THURSDAY 15/01/15 ON WHAT LIFE TOOK FROM ME EPISODE 99 Pedro asks Adolfo if he wants to take his place as the next municipal president. Oddly, Adolfo seems less than thrilled at the opportunity. Meanwhile at the naval base... José Luis cleans out his locker. Refugio, close to tears at the unfairness of his friends sacrifice, chases away gawkers. Dimitrio asks if there is anything they can do to help. JL is comfortable with his decision and its consequences, including jail time. He makes them promise not to tell anyone the true circumstances of his discharge. He doesnt want Angélica to know. He wants her to die in his arms with a smile on her face. And he wants Montserrat to be happy with Alejandro and her son. Refugio starts to pop tall but JL cuts him off with a smile and a hug. Dim extends his hand and ends up with a hug too. JL can count on him, he says. JL leaves with all his belongings in a cardboard box. A municipal president outsources when appropriate, but maintains strict process control Nadia enters, apparently having been summoned by Pedro. Pedro is surprised she isnt with her lapdog, Victor. While they wait for him, Nadia warns him not to tell Victor shes trying to conceive. Then she tries a bluff: she wont get pregnant until Alejandro is set free. This just enrages Pedro (and unlike the Patio, he doesnt even know shes already pregnant). When Victor arrives, Pedro rebukes them for talking to Barajas. He insists that Barajas failure to name Alejandro as his accomplice doesnt mean that Ale is innocent. And he warns Nadia that if she tries to undercut him again, it will be Victor who suffers the consequences. Rosario visits Alejandro in jail . She tells him that Padre Anselmo is distraught over getting bamboozled out of Joaquins suicide note. Tell the padre he isnt angry, says Alejandro. Is Montserrat with her? No, Montserrat has gone to talk to Captain Robledo about having José Luis removed from the investigation. Rosario bad-mouths JL until Alejandro cant listen any more. He finally tells her that Montserrat is wrong: JL is not acting against him; in fact he is helping him get his freedom. Montserrat bumps into JL on her way to see Captain Robledo . She is going to tell the captain all the crap (porquerías) hes doing to hurt Alejandro. [Im pretty sure she stamps her pretty little foot, but we dont see it on camera.] He tells her not to bother. Hes already been kicked out of the navy. Shes glad. He deserves to be punished. Time will tell, says JL, and he leaves her alone with her righteous indignation. Alejandro explains to his mother that José Luis wants Montserrat to think the worst of him. He is doing it to make sure she stays away from him. Rosario thinks JL is doing the right thing. Alejandro confesses that he is still tormented by jealousy of the history JL and his wife have. And yet he is uncomfortable with this lie. He was going to tell Montserrat the truth. Then what made him change his mind? asks Rosario. He says JL confessed to having kissed Montserrat a la fuerza and claimed he couldnt control himself. Later Montserrat said nothing about the kiss. Maybe she felt something too. Alejandro is so confused. Should he tell her the truth? No, answers Rosario without hesitation. [When DamFab was unjustly imprisoned, he used the time to study Othello. Just sayin...] Montserrat makes a tearful plea. Alejandro is innocent, she tells Captain Robledo. He says he is following procedure, doing his duty, and these things take time. She understands, and shes glad he has removed José Luis from the investigation. He agrees that using JL was an error; he had too much personal involvement in the case. As for discharging him from the navy, he struggles to follow the law without committing an injustice. [Careful observers on The Patio may notice the good Robledos inconsistency: this is, after all, the same man who came to accept Lieutenant Avellanedos death as self-defense. Burn drug money to protect an innocent man? You go to jail. Shoot a good officer in self-defense while fleeing from custody? You get promoted. I guess you had to be there.] In that case, says Montserrat, he should be looking into the activities of Pedro Medina. She tells him of the evidence in the stolen and later burned suicide note which exonerated Alejandro and named Pedro as Joaquín Arechigas sole partner and accomplice. Robledo promises to investigate. A municipal president understands that image is everything in politics Adolfo is going to start his career at city hall as Pedros private secretary. But he is going to have to work on his image. If he wants to succeed in politics, he needs to do something about his hair and clothes. Ezequiel joins them and gets the good news: Adolfo is being groomed as the next