Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Amar a Muerte, 3/13/19: A Post-Mortem
VALE'S VALE OF TEARS
Of all the tragic characters who have suffered greatly in this story, Valentina Carvajal is the one I suggest has suffered the most. We wish her well in whatever path her future takes her.
First she loses her mother at a very young age. As a teenager, her father decides to remarry someone about the same age as her older sister, Eva.
Vale then loses her father in a most unfortunate incident on his wedding day--right before her eyes, including the stabbing to death of the stabber by a trusted family associate. Detective Montilla grills her on her father’s associates for enemies he might have had. It just serves to rattle her further—she knows nothing of her father’s business. She takes solace in alcohol and withdraws. She is most probably clinically depressed, but no one does anything except urge her to “get out more.”
She’s basically ignored by the rest of the household. Even her interaction with Lucia is at a minimum, though congenial. Her sister Eva bullies her regularly and dismisses her contributions. She has an abusive boyfriend who "owns" her and uses her to meet his own needs.
She has her own brush with death when she falls into their swimming pool, drunk, and nearly drowns. Jacobo, the new family chauffeur saves her. This is not what the family meant by “get out more.”
She must endure several days of suspense during the kidnapping and sequester of Lucia and Jacobo. Who knows, she might be next. Johny, León’s protégé, is not helpful. Subsequently she must endure a 2-man security guard to follow her wherever she goes.
Mayela forces Vale to allow her to have a big surprise birthday party for big brother Guille, despite how she and Guille feel about celebrations so soon after her father’s death.
Her first stirrings of love are directed to another female. It confuses her. She has a boyfriend she sleeps with, but it has no physical or emotional effect on her.
Her girlfriend’s mother gets taken by narco goons right off the streets under the boss’ nose and in the presence of Panchito. She must endure several days of Lupita’s sequester through Juls. In desperation she begs Mateo to publish a notice in their papers for El Chino to come forward. Montilla warns Vale to stay away from these folks. They are dangerous.
She gets intimately involved in a scheme to save Juls’ mother from being assassinated in her hospital bed by having a death notice published. She and Jacobo argue over his treatment of her when he forcibly extricates her from the random gunfire inside the hospital building. Who does he think he is, her father? She and Juls meet a real narco gang member in the elevator at the hospital and takes over the conversation with him from Juls. Juls later says the guy is a real sicario, coming to kill her mother. That can’t be good news to help Vale cope with her fears.
Vale learns that Lupita is going to move with Juls to another city to start over. She’s pretty bummed out about that.
Vale tries to break up with Lucho. He gets aggressive and manhandles her and wants to know for whom she is leaving him. He stalks her and barges into the Carvajal house and thinks she’s been cheating on him with the family chauffeur when he observes a comforting hug between Vale and Jacobo. A nasty confrontation ensues and Lucho tells Vale she’ll pay for what she did to him. She may have gotten some tea from Silvina.
Lucho finds out his rival is a girl—the one he disliked the most for taking up so much of Vale’s time, but not the rival he was expecting. He enters the house where they are together and is restrained by Sergio from beating up Vale. Vale excuses his behavior by saying that Lucho has always been violent. She’s terrified of what he might do. Meanwhile, he goes to Eva and outs her as a lesbian.
Just when she needs her brother the most, Guille announces that he quit his job and is moving out because he’s tired of Eva throwing her weight around. She doesn’t want him to leave her. His consoling advice is to find out what makes her happy and forget Eva and the rest of the world.
Vale gets a verbal take-down from Eva. Eva says she won’t allow her to like another woman—she’s just depressed and confused after her father’s death. Vale cries as she scrolls through all the negative comments she gets on social media from her peers. The only help she gets is a comforting talk from Jacobo and a kiss on the forehead. Eva makes an appointment with a psychologist for Vale. Vale wishes she could just run away from it all. More bad news. Juls breaks up with her rather nastily telling Vale to leave her alone. She finds out about Eva’s visit to Juls. She reprimands Eva for her treatment of Juls. Eva thinks Vale doesn’t know herself.
She gets accosted by Armenta's men at gunpoint and stuck in the back of his SUV and is witness to a cold blooded shooting of one of their employees, then to the threats and carnage during the siege on her home.
She is terrorized by Armenta and Chulo over a phone call she got from Juls during the sequester. The phone gets shot. She is further terrorized by Armenta suggesting he has chosen Vale to rape. Then he grabs her to use as a human shield when Jacobo shows up with his own human shield—one of Armenta’s goons. She is witness to Armenta’s cold blooded killing of his own man, saying there’s more where he came from. She struggles away and in doing so, gives Jacobo a direct line to Armenta’s chest. Jacobo shoots Armenta dead and Jacobo is shot and wounded in return. All this while shooting is going on all around them outside. The cops finally run in and several of Armenta’s men are taken prisoner. Vale receives hugs all around, but she’s a blubbering mess and has a panic attack. She’s fearful they will come back. She’s frightened when she hears Max barking. Silvina’s advice is to lie down and rest. Eva suggests a visit from Dr. Camilo Guerra. Doc Cami offers tea and sympathy.
