Caray, Caray!

   Renata, the life of the party

Sonia and Leo are outside, taking a breath of fresh air and threatening one another.

She thinks that she has Leo cornered, but that’s not exactly true, since he’s just seen her making out with Marcelo in the bathroom. Slow clap, Leonardo Velasco, you're not that bad of a cop. Also, I gotta say, Marcelo is pretty stupid to risk this much, it can’t be because of his great love for Sonia. More likely his libido and thinking he’s too good to be discovered? Sonia knows Leo is no NY businessman and he knows she’s a cheater. Leo suggests a pact, they both keep their mouths shut and keep on doing what they want. Sonia supposes that Elisa is not aware of the lie, but she doesn’t have a choice but to agree to Leo’s terms. 

Eugenio takes Leo to the office (already acting like the head of the family). Is he serious with Elisa? Can they talk business? Leo plays along, agrees to talk “negocios” in his pretend NY office.

Later, Renata wants to make a toast: for Leo, possibly the new Cantu CEO, now that he’s involved with Elisa. Marcelo tries to take her upstairs, but Renata is not having it. She wants to play the truth game:

“Tio Eugenio, how can you stand Sonia, is it just because she’s young and pretty?"

" Leo, why are you with Elisa, can’t you see how boring she truly is? All she thinks about is work… or, are you after the family money?”

Marcelo stops Renata just before her game gets truly good. Quite the party pooper. I'm loving Renata in this scene, she should have had the chance to say something about mommy dearest, too.

As it is, Victoria apologizes to Leo for Renata’s behavior and Eugenio shows his hypocritical sympathy for Victoria’s suffering. Then he says bye-bye, time to go assault Sonia some more.

Leo thinks it’s time for him to go, too. Elisa accompanies him outside. They both think the night went well.  Leo never mentions his talk with Sonia! He's probably afraid that Elisa would tell the whole family that Marcelo is a cheater and he would lose his leverage against Sonia, but she won't be happy when she find outs he knew about Renata being cheated on.

He says goodbye, goes to his car, looks back at Elisa’s lingering eyes… He wants to know what’s wrong. She’s upset, worried about Majo, lying to her mother, wearing a bland black dresses and still hasn't found a decent hair style . Leo encourages her, they have no choice. Elisa apologizes for Renata, too, but Leo is not offended, he’s too busy gazing at Elisa, assuring her for the 156^th time that he’s there for her, to help her and only her. Elisa smiles, she feels so protected around him.

He finally decides to leave, spare her his presence. They joke about being novios, it comes with the territory. She thinks he took things a little too far with the kiss, she almost wanted to slap him (her lips say slap, but her eyes say bang). Now that he knows the whole family, he has to investigate them (better late then never, huh?). The police pals (their names will forever be a mystery for me) call just then, with news - Leo needs to come over. Elisa insists that she come, too.

    True detective work

While Leo is deep undercover (ahem!) in the Cantu house, the detectives squad does some serious police work.

Jose Luis is questioning Fernanda about the illicit artifacts. Fern knows nothing about this, Elisa is the one in charge of the gallery (best friend that she is).

JL leaves for a moment, so Girl Cop tries to trick Fernanda. She mentions how more often than not women end up in jail after being forced into helping their bosses; they are harassed into accepting and they keep their mouths shut, too afraid to talk. Fernanda doesn’t bite, she simply kept quiet about the affair because she didn’t want to lose Elisa’s friendship or her job. And she had no clue Augusto had a second lover, she thought she was the only one. Girl Cop tries to sweet talk her some more, promising that what they discuss will be their secret.

When JL gets back (he has been watching the whole exchange, obviously), he offers Fernanda a deal: they will let her go if she agrees to keep them informed about all the money deals and financial situation of the Cantu family. Fernanda doesn’t answer.

Later on Girl Cop and Boy Cop talk about Fernanda’s lies. They found out about the child she keeps hidden, they eventually agree that had it been  Augusto’s kid, Fernanda would have come after the Cantu money.

More importantly, they found the video of the kidnapping and on it, one of the kidnappers’ faces, the idiot who removed his sky mask before getting back into the car (the same idiot who tried to rape Majo).

When Leo and Elisa arrive, Girl Cop doesn’t think it’s a good idea for Elisa to be there. Regardless, they all look at the video together. They can’t see a plate number, but they could try to identify the guy who removed his mask. The only problem is in order to do that they need to ask for JL’s authorization, which is not possible, since Leo reminds them that Majo’s kidnapping needs to stay a secret. They all agree that someone very powerful is behind the kidnapping, because they’ve made the video disappear and it took some digging to find it.

Elisa is scared, she needs Leo’s encouragement and hand holding all through the talk. 

JL arrives at home, he tries to talk to Teresa, he'd like to make an effort to reconcile with his wife, maybe go see a therapist together; she’s not glad with the idea, she’s sick and tired of his late work nights, suspects him of cheating. Maybe they should both pay more attention to their daughter, who is probably drinking too much or is involved in something shady. The only one who seems worried for now is her grandma. 

