Saturday, October 26, 2019

El Dragón #20, 10/25/19: Provoking Pacheco, Peligros and Pigmenio


Good Friday my fellow Patio Patrons. Another end of week recap of El Dragon leaves up picking up the pieces of the Pachecos as well as Hector’s car. 

Why Tacho called to give Hector warning, I am not sure, as El Pig was told by Duarte to take care of him. I can only guess that the only motive here is to not yet kill off the character. However, the impression this leaves on Hector will either make him much more affable to the friendship he has with Miguel, despite his ties to the dark side, or the opposite, make him hate everything that has to do with it. We will have to wait and see. 

In Ciudad Jimenez there is a meeting between Miguel and Sandro (El Jefe de los Guachos) the other gang in the area. Sandro begins with saying that he heard what happened, and that they cannot permit that kind of activity in their area. Which is when Miguel suggests they come to an agreement to protect the area as well as the transport coming in and out. Sandro asks him what he is asking in return, Miguel tells him to name a price. Sandro tells him no price, but that he wants in on the business, he has heard around that Miguel Garza pays his partners very well and wants a piece of the pie. Miguel agrees, and they have a deal.


This next scene was so touching between Miguel and Dora, we have gotten such a small window into their relationship so far, at least until the last episode where we see the important place Dora held in the lives of the Garza children. She was a much of a mother as they had it seems after theirs died. I felt it was good enough to translate as is. 

“Dora they are waiting for us.”
“I have never killed anyone, have you ever?”
“No”
“I have lived a lot of violence, since I was little. I have lived through everything. And life with your grandfather wasn’t exactly the most relaxing. I have seen many die, but I don’t know, I have never had to kill, take someones life, and less under these circumstances. I don’t know, those men deserved my vengeance, they hurt me a lot. But you know, I can’t get rid of this bitter taste, to have ended the life of two men with my own hands, even if they were desgraciados.” (I took this to mean bastards here). 
“Death surrounds us always. In Japan it was part of me constantly, it is the way of the Samurai. If you prepare correctly your heart, day and night…one is able to live as if his body were already dead and reclaim the freedom of his life. His entire life would be free of guilt and he would have success on his path.” This sounds to me as if he is referring to not being afraid to die and so you can live free. “I learned this lesson the first time someone put a gun to my head. It was a long time ago.”
“When they killed your parents?”
Miguel just nods his head then tells Dora. 
“I’m proud of you, you made the right choice and you were not cruel.”
“If I wouldn’t have killed them, would you have?”
“That, we will never know.”

We see an emotional Dora, who is suffering not only the physical damage that was done to her, but also the emotional, ending with her taking their lives with her own hand. Very well played scene, IMHO.

Miguel is taking Dora to CDMX, he is saying goodbye to Zaragoza and Coyote, he is basically moving the business out of CJ, leaving just the local network there and leaves Zaragoza in charge. Coyote, “he asks why him, and Miguel’s answer was simply, “Because I said.” Miguel wants arrangements made for the men who died and compensation for their families. The partners remind Miguel that he should have talked to them about the Pacheco, before refusing to do business with them and all of that trouble could have been avoided. Miguel accepts the blame for what happened. Coyote says he will take care of the rest of the Pacheco men, Dora asks for the life of Tata who helped her out. 

In Hector’s apartment, he is packing his wife and daughter’s things. He wants them to get to safety. His wife doesn’t want to go without him, she is worried they will kill him. He says “I want justice.” She fires back with, “who is going to get justice for your daughter if they kill you?” But he is adamant that she leave while he takes care of things. 

Jorge is upset that he was left out of the loop with everything that happened. Chisca explains that she and Miguel decided to not tell him to not upset him. (Side note: If these siblings actually talked to each other, they would probably get along a lot better, everyone has their secret with another.) Jorge accuses Chisca of telling Miguel about what happened at the University. She tells him that she didn’t and that they only didn’t tell him to protect him. He wants to know what he needed protection from. Chisca tells him that he doesn’t react well under extreme stress. She throws in his face that he couldn’t stand up to bullies. They argue until Jorge realizes that Kenia too was in on the whole thing. He feels they treat him like a kid. 

Hector is leaving his wife and daughter at her parents house. He tells her to stay put, to stay in the house. They say goodbye. 

