Caray, Caray!

Labels: barrera

We begin with Remedios trying to tell Jacinta that there is nothing between her and that guy Octavio. Their conversations are pointless, but it is about the only dialogue Remedios gets tonight, during the remainder of the show she is either ignored or interrupted.

At the Don Jose pad Josefina, she of the tight face, is teaching Veronica how to paint like a first grader. This scene must have been excruciating for the artists in the audience.

Andres is dining at Teodoro's with Baldo and Juanita. The kids are dissing crabby old Jacinta but Teo sticks up for her. After all, she lost her son and only has her granddaughter left, and don't forget she is regarded as the most generous woman in Santa Margarita (or is it Santa Maria?).

Cut to the Valladolid hacienda. There is a stranger in the foyer, he turns, it is Jacinta's brother Sergio. Remember him? The deadbeat who borrowed money from Pancho? Jacinta enters and is suspicious, why has he shown up after all this time? He says he saw Valeria's graduation announcement in the society pages next to a picture of Valeria and Jacinta, so here he is.

The two town gossips arrive with a gift for Valeria. They are delighted to meet Sergio and fawn all over him, no doubt assuming he is as loaded as Jacinta. They worm their way into dinner with the family. Valeria asks why nobody ever told her she had a great-uncle.

At Gustavo's hacienda Manola is trying to get the sister/nurse to take a break but sister won't leave Gustavo's side. Manola thinks, "How can I take care of Gustavo with this busybody hanging around. If he comes to and talks I'm screwed."

Jacaranda is boozing it up with Raphael. They are toasting the millions she is going to get in the morning. "Our millions," corrects Raphael. She can't wait to marry Nicolas. "Nicolas doesn't make false steps." Says Raphael, "Before he leaves his wife he'll want to make sure you are a millionaire." Raphael promises he won't be jealous as long as he and Jacaranda can "get together" from time to time, nudge nudge wink wink. Ick.

Rodrigo is in dad's office shuffling papers in an official manner. He tells Manola that he plans to take care of the family business. She says "You can't even pass your classes, what makes you think you are capable of managing these affairs?" It's not a kind thing to say but she certainly has a point. She announces that she, with the help of Nicolas, will manage Gustavo's business affairs. She will make the decisions, not Rodrigo.

At the Valladolid dinner table Sergio decides to tell the guests about his and Jacinta's childhood. Their dad bought and sold vegetables; they lived in the truck and visited many towns including Santa Margarita. Jacinta was the intelligent one but neither of them was allowed to go to school. Their mother taught them to read on the road. As a young girl Jacinta fell in love with Pedro Valladolid. They would see him ride by on his horse. For Jacinta it was love at first sight. Jacinta shuts him up and tells him to stop saying foolish things. Sergio accuses her of being ashamed of her past. Valeria and Federico tell her that hearing the story only makes them admire her more. Jacinta is not pleased as Sergio toasts "diamonds in the rough" (he and Jacinta) that eventually sparkle brilliantly. Everybody toasts except Jacinta and Federico; they scowl.

Victor, Maite and Veronica have had a lovely dinner at Don Jose's. Don Jose tells Maite he loved meeting her. He doesn't know why, but after meeting her he would have loved to have a daughter like her. (Oh brother.) She says she would have loved to have a dad like him, not the father she really had, the one who so easily abandoned and forgot her mother and her. Don Jose says there are people like that, people with no values. I say again, Oh Brother!

Nutria and Daniel are packing, she faints, Daniel decides to maker her lunch. Unibrow says she can't hide the truth from the boys forever. That's Unibrow's scene for the night.

Sergio, still flirting with the gossips, is angling for some after-dinner cognac when Jacinta interrupts the conversation and announces she and Sergio have much to discuss...NOW. (I absolutely love they way Jacinta cuts through the crap.) After they leave Valeria tells the others she's happy to find out about her new uncle. Federico rolls his eyes; this guy could be an interloper to the Valladolid fortune.

Jacinta asks Sergio why he has suddenly shown up and by the way, she doesn't appreciate him blabbing about her past. He uses the "our poor dead mother" maneuver to try to move into Jacinta's house. She says he can stay there,"but only for tonight," she adds as she walks out. He smirks and lights a cigarette, "Only tonight? And then some."

Manola is filling a syringe, "Yes Gustavo, with this nobody can save you."

It is The Reading Of The Will and Jacaranda is wearing an upside down starched doily on her head. Raphael is there claiming to be her legal counsel. The lawyers waste no time in saying she won't get a cent of her husband's fortune. They tell her the children were able to show just cause why they should be the only beneficiaries. They insert the video of her smooching with Nicolas. Also, they have more evidence. There is her staff's testimony of her flagrant behavior plus pictures of her in the society page with this same guy Nicolas Linares. Since all this would be cause for divorce she doesn't get a cent. She can go back for her personal belongings but nothing more. Raphael is pissed. Jacaranda pouts.

Manola convinces the sister to run along for a quick bite of enchiladas de mole. Poor Gustavo can't talk but he is allowed one thought bubble, "no sister, please don't leave." Manola whips out the syringe and looks Gustavo in the eyes, "you know what I’m about to do, don't you my love? I can't let your recovery send me to jail. Here's your ticket to the afterlife. Goodbye forever, may you burn in hell, my love." But Federico has snuck in behind her and grabs her hand. At last his suspicions are confirmed, he knew she was behind Gustavo's accident. He won't allow her to kill him, in fact, maybe it is she who should die. He gives her neck a little poke with the syringe. Does Gustavo manage a tiny nod of satisfaction?

After the World Cup commercial we find out Federico has played a little game on Manola. "Ha ha, just kidding, I only meant that it's not convenient to kill him NOW," he says. Manola wants to finish what she started but Fede says no way. They bicker back and forth about who will lose the most should Gustavo recover. Federico says Gustavo "should also know that I was your lover since before you were engaged to Adolfo, and when you were left at the altar because of Maite you took advantage of Gustavo because he was rich enough for you to marry, because your parents were on the brink of financial ruin and you were expecting my son." Manola is particularly nasty today, "What, you think I should have married you? I wasn't going to tie myself to a no-name nobody like you." Now they are leaning over Gustavo and arguing. "It's always the same with you. I was the outsider. You despised me for being a Mr. Nobody, but according to you Gustavo couldn't satisfy you as a woman." Poor Gustavo's heart rate monitor is speeding up, beep beep beep beep. "You kept running to me like a bitch in heat!" BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!! "But the fact that Rodrigo is my son, that's also something you hid from me all these years. Really, Gustavo and I are equal, we're both your victims and you can't deny it." Manola calls him Stupid and asks Federico does he really think he can take Gustavo's side against her. "You know, that's not a bad idea, it would be a good way of getting back at you for all you've done." Federico goes on to say even though Gustavo knows Rodrigo isn't his own blood he would still treat him as his own. He loves him and doesn't want to lose him. And Gustavo has always treated Federico very well. The sister returns. Federico pats Gustavo's hand and tells him not to worry. He takes Manola outside to talk some more. Gustavo looks very worried, guess he doesn't believe Federico.

Outside Federico tells Manola that it's really a miracle Gustavo has been saved. Manola asks Federico what he wants; he wants money, right? Federico doesn't want money, he wants to manage Gustavo's business. Manola calls him Stupid again and pokes, pokes, pokes him in the head, "No! My father and I are going to run the business!" Federico disagrees, saying that he and Rodrigo will manage things. He reminds her that he caught her trying to assasinate her husband. He's going to hold that over her and could send her to jail, now it's his turn to poke, poke, poke her in the head before he leaves. She does a massive uber-pout and thinks "You have me now but I'll take care of you!"

Andres and Valeria are making out under their waterfall. They swear they won't let Jacinta's disapproval separate them. Uh oh, all of a sudden they're in their bathing suits and in a clinch. I think we know where this is going.

The next morning Sergio is walking around looking at the Valladolid portraits. Stopping under Don Pedro's he says, "Our parents always considered it a mistake that they used their money to convince Don Pedro to let you marry his son. It's because Don Pedro was having economic problems, otherwise you never would have married Pedro." Sergio has a flashback, he is in the bank with his parents who are receiving a wad of cash. Don Pedro is in the next room getting bad news about his finances from the bank manager, "It hurts me to say this, Don Pedro, but your financial situation is difficult. If you don't pay your debts soon the bank will take your hacienda." Don Pedro only wants a little more time, he's sure he can get the money. Later, outside the bank, Jacinta's parents are talking about something with a man. A young Sergio (I think) tells a young Jacinta (I think) that their parents are in negotiations with that man, Don Pedro Valladolid. The young Jacinta perks up, "Don Pedro Valladolid???"

At the Valladolid hacienda Federico and Jacinta are yelling at the foremen for letting one of the bulls hurt itself. This is all a big act so Sergio can be impressed by how severe and implacable his little sister has become. After demonstrating that she is able to scold the peons who aren't allowed to defend themselves she tells Sergio she must now supervise the veterinarian in the feeding of the cattle.

Nicolas demands to know how Federico came to find out the whole story of Gustavo's accident. Manola says it's because he's the kind of guy who listens at doorways. Nicolas says the reality is that their fate is now in Federico's hands. If Nicolas is mad now just wait until he finds out his millionaire mistress has been thrown out into the street.

Tivo ended this episode here.

Labels: barrera

I said I was staying away from Barrera, but Sylvia was so sweet to me I had to come back tonight. Part of the dreariness of this novela is that everybody in it knows it's a dog and they can hardly drag themselves through the scenes. Nutria is the lucky one, she will die soon and then she can try her luck in some new, better production.

Anyway - Veronica is home now, at the restaurant, with Maite and Victor. She asks Victor why he doesn't care that Maite goes out with other men, and - surely there had once been some passion between two such sexy people! Obviously she doesn't know Victor's Big Secret. He asks: "Would you have preferred more traditional parents?" He takes her to the doctor, who finds nothing abnormal in her brain, because alternate personalities don't register on an MRI. Maite has two suitors, the poetry-wielding Ulises, and Pancho. Pancho romantically says: "I have a lot of money and you'd be an adequate woman to share it with." Even so, I prefer him to Unibrow.

