Caray, Caray!

Maite, high priestess of tears and sobs, is having a one-on-one with the Blessed Virgin. Ave Maria is playing in the background in order to intensify the mood. Maite in words and flashbacks, recaps the sad history of how she lost her daughter and Unibrow, the love of her life. She feels that by losing her daughter she has suffered as much as if she were on the cross, losing Valeria was like losing her soul, it was like having her heart ripped out of her chest. Then she begs pardon because she has had many wonderful people in her life, Veronica (three for the price of one) and Victor for example. She thanks God for the few years she had with Valeria..."then all of a sudden she turns up in my room. Help me, help me, Madre, give me strength to carry this burden in silence."

There is a couple at the Feria, brother and sister of Jose (wronged by Eloise) I believe, buying a hideous, green 60's vase. It is the kind of thing that kids make by pasting scraps of paper onto something. The wife gets on the guy's case for flirting with the salesgirl who could be his granddaughter. A couple of townswomen who look like transvestites come up to gossip with them.

Veronica finds Vera's clothes in her suitcase and wonders whose they are. "I wouldn't buy anything like this," she thinks. She pulls out a note from Andrés, "el guaposta", that she is supposed to give to Valeria. Then she hears a crazy tornado-in-the-head noise and sees Me, Myself and I in the mirror. Violetta says "don't come between Valeria and Andrés", slutty blonde Vera sounds very Macbethian as she commands "Largate, largate." I don't know if she is telling Vera to clear out or telling Veronica to "release herself" to her bad side. At any rate, Vera wins over Violetta.

Maite, not wanting the world to know she has been crying, applies more, more, and more eyeliner on her already heavily-painted eyes.

Andrés is being teased by El Gordo and his brother Daniel. El Gordo is slightly obsessed with Andrés' love life and accuses him of being hit by cupid's arrow. Andrés, unlike every other man in the world, is staring at his phone waiting for Valeria to call.

At the hacienda Valeria and Juanita wonder why Veronica is wearing make-up and a different hair style all of a sudden. Vera/Veronica gives Valeria the telephone number of Andrés. Of course we know she has deliberately written down the wrong number and when Valeria calls there is no such person as Andrés there. Vera-nica tells Valeria no biggie, that's how all guys are. Valeria grabs the flowers that he gave her in the market and runs off with Juanita in pursuit. Vera-nica thought bubbles, "Poor Valeria, after he meets me she won't stand a chance!"

Nutria and Unibrow are in Aguascalientes on a walking tour. For the past 17 years he has been having flashbacks of Maite and Nutria has been asking him "are you OK?" Guess what, Unibrow has a flashback, Nutria asks him if he's OK, he claims he's fine, then to prove his guilt he immediately buys her flowers. Idiot.

Victor asks Maite if she is feeling better. She says yes, after praying she feels oddly tranquil. She doesn't know why but she knows that little by little she will find a place in her daughter's heart.

Juanita tells Valeria that there has to be a good explanation for Andrés giving her the wrong number. They decide to go back to the Feria to look for him. They are all giggly and excited until Jacinta shows up and demands to know where they are going.

Commercial Break: Super Especial starring Lucero from Alborada! See Lucero try to sing as a child, as an adolescent, during her Olivia Newton John phase, and even as an adult. Don't miss it!

Back at the hacienda we are seeing first hand what a sheltered life Valeria has led...she actually tells Jacinta that she and Juanita are going to the Feria to look for a boy! Sheesh. It's that boy they met, the one who gave her flowers in San Marcos. "Don't be stupid! Don't forget that lovely boy Rodrigo is coming to eat with us. Come along!!" Jacinta spits. Of course they dutifully follow her.

Unibrow is explaining the details of a bullfighting bronze statue to Nutria. He has a flashback to when he worked at the hacienda and he was doing some sort of favor for Jacinta and Adolfo.

Jacinta, in order to divert Valeria's attention from that damn "chavo" Andrés, has arranged an outing to "una tienta", "trial of the bulls", or bullfight. And guess what??? Charming Rodrigo will be there! She explains the lovelier aspects of bullfighting, and simply everybody will be there.

Daniel teases Andrés about moping around waiting for the phone to ring. It rings! It's not Valeria but Mario...there is a spot for Andrés to try out his skills in an upcoming bullfight.

Federico and Rodrigo are at the hacienda snickering like a couple of schoolboys as to how Rodrigo can suck up to Jacinto by conveying the image of the perfect gentleman at tomorrow's bull festivities. Poor Federico is so smitten by Rodrigo (whom he recently discovered is his son) that he cannot even see the obvious...news flash to Federico, your son is a slimeball!

That uber-creep Rafael (the guy who strangled Magdalena) shows up at Victor and Maite's restaurant. It's all hand-shakes and back slaps. The reunion continues when Elvira and Jacaranda and some blonde shows up. Jacaranda asks about Veronica and when Maite says she's in Aguascalientes on vacation Rafael gets all twitchy and bug-eyed.

Vera-nica hears that darn tornado in her head and once again Violetta and Vera argue about Veronica. Later, Veronica wakes up from a deep sleep not remembering going to bed. She looks at herself in the mirror and cries, "No, no, not red lips again" as she smears her lipstick off.

Victor the hunk is in the gym pumping iron, (and yes I did hit rewind one or five times), when some guy comes in who recognizes him. Apparently they went to secondary school together. His name is Pancho Rivera. Victor later introduces him to Maite. Later still Maite and Elvira are talking about Maite's concern about both Veronica and Valeria together at the hacienda.

The Unibrow family and el Gordo are dining together. Daniel keeps calling Andrés "flaco" (skinny) and asks him why he's not eating. El Gordo puts on a goofy french accent and says "love always gets in the way of an appetite." Andrés wanders off and hopes to impress Don Franco.

The final scene is in the bullfighting ring. Naturally Jacinta and her clan have box seats. I think she is sitting next to Don Franco. First the horses come out and do their stunts. Rodrigo is bored and slouching a lot. All of a sudden down in the ring someone makes the sign of the cross in the dust with the toe of his boot. Camera pan up, up, up...oh dear. It seems the director has decided that this actor's family jewels will not do for the closeup. Quick, somebody grab a braunschweiger!! What?? No braunschweiger? Then get him a big pair of gym socks, or maybe a hamburger, or maybe one of each! Now stuff all of it down into his pants making sure the bulge looks EXACTLY LIKE socks or a hamburger, but definitely not like male anatomy. There, that's much better, now on with the show...

Valeria recognizes Andrés and is smitten. Everybody sees it. Rodrigo becomes a bit jealous. I wonder what he's go up his sleeve? Valeria grabs a flower from her table, calls to him, and throws the flower down to him. He places it inside his jacket close to his heart.

In the preview of coming attractions Maite calls Remedios and Jacinta listens in on the coversation.

Labels: barrera

Checking the ESMAS sight I see that the guy who plays Federico (Alexis Ayala) and the girl who plays the older Juanita (Ana Brenda) are in a relationship that started during the filming. Also Felipe Alvarado of Alborado was on after the show last night. Looks like he wears his hair long in his real life too. I thought his hair was ok but it was the white suit that threw me off. Did he wear white because he was in Miami? In support of Miami Vice?

Wednesdays episode was mainly a beautiful tourist brochure of the history of San Marcos and the state of Aguacalientes. We got to hear a lecture by Remedios about the painters of murals and age of the buildings in the town (the town is some 450 years old). Evidently the San Marcos Fair is a time of great festivities and fun. The time of the fair (an annual event) is what brings all the characters to the same place at the same time.

Another history lesson was how boys and girls would circle the "Famous garden of San Marcos". The boys would circle one way while the girls would go another. If a boy saw a girl he fancied he would give the girl a bouquet of flowers. Then the boy would wait to see if by the next pass the girl had kept the flowers or if she had gotten rid of them. If the girl kept the flowers then the boy would take that as an opportunity to get to know the girl. I thought this was a very sweet old tradition. This tradition is used by the novella producers to explain how Andres and Valeria meet each other and through memory bubbles, to show how Maite met Luis Antonio while Maite was circling the park with her Aunt.

Speaking of memories we also learn that Maite was given an expensive, beautiful diamond necklace from her mother that was given to her mother from her father. Maite bemoans how her life would have been very different had her father not deserted her pregnant mother. In addition Maite has hopes to one day give the necklace to Valeria. While Maite discusses this necklace we meet three new characters, one being Jose, the man who left Maites mother. According to the new characters Jose greatly loved Maites mother, Eloise, and has never loved anyone else. Jose is shown still wondering why Eloise left him, and thinking how different his life would have been had she not stood him up. (Another couple has been accidentally torn apart.) The other two new characters are the brother and sister of Jose who complain about how Eloise hurt Jose.

Wednesdays episode opens with Andres spilling a tray of drinks on a man who is eating dinner with Don Miguel Franco. Don Miguel owns a large ranch that raises bullfighting bulls, a good vineyard, and is a famous bullfighter or bull aficionado. Andres pretends to be a waiter to get close to the man so he can enlist the mans help in his quest to be a bullfighter. Don Miguel says he will watch Andres bullfight. Andres is thrilled with his luck.

Rodrigo is slimmy! He arrives at Jacintas hacienda bearing a gift and flowers for Valeria. All three girls, Jacinta and Federico are all sitting around a dinning room table talking. Federico tells Rodrigo to sit down, that he is almost a son in this house. (Rodrigo never takes his cool sunglasses off!) He flirts with all the girls in particular Veronica. Good play on words Federico is doing, too bad Manola wasnt there to hear his comments.

The girls continue socializing with Remedios, Jacinta and Federico when Veronica remembers she needs to call home and let her parents know she has arrived at the hacienda. Veronica calls Maite and talks to her. While they are talking Veronica hands the phone to Jacinta to have the parents introduce themselves. Maite freaks out and hands the phone to Victor. Jacinta asks who she is talking to and says she thought Veronica was talking to her mother. Victor covers for Maite and says there was something burning in the kitchen. Close call!

Luis Antonio tells Nuria that he never talks about his past. There is some reason he dislikes bullfighting but he doesnt say why. El Gordo and Andres talk around the same subject of why Antonio dislikes bullfighting without explaining why Luis Antonio dislikes it.

Juanita and her family discuss how Rodrigo is a bad guy. Evelia says that she thinks Rodrigo is a good person in the bottom of his soul. The brother of Juanita talks about how he likes Veronica. Their father (I forget his name) says that there is a lot of discrimination against indigenous people and he advises his children to not feel bad when others are racist, but not go outside their class to date. They also talk about how they are working with El Gordo to produce wine without pesticides and of the highest quality. They speak a little Nahuatl.

Rodrogo walk up when Valeria is meeting Andres in the Jardin. Veronica is also there as herself. Rodrigo tries to send Andres away but Juanita and her brother walk up and help difuse the situation. Andres gives his telephone number to Veronica so she will give it to Valeria. Later back at the hacienda Rodrigo asks Veronica to not give the number to Valeria. Veronica acts offended that he has asked her to do this and runs off.

The last thing I want to add about Wednesdays show is that I laughed every time I saw the aged characters like Victor and Maite with their glasses on.

