Caray, Caray!

ALGUIEN TE MIRA

A few words about the final episode:
I hate the choice the writers made – with that slight knowing sneer and sweep of the hair off his forehead, Emilio is transformed into el Cazador, the next generation. It says that everything we thought we knew is a lie. That evil is innate and it is passed on from one generation to another. Julián’s mother was a monster who abused him. Emilio’s mother is kind and loving and has never neglected him. It doesn’t matter. Emilio is a bad seed.


As for the rest of the episode:
After the suspense of the fire scene – we held our breath until we saw Rodrigo walk out holding Valeria’s body and we knew the human torch, now dead, was Julián – the characters’ stories were resolved without a lot of surprises:
--Luisa Carvajal gets a medal.
--Tatiana survives and eventually reconciles with Benja.
--Camila gets her diploma and the sisters are closer than ever, linked physically and symbolically by the life-saving blood donation.
--Lola accepts and loves little Pedrito and Pedro Pablo’s family is finally at peace.
--Lucía is institutionalized, seemingly catatonic.
--Piedad arranges the sale of the Surgery Center with the proceeds to be given to Matilde and Emilio and to the families of Julián's other victims.
--Matilde (who has made a full recovery after her surgery) and creepy Emilio are moving to California to start a new life.
--Rodrigo accepts a post in North Carolina and asks Piedad to come with him so he, she and Sofia can have a life together.


About ALGUIEN TE MIRA, in general:

We watched this novela become increasingly graphic in its violence and cruelty. Unsympathetic characters moved about freely, seemingly out of harm’s way, while some we thought were protected by the Geneva Telenovela Convention were mercilessly slaughtered. When Eva Zanetti – kind and clever, yes, but also tall, athletic, trained in self-defense and IMPORTANT TO THE STORY – when Eva fell victim to Julián’s el cazador, we knew the writers were playing with a different set of rules.

There was another crucial point in the narrative when Julián’s guilt was revealed to the viewer but not to the other characters in the story. We sat in helpless but still spellbound frustration and horror while over and over Matilde or Piedad or Tatiana walked smilingly into the jaws of the monster. We cheered for Rodrigo, the hero, the first one to see the truth though his warnings were ignored by everyone except Valeria. And we were afraid for Valeria who, even knowing that Rodrigo would never love her, stood by him bravely. Alas, our fears for her were justified.

Great care went into plotting the story and doling out the bits of suspense that kept us glued to our tvs night after night. And yet -- and this seems to be a Telemundo thing -- no one bothered to anchor this story in time or space. We are told it is modern-day Chicago and we’re given some stock footage of the city, but there is no city feel to the characters’ experiences or environments. Even when Valeria is following Julián and tells Rodrigo where she’s heading, the writers can’t be bothered to look at a real map of Chicago and pick an actual road leading to hunting country outside the city. Valeria can only say she is on the main road heading north. Well if the show were set in Mayberry, RFD, perhaps that would have been helpful.

Compare this to a Mexican Televisa novela where the pueblo or city setting are often strong presences. Or to American or European dramas where the city itself is felt as a protagonist in the story.

And it’s not only the geography that is vague. We are supposed to believe that in a high-profile investigation in 2010 Chicago, the police have only the most rudimentary forensic methods at their disposal.

Further, in a show about a group of doctors, where much of action takes place in clinics and hospitals, nearly all the medical detail is laughable. Compare this to the importance American dramas place on verisimilitude. American medical dramas always list medical consultants in their credits; crime dramas routinely consult with police officials and courtroom experts.

Well the writers may not have done their homework in geography, forensics or medicine. But the actors came through for us. The performances of this ensemble of young performers were impeccable, especially when you consider the time pressure of filming so many episodes in such a short time.

So tell me:

What did you think of the body language Rafael Amaya devised to switch from good guy Julián to evil cazador?
I kept thinking he could have been more subtle. Where Julián is slightly soft and yielding, el cazador could have been stony and dead-eyed. I wasn’t fond of the choice to make the monster slightly effeminate in his gestures – sweeping his hair from his forehead, holding his hand near his face, posing like a Tim Gunn from hell.

What about the implication that Emilio is destined to be another cazador? (See the first paragraph above)

Were you happy to see Rodrigo and Piedad end up together?
I’m not sure how I feel about this. Rodrigo deserves better. But as years of telenovela-watching have taught me, En el corazón no se manda.
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LA REINA DEL SUR

This novela based on the novel by Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte begins on Monday, taking over the time-slot from Alguien te Mira. According to Jean, the story was adapted for the screen by Valentina Parraga, the same writer responsible for adapting Doña Barbara.

Kate del Castillo as Teresa Mendoza seems to be an inspired choice: very Mexican, tough, not precisely beautiful but sexy, athletic and charismatic. I’ve read that Pérez-Reverte himself is happy with the choice.

And of course Rafael Amaya, whom we have just left behind in Alguien, appears here in a very different role as el Güero, the heroic fool, the love of Teresa’s life.

This narrative moves around from Mexico to Spain and to North Africa. (I understand that some of the African locations were also used in El Clon.) I’m hoping that this novela will be the Telemundo exception and that place will have the resonance it deserves.

The story begins in Sinaloa, Mexico. Teresa survives using her wits. Until one day her world falls apart and she has to flee…

I’ve heard that the producers of this telenovela are very sensitive to the messages they may be sending to viewers, especially at this moment in history when the drug cartels have the Mexican people by the throat. In my opinion, the original novel doesn’t glamourize criminals or drugs. Can this telenovela version tell the story of Teresa Mendoza without succumbing to the romance of the outlaw? Or will it be just another narco-corrido that glorifies killers?
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GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT EL MUNDO DE TELEMUNDO

Since the start of a new novela may bring some new readers to this page, Jean and I thought it would be useful to repost these blog guidelines from December.

As the number of comments grows, it gets harder to follow a topic of interest. Most of us, I think, are only interested in one or maybe two shows and would probably appreciate a way to navigate the forest of comments. So in the interest of Chaos Control:

1. Put a clear topic heading on every comment, preferably in caps. For example:

AURORA

Tuesday’s episode was…

or:

GENERAL COMMENT

Telemundo seems to be more concerned with…

That way, we can decide right up front whether to keep on reading. I realize that a lot of us are already doing this, but to those who aren’t – hey, it would help.

2. It’s hard to get away from the recap mindset but I do think comments or questions about what you’ve watched or what others have said are the way to go here. Considering the number of novelas in one place and the fact that the link is for an entire week, when we do post plot updates, it might be best to limit them to brief summaries, basically bullet points of daily episodes.

3. If you’re writing about a particular episode, please add the day of the week. That way you won’t be inadvertently posting a spoiler for someone who hasn’t seen that episode yet. For example:

LA REINA DEL SUR -- Monday
After bombarding us with previews, expectations were high…

-----------------------------------------
Ok. Your turn now.

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

The big news on Telemundo is the announcement that La Reina del Sur starts February 28 and it will take over Alguien’s time slot.

ALGUIEN TE MIRA

A month passes. A veneer of normalcy covers the friends’ lives.

Rodrigo helps Valeria through her latest relapse. Valeria’s love and gratitude toward him is such that she would do anything to keep him from suffering. And right now he is tortured by the knowledge that Piedad and baby Sofía are in danger from Julián. Valeria makes a last-minute attempt to convince Piedad that Julián is a menace; she tries to tell her what Vidal’s cellmate has said and explain about the old photo of Julián’s mother, Fabiola, in the black dress. Piedad looks uncomfortable but unconvinced.

Tatiana is functioning normally enough to keep her business running -- even if she has lost some customers. She seems on the verge of telling Piedad about her and Julian’s ‘indiscretion’ but then, uncharacteristically, holds her tongue.

Benjamin is trying to keep his nose clean. He hasn’t forgiven Tatiana or Julián for betraying him and he refuses to go to the wedding. He has seen Camila a couple of times. Camila – who has made the cleanest break from the past with her job, her education and her new-found self-sufficiency -- has made it clear that their romantic relationship is over. We, the viewers, know, (and Tati knows too) that Camila is in love with Benja. But Camila lets Benja believe that she is over him.

Pedro Pablo and Lola have reconciled. The blot on their happiness is Lucía’s disappearance with her (and presumably) Pedro Pablo’s son.

Newborns are quite fragile. It’s hard to imagine how Pablito, let alone Lucía, could survive on the street. If they’re alive, it’s because someone took them in. With what intentions? Who knows. Does Lucía’s mother remember that just before she delivered Pablito, Luci was checking out Indianapolis as a place to live?

Matilde is ever more eloquent with facial expressions, blinks, tears and hand squeezes. It’s hard to accept that no one has figured out how to communicate with her. Unless she has an enemy we are unaware of, she should be safe while Julián is away.

Once the telemédico passes his magical scalpel over her, she will recover completely. And she’ll be able to expose Julián for the monster that he is. If only they’d do the operation before Julián comes back….

