Refugio Para el Amor #73 Tue 7/17/12 The Truth According to Rosa; Pato Gains Ground on Rod in the Pool

Luciana has just shown the infamous magazine to Paz and Magda, who are flipping through the pages in disbelief.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Estella gets ready to join Marianita in bed. Marianita cradles her magic wand and wishes with all her heart for her mother to return and to return well. But if it’s dangerous for her to return, then Marianita prefers that her mom remains in the States, and she’ll go find her when she’s older.  

Luci spills everything about the surprise attack by the Blonde B/Witches and how she couldn’t defend herself. Magda and Paz are just as upset as Luci to hear how it all went down. “My God, what cruelty (saña) against my daughter.” Luci mentions that they even brought Aquiles from the pueblo to be part of the attack. This really ticks off Magda. Paz asks if Aquiles was there that day. Luci tells them how he came to the apartment to find her, but nothing happened. He left after she told him to leave her in peace. Magda can’t believe people could be so evil. Luci really starts to lose it. Ever since she met Gala and Julie, they have done nothing but make her life hell, just because she isn’t from their class. Paz wants to go tell those women off. “Take me there Luciana! Take me! I’m going to put them in their place!” Luci doesn’t see the reason to. Those women are so stupid that they don’t understand that it’s what inside that counts, not what you have.  They are heartless and soulless. Paz can’t believe she wasn’t there with Luci in these tough moments. Luci tries to calm her down. Everything is over now, and it wasn’t all bad. She also met great people like Lic. Linares, who’s been like and angel for her. Paz’s eyes shoot wide open again. She and Magda give each other the look.

Boris and Hannah are video chatting via their IPads about some math she’s having trouble with. They agree to meet early (6 am!) before classes so that he can help her. Melissa is spending the night in Hannah’s room and is busily working on her thesis. Max comes in to check on the girls. He wants to know how Melissa’s thesis is going, with Claudio. He manages to sound only a little menacing. Melissa is all happy smiles about Claudio. Max tells her not to trust Claudio, but Melissa just doesn’t buy it. “El Lic. is a brilliant man, professional and transparent.” Max says he hopes she’s not mistaken. He’s never doubted that she’s intelligent and hard working- the characteristics of success ( éxito). Hannah jumps in and says she has all of those characteristics of success too, except she’s not as disciplined as Melissa. Max chuckles and tells the girls not to stay up (desvelar) too late, and leaves. Hannah goes back to her conversation with Boris, just as Melissa’s phone rings. It’s Aldo with news that Lorenzo is out of jail. Both girls squeal in delight, and Hannah completely forgets Boris is there. Looks like his patience for Hannah’s preoccupation with Lorenzo is wearing thin. “You’re really happy, right?” Hannah picks up on his annoyance and tries to change the subject back to math, but Boris now has a bad case of the green eyed monster.

Of all the bars in Mexico City, Gabriel and Marcos have to bring Rod to the one where Gala and her crew are celebrating HIS divorce. G&M are happy to run into their girlfriends Valentina and Fernanda and immediately leave with them for the dance floor. Rod is left to sulk at the bar, with Gala waiting to pounce on her prey. She makes the first move by asking across the bar how he is. He gruffly says he’s here. She approaches and says she heard about his divorce. “That’s how you planned it, right? You, Julie and my mother. Congratulations Gala. You got what you wished for.”  Gala acts like the offended party that he would expect the worst of her. She says they shouldn’t continue the conversation because she doesn’t want to fight. “It’s better that I leave, and you continue to celebrate whatever it is you need to celebrate.”  She calls for her posse to bounce. G&M walk the ladies out. Rod can’t believe he was supposed to be marrying Luci in just a few days.

Luci has fallen asleep sitting up in the couch. Paz looks at her daughter and says to Magda that she was supposed to be marrying Rod in two days. “Poor thing. How much she’s suffered. How they have mistreated her Magda. And look at her. With all of that, still studying and trying to get ahead.” Magda points out that Luci has always been a fighter since she was little. Paz doesn’t think she can scold Luci for keeping quiet about things, when she herself has been doing the same thing by not telling her the truth about her origins. Magda says that Paz had to keep quiet because she gave her word/made a promise (juramento). Paz thinks she and Luci have kept their secrets for the same reason. Because of fear. The same fear she feels right now when she thinks of telling Luci the truth. Magda thinks she can’t keep quiet for much longer. Paz says she’s right. Keeping quiet would make her just as bad as Rosa. Luci has the right to know. “Tell her Paz. Tell her now. God knows why we were sent here.”  “Yes. I can no longer continue to keep quiet. My silence has ended.”