Labels: barrera

Sorry everyone. I screwed up on recording tonight's episode of Barrera and didn't record it, nor did I see it! I checked the esmas site and is it true that Maite discovers that Valeria is her daughter??? Man, the only time something happens and I have to miss it. So somehow Valeria tells Maite she's from Aguascaliente. What does Maite do? Anything? It sounds like Valeria doesn't know she's Maite's daughter, right?

I'll try to do Thursday night's episode.

Sorry!!!

Labels: barrera

Hello friends! I have to admit I haven't watched the show since I last blogged it (two weeks ago) and now everybody is 17 years older and they look great! I wish I aged so little in 17 years!

By the way, tonight the show started at 9:25 and ended at 10:25, so if you are trying to use Tivo be careful!

We are now up to the episode which was December 14, 2005, in the esmas recaps.

• Juanita is telling Valeria she is proud to have Indian blood, Valeria says sometimes it's a hindrance, Juanita says "Thanks to Granny Serial-Killer Jacinta I lack for nothing." Veronica comes up, surprised to see them: their flight was cancelled. Veronica's trip turns out to have been an invention, so Valeria once again invites her to go to Aguascalientes with them; when she realizes all expenses will be paid, she happily accepts.
  
  
• At the hacienda, Remedios and Teodoro are moping that the girls' flight was delayed. Granny Serial-Killer comes in and barks at Teodoro, "Get out of my chair!" and asks Remedios: "Why did you let him sit there?" Jacinta makes fun of them for caring that the flight was delayed, Teodoro innocently says: "That's just the way it is when you love somebody." "Are you implying I don't love my grand-daughter?" frostily inquires Jacinta.
  
  
• Manola and Federico, hiding under a viaduct, have the exact same conversation I guess they've been having every single day for seventeen years. "You better get out of here before my son or my husband catch you." Federico's been trying to get Manola's dad, Nicolas, to go work for Doña Jacinta. They hear her dad coming and hide, but continue to whisper little nothings about love and money.
  
  The dad sees the cellphones and keys and hears the whole conversation. Federico leaves and the dad scolds Manola. Meanwhile, Federico, having forgotten his keys, comes back in time to hear that Manola doesn't want her dad to work for Jacinta, because it will mean Federico will be around the house more and around Rodrigo more! The dad says, nobody's going to guess about your hanky-panky with Federico - but she says that's not the problem either - and now - she yells at the top of her lungs - and so Federico hears - that Federico is Rodrigo's father!
  
  The dad leaves, Manola tells Federico her husband would do some slaying if he found out Rodrigo was Federico's son. Federico says, "You oculd have married me instead, we could have lived on the money I made, but you preferred the rich old goat." She points out: "Your son will inherit everything unless the applecart gets knocked over so keep your mouth shut." Federico does a great acting job in this scene, Manola merely twists her mouth into very ugly shapes. Later she sulks and blackmails her father, yet again, into silence: "We'll all be out on the street if Gustavo finds out."
  
  
• Unibrow's sons are discussing Andres's blown opportunity with Don Miguel Franco. Daniel says Andres should go to the San Marcos fair where Mario Zulaico, a successful bullfighter whom they know and who also knows Franco, will be performing; maybe he can help.
  
  
• Victor and Maite peel carrots and eagerly await Veronica's arrival, wonder about her friends, and mull the fact that Valeria and Veronica are both daughters of the slaughtered Adolfo. They agree: "If Adolfo had lived, he would have protected Veronica and Magdalena."
  
  Maite says, "Veronica and I have this in common: if our fathers had been with us, our lives would have been different. It was sad I wasn't important to my father." Victor says he feels a father's responsibility toward Veronica. They cutely get anxious about making a good impression on Veronica's friends, and bald Victor asks, "did I do a good job combing my hair?" Since they don't know whether Veronica has told her friends they are her adoptive parents, they decide to suss out the situation and follow whatever story it seems Veronica has told. The ex-Madam shows up and it's off to the airport!
  
  
• Now we see Unibrow dreaming of Maite even though his own very sweet wife Nuria is so good to him and his boys. She's finally going to be able to visit Aguascalientes with him and meet Gustavo. She asks: "Luis, are you happy with me?" and he gives that horrible answer nobody ever wants to hear: "Uh, why do you ask?"
  
  He tells her she's made him, and his sons, very happy. Then she apologizes, poor Nuria! She feels guilty her baby died. Poor Nuria! Surely she could have done better! Unibrow plants another crummy, insincere kiss on her, moist smacking fish lips. Blegh.
  
  
• Federico, who gets tonight's actual-acting award, seems quite moved to be a father. He remembers times he spent with Rodrigo and thinks: "You and I are the same! I never had a father, but now I am one! My mother was [a slut] like Manola! She probably never even told my father he had a son."
  
  
• Meanwhile we see that Rodrigo is a total horse's ass. He presses drunken, unwanted attentions on a frightened young woman. After she flees, he calls another one: "Hey baby, I've been thinking 'bout you..." Manola waits up in the courtyard for her dreadful, drunken son to come home. They are dressed like twinsies. "You grew up too soon, you're as stupid as your father." "He's not stupid, he loves and understands me."
  
  In the late morning, the grownups sit around discussing Rodrigo's dissolute ways with more or less cheer. "That's just the way boys are." As Rodrigo breezes through on his way to more dissolute activities, his "father" Gustavo asks him to help on the farm. "Oh dad, sorry, I have plans."
  
  
• At the hacienda, a discussion about - what BEDSPREADS to put on the bed? Urracas? That's magpies? Jacinta says, "No, that bedspread's too ostentatious." (???)
  
  The servant leaves and Jacinta snidely observes: "Remedios, you're acting as if Valeria were YOUR granddaughter." Remedios reminds her of all the great things she did for Valeria, and Jacinta reminds Remedios that she was more or less a servant. Blah blah about Valladolid blood and the name dying (since Federico doesn't carry it and Valeria won't pass it along).
  
  Remedios reminds Jacinta that part of their "deal" was that Federico not know he is Don Pedro's son. Remedios rages that Federico has changed so much since Adolfo died. [Adolfo was murdered by Federico, but Remedios doesn't know that of course]. She says, "You've been stealing my son's affection," and complacently Jacinta answers: "Well, you stole my husband's affection." Isn't it unbearable to think of them having this discussion every day for 17 years? Remedios says she and Federico are leaving the hacienda for good. Jacinta says: "You can go, but I guarantee Federico won't leave. I'll tell him the whole story!... Try me!"
  
  
• After the commercial, Maite dreams of Unibrow.
  
  
• Federico goes to see his mother, and yet again browbeats her about telling him who his father was. He more or less calls her a slut and stamps out, then goes and broods (ironically under the huge portrait of his father, Don Pedro). Jacinta comes in and he says: "I'm tired of my mother's martyrdom, she says she's victim of my cruelty but she lies to me." "Parents do the best they can," pontificates Jacinta, "but you're right, your mother was a slut, there are women who have no scruples and seduce married men to satisfy their basest passions." He says he no longer cares who his father was. Jacinta thought-bubbles: "if you knew..."
  
  
• Nuria hurries to get Andres a sweater: "If you're too cold on the airplane, it could be fatal." There is more discussion between the brothers about Andres concealing his plans to be a bullfighter. Andres admits he'll have to tell Unibrow eventually, but he wants to have some successes first.
  
  
• When the three girls find out that Jacinta's chauffeur is having car troubles and that Jacinta would like them to wait in the airport restaurant, Valeria asks if she can go off with Veronica's family instead. (That would be Victor - and Maite, Valeria's actual mother!)
  
  
• Remedios asks Teodoro: "Didn't you ever think it was strange, the way Griselda and your wife got burned up in your house? They had something important to tell me, but then suddenly they didn't have the chance..." He says he was so confused and sad, he didn't know what to think, and there was no investigation...
  
  
• Did you know as a baby Veronica saw her mother murdered? No wonder she's batty.
  
  
• Rodrigo is all over his godmother Jacinta, patting her and making nice. He knows where his bread is buttered. He lies and says he'd like to stay, but he has to go work for his father. When he hears Valeria is on the way home, he suggests he could take her to the fair.
  
  
• Finally, Manola's father offers Federico money to stay quiet about being Rodrigo's father.

Labels: barrera

As we all suspected, Roman and Dork had no intentions of going out with Lety. Roman seems to think this whole idea of inviting her out, then standing her up, is the funniest joke ever. In truth, it is the dumbest joke ever. Beavis and Butthead could come up with a better plan.

Huh huh uh huh huh Hey Beavis – let’s like, call Daria and say we’ll be at the mall, and then, like, not go. Huh huh.

Hrnh heh heh hrnh Yeah it’s like, she’ll go, and then like, we won’t be there. Hrnh heh heh. That will RULE! Hrnh heh. FIRE FIRE FIRE!!

Predictably, the whole plan to go out falls apart. After successfully appealing her RoboPapa’s decision to lock her up forever, with her Mama’s help of course, Lety gets all dolled up in her Grandma’s finest dress and sits by the window waiting. Mama checks in occasionally to see why she’s still sitting at the door waiting, when are these Pendejos showing up to get her? Finally one of them has the brilliant idea to call Roman and see what the deal is. I usually reach this point in about 30 seconds, it took them about two hours. “Lety, there’s this thing. It’s called a telephone. Perhaps we should give it a try.” “Are you SURE Mama? I’m scared.” Lety calls Roman, who happens to be just sitting there staring at nothing when the phone rings.

At this point I started laughing hysterically and had to pause the show. My wife thought I was insane. But the shot of Roman sitting on the couch staring at nothing when his phone rings just KILLS me. Like he thought “I’ll play this awesome prank on this chick, then I’ll completely waste the evening sitting on the couch doing absolutely nothing, and THEN, be dumb enough to answer the phone when she finally calls.” I don’t have any history of standing up dates, but I can only assume the process does not involve sitting by the phone waiting for the person you just blew off to call. What an idiot.

Roman answers, gives Lety some line about going to the store for his mom or something, and says he’ll be by at 9:00 to get her. Lety is excited all over again. Hours pass and nobody shows, Lety is very sad and Mama tries to comfort her, to no avail. Lety cries in her room and writes in her diary about how alone she feels. Mama tells Papa the whole deal, he is livid and swears vengeance on the souls of his ancestors, etc. Or something like that, he was wheezing a lot and he’s hard to understand. He’s like a super wheezy Mexican Captain Kirk. “I…… will find…… those kids and……. kill them.”

We get one quick show of Roman and Dork at some club, smoking and drinking with some hoochies. Dork asks Roman “shouldn’t we call her?” or something like that, Roman gives the “pfff give me a break” face and waves him off.

In the morning Lety tells Tomas what happened, he bowleggedly stomps off to talk some sense into those ruffians. He gets to their turf, the corner where they show how cool they are by having nothing to do and nowhere to go, and demands that they go see Lety and apologize. Roman pops him in the eye, somehow not breaking his Harry Caray glasses but giving him a shiner. Tomas slinks off.