Federico is, once again, yelling at his mother, who's wearing an absolutely hideous hot-pink bathrobe. She has been caught in the withered arms of Octavio, a guy from out of town who had been a friend to her brothers. Federico orders her to come with him. Why does she do what he says? He yells at her - "At Your Age, Mother!?" - and derides her for arrumacos, which is not in my dictionary but which I suspect to be hanky-panky. How can he call her a whore when she's wearing this ridiculous pink bathrobe? Federico forbids her to see Octavio. She says, futilely, "Respect me!"

In his usual two minutes of airtime, Unibrow puts things in boxes. That's an action hero for you. He is moving his family to Aguascalientes to be near the grapevines. Gordo points out Jacinta will be in the picture. Unibrow says it won't be a problem. Nutria the Doomed will be able to get her treatments in Aguascalientes. Unibrow says Manola is a special woman.

At the hospital we discover that Manola, the special woman, wants to get her husband, Gustavo the Cuckold - whom she threw over the balcony railing onto the patio below without completely killing him - back home so she can finish the job. Therefore, she is not at all keen on having nurses round the clock. "I can take care of him myself." Her dad whispers, "I can understand why you pushed him over the banister in the heat of argument, but this would be murder in cold blood." Manola informs us she's not sorry and would do it again (but I guess she'd push harder). Jacinta arrives with - gasp - a nun who will take charge of Gustavo's care. Drat! Federico tells Manola it's mighty fishy, this falling-off-the-balcony-by-accident story. Insinuation City. Maybe murderers can smell each other.

Speaking of murderers - in a parking garage, Jacaranda and her partner in crime have a perfectly audible conversation about their two murders. Haven't they heard of security cameras? She has a bad foreboding - Electra has read her cards and said there's a big change coming - he says that's superstition - she says "Electra's always right, for instance she told me I'd land a rich old guy." "I could have told you that without reading any cards, you'd spent years trying to land a rich old guy, and by the way, he's dead now and you're getting your inheritance tomorrow." "He may come back to haunt me." "Why worry? If that were an option, Magdalena would have been haunting us all these years - remember, your husband is not the first person we've dispatched to the other world." Discretion, people!

Valeria is babbling to the pink bathrobed Remedios about a recipe: "Oh, could it be, is it my mother's?" Ask me if I care. Juanita appears and there's a little plan to go to the internet café. Jacinta magically appears at just that moment and forbids Valeria to go. "You can't keep me locked up here!" Valeria convinces Juanita to stand in for her and sneaks out anyway - she writes Andres and they meet under blue lights near the gate. "My serial-killer granny has taken away my cellphone and I can't even make a long-distance call!" He tells her his family is moving to Aguascalientes. She suggests they can leave each other notes in some horsey place, not convenient but romantic, like the old days. They kiss. Andres is sort of tense and brittle but he's a good kisser.

Federico, brooding, tells Jacinta he found his mother in the arms of an old dude. How shocking. Jacinta says complacently, "Don't worry, sooner or later Divine Justice punishes sinners."

About the Maldonados, the wine guys: their parents had thought they couldn't have kids, but then they had three, and they named them Jose, Josef, and Josefina, and none of the three kids had kids. Well, Jose did, but he doesn't know it.

I'm telling you this because now, Victor takes Maite and Veronica to visit Don Josef Maldonado, who had been his teacher at cooking school. Josef is going to cook conches tonight and persuades Victor et al to stay and eat with him and his siblings. Josef's brother, Jose, is Maite's father. Their sister, Josefina, gets an award for the tightest, most lizard-like facelift on the show.

As his sister Josefina is dressing, Don Jose "acts," getting a face like he's sucking a lemon. She asks, "Why do you get that bad face every time I wear ..." and I thought she was going to say, "... this ghastly wig," but no, it's the earrings, which had belonged to their mother. The earrings bring up painful memories because he, long ago, gave the matching necklace to Eloisa, Maite's mom, and by coincidence Maite is wearing it this very night!

Maite knows the necklace was a present from her mystery father, whom she has been told abandoned her mother Eloisa.

Jose's sister Josefina helpfully reminds him: "But Eloise did not deserve your love, because she dumped you to go off with somebody else." Jose, still "acting," nods sullenly.

Josefina drops one of these special earrings; instead of picking it up, she takes the other one off. Simultaneously, Maite's special necklace catch breaks and she whips the necklace off - just as Don Jose, who no doubt would have recognized it, enters and says hello. We're supposed to care - after all, were they to have met wearing the matching diamonds, there might have been all sorts of revelations - but knowing this novela will drag on for another four months, I'm not holding my breath.

Soon Victor goes off to the kitchen with Josef (to admire his conches) and Josefina takes Veronica off to her art studio to show her a blank canvas and say: "The best thing is to make something from nothing."

That leaves Maite talking with her father. The father says he's nostalgic tonight, thinking about sad, ungrateful love. It's a story he'll tell her some day. She says she has a story too and will tell it some day. Yawn.

We end with riveting scenes of Andres accepting Teodoro's invitation to spend the night (and offering valiantly to do the dishes), and Jacinta yelling at Remedios (who is STILL wearing the hot pink housecoat) (1) for "dating" and (2) for asking how Rodrigo is taking his "father's" "accidental" defenestration.

Labels: barrera

I did watch Barerra both Thursday and Friday but I didn't take notes. Here are my recollections of what happened.
Gustavo survived having been heaved over the balcony by Manola. In the hospital, he is conscious but cannot move or speak. At the end of Friday's episode, he is about to be released from the hospital in this condition and put in the care of his wife who wants to finish the job. Since he is completely helpless, his chances don't look very good.

Rodrigo seems to have been deeply affected by his father's injury and I believe he said that he was going to take over the cow business. I'm sure his attack of responsibility won't last long.

Things are wrapping up with the Canada tour. Veronica continues to cycle back and forth between a clinging almost catatonic woman to a slut and nobody can figure it out.

Juanita and Daniel (Andrés'older brother) had engaged in some email correspondence but when they met, he thought she was Valeria. I guess he has fallen for his brother's girl. Juanita said they could just be friends.

Valeria and Andrés arrange to escape from Jacinta and her henchman, Federico, for various necking sessions. However, on their last day in Canada, Jacinta sees Valeria kissing Andrés goodbye. She accosts the couple, drags Valeria inside and throws her on the bed knocking over and breaking the glass in a picture frame in the process. She turns into the avenging hand of God, grabs a piece of glass and is about to attack Valeria with it when Federico comes in and intervenes. Jacinta ends up cutting her own hand with the glass and Valeria is shaken up but determined to have Andrés.

Back in Mexico, Valeria unwisely tells Rodrigo about her love for Andrés and he promises to help.

Victor goes to see the girls' psychology professor who appears to be in Mexico. She gives him the name of an analsyt for Veronica and then Victor asks her if he should tell Veronica that he is gay. The psychology teacher advises waiting.

Nutria decides that she wants to return to Aguascalientes, or rather the little town outside of there that Jacinta, et al lives in. She seems to think this is the place to get treatment for her brain tumor. What can Unibrow say? She has a brain tumor. He agrees. She also doesn't want to tell anyone, in particular, Andrés and Daniel, about her diagnosis.

That's about all I can remember.

Labels: barrera

Monday's episode ended with Gustavo and Manola fighting about Maite. She heard him talking to his right hand man (Guillermo?) about finding out info on Maite and Unibrow. Now she's furious that he's involved in trying to find out the truth about what happened so many years ago. They fight. He yells "you came to my bed only for my wealth" and chokes her. Realizing he's strangling his wife he looks shocked and runs off. Rubbing her neck she mutters "this is all Maite's fault."

Baldo sees Tina, in fact he was waiting for her. He tells her that according to her brother she's been acting oddly subdued and serious. Does it have anything to do with Rodrigo? She runs away. Today is a day of people ending scenes by running off; guess the writers couldn't figure out how to conclude the scenes.

In Monday's episode all the characters were returning from their wilderness outing, all on the same train. Valeria and Juanita snuck away from Jacinta so Valeria and Andres could steal kisses. Tonight they have just gotten off the train and Valeria asks Jacinta shouldn't they wait for Veronica and her parents? Jacinta of course says no. Valeria asks doesn't Jacinta like them? Jacinta answers "you know I don't make friends easily." Federico smirks.

Manola is drinking wine, talking to herself and packing her bags. The taxi will pick her up in an hour. "Thanks to Maite my idiot of a husband is now involved in those events. It's her fault we fought. What if he finds out Rodrigo isn't his son? He'll kill me."

Nicolas and Cayetana are in a hotel room in Mexico City. He's in a great mood (meaning he's about to boink Jacaranda) and tries to sneak out of the room. Cayetana catches him. He says he needs to buy a tie.

The girls give Jacinta and Federico a tour of the church where their graduation is to be held. They want to take Jacinta to where the Indians live because it's important to Juanita. Naturally Jacinta doesn't want to go, but she volunteers Federico to be their escort. He asks hopefully "Is Veronica coming?" "We don't know!" they answer in stereo.

Cut to a close up of a security camera. Jacaranda and Nicolas are making out among her dead husband's cars. She calls him little bear (osito), and rich little moustache (bigotito rico). She tells him that her stepchildren think she's a gold digger, that she's happy to be a widow. We keep seeing close-ups of the security camera as if we cannot figure out on our own that they're being watched. Nicolas says after she gets her inheritance they can start a new life. Cut to the security office...oh my goodness, they're being observed! "Are you sure it's recording?" somebody named Antulio asks. "Yes, this is all we need to ruin the Mrs."

Up on the balcony of Gustavo's hacienda, Manola is leaving with her suitcase. Gustavo wants to know where she's going, plus she's been drinking...again. He tries to make up but she tells him not to touch her. "You're my woman!" "No no no no no NO, I'm your wife, not your woman! I've never felt like a woman in your arms." Alcohol has loosened her tongue and she shrieks that Rodrigo has been the biggest lie in their life, in fact he's not even Gustavo's son. He's Federico's son. Federico who for the past 20 years has made her feel like a woman. They struggle, he calls her a cursed bitch, and she throws him off the balcony. As he lies on the ground below she hisses "At last I'm free of you and you can go to hell...to hell!"

