Previously on Rebelde Way: Marcos revealed that his dead older brother used to be in the Society (scare chord!). Nico and Manuel feel like this is a really big breakthrough in their investigation, even though it doesn’t reveal anything about the Society at all. Mia’s in trouble with Papa C for daring to be different. Guido has apparently moved on from Mia to Random Amanda. And Manuel began considering the possibility that he and Mia are destined to be one of the main couples in this TV show, just in time for Joaquin to show up and for Mia and Marizza to immediately throw away their self-respect to try and get with him.
Opening monologue: Even if taking risks is dangerous, it’s worth it to live the life you choose. You can read that last part in Bo from Lost Girl’s voice if you want.
A couple of things happened at the end of the last episode that I didn’t mention, because the last five minutes or so were kind of weird and slapsticky and it took them forever to get to the actual point of the scene, which was not conducive to recapping. But somewhere in the midst of Marizza pouring yogurt on Mia’s head, Sonia showed up at school and Marizza made her pretend not to be her mother, so as to not harsh her cool with Joaquin. Manuel was emoing over the fact that Mia and Joaquin are sharing a lunch table, then Mansilla called him to the teacher’s lounge for a meeting. And that’s where we are now!
Mansilla tells Manuel that the Society was around when he was in school, and they made the scholarship students’ lives hell. Weren’t they the Black Hand before, and Marcos’s brother turned it into the Society? Dude, how old is Marcos’s brother? Anyway. Mansilla susses out that Manuel jumped Marcos because they were fighting about the Society, and he says that Manuel has to chill out a little because the Society wants him to be acting crazy and paranoid. This is like the eightieth time someone’s told Manuel this, and he’s still like, “Do you mean I should do NOTHING? Just STAND BY AND LET IT HAPPEN?!?!” Mansilla’s like, “…that. That right there. You gotta stop doing that.” He tells Manuel not to underestimate the Society, because they’re hella rich and have plenty of resources at their disposal, plus they’re running rampant in a school that already lets the students do whatever the hell they want.
Mia’s room. Mia is freaking out that her hair still smells like yogurt, which isn’t the worst smell in the world if you ask me, but whatever. Luna suggests that Marizza spilled two bottles of yogurt on Mia’s head on accident. I feel like Luna should really know better by now. Mia snaps that Marizza was trying to embarrass her in front of Joaquin, but when Mia Colucci wants a guy, she never loses. Never! Even Vico’s just kind of like, “Ooookay.”
Lounge. Random Amanda and Fernanda are trying to ingratiate themselves to Guido and Pablo, respectively. They all want to go to the movies or something over the weekend, but Pablo weasels out, saying he has a family dinner.
Dammit, Amanda, you’re a Slayer! You can do better than Guido!
Joaquin shows up and ropes Nico into playing pool against Pablo and Guido. Pablo bets him some money, and apparently that means it’s serious business, because he ditches Guido and asks Tomás to play with him. “ME?” Tomás beams. Aw!
Quit playing games with their hearts, Pablo.
In Marizza’s room, she’s busy packing for the weekend and squealing over Joaquin. She invites Luna and Lujan to her house — Luna accepts, but Lujan says she’d rather stay at school and exercise, as being athletic is her only other personality trait besides flying into a rage at the drop of a hat. Marizza runs off to go sneak Nacho into the bathroom, and Lujan starts needling Luna again. “So, are you going to get Sonia to give you a room in her house?” Luna’s like, “What do you mean by THAT?” and Lujan says, “Well, you’re always playing the victim, and people just give you things all the time.” Oh my God, is Lujan still on about that? Once again, Luna points out that she’s being a little unfair, and Lujan’s like, “Whatever! You and your LOGIC!” and storms out. Having been properly guilt-tripped, Luna martyrs herself and lies to Marizza that she already promised Mia she’d spend the weekend with her. Marizza’s all like, “FINE! Go tell Mia that I’LL be spending the weekend with Joaquin!” Luna is sadface. Oh, Lujan, why do you make it so hard to justify my love for you?
Over in the lounge, Joaquin wins the game of pool against Pablo and Tomás. Pablo’s like, “K, I’m done using you, we’re back to not being friends.” Tomás is sadface. Mia rolls up and tries to get Joaquin to go to a nightclub with her. He flat-out tells her that he’s going out with Marizza over the weekend — Guido immediately offers to go to the club in his place — but since he has tonight free, he’ll take Mia up on her offer. Instead of telling him to stop stringing her along for free nightclub tickets, Mia squeals that they’re going to have tons of fun.
“Is it because of my shirt?” Guido wonders. HA!
