Previously on Rebelde Way: Marizza and Pablo made out! I certainly didn’t see that coming. The groundwork has now been laid for our main couples to get together, but they’re going to dick around about it for another million years, so let’s move on. The Society beat up Nico, but he’s a total wuss and doesn’t want to fight back. Manuel respected that for like five seconds and then got all up in his face about getting revenge again. And Feli and Mia broke up, but they didn’t get a black-and-white montage with sad piano music. I guess their love wasn’t as real as Tomás and Pablo’s.
Opening monologue: How can we understand each other if we don’t understand ourselves? More importantly, if we don’t see our classmates as they are, how will we ever notice that some of them are hella fine? Deep questions.
I just wanna say: this episode is amazing. For one, the plot actually moves forward. What’s more, the teachers are actually kind of responsible. All the kids are either likeable or get called out for being obnoxious. People work together to get shit done. It’s crazy. It’s totally awesome. Let’s get to it!
When we last left our heroes (though I use that word loosely), Pablo had just found out Nacho’s been living in an abandoned trailer on campus. What do you think he’ll do with this information? If you guessed “resort to violence, as usual”, then you’re right! Pablo picks this eight-year-old kid up by the collar and starts getting his threat on, then he’s like, “Wait, you look kinda familiar.” Uh…wait, is Nacho the kid Pablo threatened in the ghetto! way back when, who set this whole thing off? I just went back and checked and…huh, I guess he is. I mean, I knew his brother was one of the guys who jumped Pablo, but I guess I wasn’t expecting them to a) bother making the connection and b) bother bringing the kid back. So that’s neat! Anyway, Pablo’s like, “Just so you know, I’m not above trying to ruin a third grader’s life, so watch out.” Nacho doesn’t take the hint and starts throwing stuff at him. Pablo takes him down easily, because duh, and evils that he wants to speak to Marizza.
Mia’s room. Vico and Mia freak out because Papa C is in a meeting and can’t take the call. Mia texts(!) her dad that it’s an emergency, and assures Vico that Papa C will call them back. I bet he won’t, but he really should know that it’s serious, seeing as Mia had to type that message on a flip phone. That kind of effort is only reserved for really important things.
Lounge. Feli is needling Manuel about his plan for vengeance on the Society. He keeps trying to get her to back off, but she tells him that he can trust her because he’s her reason for living now. Manuel’s like YIKES, and gently tries to tell her to live for herself, not for him especially because he only got with her to exact vengeance on Papa Colucci, but whatever. As usual, Feli’s like, “Stop saying words.”
Nighttime, Marizza’s room. Marizza is blasting music and dancing around the room, celebrating victory over Mia. She’s apparently been at this a while, because Luna and even Lujan are tired of her shit. It occurs to me that she’s being really noisy. You’d think someone would complain about that. Anyway, Nacho comes in through the window and tells her that Pablo’s caught him. Scare chord!
Manuel’s room. Nico apologizes for punking out of the whole Society thing; he didn’t know Manuel had such a tragic backstory or he would’ve been less of a wuss. Manuel emos about Papa Aguirre’s death, and says he came to Argentina to “recover what he lost.” Nico’s like, “Uh…your dad is still dead, dude.” Manuel says that the least he can do is restore his father’s honor. Nico susses out that Feli is part of this plan (I feel like they’ve had this conversation before), and Manuel angsts that getting with her was a mistake — but he can’t let anything get in the way of his vengeance, including the Society and caring about Feli’s feelings. Nico tells him that he’s decided that justice is more important than fear, and he’s made a list of all the kids that didn’t have class at the time of his attack. Woo! Boy Detective Nico is back!
An hour later, they haven’t made much progress — Manuel is musing over the fact that the Society uses the symbol of the “Black Hand”, and that used to be their name (I don’t know how he knows this, but whatever). Why did they change their name? And where the hell is Marcos? Nico says that he’s off doing a chem lab, and the two of them should go to bed. Manuel starts taking his clothes off, and Nico leaves to go to the bathroom.
In their room, Mia tries to talk to Feli, but Feli won’t look at her. Mia creeps over to her bed and notices that Feli’s wibbling and staring at a photo of Manuel. She runs off to go yell at him, and of course walks in on him in his underwear. Some random teacher in the hallway announces that it’s bedtime, and they’re going to go check to make sure everyone’s in their room. Mia wails that she’ll be expelled if she’s found in there, and Manuel just laughs at her.