Julián and Piedad continue with their quiet wedding preparations. Just before the ceremony, Julián’s son, Emilio, surprises Piedad with a gift: the family tree project he was working on for school. Only now it is complete. The famous photo of Fabiola in pearls and black dress and labeled by name takes pride of place on the chart. Julián and Piedad agree to keep the gift their secret. (Will someone else find the chart, realize its importance, and turn it over to Carvajal?) Again, Piedad looks uncomfortable but still not ready to admit that her faith in Julián is tragically misplaced.

We see Rodrigo running desperately, breathlessly through the streets. Is he hoping to stop Piedad's wedding at the last minute? If so, he arrives too late for Piedad but not too late to hold his daughter in his arms. But Julián and Piedad have already exchanged vows. And we see them leave for their brief honeymoon. And then we see the absolute misery on Piedad's face as she braces herself for an intimate moment with her new husband.

Knowing that Matilde’s recovery means the downfall of the Cazador:
Will Julián come back to kill Matilde before she can betray him?
Or will he make a run for it?

And if he runs:
Will he kill Piedad first?
Will he take her with him?
Or will he let her go?

----------------------------------------

NUEVO RICO, NUEVO POBRE

I guess I’m watching this alone, DVRing the daytime episodes and trying to catch up on the weekends. This Colombian comedy is like Yo Soy Betty La Fea – sweetly funny, sharply observed and beautifully played. I guess it is just too regional for prime-time showing. Too bad because it’s so much better than just about every primetime comedy I’ve seen on the two major US Spanish language stations. (Or maybe I just prefer the Colombian to the Mexican take on comedy.) Right now Andrés, the nuevo pobre, is becoming a better person and learning a little about empathy and love; while Brayan, the nuevo rico, is letting himself be led by appearances and getting more callous and less likeable every day.

----------------------

Okay. Te toca a ti. Your turn!

Labels: alguien, herederos, telemundo

Happy Valentine's Day! - ¡Feliz día de San Valentín! -

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, telemundo

ALGUIEN TE MIRA – últimas semanas

We’ve had horrible moments of graphic violence before but nothing like the sustained hideous sadism of Julián’s triple murder: Daniel’s lawyer, the lawyer’s secretary, and finally, Daniel himself.

Up to now, Julián has eluded justice with a combination of meticulous planning, skill and dumb luck. But this time -- this time! -- we were sure the forensic evidence would be irrefutable. The detectives would analyze the murder scene checking for things like gunshot residue, bullet trajectory, skill needed to resect a heart and suture the wound closed. And they would conclude that the scene was only staged to make Daniel Vidal appear guilty. They would know that Vidal was just a victim here. And this would lead them back to the police investigators’ prime suspect: Julián García.

Well. Obviously it didn’t happen that way. This Chicago Police Department is hobbled by forensic science more suitable to a 1940’s film noir than a modern-day thriller. Luisa Carvajal’s objections are drowned out by her superiors. They buy Julián’s staged crime. He goes free.

We move ahead several months. Despite Julián’s best efforts to incriminate him as the accomplice of Daniel Vidal, Rodrigo is finally exonerated and set free.

The bellies on Lola and Piedad are ready to pop. Even Lucía looks pregnant now -- whether it’s with a pillow or a baby, we can only guess.

Pedro Pablo is still in exile from the family home although amazingly, he has managed to keep clear of Lucía. Now that Rodrigo is free, Pedro Pablo will have to find somewhere else to live.

Benja is on the straight and narrow, living with Lola and the girls and seeing his kids regularly. He’d like to get back with Tati but she’s decided it’s her turn to be the wild girl. Uh oh. Alguien te mira, Tatiana!

Camila is a college girl. Let’s hope nobody tells her about Spring Break or the College Girls Gone Wild franchise.

Matilde is home with her parents and Emilio. Her emotional reactions to names and events are eloquent. Unfortunately, we, the viewers, are the only ones who can read them. Her doctor tells her parents about a surgical procedure that may help her. Julián does his best to scare them away from it.

In her campaign to win Rodrigo’s love, Valeria has finally taken the gloves off. Literally. Hat’s off, too. Not that it helps – he’s still obsessed with pea-brain Piedad.

Piedad promises to call him for the baby’s birth. She insists her engagement with Julián is still on but she is living apart from him until after the baby is born.

Julián’s Dr. Jekyll is determined to keep his Mr. Hyde at bay. You can almost hear him muttering under his breath: Must. not. kill. While the ever-more seductive Fantasma de Eva whispers in his ear: You know you want to.
------------------------------------------------------------

Okay. Your turn.

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, telemundo

Hello from snowy New Jersey! Thanks to everyone for the great comments. I'll start off with Friday's Herederos, the only novela I am watching right now.

Labels: alguien, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

Last week’s comments were terrific. Thanks everyone!

NUEVO RICO, NUEVO POBRE

This is for real: Last Friday there was a piece in BBC Mundo about how Venezuelan authorities pulled the Colombian novela, Chepe Fortuna, off the air because:
…promueve la intolerancia política y racial, así como la xenofobia y la apología del delito.
(...it promotes political and racial intolerance as well as xenophobia and a rationale for crime.)

Here’s the article, if you’re curious: http://tinyurl.com/66qt9qa

It seems the novela features a minor character named Venezuela (and another, her sister, Colombia). Venezuela is characterized as a large, kind of vulgar, dark-skinned woman who, when told that her small dog, Huguito, is missing, cries out tearfully:
¿Qué va a ser de Venezuela sin su Huguito?
(What’s to become of Venezuela without her Huguito?)
Her less than sympathetic friend answers:
Va a ser libre, Venezuela...
(You’re gonna be free, Venezuela…)
… because lately that Huguito of yours has been sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong.

Hugo Chavez didn’t see the humor, apparently. And we’re not likely to see SNL Venezuela any time soon.

I thought of this when I was watching the latest episode of the Colombian comedy, Nuevo Rico, Nuevo Pobre, in which the newly minted and totally unprepared executive of a major shipping company says in a televised speech: Yankees Go Home! The "Yankees" in question are empresarios who have given the Colombian firm an ultimatum: if they want their business, the Colombians will have to do some belt-tightening and lay off 200 employees. Talk about Ugly Americans.

I’m so glad we live in a country where we get to decide whether to laugh or switch the channel.

That’s it. Just had to get that off my chest.

HEREDEROS DEL MONTE – OR – All the Pretty Horses…and the People Ain’t Bad Either.

Lots of amor no correspondido (unrequited love), uncertain parentage, guapos y guapas. I’m happy to enjoy it vicariously through your comments. Have at!

-----------------------------------
ALGUIEN TE MIRA – As of Friday

As we sit at home and gnash our teeth, Julián just keeps getting away with it. Arrrrrggggggggghhh!!! And while Matilde lies unconscious with the direst of prognoses, Julián and the ever-more odious Piedad make out in the waiting room. And Julían waits for an opportunity to get to Matilde – “I’m the father of her child! And I’m a doctor!” – and finish the job he started.

In what may have been the last phone call of Matilde’s life (remember how she frantically dialled Tatiana from the deserted gas station), she cried out Julián’s name. And now the moronic Tatiana is determined to hide that fact from the police. In that decision she is supported by the even more moronic Lola.

Mauricio’s gruesome remains – minus the head – are delivered to the police. The idiot Fiscal insists that Mauricio’s death is unrelated to el Cazador. Amador and Carvajal know better, but not much.

(Can anyone tell I'm getting a little impatient with these people?)

Only Rodrigo has hit upon the truth: the killer is Julián. Rodrigo is trying to keep Valeria from coming to Julián’s attention but she insists on taking risks in her efforts to prove his innocence. I wasn’t worried about her before, but I am now.

Camila is finally a success at something: with her deliberate overdose of ‘calmantes’, she is effectively punishing her sister and her brother-in-law.

Daniel Vidal is still out there lurking in the shadows. Back at the killing ground, he could have stopped Julián from harming Matilde; later he could have prevented the murder of the good samaritan at the gas station. At the very least, if he didn’t want to get his hands dirty, he could have alerted the police. But he is apparently interested in keeping Julián alive and at liberty so he can bleed him dry financially – murder victims past, present and future be damned!

We are waaaaaaaaaay past a possible happy ending. I only hope that the police recognize Julián’s guilt and they are able to stop him. And I’d rather see him dead than in jail because that’s the only way to stop him from hurting anyone else.

How do you think this is going to end?
-----------------

AURORA

I got nothin’. Your comments are welcome.

LA REINA DEL SUR

Like Urban Anthropologist, I’m assuming La Reina will be replacing Alguien. I’ve read that it is the most expensive Telemundo production to date and that Kate del Castillo was author Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s personal choice for the title role.

A few of you have read or are reading the novel. I’ve gone back to it and am trying to read a chapter a week. The prose is already very cinematic and I have a feeling that the script will often use the original literally.
I’ll leave you with this quote, something Teresa remembers:
Raimundo Dávila Parra aka el Guëro Dávila: Mejor, solía decir, cinco años como rey que cincuenta como buey. (p.50)
(Better, he used to say, five years as a king than 50 as an ox. buey: literally, ox but in Mexico = idiot, fool)

Okay, now it's your turn.

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

¡Hola a todos! Thanks for the great comments last week. With Alguien at an exciting point and Herederos beginning, there was a lot comment on.