Municipal President. Pedro enjoys the disappointment followed by the sour forced smile on EZs face as he assimilates the latest humiliation. Adolfo is given the afternoon off, giving Pedro and EZ a chance to talk privately. A municipal president recognizes the contributions of his subordinates and uses rivalry to motivate them to excellence. Pedro congratulates EZ for his excellent work with his cuñado. Adolfo showed hes got guts (demostró tener agallas ), and now that he has a murder under his belt, hell be Pedros puppet and never dare to betray him. Please sir, I want some more. Pedro hands EZ a check as compensation for getting rid of María. Emboldened by resentment, EZ hands the check back. He thinks he deserves more. Pedro makes a show of tearing up the check. Yes, he made a mistake -- he put one zero too many on it. EZ had better take what is offered or hell remove yet another zero. EZ swallows hard, apologizes, and promises it wont happen again. Dimitrio Mendoza is giving an outstanding report to his class at the Naval Academy. Montserrat and Captain Robledo enter the classroom in time to hear the end of it and the praise and approval of the instructor and the class. Montserrat tells Dimitrio to forget about trying to enlist Adolfos help in recovering the note. The note is now nothing more than ashes. Paying it forward EZ takes out his fury on Adolfo, despite the latters insistence that he has no interest whatsoever in politics. EZ looks jealously at Adolfos check and demands half of its worth as payment for sparing Marías life. If Adolfo doesnt want to pay up, then hell have to carry out Pedros original orders and really kill María. A municipal presidents door is always open to the public. Pedro escorts Fabiola (in a too-small fedora that makes her face look enormous, as if she were a very large toddler) and the ever- smiling Sandro into his office. Sandro presents the original Almonte wills. Im not doing it for you, dude . JL visits Alejandro in jail and explains why he can no longer help him. A witness in Alejandros house testified about the money being burned -- it had to be either Macario or Victor. Not to worry -- he left a full report for Captain Robledo. When he learns of all the injustices committed against Alejandro, he is sure to be released from jail. JL warns Alejandro of certain liberties he took with the story: he said Alejandro was going to return the money to him but he (JL) took the initiative of burning it instead. Alejandro doesnt like this. Doesnt that mean jail for JL? It doesnt matter. Once Angélica dies, he will -- for the second time in his life -- lose half of himself. Alejandro has a life -- the one you stole from me! -- but his life will be so solitary, hed just as soon be in jail. Alejandro doesnt want this sacrifice. Its not for him, says JL, its for Montserrat. And all he asks is for Alejandro to make her happy. They hug; JL rests his head briefly on Alejandros shoulder, and then says as he is leaving: Ya saldé mi deuda contigo. (Now Ive paid my debt to you in full.) Thank you, says Alejandro. JL sketches an ironic farewell salute. Macario visits Ale and gets an earful of the above conversation. He hopes Montserrat -- if she has any feelings left for JL -- never hears the story of how JL sacrificed himself to help Ale. Alejandro wants to know who squealed about burning the money -- was it Macario or Victor? Macario jumps up in surprise. He wasnt flapping his mouth and hes sure Victor wasnt either. Could it have been Alejandros cousin? (¿No habrá sido tu prima? ) A municipal president analyzes complex legal issues . Pedro wants to know how Sandro obtained the original documents. Sandro admits that Fabiola stole them. Sandro and Fabiola question the authenticity of the signatures, and whether the fingerprint on the later document was obtained after death. They float the idea that Rosario convinced Padre Anselmo that she had a son with Benjamín and that the padre persuaded Ben to leave everything to that son. Or maybe Ben wasnt competent at the end. Pedro dismisses all this as too complicated and too hard to prove. He needs something simpler. Fabiola shows her impatience. She doesnt give a hoot if Alejandro is Bens son. All she wants is for Pedro to declare that he is an imposter. Shes not settling for part of the inheritance -- she wants it all! That evening a she-demon comes calling Graciela has descended on the Almonte house looking for Montserrat. She is greeted, instead, by Padre Anselmo. To our delight, she spits out an interesting variant of a contrary to fact conditional: De haber sabido que estabas aqui, no me hubiera quedado a esperar a mi hija. (If I had known that you were here, I wouldnt have stayed to wait for my daughter.) [For