Dora arrives at the house, Jorge and Chisca greet her. Jorge confronts Miguel about not telling him. Miguel tells him that he did what he thought was best at the time. Jorge tells them to stop making decisions for him. He doesn’t want to be sidelined in the important decisions, he is part of the family. Miguel apologizes and tells him it won’t happen again. Rosario welcomes Dora and Dora meets Adela. Miguel introduces her as someone who works with him, has his complete trust, and is from Cuidad Jimenez. Dora is pleased to have someone from CJ there is the middle of the “jungle” as she named the city. Chisca has to get in a dig at Adela as Dora leaves the room with Rosario to check out her new digs.

El Pig is taking over the Pacheco’s business. He tells the employees that if they don’t want to work for him, they are free to leave…and join the Pacheco in the afterlife.
Kenia approaches Jorge at work and he doesn’t want to talk to her. She pushes, so he finally asks why she lied to him. She looks genuinely confused, but he tells her he knows what she did. “I thought you saw me differently” he tells her accusingly. She tries very unsuccessfully to defend herself and they go back to work. 

Jimena introduces the new non-profit Miguel is starting called Jin, which we first heard of on Wed, I think. Jimena thinks they can launder more money using the non-profit than through the for profit businesses. Miguel was looking at Adela before when asked who should be the head of the company, and she is confused as to why she is in the meeting. We see Flaco for the first time in a few episodes in this scene. I must say that during the whole “take back the ranch” thing, I was wondering why Flaco wasn’t hacking the security to help them out? Anyone else wondering that? Back to the meeting. Adela is pissed at Jimena for the way she presented the Foundation. She pontificates over the fact that she understands more or less what they do there, that she knows they are no saints (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) to be more specific, but she doesn’t understand the need to be so crass and disrespectful when talking about creating a charitable foundation for the poor, even if it is just going to be used to launder money. Miguel is watching her with a smirk the whole time she is getting her gander up. Jimena tries to interject by insulting Adela, telling her she doesn’t know anything, but Miguel shuts her down, telling her he likes her point of view and then to the jaw dropping surprise of Jimena tells Adela, that is why he wants her to be the face of the foundation. You can see Adela is a bit shocked because the only response she comes up with immediately is that she doesn’t want to stop driving. Jimena once again tries a dig, saying that is all Adela knows how to do. Adela sees this as a challenge and accepts the position, with a smiling Miguel looking on the whole time. Based on the fact that Miguel seems to know Jimena’s motivation if we use the fact that he knew she purposely crashed his dinner, it seems like he almost insinuates these little catfights. They drive me nuts.

Jimena asks to talk to Mig in private, she is not happy about the Adela thing. I take back my words from a moment ago, Miguel goes from humoring to pissed when Jimena starts in on Adela. He tells her he doesn’t like her scenes and that everyone that works for him has his trust. She argues that Adela knows nothing about finance, that she will make mistakes and give them up, and that she is just a driver. Miguel makes it clear that he gets to make those choices. Jimena comes back at him that it is clear that her opinion isn’t important. (When did she become more than an employee?) I guess Miguel agrees with me because he tells Jimena that of course he values her opinion, just like Adela’s who gave hers in front of everyone not asking for a private meeting. But if she doesn’t like how he runs the company, she knows where the door is. Jimena is offended that Miguel would replace her so easily, he says he won’t tolerate her attitude. She tells him not to worry, that tomorrow he won’t have to deal with her attitude. Uh-Oh, I am seeing an in for Epig’s plan here. If Jimena is no longer googley eyed over Miguel, her loyalty will only go so deep.

Miguel goes back to the meeting like nothing. He asks Adela what she thinks. She asks for Jimena, and is told she won’t be back. I was not sure if Adela was smiling at that or that fact that she was agreeing to the position or both. But either way, Miguel asks if she is clear that the foundation is going to be used to launder money, and Adela assures him that she is aware, but that she is willing as long as some of that money actually goes to helping people in need. Miguel smiles knowingly and says he expected nothing less of her. Miguel wants the company up and running as soon as possible.

Chisca the chump is trying to reach Valentin, leaving a desperate message telling him that he said he was going to call, and that he hadn’t called. 

Epig is meeting with the Pacheco father in prison. He came to pay his respects about his recently dead sons, throwing Miguel under the bus the whole way, going on about how he didn’t respect their codes, and does things his way. I guess he didn’t bother telling Pacheco that they raided Miguel’s ranch, murdered his men, and sexually assaulted his step-grandmother. Epig is making a play to get Pacheco to agree to giving him his territory to run. Pacheco claims that Miguel’s days are numbered and his men are on it. 

Miguel is meeting with Hector. Hector asks Miguel about Paula Sandoval. Right here, I am going to explain what I think happened with the whole Novotech deal, so if you don’t want to read all the business ramblings, please feel free to skip the bolded section.