Labels: alguien, aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

ELENA - the finale - part 2

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, herederos, telemundo

Hi Folks: Feliz Año Nuevo-Happy New Year!!!!

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Hi all and Merry Christmas. I'm back from three fabulous weeks birdwatching in Argentina. I had fun trying to speak Spanish the Argentinian way with the 'zsh' sound replacing the 'll' or 'y'. Usually, I remembered right after I said it the regular way. I didn't even attempt the voseo.

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Discuss amongst yourselves

Thanks to everyone who commented last week: Novelera, Vivi in DC, Ann-NYC, Hombre de Misterio, NJ Sue, Urban Anthropologis, Lois, shallowgal, CanuckFan, Erin, Blusamurai. (NJ Sue – have a great vacation! Travel safe!)

Best of all – Jean is due back this week!

With your terrific posts, you guys are bringing this space to life as a real discussion.

For those of you who are new here or missed last week’s page, I’m reposting our suggested format changes:

In the interest of Chaos Control:

1. Please put a clear topic heading on every comment, preferably in caps. Also, to avoid spoilers, where appropriate, add the day of the week. (Adding the day is Novelera’s idea – Thanks!) For example:

AURORA -- Tuesday
Pila melts frozen the heart …

or:

GENERAL COMMENT
Telemundo seems to be more concerned with…

That way, we can decide right up front whether to keep on reading. I realize that a lot of us are already doing this, but to those who aren’t – hey, it would help.

2. It’s hard to get away from the recap mindset – I’m the worst offender with the wordy Aurora screeds I’ve inflicted on you – but I do think comments or questions about what you’ve watched or what others have said are the way to go here. Considering the number of novelas in one place and the fact that the link is for an entire week, when we do post plot updates, it might be best to limit them to brief summaries, basically bullet points of daily episodes.

-----------------------------

The latest on Telemundo:

El Fantasma de Elena is in últimos capítulos and Los Herederos del Monte seems to be its replacement. Meanwhile, La Reina del Sur is still on the back burner. The Telemundo website says only that it is coming próximamente. I assume that La Reina will take the 9 pm slot when Alguien is done.

-------------------------------

Updates on current shows:

AURORA – as of Friday

Tonight was the Second Coming of Aurora. The absurdly complicated sham reanimación finally takes place. It is an electronic-age magic act, a media spectacle with switching of bodies and loss of screen image at strategic moments. In its wake it leaves a fake Aurora in a coma from which she is unlikely to recover; and the real Aurora with the burden of pretending to be two people: her true self and her daughter.

Collateral damage: Liliana tried, she really tried, to be a soulless, money-grubbing apostle of the great Gustavo. But in the end, she couldn’t do it. And now she is bound and gagged in a back room and at the mercy of Dra Elizabeth. Who has none. Mercy, that is.

While Aurora is recovering from the fake defrosting, she hears Lorenzo declare his love for her. She realizes that both Natalia and Vanesa were lying: Lorenzo never betrayed her. He was and is the love of her life.

But she also realizes that she has developed feelings for Martín.

She’ll have to figure out who she really is and whether she wants to look to the future with Martín or pick up the pieces of the past with Lorenzo. She continues to remind us that her love for her daughter Blanca is more important than her love for any man.

[Since telenovela writers love the conceit of the double identity, I’m thinking we’ll be seeing double Auroras for quite a while. How is the actress going to make them distinct from one another? Cloncitos, I’m sure you join me in hoping that no head-scratching will be involved.]

Meanwhile the Blanca-César-Vanesa triangle is getting ever more sordid and maybe a bit dangerous. The writers keep teasing us with situations where César almost removes his shirt giving Blanca a chance to see the telltale tattoo and realize he’s her kidnapper. But on Friday’s episode, it is Blanca who loses at strip poker. And once again, César gets to keep his shirt on. (It’s interesting that when Martín and Vanesa walk in and find her topless, Blanca seems unembarrassed.)

And in the Department of Cozy Domesticity: We see Natalia and her nasty gnome, Nina, sitting at the kitchen table nursing their Hatred, their Jealousy and their Thirst for Revenge.
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ALGUIEN TE MIRA – as of Friday

There’s no doubt now – Daniela is Julián’s next target. Julián knows that when the police investigate, they will find a trail leading back to Rodrigo. What he doesn’t know is that Mauricio has photos of him and Daniela together.

When Julián’s son is looking for family photos for a school project on genealogy and rummages through his father’s memorabilia, he finds a photo of his grandmother, Julián’s mother, in the famous black dress. (We hear her name for the first time: Fabiola. Well, that's assuming Julián is telling the truth.) Julián is furious at the perceived invasion but interestingly, Emilio continues to ask him questions fearlessly. This is a very secure little boy who has never been abused. We understand how controlled Julián’s violence has been up to now, how skillful he is at compartmentalizing his life: One part loving father, one part charming, skilled physician, one part controlling ex-spouse, one part monstrous serial killer…

Tatiana has given the police compromising information about Benja and tries to paint him as the killer. (Apparently there was a bloody shirt. He claims he hurt himself changing a tire. But how weird to burn it.) She won’t let him near his children. She is determined to make him pay for hurting her and her strategy is working. He starts to fall apart under the pressure.

Mauricio believes that Benja truly is the killer and that Camila is in imminent danger from him.

Rodrigo is hurting from Piedad’s rejection. Even so, he is determined to stay clean. His unborn child is his strongest motivation, although as Benja suggests, if he sticks to his rehab, he has a good chance of winning Piedad back.

Nevertheless, Rodrigo doesn’t lack for admirers. Valeria is sweet on him. So is Daniela, for that matter.

Piedad says that she’s giving Julián an opportunity. But Rodrigo is the one she's always thinking about. And Eva’s ghost tells Julián that Piedad will never love him. Who does that remind you of? she asks. Oh boy. Probably not a good thing to remind Julián of Mama.

With $5000 cash in her purse, Lola drags the reluctant Yoyita to her meeting with the hitman, El Buitre (the vulture). The women, disguised as a couple of plus-size Avon Lady drag queens, are met by an armed man who orders them into his SUV. Is he The Vulture they’re looking for? Or just a random predator looking to pick their bones clean?

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And now it's your turn. (Ya te toca a ti.)

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Discuss amongst yourselves

¡Hola a todos! As you may have noticed, Jean and I are still trying to figure out the best way to organize this thing. You may remember how it came into being: we didn’t have the requisite five recappers for any one novela, but we Telemundo fans wanted a place to talk about our favorite shows. So we started El Mundo de Telemundo (EMT). We’ve been tackling at least three and sometimes four or five separate novelas in a space posted weekly.

As the number of comments grows, it gets harder to follow a topic of interest. Most of us, I think, are only interested in one or maybe two shows and would probably appreciate a way to navigate the forest of comments. So in the interest of Chaos Control, I had a couple of ideas:

1. Put a clear topic heading on every comment, preferably in caps. For example:

AURORA
Tuesday’s episode was…

or:

GENERAL COMMENT
Telemundo seems to be more concerned with…

That way, we can decide right up front whether to keep on reading. I realize that a lot of us are already doing this, but to those who aren’t – hey, it would help.

2. It’s hard to get away from the recap mindset – I’m the worst offender with the wordy Aurora screeds I’ve inflicted on you – but I do think comments or questions about what you’ve watched or what others have said are the way to go here. Considering the number of novelas in one place and the fact that the link is for an entire week, when we do post plot updates, it might be best to limit them to brief summaries, basically bullet points of daily episodes.

So. That’s my thinking. I’m looking forward to Jean’s return here in a week or two. I know her perspective is going to be helpful. And thanks to everyone – commenters and readers – for keeping this space alive. And lively.

My comments on the developments of the past week in AURORA and ALGUIEN TE MIRA:

AURORA

I am still convinced that Aurora has a short time on this earth. She is a sort of angel (although lately she seems anything but angelic) returned to earth with a specific mission: first, to turn Blanca’s life around; and second, to leave Lorenzo with the knowledge that what they had was real.

But since this is a 100 hours plus telenovela and not a movie or short story, it will be a looooooooooooong time before the mission is fulfilled.

Meanwhile:

The junta’s approval of Aurora’s reanimation comes a little late. The press is watching closely. And now Martín’s friend, Dra Liliana, is asking way too many questions. Gustavo’s solution: disarm her by charming her. Dr. Elizabeth’s: kill her.

Helping Blanca become a good person becomes more challenging each day. And it’s not clear that hiring César as Blanca’s chauffeur is a move in the right direction.

Nina’s road to redemption is also getting longer and steeper every day. First we saw her quasi-incestuous seduction of Martín. Then we saw her injure herself and blame it on Aurora. And now on Friday’s episode she sabotages stage equipment with the clear intent of harming Aurora – maybe even killing her -- and removing her as the star of the show.

In the department of unintentional humor: Dr. Williams explains to Gustavo why he’s so eager to help him. He says: “I am desperately in love with you.” Does this guy look like he’s in love with anyone?

On Friday’s episode, when the beloved dance instructor, who has only a month left to live, asks Aurora about Cryonics, she tries to dissuade him from considering it. In doing so, she reveals to him that she is the original Aurora. (Interestingly, he is unconvinced by her arguments against the procedure: he is eager to cheat death.)

