Caray, Caray!

SILVANA – JUEVES

This will be a brief recap of a “nails on a blackboard” episode except for the scene with Manuel and Chivis. There’s probably 20 minutes of Trini being absolutely insufferable.

Jonas comes to the Terminal. I get bored to distraction while he’s trying to find Poncho. Well, Dom has an interesting rainbow flag headgear, so there’s that. We discover that Jonas has come to warn Poncho to not put a foot wrong with his daughter. He’s packing heat.

Lucha takes losing the election well and tells Andrés that she’s going to spend the time she’s regained helping out in pediatric hospitals. Andrés offers to help.

Don Benito is suffering along with some tango music. We see Trini trilling with joy as a maid (in one of those uniforms Trini loves so much) serves her a lavish breakfast. Don Benito calls, she puts him on speaker to feed her face and crow about how great it is to be back in Coral Gables. When he wants the address to come visit her, she pretends there’s a bad connection and hangs up on him.

AJ comes to the charter school and meets with that sub-director who was trying to kick Angie out of school. She’s actually pretty tolerable this time. He announces he’s taking Lupita out of school to put her back in her former private school. He seems to think he’s doing the woman a big favor by leaving Angie there, with her good grades. He says something about this being a secret [?] Am I imagining things or has AJ’s hair gotten browner since he was sprung? It was gray when he went in.

Manuel is brooding in his office. Chivis runs right into his arms. They have a complete reconciliation, although she does slip up by saying she returned to “our house”. She assures him she loves him but again talks about going slowly because of the girls. They have a very cute scene. They kiss, a lot. And we see Stella peeking through some glass window I don’t remember being there before. Anyway she takes a cell phone picture. Three guesses who’s going to get a copy?

Now begins the ghastly scene with Trini, who is poolside with María José. She airily wonders why some people have good taste and lots of nice things, while others have bad taste and no money. Majo’s eyes are rolling in her head. Majo finally tells her granny that she loves Vicente, which triggers the unendurable monologue by Trini. The gist of it is that love is just temporary “enthusiasm” and a girl as pretty as Majo needs to use what she’s got to nail down a rich husband.

Angie and Jorge are thrilled to be reunited at school. They are billing and cooing when Margarita walks up dripping with sarcasm and venom (but smiling broadly) wondering if Angie thinks she can continue to be Jorge’s girl friend.

Vicente shows up at the house in Coral Gables. Majo jumps into his arms, deliriously happy to see him.
 

Silvana

Thank you! I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed that AJ has been working some Grecian Formula magic on his hair. Maybe they wanted him to be more age appropriate for Chivis since he did seem a little too old for her in the earlier episodes.

 

La Doña

AG tells Margarita she has people that will take care of Miguel, but don't tell anyone we talked, especially Saul, Miguel will kill him like your mother.

cop Gabino offers Monica protection, but she thinks he wants more and turns him away, we later see him at city hall asking a lady sitting there who's in charge of street vendors and she tells him about the scene Monica made and points out the guy, later he catches up with the guy outside, jacks him up and tells it like it is, and "next time my friend comes for a permit, you give it to her on the spot".

Saul runs into AG while she is still at the hospital, looking at pictures of Miguel, she hides her phone, makes up excuses for being there

Braulio tries to plant his life into his crying son Diego, "we are lions, and the world is our prey", then leads him to Isabela who is heartbroken, and edges him on, "now is a good time when she is vulnerable".

Isabel tells her mother who goes to AG, all men are not bad, oh no, AG says, like the man that knocked you up and left.

Yesenia comes to see Lazaro, she wants him to take back all AG took from him, Lazaro thinks AG will make them disappear like Guillermo, he tells her Monica and AG met, but didn't talk, he wants her promise to keep her from knowing, ah but if the met, it was meant to happen, Yesenia says.

Lidya and Monica try a different corner, oops a girl owns that street and you sell her stuff, knock-offs, as her guys trash their stuff.

AG sends Braulio to Veracruz to check out Miguel, Miguel we see has another victim in his truck, he shoots her.

