Previously on Rebelde Way: The kids got busted at the party, as we all knew they were going to. Mansilla, the literal ethics teacher, is like, “You guys should definitely cover up for each other when you break school rules because snitches get stitches.” Pablo figured out that Tomás and Vico were messing around behind his back, which is 5 more episodes than it should’ve taken him, given that it’s Tomás, who is not exactly a brain trust. Marizza almost gets expelled, but then she doesn’t. Manuel almost gets hit by a car, but then he doesn’t.
Opening monologue: Real freedom is standing up for something even when you don’t have to. People who only support causes because everyone else does are hypocrites. I mean…that’s not entirely untrue, but I have no idea how that’s related to freedom. Sometimes I think they just Mad Libs these monologues.
When we last left our heroes, Manuel was getting hit by a car. Just kidding, nobody on this show can do anything competently. Manuel manages to jump out of the way and the car speeds on by. It doesn’t even turn around to try and hit him again. These Society kids are just lazy.
Tomás begs Pablo to talk to him. Pablo threatens to get his violence issues all over Tomás if he keeps talking to him, and storms off to wherever the hell he’s going for the weekend. Tomás is sadface.
Casa Colucci. Manuel is scrambling through Papa C’s files, and just manages to pull out the file on his business in Mexico when Papa C comes in. Bad luck, Manuel! Papa C reads over something Manuel’s written and muses that it’s very good. I like how the show is really shifty about showing us how, exactly, a 17-year-old is assisting a fashion business. Anyway, Papa C asks how Manuel’s picked up so much about business, and Manuel hamfists that he learned a lot from his DEAD DAD, who WAS IN BUSINESS, but is tragically DEAD, and also FROM MEXICO, WHERE HE DIED, IF YOU GET MY MEANING. Papa C says, “That’s very sad. I would’ve liked to know him.” Manuel is all pissed that Papa C didn’t pick up on his passive-aggressive hinting.
Mia’s room. Vico and Feli have tagged along for the weekend, and Mia and Feli are congratulating Vico on a well-executed revenge. I thought Mia was upset that Vico didn’t love herself enough to just break up with Pablo? Whatever. Vico says that Pablo deserved it, because all men are liars. Feli gets all indignant. #notallmen! Especially not Manuel, even though I thought she was mad at him for dancing with Marizza. Again, whatever. Mia tells them that they have to start practicing for the dance group, and she stole the teacher’s rubric, so they’ll know exactly what she’s looking for. I predict this blowing up in their faces in about five episodes. Feli, meanwhile, is all thrilled that her drunken episode made her lose some weight. “Those vomit attacks really worked!” Yikes. Mia is disturbed for like half a second, then she’s like, “Whatever.”
Back in Papa C’s office, Manuel maneuvers his way into getting into the file room. It’s literally two doors down from the office, but he gets predictably lost, so of course he has to spent the next five minutes running away from Mia every time she comes into the hall to get something. The girls go to another room to work out, and Manuel — oh for fuck’s sake. I bet you know what Manuel does. I’ll say it anyway, though: he sneaks into her room to look around. Gross! Then he falls asleep on Mia’s bed and has a dream about making out with her. What the fuck, Manuel.
Nacho’s trailer for abandoned orphans. Marizza, Luna, Lujan, and Nacho are all hanging out together and being heartwarming and shit. Marizza gets a call from Nestor the Irresponsible Journalist and he tells her that he has to go cover a story, and then he’s going to Spain, so if Marizza could just dump Nacho on the police or something, that would be gr8. Lujan shoots that idea down right quick, because we all know the orphanage is the worst place in the world. It’s much better for Nacho to grow up in a trailer in a school junkyard with no electricity or running water, while 3 teenagers cut class to bring him food. Marizza decides to call her mother instead, which is what she should’ve done in the first place.
Bustamante Mansion. Papa B is waxing economic about cutting salaries and forcing employees to work overtime without extra pay, blah blah if they don’t like it just kill them blah. Maybe not that last part exactly. Because he’s an evil public servant who’s also evilly corporate! Papa B has layers. Pablo comes out and whines about his life, and Papa B laughs at him for thinking he has like, real problems. A+ parental bonding! Someone tries to call Pablo on his phone, but it’s Tomás, so Pablo hangs up on him. Papa B notices this and asks one of the servants to get the security key to Pablo’s phone. Yeah, why talk to your children when you could just employ subterfuge? He hears the message Tomás left, which naturally lays out all the gory details of the Tomás/Vico/Pablo drama. Papa B fumes. Tomás is getting sold out to Voldemort for sure.
Dunoff’s office. Mrs. Dunoff tries to get him to hang out with her and Pilar, but he’s like, “Omg, the only thing worse than taking responsibility for my school is putting effort into my family. Ew.” He needles her about spending too much money. I thought she and Mansilla were bonding over their hatred for materialism? I don’t know.
Back at Mia’s house, Feli stares in the mirror while flashbacking to the first couple of episodes. The flashbacks have apparently driven her to bulimia, because she sticks her fingers down her throat and starts throwing up. Weirdly, the flashbacks are all of Mia making insensitive comments about dieting, but there are literally none of Marizza calling Feli a cow, trashcan, dumpy, etc. I can’t believe even the traumatic flashbacks are giving Marizza a pass. Out in the hallway, Manuel walks by and overhears Feli vomiting. I predict that Manuel will figure out that Feli’s bulimic, and then feel too guilty to break up with her for another fifty thousand episodes.
