Caray, Caray!

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Labels: amar, barrera, reina-sur, telenovelas, weekend

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Labels: barrera, bravio, Cuando, eva, Fuego, Fuerza, Karmageddon, salvaje, stud, telenovelas, triunfo, weekend

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Labels: abismo, amor, barrera, Cuando, Fuego, Karmageddon, no-podia, pecado, telenovelas, triunfo, weekend

The supposedly dead Gustavo wheels himself into the church and says he will testify for Maite.

Nicolas sinks to his knees muttering: "I told you he would come back from the dead to get vengeance..."

Nicolas and Manola try to slip out but Gustavo continues: "You thought I was dead, but no." To the assembled church-goers: "My wife threw me off the balcony and later hid me in an abandoned building, telling everyone I was in a clinic in the U.S. Poor Omar helped me with my recovery, and helped me escape, and then YOU AND NICOLAS KILLED HIM!"

Rodrigo: "And then, Mom, you had me thrown in jail for your own crime!"

Remedios: "They are not the only assassins. You, Jacinta, caused your husband's death and THIS BRACELET IS PROOF!" [Huh.]

Jacinta: "A lie!"

Veronica: "It's no lie, I heard you confess when you were praying." (Others pipe up in support.)

Maite trots out her story and her proof (Aunt Griselda's letter).

Valeria trots out HER story (that Jacinta and Manola separated her from Andres) and Rodrigo supports her, apologizing again for his participation.

Jacinta: "It's all lies and blasphemy!" "No, Jacinta, YOU are the liar!"

Federico shows up and asks what's going on here.

Gustavo: "Federico, I'm glad you showed up. Jacinta will be surprised to find out that you killed her son Adolfo. You thought I was in a coma and not listening when you confessed to killing him and then simulating an 'accident'..."

"Federico will betray anyone," pipes up Unibrow. "He's signed over the ownership of the hacienda to me -- and therefore you, Jacinta, have to leave this very night!"

Federico has had enough of this cozy chat. He grabs Juanita and holds a gun to her head as Manola steals Pedrito out of Valeria's arms. They dash outside, where there are lots of cop cars. Federico hurls Juanita away and grabs the baby from Manola, pointing the gun at his little defenseless head. "Make the cops leave!"

Remedio begs him to give the baby back. "You, mom, were the first to betray me! You deprived me of a lifetime as a Valladolid and told me your mediocre husband, Octavio, was my father."

Rodrigo begs: "Father, please give the child back." Federico scoffs at him too.

There is a general stampede out of the church. In the quiet, the Padre tells Jacinta to leave! Get out of his church! and repent. She can't believe her ears. The gossipy ladies (what an excellent night to come to church) sneer: "Hypocrite! Liar! Bad person!" as she and Cleo stagger past.

At home Jacinta tells Cleo, in front of her husband's picture: "The Valladolid lands are mine, mine, they will belong to noone else. I'm going to pray for them (the pictures I think). Cleo, take them down and put them in my room. The dead will accompany me, I will pray for them."

Manola is driving, Federico tells her to head for the convent. They use the tunnel to get back into the hacienda (Manola: "This looks like the entrance to hell") to steal jewels and money for a good getaway.

Manola leaves the baby on the sofa. Federico is cleaning out the safe when Jacinta bursts in with her rifle and asks indignant rhetorical questions like, "How could you kill my son?"

Federico: "Adolfo was mediocre, useless, he deserved to die like a dog." "You will putrify in hell." "If hell exists, it's within these walls, in this evil house, and you're going to end up in an insane asylum." "I'm not crazy, I'm an instrument of God. I'm going to be in paradise, enjoying the presence of El Señor for all eternity." "Uh, no, you're completely crazy."

Manola adds: "Doña Jacinta, some exemplar of rectitude you are - a twisted, demented assassin!" Jacinta's retort: "Divine fury will be unleashed upon you!"

Federico gets the last word: "See you in hell, Jacinta. Let's go, Manola." After they're gone, Jacinta expresses a frisson of self-doubt. "Me? Oh, not me... ?"

Cleo plucks Pedrito off the sofa and shows him to Jacinta. "Give him to me. He's a Valladolid and I will take charge of his salvation and purification."

The good guys figured out Bonny and Clyde used the secret tunnel and all burst into the hacienda. Luis Antonio sticks a gun in Federico's face. Federico implies Pedrito will die if Unibrow uses the gun and somehow - while my attention flagged - Federico ended up with the gun but he left Unibrow alive and then left. That was a useless scene.

Did Cleo set up that big circle of candles on Jacinta's bedroom floor or did Jacinta do it herself? With all the Valladolid portraits propped along the walls?

Jacinta steps into the circle with Pedrito, declaiming: "Nobody's gonna take us out of here." Her dead husband's portrait starts talking to her, reminding her that he loved Remedios. Her dead son's portrait tells her: "You sacrificed me for your own desires and separated me from the woman I loved. And my own brother murdered me." "Federico may be condemned but fire will purify OUR sins. [She's referring to hers and baby Pedrito's.] I am the hand of God, your humble instrument. [She doesn't look any more humble than usual.] Now I'll undertake the final purification!" Her candles set the place on fire instantly. Speaking to the pictures: "You, Pedro, and you, Adolfo, both committed the sin of lechery. The fire will purify you, too."

The girls rush into the hacienda and find Cleo praying, then dash off to the locked bedroom. They get the key. Maite bursts into the room, sees Jacinta davening with Pedrito in her arms and fire all around, grabs Pedrito and hands him off to Valeria. She's about to leave but Jacinta hauls her back into the burning room, slams the door shut again, and starts to garrotte her. "You caused all my misfortunes, you won't leave here alive, you'll die like your aunt and Martina, I'll save your soul."

Victor, Andres, and Unibrow arrive and break down the door, Victor pulls Maite out, a burning beam falls on Jacinta and she burns to death with the Vallodolid portraits melting all around her.

Maite lies unconscious in the street surrounded by anxious good guys. "Mama, don't leave me just when we've found each other!" Wait, she's not dead! She coughed! "It's over."

Remedios cries as Octavio comforts her. "She hated me, she killed my Pedro, she made Federico be like her. But I'm at fault also..." Octavio loyally posits: "We are not responsible for the choices our children make."

Now that Maite has almost burned up saving Pedrito, Valeria has finally forgiven her and asks her forgivenness in turn, calling her Mama. Victor, Unibrow, Andres, Maite, Valeria, and Veronica have a big group hug.

As Manola and Federico speed away he grumps: "You knew I was a real Vallodolid and you didn't tell me." "If you'd known, you'd have been intolerable." Just as they congratulate themselves for starting a new life, the cops, lots and lots of cops, come up behind. Rodrigo and Gustavo are in a car following the cops and Rodrigo assures Gustavo: "You're my dad. They're criminals." Rodrigo and Gustavo bond.

The little red getaway car roars up a dusty road to a hilltop and stops at the edge of a cliff. It's a long way down. The police come up behind and say "Give yourselves up." Rodrigo uses the megaphone to repeat the suggestion.

Manola and Federico get back in the car, agreeing they don't want to spend the rest of their lives in jail. They profess their love. "Together, as always!" "Together, forever!" They hold hands and kiss and Federico guns it and hurls the car over the cliff and it crashes far, far below and explodes into flame.

Some time later, church plaza. Victor and his old Maldonado buddy will start a new restaurant. Valeria and Andres will live in the hacienda. Andres offers to stop bullfighting but Unibrow says, "No, we know it's your passion." Rodrigo and Remedios bond as grandson and grandma. Guillermo shows up after all this time! With mommy and assorted siblings. Turns out Veronica "moved heaven and earth" to find him. He and Victor hug and Veronica hugs Guillermo too.

Rodrigo asks Baldo to teach him a word in Nuhuatl. They go over to Juanita and Rodrigo is too incompetent to repeat the words Baldo whispers in his ear. Instead, he asks in Spanish: "Do you like me? Would you like to be my girlfriend?" She answers in Nuhuatl and her dad Teodoro translates: "She says she'll try you out and see how it goes." Fair enough. "Well, would you give me lessons in Nuhuatl?" "Sure, classes begin whenever you like."

Cleo has taken the veil and gone to be a missionary somewhere far away. Nicolas is in jail. Sergio asks Josefina (Phyllis Diller Maldonado) to be his girlfriend, she accepts. Veronica and Baldo will both be in Europe and he will look her up. She gives him a kiss.

There is a double wedding. Valeria looks fabulous in her dress; Victor walks her down the aisle. Maite's dress is fussy and her hairdo rivals the much-maligned donuts Princess Leia wore in Star Wars; her dad Jose Maldonado walks her down the aisle. Andres and Unibrow are dressed like mariachis. They all get married. There's one more ghastly kiss from Unibrow and then hugs and applause etc.

