Previously on Rebelde Way: Mia’s protest has successfully inducted Vico back into the school, but now she has to face the consequences of being ~rebelde. Feli and Mia are fighting for real. Feli also tried to give Manuel her body so he would love her, but Manuel shot her down and left her crying in the laundry room. Do people even bother doing their laundry there? There’s always something awkward happening in that room. Sonia managed to be a responsible adult for five seconds and cottoned on that Marizza might be up to some shenanigans. Maybe she’ll figure out what those are in another twenty episodes.
Opening monologue: Sometimes you get knocked down, but then you get up again. Is this not the chorus of “Tubthumping”?
We begin right where we left off. We seem to be doing that a lot lately. Some rando, who I keep wanting to call “Amanda” because she has the same hair as Amanda from Buffy, tells them that something’s happened to Feli. Manuel and Mia run off to the laundry room, where Feli is vomiting uncontrollably into a bucket. Mia finds a bunch of candy wrappers in the corner, and they realize Feli ate her feelings to the point of sickness. Mia wants to help, but Feli screams at her to get out. It’s pretty effectively intense, not going to lie.
Dunoff’s office. He’s trying to placate New Kid Joaquin’s Very Important Uncle, because Joaquin is a douchebag and hasn’t shown up to his first day of school. He assures Very Important Uncle that they’re doing everything in their power to find Joaquin right now, and he’ll call him ASAP when he’s found. Then he hangs up and yells at Gloria to start looking.
Dunoff goes to the lounge to yell at everyone for exercising their right to assemble. Then he admits that they’re going to readmit Vico, and nobody’s going to get in trouble. All the kids breathe a sigh of relief, like they’re not already used to getting their own way with zero consequences.
Meanwhile, Gloria is having a breakdown in the office over trying to find Joaquin. “WHERE COULD HE BE?” she shrieks, tearing through her papers. I don’t know, Gloria! Maybe actually get off your chair and look for him! Marizza bounces in and joins Gloria in freaking out when she realizes her new crush is missing. She grabs the phone and calls Joaquin’s hotel. Oh, how I’ve missed Marizza climbing all over Gloria’s desk and accessing files on her computer with impunity. Marizza pretends to be a sports reporter who wants to interview Joaquin, and the operator puts her right through to his room. It’s good to know that it’s not just the teachers at this school who get bowled over by a bunch of 15-year-olds.
Manuel is visiting Feli in the “hospital”, which looks like any other room in the school. Predictably, her illness guilt trips him into staying with her. I guess I wasn’t exaggerating when I said it would take them a hundred episodes to break up.
Papa C arrives and yells at Mia to go to her room while he hashes out her new ~rebeldía~ with Dunoff. Mia sits in her room and emos, while Random Amanda babbles on about how Mia should be happy that Vico’s being readmitted. Why is she suddenly in all the scenes in this episode? Mansilla comes to the room and tells Mia that he called Vico and she’s thrilled to be coming back to school. Bizarrely, Random Amanda leaves them alone for this conversation. Inappropriate! Dammit, Mansilla, I was all ready to love you for being a responsible and encouraging adult these past few episodes, but now you’re back to the usual Elite Way shenanigans of approaching teenagers in their bedrooms and getting up in their personal lives. And then! Somehow it gets worse! Mansilla goes into her room and SHUTS THE DOOR BEHIND HIM.
I don’t know about you, but when I was in school, teachers weren’t even allowed to close the classroom door when they were having one-on-one meetings with the students. Anyway, I’ll ignore how I’m dying inside over the complete lack of boundaries in this school, and focus on the conversation. Mia says that she is happy about how the protest turned out, but now Papa C is mad at her, and this whole responsibility thing just feels weird. Mansilla tells her that it’s normal to feel weird about changing and growing up, and Mia says she knows what he means: “Like, I used to like my blue teddy bear, but now I don’t.” Mansilla’s like, “…yes, exactly.” He offers to talk to Papa C for her, but Mia’s on her new responsibility kick and says that she’ll do it. Aw. It’s a pretty nice conversation, except…
INAPPROPRIATE.
The “protests are for the working class” girl (“Fernanda”) shows up and gives Mia a note. It’s from Manuel, telling her that Feli is better and he’s staying with her in the infirmary. Oh. I was joking about how they just dressed part of the school set up to look like a hospital, but I guess that really was a room in the school. Anyway, Mia emos some more.
Joaquin shows up to school, under the impression that the sports journalist is going to meet him there. So basically, he was told to meet a journalist he’s never heard of, at the school he’s playing hooky from, and he fell for it? I bet even Tomás wouldn’t have believed that one. Marizza pops in and hustles Joaquin off, and Gloria asks, “There’s no journalist, what are you going to do with him?” Marizza’s like, “Use him for his body, duh.” Not in so many words. She takes him to an empty classroom, and then makes like there was totally a journalist there five minutes ago. Joaquin’s like, “Ugh, journalists! So unreliable!” Then he calls Gloria stupid. Marizza tells him that Elite Way totally blows, and says he’s the first man she’s met here — all the guys in class are so immature. Joaquin’s ego is pleased.
