Caray, Caray!

Pote shows his absolute loyalty to Teresa when he... 

Labels: avenida, impostora, reina-sur, telemundo

Labels: avenida, reina-sur, telemundo

Happy New Year to all the rest of Telemundo fans. Here is your post.

No programs on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Labels: reina-sur, telemundo

Best to all of you on the holidays!

Labels: reina-sur, telemundo

Here's your page for this week. Enjoy!!

Labels: reina-sur, telemundo

This is where you get to discuss and recap La Reina del Sur and any other Telemundo or Unimás show -- or anything else that isn't in Univisión's primetime lineup.

Remember: Marido en Alquiler and Santa Diabla have their own pages.

Have a great week, friends.  Try to stay warm.

Labels: cielos, elisa, reina-sur, telemundo

This the page for comments on La Reina del Sur and all other things Telemundo and beyond (except Diabla and Marido).

Labels: elisa, reina-sur, telemundo

Here is the place to talk about La reina del sur, ¿Dónde está Elisa? and any other non-Univisión novelas on the horizon.

Remember:  Marido en alquiler and Santa Diabla each have their own weekly page.

Happy thanksgiving, Telemundies!

Labels: reina-sur, telemundo

I think that our experiment has turned out very well. Though I'm sure everyone has the idea now - this page is for discussions of the novela reruns of La Reina del Sur, Donde está Elisa, other non-Univisión novelas, gossip and speculation.

El Marido en Alquiler has its own post here.

Santa Diabla has its own post here.

Labels: reina-sur, telemundo

Labels: reina-sur, telemundo

Read more »

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

La Reina del Sur – as of Friday, May 27

We viewers are having almost as much trouble as Teresa in saying our goodbyes to this amazing story.

In its last full week, we see Teo finally exposed for the rat he has always been. When Flores and his men lead a raid on the decoy ship, Teresa knows without a doubt: Teo is the Judas. Teo has to die.

When Pote takes Teo from his home and forces him to join Teresa aboard the Sinaloa, he deals with the police bodyguards Culichi style – dead men can’t talk. And Teo earns himself a burial at sea.

Spanish Comisario Flores wants the pleasure of seeing Teresa Mendoza punished. He wants her in jail, on Spanish soil.

Willy Rangel wants Teresa back in Mexico to testify against the now presidential candidate, Epifanio Vargas.

The U.S. Ambassador, he of the atrocious Spanish pronunciation and flawless Spanish grammar, wants to keep Mexico from becoming an official Narco Republic.

We still don’t know what Teresa – and her unborn child – want.

Flores has good reason to hate Teresa – she did threaten his children early on in the story and he felt forced to send his family out of Spain to protect them from her. But now his personal need for vengeance has blinded him to any sense of the greater good.

For us at home, Flores has been one of the bad guys. Willy Rangel, on the other hand, has become more and more sympathetic; and the actor’s portrayal more and more credible.

Flores has been waiting for the judge’s order to arrest Teresa. Now, even though his star witness, Teo Aljarafe, is missing, with the death of the Spanish police guards, the balance tips in Flores’s favor. The police comb Marbella looking for her.

It is Teresa’s soulmate, Oleg, who takes her in – and incidentally introduces her to the wife and child she never knew he had – and then helps her escape out the back way when the wolf, i.e. Flores, inevitably arrives at the door looking for her. By then she has already agreed to Willy Rangel’s proposal – now that she knows it was Epifanio Vargas who ordered el Güero’s death, that instead of a friend, he has always been her enemy – she is willing to return to Mexico and testify against him. She and Willy will meet at the airport where a private jet awaits them.

Twelve years ago, Teresa – hobbled by cheap blue tacones -- ran for her life through the streets of Culiacán. Now once again she runs for her life – still hobbled by ridiculously high heels, even if they are on expensive and stylish boots – this time down a steep flagstone path in the south of Spain.


Last night, in the penultimate episode of our story:
Teresa gets to the airport ahead of Flores. She has had a chance to say her goodbyes to Conejo – Oleg had her brought to his house earlier – but she doesn’t want to leave without saying goodbye to Pote as well. Surprise! Pote is already on board the plane. He scoffs at the danger that awaits them in Mexico: Pa' morir nací, he says plainly. I was born to die. It’s a good thing to be able to choose the place to do it.