When Miguel made the tires fail, it put Novotech in a desperate position, they needed something to sell to their investors to keep the company alive. So in the background, Jimena was making a deal with them to sell them the Grace Prototype Motor (The auction). They bit and when Paula went to see the investors after the little chase by Howard, she said that she had just bought the Grace, from Ecogreen (Miguel’s shell company). This made the shares begin to rise. A lot was riding on the Grace motor. But, when Flaco and Kenia started working on it, they planted evidence all over the internet showing the failures, so when people started looking into it, they found all kinds of planted information. That, along with the article Hector printed, started to force the stock to fall by falsely claiming that the motor was faulty and had problems, making everyone sell and taking the price to a nice $7 per share, at which Miguel started to buy. The Novotech stock had already started rising and was recovering when Paula decided to kill herself. But what happened it seems is that she was removed from her position in her company by the board, because two products she bought became unproven. The tires and the motor. 

I hope that was as clear as mud and so now, Hector is basically trying to see how much he should feel guilty for what happened to Paula Sandoval. Miguel points out that his deal with Hector was business, they both needed something. That Paula killing herself was never his intention, and he didn’t know what drove her to it. Hector tells Miguel about the warning, how he sent away his wife and kid. They exchange words on how everything they do can put their loved ones in danger. Miguel tells Hector about what happened at the ranch. Hector laments over the impossibility of it all and how things will never change. Miguel reminds Hector that he is not his enemy.

At Garza Manor, Dora receives a call from Tata, the man whose life she saved. He tells her that Papa Pacheco wants revenge for his sons and is coming after Miguel and that he owes her his life so he is giving her the warning. 

Chisca is at the gym, trying to run off her frustration at not receiving a call from Valentin and making excuses for him all the while. Her friend tells her to forget about him, the only thing wrong is that he is married. She tells her friend that Valentin has changed and that he is madly in love with her. Her friend ain’t buying it, but knows that she is not convincing Chisca.

Adela and Flaco are talking about the Foundation, he gives her a three ring binder full of the “basics” that she needs to learn before the ceremony. Adela starts doubting if she is going to be able to do it. She asks Flaco if he thinks Jimena was right. Flaco tells her that it was Miguel’s choice, which doesn’t give her any confidence in herself. 

Jimena gets a call at her place from the lobby, or gate, telling her that a package is there for her. She asks if it is from Miguel. I guess she is hoping he will come begging her not to leave. Instead we get the creepy face of Tacho through her window giving her a package from Epig and setting a meeting for 6 that night. In the bag is a huge wad of cash. 

Epig is back with his wife talking about how good money looks on her. She is telling him how much her and the kids miss him.

Ok, so now we see why the drama in novelas never ends. Because instead of going to Miguel with the information that Tata gave her, Dora goes to Peligros and asks him to go to the jail to kill Papa Pacheco to avoid causing Miguel problems, since she killed the brothers. 

Adela is with her grandmother playing dominoes telling her about the Foundation. It seems she told her about the bad stuff, but then told her all the charitable things she was going to be able to do with the money from the foundation. Her grandmother tells her that she has always been generous giving her an example from her childhood. Adela is sharing her worries about being able to handle it all with grandma, but she seems sure that Adela will do well. BTW, the character of Adela’s grandmother is awesome. She is a spitfire and never hesitates to say what she thinks. Adela is definitely on her way to becoming like gran. 

Flaco, Jorge and Kenia are working. Jorge is packing up to leave and completing ignores Kenia. Flaco teases Kenia about it, she gets pissed and runs out after Jorge.

At the newspaper Claudia is worried about what happened to Hector. She has her hands all over him, making sure he is ok. He tells her he took his wife and daughter to his in-laws and that he is sure the “warning” was a result of talking to Braulio at the prison. Claudia finds the silver- lining, that it means they are closing in on Carlos Duarte. With cynicism, Hector says, “yeah, all we are missing is proof.”

Peligros is at the office talking with Miguel, hesitating about telling him what Dora asked him to do. Miguel tells him to do what Dora asked, but Peligros tells Miguel that he needs his permission. This struck Miguel as odd and he asks outright “What did she ask of you?”

Chisca is calling Valentin again and gets his voicemail. The scene starts with her head down and all we hear is snorting, so we can all imagine that her near death experience did not scare her straight at all. Her message is her frustration at not receiving a call. She hangs up and Dora walks in. She wants to talk with her, at first Chisca is rude but then she changes her attitude and says she didn’t sleep.
Dora doesn’t push and leaves.