We return from the commercial break and now Manola is worried...
"Oops, wait a minute, what have I done? What to do, what to do? Must make it seem like an accident. I don't know anything. I left before it happened. I don't know anything. My taxi is here." She runs off with her suitcase.

In an unusual twist Unibrow is having flashbacks of Nutria instead of Maite. Too little too late jackass. As she sleeps he says "forgive me for not loving you as much as you deserve." I hope he feels guilty forever.

It turns out that Remedios' old friend (flame?) Octavio is Rodrigo's teacher. In Monday's episode she told him that Rodrigo is actually not Gustavo's son but Federico's. Federico is her son so Rodrigo is her grandson. Blabbermouth. Tonight Octavio tells Remedios that, to be frank, Rodrigo is an awful student. He has no goals except to have fun and spend his inheritance. Octavio plans to stay in Aguascalientes in the position of assistant academic director. He is also writing a book about rotten students. I'll bet it's about Rodrigo.

Nicolas returns to the hotel; he's humming and deeply satisfied. Cayetana checked with the hotel stores and knows he didn't shop there so where in the hell was he? He pulls out a squashed box "but here's my tie honey, how do you like it?" She says he smells like another woman's perfume. He said he was going to buy her some but he smelled so many he couldn't make up his mind. He's about to dig himself in deeper when his phone rings, saved by Manola. She's in the airport in Aguascalientes and just wanted to call to let them know she's on her way and that she "left before Gustavo came home from work."

On Monday Victor was worried about Veronica's memory losses. He took her to see her psychology teacher who recommended a doctor in Mexico for Veronica to see when she gets back home. Victor vowed to stay by her side to 1) observe her, and 2) keep her out of trouble. Today they are shopping. Veronica hears the crazy sound in her head, turns into Vera and gives Victor the slip. She sees Andres and Valeria kissing goodbye. She intercepts Andres but he runs away.

Another balcony scene, this time Rafael is yelling at Jacaranda not to be indiscreet or she'll ruin everything. "If the family discovers your little game they'll kick your butt right out into the street." Heh heh, too late.

Don Jose and his sister are in the thick of planning for her fashion show. On Monday we saw everybody receiving their invitations so it will probably be one of those scenes where all the characters run into each other. Usually a fight breaks out and often there is an explosion.

Manola arrives at her parents' hotel room and is as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Her father is suspicious. She calls Gustavo as a cover. Cut to Gustavo bleeding from his head. His phone is ringing. His eyes pop open!

Victor is relieved to finally find Veronica. As mean Vera she thinks "Again with the guy who tries to pass himself off as my father. For now it's better if I play along."

Manola tells Nicolas that Gustavo doesn't answer, nobody is home. He asks her why she's so skittish. He knows her and he can tell she's hiding something. She admits, "Before I left I had words with Gustavo. He said terrible things to me so I killed him! I killed my husband!"

Vera-nica is blathering to Victor about wanting a red dress to go dancing. Crazy head noise, pained expression, she's Veronica again and can't remember talking about the red dress. "You know," he says, "the one you wanted to wear dancing." She doesn't know anything about a red dress and gets all agitated.

In a failed attempt at suspense, Rodrigo drives up to his front door, he almost walks in where of course he would see Gustavo, but he changes his mind and decides to go horseback riding instead. Whew, that was close...yawn.

Nicolas asks Manola what was she thinking by killing Gustavo? "What are we going to do? You'll go to jail for murder." She tells him her plot, that she had already called the taxi and left before Gustavo "fell" off the balcony. Nicolas asks, "Tell me one thing." (screech of violins!) "are you absolutely certain you killed him?" Violins!! "Of course!" Violins!! "No one could survive that fall." Violins!! "I saw him before I left." Violins!! Cut to Gustavo, lying in a pool of his own blood, "I can't move, I don't feel anything, what happened, where is everybody? I can't believe Manola would do this to me, that she wanted to kill me."

Riding his horse, Rodrigo sees Baldo cutting through their property so he tries to run over him. He makes nasty racist remarks then insults Tina. Baldo pulls Rodrigo off his horse and they fight. In a remarkably poor bit of fight choreography Rodrigo kicks Baldo in the ankle but Baldo grabs his nuts and falls to the ground writhing in pain. Must be some sort of reflexology. Rodrigo drinks from his flask.

Federico and Jacinto are strolling downtown and he comments that it's unusual to see her sporting "such color." She is wearing the colorless pale yellow scarf, the gift from Rodrigo. Federico is proud.

Rodrigo has a flashback. Tina is the girl he tried to rape for fun in a past episode. She ran off screaming and he kept her scarf. It's the one he ended up giving to Jacinta. Whatta guy.

Jacinta, sitting alone at a sidewalk cafe, stares at a candle and has a flashback. She's a young girl praying alongside a man with a scarred and blind right eye. They are in front of a painting of the crucifixion over tormented sinners. "Is it necessary to send them to hell for being bad?" she asks. "No, they are prisoners in purgatory; they have to pay for their sins with pain." Then she flashes back to the night she set the house on fire and killed Maite's aunt and Juanita's mother. She remembers saying, "you ordered me to do it, I only fulfilled your wish, a sign from heaven God, they are your servants, crucified for you God."

Maite is downtown and dressed up for the graduation. She runs into Andres who is staying nearby. He tells her he plans to go to the graduation with his brother. (The brother who might be old enough to recognize Maite.) They'll sit in the back of the church where Jacinta can't see them, but he's thinking of speaking to Jacinta after the party.

That's it for now, gotta run!

Labels: barrera

Ok check this out - I decided to take my own advice and set up a Caray, Caray! store. I used my son's sandals as the picture for all the products. My dear wife cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop, she intends to make a new design or two eventually as well. I didn't set it up to make any money, just for kicks. Let me know what you think. Also, I'll be happy to put some other images in for any of the products if you want. I can make a Fernando Colunga mousepad, whatever. Send me or post a large format picture and I can make it happen.

http://www.cafepress.com/caray_caray

Labels: announcements

Not much happens for a while. Jessica Rabbit is upset about Lety being important when her seis semestres de financia make her soooo much more qualified. Right. Yes, your community college equivalent should definitely outweigh Lety’s Masters degree. Gosh! How can you not be running your own company by now?

Fernando and Omar talk about how much J.R. hates and is jealous of Lety. Fernando thinks this is the first time a beautiful woman has been so jealous of an ugly one.

Marcia The Unblinking Eye and J.R. spend some time talking about…… Lety. For being so worthless in their eyes, they sure do spend a lot of time thinking about her. Lots of “Maaaaarcia, por que Fernando gives so much credit to Lety? Porrrrr queeee? Maaaaaaarcia? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa whaaaaaaaaaaaa.” Marcia later tells Fernando that he doesn’t realize it, but somehow Lety has brainwashed him. If giving him good information and advice, and doing good work, is brainwashing, then I guess she is. She’s a voodoo priestess.

Finally something happens. J.R. decides to perform some sabotage. Lety is working on some report for tomorrow’s meeting (same old story). J.R. decides to mess up her computer so she can’t get it done. Olarte the idiot finance guy gets involved again, as does Ariel the Little Mermaid. Olarte calls Lety to his office for something or other to keep her busy. J.R., with some instructions she got from the corrupt systems guy in the basement, enters some commands into Lety’s computer to lock it up. Olarte sifts through some papers while Lety fumes, finally she has had enough and stomps back to her office, though too late to catch J.R. in the act. Lola, Olarte’s secretary, DID see J.R., though. But she doesn’t say anything to anybody, not even when Lety discovers her computer is all messed up and she can’t get her information. More hand wringing ensues, lots of yelling and running around, finally Fernando calls systems to get Lety’s computer and get the info from it.

Lety starts crying her eyes out to Fernando and tells him that she doesn’t deserve the promotion he gave her. Why she thinks this when it wasn’t her fault is beyond me. She tries to quit more often than she gets fired. Fernando tells her he doesn’t have time for that kind of talk, he needs the info from her computer.

Paula Maria calls a friend at another company to see if he can fix Lety’s computer, the systems guy from the basement says it will take him a couple days. This is because a) he’s stupid, b) he’s corrupt and the axis of evil put him up to this, and c) he’s busy taking breaks and stuff like that. Fernando comes down to check up on him, the guy has the gall to tell him that he’s on his way to lunch. The president of the company! He’s lucky he didn’t get fired on the spot. With the guy from the other company as a backup plan, Fernando leans heavily on the systems guy and finally he gets what he wants. However…. while everyone is out of the room, the systems guy makes a copy of all the confidential information from her computer!

Eventually the whole thing comes unraveled, Fernando discovers Olarte’s involvement and fires him on the spot. He then goes to the systems guy and fires HIM too. He’s on a roll, kicking ass and taking names.

Back in the meeting room – Luigi Lombardi, el gran gay and Conceptos’s award winning director, emotionally tells everyone that he’s going to shoot a video for Benny Ibarra. I guess he’s really famous in Mexico, because everyone goes nuts at the news. So this sounds like something good is going to happen! I’m sure something will muck it up. Fernando arrives with the information he needed all along, finally, Lety follows a few minutes later. She says “buenas tardes” but no one answers, making her very nervous. Soon, however, it is her turn to explain the report, she manages to gain everyone’s rapt attention.

At the end of the meeting, Fernando proposes giving Lety more responsibilities within the company, due to her successful report, as well as due to the fact that Olarte got the boot earlier that day. Lety can’t believe it. I feel some more crying and daydreaming coming on.

Ariel the Little Mermaid finds J.R. after the meeting and says he thinks it was her that messed up Lety’s computer. She doesn’t say yes or no, but she’s a bad bluffer and he knows it to be true. He’ll put that info to use later. I’m still trying to figure out what his real job is. He doesn’t work at Conceptos, we see him in his office sometimes, he has a hot secretary who doesn’t do anything but transfer phone calls to him, he never says where he works or what he does, and he has nothing but free time to pursue his goal of world domination. Whoops, I mean his goal of ruining Fernando and taking over Conceptos. Maybe we’ll find out someday what he does.

