Amor Bravío #7-8 (Uni 4) Thu 8/16/12 Amor Impotente

Isadora and Dionisio break off their flirtation so Alonso doesn't see them.  Isadora says they'll have to see what they guy's like once he gets there, though Dionisio thinks no one in his right mind would try to get rid of the ranch.  Dionisio feels out Alonso's commitment to the plan, accompanied by a gunshot sound effect.  He denies any murderous intentions and claims to be thinking of putting pressure on the guy.  "We all have secrets…weak spots."  Alonso seems relieved that Dio isn't thinking of murder.  He says they should investigate the guy and Isadora gives him a fake proud mommy smile.  Dionisio takes his leave, and as Isadora walks him to the door, she agrees that Alonso is horribly lacking in backbone.  "Good thing you've got extra."

Camila LIES to her mom and says everything's fine with her and Alonso.  If she seems off it's just the death of her uncle, that's all.  Agustina is glad that Camila has the motivation of having a happy marriage to get her through these bad times.  And isn't it great that Alonso loves her sooo much.  Ick!  Camila says she's been thinking that as soon as this Daniel guy shows up, she'll leave.  Agustina gripes at Dead!Daniel for begetting a sun on another woman.  Camila tells her to chill--we don't even know if it's really his son.  Agustina thinks Padre Baldy is covering up for Dead! Dan's peccadilloes (hey, that looks like a word in English that came from Spanish…according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origin is "late 16th century: from Spanish pecadillo, diminutive of pecado 'sin', from Latin peccare 'to sin'").  She thinks that Camila should have been given the ranch after all the love and affection she gave her uncle.  Camila reminds her she didn't love him with ulterior motives.  Plus she's got a ton of money and the house in town, so it's not like she's been left penniless.  Camila suggests mama pipe down.  She asks if Agustina is still planning to go to Monterrey, but all Agustina replies is "Your uncle Daniel was a selfish man.  Selfish!  Just like every other man!"  So…I guess that's a no?

Alonso checks with Natalia, who claims she didn't talk to Don Daniel recently.  She hadn't seen him in a looong time.  Alonso buys it.  He asks her to pack up, because they're moving the office to the ranch.  "Since the old dude kicked it…um, since he's dead…I'm going to have to be there all the time."  Natalia is trying to get some clarification, but she's understandably confused, and refers to the ranch as being "way out there."  Her questioning pisses him off and after he tells her to get another phone line installed at the ranch he says that if it's too much trouble for her to go sooo far out there, then she should just let him know so he can find a replacement.  Natalia sputters at his back.

Aculco, Estado de México [drink!]

Natalia's mom is visiting Padre Baldy and explaining that though she knows it's wrong to lie, she knows that's the only way Natalia's going to keep her job.  After all, it was Don Daniel who didn't want anyone to know, and, well, you know how Alonso is.  Don't we all.  She calls him "sangron" (annoying)  and "prepotente" (arrogant).  He may be a decent guy to everyone else, but poor Natalia has to put up with his snotty side.  Baldy asks if she's sure.  "Puh-leeze!  He's nothing like he pretends to be!"

Días después… [with running bulls…drink, drink?]

The lawyer comes to visit the ranch while they're having breakfast.  He stopped by to tell them that Daniel will be in Mexico tomorrow.  Agustina is grumpy.  Camila asks where the transfer will take place--at the ranch, or at the lawyer's office.  "He left that up to you."  Alonso advises they do it at the office, so Daniel won't see what an awesome ranch it is and try to take it away from her right away.  Camila looks at him in confusion.  "I'm not trying to deceive anyone!"  Camila asks the lawyer to tell Daniel that after the office, he should come out and see the ranch and he can take possession whenever he wants.  And as soon as we sort out his wife and her husband, then he can take possession whenever he wants, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.  What?  You were thinking it too.  Alonso and Agustina look predictably unhappy.