Also on Friday, Natalia confesses to Lorenzo that she was involved with Gustavo years ago, but denies that Gus is Nina’s father. Both Martín and Lorenzo are angered when they realize she has been lying about her recent contact with Gustavo.

And finally: Hot or guácala (Spanish for 'blech')? You decide – César and Vanesa in a car. On the street in front of the Lobos apartment. In broad daylight.


ALGUIEN TE MIRA

There are precious few sympathetic characters left. My candidate for most nauseating moment of the week: The Julián/Piedad kiss. When they showed it again as a flashback, I actually had to avert my eyes.

The most shocking moment: Tatiana ripping the earrings off Camila, right through her earlobes.

The most unfair moment: Seeing Lola accused of threatening Luci after all the crap Luci has gotten away with.

Proof that a little perversion isn’t always a deal-breaker: Mauricio may be a voyeur but ironically, he’s turning out to be a decent guy who really loves Matilde. Will she be able to forgive him?

Rodrigo’s rescue of the model, Valeria, from the abyss was a nice way to show him as a healer. But much has been made of Valeria and Rodrigo being alike. I don’t think she’s long for this world. I suspect her dramatic function is to shock Rodrigo straight with her death.

Unfortunately, Daniela is in Julian’s crosshairs. Will the police crack the case in time to save her? Not likely. But maybe they’ll stop Julián before he gets to Piedad.

My favorite characters right now: Matilde and Carvajal. They are both morally grounded, both free of artifice. Matilde is increasingly dismayed by what she is learning about these people she thought were her friends. And Carvajal is the clear-eyed one who keeps the police investigation on track.
-----------------

Okay, my friends. Have at.

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Just a reminder – Jean is still in Argentina but will be back here with us in a few weeks.

Blusamurai, you have been amazing this week with your detailed (and funny!) recaps of Alguien Te Mira and El Fantasma de Elena. Thanks for all your hard work!

And thanks to everyone who comments in this space. It’s fun writing here when it feels like a conversation with friends!

Aurora

The most powerful presence in this novela isn’t the title character, but the master manipulator, Vanesa Miller. If Aurora reentered the world of the warm-blooded with a vague notion of settling old scores, it is Vanesa who has been busy rewriting their personal history and inventing scores for Aurora to settle.

Vanesa is one of the cleverest villains I’ve seen. She gets people to believe improbable versions of events by having the same story repeated to her victim by various sources. Aurora, for example, hears that Lorenzo was just a fortune-hunter who never had real feelings for her. He and Natalia were accomplices and lovers. The story is told by Vanesa and then, with added twists of the knife, is repeated by Natalia and Aurora’s own father Gustavo. Ultimately, Aurora accepts it as true.

Other half-truths and lies:

Aurora believes that Martín is only after her money (False. He is really in love with her and she is breaking his heart.)

Aurora believes that Natalia was Lorenzo’s accomplice and lover 20 years ago. (False. Natalia’s sin was one of omission. She knew that Lorenzo and Aurora truly loved one another. She knew Aurora had nothing to do with Federico. And yet, succumbing to Vanesa’s pressure, she kept silent. She also played footsie with Gustavo years ago at a time when he was married but she was not. So maybe Nina is actually Gustavo’s daughter and Aurora’s half-sister?)

Almost everyone believes that Blanca is the daughter of Gustavo and Inés Ponce de León. (False: She is Aurora and Lorenzo’s daughter).

Blanca now believes that Lorenzo Lobos is her father (true) and Inés is her mother. (False: Aurora is her mother.)

Almost everyone believes that Beta-Aurora is Alpha-Aurora’s daughter. The only ones who know the truth are: Gustavo, Inés, Roque, Dra Elizabeth, Dr. Parker and Vanesa.

Almost everyone believes the lie concocted by Gustavo and Inés that Federico is Beta-Aurora’s father.

And now a resumé of Friday’s episode:

In a bar:
When Natalia tells Federico about Aurora and Lorenzo’s almost roll in the hay, he is Shocked. Shocked. Why that’s incest! Natalia tells him not to exaggerate. And then she reflects that perhaps Aurora isn’t acting out of love but out of vengeance for her mother’s sake: that Natalia ended up with Lorenzo, that Aurora’s mother is dead and she, Natalia, is alive.

In Aurora’s apartment:
Blanca gets home just as Aurora is about to leave for the Sleeping Beauty audition. Blanca makes a surprising announcement:
Yo no quiero que mi papá sea Lorenzo Lobos.
(I don’t want my father to be Lorenzo Lobos.)

At Lorenzo’s Dance Studio:
Lorenzo is leaving a phone message for Natalia begging for a chance to explain. Enter Martín. Quería desearte buena suerte (I wanted to wish you good luck) he says. And I wanted to talk about Aurora.

Blanca explains to Aurora that if she had been raised as a Lobos, she would have been … oh the horror… poor! She imagines getting up early in the morning, managing her clothes and hair on a tight budget. Aurora muses:
¿Tú solamente ves el lado material?
(You only see the material side?)
Is there another side? retorts Blanca cheerfully. She doesn’t want Gustavo to disinherit her, nor does she want to trade her fancy apellido “Ponce de León” for the vulgar “Lobos” name.

Martín and Lorenzo continue their tense conversation. Lorenzo is going to Spain to leave the way free for Martín to be with Aurora. But Martín rejects the idea of being picked just because he’s available and Lorenzo is not. He wants Aurora to choose to be with him. Then he leaves, refusing to give his father a goodbye hug. As he is leaving, he gets a text message from Nina.

At the Cryonic Clinic:
Gustavo, with a penchant for understatement, says:
Las cosas están complicando!
(Things are getting complicated.)
Let’s see, Elizabeth has murdered Eduardo, Julia Castillo, her doctor friend at the hospital… the police investigation is likely to lead to their door…
But as Dra Elizabeth sees it, their problem has a name: Dr. Williams. Speak of the devil! The bearded young doctor who earlier recognized Julia’s photo on tv pokes his head into Gustavo’s office and asks to talk to them.

At the School of the Arts:
Blanca continues to riff on the horror of being born a Ponce de León and then finding out your father is just an ordinary dancer, not even famous. (Un bailarín común y corriente... un mediocre) And a disconcerted Aurora says: Nunca imaginaba que fueras tan… así. (I never imagined that you were so… like that.)

The instructor who will judge the dance-off between Aurora and Nina arrives. The ladies sharpen their claws.

Vanesa’s apartment:
If Natalia is looking for sympathy, she’s in the wrong place.

Young Dr. Williams turns out to be a Company Man. He rejects Gustavo’s cash. You can count on me, on my loyalty, he tells Gus and Eli. Pase lo que pase. (Whatever may happen.)

Aurora transacts a lot of business while she waits for the audition to begin:

First Federico shows up and tells her she can’t have a relationship with Lorenzo because he’s her father. She laughs unpleasantly. I can see you never really knew my mother, she tells him. She was very sexual and she had many lovers – among them, my father.

Then Vanesa reports back by phone to Aurora: Natalia told her everything but the color of Aurora’s underwear when she caught her and Lorenzo together. Black, Aurora tells Vanesa. Sexy, no?

Aurora puts Vanesa on ‘hold’ to take Lorenzo’s call.
Line 2: Lorenzo’s not sure about going to Madrid…
Line 1: Vanesa repeats the lie about Martín. She says Natalia told her that he is determined to do what his father couldn’t; he’d do anything to get your fortune.
Line 2: Lorenzo begs Aurora not to tell Martín they were together. He’d never forgive his father and besides, he doesn’t want to hurt him.

And then Martín comes along and vengeful Aurora says, with feigned sympathy: I guess you know. And she hugs Martín. She continues:
Natalia nos cachó a punto de hacer el amor en mi departamento.
(Natalia caught us just about to make love in my apartment.)
No, no lo sabía (No, I didn’t know) says Martín, barely breathing. And, he continues, I don’t want to know anything about you or what happens in your bed.

The audition has begun. Nina takes her turn first and the instructor watches her performance approvingly.

Meanwhile, Natalia continues confiding in Vanesa. She’s not sure Nina should be in The School of the Arts or that she should be living in Vanesa’s apartment. She doesn’t belong in that world. But Vanesa wants to talk about Lorenzo and Natalia obliges.

Sometimes, she admits, I think I’m getting what I deserve. The oath (juramento) you forced me to take and the betrayal…

Vanesa interrupts her. Which betrayal do you mean? Are you talking about the oath? The fact that you ended up with her great love? Or that you slept with Aurora’s father?

Back at the audition, Aurora takes her turn and the instructor is so excited, he is bouncing in his seat.

Martín and Nina meet in the school hallway. She wants him to see the Director about a possible job there. She promises she won’t bother him. It’s not you I’m avoiding, he tells her, it’s Aurora.

Natalia shows up a Lorenzo’s studio. He tries to explain what happened with Aurora. She isn’t his lover but she does have this strange power over him… Anyway, he has decided to go to Madrid alone. Perfect, says Natalia bitterly. So Aurora wins.