Vico’s back in Mia’s room, so I guess Random Amanda has to clear out now. Fernanda and Random Amanda squeal and welcome Vico back, even though they were totally dissing her when Mia was trying to get them to help out. Rude! Then Papa C shows up to yell at Mia, and they all skedaddle. She snips at him that she had to take matters into her own hands, since she sent him “like twenty” text messages and he ignored her. “I called Dunoff!” he tells her. Mia rightly is like, “DUNOFF? His 15-year-old daughter knows more about this school than he does.” He tells her that he doesn’t understand why she’s been acting weird ever since the beginning of the school year. She’s like, “I became the protagonist of a telenovela, that’s what happened.” Just kidding. She has a totally teenager meltdown about how this is just who she IS, Dad, it’s not a phase! “Maybe if you’d spent more time with me, you’d know that.” Burn! She cries that they already have more money than they can spend; Papa C just works all the time because he wants to avoid her. He gets all bitter that she doesn’t know anything about the real world, and she tells him that she’s learning, because she’s 15 years old and she can do whatever the hell she wants! Then she storms out. ~*~REBELDE~*~
Papa C, meanwhile, is left alone in the room and sees the selfie of Mia and Marizza from last episode. “This is the problem,” he muses. Uh-oh, now Papa B and Papa C are gunning for Marizza. She’s going to wake up with a horse head in her bed one of these days.
Marizza returns Joaquin to the main office just as Sonia shows up, dressed tacky as usual. Joaquin’s hella into her, and Marizza lies that Sonia’s some other girl’s embarrassing mother, totally not hers. Then Dunoff comes in and tells Joaquin that Pilar’s going to show him around the school. Joaquin says that Marizza already showed him everything and he just has to go move his stuff in, and Dunoff jumps on that: “She’ll show you to your room and introduce you to all the boys!” Oh good, I’m so glad the show reminded me about the “Dunoff is trying to pimp his daughter out to the rich kids” plotline. I had almost successfully bleached that from my brain. Pilar is hilariously not into it:
Mia sneaks into the infirmary while Feli is asleep. She’s hooked up to an IV drip, which seems pretty fancy for a school infirmary. I guess that’s where all the school money goes, instead of to buying more than one bookshelf and computer for the library. Anyway, Mia’s thoughtfully brought some food for Manuel, since he’s skipping dinner to be with Feli. He’s all like, “omg, she has LAYERS.” She emos to him about how her dad just doesn’t ~get~ her and Manuel’s like, “Yeah, he’s evil and also a murderer.” Mia’s like, “What?” and Manuel’s like, “What?”
In Marizza’s room, Lujan is doing sit-ups for no apparent reason that I can see. I LOVE HER. Sonia comes in looking for Marizza and Luna, as she’s brought presents for them. And none for Lujan, bye! Actually, it seems kind of weird that Sonia forgot about Lujan. I mean, Luna and Marizza are fighting half the time, while Lujan is practically attached at her hip. Sonia asks Lujan what’s up with Marizza’s credit card bill, and Lujan lies and says Marizza was buying clothes and food for her, because she’s an orphaned sadsack and all. There are about a million holes Sonia could poke in that lie (Lujan is living in a boarding school that provides all her meals, she wears a uniform, Marizza is buying children’s clothes…), but she accepts it at face value, for plot reasons. Papa C calls her (why does he have her number?) and wants to meet her to discuss their problematic children. Lujan skedaddles.
Pablo’s room. It turns out that Joaquin is supposed to room with Pablo and Guido, but they’re weirdly all against this idea. I mean, Joaquin is a dick, but they don’t know him yet, so I don’t get it. Pablo even remarks that the room’s already full, even though he was scheming to kick Tomás out like five minutes ago. Unfortunately, the not-ethics teacher chooses that moment to pop in and be like, “Oh yeah, Pablo’s dad called and said he doesn’t want his precious son to room with Tomás, and so we’re gonna go back on what we decided just last episode and do whatever Papa B tells us to, as usual.” Pablo has the grace to look a little guilty. Tomás is crushed. Is there no end to the trauma of his and Pablo’s breakup?
Back in the infirmary, Manuel falls asleep on Mia’s shoulder. She staaaares at him and sloooowly leans in. It goes on for like five minutes and a commercial break. Finally she gets close enough to touch mouths, and then freaks out and leaves.
Papa C and Sonia meet in some nightclub and trade jabs about how Papa C thinks he’s classier than Sonia and how Sonia is famouser than him, blah blah blah. Papa C tells her that he doesn’t want Marizza and Mia to be friends — actually, the words they keep using are “get together” and “go out”, which gives this whole thing some weird lesbian subtext. Anyway, Papa C thinks that the Coluccis are too good for “vain, superficial artistic types.” Sonia gets up in his face about how Marizza is an angel and Mia is stupid and shallow, because nothing says mature and responsible adult like insulting a teenage girl! Predictably, a bunch of reporters recognize Sonia and start photographing her and Papa C in the club together.