It's a wrap! See you on the other side, folks! I'll be doing Mondays, MUNDO DE FIERAS. Be there or be square!

Labels: barrera

• Jacinta warms to the idea of her godson Rodrigo being Federico's son and therefore yet another illegitimate Valladolid, "even if he too is the result of lechery." Federico says Manola sought him one night... "I'm very repentent." He uses the magic phrase: "in Rodrigo's veins runs the blood of Vallodolid..." and Jacinta agrees to help get him sprung from jail.
  
  She says Rodrigo and Veronica being first cousins won't prevent their getting married; a dispensation can be obtained.
  
  
• Sergio and Remedios barge into the hacienda and demand that Jacinta explain her connection to the bracelet. Jeez, I find this whole thread so flimsy and pointless, but there were some fun interchanges, to wit: "You killed your husband!" "No, the bull killed him." "No, you did it." "No, it was the Hand of God." "You think YOU are the hand of God."
  
  
• Rodrigo's guests in jail include:
  
  
  • Andres and Valeria (they've been standing there since yesterday), still shocked just shocked. Rodrigo apologizes for wrecking their life so casually.
    
    
  • Manola: "We're doing all we can for you, honey." "Mother, you were never affectionate." "Don't be a martyr! Besides, it's your own fault. Remember when you waved that gun around in front of the hired help, when you were threatening Daniel? They probably ratted you out."
    
    Manola is shocked, just shocked, that Rodrigo suspects his own grandfather killed Omar. Thinking a bit, however, she turns and says, "That crazy old coot, come to think of it maybe he did, I'll have him locked up."
    
    
  • Federico and Jacinta. Manola tries to slip away but Federico grabs her, saying she should hear the following: "Rodrigo, I, uh, I, not Gustavo, am your father." Rodrigo goes nuts, far beyond impactado. Yells about betrayal. Manola: "Well, I did it for you too, I never loved Gustavo - I married him to keep the family from ruin - he would have put me out on the street..." Jacinta interrupts: "Actually, it's all Maite's fault, because if she hadn't seduced my son Adolfo, Manola would have married him." Federico mutters to himself that he was intimate with Manola before that - but nobody's listening to anybody.
  
  Rodrigo has had it with all of them and sends them away, leaving only Jacinta who says, "One more thing: your dad Federico is my dead husband's son." Rodrigo just sinks to the floor of his cell, completely overstimulated. He needs a snack and a nap in my opinion. I'm speaking as a mother here.
  
  
• Twisted Doc Pardo has demanded money from Rafael and Jacaranda so he can flee before he gets arrested.
  
  Timid Violeta sneaks into his office and starts filming miscellaneous knick-knacks.
  
  Rafael, Pardo, and Jacaranda arrive with a big suitcase of money and loudly discuss all their murders etc.
  
  Maite, who was also eavesdropping unbeknownst to Violeta, bursts in. Rafael is a bit giggly and admits to strangling Magdalena, Veronica's mother. Then he jumps on Maite and starts strangling her.
  
  Violeta is impactada and sinks behind the desk in terror. We see Veronica, at her current age, sitting with Violeta and Vera as young girls. All three hold hands and then the two alter-egos disappear. Re-integrated Veronica has the courage to get up and bash Rafael unconscious.
  
  The police take Rafael away. Veronica got some of the strangling on her videotape, so that's convenient.
  
  Veronica now remembers everything, including Rafael's murdering her mother. She is now completely cured, sez Doc Monica just prior to going to affirm officially: Veronica no longer needs the tutelage of her grandmother. Victor and Maite get hugs, kisses, tears, and apologies from Veronica, who also no longer needs so many loony nicknames.
  
  
• Federico brings Rafael cigarettes in jail. Rafael blusters that Jacinta must spring him, since he knows so many of her dirty secrets, but Federico says: "It's DOÑA JACINTA to you" and leaves, not before saying, "I could bring you a book to help pass the time. 100 Years of Solitude is supposed to be quite good." Heh.
  
  
• Back at the hacienda, Jacinta asks Valeria: "Who's been looking through my address book and leaving it open to Doc Pardo's number?" Valeria plays dumb.
  
  Jacinta goes in the back room and dumps about half a cup of poison powder into a little cup of tea. "I can control my grand-daughters with MORE medicine, they'll be MORE tranquil - I can't have them going against my wishes."
  
  Valeria looks at the tea cross-eyed and says, "It makes me feel so bad." "Nonsense, what harm can herbal medicines do? DRINK IT!"
  
  Maite bursts in, shouts, asserts, and holds Jacinta down while Valeria gets the baby. All escape down the tunnel. Cleo follows and sees the tunnel.
  
  
• Nicolas independently thinks up the whole "tell Jacinta that Rodrigo is a Valladolid" thing and goes to Federico, brandishing the stolen birth certificate Federico had assumed to be a figment. As Federico starts to ask questions, Nicolas giggles and says: "Oh, you know how Manola drags people into things..."
  
  
• Evening mass has ended; Jacinta is schmoozing with the Padre. In come Maite, Valeria, the Maldonados, Andres, Unibrow and everybody else (the shot is framed so their heads are cut off but you can guess). Maite says "I will unmask you, Jacinta, and the Linares as well."
  
  Then Gustavo rolls in, to almost everybody's surprise! He tells Jacinta: "One time, when you thought I was in a coma, I heard you confess to murdering your own husband!"

There will, no doubt, be more revelations Monday night when the show's long, long run finally comes to an end.

Labels: barrera

• We must start with Veronica, aka V3. Alter-ego #2, the timid but sweet Violeta, newly sprung from the mirror wherein she was trapped when Alter-ego #1 Vera escaped and crushed the glass, has now crushed the glass trapping Vera. (If you haven't been watching this show, there's no way you're going to understand this.) Violeta wraps the mirror in a cloth and scuttles out of the room, determined to act like Vera so Jacinta will suspect nothing - Violeta wants to stay at the hacienda to help her half-sister Valeria! Who, ironically, is only staying at the hacienda to help V3!
  
  Violeta picks up the invite to last night's fiasco at Las Barricas and then runs into Rodrigo, who says, "I want to be frank, it's not that I didn't enjoy macking with you, but I'm starting to have feelings for another." "That's fine. What is this invitation? What happened at that party?" I guess Rodrigo tells her - next thing we know the chauffeur has driven her to Shrek's estate and she is tearfully reunited with Victor and Maite.
  
  And reveals that she is the third piece of V3, whom nobody's met before. Violeta explains: she and Vera each know everything that's going on, while poor Veronica is always in the dark. "When Vera was crazy, I stopped her! When Vera was about to marry Federico, the police showed up and she was afraid, so she just disappeared and left poor confused Veronica to face the music!" Violeta says she is the only one who can "unmask" Jacinta; she will have to bring Jacinta down and also help Valeria.
  
  Violeta is just getting around to talking about the Guillermo problem when Jacinta arrives with the police. Violeta instantly pretends to be Vera: "I was just telling these rotten people I never wanted to see them again." She leaves with Jacinta. Doctor Monica, who is mostly just useless (avoid blond bimbo psychiatrists), does manage this sage observation: "The fact that Violeta is pretending to be Vera and is trying to solve problems means she's getting stronger."
  
  We do see Violeta holding her own with Jacinta, even trying to snarl. She says she's tired, goes up to bed, and starts gasping as soon as she's out of earshot. "I can't keep up this farce, my nerves are shot, but I have to be strong for Valeria!"
  
  
• Violeta apologizes to Valeria sweetly and they make up, promising to be united, like sisters, forever. Violeta tells Valeria that she knows at least one of Jacinta's "proofs" against Maite is false. "I remember, because I was born at that House of Ill Repute and lived there with my mother. It was my birthday, Maite was cook at Victor's restaurant - she brought me a cake - then the police came! And the photographers!
  
  Further: "Valeria, you know how I found out that Mom loved you? I discovered her photo album - she had pictures of you at all your birthdays, all the way back, and of you at our graduation." Val cries.
  
  
• Andres sends the Bonbon away. The Bonbon is sad, and is single, for about 14 seconds. Then that suave matador shows up (the one that usually wears a chartreuse shirt) and hits on her and off they go. So there's one sub-plot out of the way, thank goodness.
  
  
• Guillermo's sister Betina, who lives in Italy and has missed all the family machinations, shows up at Guillermo's apartment, where Mommy is living alone, and vows to join the team trying to find Guillermo.
  
  Victor is still sadly certain it was his sweetie who pilfered the Magdalena letter. Who else?
  
  
• Well, it was Rafael, as you know. It's not worth going into the Rafael and Doc Pardo thing tonight. Maybe tomorrow.
  
  
• Federico, who is cold and mean and will hopefully come to a bad end, is maybe the sexiest guy in this novela. Anyway, he's got things set up now so he can suck funds out of Jacinta's trove at will. He reports this to Luis Antonio and puts out his hand to shake, but Shrek does not take his hand.
  