Daniel gives an exuberant "Good Morning" to Miriam and the baby…who she has decided to call Cynthia.  Daniel objects that if it's a girl, she'll be named after her mama, and if it's a boy, he'll be named "Diego."  Miriam argues that it's either Cynthia or Daniel.  Daniel tries to pull rank as the reigning macho, but Miriam laughs him off until he subdues her with tickling.  She wisely suggests they wait and see if it's a boy or a girl, that way they're only fighting over one name.  She's been doing some nesting and she's planning a super-special bon voyage dinner.  Daniel doesn't like leaving her behind, but he says he's going to call every day.  This amid smoochies.  Yeah, her days are so numbered.  "I miss you already."  *smoochies*

Osvaldo, the lawyer, agrees to do what Camila has asked.  He leaves and Alonso starts berating her and asking why she can't understand that he's just trying to protect her.  Camila fires back that she doesn't need to be protected from a decision her uncle made.  She refuses to trick the guy, but she'll negotiate with him if he's interested, she's just going to be aboveboard about it.  She excuses herself to go vaccinate some animals.  Alonso begs Augstina to help him convince Camila to fight for what's "rightfully hers."  Agustina gets it, but she's tried and Camila's too stubborn.  Alonso puts on the wounded act, saying he has no pull with her, even as her husband.  Agustina feels sorry for him.

Isadora calls Dionisio to tell him that Daniel will be getting to La Malquerida tomorrow.  Dionisio's not worried.  He laughs, saying when she gets to know him, she'll know that when he says something's taken care of, it's taken care of.  "Let La Malquerida wait for the arrival of Daniel Acosta…he'll never arrive!"

Santiago de Chile [drink!]

A not at all suspicious-looking guy in a black trench coat watches Daniel come out of his building.

Daniel goes down to an outdoor market and wonders what surprises Mexico holds for him.

Natalia is supervising the movers.  Camila arrives and is surprised, in an unpleasant way, to hear that her husband is planning to move his office into her uncle's old office.  She goes off in search of the little weasel while Natalia runs after her.

Two guys are getting ready to move Don Daniel's portrait off the wall, but Camila tells them to leave it where it is.  She dismisses the movers so she can talk to her weasel alone.  He claims he thought it was more practical to move his office there since he didn't want to be away from her.  "You didn't ask me about it!"  Camila thinks there's no point moving his crap into her uncle's office when his son will be there tomorrow and they'll be leaving.  Alonso insists that if she won't fight for what's "hers" then he will, no matter what the cost.  Natalia is listening from outside the office.  Camila doesn't want him to do anything until they find out what Daniel's plans are.  Alonso is sure he wants to sell off the ranch and take the money back home to Chile with him.  Camila is tired of him jumping to conclusions.  She wants him to understand that their jobs at the ranch are in no way secure and they need to find out what Daniel's plans are.  He wants her to understand that everything he's doing, he's doing for her.  Dude, Bryan Adams is convincing when he says that…you?  Not so much.  He bitches at her for disrespecting his authority in front of the "empleaduchos" (and don't believe the closed captions when they say this means "servants"…nor is it "employees"…what he means is something closer to "filthy underlings").  After all he is the man of the house.  Little lesson for you here, dumbass…when you have to explain to people that you're the one in charge…YOU'RE NOT!  Real men don't have to remind people every five minutes that they're men.  You are nothing but a boy with a Napoleon complex and a cheap suit.  He walks out and she looks sadly at the portrait of Don "I Never Had To Remind Everybody My Balls Were The Biggest" Daniel.

Natalia comes home while her mom is taking a grocery delivery.  Amanda, the mom, says they'll have a new guest starting tomorrow.  Natalia is glad to hear it, since she's not sure if she'll have a job for much longer.  She tells Amanda about the fight Alonso and Camila had.  Amanda agrees it's not easy to have one's husband underfoot all day.  [But she works outside with the cows, so he'd only be underfoot if he was under the feet of the cows, so…hey, that's an idea!]  She also gets that it saves on rent to have the office out at the ranch, especially now that Don Daniel is gone.  Natalia said what the fight was really about was that Don Daniel didn't leave the ranch to Camila--he left it to his son who lives in Chile.  "Say what?!"  Amanda needs to hear the whole thing now.  Amanda wonders if the kid's coming here. Natalia says they'll know more tomorrow when he shows up.

Alonso has been checked out by a doctor and there's no physical reason for his ONE and ONLY incidence of erectile dysfunction.  The doc says it must be an emotional reason--stress, anxiety, depression, lack of self-esteem, fatigue, competition with one's partner, lack of sexual stimulus.  The doc suggests he see a psychologist, but Alonso says he doesn't need a shrink.  If its not physical, that's all he needs.

Santiago de Chile [drink!]