Now Nina and Aurora dance side by side and we see the instructor wince at a clumsy move that Nina makes. The instructor announces his decision: Aurora will dance the role of Sleeping Beauty!

Martín phones Lorenzo and reviles him for being with Aurora. Who told you? asks Lorenzo. It was Aurora herself, says Martín.

Aurora stands behind Lorenzo in his studio as he screams in anguish before his mirror: Leave me alone! Get out of my life!

I’m right here, she says. Say it to my face.

He rails at her: What are you trying to do, drive me crazy? Separate me from my son? Is this what you want? And he grabs her roughly. Is he kissing her? Biting her? Her mouth is bleeding and she tells him to stop, he’s hurting her. He pushes her away:
¡Vete! ¡Lárgate! Ya no sé quién eres, ya no sé quién soy!
(Go! Get out of here! I don’t know who you are anymore, I don’t know who I am!)

Wow. Is this the same person Nina is talking about to her friends Vicki and Blanca? My father is the sweetest man in the world, she tells them. Once, when the family went camping – Nina was about 5 – she dropped her teddy bear (osito de peluche) in the river. Her mother wanted to just buy a new one but her father spent the whole night looking for it. He came home soaked, dirty and exhausted. But he found the bear! Unfortunately, he caught a cold (agarró un resfriado) from his cold, wet night and had to spend the rest of the weekend in the tent.

Blanca looks wistful as she listens to this story about Lorenzo. Maybe she’s not such a material girl after all?

Martín doesn’t waste any time, does he? He escorts the young Cryonics doctor -- the one who had her eye on him from the beginning – into his shabby apartment. We learn her name: Liliana. And they agree to drop the ‘usted’. Pretty soon, they are dropping their pants too.

At Aurora’s splendid Fifth Avenue apartment, Inés and Roque are tending Aurora’s wounds. He hurt you! says Inés. No, says Aurora, I’m the one who hurt him. They made fun of the old Aurora because she was too good; but no one is going to laugh at the new Aurora!

When Blanca comes home, Aurora is surprised to learn that Blanca and Inés have made up. Blanca makes it clear that she still confuses material goods with love. Inés proved her love by reactivating her credit cards. When she walks out of the room, Aurora turns to Inés and asks:
¿No le pudieron inculcar otros valores?
(Couldn’t you teach her other values)
We did what we could, says Inés. And about tomorrow – are you going to let Lorenzo leave?

At the Lobos apartment:
Natalia listens to Gustavo’s message: I didn’t come to see you because I didn’t want to suffer losing you again.

Lorenzo is puzzled when César hauls in a large suitcase. Natalia explains that she and César will be going with him to Spain. To start a new life together. Then Nina arrives to say her farewells and make peace with the family. Family hug.

At the airport:
Aurora, in a blue baseball cap, is looking somewhat furtive. She thinks:
Natalia, vine a despedirme de ti y de tu traición.
(Natalia, I’ve come to say goodbye to you and your betrayal.)

The Lobos family – Lorenzo, Natalia and César – walk along pulling their suitcases behind them.

And Aurora, (thinking that Lorenzo is going to Madrid alone, I suppose), reflects:
Tu partida solitaria es el placer de mi venganza.
(Your solitary departure is the pleasure of my vengeance.)

Back at Martín’s shabby digs:
Dra Liliana gets out of bed and steps on the remote, turning on the TV by accident. It’s a news report about Julia Castillo. Her body shows traces of cryonic treatment. There will be an investigation of all the local cryonic facilities! While Martín and Liliana are disturbed to hear this, she admits that when the news about the bloodless body first emerged, she did think about the clinic.

Blanca’s pesadilla:
She is at home in their apartment when Aurora calls her with dreadful news:
Es horrible lo que pasó! El avión se cayó y no hubo sobrevivientes. Lorenzo se murió!
Something horrible has happened! The plane crashed and there were no survivors. Lorenzo is dead!

A shaken Blanca wakes up, realizes Aurora isn’t in the apartment, and calls her on her cell. Aurora answers that she is taking a walk but Blanca recognizes the airport sounds in the background.

At the Cryonic Clinic:
Inés admits to Gustavo that she was Eduardo’s lover but she wasn’t the one who killed him. She confessed falsely so he would think she had done something important. (Interesting. Like a cat offering its owner a dead, bloody bird as a gift). Just as she and Gustavo embrace, Dra Elizabeth barges in and asks tartly: Are you congratulating Gustavo on his upcoming wedding? Don’t you want to hug me too?

And back at the airport, the Lobos family walks together. The blue-capped Aurora follows at a discreet distance. But it is Blanca who runs up and shouts:
¡Lorenzo! ¡No te vayas papá!
(Lorenzo! Daddy, don’t go!)

Previews: Blanca’s nightmare becomes a reality. The plane carrying the Lobos family is reported to have crashed en route to Madrid!
No survivors have been found!
---------------------------------------------------------


Alguien te Mira

Mauricio tells Matilde that two victims, Rocío Lynch and María Gracia Carpenter, were Benja’s lovers. He says Eva was killed because she was getting close to the killer. If Matilde is unwilling to help Mauricio in his investigation, he’ll have to go to Tatiana and tell her everything he knows about Benjamin.

Rodrigo’s boss, Amanda, offers him his job back, but he feels he isn’t ready yet.

Pedro Pablo fantasizes about Lola and Lucía being together in his office, both great with child, admiring one another’s bellies.

At the catering office, Matilde ruminates about what Mauricio told her. And when Lola asks her to react to Tatiana’s announcement that she and Benja are getting divorced, she says perhaps it’s for the best. Lola says it’s all the fault of some little tramp! But it’s a problem that can be fixed. Tati isn’t buying that. For her, the marriage is over. Still, she is resolved to find out who Benja’s lover is and make her pay! Camila listens to all this in silence.

The model, Valeria, is on a photo shoot and is shown using cocaine.

Rodrigo recalls Piedad’s angry interrogation about his relationship with the group leader, Daniela.

Back at the catering place, Lola and Matilde continue talking about marriage and divorce while Camila sits apart and cries. She tells Tati she’s not feeling well and leaves for home.

Rodrigo continues his Piedad reverie; he envisions the scene where she pushes him away and tells him she can’t trust him. Then he gets on his bike and rides off.

At the police station, Luisa gets a report that they are following Benja and he is at his sister-in-law’s apartment house.

Inside that apartment house, Camila is begging Benja not to divorce Tati.

Luisa’s boss Angel asks her to accompany him on a visit.

At Rodrigo’s apartment: Julián arrives. He tells Rodrigo that his attentions to Daniela are upsetting Piedad. Rodrigo counterattacks: You’re dying of rage, aren’t you? he says. No matter what you do, you can’t stop Piedad’s feelings for me. And I’ll always be a part of her life because we’re having a child together.

Benja and Camila continue their conversation. We’re fine the way we are, she tells him. He denies that the divorce is because of Camila. She shouldn’t feel guilty because the rift in the marriage was something long coming.

And at the catering place, Tati confides to Matilde that she feels worthless (desvalorizada). Matilde, recalling her conversation with Mauricio, tries to get Tati to talk about what happened.

At the rehab center, Daniela remarks to Rodrigo that Piedad is obviously very much in love with him. But we’re not together, he tells Daniela. Yes, she acknowledges, but the two of you have a child on the way.

As the clinic is closing up for the evening, Julián invites Piedad to go out with him but she declines and prepares to leave.

Luisa and Angel are waiting for Julián. (So this is the visit Angel was talking about.) This isn’t an interrogation, they tell him. They just want to talk to him about Eva. Julián tells them that the last time he saw Eva was at the clinic reception. He gave her directions to the spot where the heart (sent to Benja) was buried. And the morning Eva disappeared, Julián was at home without witness.

Angel shows him the photo of the dress Eva was posed in. Julián says he has never seen it before.

Luisa tells Julián that the one thing they know about the killer is that he is a doctor because of the skills needed to remove the victims’ hearts and then suture the wounds.

Tati visits Camila to thank her for her concern. They will always be sisters, she says and she will always love her.

The rehab group session is over. Daniela remarks that she is concerned because Valeria didn’t show up. She and Rodrigo decide to go for coffee.

At Pedro Pablo’s house, Lola tells Benja that she is pregnant. She scolds him for his plan to divorce Tati and his involvement with Camila, which he angrily denies.

Matilde has a nightmare: She is in bed when she hears someone opening her door. She hears voices and finds Benja, Julián, Rodrigo and Piedad in her livingroom. Piedad, her mouth painted bright red, pulls out a knife.

Emilio, Matilde’s little boy, hears his mother scream and rushes into the bedroom to comfort her.

Piedad, now definitely in stalker mode, drives by Rodrigo’s building and sees a light is on in his apartment.

Inside that apartment, Daniela is flirting pretty aggressively with Rodrigo. As Piedad is getting out of her car, Daniela and Rodrigo are kissing. And the kiss seems to go on forever.

Credits roll.

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Open Discussion
¡Hola a todos! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! As you know, Jean will be gone for a few weeks. This means that discussions of Los Exitoso$ Gomez and El Fantasma de Elena are up to you for now.