The next day. Mia asks Vico what to do when you like someone that you shouldn’t, and Vico’s like, “Oh, we’re talking about Guido!” Mia rolls with it, although I don’t know in what world liking Guido is less embarrassing than liking Manuel. Vico tells her that it’s easy: just find someone less lame than Guido, because it’s not like that’s hard, and get over him. Mia’s like, “For sure, I’ll do that.”
Marcos finally sits Manuel and Nico down and admits he knows stuff about the Society. He swears that he’s not involved, but he did know someone who was — his dead brother! Scare chord! He doesn’t tell them shit, actually. He just cries about how he was upset to find out his brother was a bully and he confronted him, and now he has all this guilt because his brother died before they could make up. And his brother’s best friend was the ringleader of the Black Hand at the time, and eventually they regrouped with more people to make the Society. And that’s it. Manuel thinks he’s telling the truth, but Nico just glares at him suspiciously.
Lujan shows Luna all of the stuff Sonia gave her, and Luna finds a card from Sonia, apologizing on Marizza’s behalf for making Luna impersonate her. Fair enough, but Lujan doesn’t like it, as usual. She needles Luna again about making so many rich friends and storms out.
In the hallway, Mia asks Vico to help her find someone better than “Guido.” Vico’s about to drag her off to meet some senior guys, when Mia spies Joaquin. “Never mind,” she tells Vico. “I know what I’m looking for.”
Love yourself, Mia.
Guido’s hitting on Random Amanda when Marizza rolls up and asks where Joaquin is. They point him out, and he’s sitting on the bench with Mia. Marizza is Not Pleased.
Cafeteria. Nico is musing over their new clue: he doesn’t think Marcos can be trusted, and there’s no way of verifying his story. Manuel’s not paying attention to him at all, and he blurts out to Nico that he can’t stop thinking about Mia. He thinks she likes him! Nico gets all twitterpated: “She’s an ice queen*, and the prettiest girl in school!” Manuel says that he’s just going to ignore her, and Nico’s like, “What’s the deal? She likes you, you like her…” Manuel gets all flustered and denies it, but Nico’s like, “Pfft, I’ve seen how you look at her. I’m a Boy Detective, you can’t fool me.” Manuel insists that he hates her and runs away. And he’s wearing his orange pants again, I see. Maybe Nico should investigate the mystery of Manuel’s attachment to those.
*The word he actually uses is matador, and I guess Nico means that she’s whatever the female version of a ladykiller is. I’m not sure there is a word for that, and “ice queen” fits better anyway, in my opinion.
In Dunoff’s office, he and Mama Dunoff have a fight over how much money she’s spent on clothes. She needles him about not asking for a higher salary, and says that she can’t be poorly dressed — what if one of the rich kids’ parents sees her in the hallway? I mean, she only ever comes around to fight with Dunoff and/or hit on Mansilla, so I feel like this fear is unfounded, so whatever. Dunoff finally takes some money out of his secret stash and gives it to her, then they start fighting some more about where he got it from. Finally Pilar runs in and tells them to stop fighting, because Gloria can hear them and she thinks it’s hilarious. Heh. I love Gloria’s antipathy towards everyone in this school, including her own boss. Anyway, Dunoff asks how it went with Joaquin, and Pilar says that he was kind of a dick to her. Dunoff tells her to try harder to sell herself to him, because he is the grossest. Then he and Mama Dunoff are off on another fight about whether or not they should be pimping Pilar out to the other students.
The not-ethics teacher introduces Joaquin to the class and Mia and Marizza immediately start fighting over who gets to lend him their notes. Yikes. Manuel is off visiting Feli, and when he meets up with Nico in the cafeteria again, Nico assures him that Mia doesn’t have a crush on him: she’s crazy about the new guy. “The one who wears that stupid headband all the time?” Manuel asks. Hee! I mean, this observation is a little rich coming from Manuel and his orange pants, but I’ll take it. Well, anyway, Manuel is THRILLED that Mia doesn’t have a thing for him. ABSOLUTELY THRILLED! And now he’ll be storming off, thank you. Nico is just like, “Ooookay.”
Outside, Mansilla finds Mama Dunoff moping. They have a hearty chuckle over Dunoff, and she tells him he’s the only one who can make her laugh. Yikes! Mansilla invites her on a walk, and they head off together while Gloria spies on them from the bushes. Oooh, Mansilla, you in danger girl.
Marizza tells Mia that Alicia’s going to let them back in to the dance group, and Mia and all the girls run off to see her. Of course it’s all a ruse for Marizza to have Joaquin to herself, and Mia is pissed when she finds out. (Alicia’s all like, “Sorry you got your hopes up, but there’s no new dance group.” Seriously, why doesn’t she just let them back in? This whole thing is so stupid.) Sonia shows up at the school and Marizza runs off, leaving the way open for Mia to slide into a seat at Joaquin’s lunch table. Manuel sees Mia and Joaquin sitting together and emos about how he was supposed to get revenge, not fall in love! Whatever, Manuel. Marizza comes back and also sees Mia and Joaquin together, and dumps yogurt on Mia’s head. Sigh. Just when I thought she was growing as a person, too.
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