     Who is bad and who is good and who changes sides every other episode?

Remember how the other day the Commandante was talking with Eugenio on the phone, complotting with him? Now he’s with Dario, who shows him Leo’s photo. The Commandante has identified him as a decorated cop right away and Dario looks furious, but not for the reasons we would believe. He says he needs some more time, he needs to keep people on the false track for longer. What I get from this exchange is that Commandante is only pretending to be working with Eugenio and Dario is definitely an undercover agent… Then maybe he should be less convincing when he threatens Elisa, she’s scared out of her mind.

Later, Dario brings Majo her suitcase (remember she was going to NY when she was taken) and a book about constellations. He doesn’t trust her back outside for now, he knows she’d try to run away. (D’uh!). She only wants to go back home, to her family. Dario assures her that they don’t care, they’re having a party. Majo reminds him that they’re not aware of her kidnapping, but once again Dario tries to turn her against Elisa, who shouldn’t be having a party now, because she does know the truth. He is the only one who truly cares about her, he is the only one protecting her. This is some messed up manipulation, what game are you playing, Dario?

Majo is on to him, though, how come he knows so much about her family, what’s his endgame? He promises to answer that question when she’ll truly want to know. Only in a telenovela… Who talks like this?

Pablo, the idiot rapist, wants to get his job back, but it’s a no go. He almost gets his brains blown out when Dario points a gun at him and tells him to beat it before it’s too late.

Eugenio, who has witnessed Leo’s talk with Sonia, but was too far away to actually hear what they were saying, demands Sonia to tell him what they were talking about. Sonia evades his questions, but for how long?

When Eugenio summons him, very late at night, Dario says that Leo’s story checks out – he’s truly a business man from NY. They get into it over who needs to be better at investigating their various targets. Eugenio wants to wait before using Elisa again, they need to put a break on their illicit transports, since the situation is too flammable for now. Eugenio wonders how come Dario didn’t kill Pablo when he came back to him (he's following Dario, too, not only Elisa), he doesn’t care how they’ll get rid of the body, it needs to be done, or else!

The next morning Dario is at home, his actual home, with his actual mother (who doesn’t appear to be able to walk). He’s looking through a window, remembering a time when he was infatuated with a blond girl. Mom says he was 8 at the time, he’s surprised she has such a good memory. How could she forget, that’s when his father…

His father what? She stops, she’s so sorry for what he had to go through. Dario has had it, his father will have to pay for what he’s done, he will pay with his own blood.

   Couch sleeping, part 2

Elisa wakes up on the couch, she's fallen asleep after watching the video. Leo’s friends are gone. She’s apologetic for complicating their lives, he reminds her that they’re all in this together.

They keep saying that whoever took Majo killed Julia and Augusto, but I’m not so sure. That would mean that Eugenio is behind it and it would be too easy of a mystery.

Elisa wonders if everything will go back to normal once they find her sister. She’s sad, what she really wants to know is what will happen with the two of them.

Leo assures her that things will never be the same again. They’re both smiling, the “falling in love” grin written all over their faces, and Leo has prepared breakfast yet again.

Renata is still acting high, she just took a pregnancy test. Marcelo is shocked that she hasn’t been on the pill for the last two months. She has a crisis when she realizes the test is negative, Marcelo tries to calm her, they will have their baby, but nobody needs to know about it.

Girl Cop and Boy Cop go to JL with the video, even if Leo explicitly said no. JL is furious they’re still up to no good, but they’re interrupted by the Commandante.

Later, as Dario is allowing for Majo to go outside in the garden, he gets a call from the police chief, warning him the cops have the video of the kidnapping and Leo hasn’t stopped investigating. Their talk is so cryptic, you no longer know on which side they are.

Majo takes advantage of Dario’s carelessness, finds a hole in the fence and tries to run.

Leo visits Julia’s house, her dad is home alone. He shows Leo a ticket he found in Julia’s room – it’s a plane ticket from Mexico to NY. Leo looks a little bit heartbroken to make a first real connection between Augusto and Julia. Whatever, dude, you’re in love with another woman already.

Clara arrives for her first day as Victoria’s assistant, wearing the clothes Victoria bought for her (she should have added a head band to the shopping cart). They start talking about Clara’s job, but Victoria doesn’t waste any time asking how long Julia had been involved with her husband. Clara is impactada.

Victoria also notices that Elisa hasn’t slept at home, but we don’t get to see that walk of shame because Elisa shows up at the office in new clothes and wants some girl talk with Fernanda. NO, girl, watch out! She starts talking about some feelings she has, how she can’t stop thinking about someone. It’s your novio, right, Elisa, it’s normal to have feelings for him… shut up, you fool!

She is stopped before saying too much - her phone rings, it’s putrid Pablo, with a proposition: he can help her find her sister.

Labels: imperio

Permalink posted by Adriana Noel @ 12:18 AM