Mansilla and Manuel are still going on about the Society. Mansilla tells Manuel that the Society acts from the shadows, so Manuel has to do that, too — he has to stop running around shouting about the Society to anyone who will listen, and play his cards a little closer to the chest. First, Manuel needs to find out where they have their meetings. In Mansilla’s day, they met in a barn on the edge of campus, but it’s been torn down now. Manuel is getting suspicious: “How do you know so much about them?” Could Mansilla have graduated with such high honors because he was in with the Black Hand? Mansilla says, “I won’t answer that. You’ll have to find out yourself.”
So…yes, then.
The not-ethics teacher blocks Mia from going out, as she’s under house arrest this weekend. Mia wails that she was going to the club with Joaquin, and Dunoff shows up and is like, “Perfect! Pilar can go out with him instead, and make my family rich!” Not in those words. Joaquin’s not bothered by this at all, and he’s just like, “Cool, give me the tickets you bought and I’ll take another girl to the club.” LOVE YOURSELF, MIA.
Papa B takes Pablo out to some abandoned area at night and is like, “And now, you’re going to learn how to dump a body.” Just kidding. Actually, he shows Pablo a poster for his reelection campaign and says that Pablo’s going to be of voting age next year, so he’s totally going to vote Papa B, right? Pablo’s like, “For sure! Government corruption and wetworks 2003!” Papa B decides to reward Pablo’s loyalty with some goalpost-moving: “Tell your little friend we’re not going to have dinner. I want her to meet us for lunch instead.” For some reason, Pablo insists that lunch won’t work? Is he supposed to be doing something at that time? I don’t know. Marizza calls Pablo just then and pretends to be sick, but Pablo makes her agree to show up anyway.
Manuel goes to Feli’s house, and her mom immediately starts ragging on Feli’s weight and how she’s not surprised she ate herself to the point of sickness. First of all, I love how apparently Manuel has to be the one to tell Feli’s family about her accident. Gloria was probably too busy eavesdropping on the Dunoff family drama to bother calling them.
Marizza calls Lujan and tells her that Nacho has a ton of dirt on Pablo, and she needs Lujan to bring it to her. As usual, Lujan almost trips over herself to do Marizza’s bidding.
In Mia’s room, she’s dumping a bunch of clothes on Luna, chattering on about how she’s going to buy a whole new wardrobe just to spite Papa C. Mia wails that Papa C has RUINED HER LIFE by not letting her go out with Joaquin. Mia is in love with him FOR REAL, and Papa C is cockblocking her while Marizza makes off with him! I mean, if Mia is even willing to overlook that stupid headband, it may very well be true love. She throws herself dramatically on her bed, and I have to point out here that Mia has a poster of a bunch of Broadway shows on her wall. I personally now want one for myself, but Mia doesn’t really strike me as a showtunes kind of girl, you know? She grits her teeth and vows to go to the nightclub to see Joaquin. Luna doormats and goes along with helping her sneak out, although she does roll her eyes a bit. I like how Luna has a little more of a spine when it comes to dealing with Mia. She’d probably do the same with Marizza if Lujan and her fists of fury weren’t always hanging around. Anyway, Luna distracts the school guard and Mia climbs over the fence in her heels. Hee!
Also, if I had to see Mia’s jeans, you all do too:
Feli and Manuel hang out at her house and talk. Bizarrely, the camera pans around the room and we see a picture of Manuel and Feli dancing on the beach to “Bonita de más.” I’m so confused. Is the show admitting that random dance routine happened? To a song that doesn’t exist yet in the show’s universe? Even though no one acknowledged it ever again? I feel like if I think about this too much, the fragile reality of the show’s universe will crumble and reveal the matrix or something. Anyway, Feli gets hella clingy and Manuel gently reminds her that they’re still broken up and he’s just here as a friend. This time, she takes it pretty gracefully, and they hug before he leaves. Then she sits among all their abandoned food and cries. She sadly clinks their juice glasses together and tries to eat some of the cheese cubes, but she can’t do it. Feli’s mom comes in and starts berating her for not being able to keep Manuel, because he’s the only guy who’s ever looked at her twice. Oh, man. It’s interesting that Feli’s scenes tend to be the most genuinely affecting and emotional, even though they’re topically not as heavy as say, Pablo’s abuse or Luna’s mysteriously ill sister. I don’t know if Angeles Balbiani is actually a better actor than most of the kids, or if having issues with your body image and self-worth is just something I relate to, but I really feel for her here. Anyway.