Now it’s RoboPapa’s turn. When Tomas shows up with a black eye, RoboPapa gets out of him who the kids are that didn’t try to take advantage of his daughter. All men are evil and only want to hump Lety, but even worse are those who don’t even try. I guess. He won’t let her go out, but when some guys don’t take her out, he’s pissed. This guy has some serious issues. I really wish they would tell us something about what he does for a living, or show a clip of him coming into work one day to show everyone else in the office rolling their eyes and avoiding him. “oh jeez there he is, maybe he’ll leave me alone today, please God I’m begging you, I’ll come to church every week…….”

RoboPapa lurches off to where Roman and Dork hang out with their entourage and starts yelling at them (you……. kids……. desgraciados…… rrarrrrrgggghhhh….. wheeeeeeze…..). Roman answers with the equivalent of “screw you dude what are you gonna do about it” and RoboPapa turns into JET LI! He punches Roman in the face, then when Dork comes over to help out (following standard Ninja protocol by attacking only one at a time) RoboPapa grabs his shoulder and gives him a knee to the family jewels. Awesome! Some of the most atrociously choreographed fighting I’ve ever seen, but still a fantastic scene. Watching Dork keel over after RoboPapa kneed the air next to his left knee was thisclose to looking like the real thing. RoboPapa proudly shambles back towards his car as the gang of ruffians writhe in pain on the sidewalk. There may have been police in the area, but they were likely stunned by the fighting prowess of RoboPapa and were reluctant to get involved, lest in his rage RoboPapa kicked ALL their asses.

Lety goes to work and tells the whole story to Paula Maria, who sympathizes. “Yes Lety, while you are muy fea and I’m built like a centerfold, I feel your pain.” Regardless, it’s nice to see the ladies of Conceptos being nicer to her and becoming her friends. In fact, later that day Lety finally gets into El Club de Las Feas. They finally realized that ostracizing someone for being ugly was kind of ironic and invited her in.

When she finally gets upstairs to the office, Lety is thanked by Fernando for all her help in pulling the wool over Marcia’s eyes the day before in regards to Carla Laguna. Lety beams and loves him even more. Somehow her image of him is not tarnished by the fact that he just thanked her for helping him lie to his fiancée about another woman. Ahhhh what a man!

So the whole “Lety’s big night out with Roman and Dork” story was short and anti-climactic, with the exception of RoboPapa’s berserker rage the next day. Getting the next plotline started, Alicia happens to be listening at Lety’s door when she is on the phone with Mama, telling her that she’s going to surprise Fernando by working late to finish up a business plan for him that he needs for a big meeting the next day. Alicia decides that in the morning she’s going to intercept Lety and take the business plans from her, to then deliver to the meeting (along with coffee, tea, or me?) and take the credit for doing the plan. Also, I’m sure, she’ll wear some dress that would get her sent home from any office in the United States for being inappropriate for work.

More to come –
Chris

Labels: fea-e

Hola! I'll fill in the first part...

Apparently they have "aged" the first generation of Barrera by prescribing glasses for nearly all of them. Victor has a grey beard.

Maite and Elvira (looking much better as an EX-whore) are holding Veronica's dolls and missing her. Maite finds Magdalena's letter to Adolfo in the doll Vera's head and realizes Veronica and Valeria are half-sisters. She tells Victor. They wonder why Magda never revealed Veronica's true identity but then realize it was probably out of fear for Jacinta. They are glad she is far from Jacinta's influence.

Unibrow and Andres have a conversation about him missing an appointment somewhere. Andres lets his dad think it is because of a woman. In reality Andres was out playing toreador.

Manola and Federico are still doing the horizontal bop after all these years. They are in bed and for the first time she's not wearing her white cap! Federico's hair is greying; this look becomes him I think, he looks better than ever. He talks about how alike he and Rodrigo are in character.

Later, he and Jacinta are outside talking about buying horses. This reminds her of Pedro and what a great horseman he was. Federico wishes he could have known him. Jacinta says she will never forget the night he died and has a flashback. Jacinta reminisces about her favorite horse, "Shake." Federico squirms. Remember, this is the horse he poisoned way back when to make Adolfo look bad. (I can't remember if the horse died from this stunt.)

Valeria and Juanita are walking to class. One of them mentions how odd it is that Veronica talks to herself all the time. The other thought it was from the next dorm room. "No, the voices come from our room." "Maybe she has multiple personalities," they joke.

Veronica, as Vera, is in a store trying on a slutty dress. It looks great on her.

At Gustavo's huge, modern dairy Rodrigo is in the office. He should be working but is surfing the net for a ticket to Aspen. His hair is slicked back and he slouches so we know he is a slacker and a playboy. The good worker Omar comes in and scolds him for surfing the net instead of working. Gustavo enters and Rodrigo pretends to be a good employee.

In Canada there is a nun who looks and acts a lot like Veronica's "Violetta" personality. This must confuse the hell out of Veronica. (Now that I think of it, maybe the nun IS Violetta and is only in Veronica's head. I'm confused.) Anyway, Sister Violetta tells Veronica she shouldn't lie. Veronica switches personalities from Vera to Veronica and can't remember saying goodbye to Valeria and Juanita who have left for Aguascalientes. She sees "Vera's" suitcase on the bed with "Vera's" clothes and wonders to whom they belong.

Daniel finds Andres's toreador sword in the closet and scolds him for not giving up the habit. Andres says bullfighting is his passion. They argue about keeping this info from Unibrow. Daniel suggests that at the very least Andres do a better job of hiding his stuff.

Update: Apparently the nun I referred to as Sister Violetta really exists because she is the nun who speaks to the other girls about Veronica's lies. Sorry about the confusion. Carry on Jean...

Labels: barrera

Oops. I had a TiVo screw up. It recorded a different program and I didn’t realize it until about 9:40. I will recap what I have. Sorry about that.

Maite, Victor and Elvira are chatting in the restaurant. Apparently, Elvira gave up being a madam to work as a cashier in the restaurant. Jacaranda married a rich guy and also left the world’s oldest profession. They are anticipating Veronica’s return from school in Canada and mention her difficult childhood, which led her to invent things, etc.

Andres, one of Unibrow’s sons, the one who wants to be bullfighter, goes to a restaurant to make a pitch to a Don Miguel who is going around looking for bullfighting talent. He tells all this to a complete stranger in the restaurant and concludes by saying that he’s heard that Don Miguel is pedantic and haughty. Then he leaves. Of course, the stranger was Don Miguel.

Manola and Gustavo have given Rodrigo a sporty car for his birthday. Federico shows up and says that he has come to ask Nicolas, Manola’s father, to help him with some financial matter at Jacinta’s hacienda. [I see that adult Rodrigo is played by an actor who was in Contra Viento y Marea (as was the actor who plays Federico). The actor who plays Rodrigo, played Imanol, a man who went crazy with jealousy about his wife and ended up trying to kill her. He can make the veins stand out on his neck and head and do a really good crazy.]

Veronica appears to be all alone at the school and tries to study up on the chateaux of the Loire where she (as Vera) told the other girls that she was going during the vacation. However, she is twitchy and is changing from one personality to another.

Jacinta is praying again before the unchained woman in flames.

Daniel, the other son of Unibrow recalls Maite from the time they lived in Aguascalientes. Unibrow says that he never found out what became of her. Maite recalls Unibrow’s sons. How old must they be now?

Valeria and Juanita’s flight to Mexico City has been cancelled and they are back in the dorm with a nun. They see Veronica’s bag and the nun tells them that Veronica’s trip to France was a lie to cover up for the fact that her parents couldn’t afford to buy her a ticket to go to Mexico. Valeria decides to get a ticket for Veronica to go to Mexico with her and Juanita. They invite her and she accepts.

Labels: barrera

Lety arrives in the office, but Fernando isn’t there. As she’s walking in, Saimon the courier walks in behind her. The two haven’t met. We saw Saimon earlier in the show, he delivered a letter or package to somebody. For some reason he wears a suit, then over that puts on a yellow slicker and a helmet. I suppose he doesn’t want to look like a hippie like most bike messengers, he’s trying to look fly for all the ladies at Conceptos. So, since he rolls in wearing a suit, Lety thinks he’s some other executive of the company, or perhaps an important visitor. Saimon, who listens more to the little devil on his right shoulder than the little angel on his left, seizes the opportunity to have some fun. Once he’s done convulsing in horror, like everyone does when first meeting La Medusa Lety.

Side note – I’ve noticed the for the most part, people act like they’ve gazed upon the face of satan when they first see Lety, but then 30 seconds later and forever after they are unaffected. Sure, they refer to “La Fea” in conversation, the other ladies keep discussing how ugly she is to make their pitiful little lives seem less hopeless, but really the whole ‘shockingly ugly’ thing seems to pass quickly. The main exception to this is Luigi. In an earlier scene, when Lety turns into Jack Tripper for a bit when finding and returning some CDs from the production area, Luigi buttonholed Fernando and said that Lety is banned from the studio. I don’t remember or didn’t quite understand what his reasoning was, but really I think he just doesn’t want her uglying up the place. Perhaps her Fea causes his Chakra to become misaligned or something.

Saimon plays like he’s a talent evaluator or something along those lines and starts talking to Lety like he’d like to put her in a commercial. He gives her a pen and instructs her how to hold it up like she’s selling it in a commercial. Soon he has her hopping around the office with the pen in her mouth like a goon. Mid-twirl, the door opens and Fernando enters. She almost twirls into him, giving her cause to have a seizure and offer her disculpes and all that and bow bow bow like she’s Japanese and scamper off to her office. Fernando softly reprimands Saimon, he wants to chew him out but really he thought the whole thing was funny so he just told him to take off.

We get into some real Fawlty Towers territory here, which continues along the same lines as Three’s Company. The show jumps genres a lot, though never dipping heavily into drama. Sometimes it’s a touching family drama, like a ‘very special episode, ‘ with RoboPapa completely detached from the real world and Mama Padilla loving him for it while telling him how wrong he is. “Viejo you don’t know what you’re talking about. Get over it. I love you, you’re so sweet. And insane. Kiss kiss kiss.” Then we have slapstick. Then we have “let’s laugh at the Feos.” Then occasionally we have cause to feel sad for Lety’s suffering, The Passion of the Fea.

A woman named Carla Laguna has arrived, looking for Fernando. She is apparently a former lover that Marcia is aware of. The bit plays out a bit like Carla didn’t know where Fernando has disappeared to until she saw the photo in the magazine announcing his engagement. What I don’t get is that Fernando is a big shot at this company, his dad owned part of it, was he really that hard to track down? Anyway, Carla gets out of a cab dressed horribly, there are better ways to have your boobs hang out, you don’t have to wear such a nasty outfit to do it. Carla is tall and has an awesome body, obviously she was a model on some previous project that Fernando managed to win over with his super smooth pickup lines. “Hi. You’re pretty. Uh how’s it going.” I guess he’s handsome, my wife says si como no, but maybe her tastes are different, because he’s pulling in ladies left and right with zero effort. So Carla comes in and demands to see Fernando, receptionist Paula Maria tries to stall her while she calls up to Fernando’s office. Lety answers the phone, this kicks off a long chain of people running around the building trying to find each other, phone calls back and forth, people just missing each other turning around corner, etc. Lety has made it her life’s mission to keep Fernando’s secrets, she goes out of her way to not let Marcia find out what’s going on. When speaking to Fernando, who for some reason (to make the scene work right) has decided to keep Marcia with him all day today, about Carla looking around for him, she keeps referring to the ‘personnel issue.’