Pote reluctantly surrenders his gun to Willy and the plane takes off.

During the flight, Willy asks Teresa what she did with Teo. “What would you have done in my place?” is her answer. “I’d never be in your place”, says Willy rather smugly. “I’m one of the good guys”. (Soy de los buenos.) “De los buenos” repeats Teresa. “¿Cómo ves Pote?” She and the guarura exchange weary smiles.

She acknowledges that learning the truth about Don Epifanio Vargas has turned her life upside down (se me revolvió la vida). But it’s not a thirst for vengeance that is bringing her to Mexico – what she wants is to stop running:
It’s time for her to decide how she wants to live.

Back in Mexico, the President won’t take Epifanio Vargas’s calls.

And Don Epifanio won’t take Batman’s calls.

Batman and his two little boys are being followed by another vehicle. The Batman knows a hit when he sees one. He coolly calls his wife and tells her he and the boys will be home in half an hour. Then he pulls his camioneta into a clearing, inviting a confrontation with the other vehicle. Two guys get out and take aim at the Batmobile. But the Batman proves too wily for these cut-rate sicarios. He starts to drive, gunning down one with his left hand, while steering with his right. Then he runs over (and over) the second. Now we know what “rematar” really means.

Then Batman turns to his sons in the backseat:
¡Qué calor está haciendo! Les invito a una agua de cebada. ¿Qué dicen?(It’s getting hot. How about a cold drink (barley water)? What do you say?)
Both kids nod. Just another day in the family business.

In Marbella, Conejo is telling Ramos and Alberto about her secret farewell meeting with Teresa – she felt like she was in a spy movie, she confesses. She doesn’t think Teresa will be coming back. But the good news – Teresa left them the yacht, the Sinaloa. “¡Que viva México!” says Dr. Ramos happily. The trio’s toast to Teresa is cut short when Flores arrives at the door. He has a judicial order to inventory all of Teresa’s property. The beyond wilted Flores tells them they will have to testify in the proceedings against Teresa; all her property will be seized; and they are not to leave the country.

When Flores leaves, Dr. Ramos says ruefully: Adios, yate! But he brightens quickly when Conejo tells him about the second part of Teresa’s severance package for the faithful trio – a stash of twenty million Euros. She cautions them:
Va a ser muy difícil pillar la pasta.
(It’s going to be very hard to get hold of the dough.)
It’s hidden in plain sight in the living room of Teresa’s house, Las Siete Gotas!

Back in Mexico, Ratas gets the call: the idiots they sent to kill the Batman are dead. Now Ratas wants to do the job himself but Epi talks him down – Batman is old-school, he’d never betray them. [Really? After they just tried to kill him?]

Now Epifanio gets the call: “Hay piedras en el camino” he tells Ratas. Teresa gets in tonight. “Habrá que darle la bienvenida” replies Ratas.

And the Batman tells his trophy wife, who has been waiting anxiously at their NarcoMansion, that things have changed. He used to be the boss and now he’s the black sheep. He knows too much. Epifanio just tried to kill him. Mrs. Batman wants to get the hell out of Dodge. “Vámonos pa’ el Gabacho” she says. Batman agrees but first: “Vamos a medir el agua para los camotes” (Let’s analyze the situation first, let’s figure out what’s what.) If Epifanio gets the presidency, he’ll be able to get to them wherever they are.

Teresa’s arrival is imminent and Ratas is assembling the troops and their weapons. He literally has a small army of men who will cover all areas of the airport and runway. He holds out a million dollar reward to “quien se tumbe la morra” (the one who shoots the girl.)

In the DF, Don Epifanio is ignominiously turned away when he tries to see the president. And he reflects:
Se me hace que el señor Presidente ya sabe de todo.
(I think the president knows the whole story.)

Teresa’s plane lands and she, Pote and Willy walk onto the tarmac, right into the sights of the snipers. But before Ratas can give the order to shoot, Epifanio calls him and aborts the mission. He needs to talk to Teresa in person.

Teresa is introduced to the army officer who is in charge of her security, Col. Ledesma. She and Pote demand – and are given – their personal guns when she reminds Willy that this is Culiacán, not Spain.