Lety tells El Club De Las Feas that she’s taking over a lot of Olarte’s job. The familiar give and take of “did you get a raise?” “no Don Fernando must have forgotten about it.” The circle of life continues.

Fernando tells Omar to pretend he’s in love with J.R. so she won’t spend any time with Ariel the Little Mermaid, too much contact between the two makes him nervous. Fernando tries to keep all his affairs (both personal and company) private, but J.R. is bound to get a tidbit of info here and there and he doesn’t want Ariel the Little Mermaid to know ANYTHING.

Fernando meets with Lety, who tells him that the company is in some financial trouble. No duh. The place is overrun with idiots, how could it possibly be in good shape?

During a shoot for a bicycle commercial, Luigi ties his dog’s leash to a camera tripod. As expected, the dog pulls the camera over and breaks it. Luigi is beside himself, as only a gay stereotype can be. This was the nice 35mm camera. With that ruined, there is only a video camera to use. Luigi refuses to use it under any circumstance. I sense a high noon showdown with Fernando over this one, replacing the 35mm camera will be $$$$$$ expensive and there is no extra money these days.

Fernando invites Lety to accompany him and Omer to a big trade show/meeting/cocktail reception. She is overcome with emotion and tears up, later on that night she is at home dreaming once again about being Mrs. Fernando. Swoooooooooooooooon.

Labels: fea-e

[I watched some of Thursday’s episode so I can fill in a little bit. I am concentrating on summarizing those things that happened that advance the plot – even a little.]

We open with Andres and Valeria kissing by the lake while Maite watches them fondly from behind a tree. They see her and she goes up to them and is presented to Andres as the mother of Veronica. Andres asks if they have met before, which of course they have but I don’t think Maite knows that this is Unibrow’s son.

[Last night we found out that Nutria’s tests have revealed that she has malady beloved of soap operas – a brain tumor]. She calls Unibrow and tells him and he says he will take the first flight home.

Maite tells Andres and Valeria that in spite of the fact that Jacinta has forbidden Valeria to go out with Andres, she will support them. She doesn’t tell them why, of course.

Veronica appears and gets Excedrin headache #3 – changing into one of her multiple personalities. She turns into Vera and is annoyed at Valeria for concealing that Andres is at the cabin and vows that they will pay for this.

Manola tells her father that she will kill Gustavo before letting him find out the truth about Rodrigo’s true father.

Federico and Juana bring found objects to the reception desk – the blond wig from the school and the slinky dress.

Maite’s two suitors, Sergio and some other guy, arrive at the restaurant at the same time only to be told that Maite is in Canada.

Federico asks Juana about Veronica and is told that she sometimes acts strangely. Then Veronica comes in, Juana leaves and Federico figures out that that the blond in the casino was Veronica.

The creepy Rafael is playing race-car driver like a 5 year old in a parked car while Jacaranda tells him about her conquest of Nicolas and her hopes that he might marry her. She wants Rafael to make her a widow pronto so he injects something into the IV bag of her husband.

In a giant cow carrousel, some guy (I guess this is Omar) tells Gustavo that Unibrow was arrested for fraud and attempted murder. Gustavo is surprised.

Maite chats with Juana and keeps tripping up by saying things that indicate that she knows more about Juana’s mother than she was told.

Jose offers Unibrow an apartment in Mexico City so that Nutria can get the best treatment.

Some guy from her past named Octavio comes to see Remedios.

Veronica arranges for Valeria and Andres to meet at the hot tub and then locks them in. She then goes off with Federico and gets both Jacinta and Maite to go to the hot tub, hoping that they will conclude that the couple have been up to hanky panky. A confrontation is avoided, however when Andres picks the lock. Jacinta is suspicious and orders Valeria to stay in her room rather than her cabin. Maite is supportive of the young lovers and arranges for them to meet in her cabin.

The nurse tells Jacaranda that her husband is dead and she pretends (really badly) to be upset.

Omar continues to look into Unibrow’s past especially his jail time for almost killing Adolfo. Omar chats up the two gossipy old ladies who appear from time to time but they know less than we do – since we know that Adolfo raped Maite.

Remedios tells Teodoro and Baldo that she has met an old friend of the family. She is concerned that if she sees him again, people might talk and Federico might be annoyed. They tell her to not worry about what others think and do what makes her happy.

A smoking and drinking Rodrigo wearing a ridiculous bandanna on his head (maybe he’s balding and they want to cover it up) tells his mother that he doesn’t care about school – having money is what matters. He is not interested in learning the business that keeps him in fancy cars either – he doesn’t like the smell of cow urine.

Labels: barrera

My son was putting on his sandals the other day and I finally noticed the brand name. I've seen these sandals many, many times. So how did I miss this? Well, needless to say as soon as I saw it I knew I had to get a picture. I'd tell you where they were purchased, but I have no idea except for somewhere in Guadalajara. Maybe we should start a store with some Caray Caray apparel.

[edit] - Hey - if you need a logo, feel free to use this! Free of charge.

Labels: announcements

Miranda San Llorente is a contemporary young person, confident and resolute, who has everything that life can offer: beauty, wealth and nobleza [good breeding or integrity – depending on how you translate it].

Her father, millionaire Gonzalo San Llorente, has put all his hopes on her because - of his three daughters - she resembles him the most in character and choices.

Florencia, the eldest, suffers from a heart condition that will put her in her grave, and the youngest, Renata, is an immature and carefree adolescent.

Miranda has been preparing for her wedding for when her fiancé, Fabricio Beltrán, who is finishing his doctorate in Germany, returns. What Miranda doesn’t know is that Fabricio wants to get married but with her sister Florencia, not with her.

Bertha de Aragón, Miranda’s maternal aunt, encourages the affection between Florencia and Fabricio in order to hurt Miranda, whom she has never stopped trying to control and subjugate by a false kindness. Bertha sees in Miranda the woman that she hates most in the world – her sister- Fernanda de Aragón.

Fabricio returns accompanied by his friend Alejandro Luque, who wants revenge against Gonzalo because he believes that Gonzalo killed his father. The conflict will be terrible for Alejandro because Miranda will awaken love in him for the first time, which will clash with his desire for vengeance. For her part, Miranda feels an inexplicable attraction towards him that will provoke a love-hate relationship between them that will leave them sweetly hurt [dulcamente lastimados].

Gonzalo’s business goes bankrupt through the evil manipulation of César, the brother of Fabricio and the accomplice of Bertha. Gonzalo is sent to prison and Miranda must regain not only the family fortune but the family itself, including her mother, who leaves as a result of Bertha’s intrigues.

However, Miranda and Alejandro will have to overcome the obstacles that are put in their way by César, who loves her and Bertha, who fell in love with Alejandro at first sight. In this battle of feelings and passions, of pride and power, both Miranda and Alejandro discover that only those who inflict them can cure the “Wounds of Love.”

Labels: heridas, synopsis-cast

From what we've heard, it's GOT to be better than "Barrera."

All recappers - including those who have already given up on "Barrera" - and also including those who've never written for us, but think they'd like to try it - will you be willing to have a look at "Heridas" when it starts, and maybe sign back on?

Is there a summary posted anywhere?

Anybody know when it's starting?

As I recall, Andrés, though he was playing a pretty stupid character in Alborada, was a hunk and a good kisser. I am even willing to go to the trouble to put the accent mark in his name. I feel optimistic.

Labels: announcements, barrera, heridas

Wednesday June 7

Ive been bad about checking in, blogging and watching the show the last couple of weeks. I humbly apologize and report that I am back in action. Looks like Barrera hasnt changed much either in my absense. I was hoping someone might have died or figured something out but the drama continues. As far as I can tell the only relevation has been that Remedios has figured out that the boss (Jose Maldonado) of Unibrow’s wine team is none other than the coward who cheated Eloisa, the father of Maite.

Veronica wanders the hotel and wonders how she got there. She wonders how she has the credit card of Valeria and how she got all the money she has. She wonders if the girls will think she stole the credit card or if they will think she is lying. She is worried about how she got to the hotel. She calls Andres to find out if the girls are coming to the hotel and cries when she hangs up.

Meanwhile Unibrow checks into the hotel Maldonado. Joan Rivers tells Unibrow that having guests is a pleasure for them and a family tradition. They wonder why Unibrow came with out his wife. Victor and Maria Teresa discuss the beauty of the city and give us a history lesson. Oh and a weather report of Quebec. Maite says she is nervous and happy, nervous and happy. Their window is like the windows of the brothel in Mexico and all the windows in this show. It shows a picture perfect image of Montreal just outside their room.

Nuria receives a cat scan while Unibrow admits to Jose how he can’t get over the girl from Aguascalientes who deceived him. Jose tells Unibrow how they abbreviated their servant’s long last name. (Mighty presumptuous of them no?) The men talk of their lost loves. Unibrow gets to save Joans dog from dying of being overweight. Seems Joan has been giving chocolate to her dog, without knowing it can kill him or her.

Valeria and Juanita arrive in the hotel suite in Sacacomie. Juanita won’t let Valeria tell Veronica the truth of about the whereabouts of Andres. She is suspicious of what Veronica has been doing. They all wonder how Veronica was able to get such a nice room. At the same time Jacinta calls their suite. Veronica answers and both she and Jacinta are surprised to hear each other. Jacinta demands the girls return to Montreal immediately. Veronica says that her grandmother LuLu sent her graduation money and that is how she got the room. They realize that Veronica will get a refund because they have to return to Montreal. Veronica acts all weird about it because she is worried about how she paid for the room to begin with. Valeria finds a beautiful dress in the closet and asks if it is Veronicas. Veronica denys owning the dress. It is the same dress that Sylvia reported of being J-Lo’s dress.

Victor and Maite arrive at the school to find out the girls have left. They are overheard and seen by Federico and Jacinta. The evil duo are stunned to see Maite. They decide to call the girls to tell them to stay so they can avoid running into Maite.

Victor and Maite continue their tour and history lesson of Montreal. Victor speaks French and knows all about Montreal. Maite looks around as if she is not paying much attention to what Victor says. Perhaps this is her way of showing that she is “taking in” the scenery of Montreal. Victor does a weird little jig for Maite.