Thanks to everyone for all the great comments in this space. And a particular shout-out to Blusamurai for coming up with the idea for this discussion in the first place and for providing several mini-recaps of her favorite shows.

By the way, Telemundo is starting to run occasional promos for La Reina del Sur, a new novela based on the novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. They say it is coming in 2011, and that Kate del Castillo has the title role. Today they showed Rafael Amaya, the murderous Julián in Alguien te Mira, in the role of El Güero.


Aurora
César’s planned kidnapping of Blanca is a disaster: Snow White and the Three Stooges. She escapes with her life but some innocent bystanders may not have been so lucky. Suspicion falls on César.

Aurora and Lorenzo show by deeds, if not by words, that they care about one another. She calls him, instinctively, when she is in trouble. And he rushes to her side without a thought for his own safety.

Vanesa is a more complicated villain than we thought. She reaches into her own pockets to help los Ponce de León with the ransom money to save Blanca’s life. She is still the only one outside the inner circle who knows that Aurora is… well… Aurora. And she continues to play puppetmaster for most of the characters who dance as she pulls the strings.

Natalia, in contrast, becomes more and more repugnant. She is filled with vindictiveness: it spills out in the look of pleasure that crosses her face when she hears that Aurora’s life is in danger and in her defense of César’s indefensible conduct.

Icky Federico continues to court Natalia according to Vanesa’s instructions. Meanwhile, it has become apparent that Natalia and Gustavo have a history together.

To keep her from stepping into the moral abyss of incest, Aurora at last tells Blanca that Martín is her brother:
Hay algo muy importante que tienes que saber y no me puedo morir con este secreto. No puedes tener una relación con Martín.(There is something very important you have to know and I can’t die with this secret. You can’t have a relationship with Martín.)
Blanca: ¿Porque tú lo quieres?(Because you love him?)
Aurora: No, ¡porque Martín es tu hermano!(No, because Martín is your brother!)

Blanca and Vicki are both interested in César. He likes Blanca. It looks like a set-up for a repetition of the Aurora-Vanesa-Lorenzo triangle.

Vanesa makes yet another play for Lorenzo and once again is rejected.

When Gustavo learns that Martín is Lorenzo’s son, he fires him.

Inés is ever more fragile and unstable. Even so, Aurora refuses to forgive her for her past transgressions.

Lorenzo asks Martín to stay in the family apartment with Nina while he and Natalia are in Madrid. (Lorenzo knows nothing about Nina’s obsession with her stepbrother or how she seduced him at the graduation party. But Natalia knows perfectly well that Nina is in love with Martín.)

Lorenzo acknowledges to Martín that he has fallen in love with the new Aurora.

Note: Friday’s show is worth watching if you are late in coming to this novela or have missed an episode or two. It’s a nice summary of main events up to now.


Alguien te Mira
Yes, Julián is the serial killer. NJ Sue, I think you were the first one to call it. And Vivi in DC picked up on Julián’s traumatic history before the writers made it explicit. Nicely done, ladies!
Julían tells Eva that he was 18 when he killed for the first time. And he hints that the victim was his own mother. He rejects Eva’s plea that he spare her because of her daughter. She sent her daughter away, he tells her. And he didn’t come looking for Eva – it was she who came after him.

And after these revelations, he pulls her towards him. In that instant, all our hopes for Eva's escape vanish. Julián stabs Eva to death. And then he lies beside her bloody corpse and admires his handiwork.

Mercifully, Eva's last thoughts are of her daughter. She visualizes her as a young lady. The last word in her mind: Gracias.

Julián has appeared distracted lately; he seems to be having a hard time keeping up his “normal” life. Everyone chalks up his odd behavior to his concern about Eva. His distraction is largely calculated: it is perhaps how he imagines an ordinary person would act under the circumstances. But every now and then, the mask slips and his friends look at him curiously. Even Piedad seems to be wondering at times but still appears inclined to trust him.

Matilde may still be in love with Mauricio in spite of his voyeurism. It seems pretty clear that he really loves her.

Luisa Carvajal has shown herself to be a true friend to Eva by insisting that the police pursue aggressively the investigation of her disappearance. She also kept Mauricio’s sex tapes away from the male detectives.

Benja continues pursuing Camila. She claims to be trying to distance herself from him, but in Friday’s episode, the two end up in bed together. Meanwhile the relationship between Benja and Tati is strained to the breaking point. And Lucía is the first person to tell Tati to her face that Benja has been unfaithful to her.

Rodrigo goes to a group session at a rehab center; he remains dubious but now at least he has taken the first step.

Pedro Pablo and Lola demand a DNA test but Luci la Loca says she’s within her rights to refuse such an invasive procedure during the pregnancy. They’ll have to wait nine months. Lola is falling apart. At work at Tatiana’s place, she can’t stop crying.

Other developments in Friday’s episode:
Tire track evidence links Benja to Eva’s disappearance. When he is called in for questioning, he admits to Carvajal that Tati’s alibi for the morning Eva disappeared was false.

Someone mails a photo to Rodrigo. It shows him and Benja at the site where they dug up the heart, the precise site where Eva went missing. It could only have been taken by the murderer.

Matilde is shocked by how callously Julián speaks about Eva when her fate is still unknown and he is supposedly in love with her.

Pedro Pablo caves in to Lucía’s threat to tell her story to the press. He give her back her job at the clinic so she doesn’t drag their name through the mud.

And finally, and most horribly, a group of young cyclists finds Eva’s body in the park. It is set out in an elaborate display, covered in white petals and surrounded by blood-red rose petals.

Julián feigns grief as he announces to his colleagues: Eva está muerta.

Labels: alguien, aurora, fantasma, telemundo

Hola, Telemundo fans! It’s NovelaMaven and it’s my turn to start this week’s discussion page. I am following Aurora and Alguien Te Mira. Jean is keeping you updated on La Fantasma de Elena, and Los Exitoso$ Gomez.

But there’s only so much we can say in one post. Thanks so much to everyone who comments during the week and keeps the discussion alive!

Aurora: ¿Peor que en tus novelas, eh Ma?

Last week my local Telemundo reception kept getting scrambled. (All I could think of was some little guy on a rooftop in southwest Milwaukee trying desperately to jiggle the dish and clear up the signal.) So I started watching Aurora on the Telemundo website the day after each broadcast. I find that I like watching it like this, although it means I’m always a day behind. So this discussion doesn’t include anything that happened on Friday. Sorry!

Okay. This is all getting deliciously complicated:

(So complicated, in fact, that it cries out for daily recaps. Are there four crazy people out there who might be interested? I’m deliberately giving lots of detail today in the hopes of enticing people who have been sitting on the fence and may not have seen every episode. You know who you are!!!)

The focus has shifted to vengeance.
All of Aurora’s targets for revenge have, indeed, acted badly, some worse than others. But Vanesa has twisted the events of the past in such a way that they are unrecognizable. She convinces Aurora that Natalia and Lorenzo were a couple long before Aurora arrived on the scene. They planned to have Lorenzo seduce Aurora so they could control her money. He never loved her. Natalia backs up Vanesa’s story, making it seem credible.

Lorenzo, in reality, is nearly blameless. He never betrayed Aurora. His only sin was refusing to listen to her explanation after the fateful birthday party. Now Vanesa has cast him as the principal villain.

Twenty years ago Natalia was guilty of cowardice. She knew what Vanesa was up to but, because of some hold Vanesa had on her, she kept silent. It was, of course, Vanesa, not Natalia, who invited Lorenzo to that birthday party. (The contemporary Natalia has become much more Machiavellian, and much easier to dislike.)

Now Vanesa pretends that Natalia’s sin of cobardía was hers. Meanwhile she commits far worse offenses against her nemesis, Aurora.

Dr. Gustavo congratulates himself for saving Aurora’s life but she despises him for destroying her love.

Even though Inés is now repentant, Aurora still blames her for not standing up to Gustavo in the past.

-------------

As we learn more about the Lobos family’s adoptive son, César, we realize he is a very dangerous character. He may be protective of Natalia and Nina, but he is a menace to just about everyone else. He and two of his thug buddies are planning Blanca’s abduction. (His biological parents will undoubtedly turn out to be involved in the story. Whose love child is César?)

-------------------

Blanca loses her enthusiasm for César when she catches him in bed with his ‘lawyer’.

---------------------------
Aurora announces to los Ponce de León that she and Blanca will be living together in their own apartment.

-------------------

It looks like Dra Elizabeth has committed a murder, (and not her first one, most likely) on behalf of cryonics: When Jane Doe didn’t die according to plan, Elizabeth helped her along.

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With a little pulling of strings on Natalia’s part, Lorenzo is invited to work on a theatrical piece in Madrid. Natalia is desperate to get him to accept the job. She’ll do almost anything at this point to keep him away from Aurora.
------

Nina is willing to take her obsession for Martín further than anyone imagined.

-------------------------------------

What follows is more or less a recap of Thursday’s episode with some expanded references to previous events:

As part of her new plan to avenge all the harm she has suffered, Aurora seduces Lorenzo in her new apartment. As they are engaging in something that looks more like love than war, Aurora begins to slip back into the cold. Her lips turn blue. She can’t speak but she can move her eyes which are open wide with fear. She is aware of everything that is happening. A terrified Lorenzo bundles her up and races her to the cryonics clinic. Elizabeth takes charge and
works frantically to bring her around while Lorenzo prays for Aurora’s life.