Don Epifanio apparently thinks he can BS his way out of this one. He phones Teresa and asks her to meet with him. He waxes philosophical, Culichi style:
Pues ni modo mi hijita, al toro hay que agarrarlo por los cuernos. Mira, mi hija, en esta vida lo que te toca es para ti aunque te quites y lo que no, pues, aunque te pongas.
(Let’s take the bull by the horns. In this life, when it’s your turn it’s your turn, no matter what you do. [literally, ‘it’s yours although you may try to take it off and what’s not…well … although you may put it on.]

We see Ratas in what I think of as the Culiacán branch of the Bada Bing Club where he channels Scarlet O’Hara: Tomorrow is another day, he tells himself. Then they can eliminate all of their enemies: Teresa, Pote and Batman.

He heads to the bathroom. We see the pointy-toed black boots and the black trousers of the man following him. Then we see Batman himself reflected in the mirror. Batman aims at Ratas but doesn’t take the shot. He pauses and listens to Ratas’s phone conversation and learns that Teresa Mendoza is in Culiacán.

Now a black camioneta drives up to the secured property where Teresa and Pote will stay. That the army is guarding the outer periphery and the federal police are inside the grounds reassures neither Teresa nor Pote. She knows the Sinaloa cartel can buy off the guys who are there to protect her.

She announces, to the chagrin of both Col. Ledesma and Willy, that she will need transportation tomorrow. She’s going out. She’s not a prisoner, is she?

Tomorrow: The Last Goodbye
Tuesday: Cristina and the cast at 9pm/8central

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Mi Corazón Insiste

This is the replacement for Aurora. I watched a bit of it and realized it’s not for me. Jean, are you going to watch this one? Hombre, thanks for getting the discussion started on this show.

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Aurora

Just in case anyone missed it, Urban Anthropologist wrote a terrific wrap-up on the last few episodes of this oddly ill-conceived novela. You can find it in the comments of last week’s Telemundo page.

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La Casa de al Lado

This is the replacement for Reina. It looks intriguing but if I watch it, I’ll be a day behind in the conversation because I’ll be watching the online version. (My dance card is full at 10pm/9c.)

Ok. Your turn!

Labels: casa-lado, herederos, insiste, reina-sur, telemundo

"Rey muerto, rey puesto," says Ratas, "the king is dead, long live the king."

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

Now the whole primetime line-up on Telemundo is poised to change:

Urban Anthropologist has kindly been filling us in on the final days of Aurora in which our eponymous heroine lives on as the beating heart in a new protagonista. ¡Guau!

No one seems very excited about Los Herederos del Monte as it plods to its conclusion, proving perhaps that it takes more than All the Pretty Horses and All the Pretty Boys to make a successful novela.

La Pola, the historical novela from Colombia currently being aired on Univisión’s sister station, TeleFutura, has been given a tentative welcome to this page. Nobody wants an Invasion of the Pola Monster but we are open to brief comments and questions about this fabulous new show (as long as we remain a Logorrhea Free Zone).

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For the past few months, most of our conversation here has been about La Reina del Sur. As of Friday –


There are storm clouds gathering over Transer Naga. Teresa has many enemies but it’s a couple of insiders – both brought in at Patty’s invitation -- who seem poised to destroy her.

First there’s Teo. It is only after the suicide of his wife and would-be killer, Eugenia, that Teresa allows herself to think that what she and Teo share may be love. She seems touched when he surprises her with a yacht (that he bought with her money – what a prince!). [The yacht bears the name “El Bandido” but the script refers to it as “El Sinaloa”, as in the book.] For the first time, she invites him to her house. And she gives him a gift -- an untraceable gun for his own protection. Teo looks as if he expects her to take it out of the case and use it on him at that moment.

After Teo leaves, we are treated to a cheesy telenovela cliché -- not all that common in this show -- when Teresa falls in a dead faint. At a doctor's office the following morning, she learns she is pregnant with Teo’s child. [My favorite moment: the doctor congratulating Pote, whom he assumes to be the father.]