Finally, I don’t even remember how, Marcia finds out that Carla is in the building. She storms down to the receptionist, Paula Maria tells her that Carla and Fernando left together. Indeed they did, they went to a restaurant, where surprisingly Fernando tells Carla to make like a tree and get out of here, he’s going to marry Marcia. I was stunned. This guy tries to have sex with models right in his own office building, but he leaves and goes to a restaurant with this ex-lover who is desperately trying to find some place to lose her clothes to tell her to take off.

Marcia finally tracks Fernando down to the audio/video place that Lety said he was going to, finally ending the entire charade. He acts casual. “What? I just left and came here. I don’t know this Carla of who you speak.” He almost gets to the point of denying that his name is Fernando when Marcia finally gives up and gets off the phone.

Marcia and Alicia storm into Lety’s office and demands his little black book that is actually big and brown. She says de ninguna manera. Con todo respecto, of course. Bow bow scrape scrape Dona Marcia etc etc. But she will not give up the goods. Lety then goes off to lunch or a break, she’s wiped out from being John Cleese all morning. When she returns, Marcia, Alicia, and Lopez the creepy HR guy are standing there waiting for her. Marcia gets her predatory smile going and snaps out that Lety is FIRED. Lopez, between licking his hand and wiping his shoulder and head YUCK (I’m disgusted by this every time, as well as his caterpillar eyebrows) and smiling, like he hated her all along and was soooo glad to send her on her way. Of course, while she’s in her office sniffling about it and picking up her stuff, Fernando returns and tells her to forget about it, he really needs her there and nobody has authority over him to hire or fire anyone. He tells her “Tu eres la mujer que yo necesito.” Omar hears the whole thing, then proceeds to needle Fernando mercilessly over his new ‘novia.’

Lety has now promoted Fernando to sainthood. Well, something along those lines, because she wants to get busy with him too, I suppose you don’t do that with saints. She goes back to her office and gets to acting like a 12 year old with a crush on Justin Timberlake. It’s almost embarrassing to watch. Get a grip woman!

Her spirits are high. On her way home, some local idiot boys around her age, who have nothing better to do than hang around and try and show how cool they are for having nothing to do and nowhere to go, decide to tease her. Roman, who Lety knows, introduces her to some other guy who he says “is dying to meet you.” The guy reacts predictably, cracking his neck as he lurches back when he sees her, but then gamely plays on. I can’t remember his name, so I’ll just call him Dork. Roman and Dork invite Lety to go out with them that night. Due to her new high spirits, she doesn’t see how ridiculous this is and agrees to go.

She goes home and tells her mom how she has a date. Mama thinks this is great, but Robopapa says de ninguna manera. Remember, the entire male population of Earth exists for one sole purpose – to get busy with Lety. So he says no. After lots of crying from Lety in her room, Mama goes to RoboPapa and convinces him to let her go out. Of course he insists that the boys have to come in and meet him first, etc etc.

Meanwhile, Marcia sinks deeper into insanity. Fernando shows up at her house to ‘talk’ (uh oh) and Marcia is dressed like a judge. She puts him through some mock trial for being a philanderer, he stammers a lot and it’s funny and strange at the same time. I’m not sure what happened, but soon she sentences him to play ‘see what’s under the judge’s robe.’ He decides to play.

That’s the end of the first week. My spring class ended and I have a few weeks before my summer class, so maybe I can catch up soon. I’m having a lot of fun, I didn’t realize how much I like to prattle on for pages and pages about nothing. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you soon.

Labels: fea-e

I found this picture of the actress who plays Maite, Yadhira Carillo, on the Esmas web site. She looks an awful lot better as Maite than in her normal life.








I watched most of tonight's episode because I have to recap tomorrow and I knew it was going into the "next step." Actually, not a lot happened except for the passage of time.
The three young girls in the novela: Valeria, Veronica and Juanita - all get sent to a Catholic school in "Canada," city unspecified but it looked like Montreal. They appear to mostly study ballet and a little psychology. They grow up to be very nice looking girls, especially Veronica who was a very unattractive child.
Unibrow's boys: Daniel & Andres inherit their father's heavy brows. What a disappointment! One of them wants to be a bull fighter but Unibrow is against it. Gordo buys the land from Jacinta on which Adolfo had planted grapevines. Maite stops wearing a bandeau! She appears to still have a platonic relationship with Victor. I guess women who are holding the torch for their true loves don't get to have sex but their men do. Nice double standard.
Federico gets to sit down in the presence of Jacinta and live in the big house! Remedios is rather put out when Jacinta reminds her that she is still only a servant.
For her psychology project, either Valeria or Juanita is going to study multiple personality disorder. Just hearing about this, Veronica goes into a fugue state. Later we see her other two personalities: Vera, the slut and Violeta, the timid one. Finally, Maite finds the letter in one of Veronica's old dolls that Magdalena wrote to Adolfo about their child.

Labels: barrera

1. We have willing and able bloggers

2. We have readers

3. We don't have a novela we like

I too was horrified to hear that Barrera is so long. Maybe it will improve after taking the long leap into the future today - but what if it doesn't?

I love Chris's recaps of La Fea Mas Bella and hope he keeps it up - and maybe he'll even win some viewers - but I just can't watch this show. The whole idea of calling people ugly offends me mightily, I don't like bimbos, and since I strongly suspect that the "happy ending" is going to involve Lety taking off her glasses, getting cool clothes, and becoming foxy, what's the message really? I'd rather be rooting for somebody who actually IS smart and plain. I'm tired of miniskirts and big breasts.

How long is Peregrina going on? Maybe whatever follows it will be better, in which case I would happily jump ship. Or maybe they'll realize what a dog Barrera is and take its good time slot away.

Thoughts?

Labels: announcements, barrera, fea-e

Tonight’s episode started with Jacinta thanking her new son, Federico. (Both of them being very creepy.) Then we got a quick flash of Nurias car crash thanks to Manola. Back to Federico who wants to see some of the vineyard land sold. Jacinta agrees and tells him that she prefers to know nothing of the deal. Meanwhile Remedios is outside the door listening to them.

Maite is upset that it looks like Jacinta will keep her daughter due to the pictures in the newspaper. She gets a backbone (although with the wrong person) and yells at Victor that the LAW has taken her daughter. She tells him he doesn’t know what it feels like because he is not a parent. He tells her that he does understand being very patient and kind telling her she has to continue fighting. Maite says that Jacinta has a horrible soul. Jacinta es una mala persona. She knows that Jacinta will tell her daughter all these horrible things and that Valeria will hate her. She says she has lost her daughter forever.

Jacinta admits that had Adolfo signed the divorce decree she wouldnt be so anxious. Had he signed the decree Jacinta would have an easier time of keeping Valeria away from Maite. Federico says he will sign for Adolfo. Jacinta agrees, then asks him if he would like to smoke as he is about to sign Adolfos name to the divorce decree. The Jacinta tells him to blow the smoke away from her. Funny scene of how she manipulates! Federico stalls a little saying he needs to practice Adolfos signature, so he doesnt sign the document.

Remedios is upset by what she hears. She says she needs to talk to someone who is impartial who can give her advice.

Unibrow gets the news that Nuria has had a wreck from el gordo. Meanwhile Manola wonders if Nuria has had her accident yet as she walks through the airport. Unibrow is relieved to find out that Nuria is alright except that she lost the baby. He wants to see her but the doctor tells him that her mind is fragile. He tells unibrow that an old couple with Nuria died. Unibrow figures out it was her parents or his or whosever’s. (Interesting scene here where Unibrow is able to look through a window and see Nuria. Just like fathers do on their newborns in the hospital nursery. I didn’t know that hospitals had observation rooms like these for adults.) While he gazes at Nuria he asks God on how he will tell Nuria of the deaths of the older couple and her unborn child. This is a very religious novella...

Remedios goes to a Father/priest for advice. She admits that she is having problems with Federico but first she has to fill him in on her past. This is where she tells him of how she conceived Federico with Jacintas husband. She also admits to Federico being envidious, he holds resentments but isn’t a bad person. The priest believes that because Jacinta is taking in Federico she is doing a grand thing. Remedios argues that Jacinta could hurt her son but the priest doesn’t believe that Jacinta could hurt anyone. Remedios says she is very afraid that Federico could abuse his position with Jacinta. Again the priest argues that Federico is getting close with Jacinta on his on volition. He says Remedios needs to have faith in God. Ask God to give you faith and faith in Jacinta and Federico too. Vete con Dios tranquilla.

Elvira (Rodrigos nanny?) hopes the catechism class at the church will help Rodrigo. Meanwhile the child has skipped his church appointment and meets up with Federico behind the church. Federico says he is the same as Rodrigo, he never wanted to go to church either! He says he wont tell Rodrigo’s parents that he skipped the class. They share a moment throwing rocks.

Unibrows family is all crying talking about how they miss their mother and now the grandparents will be with her. They are sad that they lost their sibling too. They all wear black. Magdelena and her daughter Veronica decide to go to the park. The other whores are going to the cine. Magdalena feels a little stronger and thinks the air will do her good., she is feeling better.

Valeria gets scolded by Jacinta for drawing a picture letter for her father. Jacinta tells her that the only thing memories do for us is hurt us, that is why she ripped Valerias drawing. Valeria doesn’t buy it and tells Jacinta that if her mother was there her mother wouldn’t let Jacinta do these things. Jacinta tells her that she shouldn’t talk to her in this manner and the only bad one is Valerias mother who killed her father. Valeria asks why her mother is bad but is sent to her room without dinner. Valeria runs off yelling for Remedios.

Unibrow prays for his family and complains to God about Maites betrayal. We get to see Jacintas fine car as she leaves to give clothes to the poor.

Magdelena and Veronica are getting ready to leave. Veronica has to get her sweater that she left downstairs. Maggie takes the letter she wrote to Adolfo but never sent and says she will keep it to give to Veronica so the child will know who her father is. The bad guy investigator arrives at the brothel and starts laughing with Jacaranda about what they have done to Maite. Magdalena overhears while Veronica is caught hiding behind the couch. The guy admits to everything to Jacaranda, that he is there to help take Valeria away from Maite, when Magdalena confronts them. Veronica sees everything as her mother confronts the bad people and then gets strangled for her efforts. (Another witness down the drain.) Even Jacaranda is frightened to see Magdalena killed but what do you do when you are left alone with a mad man? I guess you say nothing so he doesn’t kill you and that is exactly what Jacaranda and Veronica did. Yuck!

Meanwhile Federico digs through Jacintas desk and finds her will. He finds out that he will get something for all his years of service. (They dont tell us what exactly). He says she isn’t an ungrateful woman after all. OF course whatever she left him is less that what he deserves but…. Sure Jacinta will give Valeria what Adolfo was to inherit but he will get the rest. That isn’t bad he says to himself. He has assured himself his future…..Adolfos death has been the best deal he has done in his life….