grammar nerds only: The if clause of this lovely specimen, De haber sabido is the equivalent of Si hubiera sabido. The then clause is also fun because it uses a pluperfect subjunctive instead of a conditional perfect: no me hubiera quedado instead of no me habría quedado .] They take a stroll down memory lane. He still finds it hard to fathom that a young girl could have been capable of such a horrendous sin (un pecado tan espantoso ) -- she suffocated her own baby! Thats what Anselmo has thought all these years, says Graciela. (And she calls him Anselmo, quite deliberately refusing to grant him his title of padre.) But the truth is that the baby stopped breathing -- ask Amelia; she was there. They called in a doctor right away, but nothing could be done. Even if that were true, says the padre, Graciela didnt go to the babys burial. [The padre loses a few points here. Dude, she just told you she didnt murder the baby. And you act like missing the burial is morally equivalent to murder? Sheesh.] How could she? Lauro Mendoza was waiting here to marry her. Padre reproaches her for seeking refuge in a convent to hide her pregnancy and the birth of her child. Graciela snarls back: It was a different time! And that fool Lauro wanted a virgin wife! And if it hadnt been for the indiscretion of that bastard Alejandro, Lauro would have died believing he was the only man who had ever touched her. Padre Anselmo is grateful the secret is out. It had been a heavy burden on his conscience. Graciela says she had to sacrifice a great deal to lift herself out of poverty. And she regrets nothing that she did. What good did it do her? asks the padre. The poverty she was running from has caught up with her again. As for her spiritual poverty, it has always been with her. Benjamín must be laughing at her, says Graciela. She gave him her virginity and a lifetime of passion. And he gave her nothing. But its not too late for her to recover what belongs to her. Padre Anselmo tells her to forget it -- Alejandro and Montserrat wont give her a penny of the Almonte money. That remains to be seen, sniffs Graciela. She has grown tired of waiting and leaves. Tell my daughter I was here to see her. A municipal president gives sage advice and inspires confidence in those who seek his help. Pedro urges his newest co-conspirators to be calm and careful. The Mendozas are not an easy target and will fight to protect Montserrats reputation. He also warns Sandro not to underestimate Padre Anselmo -- hed give his life for Alejandro. Sandro confesses that it is Licenciado Cervera who concerns him. He knows some things that might not work in Fabiolas favor. He knows about her dissipated life in Miami -- he had to get her out of more than one scrape. Once Sandro and Fabiola are out of Pedros office and in the reception area, she reproaches him for giving Pedro the envelope with the wills and for squealing about her past. He would have found out sooner or later, says Sandro. Fabiola guesses hes more worried about what Cervera might find out about HIM. He didnt even go to see him did he? Sandro admits he didnt -- after all, he knew Fabiola would get the documents anyway. Now these two head out of the reception area as Captain Robledo enters. He demands an audience with Pedro. A municipal president smoothly coordinates civil and military authority. Robledo makes it clear that the matter of José Luis Álvarez is in his hands; Pedro is to butt out. Yes, the ex-lieutenant committed a crime and he can expect to spend a year or two in jail for it. Pedro is fine with that. Obviously Alejandro has to remain in jail too. Robledo corrects him. JL took full responsibility for burning the money. Evidently hes lying! says Pedro. But Robledo disagrees. According to JLs report, the only person lying is Pedro himself. Pedro rises, furious, and tries to outshout Robledo. I wont let you come here and... LISTEN TO ME! booms Robledo. The men take their seats again and Robledo continues. He knows that Samuel Barajas has given no evidence against Alejandro even though Pedro continues to claim that his declaration exists. Pedro protests that Barajas is a known narcotraficante and his mere presence in Alejandros house is incriminating. Robledo doesnt care about Pedros theories. Thats not evidence. And he has begun the process of freeing Alejandro. When Pedro sputters that he cant do that, Robledo contradicts him: of course he can -- he could pick up the phone right now and talk to the Attorney General and even to the President of the Republic, if he wanted to. His word carries a lot more weight and power than Pedros -- something Pedro should never forget! Avances: Alejandro is a free man!
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 07:48:33 +0000