Rodrigo finds out that he was caught cheating on a college exam. The professor has annulled his exam and wants to talk to his parents. Flash to Manola and Catayena talking about why Nicolas doesn’t answer the phone. Manola argues that her father is busy doing work. Little do they know he is busy in Jarandas bed. The ladies ask where are Rodrigos grades. He says he hasn’t received them yet. Later the professor calls Manola and she goes to see the professor. The professor thinks she is too young to be the mother of Rodrigo. (Could it be that Rodrigo looks to be 40 years old and not a young college student?) The professor tells Manola he thinks there could be a possibility that Rodrigo has a problem with drugs or alcohol. The professor says that the home is where a child learns the most. Manola tries to bride the professor to pass Rodrigo. The professor calls her on it and insists on talking with Gustavo.

The girls send Veronica to get more room keys. While she is gone they talk about what they are going to do with Jacinta coming to the resort. They can’t let Jacinta know that Andres is there. Valeria says she wants to go horseback riding. Veronica admits to being afraid of horses and doesn’t want to be left alone. They leave her alone anyway. Veronica then sneaks over to Valeria’s purse to put back the credit card. Valeria really wanted to find Andres not to ride horses alone. She meets up with him. Kissy Kissy. Promesas de amor. They ride her horse together. Better to get her arms around his tight abs.

Remedios tells Baldomero that she knows he is in love with Veronica. She tells him to fight for his love and to convince his father that Veronica is worthy of him. Baldo later finds out that a friend, Tina, has been hurt by Rodrigo. This will be a later story line Im sure.

Gustavo talks with his right hand man (whats his name?) and asks him to investigate why Unibrow was thrown into jail around 1985. He wants to help a friend (Maite) recover her friendship with Unibrow. Yea!

Jacinta finds time to visit a cathedral and talk with God about her plans to continue the Valladolid blood line. Her talks with God do her no good because as soon as she arrives in Sacacomie she is introduced to Victor and Maite by Veronica. The show ends with promises of more trouble for Thursday’s episode.

Labels: barrera

El Club de Las Feas celebrates in the employee bathroom after Lety shyly tells them that Fernando called her his assistant. She has the exact same look on her face that your 12 year old niece has when telling her friends about some boy who touched her hand. In the midst of the celebration, Alicia oooops I mean Jessica Rabbit walks in. “Que paso??” with the o being like this – oooOOOooo? Like you would ask your kids who are pretending there isn’t any paint on the wall as you ask them “ok and what happened heeeere?” Las Feas tell Jessica Rabbit that Lety is the assistant to the president now, so she (J.R.) better watch her step. If they were guys instead of women, there would be a lot of chest bumping and “hold me back dude I swear hold me back” going on. J.R. laughs her fake fake laugh oh how I hate the fake laugh and says it can’t be true, Lety isn’t anybody important in the company, she’s just the leader of El Club. She is “La Reina de Las Feas.” HAhahaahahhaahahahahah as she leaves the room. Like the Joker after wrapping Batman and Robin with scotch tape and putting them over a goldfish bowl to finish them “once and for all!”

Jessica Rabbit runs off IMMEDIATELY to rat to Marcia about what Las Feas were saying about Lety. Here’s an Alborada flashback – there was one scene where Diego was whining to Dona Juana, she was telling him how stupid he was after he got in yet another screaming match with Luis, about how he was being immature to yell insults at Luis. “But he insulted me first!” he whiiiiiiiines. J.R. uses that exact same tone here. “They said she was the assistant to the preeeeesident Maaaarcia? Como se puede? COOOOOMMMOOOOO???” Somebody needs to have their bedtime bumped up about 30 minutes if they are going to be cranky like that!

Marcia calls a meeting con todo El Club de Las Feas and asks Lopez the finger licker to be present. She rips into them. They are chismosas (gossips), they don’t do any work, they waste time and money, they talk too much, etc etc etc and finally Fernando shows up. He cuts Marcia off, then tells Lopez to issue a memo announcing that Lety is now asistente de Presidencia! Marcia glares at him with those glassy unblinking eyes. Her eyes really shine, but I think that’s because they are marbles. If they were real eyes, she would have to blink every once in a while to keep them from drying up and falling out.

The next day Omar is hanging out and sees Ariel The Little Mermaid arrive and give a way too friendly greeting to Alicia and is jealous. Que macho these men. “I’m gonna screw whoever I want, but if you let someone say hello to you too nicely, I’m gonna be pissed. Just so you understand how it is.” Fernando tells Omar that he has to keep up his romance with Alicia to keep her away from The Little Mermaid, if she gets in with him she might give him information.

Lety is waiting for that damned Microbus to get home, it cruises right by without stopping. I think the Microbus company draws its employees from the same place that the DMV gets theirs. As she’s yelling at the bus as it disappears, Fernando pulls up in his sweet ride. I’ve been trying to figure out what kind of car he drives, but they never show the logo. I think it’s a BMW Z3 but I’m not sure. Something very much like that if not that. Anyway, he offers Lety a ride and says that she doesn’t need to take the bus, he’ll give her a ride home every single night. After her first little daydream, it’s easy to spot them now. Any time Fernando gets in close my wife and I look at each other “dream.” He asks what she’d like to listen to, she says she loooooooves Alejandro Fernandez. He says that’s his favorite too! Then they ride off to their castle where he’ll ravish her with no threat of repercussion from RoboPapa.

The sound of Fernando yelling “LETY!” snaps her out of it, he just asks if she’s all right. She says yes, then a model wanders by and Fernando’s attention is gone, like a cat who spots anything dangling anywhere. He offers the MODEL a ride, as they drive away he turns on the radio and tells the model how much he likes Alejandro Fernandez. Lety’s eyes shoot open “Tambien me gusta much Alejandro Fernandez……” but Fernando is gone.

Lety gets home somehow anyway and tells everyone, including the ever-present freeloader Tomas, that she is now officially the assistant to the president. They all want to know, “did you get a raise?” “uh no, but I’m sure he’ll take care of that later.” This proves to me that Lety has never held a job before. She gives him waaaaay too much credit. Who gives out money without being asked?

Marcia, the unblinking eye, hey that’s kind of like Sauron from The Lord of The Rings – his tower has this big red fiery eye that is referred to as “The Unblinking Eye.” So Marcia is Sauron. Well that might be WELL over the nerd tolerance of most of you so I’ll keep that to myself. Anyway Marcia is with Fernando’s parents complaining again about Lety. She regularly talks about how Fernando is a dumbass and is giving Lety so much responsibility, right to his parents! For some reason this doesn’t make Fernando’s mother feel strange, she agrees that Lety needs to go. Why? Who knows. The only reason ever given is that Sauron doesn’t like her. Ok, I thought I’d try Sauron once to see how it looked but it doesn’t quite work. I’ll go back to Marcia the Unblinking Eye. Later on, Fernando’s father tells Fernando that he is giving too much trust to Lety. She has a target on her back, watch out Lety.

Meanwhile, Lety is at home roping Tomas in to help her on yet another urgent, due tomorrow morning, business report for a meeting. Yawn. This is to keep the whole plot about Conceptos having money troubles moving along, but right now it’s all just snore on that end. I’m sure later it will mean something, for now bleah. Tomas, as usual, isn’t much help, he’s too busy giving little kissies to his LAMINATED picture of Jessica Rabbit. This guy is creep central, stalker, serial killer. I mean REALLY. What do you think he does when he’s home alone with that picture, hmmm? Never mind, forget I said that. Ugh. He rants and raves about her being with Omar, how can this be true? How can she be with him? Lety basically tells him “DUH you idiot he’s good looking and rich. Get over it. She’s a bitch anyway.”

Labels: fea-e

Sorry to be late with this; the blog site was down all day and wouldn't let me post! OK, here we go...

Vera-nica is wearing the sluttiest dress ever. As far as I can tell it's a backless dress that's on...backwards! She's blathering happily that finally stupid Veronica and that "babosa" (twit?) Violeta have gone so that she can put her makeup on in peace.

It's raining in Montreal and Federico is running around bumping into locals looking for the casino.

Remember the dress that J-Lo wore to the Oscars? The one that almost had no front? Well this is Vera's dress only pink, and she's wearing it along with her platinum wig into the casino.

Gustavo Arrives at the Vallodolid hacienda and is looking for Remedios. He wants to know the story of Eloisa.

Federico sees Veronica, does the cartoon bug-eye, asks her what she's doing there and what's with the wig? In French Vera says she doesn't understand what he's talking about. Then they speak English to each other. Federico sounds like he has marbles in his mouth. He says she looks just like a friend of his. Quelle surprise, she comes onto him! She speaks perfect English; I wonder where the actress is from?

Remedios tells Gustavo she, Eloisa and Griselda were the Three Amigas. Eloisa fell in love with an out-of-towner. Even though the townspeople said terrible things about her she was a good woman. Gustavo asks if perhaps the same thing hasn't happened to Maite. Remedios always believed Maite was innocent of the terrible things people said about her, but some things happened to give her doubts. One night she ran away with her daughter in her arms. She left a note explaining that she was leaving her husband for another man. She would have left but she missed the train. "Yes," says Gustavo, "I remember the scandal. Was there more?" "Yes, years later, just before Adolfo died in the car accident Maite was arrested by the Mexican civil authorities for being in a house of ill repute." Gustavo remembers reading about that in the papers. (That’s because Manola was waving the paper under his nose for days and even took a copy to Unibrow in Ensenada, remember?) "It was a round up and the photographer got a picture at the Very Moment she was arrested among the other women, hmmm..." a light bulb goes on over his head. "Why do you ask," wonders Remedios, "do you think she’s innocent? It WAS the perfect excuse for Jacinta to get rid of her once and for all." Gustavo wonders if there is another explanation. He wants to investigate but he needs absolute discretion. "Tell no one, not even your son." Oops, too bad his confidant is that bocoza (blabbermouth) Remedios.

Gustavo's maid Evelia is at the winery picking up Don Gustavo's favorite wine that doesn't give him a headache. Baldo arrives and informs them that Jacinta and Federico are in Canada for the girls' graduation. Teodoro and Baldo wish they could be there. Evelia says "el amor no lo frena ni el tiempo ni la distancia" or "love restrains neither time nor distance." They agree that even though they are many kilometers away Juanita has all their love. "And Valeria", adds Teodoro. "And Veronica," thinks Baldo. He's got it bad.