At the graduation party turned family tragedy:
The guys at this stag party in honor of Martín’s med school graduation bring in a big beribboned box from which two bimbos emerge. [We can see clearly that one of them, wearing a blond wig, mask, and bunny ears, is Nina. How is it that her brothers can’t recognize her? Tighten the beanie y listo!] Blondie throws herself at Martín; he does what’s expected. When he tries to pay Blonde Bimbo for her services, she peels off wig and mask and reveals her identity. When he sees it’s his own sister, Martín is overcome with horror. (It will take years of therapy to get past this one. As I said before, we need the guy from El Clon!)

Outside the bedroom, César is putting the moves on Bimbo 2. But he backs off quickly when he realizes it’s Nina’s friend Vicki. Then César rushes into the bedroom, takes in the scene and punches Martín in the nose. Fortunately he mistakes the postcoital scene for a precoital one or he would probably kill his brother on the spot.

Martín wipes his bloody nose and proclaims his innocence. He had no idea who the girls in the box were and neither did César. Martin: You think I did it on purpose? You think I’m capable of doing such a thing? Well, no, acknowledges César, I don’t, no. He puts a reassuring hand on his brother’s shoulder. It was just a few kisses, he thinks.

Apparently that’s what Vicki thinks too. But Nina corrects her: Sí pasó, pasó todo! (Yes, it happened! Everything!)

César wants to take Nina and Martín home, but Martín refuses to
go with them.

At the Lobos apartment, Dr. Gustavo pays Natalia a surprise visit. [There is a hint here that these two have a past. Could Gustavo be Nina’s father?] They talk about keeping Lorenzo and Aurora apart – Natalia still thinks they are talking about Beta Aurora. The conversation is cut short by Dra Elizabeth’s phone summons: Aurora has suffered a relapse! (recaída). Gustavo is on his way. (Salgo por allá ahora mismo!) But he leaves a message with Natalia: Tell Lorenzo we need to talk.

Aurora languishes in intensive care, a breathing tube in place and monitors flashing in the background. Even though she can’t speak, her mind is active. She believes she is dying and these are her last thoughts:
Mi hija no sabe que soy su madre.
(My daughter doesn’t know I’m her mother.)
Mi padre no recibió lo merecido por lo que me hizo.
(My father didn’t get his just deserts for what he did to me.)
Mi madre no pagó por su silencio.
(My mother didn’t pay for her silence.)
Natalia no se arrepentió de su traición.
(Natalia didn’t repent her betrayal.)
Lorenzo, mi venganza estaba comenzando y no pude terminar.
(Lorenzo, my vengeance was starting and I couldn’t finish.)
Martín, de verdad me querías; tú no merecías un amor tan imposible.
(Martín, you really loved me; you deserved better than an impossible love.)
Perdón, hija….

The monitor flatlines and Elizabeth hurries to Aurora’s bedside and begins chest compressions. Se nos va! (She’s leaving us!) Gustavo tries defibrillation but Aurora doesn’t respond. She is gone! Lorenzo and Martín rush in and implore the doctors to freeze her. You don’t get it, says Gustavo. There’s nothing we can do! Ella es Aurora, mi hija! (She’s my daughter, Aurora!) She came back from the dead once. She doesn’t have a second chance!

Aurora’s Funeral:
All the principals are in black. Inés finally tells Blanca that Aurora was her mother and Lorenzo is her father…

Not to worry…
The death scene and funeral are in Aurora’s mind! She continues to be very much alive and hooked up to ventilators and cardiac monitors in the clinic:
Así habría sido mi muerte, una triste despedida sin palabras.
(Is that how my death would have been, a sad, wordless farewell?)
How fortunate that my time hasn’t come yet because I still have a lot to do in this world.

Aurora comes to. Dra Elizabeth removes the breathing tube.

And after the worst party of Martín’s life:
César takes Vicki home and warns her against pulling any stunts like that with Nina in the future – imagine what could have happened! Vanesa flounces in wearing a revealing garment, maybe a nightgown? César politely offers his hand when Vicki introduces him and Vanesa arrogantly ignores it. [It almost makes you understand why he is looking to make his living preying on rich girls.]

Martín shows up at the clinic looking for his father and he learns that Aurora has suffered a crisis; and that it was Lorenzo who brought her in for treatment.

Gustavo scolds Aurora for her behavior and thanks Elizabeth for saving his daughter. He knows she was with Lorenzo and wants to know what precisely she was doing that caused her temperature to dip so low.

Vanesa berates Vicki for telling her she was going out with her girlfriends and then coming home late at night with César. Vanesa finds the bimbo disguise in Vicki’s bag and Vicki spills the beans: it was Nina’s idea. And she’s the one who ended up making love with her brother, Martín. Well not her brother by blood, but almost. ¿Peor que en tus novelas, eh Ma?
(Worse than in your novelas, eh Ma?)
Vanesa allows herself a small, mean smile. Peor, she repeats.

Lorenzo continues to cool his heels in the clinic (no pun intended), trying to get the arrogant Crionica folks to tell him what is happening with Aurora. He is joined by Martín, equally frantic to find out about Aurora.

Gustavo and Aurora are alone in the hospital room with the door closed. He demands details! Without them, he can’t prevent it from happening again. All right then.

She tells him: We were just about to make love. And then I felt cold and I couldn’t move and I couldn’t speak, but I could think. We were nude in bed and I felt alive, me sentí más viva que nunca… (I felt more alive than ever…)

We don’t understand why Aurora supplies the color commentary to her creepy father.

And said creepy father, seemingly a serial adulterer, doesn’t understand why Aurora would involve herself with Lorenzo, knowing he is married to Natalia. Her answer:
Porque me quiero vengar!
(Because I want vengeance!)

At the Lobos apartment:
César and Nina are greeted by an anxious, suspicious Natalia when they arrive home together. Are they hiding something? What about Martín and Lorenzo? They were at Martín’s graduation party but they don’t know where Lorenzo is.

Natalia tells César that Lorenzo lied – he was supposed to be with his friend Ernesto tonight. Listen, César, says Natalia, a lot of stuff happened while you were in jail. There’s this woman named Aurora…

And back in CryoLand, Aurora asks Gustavo:
Me vas a volver a secuestrar?
(Are you going to kidnap me again?)
Gustavo takes offense. Everything I did was for your own good, then and now, he says. Aurora grants that he was right about some things, wrong about others.

But let’s talk about this vengeance of yours, he says. She asks if he’ll help her get even with the people who have harmed her. If it involves punishing that Lorenzo guy, he’s on board. You betcha!

Here’s what Dr. Gustavo has to do: He must deliver a message to Lorenzo.

And so he does, with great enthusiasm:
Gustavo asks Lorenzo: What are you doing with my granddaughter?
And Lorenzo replies: I don’t owe you any explanations. You’re the one who owes me the truth: What happened to my Aurora?

And Gustavo gets to twist the knife that Aurora placed in his hand:
You still call her yours? Did you know that after her last birthday party, she went abroad, the happiest young woman in the world? That she had a child by Federico? And that for my daughter, you meant nothing?

And at los Lobos:
Natalia finishes telling César about Lorenzo and Aurora’s love, a passion from the past that has flared up with the return of the daughter. César promises Natalia that he won’t allow Lorenzo to make her suffer because of Aurora.

Back at the clinic:
Martín enters Aurora’s room at the clinic, strokes her hair, and promises to watch over her through the night.

Blanca, happily innocent of all the nasty stag party business and still unaware of Aurora’s crisis, arrives early at Lorenzo’s studio. She asks for help preparing for her exams at the School of the Arts. He is reluctant, but then agrees. She is out of sight, maybe in the changing room, when Natalia bursts in and fills the air with shrill reproaches for Lorenzo’s absence last night. Blanca hears her accuse him of spending the night with Aurora.

It is, in fact, Martín, who has spent the night with Aurora, keeping vigil at her bedside. She awakens to the sound of his voice singing to her. She reminds him: he shouldn’t waste his time on her.

Martín knows it was Lorenzo who brought her to the clinic. Why were they together so late at night? We were kissing, she says. Your father is my impossible love.

Martín is devastated. His father is a married man with a family! She tells him her only concern is avoiding hurting Martín himself. Well it’s too late for that, he says, and walks out.

Back at Lorenzo’s studio, Blanca hears Lorenzo say he was with Aurora at the clinic all night because she fell ill -- although she is now much better. Blanca leaves to go to Aurora. Natalia keeps hammering away at Lorenzo. She tells him Gustavo came to the house looking for him. Everyone, says Natalia, knows about you and Aurora.

Lorenzo retorts angrily:
Entre nosotros no hay nada!
(There’s nothing between us)
He went to see her because she wanted him to know something about her mother, nothing more. But you know what? I’ve decided! We’re going to Spain! Natalia’s face lights up. (Anyone else finding Natalia even more insufferable than Vanesa?)