Not at all suspicious trench coat guy now pulls on some not at all suspicious gloves and a not at all suspicious gun, which he waves around before sticking it in his pants.

Miriam answers the phone.  Daniel's on his way home…with roses…she's so dead.  She says everything's ready and it's going to be a really special night.  She's dead, Jim.  She tells him to hurry…she wants to smooch on him.  Daniel hurries up.  Dead, dead, dead, dead.

Camila answers the phone at the hacienda.  Alonso called to tell her he doesn't want to keep fighting.  Camila wants him to respect that she wants to honor her uncle's will.  Alonso invites her out to dinner in the city.  She says he sounds happy.  Alonso agrees he is and later he'll find out what they're celebrating.  He wants her to get dolled up so they can go party.

Trench coat guy approaches the apartment and sees Miriam walk by.  He picks the lock and gets inside.  Miriam's spritzing herself with perfume.  He throws her onto the bed as she screams for Daniel and screams for help.

Daniel gets to the door with the roses.

Miriam kicks the guy in the face and gets to the front door of the apartment.

Daniel can hear her yelling and races up the stairs, leaving the roses.  He gets inside and grabs Trench around the neck, yelling at Miriam to get out of the apartment.  She keeps standing there screaming while Daniel fights the guy.  They end up struggling over the gun and guess who gets shot.  Yep.  Goodbye Miriam.  The Journal of Telenovela Forensics will never be able to adequately explain to us how the gun hit you when it was pointed at the floor when it went off and not pointed back in your direction the way it was about five seconds before it went off.  Rest assured that your death will not be in vain.  Your memory and the memory of your unborn child will torment Daniel and keep him from having a guilt free-relationship, or a full night's sleep, until we hit Ultimas Semanas.  Farewell, dear Miriam.

She's not dead just yet.  Daniel holds her, doesn't call 911, and doesn't do much of anything to stop the bleeding, hands not being absorbent.  The neighbors start filtering in as Daniel screams at them to call for an ambulance, to find Abraham's number in the phone book and call him.

Alonso is pouring on the charm at dinner.  He doesn't want to talk about the ranch, etc.  He just wants them to have an "incredible" night.  He orders champagne.  Camila is intrigued.  Alonso says it's because he loves her and his ED isn't physical…and because they're doing the nasty tonight.  All night.  Camila says that sounds like a great idea, but…she acts embarassed.  The champagne arrives and they toast to an unforgettable evening.  Which the closed captioning translates as "unforgivable" giving me the best laugh I've had all day.

Santiago de Chile [drink!]

Miriam isn't dead yet.  Paramedics are taking her.  Abraham shows up and Daniel tells him what happened.  Abraham tells his flunky to do a thorough investigation.  And there's the gun, right there on the floor.

Camila is champagne drunk.  She and Alonso start making out on the stairs.  She's trying to talk to him about whether he really loves her, whether they can make this work.  She crawls farther up the stairs, giggling and shushing him because her mother's upstairs.  She keeps on crawling.  It's like that scene with Regan coming down the stairs in The Exorcist.  Only she's going up instead of down.  And this is way creepier.

Trench the Hench calls Dionisio and says things didn't quite go as planned.  Trench gets his ass verbally handed to him.  Dionisio orders him not to return until he kills them both…"and no more mistakes!"

The grossness continues in the bedroom…

They cut away to the hospital as they're running down the hall with the gurney and the paramedics are giving the doctors information on Miriam.  She's 8 weeks pregnant, but the closed captioning mistranslates "ocho semanas" as "eight months."  Daniel is predictably stopped and told he has to wait in the lobby.  I guess his surgery privileges from Private Practice don't extend to Telenovelandia.  He screams to Miriam that he loves her from the hallway.  Abraham shows up and promises to find the bastard who shot his sister and he'll rot in jail the rest of his life.

Once again, Alonso fails.  And blames it on Camila.  She castrates him with her attitude or something.  Camila now brings up the possibility of it being an emotional problem, since the doctor cleared him physically.  He keeps blaming her, saying she does it to him.  "Fine, then the problem is leaving!"  She storms out, while he's left behind in his robe and socks.  That's, um…not the most virile look he's sporting, there.  He has carnal relations with a pillow.

Meanwhile, Camila snuggles with her ENORMOUS dog.