We see piles of money on Jimena’s desk and her drinking and looking at her watch.

Adela is digging through the car when Rosario finds her. She is upset that she cannot find the binder with the information about the foundation. She decides to go back to the office to look.

I guess we should know that Jimena is heading to the meeting since we see her walking down the street, but I unless someone sees her, kind of a pointless scene.

Jorge is back at school, walking to class he encounters the same jerks that broke his project, talking crap. Once again he looks lost and can’t say anything. Out of nowhere Kenia shows up and lays one on him. The rest of the class looks on with shock. She finishes kissing him, which he seemed to return hesitantly, and she says, “Let’s go, mi amor.” The look on Jorge’s face is priceless. As was the reaction of the rest of the students.

Peligros, dressed like a businessman, suit, glasses, briefcase, ( Who is this man?) is entering the prison, getting searched, he makes it through security. We get an up close view of the glasses immediately , and then they cause the metal detector to buzz as well, but they let him through. I imagine that they have something to do with the plan.

Jimena is at Miguel’s office. He is surprised to see her. She said she had some unfinished business, and he asks what, tells him, “my resignation.” Miguel looked bothered by her statement. The timetable is a little confusing here. Is it the same day? I thought it was the next, which means that Jimena already quit. Why would he be surprised by a resignation. Didn’t he tell her to not come back? Or is she hoping he will try and stop her?

Peligros is meeting with Papa Pacheco, commiserating on how many people want Miguel Garza dead. Peligros tells him he has a plan and Pacheco shuts him down and says he does things on a larger scale. Peligros breaks off the arm of the glasses and stabs Pacheco in the neck, lays him out, tells him the Garza send their regards, and then carefully cleans his hands and stores the glasses in the briefcase. He tells the guard that thanks to the Garza’s his family will be well taken care of. 

Well this just got interesting!!! Jimena tells Miguel that he doesn’t even seem concerned that she is going. Miguel says, no, it’s not true. Then she hits him with a bit of honesty. She tells him that he thinks he knows everything, but that there are things happening in front of his nose, that neither him, nor his Japanese instinct can detect. He tells her that that is why he needs his team, she tells him to not start with those stupidities. Miguel tells her that he already told her everything he needed to and argues that he wants her to stay but that she has to do things his way. That’s when she drops the bomb and tells him that one of his enemies contacted her to work for him. This causes Miguel to get out of his seat. “Who are you talking about?” She snarkily says, “imagine, an infiltrator on your team, and besides, he offered me so much money, that I wouldn’t have to worry about anything for the rest of my life.” In her face he asks if she is going to spy on him. She answers with “I would…if I weren’t so stupidly in love with you…And I say stupidly, not because you are my boss, but because, who would think of falling in love with a man who is in love with his chauffeur?” Miguel denies being in love with Adela, so Jimena throws in his face that he is also in love with a dead woman, to which Miguel reacts as well. She tells him she is leaving him with his plan to conquer the world with his mysteriousness and oddness. And that she is getting as far away as she can before she ends up with a bullet in her head. Miguel tries to stop her and she tells him to let go or she will scream. 

Epig is in a bar looking at his watch, I am guessing the meeting time is approaching or Jimena is already running late. 

Miguel won’t let go of Jimena and she tells him that she hates what she feels for him, and then as you all can see for yourself he tries to convince her otherwise, pinning her against the wall with his mouth. 

Adela enters the building, taking the elevator to the offices.

Epigmenio receives a purse at the restaurant from Jimena, in which he finds all of his money. He calls Tacho and tells him plans have changed, and Jimena is going to die along with Miguel Garza. At least Jimena has that redeeming quality, she seems loyal, if only because she is in love. 

Adela finds her notebook and then hears noises. She goes to investigate. We see a close up of Miguel and Jimena start to pull at each others clothes. But the episode ends before the audience knows whether what Adela heard was Miguel and Jimena. I imagine that is what they want us to think however. 

Well, that’s it my Patio friends, and that is enough. See you next Friday night.

Esther


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Comments:
Gracias, Esther.

One more James Bond trait for Miguel in the "sex is in the line of duty" category...
Looks like I will get some normal novela jealousy on Monday; that's OK with me. And I won't be sorry when Jimena bites the dust.

Thanks for the explanation about Paula and Novatech. So much action happens in each episode that it's easy to lose track of the more subtle aggressions.
 

Esther, Esther, Esther, what a read. Thank You. The Paula Sandoval mini recap was good. I had most of it, but you had the missing details.