Manuel teases her about being caught in his room, and Mia snarks that he’ll get in just as much trouble, not to mention, at least she’s wearing clothes. That shuts Manuel up, but of course they don’t bother to actually hide Mia, even when the doorknob turns. Of course, it’s only Nico, and he immediately starts making fun of them, too. This is actually a pretty funny scene, and we haven’t gotten to see Mia and Nico interact in the series so far. They end up stuffing her under Manuel’s covers, and he awkwardly arranges himself on top of her. I don’t know why they didn’t just put her under the bed. Also, I’d say it’s amazing that the teacher didn’t manage to hear her shrieking from outside the door, but we already know the EW teachers are hella incompetent, so.
Anyway, the teacher — I think he’s the new not-ethics teacher, but I’m too lazy to go back and check — starts interrogating Manuel and Nico about having their door locked. Wait, so these doors do have locks? I guess I can see why the kids never use them, though, seeing as this dude is giving Manuel and Nico the third degree. Maybe they just didn’t want anyone waltzing in on them in their underwear, you know? They tell him that they locked up for security. The new not-ethics teacher tells them that he graduated from Elite Way, so he knows there’s no reason for them to be locking their doors. Manuel and Nico show him the Society’s calling card and the teacher says, “I didn’t think they still existed. Tell me what’s going on.” He’s actually like…taking them seriously? This episode is crazytown.
Marizza sneaks into the teacher’s lounge to meet with Pablo. He’s all threateny, telling her that Dunoff already knows that Nacho is on campus — he just doesn’t know who’s hiding him or where. So if Marizza doesn’t want to get expelled, or in trouble for hiding a “kidnapped” child, she should do whatever Pablo wants. And what he wants is her “unconditional services.” Gross! Also, I like how Marizza never seems to wear the same pajamas twice.
Back in Manuel’s room, the new not-ethics teacher is advancing the plot farther than it’s gotten in nineteen episodes. He tells them that the Society practically ruled the school when he was a student, but there aren’t many of them — it’s not enough to be a rich kid; you can only get in if you’re related to one of the members. Manuel starts to ask where they can find the Society, but he like…accidentally puts his hand on Mia’s head? Or something? It’s not clear. She bites his hand and he starts yelling, which cuts off whatever the teacher was about to say. Marcos comes back and the teacher leaves, telling them to be careful. He says he’ll tell Dunoff what’s going on, and Manuel’s like, “Pfft, Dunoff don’t give a shit,” and the teacher dorks that Dunoff is very responsible! I thought this guy used to go to EW? He should know how useless Dunoff is.
The teacher leaves, and Mia rolls out of the bed, shrieking about how embarrassing that was. Then she yells at Marcos, who’s standing there with his pants down. Heh. Manuel’s like, “Didn’t you come here to tell me something?” and Mia wails that she’s had enough for one night and storms out. Marcos is like, “Omg, a GIRL saw me in my underwear!”
This whole scene was awesome.
Next day. Feli is still snippy with Mia. Vico is still fretting about her impeding expulsion. Mia says she’s done all that she can — she’s left three messages and sent three texts to her dad’s phone, and he still hasn’t responded. Anyway, last night was the WORST night of her WHOLE LIFE, so she can’t really be bothered with Vico’s problems right now, you feel? Mia tells Vico that they’re announcing the new dance group today, and she’s sure she’ll be in it, even though she fell. Vico tells Mia to go to breakfast without her, and emos for a while until Dunoff shows up. He’s like, “You know, in light of your crappy situation, let me give you some advice. Swiftness is one of the most important keys to success. That’s why we’re kicking you out right now! There’s a taxi at the curb, bye!” As he turns to go, he tells her that “easy girls” always have a rough time in life, which is exactly the most appalling thing he could’ve said in this situation. Dunoff is The Worst.
In the classroom, Marizza brings Pablo his books, to the disturbance of Luna and Lujan. Marizza grouses that she hates it, but what can she do? “There’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a good kick between the legs,” Lujan advises. Hee! It feels so good to love you again, Lujan.
The dance teacher comes in and decides to announce the results of the audition to the whole class, for some reason. Naturally, Mia didn’t get in. “Are you sure?” she asks. “Very sure,” the dance teacher snarks. I’m not going to lie, I kind of hate her. She’s so frickin’ irresponsible. Anyway, Marizza is smug. Mansilla comes in and starts handing back their homework, and notes that Vico isn’t in class. He asks Mia, but she’s in a state of shock over the dance group. When she finally snaps to — interestingly, she demurs when Mansilla asks if she’s okay, instead of begging for attention like she usually does — she says that Vico had to go meet with Dunoff. “He was probably asking if she accepts cash!” Marizza snarks, which is the second most appalling thing anyone could say in this situation. Mansilla, bless him, asks her to explain what she means by that. “Nothing, it was just a joke,” Marizza says. “You said it, so you have to take responsibility for what you meant,” Mansilla says. Yes! Run away with me, Mansilla!