That one bookshelf that they keep referring to as a library. Mansilla catches Marcos writing in a notebook and Marcos acts hella suspicious. He runs away and Mrs. Dunoff comes in with some coffee for Mansilla. She asks him if he’s afraid Dunoff’s going to fire him or sic Papa B’s mafia on him, and Mansilla’s like, “Lmao no.” Mrs. Dunoff tells him that he should be, because Dunoff doesn’t like competition. Mansilla says he doesn’t want to be principal, and Mrs. Dunoff’s like, “That’s not what I was talking about, heyyyy-o ;)” Pilar comes in and Mansilla’s like, “Please come cockblock your mother because this is getting awkward.”
Mia bursts into her father’s office to yell at him for taking away her credit card, but naturally Papa C’s disappeared and Manuel is in there. Shock! That thing Papa C said wasn’t going to happen totally happened! Manuel lies and says he came to find Feli, and Papa C comes in and backs him up. Mia wails that it’s so hard to be her and runs out in tears. Even Papa C looks kind of embarrassed.
Bustamante Bungalow. Papa B’s decided to be nice to Pablo, and offers him some money so he can go out with his friends. Hey, has he called Tomás lately? Pablo snaps that he just wants to be alone, so he can listen to My Chemical Romance and cry about how he’s really not okay. Maybe not that last part. Seeing that his strategy isn’t working, Papa B switches back into abuser mode, and says that Tomás is probably busy making out with Pablo’s girlfriend. So, did Pablo set him up with a pair of cement boots or what? ‘Cause murder is how real men deal with their problems. Pablo says he wants to work things out with Tomás on his own, like a reasonable person, and Papa B is all like, “Fine, I guess I just have to kill him for you to preserve the family honor!” Papa B really overestimates how much people care what goes on at his son’s high school.
Back at Mia’s house, Feli has left with Manuel, so Mia and Vico are on their own. They practice their new dance routine, which is thankfully less disturbingly sexual than the old one, but Mia keeps hallucinating that Manuel is watching her. She’s all perturbed that she might have a crush on Manuel, although I think she should be more worried that she’s having delusional episodes.
Nacho’s sad trailer. Marizza angsts over having to hand him over to her mother, like having to go across town to visit him is such a big deal. Nacho wakes up from his nap and asks Marizza what’s going on, because she, Lujan, and Luna are all crap at acting normal around him now. Marizza tearfully breaks the news about Nestor being an irresponsible journalist-slash-foster parent, and Nacho begs her not to take him to child services. They agree that Marizza will keep letting Nacho stay in the sad trailer, and he’ll throw acorns at anyone who gets too close to blowing Marizza’s cover. They hug. It’s all heartwarming or whatever. Marizza’s crying throughout this whole thing, and I’d say it’s nice to have her show some vulnerability for once, except I couldn’t care less about this stupid Nacho storyline. Marizza leaves the trailer, and comes face to face with Mansilla. Scare chord! Somehow, I don’t think getting hit with an acorn will be enough to scare him off.
Tomás comes to visit Pablo at the Bustamante Bungalow. He says that he’s glad Pablo called him (what?), and he hopes they can talk this out, because they are friends 4eva, and also Tomás may or may not be slightly in love with him. But Pablo’s all bitter now, and he punches Tomás in the face. A+ emotional manipulation, Papa B!
Marizza and Mansilla. She tries to BS her way out of the situation, and finally admits the truth: there’s a boy in there. Mansilla jumps to the conclusion that Marcos is in there, as he’s the only guy left on campus. Marizza tries to dissuade him from going into the trailer by saying Marcos is naked, to which Mansilla amazingly asks, “Why?” Marizza like, has to spell out for him why a teenage dude might be naked in an abandoned part of campus with a female classmate. Mansilla gets all embarrassed and says he’ll talk to them later.
Then the show randomly cuts to showing us the music video for “Inmortal.” Marcos is a shy nerd who has a crush on his next-door-neighbor Marizza (who’s randomly a painter). He stops wearing glasses and becomes conventionally attractive. But Marizza moves away without telling him, and leaves behind a painting of his nerdy self, because she liked him as he was all along! It’s just like an O. Henry story. But I will say, for all the sexism on this show, it’s at least equal-opportunity with the whole “everything’s better with makeovers” trope.
Manuel and Feli at some cafe somewhere. Feli gushes about how in love with him she is and how he’s the best thing to ever happen to her, blah blah guiltcakes blah. He brings up that he heard her vomiting — Franco was in his office, and Manuel heard Vico and Mia in the other room, ergo, it must have been Feli in the bathroom. Is this deduction really coming from Manuel “But Why Doesn’t the Society Like Me?” Aguirre? Anyway, Feli tells him that Mia has put her on a diet, and Manuel tells Feli that physical appearance doesn’t matter to who she is as a person. Not bad advice, but of course Feli doesn’t listen to him. Like a dumbass, Manuel picks that moment to go to the bathroom, giving Feli the opportunity to hide all her food in a napkin.
Pablo. Papa B comes out all sociopathically gleeful that Pablo beat the crap out of his best friend. “The driver took him home, but he probably should’ve gone to a clinic!” Papa B cackles. Pablo cries, and sad piano music plays over a black and white montage of Pablo and Tomás. I’M NOT MAKING THIS UP. Pablo voiceovers that losing his BFF feels like dying. Remember when they crashed that car and Pablo had to do community service in the ghetto! And when they rode horses together on the beach? Their love was so pure 🙁
Me 2, Pablo. Me 2.
We close out with another ominous meeting of the Society. Scare chord! Their leader is all appalled that they couldn’t even hit Manuel with a car, and suggests that they back off him for a while, since the teachers might genuinely be worried about him now. They’ll go after Nico instead! He’s too klutzy to jump out of the way of a car, after all.
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