Saul comes home as Monica is fixing her bike (ah, Cleto she calls it, as in bicycleto?), he helps, they talk, he likes the way she cheers him up, he gives her his coat to keep her warm in the cold, cold city.

and now Saul's dad is on him too about getting close to AG, this has been an all day thing for Saul, never gonna happen, but his dreams are filled with the naked AG.

AG gets ready for her trip to Veracruz, checks her gun, as Felipe gets home, wants to know where she is going and with who, AG asks him if he is the man of the house, of course he is, as she gets close and grabs him by the privates, then you need to man up and take care of your problem.

early next morning,

AG's private jet awaits.

Saul, who is also going to Veracruz, kisses Ximena goodbye in front of Monica who is off with her father to the clinic, hoping to avoid a long line.

Felipe stumbles around drunk, is he just getting home, has AG broken another man?

ah but the clinic lines are long, and Lazaro is thirsty, Monica buys some coffee from a passing vendor, oh wait is this the doctor she has come to see, bringing coffee for the nurses?

AG arrives at Miguel's office, they meet...

 

SILVANA

I don't think I'm going to be able to see this telenovela through until the end. It moves at a glacial pace. Chivis is turning out to be a wet noodle in the face of AJ's machinations, which makes me lose sympathy for her.


 

Silvana

MANY thanks, novelera, for your heroic efforts to recap this extremely irritating episode (you got it right: "fingernails on the blackboard"!).

I have so had it with Trini! If she winds up with Don Benito (which I strongly fear she will), I think I'll vomit. She is not only so bigotted and snobbish, she's also infuriatingly insensitive and cruel. Frankly, I was less bothered by her snotty talk with Majo than by her treatment of Don Benito. Why he keeps taking her [expletive deletetd], I don't know.

Yes, I too wondered where the glass window looking into Manuel's office came from. IIRC, there's a glass window on the upper part of the door, but it has blinds that he has been keeping closed. The window last night seemed to have blinds that were opened, and below them a fairly large section where there were no blinds. I suspect the section was put there by beanie manufacturers wanting to increase their business in Viewerville.

When Lucha told Andrés that she was going to help out in pediatric clinics, did she say she was going to work with Mauro? And is that part of why Andrés offered to help?

I think this novela has a little more than four weeks to go. Often, things are at their worst during that stretch until very close to the end. I would ask "how much worse can they get?" but I know the answer. :-(
 

La Doña

Muchísimas gracias, deb, for another delightful and helpful recap. I knew that Mónica made a mistake in thinking the guy was selling the coffee he was carrying, but I missed the fact that he was bringing the coffee for the nurses. Is he really the doctor that she was waiting to see? I thought the fat guy Saúl had intimidated into treating Lázaro was the doctor she had found on the Internet and the doctor that they would be continuing to see. But I'm afraid much of the Spanish in that scene went right by me. Como siempre. :-(

What are the odds of Ximena seeing Mónica wearing Saúl's jacket?

We see AG shake Miguel's hand, and right before or after that, she has a flashback to the hand of the guy who raped her. This seems to confirm his identity for her. But can she really tell so much from a perfectly ordinary-looking hand? Or has she somehow inherited Yesenia's supernatural powers?
 

Juanita: It seems that AG's flashbacks are coming back very fierce.

What's the connection between Lazaro & Yesenia ?


 

Silvana. Excellent succinct recap, novelera, probably more than this episode deserved. :) Evidently Jonas works part-time as a security guard. It's not uncommon for the pastor of a small Protestant congregation to have a second job. Our Latin instructor is also a Methodist minister, for example. We learn from his conversation with the assistant principal that AJ is not just controlling, but pathologically controlling. He can't remove Lupita from the school on his own, though he says he's going to, and he seems to think that he can manipulate the assistant principal somehow by agreeing to leave Angie in the school and by becoming active in the parents'organization. What does he want, I wonder? Is it another way to come between Manuel and Chivis? And he must be pretty bad at math if he thinks that 1 student's good test scores in a good-sized school like that can alter the overall average by very much. MJ is right in her chat with Trini--she has changed--they all have (except possibly Trini)--and for the better. Thanks to Poncho, Manuel and Chivis at least know for sure that Stella's move was a conspiracy between her and AJ.
 

Span Prof: On "Silvana" The spoiled brat girls are just SPOILED BRATS, who love the mansion lifestyle.

