Previously on Rebelde Way: I don’t want to jinx it, but this show actually seems to be getting more linear. There are like, plotlines and shit I can tell you about there. The Society really has it out for Manuel now, and they broke into his room and trashed it. I mean, I say “broke into”, but really they just waltzed in because this school doesn’t have locks on its doors. Pablo tried to intimidate Marizza into shutting up about her stupid essay, but the revolution will not be censored, and she read it aloud to their entire class. And not a single person has managed to figure out that she’s hiding a kid in her dorm room.
Opening monologue: Best friends always help each other get what they want. I don’t know, sometimes you gotta stop your friends from doing dumb shit, like traveling all the way to Argentina with no money and going back to high school in order to carry out a poorly planned revenge on some guy who doesn’t even remember killing your dad. For example.
We begin where we left off, with Manuel discovering he’s the Society’s newest target. He scrambles off to his room to find that it’s been trashed, although they punked out of actually stealing anything. He’s all like, “Why would they do this???” and I’m just like, “Dude, Feli told you like an episode ago!” I bet he wishes he was listening to her now instead of waxing on about Marizza. Manuel swears he’ll find the Society and kick their asses and runs off. Nico, Marcos, and a bunch of random extras all stand around and look bemused. Finally Nico’s like, “So…can you guys help me clean up?” Heh.
Also, Papa B has hauled Marizza off to the principal’s office, in a move that really shouldn’t be condoned by any of this school’s authority figures. He demands that she tell him exactly what she was trying to say in her paper, and you know what? It doesn’t look like Dunoff or any other teacher is present for this interrogation. Sonia needs to come sue the pants off of this school, because this is wildly inappropriate. (I feel like “this is wildly inappropriate” would be an accurate tag for every single one of my Rebelde Way posts.) Why does Papa B even care this much? She’s 15 years old! It’s a 2 page paper for a high school class! It’s not like she exposed the Watergate scandal. Papa B threatens that he knows that the kid Pablo got arrested has a little brother, and COINCIDENTALLY, some rando kid from the streets is also hanging around Elite Way. There’s only one orphan kid in all of Buenos Aires, apparently. Marizza decides to threaten him back — her mom is also rich, so she can just out-bribe Dunoff, THEN they’ll see whose kid is getting kicked out of school. Papa B snarls that Marizza is playing with fire. Dude, the only reason this is remotely a big deal is because you’re making it one.
Over in the hallway, Dunoff is at least chaperoning the kids, but still doing an epically bad job at it. Manuel’s like, “Hey, so some kids broke into my room and threatened to have me kicked out of school,” and Dunoff’s like, “Oh, haha, you and your wacky stories!” Manuel points out that even if the Society isn’t real, someone still broke into his room, and Dunoff’s like, “Nah, it’s too much work. Please stop asking me to actually look into the shit that happens at my school. I have some bribes to take, bye.” Then, weirdly, he reminds us that Manuel has permission to leave campus, to visit Papa C, and suggests that Manuel leave now. Scare chord! I don’t get it. Is Dunoff like…subtly hinting at expulsion? Doesn’t Manuel have class?
Marizza, Marcos, and Lujan waltz in, and Mia calls them losers, with an L on her forehead. Heh. I distinctly remember doing that in elementary school. Marizza and Marcos muse over how to help Manuel — Elite Way will admit students on scholarship, but won’t provide for their uniform or supplies, leaving them kinda up shit creek. Marcos reminds us that Manuel goes ballistic every time someone tries to be nice to him, so they have to figure out a way to give him stuff without framing it as a gift. Feli pops into the conversation and nicely offers to help them think of ideas, since she cares about Manuel too — a little creepily, as she calls herself Manuel’s girlfriend when he suggested they take a break, but no one else knows that. Anyway, Marizza immediately calls her a cow, which is further proof that no one should ever try to be nice to Marizza, because she’s just straight-up nasty. Lujan, bless her, says that they should get back to helping Manuel, instead of bullying their insecure classmates. Marizza coos that they really should, and drags Lujan and Marcos off by the collars of their shirts. And that was round #28192 of Marizza being a terrible person!
Meanwhile, Luna is packing her stuff up and preparing to go home. Nacho comes in and starts guilt-tripping her for leaving without saying goodbye. Nacho and Marizza deserve each other, tbh. Lujan and Marizza treat Luna terribly, and Nacho’s going on about how it’s Luna’s fault for not appreciating them. I hate this kid. He does kind of relent and hugs her goodbye, but still.