Then there’s Lupe/Veronica, Willy Rangel’s secret weapon in “Operation Sappho”. Lupe seduces Patty by exploiting her unrequited love for Teresa and posing as “Teresa Two”, the other Mexicana. L/V has several narrow escapes but she talks her way out of danger by exploiting Patty’s feelings for her. Patty can’t think beyond sexual betrayal so it never occurs to her to share her suspicions with anyone else at Transer Naga. And Patty reacts to this perceived betrayal by sinking into a profound depression. (Ya no queda ni la sombra de la hermosa Patty O’Farrell.)

Teresa herself is spending more time thinking about Sinaloa and el Güero and asking Pote questions that until now she has perhaps been afraid to speak aloud. On Friday, Pote confirms that it was el Gato who killed Brenda and Chino’s children – her godchildren -- on Batman’s orders.

The repulsive Cucho Malaspina finally impales Teresa – and Teo – on his telefoto lens, makes a small fortune publishing the photos and then goes on television to talk about the private life of “La Reina del Sur”.

L/V delivers documents to Flores and Willy that show the surprisingly vast financial network of Transer Naga and the names of the rich and famous people, the politicos, the philanthropists, the show biz types, the artists, who are involved in some way in the business. This is sensitive info but not enough to put Teresa et al in jail.

But the info L/V steals from Teo’s computer gives the police something they can use – evidence that Teo has been robbing Teresa blind! Now they can pressure Teo into giving them what they need to put Teresa out of business.

The police confront Teo with what they have discovered. If he informs on Teresa, they will shield him from her vengeance, he’ll keep everything he stole, and get nothing more than a judicial slap on the wrist for his own involvement. If not… Teo doesn’t even bother to feign conflicted feelings. Willy and Flores have themselves a rat.

Ironically, L/V is filled with guilt and self-reproach for betraying Patty. It may be that her words to Patty were all lies but their emotional content was not.

There is a delivery en route – 20 tons of cocaine – and between them, L/V and Teo give the cops enough details for them to set up a plan to intercept the carrier and arrest Teresa.

Willy recognizes that L/V is vulnerable and moves to get her out of Spain quickly. “Operation Sappho” is over and L/V is to fly to Mexico in the morning.

Juarez, while doing routine surveillance, catches sight of Teo coming out of the police building; his informant tells him Teo was in the Anti-Drug area. [The informant also tells him a man and woman, both with Latin American accents, are working with Flores.] Juarez reports Teo’s police visit to Oleg . Teo, when confronted by Oleg, claims that he was just following Teresa’s orders – to threaten Flores and explain away the documents. Then he tries to get Oleg off-balance by accusing him of being jealous – to which accusation our phlegmatic and enigmatic friend replies: A lo mejor sí, a lo mejor no. Soy ruso. Con nosotros, nunca se sabe. (Maybe I am, maybe I’m not – I'm Russian. With us, you never know.)

Both Oleg and Juarez are uneasy about the 20 ton shipment after hearing about Teo’s visit to the drug cops but there’s no way to shut it down – the Aurelia Carmona is already on her way. All they can do is be extra vigilant.

Patty, who has morphed into a zombie version of herself, breaks into L/V’s place by climbing through a window. Her frantic search of the flat is interrupted when L/V herself returns. Patty hides in the wardrobe and overhears one side of a phone conversation – L/V’s job is done and she’s packing to go back to Mexico in the morning.

Teresa calls Teo and asks him to come to the office. She has something she needs to tell him personally -- clearly, she wants to tell him she’s pregnant. But before she can begin, he goes on the defensive and blurts out the same lying explanation for his visit to the police station: he was only doing what she asked him to do.


So. We all know that the Golden Age of Transer Naga – and with it, our all-time favorite novela -- is coming to an end. What we don’t know is who will survive to tell the tale. And we don’t know how the Mexican side of the story will play out.

Your turn.

Labels: aurora, LaPola, reina-sur, telemundo

REINA

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

LA REINA DEL SUR

We had to content ourselves with three new episodes this week. I don’t have much to say about Friday’s “Twenty Favorite Moments” except that most of the sequences included were the ones I could have done without. I’m not a big fan of graphic violence and cruelty. My favorite moments all along have been writer- and actor-driven. Small scenes that reveal larger truths. But I suppose action sells. And all of us agreed that the scenes with Teresa and her two loves were superb.