They need an anvil fast!


 

Silvana

Thanks, guys, for the compliments. I would like to have written more, describing the excellent scene with Chivis and Manuel. But I had book club last night - the one that is closer to home and gets me home around 9:00. So I saw the episode but was limited to bare details.

Thanks, SpanProf, for bringing up Poncho ratting out Stella. Is it possible Chivis will grow a spine realizing these controlling moves on the part of her soon-to-be-ex husband?

I loved the last scene. Majo doing that childlike wiggling of her fingers to urge Vicente toward her, the expression on her face of pure joy, and Trini's sour expression, all were balm to me having just sat through Trini's horrible classist raving.

Juanita, in reflection, I think you're right. What Trini did to Don Benito WAS worse than what she said to Majo. And why oh why does he keep pursuing her?

Of course we're in too deep now not to see it to the end, but I'm disappointed in lots of things in this novela. Of course I almost never watch comic novelas since the broad slapstick stuff doesn't appeal to me. So maybe this one is no worse than others. But Stella forcing two adult males out of their home and herding them into another place, blindfolded, just is insane.
 

Silvana. We'll see.
 

Silvana

thanks so much novelera!

hmm, I keep waiting for Benito to pack his things and leave town with no forwarding address before she comes back, I guess I'm seeing things different than him.

I've seen the window before, back when what's-her-name would lock the door and go around closing all the blinds.

 

SILVANA

novelera - Thank you for the recrap! I'll FFWD>>> thru this until I can watch the Manuel/Chivis scene.

I just hate when a telenovela bogs down like this. This whole AJ-takes-over business is just too much, as well as Stella moving her and her two housemates into Chivis' place. Argh!!!

This is yet another telenovela where the Gran Fin is really more of a Por Fin.
 

Silvana

Doris, LOVED Gran Fin = Por Fin!
 

Silvana

doris, I second what novelera said. Whoever does the recrap for the Gran Fin should quote you.
 

Silvana

Thanks novelera for the recap! I hope tonight's episode is slightly better, or else I will also be doing a shorter than normal recap because it's so frustrating when nothing real happens. I cannot stand Trini, but it was indeed nice to see Majo finally standing up to her classisim and how happy she was to see Vicente.
 

SILVANA

J - Please do not waste any more time on a recrap than is necessary. Telemundo either has eighth graders or monkeys writing this part of the story. Ugh.
 

Silvana. Yep. We have another holiday party to go to this evening, and I can't say I'm upset about having to catch up on the episode over the week-end.
 

La Doña 9

La Doña meets with Miguel, tours his shipping business complete with ships and warehouses, and by spilling coffee on him manages to see his tattoo, along with his smell earlier, and his face, she knows he's a match, fondles her gun in her purse, will she shoot him now ??, but backs off and says they will close the deal at her office, she likes to be on familiar ground, they'll meet later.

and somewhere in there she asks about others he trusts to help out but Miguel doesn't give anyone up.

as she leaves she has to duck out of site because Saul and detective Velardo are searching him out for questioning, Saul tries to provoke him but gets kicked out, Velardo gets nothing, other than Margarita was in prison for trying to kill him and if he is found dead...

Regina tries to comfort drunk Felipe, and gets a big kiss, did he think she was AG, and she rambles on about AG breaking another man, and somehow Felipe picks up on this and wants to know who the other man was (and we see in flashbacks, Yesenia feeding him liquor, it was Lazaro) later in the day when he's up, he asks Regina if she got him into bed, and says he doesn't remember anything after that, but I couldn't tell if he was just saying that to wash away an awkward moment.

Dr. Menendez ?? turns out to be an overworked but very professional doctor who's not impressed with Monica's previous outburst, but does his job well, I didn't get all this but Lazaro can't walk because of an accident that was somehow related to his drinking, and it's easy to see living is not very far up there on his list, the doc wants some tests (expensive) and the therapy involves some kind of special custom made bike, $15,000, and Monica's face is looking as hopeless as her dads.