More angry workouts from Rod. He flings his water bottle across the room. (Dude, try yoga! Your hair does look better today though.)  

The next day, Luci studies for her exam, but visions of Rod’s face break her concentration. Ariche runs in to say there’s a man downstairs looking for her. She leans over the rails and sees…Patricio! He is pleased that she actually called him by his name instead of Joven. She is thrilled to see him and runs down the stairs with Ariche.

In Het Het, Procopio is taking his new job very seriously and in the midst of counting candles. Luchita comes for a visit, and he brags about all their funerary services, including flower arrangements and wreaths of all kinds of exotic flowers. Luchita has really come to try to steal him to help manage her clothing stalls. She’s diversifying and opening another stall with cheap Chinese made products, like hair accessories and such. Copio thanks her, but he’s already made a commitment to Don Serapio. He offers her use of the phone.

In the apartment courtyard, Luci happily greets Pato. She’s glad to see that he feels and is doing better. “Luci, if I came here today, it’s to tell you that what happened between you and my brother has nothing to do with our friendship. Please. Don’t distance yourself (alejarse) from me because of your divorce.” Luci tells him that won’t happen. She has deep affection and admiration for him. He tells her how good it is to hear that, then invites her to accompany him to his first hydrotherapy session that morning.  She’s always been important for his recuperation. She agrees, but needs to tell her mom first. Pato would love to meet her mom, but has no time now. Luci promises to pass on his greetings. Ariche stays with Pato while Luci runs upstairs. They remember each other from Het Het, before Pato had his accident. Ariche wants to know what happened; why’s he in a wheelchair now? Pato explains he had an accident and how the chair moves without anyone pushing it. Ariche is impressed and wants a ride. He hops on and zips through the courtyard with Pato. Ariche even takes a turn maneuvering the wheelchair controls. Inside Estella’s place, Paz is not pleased to hear Luci is going out to hang with a Torreslanda, but must grudgingly give her permission.

Rod is continuing to vent his pent up emotions by resuming riding his motorcycle to work. Must be nice to have someone waiting at the door with a freshly pressed suit for you. Once inside his office, he calls the big house asking for Pato and finds out from Mati that he’s already left for his first hydrotherapy session. Rod had wanted to accompany him, so he’ll catch up to him. Mati tries to give Rod her condolences about the end of his marriage to Luci, but Hot Head Rod nearly rips her head off and says he doesn’t want to talk about Luci. He doesn’t even want to hear her name. Jerk!

Now that the older ladies have been left alone, Paz can let loose about how p*ssed off she is about the whole Rosa situation. Her daughter shouldn’t have to put up with so much suffering. And she regrets not having told Claudio that Luci is his daughter. “I’m Luci’s mother, and I will put Rosa in her place! The moment has come to confront her. To tell the whole world who that woman really is!”

Luci and Pato’s therapist Jorge watch as he works in the pool with the hydrotherapist. Pato points out that once again Luci is there for an important milestone in his life. He thanks her.

Magda is ready to roll as part of Paz’s posse, but then she wonders if Rosa will even still know who she is. Estella informs them that Rosa remembers perfectly well who Paz is, and got the information out of her during an interrogation. Then Rosa fainted and they had to take her to the hospital.

At the high school, Hannah is apologizing to Boris because she forgot her flash drive with info for her part of their group presentation with Lula. It’s obvious that he’s upset about more than the presentation. Boris takes her home to get the flash drive.

Connie gingerly approaches Rosa as she pours herself some tea, and notes that Rosa has seemed much better these last few days, than the last many weeks and months. She’s been worried about her. Rosa apologizes for all the bad moments over the last months, and thanks her for always being at her side. “Come what may (pase lo que pase), you are my sister. And I love you. I love you a lot. And I’ll always be by your side.” (Oh Connie. Rosa is so not worth that kind of dedication.) Rosa asks her to help her recover Rod’s love and respect. He was so rude (grosero) to her when she made that toast yesterday. (You know, the toast to his DIVORCE from the woman he loves.) Connie says that Rosa has to understand that he’s really hurting. Stepford Wife Rosa pours her tea and says that Rod will thank her eventually and see that everything she’s done is for his good. Connie hasn’t yet learned that you can’t reason with a crazy person (or a Pod Person) and tries to make Rosa see that she can’t control and dominate Rod. Rosa begs for Connie’s help with Rod again. Connie says she will always help Rosa, but she's worried about her. She’s not herself. Sometimes, she doesn’t even know who Rosa is. (BINGO! Because she’s a Stepford Pod Person!) Rosa gets all wide eyed and creepy. Whatever do you mean? You know me. I’m your sister. You surprise me Connie.