Haus Colucci. You’ll recall that Papa C invited Manuel over last episode, although I dunno what Dunoff’s weirdly ominous reminder was for. Manuel waits for Papa C, then he tells Peter that he feels sick and runs away. I’m glad we spent a whole minute on that.
Peter’s like, “This scene is pointless.”
But Papa C’s car catches up to him, which is less dragging out of this scene than I’d thought they would do! Why doesn’t Papa C just visit Elite Way? Didn’t we establish that his house is like right next to the school? Whatever. Papa C offers Manuel a job as his PA. Manuel jumps at the chance to be allowed into Papa C’s house, except for how we know he’s going to dick around instead of just stabbing the guy. They both agree not to tell Mia about this, which is kind of gross dude behavior to me — she’s made it clear she’s not comfortable having Manuel around, but her dad’s just like, “Lol I like the kid, so I’m just going to sneak him into the house without telling her.” On the other hand, Manuel’s like, well, we’ve already made out, so I’m pretty sure she’s over the whole burning hatred thing. Just kidding, he doesn’t actually tell her dad that.
Nestor (the…journalist? I guess?) calls Marizza and he’s all like, “Lol yeah I can’t come back for the kid now. Couple more weeks maybe? Idk, bye.” Nacho suggests Marizza drag Luna’s mattress out to the trailer, since she left and all. Marizza’s like, “WHAT?” Maybe Marizza would’ve noticed that Luna hasn’t been hanging out with them all episode if she weren’t so busy bullying people who’ve never done anything to her.
Later, she and Lujan walk around campus. They both try to shrug off responsibility for Luna leaving (Lujan’s like, “I don’t think what I said was that upsetting!” Oh, Lujan). Then they run into Papa B, who evils at them that he’s brought trained sniffer dogs to find Nacho. Again, how did everyone leap to the conclusion that Marizza’s hiding the kid on campus? Lujan amazingly manages to distract the dogs by getting one of them to bite her. Jesus Christ, Lujan. That’s going kind of above and beyond for an obnoxious 8-year-old in a sailor costume. Dunoff hauls her and Papa B into his office, and Lujan wibbles that she was just lucky the dog didn’t take off her whole arm. Heh. For once, Dunoff is a responsible adult and tells Papa B that the dogs shouldn’t have been brought on campus.
Over in Mia’s room, Vico frets about the Society — she’s friends with all the rich kids, but she’s still a scholarship student, and she’s afraid they’re going to come after her. Feli pouts that she wishes they would go after Marizza. Mia gets all righteous about how she can’t believe Feli supports them, or has she forgotten that the Society is also going after Manuel? I’m always so relieved whenever we get to Mia’s parts. At least one of these kids has a moral compass. Just then, a note gets pushed under the door, and Vico squeals that it’s from Pablo. Except it’s not! She rushes off to the art room to mack it with Tomás, who looks like he might’ve gotten a haircut recently. He frets over telling Pablo what they’re up to, as Pablo doesn’t plan on breaking up with Vico anytime soon. Vico assures Tomás that she’s going to be really mean to Pablo, and bruise his pride enough that he’ll dump her. Tomás is like, “Oh, gr8 plan,” and they make out some more to Alicia Keys. I love this show.
Over at Sandra’s hair salon, Luna chirps that she’s so glad to be home, and she really likes being at the salon, and Sandra absolutely loses her shit. She completely flips out all, “NO! THIS IS NOT YOUR HOME! [Jesus Christ Sandra, she’s 15 years old, you can’t kick her out yet!] YOU CAN’T STAY HERE AND SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE WITH DOCTORS AND MEDICINE AND WASTE AWAY INTO NOTHINGNESS! IT’S YOUR LIFE!!! YOUR LIFE!!!” O! Kay! Maybe Luna was just saying it’s nice to be away from Marizza’s sociopathy for a while! And maybe she really does like cosmetology! Man, why is everyone always so down on Luna and her interests? Luna cries, again.
Lujan and Marizza roll up to confront Pablo, and embarrass him by asking loudly why he’s sending his dad to do his dirty work of attacking teenage girls. Pablo stammers that he didn’t, but Marizza and Lujan flounce off. Mia comes up to help him pretend to laugh it off, bless her. Pablo maintains that he didn’t send his dad, which could very well be true. Papa B does mostly do all his defense of Pablo behind his back, after all. Mia’s like, “Hey, btw, shouldn’t you be with Vico right now?” Pablo’s confused, and Mia realizes something messed up is going on. “Oh, it’s nothing! Forget I said anything! Ahahaha!” She rolls off fake-laughing like a maniac.