Marizza admits that she was referencing the rumor in the newspaper. Someone offers up their copy for Mansilla to look at, and he immediately flips out. “This is disgusting,” he tells them. “Who wrote this?” Pablo and Guido try to convince him to let it go, but he shuts them down. Feli suggests that the rumor wasn’t a coincidence, since Vico was known for being “fast”, and Mansilla shuts that down, too. I LOVE HIM. He snaps that even if Vico sleeps around, whoever wrote the story clearly can’t prove it, since they refuse to own up to it. “Finding someone in this school who shows their face is harder than finding something in Mia’s head!” Marizza snarks. Mia bursts into tears and runs out of the room, and then the bell rings. Everyone moves to leave, but Mansilla yells that they aren’t done, and they’re going to meet after school to work out why everyone in this class are such dicks to each other.
This episode is a fucking trip, man.
Mia runs into the main office to ask about Vico. Gloria very obviously lies that she doesn’t know where Vico’s gone, and Mia snips at her to let Vico know that she’s looking for her. I enjoy Mia being sassy, but she certainly got over her breakdown in class quickly. I’m not sure what this purpose this scene is supposed to serve, really. Gloria starts to write down Mia’s orders, then throws down her pen. She looks pissed at herself for getting bowled over so easily by a 15-year-old, as she should be.
Mansilla stops Mia in the hall and asks if she needs to talk about anything. Mia reminds him that she has plenty of people to talk to, because she’s the most popular girl in school, and Mansilla remarks that sometimes the most popular people are the most lonely. Sad music kicks up in the background to let us know that he’s right. Man, Mansilla is killing it in this episode. And we’re only halfway through!
In the cafeteria, Manuel’s like, “Damn Feli, you were way harsh on Vico.” You know it’s bad when Manuel thinks you’re a dick. Feli says that neither Vico nor Mia are her friends anymore — “You were the one who told me that I shouldn’t trust anyone at this school.” Nice going, Manuel. He’s like, “Okay, but I didn’t mean you should call Vico a sl*t in front of the entire class.” Nico’s just watching them judgily.
Feli hops off to go get food, and Nico reminds Manuel that he said Feli was a mistake. Manuel admits he keeps punking out of breaking up with her, but he’s going to do it for real this time. And you know what? I bet he actually will. I have faith in this episode to keep on giving.
Teachers’ lounge. Mansilla is showing the other teachers the newspaper, and they’re all like “whatever” about it. One teacher — some rando who is not either of the not-ethics teachers — even says that whoever wrote the story must be really smart. It’s a very well-structured drama! Mansilla’s like, “That is the complete opposite of the point.”
Anyway, all the teachers tell Mansilla that they’re too worn out from dealing with these sociopaths in class; they don’t want to back him up at the after-school meeting. Just then, Gloria comes in with the file on the new kid who’s going to take Vico’s place. He’s a famous athlete or some shit, and Gloria says that Dunoff asked her to recommend him to the teachers for special consideration, whatever that is. The not-not-ethics teacher says, “Another recommendation? That’s weird.” Do you think, maybe, something shady is going on at this school? Mansilla says that third year is full, and Gloria’s like, “Oh no, we kicked Vico out. It was no big.”
Mama Dunoff’s been eavesdropping on this whole thing, btw.
In the yard, Mia leaves another message for Papa C and cries a little. Manuel catches up to her and says he wants to talk about Feli. He notices that Mia’s been crying and is genuinely nice to her for two seconds. Anyway, he asks if Feli’s always been this clingy, and Mia exposits that Feli has a lot of problems at home, so her friendships — and now Manuel — are all she has. Manuel swears that he just wanted Feli to stop relying on Mia for validation; he didn’t mean for her to become actively cruel to her ex-friends. Mia accepts that, but snips that Manuel better feel the same way about Feli that she does about him, otherwise he’s going to hurt her.
Nacho’s sad trailer. Marizza finds all of Pablo’s underage drinking gear, and is like, “Oh, this is NOT on.” Pablo pops up behind her and says that it’s not like she can stop him. Nacho’s all like, “Au contraire! I will totally throw acorns at you until you stop underage drinking!” and Pablo evils that Nacho, like Marizza, has to do whatever he says now. He leaves all smug, and Nacho yells at Marizza for not standing up to him. Marizza tries to explain that she’s running the risk of expulsion for his dumb ass, but before she can, she gets a text message and has to run.