  As he receives a fax (it has a bar graph on it), Federico thought-bubbles: "Neither Valeria nor Veronica will get a cent of the Valladolid money."
  
  
• Rodrigo calls Bruno and asks if he knows how to have a gun analyzed - he thinks his gun was used to kill Omar. Manola overhears this. She yells at her dad Nicolas for arousing Rodrigo's suspicions and as her dad sits on the bed muttering over and over: "Gustavo called me," she says, "I have to do something drastic here." Pretty soon the police come and arrest Rodrigo for Omar's murder.
  
  Rodrigo tells his secretary to call Federico and Federico shows up at jail.
  
  He knows who to blame. He bursts roaring into Manola's house and shakes her - "You two did this!" Nicolas: "Manola made me do it!" Later Manola and her dad have words: "Manola, how could you put your own son in jail?" "It's your fault because you can't keep our secret. I had to gain time." "It's WE should be in jail." "Be calm, they don't have enough proof, they'll let him go. Calm down or I'll have you committed."
  
  Federico next goes to Bruno and Luis Antonio and asks help for Rodrigo, and it is granted. Then he thinks, "Why use my own money to get Rodrigo freed when I can use Jacinta's?" He goes to her and reveals that Rodrigo is his son and, hence, yet another illegitimate Vallodolid. Jacinta is impactada.
  
  Also visiting Rodrigo in jail: Valeria and Andres. Rodrigo admits that Jacinta and Manola engineered the "misunderstanding" which parted the lovebirds, and that he himself participated. Valeria and Andres are impactados.
  
  
• In front of her little shrine, Jacinta tells Violeta: "My son Adolfo was not an exemplary soul. He was weak, seduced by demons of lechery - his great error was to fall prey to easy women, first your mother and then Maite. Lechery corrupted his soul, as it now corrupts Valeria and as it corrupted my husband Pedro. That night, I saved Pedro - I couldn't let him sin - God guided my hand to open that corral and let out the bull!" Whoah! Part of this speech took place while Jacinta was praying in a sort of trance. When she awakens she remembers none of it, which is good because she might otherwise say: "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
  
  
• Sergio and the Las Barricas team are coming to the same suspicion: that Jacinta somehow engineered Pedro's death. They are also trying to drag in the darn bracelet which I have been avoiding in my recaps. Remedios has this bracelet, but it appears on Jacinta in an early photograph. It is connected in some way with Jacinta's culpability in Pedro's death. If somebody wants to tackle this, leave me a comment.

Labels: barrera

• Andres and Valeria work out their differences and realize Jacinta was behind the "misunderstanding" which parted them. "I can't live without you." Kissy Kissy. Andres gives her a ring, says they should marry in church soon, urges her to make up with her mother Maite (here he strikes out, however). Valeria says she'll stay at the convent in Aguascalientes for now. "Grandmother mustn't know we're reunited or she'll muck things up."
  
  
• Manola: "I'll insure Rodrigo's inheritance - and hence my own future lap of luxury - by throwing him at that loca Veronica. Simultaneously, I must convince Federico there's no birth certificate and that he's not really a Vallodolid because I need time to get Rodrigo and Veronica married. If Federico knew he had a legitimate, provable claim as Pedro's son, he would kill Jacinta forthwith and spoil my plans!" OK, she didn't exactly say all that. I'm interpolating again.
  
  
• Doc Monica explains to the perennially confused parents (Maite and Victor) that Vera has been in control for a long time. It's not that she hates MT & Vic, she's like a little girl, an egotist, full of envy. They decide to ask the nun Maria to go see V3 and see if Veronica can somehow be retrieved.
  
  
• Oh, Federico is so aggravated. He comes upon Jacinta's lawyer, fresh from adding Veronica to the will - now Federico's share is down to 33.33333%. Jacinta tartly inquires: "You don't mind, do you?" "Of course not, I have been here at your side all these years for affection's sake, not money." Heh.
  
  Coming in with more documents, Federico later finds Jacinta and Jacintita sitting side by side listening to Pedro's record collection while Jacinta reminisces; he's told to "leave us alone."
  
  He grabs Veronica later and says: "I know your game!" She icily replies: "You don't have manners like grandma and me. You will always be a servant." He thought-bubbles: "I should have killed Magdalena when I had the chance, then Veronica wouldn't exist! Luis Antonio's offer may be my only hope to keep a healthy chunk of the Vallodolid dough."
  
  
• Valeria shows up at the hacienda with baby and suitcase! "I'm here to stay! I have no interest in Andres and no further need to hide from him." She pretends to be surprised when she is told Veronica is her half-sister. She embraces her old friend Jacintita, a.k.a. Mini-Me.
  
  Andres bursts in, demanding to see Valeria. She comes down the stairs and hides behind Jacinta, telling him to scram. Jacinta is pleased.
  
  
• Rodrigo is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he's beginning to realize something's wrong with his grandfather Nicolas, who is once again freaking out over candy wrappers, waving his loaded gun around wildly, and washing his hands while muttering about blood stains. "The dead are after us. Gustavo wants vengeance on Manola and Omar wants vengeance on me." Rodrigo looks puzzled, but oh well.
  
  
• Maite, Victor, and Doc Monica visit the dubious Dr. Pardo and ask why he helped Jacinta spirit Veronica away. Maite recognizes him as the doc who drugged her so long ago. "Jacinta will get me a lawyer!" "You'll need one." Later Doc Monica says she thinks she remembers Pardo losing his license long ago. "A fraud!??" Unibrow frowns gravely and says he'll look into it.
  
  
• Jacinta and Mini-Me go off to dinner at the Linares place, but not before Jacinta signs one last batch of documents - these being the ones Unibrow gave Federico! Federico snickers.
  
  Andres and Valeria have a sneak meeting. She reassures him: "I have to pretend - I came back to help Veronica, I can't leave her here alone... I adore you completely, don't worry... "
  
  At the Linares luncheon, Manola coyly sends the youngsters off to "view the estate." It was hysterical to see Vera/Veronica/V3/Jacintita/Mini-Me - dressed as she invariably is these days in long, severe Victorian black dress and swept-up hair and pale, Kabuki-like makeup - well, she collars Rodrigo behind a column, unbuttons his shirt, and starts kissing him! HAH! HAH! He is surprised but not averse.
  
  While smooching they are interrupted by Jacaranda, who picks this moment to haul Vera off to see the tri-partite mirror of her childhood.
  
  Vera is left alone with her mirror. Before you know it, Violeta has escaped from the mirror and Vera (in blond wig) is back inside. Violeta crushes the glass - "I'll trap you as you once trapped me!" I'm glad because I was mighty tired of Vera and ready for a change.

Labels: barrera

• The grand party at Las Barricas doesn't work out so well...
  
  Amid the assembled multitudes, todo el mundo all crowded together to fit in the picture, Jacinta and Unibrow trade insults while Manola and Cayetano insinuate Maite is a whore like her mother.
  
  This brings Jose Maldonado out of his stupor. "Enough lies, Cayetano - you know Eloisa wasn't a bad woman - it was your husband's fault she was stigmatized. [Turning to MT:] I'm your father! I loved Eloisa profundly and never forgot her. I came back to see her but encountered Nicolas, who told me she was gone, run off with another man. [To the whole Linares family:] YOU started the rumors, a chain of lies that hurt Eloisa, Maite, Luis Antonio, and now their children!"
  
  Nicolas, in indignant self-justification: "Well, I wanted Eloisa but she was rejecting me!"
  
  Jacinta: "I don't believe Eloisa and Maite were innocent - where you hear a river, there's water."
  
  Manola: "It's MAITE's fault Adolfo and I didn't marry." Unibrow recites the whole tiresome (rape, forced marriage) story again.
  
  Jacinta: "Calumny!" (I love that word.)
  
  Maite: impactada, of course. She slaps Nicolas and everybody is sent away. The poor guests may not have gotten any hors d'oeuvres or booze but they got a satisfying earful of juicy gossip.
  
  Maite rejects Jose at first but embraces him after they meet over Eloisa's grave. "We'll be family now, papa, and make up for the lost years."
  
  
• It's kind of fun watching Nicolas shuffle around, eyes buggin' out, hands trembling as he falls apart, muttering, "You don't know how the dead torment me! They are pursuing me." Remedios gets to say ominously: "You reap what you sow."
  
  
• Victor doggedly pursues Veronica, trying to get her to listen to reason. Since Vera la Perra is in control of V3 (as they call her on telenovela-world), he makes no headway. She shouts and snarls, showing 156 teeth. "I should always have been here at the hacienda, living a better life than you could give me! All this is MINE! You two are a pair of egotists!"
  