C: I don’t know you completely. You went to see Claudio Linares and you haven’t told me what you said to him.
R: I told him the truth.
C: What truth Rosalena?!
R: The TRUTH. Only the truth Connie.
C: There is only one *truth* Rosalena! And if you had told him, Claudio would be here, incriminating you for giving away his daughter when she was a baby.
R: What are you saying to me? I’m not Claudio Linares. Each person reacts differently. If Claudio has remained so tranquil after I told him the truth, then what do you expect me to do?

Connie grabs her and tries to shake the real truth out of her.

C: What did you tell Claudio Linares?!!
R: (Smiling and looking at Connie like she’s the crazy one.) Connie, I just asked you for some advice about my son Rodrigo. I didn’t want to speak about Claudio Linares. Ay, sister. At times you are so strange.

Rosa walks out of the room, as cool as a cucumber, and Connie shakes her head in frustration.

Claudio meets with Barrera and Norma. They look at his supposed signature on the fraud documents and his real signature. A side by side comparison shows that they are very similar, but not the same. Norma thinks they can prove he was not in Germany on those dates by getting old credit card info and travel docs to show he was in another country at the time. Claudio is sure that very soon it will be Max behind bars (las rejas).

Paz wants to just go find Rosa already, but Magda wants to make sure they know where they are going first. Estella knows perfectly well where the Torreslanda house is, so she will go with them.

On the corner, Ariche, Fabian, and Lorenzo are enjoying some street vendor tacos. Aldo walks up and joins them. Lorenzo tells Aldo that he and Fabian are still looking for work. In typical Aldo style, he offers to invest in any business that Fabian and Lorenzo think up. Ariche suggests that they sell tacos, since everybody loves tacos! Aldo thinks it’s a good idea. The kid has imagination. Aldo decides to make Ariche one of their partners. Ariche calls Aldo a mushashon loco. (Out of the mouth of babes.)

Padre Honesto is being driven to once again speak to his superiors about his special case—Rosalena Torreslanda. This time he’s seeing the Bishop about Rosa’s blasphemous “confession” about desecrating the graves and lying to Claudio about the remains of his wife and child. Never in all his years as a priest has he heard such a thing! The Bishop agrees that this is an extraordinary act that would shock anyone. But their duty (deber) as priests is to counsel precisely this kind of tortured soul. Padre Honesto wants his advice as his spiritual guide. The Bishop doesn’t seem to quite know what to advise him.

Paz, Magda and Estella arrive at the big house. Paz is amazed. The Torreslanda’s did not live in such a big, luxurious (lujo) house when she and Galdino were their gardeners. Max must have done well for himself over the years. Paz wonders if they’ll let them in. As they discuss this, Hannah runs out, greets Estella, and tells the guard to let them in.

Luci chats happily with Pato by the pool as his therapy continues. Rod walks in behind Luci, says good afternoon, and initiates a stare down.

Frigida is unfortunately the first person that Paz and her crew encounter at the front entrance. She laughs at them when they say they want to speak to Señora Torreslanda. Mati comes out of the house and is shocked to find Paz there. Both she and Frigida seem very aware that the crap is going to hit the fan with Luci’s mama come to find Rosa. Mati tells her that Rosa isn’t there right now. Too bad, because Paz doesn’t intend to leave until she speaks with Rosa about her daughter Luci. Estella takes Magda to the kitchen (via the servants’ entrance), while Mati takes Paz off to her room to talk.

Rosa comes to Padre Honesto’s office, but luckily he’s away seeing the Bishop. She orders the altar boy that’s in the office to tell the Padre she needs to see him, ASAP.

In her room, Mati tells Paz that she knew this day would come one day. Before she goes further, she walks over to her door, yanks it open, and Frigida nearly falls in, ear first. “Brigida, did you lose something? Come on in so that you can hear better.” Frigida says it’s not her style to look for gossip. (Give me a fricking break!) Mati shoos her off, then turns the radio on and puts it right up to the door.

Rod and Luci walk Pato out of the hydrotherapy center. Pato explains how he picked up Luci because it was important to him that she be at the first session. Luci says she’ll be at as many of them as Pato wants. Rod asks how Pato feels. He’s super tired from the session, but he feels good. Rod wants to drop him off at home, but Pato wants to drop Luci back home first. Luci tries to say she’ll find her way home alone, but Pato insists. She leans down and thanks him for letting her be part of something so important to him. He thanks her. They smile at each other. Rod scowls. Rod offers to take Luci home. She refuses, then slips away as he’s signing some medical papers for Pato.

Paz tells Mati that it was never her intention to return. But does she know how she felt last night when her daughter told her how Rosa has treated her? How she manipulated her son in order to separate them, making her out to be a slut. How she broke her Luci's heart separating her from the man she loves.