Vale is asked by Luci if she knew Jacobo was Juls’ father. Vale insists it can’t be true because Juls says she hadn’t seen him in a long time and he was a bad man. She has to bear Luci and Eva arguing over Luci’s right to even be there. Eva tries to make Vale take a sedative, but Vale refuses and yells at her. Dr. Cami, researcher into the paranormal and registered psychiatrist, calms Vale down from her un-paranormal episode with psychobabble.
Vale learns from Juls that Jacobo is, indeed, none other than her father, the notorious El Chino Valdés, a killer for hire, swearing she just found out. Vale and Juls go to visit Dr. Cami’s offices to get the skinny on this switching souls thing. He merely confuses them further.
Lucho tries to convince Vale that Juls got what she wanted from a vulnerable and easily manipulated Vale. She finds out that one of Mateo’s colleagues, a reporter and friend, has been found dead under suspicious circumstances. Her brother gets arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, leaving the victim paralyzed for life. Never mind he didn’t pull the trigger. Vale is deeply affected, especially when Eva tells her it was Guille’s own fault. She has to endure Lucia and Eva arguing over what Eva’s motive is. Vale says she misses her daddy, because he was the one who could always fix things.
She learns from her sister that her daddy’s grave has been desecrated and robbed. The body is missing. The press has already gotten ahold of the story. Juls sees Lucho hugging Vale in her latest anxieties and storms out to later break up with her--again.
Vale learns her “former” girlfriend slept with Sergio, one of her best childhood buddies. She also learns her “former” girlfriend has been kidnapped by narcos, probably by the same gang that kidnapped Juls' mother, Lupe.
Montilla won’t take her panic-stricken, in-person, report on Juls and Lupe seriously. Her No-Ex-Ex, Lucho, is shot to death in front of her during a suspense filled confrontation with the kidnappers and the Beltran and Jacobo team. She feels overwhelmingly guilty for being responsible for his death. She’s treated with a sedative.
She forces herself to go to Lucho’s funeral, while still feeling overwhelmingly guilty for his death. She also learns from Juls that Jacobo might not be a sicario after all and listens to Juls recount the transmigration theory as her father is living it. After Lucho’s funeral, Vale is still a mess. Big brother Guille offers comfort by watching reruns on tv.
Vale experiences a bit of hope for happiness learning she was going to be an aunt. That vanishes after she learns Mateo has departed the Carvajal mansion and left Eva for reasons unknown.
Vale and Sergio begin to discuss the likelihood that there is life after death. He suggests they visit the medium his sister went to—and it’s Barbara. Vale gets to talk to Lucho, but can’t talk to her father, because he’s alive (something Barb made up as coming from the spirits because she didn't know what else to tell her, knowing the truth about the transmigration). She gets hugged by the character who was hanging around the hospital and paid Lupita’s bill that leaves her quite uncomfortable.
Vale hears of her sister’s alleged crimes of money laundering for a gang using Grupo Carvajal as the washing machine splashed all over TV and in the newspapers from Juls. When she returns home she is met by Jacobo, the handsome, kindly chauffeur who is now introduced by Guille as their father, León Carvajal.
Her family has come apart again. Eva, with whom she only recently reconciled, is off to prison; Luci, who was particularly tender with her, is dead; Guille, who has always been there for her, is off on a one-year trip with Renata to see if they are compatible enough to get married; Leónchino, her newly reconstituted father has grown morose and depressed over his loss of Lucia.
It seems the only happy times she experienced in this story until she gets her father back, were her days playing in the park with Juls; with Juls at Guille’s birthday party; with Juls, helping find a design school, and getting Silvina to loan Juls and her mother Silvi’s house in the country; and lastly as a model for Juliana, who now has a super successful couturier-design business. She also found comfort in her conversations with Jacobo, Lucia and Guille.
These travails cannot but help mark the rest of her life. Will they make her stronger or more wary of life and its fragility? Does she take solace in the idea of an afterlife? Can she live life to the fullest in a society which still harbors prejudice and resentment toward those who do not fit into a conventional relationship? She will definitively have the love and support of those closest family members, who now include Juls’ mother, Lupe, and her soon-to-be husband, Pancho. Juls’ “soul” father has agreed to leave Juls alone and stop pursuing Lupe, but the feeling is there that the two families will be able to co-exist peaceably. Vale’s “soul” father hopefully will be there to let her rest and recuperate, safe in his loving arms—a bond that was evident from the very beginning when we see that she went straight over to Jacobo to hug him when he and Lucia returned from their escape from the kidnappers. She will probably delight in having a precious little niece to adore.