  
• Jacinta tells Victor (Oh, Perfidy!) that it was GUILLERMO who sold her the letter proving Veronica was Adolfo's bastard, and that's why Guillermo left Victor. Victor protests weakly but, like everybody else, believes Jacinta rather than trusting in his self-sacrificing sweetie (who's currently working a desk job in some unidentified location, sweetly and sadly dreaming that all has gone well for Victor and that Veronica has come back home). Nobody can figure out how else Jacinta got hold of the letter...
  
  
• Veronica dons one of Jacinta's black dresses, combs her hair into a severe up-do, pins a tasteful cameo at her throat, and lowers her voice, endearing herself to serial-killer granny, who bubbles: "Sit at my side! You're perfect!" Federico is not amused.
  
  
• Federico is feeling insecure, poor lamb. The always loving and supportive Manola soothes him: "Why, with those two Valladolid grand-daughters around, you could get thrown out on the street!"
  
  This makes Federico somewhat receptive when Luis Antonio (dare I call him Shrek?) proposes a business deal. "Jacinta knows no loyalty. I'm making this offer because you're close to her and can help me wreak revenge." "I never expected such bitter words from you." "Rancor and wounds change us. I'll win with you or without you. A rough river profits fishermen. [I think.]"
  
  Significantly, we later see Jacinta busily signing papers. Young Jacintita, sitting nearby, hands folded in lap, asks: "You sign those without reading them?" "Federico prepared them. He grew up in my shadow, I trust him implicitly."
  
  
• Federico whispers to Veronica: "Though you're dressed like a little Jacinta, somewhere inside you is that sensual blond, Vera, whom I knew at the casino." She admits it - Victor overhears this and now knows it's Vera who's in charge...
  
  
• Jacinta bubbles to her demure young clone: "You'll be my reflection! Say, let's go to mass, and after that we'll go to the convent and give away all those old clothes you won't be wearing any more."
  
  The nuns obsequiously thank Jacinta for generously giving them -- Veronica's used clothes. "Oh, I always give what I can, and more!" While Jacinta is chewing the fat with the Mother Superior, Maite and Victor sneak in and have an unsatisfying shouting match with Vera.
  
  
• Thanks to Artemio's fifth column activities, Andres is able to find Valeria - and Pedrito - at the convent in Oaxaca. With Pedrito in his arms and a tear in his eye, Andres starts the difficult job of getting Valeria to forgive him. Will she forgive him? Gee, what do you think?

Labels: barrera

I just discovered our blog has been linked by the English-language forums at Telenovela-World.com, so I'll return the favor:

• Heridas de Amor
  
• La Fea Más Bella
  
• Barrera de Amor

I reviewed the threads on Barrera. You think I'M mean? They call Unibrow Shrek (right) and Fred Flintstone (left).

They call the BonBon Fishlips and Pigsnout.

CORRECTION: amrs27 of the telenovela-world crew dropped in to say: "We're not that mean! and 'pigsnout' is actually Michelle Vieth."

Here's what forum poster Alexis said about the whole show: The only good ending to this fiasco: 'And so they send Veronica to a psychologist in the city..... and without anyone realizing, a giant meteor came out of nowhere and hit Aguas Calientes, and killed off the whole cast.'

Labels: announcements, barrera

• Victor and Guillermo's mommy make a pact to stick together and find Guillermo, but have no luck today.
  
  Victor goes to the insane asylum and Doctor Monica tells him: "Veronica's grandmother Jacinta came with proofs of kinship and certificates from doctors, and Veronica wanted to go, so I had to let her."
  
  Since Maite and Victor never legally adoped Veronica, they have no rights. Victor is consternated - or as they say in the esmas recaps, está impactado. Everybody's always impactados in these shows.
  
  
  TELENOVELA CONCEPT OF THE DAY: IMPACTADOS!
  
  
  
  
• Veronica (these days, Vera la Perra) is pleased to be installed at the hacienda as a Valladolid. In fact, Jacinta gives her Valeria's room! "Valeria is on a spiritual retreat, she won't be back soon." Veronica is pleased that she now has all that Valeria once had. Jacinta tells her: Valeria is in Oaxaca. Cleo overhears and tells Artemio, so we can assume the news will trickle back to the Good Guys, who are gnashing their teeth about Valeria's disappearance.
  
  Jacinta is impactada to realize Veronica actually remembers Adolfo's famed visit to the House of Ill Repute and his argument there with Maite, after which he supposedly was killed in a car crash which Jacinta blames on Maite. Actually, Federico bashed Adolfo's head in.
  
  All suddenly realize: it's just as well the marriage between Veronica and Federico didn't happen, as it would have been incest. Federico is impactado to hear that Jacinta has, for years and years, had in her possession a birth certificate proving he is Adolfo's son - which she never told him about. He asks to see it, but since Nicolas stole it out of her safe somehow, she now "can't find" the certificate. Federico thinks she's making the whole thing up. He has to figure out some way to inherit the Valladolid fortune even though there are now TWO inconvenient young heiresses.
  
  Veronica says Victor and Maite are now only part of her past. The Valladolids are her future.
  
  
• Jacaranda continues needling Nicolas: "Don't you feel a malevolent presence here?" She knows a witch who is good at calming the dead, but Nicolas will have to pay well. He says everything is Manola's fault - but he's willing to spend any amount that will silence Gustavo's ghost.
  
  Lunching with Rafael, Jacaranda fields a call from Gustavo himself and says all is going well. She is concealing Gustavo's failure to be dead from Rafael, as she is somehow planning to collect money from him and many other people by playing her cards right.
  
  Jacaranda has the famous tripartite mirror which belonged to Veronica as a little girl (remember when her alternate personalities appeared in the side mirrors?). She tells Manola: "When Veronica broke it, it was only partly broken, I had it put back together and maybe I'll give it back some day or maybe not."
  
  
• The Maldonados and the ancient retinue prepare to go to the mysterious party in Las Barricas. They may or may not be going by private jet.
  
  
• Rodrigo is tender and sweet with Juanita's baby and there is a spark of chemistry. He muses to a servant that he always liked Juanita, but Valeria was constantly thrust in front of him as his future. He thinks he might like to get to know Juanita better and show her he has changed. (I am wholeheartedly in favor of this union.) Unbeknownst to him, Jacinta has now decided he is a worthy match for her new grand-daughter Veronica.
  
  
• Jacinta flagellates herself, muttering "Forgive my sins, father, but especially forgive the sensual sins of those around me, particularly Valeria, who has fallen to the devil - now only fire will purify her ..." As she mutters, Federico tries to talk to her but she doesn't hear. He says: "Now I know where Veronica gets her loca streak from." I guess we can also suppose there will be FIRE in the near future.
  
  
• All get ready for the party. For instance, Unibrow fishes out a ring he tried to give Maite long ago when I wasn't watching the show - he's been saving it all these years - he proposes and she accepts. She's wearing an amazing tight red floorlength dress with a high collar. We will not discuss the kiss which clinches this deal - if you saw it, you know what I mean.
  
  It's decided that Veronica will not go to the party - she doesn't have nice enough clothes, and people might gossip about her. Better she should stay home. Victor finds her and tries to talk to her through the gate. She says: "Don't you call me daughter."
  
  The guests arrive - Jacinta is displeased to see the party is less exclusive than she had expected - and Bruno says welcome to all, and then Unibrow and Maite (her chin held very high) arrive and all guests are muy impactados.

Labels: barrera

• Manola fondles her father's pistol, saying: "Did you know Daniel, Unibrow's son, killed one of our stud bulls with this gun? He was a vet like his dad - his father was away, the bull got very sick and there was nothing to do but put him down. Rodrigo argued with him about it. And just think, you used this very gun to kill Omar." Nicolas: "Manola, you're a sadist. You know I don't like to talk about this."
  
  
• Jacinta digests the news about Veronica being her grand-daughter. "Well, she's a Vallodolid, my blood. I took one daughter away from Maite, I can take the other." She asks about Victor, Veronica's "father," and Rafael insinuates but does not reveal anything.
  
  
• Jacaranda comes to visit her former lover, Nicolas, and greets Cayetano, the betrayed wife, thus: "Why, you look mighty good for a cancer patient." Cayetano is mighty indignant and slaps her husband. He later tells her he made up the cancer story so he could tell Jacaranda: "I can't leave my dying wife." He expected to get praise for this?
  
  Jacaranda says she wants to stay with the Linares family for a while - "Just as a friend." The mom says no but Manola says ok, and it's her place. She asks Jacaranda, later, why she's here - Jacaranda provides insinuation without revelation.
  
  Later Manola discovers her dad babbling in his study - he has found a music box Gustavo once bought for Manola and thinks it proves Gustavo is back from Hades and planning to kill them both. Jacaranda reports by phone to Gustavo: "It worked perfectly! He's completely loco and thinks you are going to kill him." "I don't need to kill him, I'm not an assassin, but I'll see them both in jail."
  