I love Mia so much, there aren’t words.
Papa B is in Dunoff’s office, again. He basically lives there at this point. Pablo bursts in and says he has to speak to his dad, alone, and Dunoff grovels his way out all, “I’ll just be in my office! You can stay right here! Make yourself comfortable, like this is your very own home!” My God, Dunoff, have some self-respect. Pablo stands up to his dad — he didn’t want him getting involved with the Marizza thing; a grown-ass adult meddling in a bunch of teenagers’ affairs is not a good look. Papa B’s like, well, maybe if you weren’t so shitty at this vengeance thing, I wouldn’t have to meddle! This teenage girl is a danger to my reputation! Pablo’s like, “Idk, I kinda disagree.” Papa B’s like, “Well, THAT is the most offensive thing I’ve heard all day,” and storms on out. Pablo swears to destroy Marizza to make his abusive dad happy.
Over in the Marizza’s room, she’s buttoning up Lujan’s shirt for her. Er…yeah. Marizza frets over all the shit on her plate. There’s Manuel, Nacho, Luna…nope, Lujan doesn’t want to hear about Luna. She calls her a coward, like, Jesus Christ Lujan, Luna’s just trying to do stuff she likes, like dance and homework and people’s hair, and all her so-called friends keep icing her out for it. Is it any wonder she ditched them? Marizza thinks this over for a second and then is like, “Yeah, you’re right, the Manuel thing is more important. Fuck Luna.” Marizza comes up with a vague idea that they can somehow save Manuel by throwing a party at a nightclub called “Infierno”, and Sonia Rey will help them get in. They call her and Sonia agrees to this madcap plan, naturally, because all good parents let their 15-year-olds throw parties at nightclubs for no reason. Lujan voices my thoughts with, “Okay, but…literally how is having a party going to help Manuel?” Marizza’s like, “Stop saying words.”
Vico comes back from getting down to Alicia Keys with Tomás, and coos to Mia about how she and Pablo had “wonderful pleasure.” Ew. Mia’s like, “Really? Because I’ve been with him for the past half hour.” She demands to know who Vico was with, but Vico refuses to tell her. Amazingly, Mia starts crying, about how unfair it is that Vico is lying to her. She’s the one being hurt here, because Vico doesn’t trust her! Hee. I love Mia, but she’s so self-centered.
By the way, I just realized that Mia’s room is the only one with a second level. Well, whatever. Maybe they gave it to her as a reward for being the only student with a functioning conscience.
Dunoff’s office. Dunoff lectures Mansilla on how the Argentinian mafia doesn’t really like Marizza, so maybe Mansilla can also threaten her in class when Papa B’s not around to do it. Mansilla’s like, “What’s everyone’s damage with this teenage girl?” Dunoff says she’s going to incite a rebellion (I see what you did there, show), and so they have to crush her spirit before it’s too late. Heh. Mansilla’s like, “Wow, look at the time. I’m going to leave before this conversation gets any weirder.” Interestingly, Dunoff notes that Mansilla graduated from Elite Way, so he should be familiar with how the school runs. On…corruption and bribery? Why on Earth did Mansilla come back?
Over in Mia’s room, Feli rubs her shoulders and comforts her over Vico’s betrayal. I love how Mia has so completely turned this into being about her. Feli tries to rag on how “easy” Vico is, but Mia snaps that she doesn’t care if Vico bangs half the school, she cares that Vico lied to her. Feli says that everyone lies, and Mia should also watch out for “the girl with the face of a dead fly” (what?), by which she means Luna. Is Feli still on about that one time Manuel and Luna were hanging out together? But Mia knows that she can transform Luna — she just has to separate her and Marizza forever! This would be creepier if Marizza wasn’t already doing a fine job of that all by herself. Mia bounces off to go maneuver herself into the middle of Luna and Marizza’s fight. Heh. She’s like, completely forgotten about Vico already.