Marcos won't return Isabelas calls and she is trying to get AG to hurry up with her promises, to return his scholarship and have him over to house, AG has bigger things on her plate, and hangs up.

driving back to her private jet, AG stops by the sea, and begins to remember the wonderful times she had with her early boyfriend Cesar, their plans, she had decided to wait on sex (or was it having kids) but he wants a kiss in the water like their first one, and AG walks into the water,

Saul is also on his way home, the detective has nothing on Miguel but will make it a point to keep an eye on him, he calls Ximena to let her know he's coming, just before a tire blows out, and he comes to a stop behind AG's car, really?, and then sees her dive into the water...

 

La Doña

MANY thanks, deb! You're a godsend providing all these terrific recaps. I'm embarrassed at how much I miss, and thus all the more grateful to you.

Though the episode gave a slight impression that AG was going to drown herself, that of course won't turn out to be the case. I wonder, though, whether Saúl will get that impression and jump into the water to "save" her. And then....
 

Silvana sin Lana - Friday, December 9 - Capítulo 97, part 1/2

There are cute Majo/Vicente and Lucha/Andrés scenes in this episode in the first half, but also Trini, Stella, and AJ being themselves, so…

Short version: Stella finds out that Steve works for AJ. AJ won’t let Jorge visit Angie and orders him to break up with her. Chivis tells Majo she supports her relationship with Vicente.

Long version: An annoyed Trini tries to get Vicente to stop kissing Majo. She goes on and on about how they shouldn’t be together because he’s not rich, his hair is too dark, some other classist/racist excuses, etc. Vicente doesn’t get angry. He just tells her that money isn’t everything, he can dye his hair, and that he loves Majo, which is the most important thing. Trini finally gives up and heads off for more whiskey. She warns Majo not to let her father know or there will be a scandal.

Lucha and Andrés return from volunteering at the children’s hospital. They reminisce about the day they met, when she lectured him on the healthcare system. Andrés says Lucha has always been a bit intense. He jokes that he knows she just wanted an excuse to talk to him. Lucha couldn’t support snobs back then, but now she’s ok with some of them, except Majo. She apologizes for bringing up his ex. He’s fine with it. He continues joking: who is better with the kids, him or Mauro? Lucha responds that Mauro has more experience. Andrés moves to the couch next to Lucha. He has really missed volunteering. Lucha hates that word. Andrés says he’s going to give her the kiss he couldn’t give the night before to make her stop teasing him. Lucha doesn’t let him and just drives her lemonade instead.

AJ visits Stella. He talked to the owner of the house and everything is fine with her living there. She thanks him for his help and asserts that she will get Manuel back. Steve knocks on the door and both he and Stella are shocked when they see each other. Steve is obviously still in love with Stella. AJ is really annoyed that they keep talking about themselves and throws Steve out. He reminds Stella that she needs to focus on Manuel. She tells him not to worry.

Vicente and Majo keep being cute together. Trini watches from the balcony. They sit by the pool together on the lounge chair. Majo asks how he got her address. Good ol’ Google. It was easy since her father is so well-known. Majo thinks he should go before her father gets back. They take a long time saying goodbye at the van. Majo keeps telling him they need to stop and be more discreet, but then they just keep kissing. Steve drives up with Angie and Lupita. Lupita is way too gossipy and tells Steve about Majo leaving her fiancé at the altar because she liked someone else. Lupita then decides it would be funny to go over and interrupt Majo and Vicente. She asks Vicente not to tell Pedro about the house because she wants it to be a surprise. The girls go inside and Steve has the nerve to ask Vicente what he’s doing there. Vicente gets a little angry, wondering why Steve is being such a jerk. Steve tells him he’s the right-hand man of the owner and to get out of there.

Stella knocks on Manuel’s door, being inappropriate as always. She thinks they should carpool to work to save on gas. Manuel wants to know how she knew Chivis’ old place was empty. He knows she talked to AJ.

 

Silvana sin Lana - Friday, December 9 - Capítulo 97, part 2/2

Jorge wanders the streets, looking lost. He finally arrives at the mansion. AJ is outside and pretends to be nice to him but then goes on and on about how different he and Angie's worlds are. Inside, Angie is nervous about Jorge coming to see her at the mansion and doesn’t know what to wear. Angie also asks Majo why she thought it was a good idea to kiss Vicente in the driveway. Majo asks her not to tell their mom, and orders Lulu not to say anything to their dad. Lulu doesn’t understand why they don’t tell him though, since he is fine with Angie and Jorge being together. Little do they know, AJ is outside asking Jorge to do him a favor: go home, forget about Angie, and never see her again.