Outside the classroom, Feli comes up and sees Mia and Manuel talking to each other. Again? Whatever. She drags him off and gets hella aggressive, telling him that everything Mia says is a lie. Manuel says, “She said that she loves you a lot,” which shuts Feli up. Also, an interesting flip from the earlier episodes, where Manuel was like, “The Coluccis destroy everything they touch!” and Feli was trying to convince him that Mia wasn’t that bad.
Meanwhile, Mansilla is telling Mia that Dunoff expelled Vico. Mia starts flipping her shit about how Papa C didn’t come through for her, and Mansilla’s like, “Why didn’t you just do something about it yourself?” Mia says she can’t do anything alone, and Mansilla points out that she said she was super popular and the entire school follows her lead. He suggests she use her popularity for something besides inducing the entire school to wear crappy early 2000s fashion. Hee.
Dunoff’s office. It turns out that Papa C has gotten all of Mia’s messages, and he’s decided to check on her by calling Dunoff. Worst idea ever. Dunoff tells Papa C that Mia was probably just calling him because she was so excited about her straight As in math class. Man, Mia must have left some hella vague messages if Papa C is falling for that. Dunoff hangs up all relieved. Whew! He escaped having to take responsibility for the school he runs yet again!
So much shit’s been going down that I almost forgot about the Marizza-in-therapy plotline. Sonia and the psychologist show up to Dunoff’s office to check on Marizza’s progress (after…one session?). The naive psychologist chirps that Marizza is a pleasant, shy, demure young lady. Dunoff’s like, “Excellent! I don’t have to pretend to care about her disturbing behavior anymore!” Sonia, thankfully, is a little quicker on the uptake. They call Marizza in (the psychologist conveniently leaves, so she doesn’t bust Marizza for being an entirely different person from Luna) and Sonia says that she doesn’t believe the psychologist was describing Marizza. For one, ain’t no universe where Marizza could possibly be described as “demure.” And secondly, the psychologist picked up on Luna’s crappy home life, and noted in her file that “Marizza” is searching for a substitute mother because she feels abandoned by her own. “Is that true?” Sonia sniffles. Marizza sweatdrops: either she emotionally destroys her mother (again), or she blows her cover in front of Dunoff. She picks the first, naturally. Sonia starts crying and throws herself into Dunoff’s arms. Oh, this will end well.
Some hallway. Feli throws Mia against the wall and crazies at her to stay away from Manuel. She snaps that now Mia knows how it feels to be left out of the dance group, and Mia grovels for forgiveness. “You’re being so mean!” she wails. “I learned it from you,” Feli snips, and flounces off.
I mean…on the one hand, Mia has been unthinkingly mean to Feli a lot, and it’s kind of bizarre that even Manuel is suddenly on Mia’s side just because Feli’s stopped being such a doormat. On the other hand, Feli’s definitely being a lot crueler than Mia’s ever been, as far as we can see.
Mansilla’s after-school special. He says they’re going to do an exercise to get to know their classmates, so that they’ll see each other as people and stop being such assholes all the time. Hey! This is maybe the second or third time that the theme of the episode has had anything to do with the opening monologue. The quality of this episode is just blowing my mind left and right. Anyway, this exercise involves blindfolding each other and patting each other down. What? I don’t know. It’s just an excuse for Manuel and Mia to get ~coincidentally~ paired up and dramatically touch each other’s faces.
Marcos and Lujan are also paired up in the background, which will become funny in about a hundred episodes.
In the teacher’s lounge, Dunoff pops in to get them all to sign a form backing him up about the whole Vico thing. Hilda’s all pissy about it because being late to class will ruin her reputation as a hardass. I mean, she showed up like two weeks late to the entire school year, so that ship’s already sailed, but whatever! The rest of the teachers are like, “Who gives a shit” and sign the paper, but Hilda is suspicious.
After the exercise, Mia cutely tells Mansilla that she thought about what he said, and she wants to help Vico. Mansilla tells her he’s glad she’s using her powers for good. I like this scene a lot, I think mostly because you don’t usually see teachers encouraging characters like Mia.
Cafeteria. Manuel starts to tell Nico that he’s had a brainwave about the Society, but before he can tell him what it is, Feli comes in. It’s dumping time! Manuel breaks it as gently as he can, but Feli flips out and says that she’s going to kill herself. YIKES.
And that’s the end of the episode! This shit was a ride.
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