Caray, Caray!

n.b.: Villa de Cortes is a real Mexico City metro stop, which explains Nandy's frequent corny asides ("Pulling into the station! Toot toot!") 

Paz kisses Esteban with gusto for 45 minutes, then pulls back and lists all the reasons their amor is imposible. (Fill in your own telenovela trope here.) He reels her back in for another 45, then suggests they have two paths: forget it ever happened and go back to where they were, or continue on the difficult and rocky road full of chutes and ladders and trolls and stuff to the big payoff. Happily, she opts for lengthier-but-more-scenic route #2. But it has to be a Big Secret from everyone who hasn't looked out their window in the past hour and a half, okey?

As they are waltzing back from the Yogurt Happy Place, Gala mentions to Salo that they caught that Rubio guy who killed her mother. Que que que??? Does she have a picture? Of course -- doesn't everyone carry a picture of their mom's murderer on their cell phone? Salo recognizes our favorite fall guy villain and hustles his girl back to the house to share that hot dropped knowledge with the rest of the family.

As they round the corner, Paz and Esteban jump apart like someone shined a flashlight into the back seat of the Buick, but the teenagers don't notice, because they're teenagers. They all compare notes on Rubio's real and purported crimes: extortion, loan-sharking, sexual and general-purpose assault, murder, mayhem, kidnapping, hiding Jimmy Hoffa's body, and showing up to a corporate briefing without a press pass. Did I miss anything? Rubio would probably be really impressed with his own criminal mastermindedness if his career weren't essentially over. 

Meanwhile, back at Hotel Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Mireya's kiss is wrestling with her bang. Could Mauro just answer one little question before they hit the elevators? Does he know that Rubio guy? Like know-know him? Because he sure skedaddled in a hurry when Mauro's car pulled up -- almost as if he were, I dunno, afraid of him.  

Mauro is nothing if not a quick thinker: he doesn't know Rubio, he replies, but Rubio knows him -- because he's the one who killed Elias and kidnapped Sam! That's why he disappeared so fast. This doesn't really pass the logic test, but Mireya was getting pretty uncomfortable straddling that fence, so she follows the path of (her own) least resistance.

Up in the room, she shakes herself sensible and nips into the powder room to arrange a fake emergency call from Nandy. Just then Mauro's phone rings, and of course she can hear everything, because they just don't build hotel doors like they used to. What? Sam is alive? That's impossible! The ransom guy told me he killed her! Better not let Ginebra find out or there will be hell to pay...

When Mir comes out, he grabs her by the wrists and harshly demands to know what she overheard. Nothing, she insists, nothing! What is wrong with you? He releases her and she sensibly suggests that he's kind of yucked the yum and she should just head home...but before she reaches the door he collapses on the floor in a full-fledged panic attack. 

Well, she can't just leave him there hyperventilating, can she? Of course not: she's a good girl. As she helps him back onto the bed he gasps out that he's had these spells ever since he was a kid, living on the street, never knowing when the next blow would fall. She is surprised he wasn't always so suave and debonair. He begs her to stay, just so he doesn't have to be alone. (Some excellent acting here from both, adding layers to a relationship well beyond the usual level of telenovela complexity.)

Back at Casa Nicoliti, Gin is plying her pal Filipa with strong drink and bad-husband stories when Fil makes the mistake of asking for a loan. They quickly proceed to the next stage of intimacy -- a visit to the heaps o' cash room. Gin throws a couple of big wads at Filipa and tells her there's plenty more where that came from -- all she has to do is help her launder it. That's the price of hanging out with the cool kids. Filipa puts up token resistance but quickly gives in. She towers over tiny Ginebra, but she's clearly terrified of her. (We get it, girlfriend; we are, too -- even though we're pretty sure she's not real.)

Fermin is skulking around the Roble place installing an "interfon," whatever that is, and of course hits the sweet spot in the hallway just as Paz is telling her mom about the beeeeeessssssoooooo. (Barrio house doors aren't much, either.) He gets an earful of details he doesn't want, including a lot of value-added from Dona Lupita about what a sucky husband he was. 

Esteban is waxing lyrical to Kenzo about said beeeeeessssssoooooo when Gin phones. She heard noises and she's scared and she's locked herself in the safe room and oh Esteban, Esteban! (Of course she's actually sitting in front of the fire slurping malbec in her negligee, but you knew that.) Our galan is gentlemanly and comforting, while Kenzo makes faces in the background. Afterward Kenzo tries about five different metaphors to point out that chick has hot pants, but he finally gives up when he realizes his friend has transformed into a windup toy that can only say "Paz" and look dreamy. 

The next morning, Mireya and Nandy meet up outside the front gate, where Mir begs her to sneak inside and grab a change of clothes so no one finds out she spent the night in a hotel. Unfortunately, they are standing right beside...the interfon! So that's what it was for -- added drama! Next to the kitchen unit, Dona Lupita starts shouting UN HOTEL? UN HOTEL! and plotzing all over the place. 

To...be...continued!

Around town:

* Elvira rattles her baby rattle and cries, remembering Gin's declaration that she could never forgive what her birth mother did to her, her, a defenseless child! 

* Fobo sits in the staff quarters in his modest Dick Van Dyke pajamas, mooning over a wallet photo of the young Elvira. 

* Nandy takes off her eyelashes and makeup while moaning to Lupita about her impossible love. She is still cute, though. Lupe tells her never say never, or whatever. 

* Dr. Monica arrives to "examine" Luna. 

* Gala takes another look at her tummy in the full-length mirror, decides she really IS fat. Here we go again...

* A blissfully Bosco-free episode, although I'm sure he's just offstage exercising his sneering muscles. 

* Paz tells her family that since everything is interconnected, she obviously has to go visit Rubio in jail. What could possibly go wrong? 

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Permalink posted by Blue Lass @ 11:12 AM