Veronica switches personalities to Violeta and runs and hides from Jacaranda and the crazy murdering, investigator, pedophile guy. The girls return from the movie to find Jacaranda upset sitting on the couch. The guy is there and answers for her saying they have to be strong….blah blah blah... Magdalena has died. He has the death certificate saying she died from a pulmonary affliction of some sort. The girls ask where is Veronica - she is no where to be found. A little later Maite and Victor enter the house with Veronica who claims she was in the park playing. She is informed that her mother is dead. Later she acts like she hasnt seen or heard of her mothers death. Her multiple personalities are coming out to help her through this tough time.

Labels: barrera

Before I get back into the story, I have to put out a couple things I forgot to mention. Sylvia pointed out in the comments to my last post that the actress who plays Lety’s mother in the show is the real mother of the actress who plays Lety, which my wife also mentioned to me the first time Mama Padilla appeared on screen “Oye that’s her real mom!” Based completely on two people telling me that, I’m going to believe it.

While we’re on the subject of Lety’s parents, let’s talk about Papa Padilla. The Alborada recaps referred to Rafael as ‘the stuffed boy.’ In that spirit, Papa Padilla will be known as Papa the Robot. This guy looks like he was made from an erector set, then had Mr. Rogers’ clothes draped on. His voice sounds like gravelly voiced asthmatic. My wife tells me that the actor, Jose Jose (great name), was a raging alcoholic and that’s probably why he’s so messed up and can’t talk. So why we have someone who can’t talk in a TV show, I have no idea. He is also extremely one dimensional. “All men want to hump daughter….all men evil…..lock daughter in ivory tower….rrrarrrrgggghhhh.” Ok, not that last part, but he has a Frankenstein’s monster thing going on.

Lastly, Jean pointed something out that I can’t BELIEVE I didn’t mention. Lety’s spastic facial tics. Any time she’s nervous, which is most of the time, she gets this one eye squinting/blinking and one corner of her mouth twitching violently thing. Basically, she looks like she’s having some kind of seizure. When Fernando imitates her right in her face and the does the “what the hell?” gesture, it’s good comedy. I think the actress who plays Lety got the part due to her ability to make this seizure face. I try to imitate it and just can’t do it. There are always some rubber band ‘boinnnnggg’ sounds that accompany the face too, adding to the fun.

Back to the story -

Lety and Tomas are reading an article in a magazine called ‘Caras.’ It has a story about Conceptos and the people involved. As we get to each part of the article, a little flashback scenario is shown, this is still all part of providing some background for the story. One photo shows Fernando and Marcia, with a caption saying that they are getting married. We fade to a flashback of the day the picture was taken…. (there was no funny flashback music or anything, but I still can’t ever see a flashback on any show without thinking of Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World wiggling their hands and saying ‘doodle oodle oop doodle oodle oop’ when fading to a flashback, such as the time Wayne was recalling how he made out with Madonna.)

Fernando is with Marcia at a company party, it’s a nice sunny day. Fernando is hitting on the models present at the part any time Marcia is more than 2 feet away. This guy has balls. I’m not saying that in a good way, any self-respecting girlfriend would drop him like a hot potato. If Marcia was self-respecting, however, she wouldn’t be an interesting character and we’d be robbed of some good storylines. Asi es y asi sera.
Fernando sidles up to a model and drops the incredible line (I’m rolling my eyes, I’m not sure how to be sarcastic in print sometimes) “Hola Guapa!” Surprisingly, this gem of a pickup attempt works. Then again, this model might realize that hooking up with this guy will get her some steady work. Her opportunity is spoiled, however, when Marcia’s radar goes off and suddenly she’s right there at Fernando’s elbow. She gives the whole making a smiley face but showing her teeth like an angry animal routine, I haven’t seen a lot of soap operas or novellas but I’ve seen this look plenty of times. The model quickly runs away. A photographer approaches and takes a picture for the story being written for Caras, Marcia tells Fernando that ‘all his girlfriends’ are going to die when they see his picture with Marcia, since for some reason he hasn’t really told anyone about their engagement. Fernando senses a cold front, or perhaps Hurricane Marcia, on the horizon due to the look on Marcia’s face, so to calm her down he takes her by the arm, goes to the microphone someone was using to make announcements, and tells everyone that he and Marcia are getting married. Everyone is excited, etc, Fernando looks like he’s thinking “holy crap what did I just do.” (end flashback)

Lety’s parents are very proud of her for landing a job at such a prestigious place like Conceptos, but she lets them believe that she is the Assistant to the President, not just one of his secretaries. She plans to buy some new clothes, perhaps to look like simply a fashion victim, rather than a victim of a heartless Communist regime.

Lety happily trots off to work the next day, she rides the bus to work. I forget exactly where in the first couple weeks it happens, but RoboPapa Padilla trades in his sweet, but broken down, car for an extremely boring but reliable “newer” one. Newer, as in made after 1980. It looks like a late 80’s Chrysler LeBaron, something like that. All straight lines and corners. RoboPapa is worried that it cost too much (what kind of weak job does he have where he can’t afford a 20 year old used Chrysler?) but Lety, with her sweet new job, says she’ll help pay for it, she wants him to have a better car.

Lety arrives at work, everyone recoils as she passes again, and presents herself in Fernando’s office, ready for work. Fernando has cleaned out the storeroom, no windows, off the back of his office and put a desk in there for her. She’s the man behind the curtain, Alicia is the Great and Wonderful Wizard of Oz. We all know where the real work gets done.

Lety meets “El Club de Las Feas,” a group of women who work at Conceptos. They consist of a few secretaries, the cleaning woman, Luigi’s assistant, and the receptionist. They have given themselves that name, or perhaps Luigi named them that, I wasn’t able to clear that up and then forgot to ask my wife about it. Surrounded by models all the time, they have latched onto each other for support. The one member of the club that confuses me is Paula Maria the receptionist, played by Niurka. I guess she’s in this group because she’s the receptionist, but she’s really, well, hot. She wears little tiny skirts and looks good. So putting her in a group of Feas doesn’t make sense to me. She does have a 10 year old son by a guy who just up and disappeared after knocking her up, so I think it’s the whole single woman/kids/broken heart or just plain ugly that gets you into this club. The club isn’t openly welcoming of Lety at first, they are a bunch of gossipy hens, but in time they open up and become her friends.

Poor Lety – she’s so ugly that Fernando’s parents actually come in and have a meeting with him to discuss the fact that he hired her. She is referred to as “La Fea” throughout the entire conversation. Cripes, these people. Fernando does, however, defend Lety’s skills to his father and insists on keeping her.

Marcia is determined that Alicia get inside Fernando’s private zone, she urges Alicia to play dirty and do whatever she can to get rid of Lety. Right away, that task is made harder as Fernando gives Lety his personal phone book, which is not so little and brown, but still technically his ‘little black book.’ Alicia and Marcia seethe, maxing out their shared brain cell to see how to get their hands on that book. Why? Who knows. Again, if Fernando running around is such a problem, dump his ass. You’re hot and rich. Go find someone else.

Luigi has completed his latest masterpiece, so there is going to be a presentation of his newest ‘videoclip.’ Fernando and Omar head down to the models’ dressing room to hit on some chicks, and proceed to do just that as brazenly as possible. Fernando finds a girl he knew before and proceeds to make out with her right in front of everyone! Then, as I’ve said before, Fernando is a master of the smooth line. He tells the girl “with another kiss like that I’d have to marry you.” I’m sure that this girl, who is the type to make out with whoever in the dressing room, wants nothing more than to get married. This is the type of behavior exhibited by women looking to settle down. Right. Anyway, time’s up, so the models get going and Fernando and Omar leave. Omar, by the way, contributes mainly by looking at girls bodies and making faces like he’s constipated, I think it’s supposed to be uncontainable lust making him look that way but I think he just needs a box of prunes. Then he’ll be able to stop looking so pained.

Fernando sends Lety down to production to get some CDs that he needs for the show, of course these are vital and nobody remembered them. And instead of somebody who knows what they are and where they are, Lety gets sent. She trips and stumbles her way around, frightens some people along the way, and managed to find them. She comes back to the showroom with them and manages to come out the door right next to the film screen. The audience is watching Luigi’s video for…… get ready now music fans…. “El Club de Las Feas” by El Bando de Recodo. The song/video that plays at the end of each episode of the show. Yes, I know you’re all sad you missed this episode, I know how much you love that song. We have a Three’s Company type moment, lots of tripping, physical comedy, Fernando finally gets her out of the way and takes the CDs.



I’m almost at the end of the first week of recaps. I keep telling myself “just summarize to get up to date, you can channel Hemingway later.” But I can’t help myself. I’ll get caught up someday.

Labels: fea-e

The episode opens at Adolfo's funeral. It is pouring rain, Jacinta stands alone at the grave surrounded by flowers from the local families, Remedios in a white plastic rain poncho walks out with an umbrella to protect Jacinta as she cries by the grave. Only Jacinta, Remedios and two employees from the hacienda are present. Either nobody came to the funeral (my vote) or the scene is post-funeral.

Magda is sleeping as Veronica (Me, myself and I) enters with her dolls ... Me, myself or I scolds, "I have to fix what you did, only you would think of stealing Jacaranda's ring." "She deserved it. She’s a witch." "It's all because of that stupid Veronica. If Jacaranda discovers that you put her ring in the doll we'll really be going to the fair (we'll be in deep doo-doo)." "I don’t want her to lock us in the closet or to beat us again. (Looks at ring.) What are you going to do?" "Give it back to her? No! She would know we lied. I’m going to put it where she’ll never find it." Drops it into toilet. My precious...

Maite say Magda looks better. This will soon change as Maite spies Adolfo's obit in the paper. She tries to hide it but Magda, seeing the shocked look on Maite's face grabs it, reads it and breaks into tears.

Manola has made another happy trip to Ensenada, this time to share the local newspaper with Unibrow. First the news of Adolfo's death: He can't believe it. He wants to speak to Gustavo to find out the details. He regrets what happened to Adolfo, and in spite of all that happened he forgives him. God is the one in charge of judgment. But Manola's not done yet. There's just one more thing... she shows him the article and picture of Maite getting busted in the brothel. He doesn't believe it's true and he doesn't wish to discuss Maite with Manola.

The whores console Magda, she can't believe Adolfo is dead. He is the only man she has ever loved. Maite tries to console her. Magda says she will never be happy again.

Victor is back from Turkey. He asks Maite why she feels guilty about Adolfo's death, it was an accident. She says if she hadn't allowed him to think she was working as a whore in the brothel things might have been different. Victor tells her she can't know that. Adolfo's accident might have been due to a mechanical failure. The most important thing now is for Maite to get her daughter back. Maite agrees, without Adolfo Valeria is doomed to be by Jacinta's side. (If only she knew what a dud dad Adolfo was.) Victor teases her; he's irritated because she didn't tell him she was arrested. Maite tells him he was preoccupied with his mom's illness, and anyway why did he come back so soon? He says he told his mom about her and she’s dying to meet Maite. They snuggle. He teases her about them being "together." She laughs. Then he says he spoke to his mother many years ago. She knows what he is and she accepts him. (So I guess he’s gay? Did we already know this?) Maite says why wouldn't his mom accept him, she has every reason to be proud of a son like him. Victor says Maite's daughter will be proud to have her as a mother. Then he gives her a necklace, I guess it was her mother's necklace that she had to pawn? He managed to buy it back from the pawn shop, and what better time to wear it than on the day she goes to retrieve her daughter. They plan to get Valeria when she leaves school...