We’ve wondered before whether this show would be perceived as a glorification of the narco world especially at this moment in history when Mexico is suffering its consequences en carne propia. (As many of you already know, Televisa began airing the series in Mexico on April 4.)

And here I have a confession to make. I don’t exactly tweet – who cares what NovelaMaven had for breakfast? -- but I do have a Twitter account and I follow a few people I find interesting. I guess you could say I ‘twalk’ (twitter+stalk); or maybe I ‘twurk’ (twitter+lurk).

So anyway, the other day, Roberto Stopello, writer of the tv adaptation of our novela, posted an intriguing tweet speaking to this question. He wrote on April 28:
Pa' que les voy a decir no, si sí? Alvaro Cueva es como Teresa Mendoza! Al pan pan y al vino, vino! | http://t.co/Rv27Goj

Following that link will take you to a piece by Alvaro Cueva: Cambios, extrañamientos y cosas peores: El pozo de los deseos reprimidos. (Changes, reprimands and worse: the well of repressed desires.)

[I had some trouble with the word ‘extrañamiento’. It seems to mean, literally, something like ‘exile’ but here I think it means ‘reprimand’.]

Anyway, here’s a quick and dirty translation of the parts of the article that referred to “Reina”:

Did Héctor Villarreal, Undersecretary of Regulations and Media of the Ministry of the Interior really send a written reprimand to Televisa for its airing of the telenovela “La reina del sur”?

I prefer to think it’s untrue, that it’s just a rumor, that it’s a publicity gimmick – because if it’s true, it’s obvious that the gentleman isn’t watching this Telemundo production; nor does he have people capable of reporting the truth about what is happening on our screens.

“La reina del sur” is very far from promoting organized crime in this country.
Moreover, weeks go by without any scenes taking place in Mexico; and in contrast to what happens in other national melodramas, it is full of basic values.

Didn’t ‘Teresa Mendoza’ (Kate del Castillo) just go to Morocco to defend a mother’s right to be with her child?

Didn’t the hero of this telenovela just give us a lesson about defending children in the face of human trafficking occurring in different parts of the world? Is this what they want to censor?

It looks like he just wants to cause trouble. He’s attacking something without taking the trouble to know what it’s about. He’s not a savvy tv viewer.

If Don Héctor and his colleagues were really interested in what is happening in our industry, they would be investigating other cases which really are shameful like “Pequeños gigantes”….

Unlike “La reina del sur”, “Pequeños gigantes” is shown in the family hour … and let’s not even get started about the “talk shows”…

That’s why I think that this scandal is a lie. It’s just a smear campaign that the social networks came up with to make the folks at the Ministry of the Interior look bad. Because if it were true, it would be scary.

Now it seems that a telenovela that tells the story of a woman who falls in love with the wrong man is dangerous; on the other hand we don’t need to do anything about the tons of garbage we “shoot up” every day.

It’s not for real, right? It didn’t really happen, did it?

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If you want to know exactly what Cueva wrote, check out the link. I also found another discussion of the theme here: http://tinyurl.com/3okqumd

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When I watch La Reina, I often think of The Sopranos, another brilliantly written series that sometimes made us squirm because we were rooting for the bad guys. But I don’t remember anyone worrying that Tony Soprano’s real-life counterparts would be swamped with eager recruits. I suppose that in the case of the drug cartels in Mexico, the wounds are open and bleeding – and even an artistically integral treatment of the theme can be painful, even insulting. Thoughts?

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Does anyone know anything about the novela Marina that will be shown at 1pm eastern/12 noon central as of May 9? I thought it might be worth recording because it stars two actors I like, Sandra Echeverría and Mauricio Ochmann. But then I read that after the first few episodes, Mauricio was replaced by the Colombian actor, Manolo Cardona.
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Herederos and Aurora watchers – the floor is yours!

Labels: aurora, LaPola, reina-sur, telemundo

All the Telemundo novelas were pre-empted Good Friday night for the movie: El niño llamado Jesús. This reminds me of my favorite name of a novela character. There was a character on La Tormenta named, Jesús Niño. To be named Baby Jesus seems like quite a burden.

Labels: herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

LA REINA DEL SUR: As of Friday, April 15

♪♪She is the very model of a modern major CEO ♪♪

She takes meetings and makes decisions. Her enemies and rivals track her every move. She is learning to delegate – but that lesson is coming slowly. She is trying to be dispassionate – and that lesson is coming along even more slowly.

