted in a manner that they did not show until the reader took a pro-active step and highlighted them in their own screen in order to read them.
 

GENERAL CONVERSATIONS:
Doris, what a great idea! I wish we could do such a thing easily. But we are stuck with the antediluvian blogger platform. Not that I'm complaining, because actually it is quite easy-to-use, if awkward. Bells & whistles can be a mixed blessing from an administrator's point of view. And since coming over to the Telemundo "side", I've come to appreciate the "no previews" custom. It makes the denouement more satisfying if it comes without any hints other than my own wild imagination. I know there are lots of people who would enjoy being able to sneak a peek, but it wouldn't be a trouble-free set-up technically. And I wouldn't want to invite the nightmares that some of us have had to clean up from all kinds of internet gremlins live & virtual.
 

LXV - I agree. The blogger type format is limited and I am grateful for what we have: this nice Patio of telenovela addicts with whom we can discuss (or barf about-LOL) our telenovelas. :-)