Maite and Victor arrive in Montreal. They are happy even though it's raining. She wants to take him to a special place, it's a surprise.

Valeria and Juanita are in their dreadful play costumes. They are nervous about the play and wonder where Veronica is. The director tells them to chill and to "rompete una pierna." Juanita is shocked, "Huh? Break a leg?"

Vera wins a few coins in the slots. Federico helps her scoop them up, using this as an excuse to nose-dive down her cleavage for a peek. Hey buddy, GROW UP!!!

Jacinta telephones Madre Consuela. She's tired and not used to travel, but she looks forward to seeing the Madre the next day. She says she's too tired to attend the girls' play (whew, that was close!), but she can't wait to see Valeria's face when she shows up at the graduation.

In Ensenada Unibrow tries to console Nutria but she's sick of his crap. He wants her to forgive him for continuing to obsess about Maite for the duration of their marriage. She says she thought their relationship was based on honesty. "But I have never lied to you," he reasons unreasonably. Silence. He leaves. "And you have never loved me," she replies to the empty room.

All of a sudden I think I'm back at La Fea. This slapstick scene features the long-suffering Don Jose and his household of wacky characters, the Joan Rivers lookalike (his sister?) with her doggy, his partner or friend, an old deaf dude serving dinner, and the old dude's nephew who is a portly middle-aged guy cast as a stuttering excitable kid running around in circles. I'm not sure what this scene is all about and how these people are all connected, but if it means anything I’ll get back to you later. For now let's continue with the very serious Barrera.

Ahh, it's a happy family scene at Gustavo's hacienda. Rodrigo in his do-rag is playing solitaire on his lap top and smoking a cigar, Manola alternates between pouting and looking bored, and Gustavo is cutting a deal on the telephone. Gustavo wants his clients to come to the hacienda for dinner but Manola says better to take them out to a nice restaurant. Rodrigo pipes up "better for them to see what a charming hostess you are." Gustavo wants his clients to see what a loving family they are. Manola replies that it may not work out, she has decided that she and Rodrigo have a Moral Obligation to travel to Canada for Valeria's graduation. "A moral obligation???" Even Gustavo has a hard time with this one. Of course! Manola's dad works for Jacinta and Gustavo knows how Jacinta hates to travel and what an experienced traveler Manola is. She can help Jacinta who doesn't speak English or French or anything. "But Federico’s with her." "Oh he’s great company," she sarcastically retorts. Gustavo, knowing he's losing this argument, turns on Rodrigo and yells at him for playing Solitaire instead of working.

In the casino Federico tells Vera about the coincidence of her looking like his friend who actually lives in Montreal, but of course Vera is much more beautiful. She likes this and lets him lay a big smooch on her. He wants to go somewhere where they can get to know each other better. She leaves to exchange her chips for money and he muses "No, she can’t be Veronica, but she sure looks like her." Federico is the grand poobah of sleaze in these scenes!

Remedios pines over Federico's picture. She vows to God to win back his love and respect.

Ick!!! Jacaranda and Nicolas are in bed when his phone rings. Naturally it's his wife who "wants to make sure he's OK." "Of course," he says, "here's a little kiss" as he loudly smooches Jacaranda and hangs up. She laughs at his stupid jokes because she wants something out of him.

Vera slinks out of the casino and catches a taxi. Rodrigo comes out shortly after and realizes he's been ditched. "Looks like that chick left me alone with boiling blood (la sangre hirviendo, i.e. all hot and bothered)." He smirks and adjusts his nads. Dude, gross me out!!

Maite takes Victor to the Notre Dame Basilica. I guess this is the special place. She thanks the Virgin Mother for bringing Valeria back into her life. Now she will have the pride and satisfaction of seeing her daughter graduate.

The girls are on stage. Andres arrives with flowers and Valeria forgets her lines.

Vera counts her money. She has had the best weekend of her life. "Andres, Andre...this time you're going to pay attention to me."

Maite and Victor leave the cathedral. He wants to take her to a marvelous restaurant, "La Cola de Caballo." The Horse's Ass?? I wonder what they serve?

UPDATE: My work pals just laughingly informed me that the La Cola de Caballo means The Ponytail. Whatever.

Andres gives Valeria and Juanita each a bouquet of flowers. He says Veronica told him about the play. They wonder where she is.

Don Jose is talking to Unibrow on the phone. After he hangs up he gets pensive and tells his friend how odd it is that he and Unibrow have such similar histories. "Yes," the friend says, "it's curious that you both had dashed romances in Aguascalientes." "And now he, like I, is back there working," says Don Pedro. His friend adds "sometimes life has surprises and takes us to a place that can heal old wounds." Or something like that.

Unibrow is still sucking up to Nutria who is on the laptop trying to ignore him. He's all excited because Don Jose offered him a larger percentage of the wine sales. He wants Nutria to go with him to Mexico City. "No." "Why not?" "I can't." She won't. Guess it's her last chance to wise up before she's killed off.

At the dorm Valeria and Juanita continue to wonder about Veronica's whereabouts. They worry that if she doesn't show up the nuns will expel her, and so close to graduation.

Cut to the great outdoors, Sacacomie Quebec, where Veronica wanders through the woods and removes a small animal from her head. Oh, it's her wig. She's disoriented and frightened. "Dear God where am I? How did I get here? Why?" She has something in her hand, a hotel key?

The girls wake up and still no Veronica. They're worried but they're afraid to tell the nuns. They decide to search the school one more time.

Unibrow is STILL pressuring Nutria to go to Mexico City with him, and she's STILL using her laptop to ignore him. Remember his belly? Today he is wearing a slimming black shirt. He wheedles. She uses the excuse that she has plans with Reina (the blind lady) and can't cancel at the last minute. He whines. She calls his bluff, handing him the phone and telling him to call Reina himself if it's so important. Gotcha! He leaves. Alone, Nutria calls the Dr. and tells her that after Unibrow leaves she'll come into the hospital for tests.

Vera is still wandering about in Quebec, now closer to a huge lodge. "Hey! It's the hotel that was in the the girls' pamphlet. What am I doing here? Maybe there is a clue in my purse."

Return to the hilarity that is Don Jose's house...Juana Rivers passes her doggie "Cherryita" to the deaf dude so he can feed it its special diet; she says old Tio gets deafer every day, hahaha. The "kid" wants to leave the table to finish or repair the record player. Don Jose rolls his eyes and points out that he has already dismantled every electronic device in the house, hahaha. But Juana Rivers needs help with the musical selection for her next event, a fashion show involving a designer clothing label that aids unwed mothers. It will be in a beautiful place, lots of trees, many flowers on everything. "Just like the beautiful paintings you used to make" says the manchild/electronics assassin. This sets her off talking about her days at the academy of arts and crafts in Barcelona. "Aiieee, again with the stories of art school," sighs Don Jose, "even though they never actually admitted you," hahaha. "You shouldn’t say that, some critics have called my style Neo Primitivism." Don Jose's friend pipes up, "Because it seems to be made by primitive man, but in this era." Hahahaha everybody laughs except Juana Rivers. I still don’t know why these scenes are included but maybe time will tell.

In Quebec Veronica wanders through the lodge, asks to use the telephone and is told she can make calls directly from her room. "My room? Where is it?" In her room she finds her suitcase with the clothes her mother gave to them along with the J-Lo dress that she doesn't recognize. She finds Valeria's card and thinks Valeria must be around somewhere. "Andres and his brother said they were coming here. Did I come with them? Why can’t I remember? I’m going to look for them."

Back in the vineyards Gordo, Teodoro and Baldo are inspecting grapes. Woohoo!!! My prize for the night, Baldo is shirtless and he's ripped, the hunk! Ahem...they are looking forward to exporting their wine to Canada. Remedios arrives with lunch, chicharron gorditas. No! Baldo, don't eat that fattening stuff! You'll end up all gordo!! The guys talk about what a great man Jose Maldonado is. The guys talk about what a great man Jose Maldonado is. The guys talk about what a great man Jose Maldonado is. Oops, that's me rewinding to ogle Baldo some more. Remedios screws up her face, looks all pissed and thought bubbles "Jose Maldonado is the swine who deceived Eloisa, the father of Maite!"

Labels: barrera

Hey, so there's a replacement coming soon for "Peregrina" - anybody know anything about? Could it, possibly, be better than Barrera?

Could somebody research and report, please?

Labels: barrera, heridas

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Labels: index

Remedios and Jacinta, the Bickersisters, appear to be in a cave, fighting yet again over the "affections" of Federico (whom we know to be as cold as a scorpion and disdainful of both). AN EYE FOR AN EYE A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH quoth Jacinta the serial killer as she rejoices that Federico likes her better.

In Canada, Juanita and Valeria ask: "Have we been deceiving Veronica? No, we've just been omitting to tell her the entire truth." Veronica's other personalities have been flirting with every macho in sight and therefore she is under suspicion... Both Andres and Daniel are coming for graduation, also making sales meetings across Canada for the Maldonado wine operation.

Veronica has three mirrors on her dresser: on the right she wears a bad blond wig, on the left she has a short haircut, in the middle she sees her actual self, wincing with the kind of headache you get when you have multiple personalities fighting with each other over which boy to snag.

In Mexico City, Gustavo and his father-in-law Nicolas have dinner together and Gustavo asks, "Was Maite's mother really as sexy as they say? And is it true you and she got it on?" "Hey, we macho guys can't help it if women come after us. But all my passion turned to rancor when she rejected me." "And there are all those rumors about her in the village." "Yes, pueblo chico, infierno grande. (little town, big hell)" Heh-heh. They agree that many of Maite's problems stem from her mother's reputation. Then Nicolas raises and lowers his eyebrows like Groucho Marx as he tells his local squeeze he'll be back soon to see her again.

Maite has tiresome flashbacks.

