Refugio Para el Amor #37-38 Wed 6/20/12

Hi! I must admit that I lack the fortitude for these two hour episodes. I just get so tired by 9, and I can barely finish the recap. Is there any generous soul out there who could save my butt by blogging the second half of this show? I would be eternally grateful. I'm wistfully thinking back to the good old days when a show was a show, lasted an hour, and I could wrap it up and get something else done before I fell asleep!

Thanks thanks thanks!

Gala is talking to her girls and telling them that OBVI Rod doesn't have any real feelings for the servant girl. That hussy just threw herself at him, and, you know, "a quien dan pan que llore?" (Who cries about getting free bread?).

The next scene is in a temple so bizarre that I think it's a dream sequence. It's a hollow earthen dome with circular bleacher-style seating carved into the earth and candles everywhere. I studied Mexican archaeology when I studied abroad, and I was not aware of any indigenous cultures that built things that were round. Luci is having her moment of love with Rod, and the camera twirls around them. She wears the traditional white dress and hot pink headband of her native culture, and he wears the ugly sweater of his. They smile and kiss!
It doesn't last long, though. As soon as they leave they run into a pouting Arichel (this show's version of Familia's Temo), who doesn't want Rod getting mushy with his Luci. They walk him home.

Gala is scheming with Lastro about Luci. Lastro is trying to get her to cough up for some dirt on the girl.

Rosalena's neverending fit continues to not end. Matilde tries to tell her how much simpler everything would be if she let her son make his own decision (right? but then that would eliminate 95% of this show). Rosalena will not have her son marrying a servant. Frigida to Matilde: "You're betraying your boss."

Ugh. Rod makes nice with Arichel, who makes him spit-swear to protect Luci as her new guardian. They spit in their palms and smear them together. "Es un trato!"

Rosalena is praying to HER virgencita (my mom's first reaction: ooh, she's praying to some evil witch. To be fair, the shrine was very dark and she wasn't totally paying attention) to distance Luci from Rod.

Pat to Maximino: the only thing you're going to do with this effort to stop Rod from getting what he wants is pushing him away from this house.

Luci's mom tries to give her the "You two are from different worlds" talk, familiar from dozens of movies and plays. I think my favorite version of this talk was in George of the Jungle when the heroine's mom tries to convince a be-loincloth-ed Brendan Fraser to stay away from her daughter... But I digress. Luci pouts a bit and ignores her. "Look me in the eyes and tell me if you want a hard life full of troubles or a happy life," the mom asks. Leading the witness?

Aldo calls Vicky, who is trying not to wake her dad. She goes down to the street to smooch Aldo, but her dad catches them in the act! "Is HE your osito?" The dad proceeds to grill the terrified boy.
 Rosalena is freaking at Max for not being mean enough to Luci. "What, do you work hard, day and night, trampling your enemies to make more money, just so your son can get with a serving girl?"

Rod proposes, but asks the mom's permission! Mom flips out, runs away, the friend follows her, and Rod looks surprised and unhappy.

Rosa is hyperventilating in bed, and Max can't sleep. She blames him for being self-centered. He reccommends she see a psychiatrist and heads off to the couch, while she mutters "te odio" into the pillow.

Aldo tries to argue with Vicki's dad. "We're friends!" "Friends don't kiss on the mouth."

Luci's mom and her friend do an awful lot of overacting and alluding to her terrible secret.

Rod decides to head into the lion's den, confronting the scary mom.. You'd think if he was planning to propose, he'd wear a less-awful sweater. He tells her he's ready to do absolutely anything for Luci, and she says she thought the same thing when she gave birth to Luci and held the girl in her arms. She makes one last pathetic attempt to stop him with the "your family won't accept her" speech, to predictably little effect, and the cheesy music plays!

Gala flashbacks to Rod's speech at the engagement party, and finally gets what a jerk Rod was to her and everyone.

Mom gives them her reluctant blessing to fight every day to stay together.

Violeta will now get to sing every day!

Rod wants to climb the mountain to see the sunrise. He also says that if necessary, he'll separate himself from his mom, but he will never renounce his happiness.

Rod jumps rope in his empty new apartment, and ignore's Gala's call. In fact, he throws his sweat-towel at it. Then he gets dressed up, puts on some cologne, and smirks at himself in the mirror. Then he goes to Dad at work to tell him he's going to Marry Luci. Max advises him that love and marriage are two entirely different things. He should know, right? Then Rod asks him not to tell Rosa or Gala.

Luci is making pots, happier than ever!

The cheeriest villain I've ever seen strides in to find Luci at her pots. He tells her that it's his house now!

Frigida overhears Rod telling Pat about the proposal, but Matilde catches her and chides her for it. Gala prepares to do something drastic. She calls Lastro and tells him she wants everything on Luci, no matter the cost!

Vicky tels Aldo she can't date him because she's already going out with an old married dude. She leaves, and he sits down in a swing and feels small.

Luci's mom and her friend go to Galdino's grave and over-act some more.

Serapio, the undertaker wants a new image for his business. What could that be?

Rosalena is mad that Rod didn't let her know that he was home. She accepts that he can go back to his own apartment, but he tells her that he went to see Luci and her eyes bug out a bit.

Gala's meeting with Lastro: gives him a fat envelope of cash. He looks inside, frowns, and tells her that Luci used to attend clients in an "antro de mala muerte" (house of ill repute? den of iniquity? wretched hive of scum and villainy?). She wants the facts. It was at Inferno, Lastro says, and she she "served the clients," and there was one guy in particular who got super mad! She wants proof... he said the guy withdrew his suit after it became clear that someone in the Torresland family was protecting her! He'll give up one last detail if she pays up a little more.

Rosa to Pat, when he says that Luci was like a Torreslanda: I am capable of forgetting that you're my son!

Gala's mom has come to Infierno to get dirt... she knows luci's brother works here. Vioteta sees her and gets nervous. Vicky appears to have changed her mind about Aldo. Violeta unlocks a door for Luci's bro, the "favor of his life."

Aldo goes in, gets on the security computer, looks something up and starts loading it on a thumb drive. Gala asks Violeta (who's waiting on her) if she knew a Luci who worked here, but Violeta covers it up. Aldo and Vicky get caught! each says - he invitred me! They're terrified, and race on out of there. She's sobbing. She admits that she's been dating his uncle Max. That's it.

Meanwhile, Rod sets us up for the gossip-bomb by calling Luci the purest girl in the world!

Thanks for reading, guys!