The doctor comes out of surgery to say Miriam lost a lot of blood, but the bullet didn't hit the heart or lungs.  The baby is made of titanium, so s/he is fine.  Daniel can't understand what's happening.  He tells Abraham that Miriam was fixing dinner.  Abraham says it was the same way with their dad…one minute he was fine, and then….  Daniel says very forcefully that Miriam's not going to die.  Daniel, if that's really what you want, then please stop being a walking anvil magnet!

Aculco, Estado de México [drink!]

Padre Baldy finishes saying mass and approaches Amanda.  She tells him she found out that Daniel left the ranch to Agatha's son.  "Natalia found out and she told me.  As far as I knew, Don Daniel didn't know Agatha had had a son."  Padre Baldy says he told Daniel.  "But Agatha didn't want him to know!  Of course they're both dead now."  Padre Baldy asks if the kid really was Daniel's.  Amanda says that Agatha always denied it, but….  She figures if the kid couldn't have his father's affection, maybe at least he can have his ranch.

Alonso comes downstairs for breakfast.  Camila must have left early.  Agustina says Camila will probably be there soon…she always loses track of time when she's with the animals.  Camila walks in just as Alonso's saying they had a great night.  She changes the subject, asking Agustina if she's fixed up the guest room for Daniel, since they don't know his plans.  Neither Agustina nor Alonso want the "bastard" [drink!] staying there.  Camila reminds them that the so-called bastard is the owner of everything now, and if he is a bastard, that's not his fault--it's his father and mother's.  Agustina gripes that he may be a victim, but he's going to take away everything that should have been hers.  Agustina storms off, leaving Camila with an Alonso who's trying to be affectionate again.  She tosses her pastry on the table and says she's lost her appetite.

Daniel is allowed to hang out outside of Miriam's room in intensive care.  He tells her the baby is fine and so is she.  He knows she's going to recover.  He can't figure out why a thief would want to break into their house.  He says that Abraham is going to find the guy.  He's going to call Mexico and find out what this inheritance thing is about and use the money to take her to the best hospitals.  He wants everything to go back to the way it was before.  The whole time, he's remembering some trip they took where he had to haul her up a bunch of stairs on her back--good times.  He remembers the wedding and the honeymoon.  He plants a kiss on the glass.

Abraham's lackey hasn't found any sign of the thief.  None of the neighbors saw anyone but Daniel and Miriam in the apartment.  There's no sign of a break-in.  The gun has the serial numbers filed off and is a more sophisticated weapon than common thieves usually use.  Miriam has a life insurance policy worth millions and Daniel is the beneficiary.  His friend Dante is the one who sold her the policy.  And he has a ticket to fly to Mexico, even though his job offer there had supposedly fallen through.  Abraham, fueled by the suspicions of his lackey jumps to the wrong conclusion.

At La Malquerida, Piedad has brought Camila some coffee and bread.  Camila asks her to make something special for dinner, but nothing too spicy, since they don't know if Daniel likes spicy food.  Alonso comes to visit, griping at her for not sleeping with him and not eating breakfast with him.  He doesn't want everybody to know they're having problems.  She calls him on is crap, saying it's all supposed to be her fault anyway.  "Yes, but you're my wife and I don't want you exposed to gossip."  He begs her to move back into their bedroom.  "If you want me back in our bedroom, then you have to get psychological help.  Either get treatment and we can have a normal marriage or I'll quit pretending we're the perfect couple."  Alonso leaves and Camila fumes.

The would-be murderer, who has now added a not at all suspicious baseball cap to his ensemble, is in the hospital waiting room.  Daniel doesn't recognize him.

Leoncio, one of the servants, has come to tell Camila that the lawyer is there.  Camila accidentally asks "Is my cousin with him?"  then tells Leoncio to forget it.  She leaves and Leoncio wonders who she's talking about when she says "cousin."

Trench approaches Daniel and asks why he's there.  Daniel says a guy came into their house and shot his wife.  They're looking for the guy, so they're sure to find him.  "Oh, did you get a good look at him?"  "No, but they'll find him, I know it."  Trench offers him a coffee from the machine and then fakes a cramp, asking Daniel to please help him with the coffee.  He pulls out a knife….

Tomorrow: Daniel doesn't make it to Mexico, Dionisio throws a hissy fit, Daniel curses his inheritance.