  
• Valeria sits with her baby, wincing when she touches her back, still bloody and sore no doubt from the scourging. Soon Jacinta and Federico decide to send her back to the nuns in Oaxaca and tell nobody where she is.
  
  Andres stomps into the hacienda leaning on a cane. He insists he must see Valeria, but she's in Oaxaca so is not to be found. Federico runs Andres off with a rifle.
  
  Andres complains to his dad who says, "Be patient, my plan is being set into motion." (This is at least the third episode in a row he's said that.)
  
  Maite is convinced that her friend at the hacienda, Artemio the chauffeur, will surely be able to tell her where Valeria was taken. Patience is required. They can't act until they have proof of Jacinta's dastardly acts. The drugs don't count because Maite stole them. There is a lot of false evidence out and about concerning Maite. The case must be built methodically.
  
  
• Dandling little Daniel, Maite speaks a few words in Nuacatl to him, words she learned from Martina, little Daniel's dead grandma, when Valeria was a baby.
  
  
• Victor breaks it to both of Maite's suitors at once that Unibrow has triumphed. They take it well. Guillermo drifts in looking like a ghost. He can't believe Veronica was so cruel, but after a few scenes of Victor suffering because Veronica refuses to see him, Guillermo packs a tiny suitcase, leaves notes for Mommy and Victor, and leaves "forever - and don't try to find me."
  
  Rafael sees him leave, and reports to Daddy. Daddy reports to Vera the Perra, who is pleased with her victory, but not completely satisfied. "Why did papi lie to me? Why didn't he tell me he's gay? He's just as bad as mami. He'll pay." So much for Guillermo's noble sacrifice.
  
  
• Baldo gets tapped for some sports team. He and sister Juanita are celebrating on the field, speaking Nuacatl, when Rodrigo shows up. They aren't pleased to see him, but he makes a nice apology about what a jerk he used to be and they accept it.
  
  
• All over town, invitations are being received by the "best families." Jacinta, Manola's family, the gossipy ladies... "Please attend a reception at Las Barricas, I would like to meet you and introduce you to my future wife." They are not signed, how mysterious! It's the event of the decade!

Labels: barrera

Andres, lying limply in his hospital bed, is informed by Maria Theresa and Unibrow:

1. No, Valeria is not a nun;
   
2. She has born him a child, Pedro.

He is very confused. He wants to get up and go to her. Owing to being near death, he can't.

He hears Valeria came to the hospital to see him but left after seeing Queen Bonbon.

So Andres tells the Bonbon her reign has come to a close; he intends to win back Valeria's love. "No, no, Andres, I will not give you up - you can only be happy with me." She has taken the news poorly.

Veronica, who is entirely Vera the Perra lately (you can tell because she's always baring her fangs), tells Victor: "Maite is no longer my mother. She only loved me till Valeria showed up. YOU don't have any surprises, do you? No kids? You're mine mine mine. I will live with you here in this apartment, just us." He says she's, uh, not completely cured and must go back to the clinic. She takes the news poorly.

Juanita visits Andres and tells him about her son (his nephew) Daniel. Then he tells her he wants to win Valeria back. "I told Valeria that she was a woman just like her mother - ironically, now I think the world of Maria Theresa!" (He didn't actually say ironically, I am interpolating.)

Remember Guillermo's dad, the brutal obnoxious guy with a drunkard's nose? I guess we'll have to call him Daddy. He goes to the insane asylum (isn't there any security?) and tells Veronica: "Guillermo and Victor live together and are homosexuals, in fact they are plotting to get rid of you because Victor loves Guillermo more than you." Yes, Veronica takes the new poorly.

I can only explain Valeria's wussiness by pointing out that she was raised by a crazed serial killer. She confesses to the Padre right there in the hacienda, with Cleo eavesdropping as Jacinta ordered. When Cleo reports, after a bit of hand-wringing, that the "recogida" (that nobody little snot-nose) is actually son of Valeria and Andres, Jacinta takes the news poorly.

In fact, she is simply magnificent in her rage. She grabs Valeria, shakes her, hits her again and again - and threatens Pedrito. "He's an innocent baby!" "NO, the sins of his parents have marked him forever. You're a child of Satan. Don't stain my house with your obscenities." She throws Valeria on the floor, rips the shirt off her back, and shouts: "If you don't obey me, your son will pay." She gets out her whip and lashes Valeria all bloody, right in front of her crucifix, Jesus bleeding on the cross, wow!

Then Jacinta, her passion slaked, says "This was the only way," kisses Valeria, and leaves her there on the ground.

Valeria becomes virtually comatose and helpless which can be the only explanation for her next move - when she tries to pick up Pedrito and leave, and Jacinta says, "No way either of you are leaving - you are both Valladolids. Only I know what's best for you." - well, she stays.

Juanita storms in, demanding to see Valeria, but Federico runs her off after hitting her HARD and telling her she's nothing but a lousy Indian. He and Jacinta agree that Baldo, Theo and Juanita are dogs who bite the hand that feeds them, and that Juanita must be kept away or Valeria will find out (somehow) that Jacinta engineered the scene which parted her from her beloved torero. Jacinta, somewhat shaken: "It's risky to wait a moment longer! Let's start our plan!"

Speaking of plans, Unibrow is telling everybody in sight that his plan for vengeance is being put into motion. When he invites Remedios and Octavio to Las Barricas and offers them employment, and gives them the shpiel, Remedios mildly says: "Vengeance poisons the soul."

Rafael has snuck into Victor's apartment but can't find the letter Magdalena wrote to Adolfo (that long-ago letter explaining that Adolfo is Veronica's pop). Luckily, Guillermo and Victor come home discussing the very letter he seeks and show where it is as he peeks out of the closet, knife in hand! They helpfully leave and he takes the letter.

Next Guillermo innocently brings pretty art books to Valeria at the asylum, trying to make friends, but she snarls at him. "You can't steal my dad. Disappear from our lives and never come back. If you stay, he loses me forever. You can just watch him suffer. If you love him, leave immediately and give no explanation." I can't imagine Guillermo is any match for Vera the Perra.

Rafael hightails it to the hacienda. Remember, he was charged with replenishing Jacinta's drug supply (this is how she plans to keep Valeria and Pedrito very, very quiet). He's come to get paid and hand over the goods. He also hands Jacinta the letter. Her reaction upon finding out that the "loca" Veronica is her grand-daughter: well, she takes it poorly.

Labels: barrera

• According to ESMAS, there are seventeen episodes following tonight. But according to a starting date of October 3 for Mundo de Fieras, there are only nine slots left for the 17 episodes. What do you think?
  
  
• We left Veronica last night with her mouth open in horror that "her" mother Maite is actually Valeria's "real" mother. "Valeria gets everything and now she has my mother too." She becomes Vera, bares her fangs, blames everybody, and stomps around. Juanita ruefully tells Valeria she can't stay and chat - she'll have to chase after Veronica, since she promised Victor and Maite to watch over her.
  
  So Valeria goes back to the hacienda where the maid was hyperventilating about her absence, luckily beating Jacinta home.
  
  
• Jacinta was occupied elsewhere, trying to kill Andres. The promising young toreador Marcos was supposed to be showing off his skills against a cow, but Jacinta sidled around back and with the help of an accomplice opened the gate of an evil bull with very pointy horns instead. When Andres realizes the youth is in the ring with an evil bull, he jumps in and tries to control the situation but gets gored. They rush him to the hospital. Jacinta smiles.
  
  
• Jacaranda and Rafael get the keys to Victor's apartment. Their plan is to get Magdalena's letter and sell it to Jacinta, who will be mortified to discover the "loco" Veronica is her grand-daughter.
  
  Rafael overhears Guillermo and Mommy being subjected to a tirade from the brutal husband/father. "When are you coming home? The other children and our friends have been asking!" The shouting gets very heated and Mommy says "You are pathetic and ridiculous, you are a caricature of a macho man. I'll be filing for divorce."
  
  As the dad stomps off, Mommy says to Guillermo: "I felt safe and protected at your side. You are a real man!" Rafael then sidles up to the dad and says "I'm on your side. If you pay me well, I'll see to it that Victor and your son Guillermo are separated forever."
  
  
• Jacinta: "I felt the presence of God at my side when I opened the bull's door. He guided my hand, I was a divine instrument, just as when I sicced the bull on my husband and killed him." She's not so complacent when she gets home and finds Valeria has run to the hospital to see her wounded husband Andres. She sends Federico to fetch her back.
  
  
• All over town phones ring with the news that Andres has been hurt and may (of course) be dying. Valeria rushes in, Juanita comes, and Unibrow - who, dressed in an extra-large labcoat which is not at all flattering, had been at the lab analyzing Jacinta's drug stash - all join Dionisius and Maite and Victor in the hospital waiting room.
  