Jorge really doesn’t understand why AJ is different to him now. AJ tells him that he changed his mind, and literally pushes him to get him to leave. He warns him not to say anything to Angie about their conversation either.

Stella continues to be far too annoying for me to recap her scenes. She tries to get Manuel to kiss her.

Dom opens a tab at the bakery.

Don Benito tells Margarita she just has to get used to him being in love with Trini. He’s going to fight for her.

Trini continues to be far too classist for me to recap her scenes. She harasses Angie about Jorge and tells Chivis that Majo had a visit. Majo tells Chivis that Vicente came to see her, and asks her not to tell AJ. Chivis wants to talk to her in another room.

Pointless scene with Dom trying to feed a pastry to an obviously empty cage. Poncho comes home and reiterates that he and Genesis will get married and be happy. He does admit that he’s still in love with Stella and always will be, but he knows that she’s obsessed with Manuel and doesn’t stand a chance.

Cute father/daughter scene with Lucha and Manuel. She tells him she lost the election, but she’s fine.

Chivis asks Majo if she and Vicente are in a relationship and if she’s going to tell AJ. She doesn’t want Majo to regret things, start lying, screw things up, etc. like before. She just wants Majo to do things the correct way. If she wants to be with Vicente, she will support her. Majo is surprised and says what? in English.
 

Silvana

If Manuel would simply not let Stella into his duplex, we would be spared hours of nonsense dialog and stupid behavior on her part. But, I guess that would shorten the show.

Did I truly see the "Ultimas Semanas" label applied during the preview for the next episode? I hope this show ends soon and AJ/Pepe gets exposed for what he truly is.
 

Silvana

thanks so much J!

so Vicente sweated his way over to see MaJo in his fishy van where the AC doesn't work, no way would she have done that, he needs a better car, and when he wants to go for a swim with her, no way that would ruin her makeup, are we sure she's the girl for him, she's not going to be leaving that mansion anytime soon.

but I loved her whaaat??? to close out the show.

maybe it's gonna be the kids and their boyfriends that get things rolling for Chivis.

 

La Doña

oh and there was a scene with Valeria and Lopecito where she seemed to be doubting her marriage (duh?) and was asking him about his and more important did she have that essence of a woman that would attract a man, putting him in a trance, which was quickly broken when she told him to take her dresses to the cleaners.

Juanita- I was thinking the same thing, he jumps in too, but at this point does he even recognize her?

 

Silvana

A great recap, J, as always. I love your starting with a very pithy, on-target short version, and then the full recap.

AJ definitely got under my skin last night in his treatment of Jorge. And then he has the nerve to tell Jorge not to say anything about this to Angie. Jorge should have told him to go fink himself (oops, slight typo :-) ).

Glad you didn't spend a lot of time on Stella. Even Steve is too good for her. I really wish Manuel had simply slammed the door in her face.

At first, I thought Dom was talking to an empty dog cage, but when he put the roll from the bakery inside the cage, didn't Javito attack and grab at least half of it? Or am I thinking of a different stupid episode. It's hard to keep them straight.

Well, Don Benito does seem to be growing a pair. Too bad it's for such a worthless cause.

Yes, Gobluefan, we're apparently now officially in long-overdue Últimas Semanas. However, that usually still leaves about four weeks to go. Eventually, we'll get to Últimos Capítulos. And then [Por] Fin (thanks, doris!).




 

La Doña

Good question, deb. I assumed that Saúl did recognize AG, but then again, given his determination to Save the World, he'd probably jump in to rescue anyone.
 

Silvana

Thanks, J, for another terrific recap. I also like your brief news headline at the beginning. It prepares us for the drivel to follow!

I’d scream out loud at Trini’s behavior if I weren’t afraid my very nice next door neighbors with two cute kids wouldn’t call the police to apprehend the burglar who is in the process of murdering me. To quote MJ: OH MY GOD! Majo is an adult. What grandmother in the world would not leave the area when the girl’s boyfriend shows up and they start kissing?