This show keeps throwing us curves. (no..not Adela, Jimena, Claudia) Miguel is flat out a criminal but his line of work on the surface is white collar crime, which is the stock and trade of the American Wall Street idols. But he has his men shooting everything that moves. Then we see he has flashes of good, and tells Dora he has never actually killed anyone.

We see TaTa cutting Dora loose and Dora telling Mig to ensure he will not be harmed.

But the one that embedded my beanie in the drywall was Jimena. In any show where even three Spanglish words were spoken, she would become a little Spypig and bring Migster near death and extinction before she was found out. SHE TELLS HIM ? Huh? Where did that come from? Was it all based on the fact that THAT would give her a chance to gnaw his lips off? I mean that is kinda where it went. On the version I had here in FloriDuh, it appeared that Adela peeped around corner with a view through a glass wall. But I looked out the window to the Southwest and didn't see a mushroom cloud, so I suppose we will wait for Monday.

Chisca is just... I don't know...something is wrong.
And Jorge. They treat you like a 5 year old because you ACT like a 5 YEAR OLD . Maybe you will be different after puberty. That was sweet Kenia kissing him. Opposites attract if you believe old sayings, but that opposite? It might do both of them good.
 

Yeah, but I worry about those labrets...
 

Yeah they are typically stainless steel, so when Jorge swallows one they would not be able to retrieve it with a magnet, they would just ..um well, maybe it won't stay.

Hey, love, remember that lip ring we lost? I FOUND it, here lets put it back, you don't look the same without it.

:-) :-)
 

Thank you, Esther, for that wonderful recap. I would be lost without the recaps. I fell asleep and missed this episode.

Kirby, I do get a smile out of your observations. Thanks.

And I guess I have finally found the hero in this tale..Tata. Old guys rule. It's true.
 

UA - I agree with you about the James Bond reference. Sex in the line of duty. And might as well have a little fun while you are at it. Which I think is why he hasn’t even kissed Adela yet. Jimena is just sex. Adela wouldn’t be. Even Jimena has his number and he still doesn’t get it. Another TN staple. The men are in love and don’t realize it yet.

Kirby- yes the ending made for a great Friday night cliffhanger. The scene as a whole was definitely unpredictable. Jimena fessing to the whole thing! Wow! But then that begs to ask if Miguel uses the physical aspect of his relationship with Jimena to ensure that loyalty. As a way to guarantee her future silence. I feel like Miguel is going to use this to his advantage and maybe have a double agent.
 

P.s. ..re: metal and piercings...my nephew and my daughter's friend both had pierced tongues(ouch), but now they both have three kids and guess what ....the tongue rings have disappeared. Personally , I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 28....and I almost backed out of that at the last minute. Luckily, I have never swallowed one of my earrings.
 

Not to claim to be any kind of expert, but it is hard to figure out this Miguel Garza. Not that Rulli is not doing a yeomanlike job of it. But this is a confoundingly complicated character. He has this Feng Shui approach to life, we even heard ManServant tell Dora he had her room set up as such.

But he is in a business, if you can call it that, which reaps rewards at the expense of others. Like when Heck brought up Paula Sandoval, and Mig just kinda blew it off as though, "Well if you need to commit suicide, that is YOUR business, but I was not responsible." And truthfully, he has a point, in that a business venture should never be cause to end it all, but that is not reality.

Then we see him ensuring that the deceased fellows families are taken care of. You will not see General Motors or Kelloggs do the same.

He likes to trumpet around that he has never killed anybody, and that seems to be literally true, but there sure are a lot of dead bodies around him. Like "Did you have sex with her?" "Um, No, well, actually, I did, but I didn't enjoy it, does that count?"

And then Adela, a far better choice, has done everything but tattoo 'Spank Me' on her butt and had no luck. Then we end the week with him and Jimena in an office with glass walls. Is that just Take one for the team?
 

Esther, oh Esther --where have you been all our Caray existence. You are a fabulous raconteur. To get all the details you provide to correct all the mistranslations is more than fabulous. Thank you. It's such a pleasure to read your Friday epistles.

Note: Everything took place on the same day. When Adela got home, she couldn't find those ring binders and went back--it just took her longer because of the intervening scenes. I think we were meant to think Jimena was on her way to her six o'clock meeting with ElPig whereas she detoured to give Miggy a piece of her lips. Question--how on earth could you not remember carrying out or not carrying out those two thick binders. Adela, you are not 80 years old yet.