Maite sees Valeria in the schoolyard. She tries to approach her but a guard stops her. Maite demands to know why and she wants to speak to the director. What a surprise, Jacinta is in the director’s office and tells Maite she cannot see her daughter and that a judge has determined she can't have Valeria due to her immoral conduct. She has lost all rights to her daughter.

Unibrow can't understand why Manola is showing him the article about Maite. Displaying a stunning lack of logic, Manola replies "Because once and for all you should forget about her." Unibrow accuses her of just trying to bother him. He says she is beautiful and attractive, the dream of any man, but she is wasting her time with him. "Perhaps not," she replies, "I've always liked you. Nobody needs to know..." The poor schmuck tries the "but Nutria is pregnant" line. So Manola turns it into a "Congratulations" kiss, a long, disgusting one. "What good is love?" she asks. "You saw how the love of your life ended up." Another kiss. FUG (Unibrow's friend Dionisius aka Fat Ugly Guy) catches them just as they finish their kiss. Then Nutria and the boys show up. Two-faced Manola congratulates Nutria on her happy news. For some reason Unibrow insists on having Manola to lunch. FUG disapproves.

Back at Valeria's school Maite says it's a lie! She works in a restaurant and leads a good life, a life she has been building for her daughter. Why does Jacinta continue treating her like this? Jacinta says she blames Maite for Adolfo's death. It happened the same day he went to Mexico City to find Maite and sources report he was a crazy man when he got into his car. Maite screams it's not her fault. Jacinta asks Maite who in the hell does she think she is? She's an insignificant waitress who thought she could be a Vallodolid. Maite will pay for her sins because there is a divine justice that nobody can escape. (Jacinto should be very afraid if she believes this.) She's going to make sure that Valeria finds out not only did her mother kill her father, but also what sort of woman Maite is. She shows Maite her picture in the paper and the article reporting she's a whore. Maite is dragged off screaming. She runs to Victor's arms and he tries to convince her not to give up.

Back at the hacienda, the two little girls come home from school and run to Remedios to brag about their academic exploits. Jacinta paces angrily in the background. When they scamper off the wash their hands for snack time she screams at them not to run, she's told them a thousand times not to act like savages. Remedios asks Jacinta what's eating her. "Adolfo's assassin showed up at the school and tried to get her daughter."

Nutria has prepared lunch, it's the Unibrow family with guests FUG and Manola. She says she has found out about the vineyard situation at the Valladolid Hacienda through Teodoro who works there. All is not well and it has gone from bad to worse. Many people are selling their vineyards cheaply because they can't afford to maintain them. FUG says the vineyards are "going down with the train,"i.e. will be lost unless something is done. This makes the price of grapes go down. But it's also a good time to buy land. Manola is interested that Unibrow might be coming back to Aguascalientes. Unibrow says he wouldn't mind having a little ranch. The love of the earth is a good legacy to bequeath to one's children. Manola say Gustavo is always saying the same thing. FUG says Unibrow should get some land, vineyards are healthy there, it's an excellent zone for grape cultivation, but Unibrow isn't sure he wants to go to Aguascalientes. FUG is talking about forming some sort of cooperative? Manola says Gustavo is president of something-or-other and can help them get started. Uni will think about it.

Victor and Maite go to the Hacienda to see Remedios who doesn't want to talk to Maite. She asks if Victor is her boyfriend and snidely comments "but of course you must have many boyfriends." Maite explains to Remedios what happened at the brothel, she's not a whore, she was just delivering a birthday cake to a little girl. Remedios cannot be swayed, she's not sure she believes Maite and she's beginning to think that perhaps the hacienda is the best place for Valeria after all.

Jacinta is in a funk and Federico, teary-eyed, is trying to console her. She says that Adolfo was respected at the ranch and will be remembered as the last remaining Valladolid heir. Federico says the worst pain is that Adolfo died without leaving a grandson to carry on the family ancestry. "And all because of that waitress he could never forget," snarls Jacinta, "who, by the way, appeared at Valeria's school today to take her away." Federico is shocked. Jacinta said she suspected such a thing might occur so she was ready for her. Luckily Valeria didn't see her mother. Federico agrees that Maite has no right to see Valeria, especially since she caused Adolfo's death. (Is he really starting to believe this???) Day after day Adolfo suffered because of her. He hates what she has done to Jacinta, to such a good woman, and so pious. Jacinta will never forgive Maite for causing the death of the only Valladolid heir. Federico says who knows, maybe Adolfo has had an heir by visiting a brothel? He kneels at her feet, says she can count on him in any capacity. He hopes she will forgive his audacity, but he has always viewed her as a second mother. She says she will find tranquility in the thought that if she can't have her own son she has Federico. She can count on him. That thing about busting Maite in the brothel worked out excellently. Her lawyer assures her that she will have full custody of Valeria. To be safe she intends to send her to Canada when she gets out of kiddie school. She holds Federico's hand and he gets all teary-eyed.

Ensenada: while the guys are fixing Nutria's car Manola spreads the gossip about Maite. She tells Nutria that at first Unibrow didn't believe it but now he is worried about Maite. She says she brought the newspaper to try to help Nutria. Manola tries to tell Nutria the history between Unibrow, Adolfo, how she was engaged to Adolfo and how "that woman" wrecked it. Nutria, apparently not big on gossip says she's heard it all before, and anyway, isn't Manola happily married with Gustavo? Isn't it absurd for Manola to keep bringing up Unibrow's relations with his ex who left him over seven years ago? Manola insists that Unibrow is still in love with Maite, she's sorry (NOT) but that's the way it is. Maite always was "una fichita", a nasty piece of work, who had to behave herself in the pueblo, but in the big city with nobody to watch her she became her true self. Nutria better be very careful in case Maite comes looking for adventure! (Funny, coming from her.) Nutria doesn't believe it, she trusts her husband, they have a nice family and she won't lose confidence in him, especially now that she is expecting. By the way, she is very annoyed that Manola has come to Ensenada to bother them with more news about Uni's EX-girlfriend. They get a little bitchy with each other, and Manola tells Nutria that getting preggers is the best weapon for winning the respect of any husband. Nutria says it's time for Manola to go.

Outside the guys are working on Nutria's car. The problem was only a loose battery cable so she is good to go to her Dr's appt. and they can take the other car to visit Don Benito's ranch (to tend to his sick colt?). The kids want to go with FUG and Unibrow. Manola says she has to go to meet her kid Rodrigo back in Aguascalientes so she leaves. For some reason FUG and Unibrow think it's fine to leave the hood open because "who would steal an engine around here?" They go into the house and Manola sneaks back to disconnect the brake fluid line.

At the Hacienda Valeria is sad. She still can't believe her papa is dead. She hopes papa knows she still loves him even though he's up in heaven. She asks Remedios why her abuela says her mama is bad. Remedios says her mama's not bad, it's just that Jacinta is worried about Valeria. Jacinta loves Valeria, she's just stern and carries a big stick so Valeria needs to study hard and be a good girl. Valeria asks will she meet her mother one day. Remedios says "of course, if it's God's will, of course."

Jacinta is back in the chapel and having a one-on-one with God. "First there was you, the only love of my life, then you gave me don Pedro. I had to be strong, very strong. And I managed to advance his property to my son, my Adolfo. Now he's dead and I am alone, without anyone. What's missing here is the presence of a man, a Valladolid. It's the first time since I came to live here that there has not been a Valladolid in this house." Enter Federico, rain dripping from his hat.

Ensenada: Nutria sees the men off, telling them to be careful. Unibrow says he loves her, "quiero", not "amo". All of a sudden his parents show up, they are looking for a ride to Reina's place. Nutria volunteers to take them because Reina lives close to her doctor. Things are not looking good for Unibrow's family.

Back at the hacienda we have YET ANOTHER conversation between Jacinta and Federico, the creepiest yet. He wishes he could ease her pain, he'll do anything for her, Adolfo was like a brother to him, how could his mother be such an ingrate after all Jacinta has done for them, oh the pain it causes him. Jacinta says she appreciates those who are faithful to her. He kneels (again!!) at her feet and says "I am only an employee and of course no substitute for your son, but nothing would make me happier than to have a place in your heart." He weeps. She pats his face and calls him son.

Nutria and her in-laws are in the car speeding along the road. Ahead of them a man gets a flat tire and his car is parked in the middle of road. (What? He can't pull off to the side?) Nutria's breaks don't work, she pumps and pumps, they still don't work. She screams! The car does a double endo and lands upside down, crushed and smoking.

P.S. Thanks Jean for your technical assistance.

Labels: barrera

[This was one of those annoying episodes that advanced the plot not at all. In fact, you could summarize the whole thing in about two sentences: (1) As news of Maite’s arrest as a prostitute spread though the pueblo, people said either (a) I knew she would end up like this or, (b) I can’t believe she ended up like this, depending on their previous attitude towards her; and (2) Adolfo’s death seemed to have had major psychic consequences. All of a sudden everybody had something important to say to or about Adolfo and many had nightmares or other intimations of his death but most people don’t know about it yet. That will be tonight’s episode. Ok, here we go.]

Federico’s attack leaves Adolfo dead or unconscious but still twitching on the ground. Federico drops the tire iron in horror. “What have I done?” he says.

Jacinta feels like she is suffocating as she is psychically aware that Adolfo is dead or dying. Remedios helps her to sit down. Jacinta asks if Adolfo has come back. Remedios says no and she does not expect him tonight. She explains that Adolfo found the letter with Maite’s address and is probably in Mexico City at this moment with her. Jacinta hopes this is not the case because, if so, there will be serious consequences for Maite.

Federico covers up his crime by putting Adolfo in the car, weighting down the gas pedal with a rock and sending it into barrels of something flammable that are conveniently at hand. Spectacular explosions ensue and if Adolfo wasn’t dead before, he sure is now.

Jacinta has sent for all the newspapers and finds the story she wants – Maite’s name is among those arrested for prostitution. She calls her lawyer and says that now she has the proof about Maite’s character that can derail the custody suit.

Victor calls from Turkey (!) where his mother had an operation. She is holding her own. Maite tells him that everything in Mexico is great, except for one little thing she won’t mention. “Take care of your mother and don’t worry about a thing,” she says.

Jacinta is sharing the disgraceful news about Maite with Manola and Gustavo. “No podemos tapar el sol con un dedo,” she says. “You can’t block the sun with a finger.” [I guess the equivalent in English would be, ‘You can’t make a silk purse out a sow’s ear.’]
Gustavo can’t believe Maite would have done such a thing. Manola says that there will be gossip in the pueblo and Jacinta says that she won’t try and stop it. She’s not going to protect a shameless hussy like Maite. Gustavo is worried about Valeria. “So am I,” says Jacinta but it’s God’s will. I just hope the scandal dies down before she makes her first communion.” Manola asks to take the paper with her. She wants to read it more carefully later – just to be well informed, she says. Jacinta says, “Sure, take it.”