Well Manuel, in some ways, resembles Chivis in his inability to get up in his tormenter’s face. I agree with GoBlueFan and Juanita. Why doesn’t he just shut the door in Stella’s face? And he was way too subtle bringing up her alliance with AJ to ruin his relationship with Chivis.

Steve and Stella, besides sounding like a music duo from the 50s, are made for each other. Both of them couldn’t find a scruple between them with a microscope. Steve is willing to spy on Chivis and her daughters. And, Stella, well, let me count the ways.

Poor Jorge. He did try to stand up for himself with AJ, but he’s a gentle soul to begin with and how many boys his age would push past an overbearing guy like AJ to see Angie. I HOPE they’re not going with Angie thinking he stood her up. At least they’ll still be attending school together, giving plenty of opportunities to iron this stuff out. Please, please writers, don’t let Jorge obey the jackass and not tell Angie what her despicable father did.

I am SO over the scenes with someone crouching over the dog cage and babbling on.

 

Silvana. I finally got a chance to watch the episode. Excellent recap, J. I knew that Stella and Esteban would run into each other now that he's working for AJ. He's been behaving like such a jerk with his spying and his nastiness to those he considers " lesser" than AJ, that I think he's perfect for Stella! They're both a couple of manipulating metiches. At least the loose end of how Stella could be living in the duplex legally was tied up. AJ cleared it with the owner (with whom Chivis, not AJ, presumably had a lease). AJ may have chased off Jorge, but I'll bet he's no match for Angie when she finds out what happened. She's smarter, wiser and an infinitely more decent person than her father.
 

Silvana sin lana:

Antonio Jose, Douchebag of the Universe--as I've been calling him on Twitter damn near since the show started--is a surprisingly low-key villain at this point now that he's manipulating his daughters and Silvana's lives all over again. (The fact that he looks just enough like Donald Trump wasn't lost on me either, Telemundo.) The gag is that, IMHO, he's still less in need of being hit by a flaming runaway bus than Trini...and the two of them combined left Stella in the dust weeks ago. (Not that she's slowed down, but she's decidedly less effective.) It's weirdly Televisa-esque in that it's apparently waiting until the end of the show to give everybody their karmic backlashes and happily-ever-afters, and it's kind of pissing me off in the process. At least free Benito, dammit.

El Chema:

So far I'm sold more on this being a side story to the tail end of El Señor de los Cielos's fourth season and a bridge to catch everything up to present day in the "narcoverse." It hasn't really branched off on its own yet, apart from introducing Chema's own Marco Mejia (Ponce) and giving Bizarro President Pena Nieto something new to bitch about. It probably doesn't help, though, that other than Toro and Auristela's mousy but sane assistant Veronica I'm not really invested in anybody on the show yet apart from Bizarro Pena Nieto and Bizarro Gaviota. It's still early yet, though...
 

Silvana. Bill C.: Antonio Jose is also kind of the same physical type as Bernie Madoff--grey-haired, slightly overweight, stocky build, etc., which could also have been intentional
 

Silvana
I hope Jorge will at least text Angie and tell her what her father said. I don't want him to give up without a fight. And I also don't want Hagerita to get her claws into him again because she thinks he's available. Or at least have him turn her down instead of caving like he did before and getting back together with her.

Am I the only one getting irritated with the dog being in the cage all the time? To me, that's just plain cruel and not at all healthy for the dog. They DO have dog obedience classes so the poor thing doesn't have to be locked up all the time. And what do they do when he needs to go to the bathroom? Someone needs to report her for animal cruelty.

 

SILVANA

J - Thank you for the recap ... er ... recrap! Sorry I'm late in posting but have been horribly under the weather this weekend and not up to posting on the intertubes.

britishcomedyfan - I ranted about the dog in the crate, etc., quite a bit of time ago, so you re not alone.

"Poor Jorge. He did try to stand up for himself with AJ, but he’s a gentle soul to begin with and how many boys his age would push past an overbearing guy like AJ to see Angie."
Manuel raised his sons to be respectful of everyone, including their elders. Hence, we see Jorge responding as he did with no arrogance or pushiness. JMHO of course. ;-)