Mia heads to the lounge to look for Luna, but instead she finds Pilar giving out invitations for Marizza’s party. That was fast. Mia is not pleased that Marizza’s getting all this good publicity, and notes that the party is going to start at midnight, and they’re kind of locked inside the school then, so oops, the party is doomed to fail. Pilar gets mega snarky with her — “Well, sweetie, Marizza’s planned an escape.” She points out that it’s for a good cause, and Mia starts ranting about how Marizza wanting to buy new stuff is not a good cause. Pilar cuts her off and says, “Just read the invitation” and walks away. Hee! I love Mia, but that was awesome. It turns out that the entry fee will be donations of school supplies, which will be given to the scholarship students. Oh, that’s…that’s actually not a bad idea. Mia expresses my thoughts on agreeing with Marizza:
THE HORROR.
Luna is nowhere to be seen, so Mia goes to talk to Lujan. I’m overexcited about this, because they are my two favorites, but they rarely interact. Lujan gets all up in Mia’s face about how Luna went home and nobody knows when she’s coming back, and then she kind of implies it’s Mia’s fault. Oh, Lujan, I love you, but you know that’s a goddamn lie.
Guido asks Mia out, again. Mia shoots him down, again.
Back at the hair salon, Sandra is giving Luna the cold shoulder for not appreciating the sacrifices she made to get Luna into Elite Way. Luna’s own mother didn’t bother to contribute? That’s cold. Still, Luna points out that even though she’s grateful, she’s getting bullied like crazy, and she doesn’t have to stick around there just so Sandra can feel good about herself. It’s not like Luna was the one who wanted to go to this school in the first place. Sandra still blames Luna for being spineless and not making a better go of it at EW. It’s time for her to leave the nest! 15-year-olds are grown adults, after all. Marizza calls the hair salon — I don’t know how she knew Luna would be there instead of at her house — and Luna runs away. Sandra covers for her on the phone, which is kinda dumb. If she wants Luna to be confrontational so bad, why does she keep enabling her? Whatever. Marizza tells Sandra to tell Luna that she misses her. This is kind of ickily manipulative on Marizza’s part, I must say. Every time Luna leaves, she and Lujan start groveling to everyone about how they miss Luna and want her around, and when Luna comes back, they start beating up on her for doing stuff they don’t like. Again, whatever.
Over at EW, Marizza hangs up the phone and is immediately accosted by Mansilla. Unlike most of the characters on this show, he remembers stuff that happened more than five minutes ago, and wants to know what Marizza was doing out by the trailer. Marizza won’t tell him, but Mansilla advises that being ~rebelde~ isn’t always a good thing. Marizza actually seems to be listening to an authority figure for once, and says she’ll keep it in mind. This is kind of a lame resolution to Mansilla busting her. Maybe Mansilla will help them sneak Nacho off the school grounds later, like in Harry Potter when Harry has to set Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback free. But otherwise I’m just including this here so you know that this got resolved and the show didn’t just drop it like a hot potato, as it usually does with plotlines it can’t be bothered with anymore.
The library. Feli puts together a gift box of school supplies for Manuel, while Mia is sarcastic about how men should be the ones to give presents to women, not the other way around. Oh, Mia. She’s kind of sucking in this episode, I have to admit. Feli says, “Things have changed. It’s 2002!” HEE. She says that Manuel was right; Mia acts like she knows everything about guys, but she has zero actual experience with them. (Like Cher from Clueless! Sorry, I’m excited.) For all her talk, she’s actually kind of immature when it comes to relationships. Then Feli adds, “I mean, I’m only telling you this for your own good.” Heh. This is really randomly cruel, but so out of left field that it’s kind of hilarious. Also, when did Manuel and Feli have this conversation? Because I don’t remember it at all. Oh my God, am I turning into a Rebelde Way character, and am now unable to remember shit that happened in the last episode?
Pablo’s room. Guido’s like, “I can’t believe Mia shot me down! I was positive she was going to say yes!” Pablo and Tomás are like, “Dude, literally what made you think that.” Tomás says he’s not going to go anyway, and Pablo flips out: he needs to prove to his dad that he can handle Marizza on his own! In Pabloese, “on my own” apparently means “with my friends there for backup.” Pablo suggests that Tomás can keep Vico occupied while he sets Marizza up with a cement overcoat, and Tomás unsubtly panics at the mention of Vico, as he always does. Then Pablo’s like, oh wait, back up, Tomás is macking it with Pilar. I don’t blame him, the love quadrangles in this show are getting confusing. Well, that’s okay, Guido can just distract Vico instead. Tomás flips out at the thought of Guido staying at school alone with his lady love, and starts BSing all the reasons they shouldn’t even go to the party in the first place. Pablo’s like, “No can do, the Argentinian mafia doesn’t like it much when you punk out, so…party it is.” Tomás pouts.