SHE TAKES MEETINGS ABROAD:
She travels to Colombia and strikes a deal for 15 tons of cocaine. This is too much for the Russian market so Oleg arranges a meeting with the Italians -- the Camorra – who have, up to now, dealt with the Gallegos.

SHE TAKES MEETINGS AT HOME:
She gathers her inner circle and agrees to entrust the important banking to Patty’s handsome cousin, Teo. He proposes setting up accounts in Grand Cayman – a place free of the gossip and susceptibility to bribery that plague Gibraltar; and immune to European government crack-downs. This proposal sends the fuming Eddie A and his Gibraltar connections back to the kiddie table.

The fledgling company’s leadership is also clarified: Teresa will be (like W), “the decider”.

SHE MANAGES PERSONNEL:
In a private moment, she lets Conejo know why she treated her so roughly. Conejo proves to be a quick study. Later she concocts a story for the Colombian whiz kid security guy that distances her from Teresa (and appeals to Conejo’s ironic sense of humor): She says she just got out of the hospital where she was being treated for a nervous breakdown after her husband and mother-in-law died in a terrible way.

SHE TAKES MEETINGS WITH POTENTIAL ALLIES:
Teresa and Oleg, with Patty as translator, sit at a table with the Italian Camorra. The Italians try to talk over her head, addressing themselves directly to Oleg and speaking Italian without pausing to give Patty a chance to translate. They ask Oleg why he brought these women along. Teresa shoots right back: She’s the boss. If they have something to say, say it to her and Patty will translate. She explains her proposal – to transport the product from Venezuela to Casablanca in Africa; and then to Europe.
Her conditions:
No payment in drugs.
Payment must be in dollars. And in cash (en efectivo).
The Russians and Italian will split the costs.
She can offer them a price 40% less than the Gallegos are asking.

[When the Italian steps away from the table to make a phone call, Teresa whispers to Patty that she feels like she’s in a Mafia movie. Well, so do we.]

The Italian response: They don’t want war with the Gallegos. If Teresa wants their business, she’ll have to negotiate with Joaquin Perna. Remembering how the Gallegos betrayed Santiago, she flatly refuses to deal with her enemy. She leaves the table. Oleg stays behind and indicates his willingness to negotiate and promises he will talk to the Mexicana. [Clearly, she hasn’t mastered this hatred having an expiration date (fecha de caducidad) stuff yet.]

AS FOR THE ENEMIES AND RIVALS:

THE THREE STOOGES, MEXICAN STYLE
Batman realizes his matones (killers) have been captured when he phones them and gets to hear their moans and screams. And Oleg learns that “Batman” is the one who sent them.

Oleg drives Teresa to the torture chamber – an abandoned slaughterhouse? – and tells her:
La suerte de estos hombres está en tus manos.
(The fate (literally, luck) of these men is in your hands.)
She wants to kill them herself but Oleg holds her back. He tells her not to lose her self control, and not to cross that line and become a killer. She finally agrees. She remembers how Pote showed el Güero respect on that terrible night in Sinaloa. He is to be spared – taken to a hospital and then flown back to Mexico with a message for his boss. As for the other two: ¡Buen viaje al infierno! (Have a good trip to hell!)

BACK IN MEXICO
Batman tells Epifanio Vargas that the rusos have his nephew. He denies sending him to Spain – it’s just that there was no way to stop him from getting on the plane. If Ratas comes back to Mexico, it will likely be feet first (con los pies por delante).

Epi tells the Rat’s mother her boy is in trouble.

THE POLICIA
Willy Rangel, DEA agent (and for me, the only false casting note so far in this series) is in Spain. He and Flores, along with Flores’s current crooked boss, meet in a hotel bar and talk about their obsessive Teresa-hunting. Willy admits to a grudging admiration for his prey. Even more crooked ex-boss Juarez, now a soplón (informer) for Oleg, comes along, makes Willy for a Mexican policeman, and reports the sighting to Oleg and company.

THE GALLEGOS
They get word that the Mexicana is cutting into their Italian market with her 40% off sale. Joaquin is finally on board with his mad-dog son, Siso – Teresa has to be eliminated.