Valeria and Juanita have a conversation that is way beyond their abilities as actors. They say their lines without any intonation at all so it is almost impossible to understand. Thank God for the titles. Not much info though. Valeria knows her mother is alive and that Jacinta doesn’t like her. She is going to ask her father to look for her when he comes back.

Gustavo’s driver finds that there is brake fluid under his car. “There could have been an accident,” he says. Manola looks guilty? hopeful? disappointed?

The Mother Superior (MS) says to a nun that Valeria needs her mother. The nun says that no one has heard from Maite. The MS says that Remedios has told her that Maite is ok and is staying away from the Valladolid family. The nun suggests that Jacinta was at fault in this and the MS says that Jacinta is only trying to protect Valeria.

The driver interrupts Gustavo who is yakking to Manola about buying some more cows to tell him that the brake line has come loose. “At the speed you drive, we could have been killed without brakes,” says Manola as if getting an idea.

Maite looks at her pictures of Valeria and saying that soon they will be together.

Jacinta talks with the priest and a woman. She modestly accepts praise for being such a good Christian and then when the priest leaves shows the newspaper article about Maite to the woman.

Valeria is worried about her father. Remedios reassures her and proposes that they decorate a cake that her father will like. But Remedios too has a bad feeling about Adolfo. “Surely, if something bad had happened, Federico would have contacted her.”

Gossipy ladies in the pueblo discuss Maite’s run in with the law and sympathize with Jacinta in having such a disgraceful daughter in law.

Federico arrives back at the hacienda. He has a flashback of killing Adolfo. Jacinta and Remedios come in and ask about Adolfo. “He’s not back yet?” says Federico. “Something terrible happened.” His story is that when Adolfo found out about Maite’s new profession, he went crazy and drove off in the car. Federico couldn’t follow him on foot so he caught a bus back to the pueblo expecting to find Adolfo at the hacienda. “Maybe something happened to him,” says Jacinta. “Oh no,” says Federico, “I’m sure that he just went somewhere to drink.” “From your lips to God’s ears,” says Jacinta, “because if anything happened to him, it’s Maite’s fault.”

Alone with Jacinta, Federico basically repeats the same story adding that seeing Maite in the brothel had turned Adolfo against Maite. “He will never return to her,” says Federico.

Now fat ugly guy and Unibrow are talking about Adolfo. Unibrow says that Adolfo isn’t a bad person. He just has a terrible mother who makes him do bad things. “True,” says fat ugly guy, “but Adolfo isn’t a child. There is no excuse for the ‘marranada’ or ‘disgusting thing’ that he did to Maite.” “I could forgive what happened,” says Unibrow, “but not what they did behind my back. They betrayed me.” “Whenever you talk about Maite, you get mad,” says fat ugly guy. “You understand perfectly why," says Unibrow. "Even though Maite deceived me and is in my past, she is still the most important person in my life and because of that I feel guilty about Nutria.”

Valeria has helped make a cake for her father. Remedios puts it on the table. Jacinta and Federico come in so that everyone is there when the Commandante comes in to tell them that Adolfo died in an accident on the highway to Mexico City.

Valeria is inconsolable, Federico manages some crocodile tears. "We were like brothers," he sobs. Jacinta says that it wasn’t an accident – Maite killed Adolfo. Then she whacks the cake that Valeria has decorated with her cane and cries to God. [As dramatic scenes go, cake whacking is not that moving.]
Jacinta tells the portrait of Pedro that their son is dead. She admits to herself that she was never loving or tender with Adolfo.

Maite talks with Magdalena about, what else, Adolfo, while Jacaranda listens outside the door. Maite doesn’t care that Adolfo thought she was a prostitute. She doesn’t care about him at all. Magdalena would have given anything to marry Adolfo but life didn’t turn out that way. It turns out that she too had a nightmare when Adolfo died that Veronica would end up alone in the world. “Don’t think ugly thoughts,” says Magdalena. “Magdalena wants Maite to promise to take care of Veronica if something happens to her.” Maite tries to reassure her that everything will be ok. When Valeria comes to her, she and Valeria will be like sisters… Magdalena thought bubble: They ARE sisters – both daughters of Adolfo but I don’t want to tell his wife that.

Jacinta runs to her chapel with her hair all messed up. This time she addresses the crucifix, not the weird painting. She first berates God for taking her only son. Hasn’t she done everything God asked her do, etc. Then God appears to smite her with a bad headache.
She collapses onto the ground begs forgiveness.

Remedios tries to comfort Valeria.

Veronica is sent off with Jacaranda who breaks her doll and then says that Veronica must spend all night in the closet as punishment. Veronica steals a ring and hides it in the doll.

Federico congratulates himself that the police believe that Adolfo’s death was an accident. He is now free to manipulate the accounts of the estate and win over Jacinta but Federico is not a cold-blooded murderer yet. He keeps saying, “Adolfo, what have I done?”

Jacaranda counsels Magdalena to seek out Adolfo and tell him that her child is his. Thought bubble: Maybe he will take her and the brat out of here.

Cayetano and Nicolas are having the same conversation as everyone else about how bad Maite is. The cook at the hacienda calls to tell them about the accident.

Magdalena writes to Adolfo that they have a child.

Jacaranda discovers that the ring is missing and accuses Veronica. She denies it and Jacaranda is about to beat her with her shoe when Elvira comes in. The TiVo stopped here. Why does anyone think this woman should do child care?

Labels: barrera

I had fun putting that list of characters together, so I'll jump right in to some summaries. The show has been on for two weeks now, I'll try and catch you all up with what's going on in general, then as time goes on I can be more specific. It begins -

Note - there may be a couple of things out of order since I'm going mostly from memory here, but nothing that will change the story.

Lety comes home from another day of getting turned away from jobs due to being so ugly. Her friend Tomas is at her house, they have a discussion that fills us in on the burden of being Feos. We meet Sr. y Sra. Padilla, Lety's parents, who refer to each other as "Viejo" and "Vieja" (old man/old woman) but make it sounds nice, not insulting. Like I said, Papa Padilla is convinced that the whole world is just waiting to take sexual advantage of Lety.

We next see inside the offices of Conceptos, where Fernando is talking to his father Don Umberto, we learn from their conversation that Umberto is retiring and turning over the presidency of the company to Fernando. The stockholders voted on the new president, Fernando won by one vote, which happened to be cast by his fiancee, Marcia. Again, as I said before, Marcia is the daughter of Umberto's former partner, but her father died in a car accident I think, well at any rate some horrible accident. Marcia has a brother and a sister, the sister is named Ana Leticia (as soon as I heard this I knew there would be some name confusion written in, it only took until the second week of the show for this), and brother named Ariel. Ariel is a horrible bitter, ugly, whiny man who was Fernando's competition for the company presidency. This in spite of the fact that he only worked for Conceptos for a short time a long time ago. He's convinced, however, that Fernando does ALL his thinking with Little Fernando, which will drive the company into the ground, and his stock along with it. He fills the villian role nicely, in spite of being named after The Little Mermaid.

I don't remember specifically why Fernando is not keeping his father's secretary, or even keeping the secretary he had before being elected president, but whatever the reason was, it was contrived to lead us to the interview scene with Lety and Jessica Rabbit arriving simultaneously to interview for the job. The contrast couldn't be greater, JR is taller and has long blonde hair, a dress that starts about two inches above her navel and ends about two inches below, while Lety is dressed like one of the women waiting in line for radishes or cheese in a WWII-era photo from Russia. This is her interview look? I don't think it's her ugliness keeping her away from getting hired, it might be that she dresses like a bag lady, albeit a bag lady who found a couple quarters and washed her clothes.

Lopez (Personnel chief) and some other guy who I forget are performing the interview. It takes about three minutes, they recoil at the sight of Lety and then silently thank God the table is not a glass top and see-through as they openly ogle JR. In today's business environment, this guy Lopez would get fired in about five minutes, especially with him being in the Human Resources area to begin with. Lopez gives us the first taste of his unique tic - he licks his fingers and then brushes off his shoulder, no it doesn't look anywhere near as cool as when Jay-Z does it in his video for the song "brush your shoulders off", and then he uses the same spittle and dandruff/dust covered hand to smooth down the three hairs he has left on the top of his head. All in all, thoroughly disgusting. This is his trademark move I guess, it's what he does every time he leaves the room, sort of like snapping his fingers like a diva, but a little (very little) more manly. Anyway, I digress - they talk to the girls about their resumes, first they smile and let JR talk and just nod at whatever she says, then Lety tries to get in and they brush her off. Then they hire JR before Lety is even out of the room.

Lety heads home and commiserates with Tomas some more about being ugly and unemployed.

Lopez shows Fernando the resumes of the two women. Due to her struggles with getting a job, Lety stopped attaching her photo to her resume. Fernando is NOT pleased with Lopez having hired JR. Lopez says "I thought you liked the shapely ladies" with a little whistle and a hand gesture in the place of 'shapely ladies.' Fernando says "yes, but this (whistle/gesture) is the BEST FRIEND OF MY GIRLFRIEND." He's very concerned. Marcia, his fiancee, has obviously sent JR in as a spy to keep track of Fernando. He seems to have a girlfriend for every day of the week, in spite of the fact that his fiancee is rich, owns part of his company and is basically responsible for him having his sweet job, and also happens to be totally hot. Some men don't know how good they have it. (Personal side note - I know EXACTLY how good I have it!)
Well, on the other hand, Marcia is conniving and apparently a little dumb, since she is convinced that she can reform Fernando of his philandering ways.

Fernando confronts Marcia about it, Marcia manages to put him in a corner where he has no choice but to hire JR, not hiring her is basically an admission that he wants to have the freedom to run hoochies in and out of his office all day. Then he has an idea - he'll hire JR to sit out front and look pretty, and he'll also hire Lety (who he hasn't met yet) to take the little storeroom off of his office and do some real work. He was very impressed with her resume and is convinced that she'll do a great job.

Back at Lety's house, the phone rings, it's Lopez telling Lety to come back in, they want to talk to her again. She goes in, each person in the company, regardless of whether or not they've seen her before, manages to comedically recoil as they see her face. The funniest reaction is that of Luigi Lombardi, the in-house talent scout/photographer/videographer and all around 'light in the loafers' guy. He turns around and is face to face with Lety and says "Oh my God!" in English, with a great accent. The actor here is obviously not gay in real life, he plays the stereotypical gay creative type so well, I think a real gay actor wouldn't be so over the top. He's hilarious and a great character. Lety gets upstairs to Fernando's office and even though he recoils back into tripping on his desk when he sees her, he figures he can lock her in the back room and be ok. He hires her.

My lunch hour is almost over so I'll stop here for today. I didn't realize I was so verbose. Hopefully it's entertaining reading, I look forward to your comments. If you prefer something more short and to the point, please let me know. Otherwise, thanks for letting me prattle on. Back soon with more.