Lounge. Manuel and Nico come over and Manuel flips out on Marizza: so now he has to have school supplies to come to her party? It’s like they’re NOT REALLY FRIENDS! My God, is nothing good enough for Manuel? Marizza says that the party is for the benefit of all the scholarship students, not just Manuel, so he can get over himself. Manuel is appeased, and there’s a mildly cute moment — or as cute as anything involving Marizza can be — where he takes her glasses and puts them on. Naturally, Feli is watching this whole thing and has another ugly breakdown in front of God and everybody. She wails that she did think about their relationship, and she came to the conclusion that she’s going to love Manuel forever and ever and nothing can stop her. Manuel’s like, “Oh, sure, I just wanted to be sure that YOU were sure.” Feli totally is! And she has presents for him!
“Stop saying words.”
She gives him a whole bag of school supplies, but Manuel’s gift alarm goes off and he tells Feli that he’ll use them as their entry ticket into the party. That way all the scholarship students can benefit from them, and it defeats the purpose of a gift entirely! Feli is not pleased, but she goes along with it because she doesn’t love herself.
Mia’s room. Vico comes back to talk to her, while Mia cold shoulders her way through a magazine. They manage to talk it out, and Vico confesses that she’s sneaking around with Tomás because she doesn’t want to be like her mother, who let Vico’s dad get away with cheating for ages. Wow, some backstory and character depth from this show? There’s a genuinely nice moment where Vico says she knows Mia’s upset about Pablo, because he’s Mia’s friend and Vico’s doing him wrong, but Mia says she’s actually worried about Vico, because she’ll never be happy if she keeps on like this. Aw. Then Vico kinda ruins it by making Mia promise not to tell anyone, not even Feli, which definitely won’t blow up in their faces in a few episodes.
Outside, Marizza and Lujan get a delivery of stuff for the party, courtesy of Sonia. See what I mean about the enabling? Dunoff busts them and asks if Marizza’s been shopping. They both act hella guilty, and Dunoff opens one of the bags to see a toy truck inside for Nacho. Marizza, as always, manages to BS her way out of the situation. Dunoff almost catches her in her web of lies, but then he doesn’t. Whatever.
Mia comes to visit Luna at her house, and Luna freaks out and runs away, as you do. Sandra points out that if Mia left school to see her, that must mean she really cares. Yeah, because Mia is actually a good friend.
A good friend apart from waltzing into houses without knocking. Shhh, I love her and I refuse to condemn her.
Sandra covers for Luna again and tells Mia that Luna’s vacationing with her parents. Mia is confused, and points out that if Luna misses another day of school, she’s going to get kicked out. Sandra is perturbed. Just then, Marizza also shows up. Sandra lies to her as well, but Marizza notices that Luna’s notebook and photos are all unpacked and lying on the table. It pains me that she has to point this out to Mia like, five times. I refuse to live in a world where Marizza is a better girl detective than Mia. They grit their teeth and decide to work together to figure out what’s going on with Luna. Aw yes. If this entire show were Mia and Marizza as a reluctant buddy cop duo, I would watch the shit out of that.
Guido comes to find Manuel in the lounge, where he and Feli are cutely play-fighting. Guido obviously lies that Nico is waiting for him by the laundry room. Manuel’s like, “We share a room, why does he want to meet over there?” Maybe Nico wants to make out, and the art room’s already taken. Guido’s like, “Idk, nobody told me you were going to ask questions.” Feli warns Manuel that it’s a trap, but Manuel decides to walk into it anyway so he can fight them. Manuel does look about 20% more badass now that he has to wear a uniform and isn’t allowed to dress himself in orange pants anymore.
This is normal.
Manuel walks into the laundry room, where there are a bunch of blankets and pillows randomly spread out on the floor. He’s like, “Well this isn’t weird at all” and just stands there, confused. The Society is hiding under the blankets, of course. They beat him up for a while and then string him upside down from…the ceiling? I don’t know. Cliffhanger! Could one of our heroes actually be in danger of dying? Just kidding, they’ll probably monologue at him without even noticing that he’s lost consciousness because all the blood is going to his brain.
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