THE LAST ACT:
Teresa and Oleg are outside the torture chamber and they hear a shot fired. Now your enemies are part of the past, Oleg tells her.

But inside, the unimaginable is happening. Yes, Gato has been killed. But Ratas is freed from his chains, he manages to break away, grab a weapon, kill the Russians and escape!
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Herederos and Aurora fans – are there any left out there? – fill us in, please!

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

REINA - viernes

Labels: herederos, reina-sur, telemundo

LA REINA DEL SUR – hasta viernes

This week we see Teresa complete her sentimental and academic education in prison, under the tutelage of Patty O’Farrell, black sheep of a wealthy Irish-Spanish clan of aristocrats. We also get a glimpse of the dark secrets in the O’Farrell family, including a suggestion of a history of father-daughter sexual abuse that helps to explain Patricia’s hatred for her parents and perhaps her self-destructive behavior.

Patricia uses her influences to get Teresa released from prison after serving about half of her five year sentence. She arranges a job for her -- waitressing in a place in Marbella, perhaps a step up from the ‘puticlub’ of Yamila. And a year or so later, Patricia herself is a free woman and joins her friend Teresa.

Patty knows where Jaime Arenas hid the half ton of cocaine three years ago, the cocaine that got him killed and Patty gravely wounded, and which the Russian mob still has a claim on. Teresa and Patty gamble their lives by confronting Oleg Yasikov with a proposal to sell him back his own drugs. But it is Teresa who seals the deal, convincing him first that she can move the cocaine from its hiding place to the marketplace; and also that she can teach them the hashish trade.

On Thursday’s episode, the daring coke retrieval is carried out. Knowing that the police have been watching their every move, they distract them with a decoy yacht (yate señuelo). Meanwhile Oleg, Patty and Teresa speed away in a Zodiac. When the police – as expected -- catch up with the three, they find no drugs in their possession. (I’m still a little fuzzy on this switcheroo, but clearly the drugs were moved on one vessel while the police were watching another.)

Oleg makes good on his promised six million Euro payment. He’s impressed with la Mexicana. As they say in the movies, he tells Teresa: This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Oleg is less pleased with Patty and her propensity for nose candy and infelicitous business disclosures in public, especially when Teresa leaves her alone – and kind of jealous -- during her two day visit to Melilla. He catches her out by using a Russian mob agent, Katia, to pose as Spanish ‘Ana’; Katia reports back to Oleg on all of Patty’s indiscretions. That’s the last time you talk about our business with strangers, Oleg tells Patty. Nobody threatens me, she snarls back.

Comisario Flores visits former Comisario Saturnino Juárez in jail and questions him about Teresa Mendoza’s relationship with the Russian mob and tries to get him to spill the names of his contacts. Juárez gives him a big fat nada and tells Flores it’s just a question of time before he turns into a dirty cop too.

Meanwhile the journalist Oscar Lobato spreads the word – Teresa Mendoza is back, she’s paired up with Patricia, the enfant terrible of the O’Farrell family, and allied with a capo of the Russian mob. He wouldn’t want to be in the shoes (en el pellejo, literally in the skin or hide) of the people who betrayed her and the Gallego.

When Teresa shows up for her brief visit to Melilla, her old friends -- Fátima and her son Mohamed, Soraya, Sheila and Ahmed -- are thrilled to see her. They are impressed with how much she has changed. (She looks beautiful and sophisticated and speaks with authority.) She promises to take Fátima and Fati’s son Mohamed back to the Peninsula to live with her.

But some are less than thrilled by her sudden appearance in Yamila: Dris (architect of Santiago’s death and Teresa’s capture) and two of his accomplices, Cañabotas (who set up Santiago in Algeciras) and Velasco, a crooked cop who was part of the plot. These two disappear when Teresa and Dris step into his office to talk. She tells Dris straight out:
No voy a descansar hasta que te hunda. Ojo por ojo, diente por diente!
(I’m not going to rest until I destroy you – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.)

Later, Dris complains to Cáceres and Coronel Chaib that Teresa has threatened him. Their conversation is interrupted when Chaib gets a call: Teresa has a business proposal for him…

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Can someone fill us in on Herederos?

Labels: aurora, herederos, reina-sur, telemundo