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts and my
comments. I will treasure the recaps and the recappers, the comments and the
commenters who steadfastly stuck to this superlative offering by the cast and
crew, directors, the writer, Leonardo Padrón, for his story, and the producers,
Carlos Bardasano, Aimée Godínez, Alejandro Lozano and others at W Studios y
Lemon Studios for taking a big chance. They were certainly rewarded. And so
were we.
Anita
Labels: Muerte
Comments:
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Here it is. I had a beautiful shot of Macarena in this role, but "cut and paste" refused to cooperate. Although this is all from Vale's point of view, I'm going to miss Jacobo, Lucia, Beltran, Camilo and finally, I came to appreciate Barbara's contributions. I wonder when we'll ever see another telenovela of this quality.
Anita
That was absolutely amazing! You put so much thought into dissecting Val's personality, weaknesses, and troubles. I never really thought about her and her tribulations, so many for one so young.
Great job!!
That was absolutely amazing! You put so much thought into dissecting Val's personality, weaknesses, and troubles. I never really thought about her and her tribulations, so many for one so young.
Great job!!
Thanks Anita. I can see how profoundly this story affected you. Me too. I keep mulling it over. I found myself often irritated with Valentina because she seemed weak to me, but after reading your resumé of what she has gone through, it really is amazing that she is functional. And I know that people who don't "fit" society's idea of right and proper, do suffer tremendously, even if their own family is accepting.
To be different is to be an outcast, no matter how much society is changing and becoming more tolerant. There is still a large contingent of people who not only disapprove but can be violent about it. Even the snide looks, snickers and whispers are like little stab wounds.
This was indeed a superb production, well-acted, beautifully put together and worthy of every premio it received.
And too bad té de tila can't solve every problem, but I laugh every time that's the offer for a crisis. I got some té de tila once and it tasted like water to me. But who knows? Just as helpful as all those bromides "Don't worry. It's all going to be alright." that characters inevitably offer.
Thanks for this lovely meditation on all the challenges the character of Valentina faced Anita. And for keeping the CarayCaray website alive and well.
To be different is to be an outcast, no matter how much society is changing and becoming more tolerant. There is still a large contingent of people who not only disapprove but can be violent about it. Even the snide looks, snickers and whispers are like little stab wounds.
This was indeed a superb production, well-acted, beautifully put together and worthy of every premio it received.
And too bad té de tila can't solve every problem, but I laugh every time that's the offer for a crisis. I got some té de tila once and it tasted like water to me. But who knows? Just as helpful as all those bromides "Don't worry. It's all going to be alright." that characters inevitably offer.
Thanks for this lovely meditation on all the challenges the character of Valentina faced Anita. And for keeping the CarayCaray website alive and well.
Great work, Anita.
I will never understand the violence directed at gay or transgender people. Nobody in Valentina's generation has any excuse for this. Nor does Eva, for that matter.
I do admit that Valentina's weakness got on my nerves at times but she has had the worst of everything here. She should become fully functional surrounded by people who care about her, starting with her father, brother, and Juliana. Eva should be in the slammer long enough to not be a problem.
I will never understand the violence directed at gay or transgender people. Nobody in Valentina's generation has any excuse for this. Nor does Eva, for that matter.
I do admit that Valentina's weakness got on my nerves at times but she has had the worst of everything here. She should become fully functional surrounded by people who care about her, starting with her father, brother, and Juliana. Eva should be in the slammer long enough to not be a problem.
Excellent, Anita! Thank you so much for dissecting Vale’s role; it was truly a “Valley” of tears...how she came out of this in one sane piece is mind-boggling. I agree with JudyB, that te de tila just ain’t gonna cut it much less all the bromides of “Don’t worry; all will be well.” I think I’ll need some type of eye exercises to undo the damage all the eye rolling caused.
Though she had a few people who tried to give her some support, it was minimal or the individuals would cause her more anguish eventually.
BTW, I wish they had done a better job with her makeup in the last scene where she was going to model for Juls. Maybe it was the lighting but she didn’t look near as pretty as she did throughout the show.
Though she had a few people who tried to give her some support, it was minimal or the individuals would cause her more anguish eventually.
BTW, I wish they had done a better job with her makeup in the last scene where she was going to model for Juls. Maybe it was the lighting but she didn’t look near as pretty as she did throughout the show.
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