Chris

Labels: fea-e

Hello all - I'm going to take a stab at occasionally posting some La Fea recaps. Melinama said anything is better than nothing, so I'll give it a shot. Just a quick intro, I'm a gringo from IL, 34 years old, my formal Spanish education was in high school 20 years ago. However, I'm now married to a beautiful Mexican woman so my Spanish education has been re-started. Part of my homework is watching an hour of Spanish TV each night, it started with Alborada. My search for a little help with translation led me to the Alborada recaps, y la la la, here we are.
Just to get started, here are the main characters in the show -

Leticia (Lety) - The main character, the ugly duckling. Anyone with internet access (all of us, duh) can look up the actress and see that of course she's not so fea after all. The makeup people for the show did a pretty good job of making her look bad, but really even with this look she isn't as "fea, pero FEA" as the characters on the show like to say she is. However, the Groucho Marx eyebrows really help ugly her up. There is also a smear of what looks like ash above her lip to give her that nice moustache look. Anyway, Lety has a Master's degree in finance or business or something like that, she's sooo smart, etc etc, but nobody will hire her because she's so ugly. Apparently these employers all live in Spanish TV land where every woman looks like J Lo... Oh wait! They do! The show starts with Lety getting an interview with Conceptos, a big fashion photography/video studio (I think that's what they do). The company has models drifting through all the time, I think they are there for photo shoots and videos, things like that. The other person who shows up for the interview is...

Alicia- AKA Jessica Rabbit. Alicia is a standard hot dumb blonde, tongues are wagging from all the men when she's around. She gets hired for her looks and connections, Lety also gets hired for her skill. They were both hired by...

Fernando - Fernando is the president of Conceptos, his father previously ran the company and is retiring. He is getting married to Marcia. Fernando is a major league womanizer.

Marcia - Fernando's fiancee, partial owner of the company. Her father was Fernando's father's co-owner before dying in an accident.

Omar - VP of the company, but President of the Lusting After Alicia crew. A horrible influence on Fernando, Omar calls him daily from some bar where he always happens to have some extra babe sitting there pining away for Fernando.

Lety's Mom and Dad - Mom is nice and sweet, Dad is horribly over-protective and is convinced that Lety is 30 seconds away from getting mauled by horny guys at any given time. Being her father has made him blind to her plainness I guess.

Tomas - Lety's male counterpart and best friend. A huge nerd who is also highly educated but unemployable due to his horrible look.

This about covers the major players - I'll try and get some stories up soon and within those the minor players will be introduced. Also, I'm new at this, so I haven't figured out how to put pictures in yet. Hopefully you won't all get too impatient with my learning. See you soon!

Chris

Labels: fea-e, synopsis-cast

While looking at a photo of her late husband, Jacinta wonders how his son, Adolfo, turned out to be such a sentimental weakling. How could the blood of Pedro be flowing in his veins? Remedios comes in to say that she going shopping but is drawn into the conversation. She points out that being a family does not mean that everyone is the same.

Jacinta says that Federico would be worthy of being my son because he has the strong character of my father in law. Remedios says that it is not surprising that Jacinta recognizes the characteristics of Don Pedro (this must have been the father of Jacinta’s husband – also confusingly named Pedro) since her and Jacinta’s children are his grandchildren. Jacinta says that sometimes she envies Remedios because Federico is what her son never will be – a true Valladolid.

Adolfo is taking hits from his flask when Valeria comes in to show him what she has done in school. He has a flashback of when he raped Maite. How could he have done this to her? He recoils from the child whom he calls the product of a violation and runs out of the room. Thought bubble of sad, cute child saying, “Why don’t you love me, Papa? Why have you never loved me?”

A seemingly pointless scene of Juanita and an older boy in the library looking for a book Remedios showed to Juanita. They don’t find it in the bookcase in the hacienda. It must be in Remedios’ room.

Fat ugly guy is walking with Unibrow and is overjoyed to hear that Nutria is preggers. Unibrow says they are hoping for a girl. Fat ugly guy notices that even this news is not making Unibrow happy. Unibrow says that he has treated Nutria unjustly. “You feel guilty because you don’t love her?” asks fat ugly guy. “Nutria is a good looking, intelligent and sensible woman. I can never repay her for the love and dedication she has given me and my children all these years.” He hoped that if they had a child together he might feel more for her. Fat ugly guy says that he knows that Unibrow still loves Maite and Unibrow says that he has tried to forget her.

The hookers and Maite huddle under blankets in the chilly prison cell during the night. Magdalena is coughing in a way that in soap operas usually indicates a fatal illness. The other women say that she should see a doctor but she doesn’t have any money.

A person named Rafael comes to get the prostitutes out of prison [I guess he is the corrupt private investigator who has gained the confidence of the prostitues. He is is the one who was harboring evil designs on Veronica when she was alone in the brothel] He has paid the fine or whatever and the women leave the cell.

Now the book finding episode with Juanita becomes clear. Last night, Remedios hid a letter addressed to Maite in a book when someone came into the room. When Juanita fetches this book and carries it away, the letter falls out and Adolfo finds it. He is astonished to find a letter with Maite’s address in Mexico City.

Rafael reports to Federico that the plan to discredit Maite has gone perfectly. Federico says that Jacinta will be very grateful.

Jacinta is in the chapel praying before a painting of woman with broken chains surrounded by flames. [I am unfamiliar with the iconography of this painting. Most people in novelas pray to the Virgin of Guadaloupe].

An agitated Adolfo is searching for Remedios.

The prostitutes are back in the brothel. Magdalena and Maite come in with Veronica. The child first describes an imaginary birthday party with her school friends and then says she can’t remember anything that happened. Everyone is confused.

Manola comes out to eat with her husband and child on the patio. However, Gustavo is furious. “What was she doing alone with Federico in the Valladolid hacienda?” [This happened yesterday and I forgot to put it in my summary. Rodrigo, Manola’s son interrupted Manola and Federico fooling around at the hacienda.]

Adolfo finds his mother in the chapel and says did she know that Remedios has been in communication with Maite. Jacinta replies in a zombie-like fashion that it was Remedios’ fault that she, Jacinta, had to kill Pedro. “You killed my father?” says Adolfo, stupefied. Jacinta goes on to confess to ‘purifying by fire’ Griselda and Martina because they were going to rat her out for drugging Maite. “You can’t be a murderer?” stutters Adolfo. “I am only the humble servant of the Lord” says Jacinta. “You’re completely crazy!” concludes Adolfo and he stumbles out.

Rodrigo has ratted out his mother and Federico to Gustavo. Manola tries to tell Gustavo that the kid misunderstood, she and Federico have been friends forever. They are worried about Adolfo who has been moping since Maite left [SEVEN YEARS!]. Gustavo looks bemused. It isn’t clear if he is going to buy this yarn.

Adolfo runs into Federico. Adolfo won’t tell him why he is so upset. Federico sees the letter to Maite and Adolfo explains that Remedios has been in contact with Maite all this time. Federico says that Remedios was wrong to hide this from Adolfo. Adolfo says he is going to Mexico City RIGHT NOW and find Maite. Federico says, “Wait, I’ll go with you.”

A supernatural wind blows out all the candles in the chapel. Jacinta comes out of her trance apparently not remembering that she blabbed about her crimes to Adolfo.

Manola scolds Rodrigo for blabbing about her and Federico to Gustavo.
Manola thought bubble: She will do what is necessary to set things right. She is not prepared to lose what she has gotten by marrying Gustavo.

Remedios returns and one of the servants says she must see something they have found.

Maite is cooking at the restaurant and then leaves the place in the hands of some other staff. She has to go to Magdalena, who is ill.

Two of Jacinta’s staff are talking amongst the smashed wine casks. Apparently, this is what they showed Remedios. “Who would do this?” one asks. The other suggests that it was Adolfo when he found out that his mother wouldn’t continue with the vineyard scheme.

Magdalena is coughing away but she can’t afford to see a doctor.

Now Remedios is looking for Adolfo but he went off with Federico in the car.

Nutria can’t believe that soon she will be a mother. She never thought she would have a baby and is happy the fertility treatments worked. The doctor told her to be careful in the first months, not lift anything heavy, etc.

At the brothel, Maite says that as soon as Victor gets back, she will go get her daughter. It will be hard but she knows that she will be able to get her back. Rafael comes in. Maite says that he looks familiar. He says no.

Adolfo and Federico arrive at the address in Mexico City that was on the letter – Victor’s restaurant. Adolfo lets Federico go in and ask about her. The waiter says that Maite is not there. She will be back in the morning. Federico asks to use a phone. He calls Rafael and says he needs to know where Maite is. No problem says Rafael.

Unibrow fools around with the engagement ring he gave Maite and has a flashback to when he asked her to marry him. She agreed. Later, when he was in prison, she gave him back the ring and told him she loved someone else. “When will I be able to forget you, Maite?” he asks. “ How much longer will there be this barrier [get it? a Barerra de amor] to me being happy? How much longer?”

Remedios finds out that the letter to Maite is missing from the book.

Federico arranges with Jacaranda and Rafael to make Adolfo believe that Maite is a prostitute. It doesn’t seem to matter that much to him (after all, he just found out his mother is a multiple murderer). He begs Maite to come with him and tells her that they can be happy away from his mother. Maite tells him that she is committed to getting custody of her daughter for which she has scrimped and saved for years. Adolfo tells her that he loves her and to give him a chance. She tells him that all he represents to her is suffering and to go away and never come back.

Rodrigo goes to see his father and says that he is upset that it is his fault that Manola and Gustavo are fighting. Gustavo goes and apologizes to Manola who is fantasizing about making love with Federico. A little smile of triumph crosses her face. She has deceived the old guy again.

In the car with Federico, Adolfo, is, guess what, drinking heavily. Federico says that it must be hard to see that his mother was always right about Maite. Adolfo says that his mother is crazy and Maite is just one of her victims. They get a flat tire.

Valeria is calling, “Papa, Papa” in her sleep and Jacinta comes in to comfort her.

Federico is having trouble loosening the lug bolts on the tire and Adolfo is annoyed at the delay. He comes out to help but can’t loosen the bolts either and Federico mocks him, saying, “You see how useless you are? Adolfo gets angry and says, “You are forgetting your place. You are no more than a cat (no eres mas que un gato). I pay you to follow orders. [Cats follow orders in Mexico? I would like to see that.] Federico says, “You are a drunk and a failure who can’t do anything without your mother’s permission.” Adolfo retorts, “Is this the thanks I get? How dare you call me a failure. You are a miserable bastard, a nobody (un don nadie).”

Federico says, “You might be right. I may not be a Valladolid but Manola and I are lovers and we laughed at you in bed when she was engaged to you.” Adolfo is enraged and Federico pours fuel on the fire by telling him that he has been helping Jacinta with her plans, including running Maite out of the hacienda to earn the place at her side that Adolfo was too useless to take. Adolfo gets a gun out of the glove compartment and aims it at Federico. He forces Federico to kneel on the ground and insults him some more. For some reason, he cocks the gun and then fires it into the air. At that moment, Federico grabs the tire iron and attacks. Adolfo goes down and Federico, screaming, die! die! hits Adolfo again and again. Back at the hacienda, Jacinta feels a pang as her son is killed. This is where the TiVo stopped but whatever I missed will be replayed on Monday’s episode.

Labels: barrera