There are creepy candles being lit in that dark cave, it must be our serial killer, my favorite character, yes, it's Jacinta, giving thanks to God that he gives her such clear signs about what she should do. Now she prays: "Let the bastard son of Pedro come to me, have him become my son and fill the vacuum left by Adolfo's death. Though I'm sorry to say it, Federico is way better than Adolfo my actual son was. Federico is an authentic Valladolid."

Meanwhile, Remedios is also praying - that her son, that same evil Federico, will prefer her to Jacinta, "after I've done everything for him." She wonders if it was worth trying to "seek justice" for him, i.e. to live with Jacinta in order to secure his inheritance.

While Valeria and Juanita watch a video of happier times on the computer, Veronica "accidentally" knocks over Valeria's precious crystal flower. A flurry of accusations and apologies follow. Veronica, eyes wide: "When did I do it? Just now? Oh, how could it have gotten so late? I forget so much! I don't remember at all! Time passes so fast." Juanita is unforgiving and disbelieving. Valeria says it's ok that her most precious artifact (given by Andres) has been broken.

Unibrow gets his two minutes of airtime. His son asks about "the woman you used to love" and, as Nutria lurks in the shadows hearing every word, Unibrow says "That love is buried. I've been happy with Nutria, she's been a good mother. Of course, I haven't forgotten, some loves you don't forget."

Federico and his mother recap an event I never saw. It sounds like Manola attacked Remedios, then the humble indigenous worker Teodoro came to Remedios' aid, and now she's trying to protect Teodoro from legal action. Federico snarls: "That INDIAN can't work here any more! You prefer Teodoro to me! And Jacinta likes me better than you do!" What substantive, mature conversations these people have.

Unibrow and Nutria are at the doctor's office. The doctor tells Nutria: "No, it's not that you're pregnant, something is wrong, we need to do more tests." Nutria has symptoms - headaches - they're not getting better - uh-oh - she's going to have to die so Maite can end up with Unibrow, what an undeserved fate.

Andres and Daniel prepare for their trip to Canada - the Maldonado wine business is going well and all are pleased. My son Zed commented that Unibrow's brows look like gigantic caterpillars. Unibrow is so incredibly unattractive. Have you noticed how they try to hide his belly behind things?

While the boys go downstairs for brotherly hijinx and reminiscing about their love for Juanita and Valeria - Daniel says of Juanita, me clave grueso, which I think means "It's hit me pretty heavy," - Unibrow and Nutria have a fight. She doesn't want any more medical tests, and says: "You don't love me! You never did! I gave you everything! I lost a child! You love her better! Don't touch me!" Then her headache gets worse, she kind of collapses, he puts her on the sofa and says, "Are you sure you're all right?" a stupid question, of course she isn't, moron. The boys come back up so she can say goodbye and we wonder if they will ever see her again. (Creepy music indicates: no.)

Juanita's pet nun says Juanita should go up to the graduation in Canada, not just to please her granddaughter Valeria, but because the nuns up there, to whom Jacinta has contributed grandly, want to say thanks. The nun suggests that Federico, who speaks English, will do admirably as an escort. Jacinta agrees to make this spur-of-the-moment trip and tell nobody!

Meanwhile, Maite and Victor are celebrating the final paying off of their mortgage, and Victor takes Maite to Air Mexico (nice long product placement) to give her a present - they're both going to the graduation! He's selling his motorcycle to pay for the trip! She's happy. The sign for Air Mexico gets lots of airtime.

Juanita and Valeria are in a play about a nun and an ignorant indigenous woman who is being taught to read. It's incredibly patronizing. Juanita, who is Nahuatl (yeah, and I'm Inuit), is wearing a big red headband and buckskins with fringes. Give. Me. A. Break. Meanwhile, Veronica tells a visitor at the theater: "No, I don't like acting. I don't want to pretend to be a different person." Is this heavy-handed irony?

Daniel and Andres arrive at the school. At the nun's headquarters they (coincidentally) find Veronica, who tells them Valeria and Juanita are still down rehearsing the play. Instead of just going over to the theater, which would eliminate a lot of troubles I am predicting, they leave - telling Veronica to tell V & J they'll be back later. She gets their cellphone number too. At their hotel, they find they may have to make an emergency trip to another province. See, it's starting already!

Jacinta gets to her hotel and Federico goes out.

Veronica has another three-way conversation with herself, decides to be a player among the guapos ("I am good at roulette") and steals Valeria's credit card.

Labels: barrera

Paula Maria comes back to the table and gets Lety to snap out of her daydream. Yes folks, it was all a dream! The writers went to TV writing school and learned all the tricks. They have also mastered the completely misleading preview for tomorrows show, where they clip together unrelated scenes to make you think the Pope is visiting town, when in fact the next episode is about a picnic.

RoboPapa lays into Lety for coming home so late.

Alicia has lunch with Marcia the next day and fills her in on how Ariel, The Little Mermaid (I can’t get over him having the same name, I know, I know, I’m immature), humiliated her at their ‘date’ the other night. Later, Omar finds out about their date and in true macho fashion is pissed off that she went out with someone else. She assures him that he (Omar) is the only one for her. She is thrilled that her attempt to make him jealous worked so well. Omar, now that he is certain that his woman isn’t cheating on him, starts working on his excuse to get away from her so he can go be with some other woman. According to my wife, there is a ‘macho’ epidemic in Mexico, a real double standard. Basically, what I just described above. Men do whatever they want but the women better fall in line dammit. She’s happy with her woefully unmacho gringo husband, he writes novela recaps for cripes sake. But I digress….

Fernando tells Lety that the next morning he’s going to his club to practice for an equestrian event and there will be NO interruptions. No exceptions. De Ninguna Manera. So of course, in the morning, Lety gets a call from somebody or other that they need payment on something RIGHT THIS MINUTE or they will detonate the bomb that they hid in the Conceptos building. No not really, but some other dire circumstance. Of course Lety has to find Fernando to authorize some money transfer or loan request or something. Fernando being at the club, remember, and is NOT to be interrupted. She thinks for about .0001 second before deciding that she should go interrupt him. He turned off his cell phone, so she better go see him.

Lety finds Saimon and tells him she needs a ride. She chose him, I’m sure, due to that fact that he has a scooter and not a car, thereby giving us hope for some sweet motorcycle hair after the ride. He hippity hops and spins and does his Motown shuffle, and off they go.

As hoped, Lety has some awesome windblown hair when they arrive at the club. We see a scene from inside the club, apparently everyone has the day off. Fernando and Omar are both riding horses, Marcia and her sister and brother are lounging around watching. Back to the gate – the guard won’t let Lety and Saimon in, of course. Lety somehow convinces the guy to open the gate after telling him that if she doesn’t get in, some money doesn’t move, and eventually Fernando won’t be able to pay his club dues. She proceeds to scream “DON FERNANDOOOOOO” over and over as they ride through the club grounds. You can’t take Lety anywhere.

They finally see him riding his horse, she keeps yelling at him. He comes over with quite a sour look on his face, and rightly so. She explains everything, he says “oh ok good job” and signs the paper. Just then Marcia shows up and wants to punch Lety in the face but Fernando once again defends her and says she did the right thing. Ohhhhh Fernie my hero! He even, get this, he then invites her to join him for a lunch meeting with some clients in the club restaurant. Marcia storms off and Omar slinks off.

They have lunch with some people who want to do some business and Fernando introduces her as his ‘assistant.’ Lety starts talking some serious stuff. She manages to negotiate them into a corner, where they have to pay a bunch of the fees up front. Fernando is proud.

A funny thing in the restaurant: Lety orders the pasta ‘as you like it.’ The waiter says no no, as you like it means you can have it this way, or that way, or whatever, you know, as you like it. Lety says “oh! As you like it! That’s what I said. That one.” A very naco, Nuevo Rico kind of thing.

Fernando offers to give Lety a ride home, he has a little daydream about shoving her into the trunk so nobody sees him driving with such a fea but snaps out of it and lets her ride in front. What a guy.

Labels: fea-e

Hello,

As far as I can tell, nobody is watching this telenovela - the comments all say "I can't stand the show, but I come visit your site to read the recaps."

But the recappers don't seem to be able to stand the show either.

I'll tape tonight's episode and I'll blog it but unless I see some kind of concerted enthusiasm, this is the last time for me.

If a better show comes along, let us know!

I hope Chris will keep it up with La Fea. Maybe I'll even start watching it.

Labels: announcements, barrera

After Valeria tells Maite that she will never forgive her mother Maite thinks "But I’m not a bad mother, I'm not!!" No Maite, you're a good mother who has let her daughter grow up in the House of Usher for the past 17 years.

Unibrow does a "woe is me" dump on Daniel. He tells him that Adolfo Valladolid was one of his best friends but "he ended up marrying the woman that was to be my wife. No doubt she married him for his money, and I discovered her deceit because she was pregnant. She made up a story that he forced himself on her." Unibrow continues with the tale we already know, I dozed off and woke to hear him concluding with "the last I heard of her she left her husband and daughter for another man." Daniel figures out that Valeria must be the daughter of "that woman who betrayed my dad." I think Daniel wins the award for being the first person on this show to actually figure something out on his own.

The girls say goodbye to Victor and Maite. Maite gives Valeria a long, lingering hug and tells her to be careful.

The Bickersons are at it again. This time Jacinta and Remedios are arguing about marriage in general, but meaning Rodrigo and Valeria specifically. Remedios says one should marry for money. Jacinta says one should marry to benefit the family which is in keeping with her family-is-livestock theory. Jacinta, accompanied by Remedios' yawns, shares a bit of her childhood with us. Jacinta's father-in-law was like a real father to her, and she like his daughter. Her own father was despicable, always tanked up; she doesn't know how her mother put up with him all those years. Her life before coming to the hacienda was a living hell, "that's why my brother Sergio went away, leaving everything behind. Ah...what ever happened to Sergio?"

Cut to Mexico City and a smarmy-looking bald man in a white suit and pyramid mustache lighting a cigarette in the dark. Who could it be? He is waiting to speak to Pancho. Who shall he say is calling? "My name is Sergio...Sergio Lopez."