  The doctor says Andres will be ok. Unibrow goes in and reconciles with him (with Andres, not with the doctor). In the hallway, Valeria overhears the sobbing Bon-bon saying Andres is the love of her life and that when he recovers the two of them will go back to Spain. Valeria, despondent, is then willing to go back to the hacienda with Federico. Maite tries to talk to her but Valeria screams and rejects her.
  
  
• Jacinta: "Lord, I never ask for anything unjust. Don't let that wretch leave the hospital alive." She is so disappointed to hear, later, that he is out of danger. She yells at Valeria: "You're a mujerzuela just like your mother, the seed of sin is in your soul, you owe me everything and if I wanted to, I could take your life away." She also mutters: "He is alive - but not for long."
  
  
• The Maldonados get a minute or two of airtime, talking about a bracelet in an old picture (I think it's the one Jacinta had taken of herself and Adolfo). Sergio says "every time that bracelet was mentioned, my sister Jacinta got very nervous. And Remedios ended up with the bracelet."
  
  
• Since Andres is ok, Victor says he's got to go to Veronica - it turns out she fled back to Mexico City. She burst into his apartment, surprised Guillermo and Mommy, and locked herself in her room where she had a screaming match among her personalities. Vera triumphed and says, "I'm the strongest, it's only I who decide what happens, I'm not going to let that lousy Veronica come back." When Victor arrives she lets him in and sobs hysterically: "You're all that's left to me, I don't have to share you, nobody is going to come between us, I swear." No doubt thinking of Guillermo, Victor consternates.
  

Labels: barrera

Maite and Victor seek Andres at his hotel, but the Bon-bon tells them he's gone off to a private party at a bull-raiser's place. Because they are determined to tell him TODAY that Valeria has born him a son, they will figure out a way to crash the party. "I won't rest till I've gotten my daughter out of Jacinta's claws."

It's also dawning on them that Jacinta and Federico were probably behind the long-ago surprise raid on Elvira's House of Ill Repute, which resulted in pictures of Maite cheek-to-cheek with whores, said picture being the primary reason the judge denied her parental rights with Valeria. "They must have had help from one of the women in the house, how can that be?" "Many people have a price."

Theodoro, Baldo and Juanita waste much airtime trying to convince Unibrow to reconcile with Andres. He says, in his huffy monotone, "Andres was bad to me" and defends his position against bullfighting: "I couldn't stand to wonder each time if he would be hurt." "All the more reason," Theo reasons, "you should make up with Andres. How will you feel if you read he's been killed, and you not speaking to him?" "Be quiet," responds Unibrow.


Gustavo navigates his wheelchair over to the door - he thinks it's Elvira come to visit, but it's really Jacaranda. They are very surprised to see each other. She is surprised to hear that Nicolas's story - "I can't leave my wife for you because she is dying of cancer" - is just bull. Since Jacaranda is hiding from Rafael, and Gustavo is hiding from everybody, they agree to keep their meeting a secret.

Andres and his cronies visit the bull-fighting school - Federico is watching from the shadows. They notice a guy named Marcos who "has what it takes" and Andres invites him to the private party referenced above. Gordo says, "Ah, you want to mentor him as you were mentored." Federico gets hold of Marcos later and says, "I know how you can get in good with those guys" and we don't hear his plot but I'm sure it's evil.

Rafael, as Jacinta's go-between, visits the bent doctor and asks for more poison. The doctor says he got in trouble last time and is under scrutiny, so he can't help, but will make a referral (to another doctor willing to poison people on command). Rafael killed Jacaranda's husband, and the doctor killed Magdalena (Veronica's mother).

The gossipy ladies show Federico the car driven by the new owner of Las Barricas - the driver can't be seen, but Federico recognizes it's the car that tried to run him down. They give him a newspaper with a big color picture of Andres kissing the Bon-bon. Federico runs it right back to Jacinta and Jacinta runs up the stairs and thrusts it in Valeria's face. "Look at your Prince Charming." Valeria says, nevertheless, she still loves him as much as ever. Jacinta says: "Let's go to church and pray to rid ourselves of indecent passion." She smiles as Valeria cries and says: "Rodrigo is your future."

Jacaranda shows up at the restaurant to bum money off Maite and is upset to hear she's gone. Elvira says never fear, I'll lend you some money. Rafael shows up. Jacaranda's been hiding from him because he threatened to kill her last time they were together. He thought she had the letter Magdalena wrote in which she swore Veronica is Adolfo's daughter.

Guillermo returns some keys to Elvira. In front of Jacaranda and Rafael, Elvira loudly tells him: "I have important papers of Maite's which she wanted me to keep safe for her." She shows him where they are. Jacaranda and Rafael are watching. They assume the letter they seek is among those important papers, and clearly plan to steal the lot.

Juanita comes to visit Veronica. While Victor and Maite go off to crash the bull-raiser's party, Juanita and Veronica rendezvous with Valeria at the convent. Valeria tells Juanita that Maite, Veronica's mother, is also her mother! Veronica overhears this and her mouth freezes in a moue.

Labels: barrera

I was sure Jacinta was going to wake up and find Maite in her bedroom, but no! Maite took the drugs out of the drawer (they'd been hidden under a prayerbook) and slipped away successfully. However, as all the windows and doors were locked, she couldn't escape the hacienda.

Jacinta woke up, discovered the empty drawer, got her shotgun, and circled the house hoping to kill Maite. The chauffeur, Artemio, came to our heroine's rescue; he let her out, saying: "I've seen a lot around here over the years - I'm on your side - we should talk."

Maite hurried back to the convent, gave the drugs to Unibrow to be analyzed, and told him they have a grandson together. He emotes in a muffled monotone. Tears and kisses in closeup, I will say no more.

Nicolas is babbling fearfully after receiving a call from the Other World (Gustavo, promising payback). His wife Cayetano thinks the call was from one of his many girlfriends.

He hears sounds in the house, gets his gun, and bursts into Manola's room, where he finds her in bed with Federico. Cayetano follows and there is a shouting party. Rodrigo shows up and bangs on the door asking what's going on. They all say, Oh nothing, and get rid of him so they can continue their less-than-amicable discussion.

"How long has this been going on?" Cayetano asks indignantly. Federico: "A long time, in fact I'm Rodrigo's father." After more shouting the conclusion is: Nicolas and Cayetano raised their daughter to be frivolous, cold, calculating, and unscrupulous. Then they "sold" her to Gustavo who had enough money to keep all of them in luxury. Everybody is to blame.

Nicolas points out to Cayetano that their own marriage, too, was one of convenience and no love. They shuffle off to fight more in their own room.

Then Federico and Manola have sex and Manola thought-bubbles: "Federico may be a Vallodolid, but he has no class and I'd never marry him. Oh, where oh where is Unibrow?" Yes, that's what she said.

Victor and Maite de-brief together. When she hears Andres is in Aguascalientes she wants to go immediately to his hotel and tell him he has a son, but Victor points out Andres is with Bon-bon and tomorrow would be better.

Juanita is amazed to hear, from Unibrow on his return to Las Barricas, that her school chums Veronica and Valeria are both in town. She will find a way to talk to Valeria. She and her dad think Unibrow should go find Andres, tell him about Pedrito, and reconcile. Unibrow says shut up.

Federico is sure a drug refill can be procured in a couple days. Jacinta: "Without the drugs I can't control Valeria, she's so stubborn. When she's drugged, she's weak and can't fight me... Maybe your mother Remedios took my stash!" Federico tells her he got Octavio fired and mired in scandal. Jacinta smiles approvingly: "The paths of God are infinite in number. You, too, have become an instrument of Our Lord and will sit with him in heaven."

Labels: barrera

Most of this episode is a rehash so to avoid repetition I will summarize the backstory, once and for all, for people who missed it the first time... And now ...

• Octavio is taken to the dean's office and faces the two bouncing undergrads - one who accuses him of trying to trade sexual favors for a better grade and the other who claims to have witnessed said discussion. The dean believes them and fires Octavio. Federico congratulates the girls on a job well done and gives them cash. The "witness" feels a bit of remorse but not much.
  
  
• Unibrow listens as Theodoro tells him: (a) Federico is as much to blame for everything as Jacinta; (b) Theo now suspects Jacinta is responsible for the death-by-burning-building of Theo's wife Martina and Maite's aunt Griselda. Unibrow's vengeance plan has now progressed to - accumulating information about the Jacinta's finances. That's pretty gripping.
  
  
• In a hotel, Veronica and Victor meet Andres with the Bonbon on his arm. He describes her as his "good friend." Victor remarks later that Andres doesn't look very happy.
  
  Veronica can't understand why Maite is living with the nuns and is not at the hotel. "What aren't you telling me, dad?"
  