César assures Nina he didn’t tell their parents about her horny conejito act. Little sister turns a deaf ear to César’s insistence that her feelings for Martín are wrong. (Ay, Nina, if even César, who has the moral compass of Tony Soprano, thinks it’s wrong, believe me, it’s wrong!)

Martín tries to get Dra Elizabeth to explain Aurora’s illness to him but she refuses. Just then, a tv report comes on about a missing person: Julia Castillo, a young woman who was spending a few days in Manhattan disappeared two weeks ago. The police have found no trace of her. Elizabeth recognizes that Julia is the dying Jane Doe she bought from the hospital to fill the empty capsule in the clinic; and the Jane Doe she murdered when it looked like she wasn’t going to die after all. Elizabeth’s interest is evident to Martín: Do you know her? he asks. Elizabeth just walks away without answering.

In Aurora’s clinic room:
Inés reproaches Gustavo for not telling her sooner about Aurora’s crisis. He makes a snide remark about her ignoring her messages because of her little pills, but she sets him straight: Blanca woke her up in the night with a pesadilla and she had to attend to her: she dreamed she was with her mother and it wasn’t Inés. Aurora hears this and reads it as a sign of Blanca’s increasing affection for her. And at that moment, Blanca enters and throws her arms around Aurora.

In a scary warehouse somewhere:
Apparently César hasn’t given up on his plan to kidnap Blanca. He shows his accomplices a nasty looking space where he plans to hold her captive. César wants to be the one to take charge of her. His accomplices discourage that: after all, she already knows him. She won’t recognize him, he says. They will do it tonight. During the recital.

Nina thanks Vicki for helping her and keeping her confidence. When Vanesa appears, it’s clear she is in on the secret. But Vanesa assures Nina that she wants to help!

At the Cryonics Lab:
Martín sees the Ponce de Leon family – Inés, Aurora, Blanca and Gustavo – walking Aurora out of the clinic. Soft tinkling music plays. Martín music. Aurora assures Martín she’s fine. Then Lorenzo, enters the scene. We hear ominous angst-producing drum beats. Lorenzo music.
Says Gustavo brusquely:
Y usted – ¿qué hace aquí?
(And you – what are you doing here?
And Lorenzo answers, addressing Aurora:
Necesitaba saber como estabas.
(I needed to know how you were.)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Alguien Te Mira

Things continue along their grim course…

Eva wakes up in a disgusting basement amid jars filled with the victims’ hearts. She manages to climb on a barrel and get to a window. She figures out how to remove the bars on the window and crawls out into a space surrounded by a tall, chain-link fence. She hears footsteps behind her. It’s her captor who, once again, overpowers her and brings her back to his hide-out.

Tatiana tells Rodrigo to keep away from Benjamin. He’s so angry he almost tells her about Benja’s extracurricular activities. But he holds his tongue.

Piedad is overcome with pains in her belly and fears she’s losing her baby. Tatiana takes her home. Even when she’s doing a good deed, she can’t keep her mouth shut. She upsets Piedad by trashing Rodrigo. Piedad nearly tells her about Benja, but she too manages to hold her tongue. Later, Piedad starts bleeding. She tries to reach Rodrigo, but he doesn’t answer. He shows up at her place hours later. The crisis has passed, but he wants to stay with her. He is still there the next day when Julian shows up carrying a white rose and looking none too pleased.

Benja goes to Camila’s apartment building seeking solace. He calls her from downstairs but she is already entertaining a gentleman caller, Renato. She meets Benja in his car, and starts getting very friendly until they are interrupted by her boyfriend. Benja and Renato fight. Benja leaves in his SUV. Renato rides off on his bike. And skanky Camila is left alone in the parking lot.

Julian continues in his role of ‘protector’ to Piedad and Matilde.

Benja goes back to the clinic where he sees Julian. The two make peace and Benja agrees to see not only Piedad’s but also Julian’s patients for the day. (Must not be a very busy practice!)

Mauricio is rotting in jail next to the crazy guy. Mauricio’s lawyer tells him he’ll have to hand over the sex tapes if he wants to be able to negotiate his release.

Carvajal also tells Mauricio he has to hand over the tapes. She notices Mauricio’s conversation with the policeman, Amador (who has been Mauricio’s deep throat in the department even though everyone was blaming Eva) and confronts him. He denies any involvement with Mauricio.

The crazy guy’s confession seems more and more motivated by a desire for ‘three hots and a cot’ than by actual guilt.

Tatiana is driving Matilde crazy by talking about Mauricio. At last, Matilde loses her temper, asks her never to mention his name in her presence: he is dead to her. Unfortunately, she can’t escape him after all. The DA’s office calls Matilde to give a statement in Mauricio’s presence. He finally admits that the sex tapes exist but continues to deny involvement in Eva’s disappearance. In the end, he agrees to tell the authorities where the tapes are.

Pedro Pablo has filed charges against Lucía La Loca. He’s also investigated her references and discovered that they were all falsified. None of the ‘employers’ listed had even heard of her. She herself is busy with target practice and cutting up the pages of her books into heart shapes.

And now Pedro Pablo’s and Lola’s baby girl is missing!
Lucía gets little María Jesus’s attention when Lola is in the mall with the two younger girls and somehow manages to get her away from her mother.

Lucía has also been busy in the family’s neighborhood. She has placed flyers in all the mailboxes accusing Pedro Pablo of being a sexual predator.

Stay tuned…


Part Two by Jean: Aquí está!

Los Exitoso$ Gomez-

Franco, Amanda and Ricardo are still trying to kill Marcela. Ricardo hires a kidnapper. Franco pays the ransom but the packets of money only have real bills on the top. I assume that he hoped that the kidnapper would kill Marcela in retaliation for not receiving the ransom. But Ricardo has not hired a very good kidnapper and Marcela convinces him to let her go. She pays him and he identifies Ricardo as the man who hired him. Marcela tells Franco that she knows that he is trying to kill her.

Sol faints and is ordered to bed. Apparently she isn't pregnant, though. At Marcela's suggestion, Alex of the weird hair, comes back to do the news with Gonzalo. She puts the moves on him big time and unfortunately he succumbs. Tomas and Charly go to Las Vegas, which gives Gonzalo a place to get it on with Alex.

Sergio convinces Dani to help him find out where Martín is being kept. They trick Dr. Carlos and find the apartment but only Sergio sees the comatose Martín. It all comes to nothing because Carlos moves Martín so that the apartment is empty when Gonzalo takes Sol there. Sol won't believe Dani because she didn't see Martín herself. Dani finally convinces Sol that Gonzalo isn't lying and she goes to see him only to find him with Alex.


La Fantasma de Elena-

Lots happened this week as usual.
Elena Lafe – After a good night’s sleep, she went from catatonic to amnesiac. While she was asleep, Dulce tried to kill her by injecting a poison in to her IV. Elena didn’t have an IV line in at any other time during her stay in the clinic but whatever. Dulce gets interrupted by Martín and Ruth. She kills a nurse in the bathroom of the clinic for no apparent reason. Maybe she just didn’t want to waste the syringe of poison. She may have also killed another nurse earlier to steal her uniform.

The now amnesiac Elena doesn’t want to stay at the clinic. The only thing she remembers is the ocean so Eduardo lets her go to her father’s hotel in the Keys with Laura. Montecristo follows them. He is going to tell Dulce where Elena is so that she can finish the job but when she finds out that Elena is so far away, she insists on Montecristo killing Elena.

The week ended with Monecristo befriending Elena on the beach and inviting her to go swimming where he presumably was going to try and drown her. Laura finds them before he can can do this.

Andrea’s wedding- Rebeca pushes the wedding date forward but Andrea is showing more symptoms and collapses during the ceremony. Katie Barbieri really gets to chew up the scenery as the anguished mother. Dr. Tibia may have some kind of a cure that involves a bone marrow transplant. Darío wants to be the donor even though he has a dicky heart but Eduardo is willing, too. No one will tell Andrea what is the matter with her.

Milady- We get to meet Milady’s father. At first, he isn’t sure he wants to meet his daughter. He shows up at the wedding and is supportive of Clara. Clara identifies Milady to him as his daughter and he decides that he wants to meet her. Clara asks Jesusa to tell Milady about this. She decides that she doesn’t want to meet her father but we know that won’t last.

Meanwhile, Michel realizes that since he is older than Milady, there are some holes in Clara’s story about him and Milady being half-siblings. Clara denies everything. Go for the DNA test, kid.

Nena, Anacleto, Latoña and the Twin-
Nena et al are about to go the police station with Latoña’s statement but La Gemela (LG) is watching the house. She follows them and in trying to escape from her, Nena’s car is hit by a train. Amazingly, they all survive and seek refuge in Padre Aguas’ place. They convince the Padre of the truth of their accusations and he calls Eduardo and asks him to come over to talk about something to do with his son. Of course, LG is listening and she gets to Padre Agua’s place first. The good guys have realized that LG is on the way and try to escape by car but LG ambushes them and apparently has locked them up somewhere.

That's it for me for a couple of weeks. I am going to Argentina. NovelaMaven will keep posting and I'll jump back in when I get back

Labels: alguien, aurora, clon, fantasma, telemundo