I saw Peligro wipe the blood from his hand after stabbing PaPacheco. I thought he'd cracked the lense and used the jagged edge of the glasses to stab the guy, but it makes more sense if a sharp instrument was disguised as an ear piece. Very clever AND James Bondian. I hope he gets some sex in the line of duty.

What we didn't need was ElPig with his wife--UNLESS she's going to feature in his downfall. I guess we have to keep reporting on her activities.

Kirby--always the wry twist...no mushroom cloud, no spank me tattoo, no GM or Kellog's condolences in the form of $$$...

Jorge's personality disorder is getting old to me, too. He had plenty of time to grow up at the ranch and STILL have nightmares. Question: Do college kids really act that way? Humiliating and bullying a fellow classmate? I thought they were too busy relishing the freedom to imbibe formerly forbidden alcohol and girls. Their kind of behavior should have been left in their high school classrooms. (Even then, I don't remember that kind of taunting in class--but that was ummm, some years ago.)

Susanlynn--Tata sure looked out of place with all those other thugs during the home invasion. But then so did Miggy. Glad Tata is to be spared. I wonder what Dora has in store for him.

What floor is Jimie's apartment? When she was sitting in the kitchen drinking and counting packages of mone, you could see across to building windows around the 4th floor and bare tree-tops. She walked down her hallway and opened the door on a ground floor that opened up to a green space with leafed out trees in the background. I assumed earlier that she was in a high-rise. Now she's in a low-rise? Oddly, she still has a concierge that buzzes her to let her know there's someone to see her. You just know she hoped it would be Miguel.

Miggy's office suite has too many glass panels. He should be more careful.
 

Anita, I was watching for precisely that when Jimena went to the door. Because a few episodes ago when Taco Bell first visited and we were wondering how he got in, I commented that I thought the outdoors looked to NOT be ground floor. So I was paying attention this time, and yes you caught it too.

BTW Gringo college students do not act like that. These days too many of them are carrying. Nothing says ___ You like a Glock.
 

Just back from lunch with a friend, and I loved the comments. I don't understand much of the dialogue, but I did think that Pig's wife told him something about missing him in bed...ugh...why ? Maybe it is true what they say and there is someone out there for everyone. Perhaps disgusting, evil, violent Pig is a devoted spouse and lover.....but that is hard for me to believe. Maybe the writers thought we should know that someone will miss him when that big anvil eventually lands on him as we know it will. Live by the sword; die by the sword...or a really big anvil. Okay..back to "Dirty Dancing ."
 

Anita and Kirby. ..what college students are doing is frat hazing . There was a local case last year of a freshman dying from drinking and then falling and his frat brothers never called for help for him. Scary .
 

Esther, you are definitely an outstanding storyteller and your insight is to be admired. Thank you for sharing your talent.

I can't say much more than what has already been said so eloquently.

Kirby, I too was shocked that Jimena told Mig about El Pig's proposition; it came from left field, but I think you are right. It was just a ploy to get a liplock on Mig. So I guess she is willing to settle for playing second fiddle since she knows that Mig is in love with Adela. That desperation just doesn't fit well with the rest of her character.

Kirby, "And Jorge. They treat you like a 5 year old because you ACT like a 5 YEAR OLD ." Exactly! And Anita, I too am getting tired of his disorder. It really irritates me to see him pouting, but then turns right around and complains that they don't treat him like an adult. I must say, though, that Juan Pablo Gil is doing a fabulous job at portraying this pathetic character.

Susanlynn, "And I guess I have finally found the hero in this tale..Tata. Old guys rule." yes they do! BTW, Peligros is no spring chicken and he did look pretty nice in that suit :-)

Anita, ITA about the scene with EL Pig and WifePig. Wasted airtime!

 

OT..Chickie, I thought of you when I turned on the Hallmark channel and discovered that they are already showing Christmas movies ! Gah.I want to watch something lighter and brighter than these new telenovelas, but by the time December arrives, I wont be able to stand hearing another jingle.
 

Oh Goody RGV we have another character to name. Mrs Piggy. Who was it who was always in Luuuurve with Miss Piggy? Was it not Kermit? I always wanted to see their Tadpigs.
 



Very well written recap...thnx. Did Rosario help with Peligros “new look?” I thought he looked like a CEO at Pemex. The glasses, the tie, the jacket........but then we see jeans ! I want a love interest for ( not in any particular order) Tata, like Susanlynn said, Rosario, Peligros and the wise granny........
 


What was the connection that Don Lamberto had that allowed him to send Miguel to Japan of all places?
 