  She understands even less well when she and Victor arrive at the convent and Maite isn't there. The nuns have been wondering where she is, and so has Unibrow. All knit their brows. "Maybe she's gone to see Valeria, who is still sick." "Maybe she is checking for proof that Jacinta is drugging Valeria!" A flash of Vera the Perra is seen: "Valeria, Valeria, Valeria, everybody always loves Valeria best. Why isn't mom here for ME?"
  
  
• Remedios and Maite have indeed gone down the tunnel and into the hacienda. Remedios intends to distract Jacinta; she barges into her room just as Jacinta has drugged the tea and dropped the poison-wrapper into the trash. They have one of those needling, bitching shouting matches of yore.
  
  Maite sneaks into Valeria's closet again and watches Valeria coo to Pedrito (whose presence had been begged and wheedled out of Cleo) and call him "hijito." "My grandson!" Maite thought-bubbles, then she has to watch as Jacinta barges in, yells at Valeria for being with the baby, makes Cleo take him away, and then forces Valeria to drink the poisoned tea, just as she forced Maite to drink it two decades ago.
  
  I don't know how Cleotilde, Jacinta's maid, can still be saying "I believe you are the most pious, charitable woman I have ever known" after listening to Jacinta say (a) "That snotnose baby is nothing special, he's probably the product of sin, who knows what blood runs in his veins" and (b) "I will kill Maite if she comes back. If she comes in here, she will never leave alive." The chauffeur Artemio, having full knowledge of the poisonings past and present - due to his eavesdropping last night - stays silent.
  
  
• On the way out, Maite sneaks into Jacinta's boudoir past said dozing dragon, starts to open the nightstand, but then sees the emptied poison packet in the trash. She picks it up and stands there, staring, instead of shoving it in her pocket and splitting. I'm sure tomorrow night Jacinta will wake up and see her still standing there like a dummy.
  
  
• The phone rings in the night. Nicolas picks it up - it is Gustavo! "Did you forget my voice so soon? I just called to say I will be putting things in their place - you and Manola won't escape the vengeance of a dead man!"

Labels: barrera

It appears the characters in Barrera are going to keep sharing the information below with each other over and over until the show ends. To keep from having to type it over and over, here it is all in one place. I'm doing this from memory and I never paid much attention, so corrections are welcome. Jean helped me with some of this, thanks Jean!

Forty-some years ago, Pedro Vallodolid, a basically good rich dude, was forced to marry Jacinta (she was a nobody and her brother is Sergio). He was in love with Remedios, a humble girl. The night he was going to go off with Remedios, Jacinta sicced a big bull on him and he was trampled to death.

Remedios gave birth to Federico, Pedro's illegitimate son. Jacinta gave birth to Adolfo, Pedro's legitimate son. Remedios cut a Faustian bargain with Jacinta - she and Federico would live at the hacienda with Jacinta and Adolfo - and Federico would eventually get half the estate - but nobody would know about this little deal. It turned out rotten for Remedios, who was treated like a servant and lost the affections of her own son, who turned out completely evil and has been for many years an equal partner in crime with Jacinta.

Recently Remedios married Octavio, a nice professor, and they half-heartedly tried to convince Federico that Octavio was his dad. This hasn't gone well. Federico despises him.

Also forty-some years ago, Eloisa and Jose Maldonado had a thing. And so Eloisa had Maite. There was some misunderstanding and they never saw each other again and then Eloisa died and Maite was raised by her aunt Griselda. Maite never knew she had a rich wine-selling father; Jose now knows she's his daughter, but she doesn't. None of the Maldonado siblings married, they all live together and now Sergio (Jacinta's brother, who knows quite a few secrets) lives with them too.

Adolfo (son of Pedro Valladolid and Jacinta) lusted after Maite, who only had eyes for Unibrow (I know, I know). Adolfo raped Maite and so Unibrow pummelled him and was thrown in jail - Jacinta planned to keep him there forever.

Adolfo then blackmailed Maite into marrying him - it was the price of Unibrow's freedom. Unibrow felt thrown over, not knowing about the blackmail. Due to being raped, Maite had a baby, Valeria.

Jacinta was hot to raise Valeria as a Valladolid, and wanted to get Maite out of the way. She got a bent doctor to give her poison powders which she dumped in Maite's tea. Maite got nauseated, couldn't care for her baby, dropped her down the stairs, etc.

Then one day Federico whispered to Maite: Now's your chance to get away - Unibrow wants you to take your baby and meet him at the 8:00 train. So she left - but Unibrow (who knew nothing about this) had left on the 7:00 train. They didn't see each other again for many years. She was discredited; driven from the hacienda, she took refuge with her friend Magdalena who was a hooker in Elvira's house of ill-repute. Maite's picture got in the paper with the hookers. This is what Jacinta is now using to prove to Valeria that her mom was a mujerzuela.

Gustavo was a rich, older neighbor. He married young Manola, who had been cavorting with evil young Federico and never stopped (and is still doing so), and in fact Manola had a son by Federico - Rodrigo - who was raised as Gustavo's son, and used to be evil, but is now rehabilitated. Federico knows he's Rodrigo's dad, but Rodrigo doesn't. Gustavo knows Rodrigo is not his "natural" son but loves him anyway.

Manola threw Gustavo over a balcony and he was grievously wounded but survived. She didn't manage to finish killing him before he escaped; he is now living in Maite's apartment plotting vengeance. Nicolas is Manola's father and his complicity in her schemes extended to murdering Omar, Gustavo's attendant. Now Nicolas washes his hands a lot but they always look bloody to him...

Veronica is the (illegitimate) daughter of Adolfo and Magdalena the good-hearted whore. She, therefore, is also a Vallodolid, but she doesn't know it. She witnessed her mother's murder as a toddler and due to the shock has two secret selves - Vera (the bad, loud one) and Violetta (the sweet, submissive one), corresponding to her favorite dolls. She was raised by Maite and Victor, who lived together as friends until Victor found his true love Guillermo.

Veronica currently resides in the loony bin, where Doctor Monica has not figured out yet how to cure her.

Unibrow was a veterinarian. He had two sons by his first dead wife - Andres and Daniel. In their young years Maite was like their mom. After Maite married Adolfo, Unibrow married Nuria, a very nice woman who deserved better. Nuria raised his sons (while he was moping over Maite) and then got brain cancer and then Manola killed her, so Nuria (pregnant at the time) became Unibrow's second dead wife. Jean tells me Manola also killed Nuria's parents.

Now Andres has become a bullfighter, which Unibrow forbade for a stupid reason, so they are estranged. Andres loved Valeria, married her in secret, then they were parted due to Jacinta's machinations (in which Rodrigo participated). She went off to a convent and bore little Pedrito. Andres thinks Valeria's now a nun (she isn't) and doesn't know she bore him a son (little Pedrito) who is now installed at Jacinta's hacienda as a foundling (because Valeria didn't have the nerve to admit Pedrito is her son and, therefore, also a Vallodolid). Jacinta tried to murder Pedrito and may try again.

Andres' brother Daniel married Juanita (daughter of Theodoro and Martina) and got her pregnant with little Daniel. Then big Daniel died of a heart condition while trying to make peace between Unibrow and Andres. Unibrow, who went into the wine business with the Maldonados, took a job overseas and disappeared. He recently came back rich, bought Las Barricas, a nice place in Aguascaleintes, and his daughter-in-law (the widowed Juanita) and baby Daniel now live with him.

Besides killing her own husband by having him trampled by a bull, Jacinta also killed Maite's aunt Griselda and Teodoro's wife Martina when they discovered her poison-tea scheme - she burned them up in Martina's house. Then she killed the Padre to whom she confessed her murders (by letting him die on the floor when his medicine was within reach). Federico killed Adolfo, his half-brother, but nobody knows that.

Before getting roasted Griselda wrote a letter to Unibrow explaining how Maite sacrificed herself for him, but Manola and Federico intercepted it. It came into Unibrow's hands only recently, leading to a rapprochement between him and his one true love, and they are now trying to turn the tables on their enemies.

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• The ancient Maldonados and their ancient friends (that's Jose, Josefa, Josefina, the old dude who put salt in Sergio's tea, and Sergio) sit on a couch saying they should go to Aguascalientes and help Maite, who still doesn't know she's a member of this wealthy, aristocratic family.
  
  
• Federico is - gasp - almost hit by a speeding car as he gets out of his own car. He swears in annoyance. Guess who's in the speeding car, it's Unibrow and a henchman. They almost hit Federico on PURPOSE! That'll show him! This is the beginning of Unibrow's brilliant plan! Tonight, Unibrow is wearing a tight, foam green suit. We will speak no more of it.
  
  
• Maite spends all night with Valeria, who is delirious. She recognizes the symptoms and realizes Jacinta is drugging Valeria's tea. Maite hides in the closet and watches Jacinta enter, with the doctor, who says Valeria is fine. Valeria wants the baby back; Jacinta says "Nonsense! You have to rest!"
  