Andres is working the Canada angle in order to see Valeria. Daniel, for the first time, tells Andres that perhaps that may not be the best idea. He tells Andres what Unibrow told him, how the Valladolid family wronged their father, stole his woman, threw him in the can on a trumped up charge, etc. It's because of this family that father hallucinates about bulls. Does Andres remember Maite, she of the chocolate cake? Yes, Andres remembers her cake well. Daniel reveals that she is the one who broke dad's heart and Valeria Valladolid is her daughter. Daniel thinks Andres should avoid her because of her family ties. Andres reasons that Valeria is a victim too, and by Daniel's logic they should also avoid Juanita (Daniel's potential babe) and her brother and father (they helped with the winery's success) because Jacinta is their benefactor. Daniel, realizing that Juanita is caught up in this too, agrees that Andres is right, it wouldn't be fair.

Don Jose has approved Andres' proposal to export the wine to Canada. He wants Andres to go to Canada immediately.

Pancho is at the restaurant when he gets a call that a Sergio Lopez wants to speak to him. On his way out he reminds Maite that she agreed to visit his markets. Even though she is in a blue funk because of her daughter she agrees to go as a diversion. He'll pick her up very early the next morning.

Daniel gets an e-ticket for Andres to fly to Montreal. He suggests e-mailing the girls but Andres wants his visit to be a surprise. Andres, shopping for a gift for Valeria, sees a white glass rose in a jewelry shop. Remember, he gave her a white rose when they met.

As Sergio waits for Pancho he has a flashback in sepia tones, demonstrating that he was too poor to flashback in color. His dad is driving and taking a swig of booze every 15 seconds. The kids want to know when they can go to school, but mom says no way, they have to go with daddy to buy and sell harvests and crops, they have to do everything together. Sergio smells alcohol from a nearby cask and says "How I remember that terrible odor."

Sergio meets with Pancho. We find out that Sergio's parents died in a terrible accident (drunk driving no doubt) and that his godfather, Pancho's dad, took care of young Sergio. In a nutshell, Sergio needs money and for old time's sake and in memory of their parents' friendship is hitting Pancho up for a loan. Pancho pulls out his check book.

The girls are back at school. Veronica finds the gifts that Maite bought for all of them. The girls model their new clothes. Juanita looks smashing in her red pantsuit.

Pancho's accountant Guillermo asks why Pancho loaned the money to Sergio. Pancho says it hurts him to see Sergio like that, without a drop of diginity, living on his past glories but dressed like a poor devil. Guillermo tells Pancho he's a nice guy, but they won't see Sergio again. I'm thinking they will.

Federico calls Jacinta to check in. After Jacinta hangs up Remedios gets mad because Jacinta didn't hand her the phone so she could have a turn. "Oh what a shame," Jacinta sarcastically says, "since he didn't ask for you I forgot." Then adds "siempre haces una tormenta en un vaso de agua," which I suppose is the equivalent of "you're always making a tempest in a teapot." She tells Remedios not to be such a martyr. Honest to God, is this the most dysfunctional relationship in telenovela land? I don’t have much experience and would really like to know. Comments anyone? Even my sister and I don’t bicker like these two biddies.

Gustavo is surprised to run into Federico in Mexico City. Gustavo needs to write down a phone number and Federico gives him a card from Maite's restaurant to use, then jokingly recommends the food so Gustavo pockets the card. Gustavo asks Federico what he thinks of Rodrigo. Federico tells Gustavo not to worry, Rodrigo is only going through his rebellious phase. Gustavo doesn't like Rodrigo's superior attitude, especially around people who have no money. Federico, looking forward to the day when Rodrigo will inherit all of Gustavo's wealth is optimistic, "like they say, great companies make great men." Gustavo would prefer that Rodrigo find his "greatness" in an honest day's work.

Now we have what must surely be the oddest of all tonight's scenes...our "rebellious youth" who looks at least 40 is having it out with his mother Manola. She wants to know where he is off to, he says don't wait up. She accuses him of acting up because his father is out of town. He tells her not to be stupid and she slaps his disrespectful and timeworn face. He yells that nobody but Federico understands him. They should really go easy on close-ups of the both of them together, lest we think she gave birth to a ten year old.
NOTE: Did someone say or did I read that the woman who plays Remedios is this actor's mother in real life? Why in the hell is he playing Manola's son?

Maite and Pancho are enjoying the pre-dawn sky. Pancho mentions that he's tired of having his evening glass of wine alone, he longs for a family, children. Maite gets sad and admits that the day before was difficult for her. He offers to buy her menudo and she thinks this is amusing. They tour his vegetable and fruit markets and she does the Valeria dump. He cheers her up by saying that Valeria is bound to someday see that Maite is pure in heart.

Back in Canada Veronica is going through her mental check list of some of the men on her to-do list:
1) Andres-he's a babe but Valeria likes him and Valeria is her friend.
2) Baldomero-he's sensitive, a good person, and treats her well.
3) Rodrigo-she likes him the best, he's very handsome (at the moment she recalls his "guapo-ness" his face is screwed up behind a big chimney of a cigar), has money and they get along very well.
Pan to mirror where Veronica is seeing in 3-V. Violeta prefers Baldo but Vera is lobbying for Andres because he's the most handsome and because this choice will cause Veronica the most grief.

Valeria, standing under a tree, gazes longingly at the white rose that Andres gave to her on the day they met. It is miraculously at this moment that he appears. He apologizes to her for standing her up. She accuses him, and rightly so if you ask me, of not trying hard enough to let her know he was leaving town. He's makes lame excuses that she doesn't believe, she says he's a liar. "Why would I come all this way just to lie to you?" he asks. "Look into my eyes. I know I'm an idiot for forgetting that I had to catch a plane that day." "You are." "But please forgive me." They kiss and make up.

Walking back into the restaurant Pancho hopes that at the very least he helped Maite to forget her sadness for a while. Ulises is there waiting for her. The men kind of smirk at each other waiting for someone to make the first move. Maite, to her credit, decides they should all sit down and have coffee together; she wants to tell them both something. She wants to be very up front with them, at this time she only wants to be good friends as she needs to spend all her time and energy working on the situation with her...(daughter?)

Tivo decided that this scene should end mid-sentence. Good boy, Tivo.

Labels: barrera

• Jacinta tells Federico he should stop smoking, and asks why his mother Remedios has turned against the dreadful cur Rodrigo. He says he'll find out.
  
  
• Juanita says goodbye to her father (Teodoro) and her brother (Baldo). She wants to study her native culture and write about it someday, but meanwhile, she feels bad they've worked so hard while she's been in school and says she'll come home and work, rather than go on to university.
  
  
• The girls are getting ready to go back to school. Rodrigo greasily suggests he'd like to go skiing up there and Jacinta says, as long as you go with Valeria of course that's fine!
  
  
• Valeria thinks about kissing Andres under a waterfall. She tells Remedios he had said he'd talk to Jacinta - but instead he left without even saying goodbye. Remedios agrees Rodrigo is not the One and says: date more guys.
  
  
• Veronica's various selves have a discussion in the mirror. Violeta likes Baldo; Vera prefers Rodrigo, who is rich and could give her a good life. Baldo shows up and it turns out Veronica (or one of her other selves) has also been flirting with Andres, so Baldo is displeased. After a little flirting (and she charmingly puts on his hat), the sucker forgives her. They say they'll do internet chat when she gets back to school. As soon as he leaves the room one of her inner beings throws his hat on the sofa.
  
  
• Federico and his son Rodrigo have fun waving their cigars around, man to man, and decide the outsiders are no threat to Rodrigo's claim on Valeria - she'll give in and be his, once she gets back to Canada. Rodrigo has, as far as I can see, no charms whatever. Why did he get this gig?
  
  
• Back home, Andres is moping over Valeria even though his career is going well (we hear). "You shouldn't fall in love, it will distract you from the most important thing: The Bull!" Still he continues to mope, and so does his brother Daniel. Unibrow (getting his usual 2 minutes of screen time) points out in a dull, flat voice that vacation romances rarely last. Nutria rushes in with a nutritious dinners but the boys say they aren't hungry and walk out, which is rather rude in my opinion. Unibrow, however, tucks in.
  
  
• Manola's daddy Nicolas is in some other city. He is talking with a friend of Federico when Jacaranda rushes in and Nicolas is stricken speechless by the sight of her ample bosom. He takes her for a drink, sticks his schnozz down her cleavage, and is kissing her right there in public when his superannuated son-in-law Gustavo comes in and sees him. It's all a coincidence. Nicolas says, "it isn't what you think," Gustovo says: "Family is most important," Nicolas says, "I couldn't agree with you more," and then goes and makes an appointment with Jacaranda to get naked together after 10 pm.
  
  
• Maite is packing presents and little notes for the girls, nervous that the chauffeur Jacinta sends will know her. How right she is, it's Federico. He intercepts her on the sidewalk on her way into the restaurant, checks her out and asks if she's married or has a boyfriend. She sidles past him but then goes to hide up in her room.
  
  She calls Victor, who's entertaining the girls downstairs in the restaurant, and has him send the girls upstairs. A boring scene mostly about presents follows. While Federico grills Victor downstairs to see what he knows about Maite, Maite hears that Valeria is a good cook and makes a great tea (it's the same one Maite's murdered aunt Griselda used to make, the same one Jacinta used to put poison in so Maite would get dizzy and drop her baby Valeria down the stairs).
  
  
• Unibrow holds a family conference. Evidently they've decided as a group to abandon their various professions and go into partnership with the Maldonado brothers in the wine business. Andres perks right up when Unibrow suggests that, with his good English, he'd be the one to open branches in the U.S. and CANADA!!
  
  
• Juanita and Veronica go out to buy herbs, leaving Valeria with Maite. "You're so sweet with Veronica, my grandmother was never affectionate with me, and neither was my father, I reminded him of my mother and that made him sad. My mom was a forbidden theme, I don't know who she was or if she's alive or dead. If there were ever photos, grandmother burned them. She told me my mother was a bad woman, and I figured it out - she left my father for another man. My father suffered so - he never remarried - how could mother have left us?"
  
  Maite tries to stand up for the theoretical mother: "It can't have been what you thought. What would you do if you met up with her again?" "When I was young, I prayed for her to come back - but now that I know what kind of woman she was, I'll never forgive her."

Labels: barrera