Meanwhile, Mia is wandering the streets of Buenos Aires, freaking out about being alone. She manages to run into some weird guy within her first five minutes outside the school walls and then gets hopelessly lost. Eventually Peter finds her. He tells her that he knew she was going to try to sneak out, so he was just…driving all over the city looking for her? I don’t know. He says if she doesn’t go back to school, he’ll call Papa C, and takes out his phone and starts dialing while Mia shrieks. “You’re going to make me lose the boy of my dreams!!!” she tells him. “So?” Peter asks. Hee!
Peter just does not give a shit.
Sonia’s dressing room. I should mention that like three scenes have already taken place here, but they were all so inconsequential that I skipped over them. Anyway, Lujan shows up with Nacho’s dirt on Pablo, which turns out to be the cassette tape(!!) of Pablo playing guitar. Weirdly, Marizza says that Pablo was playing in “Nacho’s house.” Like, I know Marizza is delusional, but there is absolutely no universe in which the sad trailer could be called a house. Anyway, Marizza says that she’ll blackmail Pablo with the cassette, as Papa B doesn’t approve of Pablo’s music, and maybe she’ll send a copy to the radio just to embarass him. Lujan is all twitterpated at the thought of humiliating one of their classmates. They also have a hearty cackle over Joaquin going to the club with Pilar. I love how Marizza thinks so little of Pilar that she doesn’t even consider that Joaquin might try to get with her instead. Sonia comes in and tells them they’re going out to dinner, and Marizza suggests they finish up the night at the club. Instead of being like, “You’re fifteen years old and I am your mother,” Sonia is all pleased that Marizza wants to go clubbing with her.
Manuel sits in his room and flashbacks to all the good times with Feli. The flashback of her in the laundry room gives him a brainwave, and he heads over there to look for a secret passageway. He doesn’t find one. That was kind of anticlimactic.
Peter brings Mia back to her room, and she cries over how her dad totally doesn’t get her. If only Mama C were alive! The sad piano music kicks up as she asks Peter if Mama C spent time with her, or if she was also always ditching Mia for the maids to look after. There’s some awkward silence from Peter, which…kind of tells you what the answer is right there.
Manuel goes to the school basement, and finds nothing again. On his way out, though, he trips over one of the steps, and it conveniently pops off to reveal some files. This is exactly how I find clues in Nancy Drew games.
Marizza, Lujan, and Sonia arrive at the club. Everyone there immediately recognizes Sonia and starts taking her picture. Marizza is all pissy, which is weird, because did it like…not occur to her that her mother would be recognized in public? Whatever. Marizza runs off to find Joaquin, and ditches Lujan to explain everything to Sonia. There’s supposed to be a crowd around this super-expensive, super-exclusive club, but Marizza finds Joaquin and Pilar in like five seconds, so whatever. A really bizarre conversation ensues. She tells them that they’re going to miss “the raffle”, which includes a chance to go to Disneyland (“I know Disney like the back of my hand!” Joaquin dorks), and Lujan is giving out the tickets. For some reason, Pilar falls for this, and leaves Joaquin to Marizza’s clutches.
Peter brings Mia a box of stuff from her house, “so [she] won’t be bored this weekend.” Mia is a brat about it, but then she opens it up to see it’s full of her dead mother’s stuff. Ooh, and now she feels like a dick. “These must be your mom’s things,” Luna derps as Mia holds up a dress. I mean, I don’t think Papa C or Peter could fit into it. Mia cries happy tears.
Outside the club, Marizza and Joaquin are stroking each other’s egos. “I thought school would be lame, but then I met you,” Joaquin says. “School was totally lame until I met YOU,” Marizza smoothes back. They make out. Hilariously, Joaquin turns his back to the camera so you can’t even tell what’s happening.
He could be strangling her, for all we know.
Manuel calls Nico back to the school to look over the files. They find a bunch of pictures taken of Manuel and Nico in the classroom. Scare chord! Someone is spying on them! Didn’t they…already know that? Is this really scarier than people breaking into their room all the time? Or Manuel nearly getting hit by a car?
The next day, Marizza shows up at the Bustamante Bungalow early, claiming nerves. Pablo is immediately suspicious: Marizza could only have come early because of some ULTERIOR MOTIVE! In fairness, he’s right: Marizza dangles the cassette in front of him and smugly tells him that she won’t be staying for lunch. She has a date with Joaquin, and if Pablo tries to stop her or expose Nacho, she’ll tell everyone about his emo music hobby. Pablo puts the cassette in his boombox (hee!), and it doesn’t work. “What was that about the cat and the mouse?” he asks her. Marizza sweatdrops. This is kind of her own fault, though, for entrusting her revenge to a nine-year-old. Just sayin’.
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