  
• Somehow, Nicolas has possession of Federico's birth certificate, which proves Federico is a Valladolid. Manola and her dad fear Federico will pulverize them if he finds out they knew of his parentage all along - but Manola wants to keep it quiet until Jacinta dies and Rodrigo inherits.
  
  
• Gustavo gets Elvira to send Nicolas a fax, on Gustavo's letterhead, saying: "I saw you kissing Jacaranda in Mexico City." No signature. Now Nicolas is really freaked, since only Jacaranda and the supposedly dead Gustavo knew this. His hand-washing kicks up a notch. Manola, ever practical, steals him some tranquilizers and says if he doesn't start taking them "I'll get a specialist to lock you up."
  
  
• Veronica is sprung from the mental hospital for a nice weekend in Aguascalientes with all the murderers, lunatics, and ugly guys in foam green suits. In Victor's apartment she sees a picture of Victor and Guillermo. Guillermo and Mommy show up. "What are they doing here?" Victor: "Uh, they're house-sitting for me."
  
  After Veronica and Victor leave, Mommy asks: "Doesn't she know that you are ... you are ..." "Mommy, don't be afraid to use the correct word, HOMOSEXUALS. And no, the doctor said we should not tell her till she's cured."
  
  
• Remember the bouncing undergrad who offered her favors to Octavio in exchange for a better grade? She offers again, he turns her down again and threatens to call her parents. Federico just happens to be lounging furtively nearby when the girl and her friend discuss this. He interjects: "I think I can help - together we can get rid of this idiot."
  
  Later in the episode Octavio is intercepted by an official on his way to class and is taken in for questioning, no doubt concerning an accusation the girl has made against him.
  
  
• The Bonbon, in a skimpy bikini, poolside with Andres and his chest hair, jumps in the pool and pretends to drown. He dives in, drags her out, and is giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when she laughs and kisses him. Oh, Andres honey, it was just my cute little trick! A paparazzi gets photos.
  
  
• Jacinta tells her chauffeur she won't be going to church today. He is barely out the door when Federico idly and loudly remarks, "Oh, so THOSE are the famous powders you used on Maite so long ago and which you are now using on Valeria!" "Why, yes, I want to keep her drugged until her mother leaves town." The chauffeur, just outside the door, hears all.
  
  Valeria doesn't want the tea - "I feel it's hurting me" - but Jacinta insists. "Drink it all, drink every last drop, drink it, drink it, drink it..." As Valeria drinks, Jacinta tells her once again how evil her mother the prostitute is.
  
  Valeria then tells Jacinta: "I dreamed my mother was here last night, taking care of me." Jacinta guesses that was no dream. She tells the servants to lock the windows tight - she's sure Maite will be back again.

Labels: barrera

One of the most padded, repetitive episodes ever. All previous tedious months of the novela were rehashed.

• Maite overacts frantically while Unibrow, in ghastly closeup, simpers leadenly (what a glistening, quivering double chin he has) as they talk through all the misunderstandings of twenty years and swear vengeance on Jacinta. He - leadenly - says: "I'm rich and powerful now, we can beat Jacinta at her own game."
  
  Maite hadn't known until now: back in the day, Jacinta was drugging her with the famous "powders." That's why she was nauseated, and why she dropped baby Valeria down the stairs (almost killing her) and was thereby persuaded she wasn't fit to be a mother.
  
  
• Maite tells the nuns their long-time patroness Jacinta is a monster and shows them Griselda's letter. They are a bit surprised but, surprisingly, calm. Maite asks to live with them in the convent for as long as it takes to win her daughter's love. They tell her about the secret passage - she will visit Valeria by night!
  
  Meanwhile, Unibrow tells his henchmen Theodoro and Bruno that a crusade against the evil duo has begun. Then Theo shows Unibrow a news story about his son Andres, the famous toreador. Unibrow sets his jaw stubbornly and says "I don't wanna hear about it."
  
  
• Manola and Federico kiss and plot. She suggests he destroy Octavio, the "mediocre opportunist," by making mischief at Octavio's workplace. After he leaves, Manola thought-bubbles: she knows Federico is actually a Vallodolid, but doesn't want HIM to know.
  
  
• Jacinta hauls out the old powders and starts poisoning Valeria ("Drink ALL your tea!") to prevent any gadding about in town and asking of inconvenient questions. Pretty soon Valeria is too sick to eat dinner. She tries to crawl to her child and collapses prostrate on the floor. Cleo has the baby and is dandling it when Jacinta snarls, "Take that snotnose to your room and leave him there!"
  
  Cleo cheerfully marvels: "What a coincidence, Valeria is getting nauseated and dizzy exactly as her mother Maite did when SHE was at the hacienda." "Never mention that again," explains Jacinta. Then Cleo wonders if it might be time to call the doctor for poor sick Valeria. "Nonsense! She's strong, like me!" says Jacinta, adding, "She is just sick because she's delicate and went out in the rain." Strong, yet delicate: no doctor for Valeria.
  
  
• Dionisius (El Gordo) kids Andres about the blond bimbo with the puffy lips (Leonela), calling her a "bon-bon." Heh. Andres mopes and has no interest in a bonbon. "Valeria is now a nun and it's all my fault." Blah blah blah. The Bonbon plans a campaign to win him over.
  
  
• Guillermo and Victor are mired in stilted conversations with Patricia, Guillermo's mom. "Mommy, it's good you are reading that book about homosexuality. It is the lack of information which causes us homosexuals so much damage." Mommy is going to live with them now. They also inform each other: "Some men think they have the right to hit women, but this is not true. How cowardly! If a woman is abused she should report the infraction." Having agreed with each other, they gaze manfully into each other's eyes but do not get to kiss.
  
  With what I consider to be a spectacular lack of judgment, Victor decides to take crazy Veronica - who is still rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped around her knees, endlessly talking to herself - when he goes to Aguascalientes to support Maite in this, her hour of need.

Labels: barrera

A few subplot moments: (a) That greasy blond Leonela babe with gigantic puffy collagen lips jumps all over Andres, having followed him to Aguascalientes from Spain. He's not very glad to see her and tells her he's in love with, and in fact married to, another woman; (b) Manola gazes upon the urn marked "GUSTAVO" but containing, actually, some stranger's ashes. She exclaims to her dad: "I hope Gustavo died like a dog! We have triumphed!" By the look on her dad's face, he isn't feeling very triumphant; (c) Federico calls Rodrigo "hijo" (son) one time too often and Rodrigo looks at him funny and then reminds us all that he, Rodrigo the Rehabilitated, regrets having helped Jacinta engineer the separation of Valeria and Andres.

Guillermo's mother Patricia is reading up on homosexuality in her hotel room when her brutish husband shows up. "You thought you could sneak out and I wouldn't notice?" She says she has a right to see their son. Brutish husband: "He's not MY son! He's dead to me." Victor arrives at this very moment, with flowers, to thank Patricia for reconciling with her son Guillermo (Victor's sweetie). The brutish husband slams the door on Victor and starts hitting the wife. Victor breaks the door down and protects Patricia, who tells her husband she is going to report him for beating her and if he keeps it up he'll end up in jail. She accepts Victor's invitation to go stay with him and Guillermo.

Valeria is mentally bludgeoned by Jacinta's inimitable, self-serving, relentless recaps: "Your mother got pregnant to trick your father into marrying her." (Actually, you may remember, he raped her.) "She left you and your father to be with her lover. She was a prostitute. Your father sought her and died because of her. She killed him." (You may remember it was actually Federico who bludgeoned Adolfo to death.) "She's only come back now to try and get some of your Valladolid inheritance." Valeria is crazed by all of this, cries a lot and screams at Maite to leave forever.

Maite goes to the cemetery where she gets drenched by a small amount of fake rain and asks dead aunt Griselda for consolation. Then she goes to church and tearfully petitions the Virgin Mary. Unibrow comes up behind (is he stalking her?) and she says she needs him more than ever, to help her win back Valeria. He takes her someplace with a fireplace and she starts to dry off. Then they have a shouting fight full of accusations. Him: "Who was the man you were leaving with on that train?" Her: "What kind of man asks a woman to join him, a woman alone, with a baby in her arms, on a cold night, and then leaves without her?" I think he finally convinces her he never got Griselda's letter (Explaining All) till recently.

Jacinta gloats to Federico: "Finally I can sleep peacefully, knowing Valeria will never pardon her mother." He agrees: "Maite menaces our tranquility." (Tranquility??) Meanwhile Valeria, who has been gadding around in the rain just as Maite has, coughs - and - oh no - Cleotilde is going to get some tea. Not tea in Jacinta's hacienda?!!!!

Labels: barrera