M: What can I tell you Paz? What’s done is done. Destiny, sooner or later, puts everything in its place.
P: That’s why I came Matilde. To tell the truth! To put Señora Rosalena in her place!
M: (Shaking her head.) Mi niña, Rosalena. (Oh, how I want to slap Mati each time she says that!)
P: Yes, Matilde. If your patrona hadn’t seen fit to tear my Luciana to pieces, I wouldn’t be here.  But I’m not going to allow her to keep harming her!

The Ice Queen is at the moment in her chariot, and has called Gala. She needs to speak to Gala urgently.

Rod returns to the office and gives Gabriel the update on Pato’s therapy. He then says he saw Luci at Pato’s therapy. “And?” “Nothing.” The only thing Rod discovered is that he doesn’t want to see her anymore. Jerk! He feels like an idiot (so true) and vulnerable when he’s near her. Gabriel says there is always an opportunity to correct a mistake. This is Rod’s opportunity. Max walks in and asks how Rod is. Rod says he’s fine, but Max isn’t buying it. “In less than a month you got married and then got divorced. I want you to know that I don’t want to know how you got to this point. You are what’s important to me. I just want to know that you’re well.” Rod once again says he’s fine. Max invites him out to eat, Rod’s treat.

Luci returns to Vio’s and asks where her mom is. Vio says she went out with Magda and Estella. (If only they knew where.) Luci is just about to tell Vio about running into Rod when there’s a knock at the door. It’s the male version of cling-wrap, Marcial, wanting to “explain” the fact that he’s married with kids for the umpteenth time. Vio doesn’t want to hear it. Luci decides to leave them alone and heads to Estella’s. Vio explains to Marcial that she’s no one’s sloppy seconds (plato de segunda mesa). “I love you Violeta, and I know that you also love me.” “Let me go! Leave me in peace!” (Sueltame! Dejame en paz!) She’s already got enough problems with her mama there. She doesn’t need another. He asks, how can he leave her in peace when he loves her?

Magda and Estella chat in the kitchen. Estella hopes that speaking with Mati will help calm Paz down a bit before she speaks with Rosa, because with the way Rosa is, things could get really ugly. Magda is surprised to hear how scary Rosa can be. Although it shouldn’t surprise her given that the woman was able to just give away a newborn baby.

Meanwhile, in Mati’s room, the pre-confrontation conversation continues.
P: Tell me Mati, La Señora Rosa knew exactly who my Luciana is, right?
M: Yes Paz. Yes she knew. She found out a little while ago.
P: And even so, she had the cynicism to treat her as she did? That woman is a demon disguised (disfrazado) as an angel!
M: No Paz. What it is, is that she has a great fear that if the truth is discovered her family would judge her for what she’s done. (I don’t see how this negates what Paz said. Can I slap Mati now?)
P: That is an absurd justification! Cowardice! Wicked/Despicable! (Canalla) Not the actions of a woman who flaunts her morality/rectitude, her religiosity. With greater reason Mati, that she SHOULD have treated my Luciana well, if simply just to respect the memory of the woman who gave her daughter over to her care. Did you tell her that I was willing to come here and tell the whole truth?
M: Yes. And she told me that she was willing to confront you.
P: Well here I am. And if it’s necessary, yes I will tell. I won’t do it for me, but for Luciana. Because she’s lost part of her life. At what moment did my Luci decide to come here to try her luck/make her way? I should have never permitted her to leave the pueblo.
M: What you need to keep clear in your mind is that even if Luci learns the truth, for her, her mother will always be you. She adores you and will eternally be grateful to you and Galdino for all you have done for her as her parents.

Paz says she knows, but thinks it will be natural for Luci to feel betrayed when she finds out the truth. Paz will have to carry the guilt of that the rest of her life. But Luci has to start living the life she was meant to live. Just yesterday Claudio Linares was with them. “Do you know how it was for me to see father and daughter together?” Mati freaks out. Paz says that Linares is such a warm (calido) man, so caring and he loves Luci like a father. “Luciana has a right to know that her father is alive.” She has a right to live a better life without deprivation (privaciones). And most of all she has a right to live with her father, if that’s what she wants.

Back at Vio’s, Marcial is still singing the same tune, but he hasn’t worn Vio down. She opens the door for him to go.  She gives meaning to his life. He’s just asking for a little more time. Blah, blah, blah. “Take all the time you need. But in the meantime, leave me in peace!” He can’t stop thinking about her a single moment. He comes up behind her and puts his arms around her. Just then, his crazy wife storms in, triumphant that she’s caught the pair of cheaters in the act!

Avances: Rosa and Paz rumble in the library! Who will come out the victor?