Didn't you guys just love the way Peligros offed Pacheco embedding the arms of his glasses in the guy's neck!! Kind of innovative if you ask me. I've never heard of that way to off a guy. Steve, are you keeping note??
 

Excellent recap, Esther. Love reading everyone's comments.

Okay, I have a different take on Jimena, Adela and Miguel, I think.

Let me preface this by saying, I think Miguel and Adela are clearly the couple to root for and they will find true love together....eventually. But I don't think it will be easy or quick. Miguel likes her a lot, maybe even knows he can fall for her with very little effort. But she made it clear in Miami that she wanted something to happen between them and he didn't take the bait. He's not dumb in these matters. He's an expert charmer and seducer when he wants to be. He subtlety rejected her advances even as he's deepening their friendship. He's just not ready or willing to risk falling in love again yet.

So Adela is generally a good person but the moment she came back to the office, she couldn't help rubbing it in Jimena's face that she had a great time with Miguel in Miami and it wasn't just business. Basically, she lied. Jimena is jealous and fuming because she just broke up with her boyfriend thinking she has a shot with Miguel and now maybe she doesn't. Plus, Miguel is giving preferential treatment to Adela and dressing Jimena down at work for questioning his decisions.

All of this may seem like Jimena would jump at the chance to betray Miguel because Epig made her "an offer she can't refuse". But she never looked thrilled or comfortable with his offer. She was upset and scared and drinking. Miguel even unknowingly gave her great advice at the pizza place with one of his Japanese proverbs. But the biggest tell about Jimena's character in all this was how she was introduced into the plot three weeks ago. Her ex pig boss also made her an offer of money and getting ahead at work if she would sleep with him. Jimena made him think she might accept and then got payback by exposing him to his wife and the press. She is actually not a sell out.

Jimena can be clever, cunning, ambitious, snobby, but there is thus far no evidence that she is pure evil or so stupid that she would do anything for anyone just for money.

Jimena is "in love" with Miguel at the moment. But she was genuinely ready to walk away from him and from this whole mess with Epig because she accepted he chose Adela over her. She was brave enough to tell him everything including how she felt about him and had every intention of walking away afterward. It was a great, even dignified, move on her part.

Jimena couldn't have known how Miguel would react so she wasn't even being intentionally manipulative, just frustrated and done. But Miguel just couldn't let her walk away.... It helped that she pushed all his buttons by mentioning that he was in love with a dead woman and Adela, maybe hit too close to home. But the attraction between them was there. He just wasn't convinced he wanted to act on it until now.

Anyway. I think it's good this "triangle" isn't so black and white and predictable, yet. I mean it is because Jimena, as smart as she is, will find a way to overplay her hand to get him to love or focus only on her but she isn't a cartoon villain.

And of course Miguel is the most complicated of them all. He feels the need to build walls of protection around his heart.

--Becky

,
 

Fun trivia from Names.org

How many people with the first name Epigmenio have been born in the United States?

From 1880 to 2017, the Social Security Administration has recorded 33 babies born with the first name Epigmenio in the United States.

Thank goodness you guys decided to shorten it to Epig which is so fitting!
 

Victoria--it would be interesting to tell us the latest year one of those so-named babies were born. I doubt it would be very recent.
Unless it was mentioned in the first couple of episodes, I think Don Lamberto knew Ishiro (or Tadamichi) from business association. Ishiro ran the Naga Group.

Becky--Unless you are a new Becky, welcome back. Your analysis of Jimena works, so far. Jealousy can make telenovela folks do all kinds of bad things. Personally, I think she was just PRETENDING she was ok with Miggy preferring Adela, despite what she saw as inexperience (and making a nasty point of it). Basically you are right, she hasn't done anything to harm or jinx the works, so she hasn't shown the typical evil novela antagonist characteristics. We will have to wait and see what she does if she's pushed into a corner or feels betrayed by Miggy. Remember Epig threatened her family, too.
 

Wow Victoria.

I had suspected for a long time that these writers may have made up these names out of jealousy of the glitz and glamor of the actors and actresses. Like "Yeah, say that fast three times you prissy little tart!" But from this, it appears that most of them are real. I mean if Epigmenio is not made up, I'm a believer.
 

Anita - I'm a new Becky. I posted on the El Dragon thread a couple weeks ago. :)

I agree that Jimena was and is not happy with Miguel giving Adela attention and praise, or feeling anything at all for her. She made no pretense of being ok with it in the confrontation scene with him. She was angry and said she felt stupid for falling for a guy who can't love her back. Basically, I think this is the most honest Jimena is ever going to be with him because, in that moment, she had decided to cut her losses and had nothing to lose saying things how she sees it. Now that he responded with passion and interest, well, it's game on. She got a little of what she wanted from him and she's going to want more.

But here's the thing, and why it makes sense to me that Jimena didn't go for Epig's offer. Jimena doesn't like to be under some powerful old guy's thumb, who thinks he can control her with money and order her around. She didn't tolerate that from her old creep boss, why would she be ok with it from some mafia thug she just met? Jimena's agenda since she propositioned Miguel in the car has been to get him into her bed and hopefully win his heart. But I gotta give her a teensy bit of credit for not making a deal with the devil just because Miguel didn't seem interested.

I think we're going to see Jimena being conniving and deceitful, doing typical antagonist things, but only for her own self-interest, and in her quest to make Miguel want her and only her. She'll be fighting a losing battle but it's on her terms.

Also, I feel bad for Adela in the short-term, but watching her goad and provoke Jimena into a jealous fit tells me she is no typical mousy, perfectly innocent protagonist either. She is fire, but this time her little game backfired on her. She needs her own backup love interest to give Miguel something to think about.

I think Adela is a better person than Jimena because she has morals. Jimena was perfectly fine with using a charity foundation just for money laundering. Adela hated their cynicism and was only interested when Miguel promised her that the foundation would actually serve the community. In fact, he wanted her in on the project because he expected exactly that reaction from her. Miguel's own moral duality coming into play here.

-Becky
 

I don't trust Jimena. I think Miguel should mount her ( Taxidermy, not animal husbandry.!) and keep her in the conference room as decoration. :-)
 

Kirby

Behave yourself!!
 

I wouldn't trust Jimena either and Miguel shouldn't. He should definitely keep an eye on her but he shouldn't have to put his hands or other body parts on her to do that.
 

Poor Mig....too good-looking and fought over by two beautiful women. We all have our challenges. Despierta , Mig
 

Susanlynn--Actually he has three beautiful women fighting for him. Angelique is always waiting in the wings, no? But he has a lot of adoring women of all ages watching his every move.
 

Good points, Becky. Jimena's only struggle with her decision not to play inside spy for Epig (although we didn't actually hear her saying it) was 1) self-preservation and 2) threat to her family. I'm sure she will expect Mig to protect her and her family in return for the information, going o Mig to tell him of the deal on the table from Epig.
 

Thanks, Esther. You are knocking these recaps out of the park. I appreciate the detail on Novatech. I wonder if the owner's suicide will come back to bite Mig on the butt one day.

Becky, like you I didn't think Jimena would go for Pig's deal. There's nothing in Pig that inspires confidence or fealty except in a fool like Tacho, and I thought she was too smart for this. But I'm surprised she sent the cash back to Pig. I thought she'd tell Mig first to come up with a plan, before getting back to Pig. But, oh well, her way landed her some afternoon delight with Mig.

Poor Mig. The things he must do to keep his employees in line, ;> Honestly, Mig and Jimena are well suited, both are ethically challenged and believe the end justifies the means. Adela is the morally pure one in this tale.
 

Niecie...yes, it seems that Mig was ensuring Jimena's loyalty to him by finally giving in to her seductions.
 

He didn't seem to be 'giving in' to her deductions, more like he was 'going for' it. Again, his liberal sexual appetite is something I really don't like in this character. Therefore, it will be interesting to see if he is using sex to control Jimena, the sex Is controlling him, or it's a toss-up.

I read online that SR stated in an interview that there wasn't anything in Miguel's persona that he wouldn't want want his son, Sebastián, to see, since he didn't think the telenovela glorified the narco world.

I think my parenting thoughts are way different and thank goodness practiced years ago....
 

Miguel's sexual appetite and ability to compartmentalize it (I.e. he does not ever let it get in the way of business or confuse his true feelings) is one of the James Bond / player traits the writers gave him. He was already physically attracted to Jimena (told her so in the car) and her audacity, bluntness and yes, honesty, made her all the more attractive. He didn't want her to walk away and that was his strategic move. Giving her what they both wanted. But will he want more than the the no strings affair she offered originally? No way.

Adela is about to get an eyeful. Whoopsie. She can roll with the punches though. She already knows this side of Mig... But it's gotta sting that he didn't make any move on her when she was giving signals. She might be wondering why.

-Becky

P.S. I saw on SR's instagram stories that his son is wearing a "son of the dragon" t-shirt ha, but I doubt his almost 10 year old is allowed to watch it, or maybe just some scenes.
 





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