Opening monologue: There are loves we feel very strongly, and we have to keep the strength of those emotions in our hearts, or some jazz.
When we last left Pablo and Marizza, they were fighting and making out, as is usual for them. Then Facundo walks in on them! His goatee is so betrayed! Marizza, meanwhile, is all twitterpated that Pablo is putting the mack on her again, until she sees Facundo. He’s like, “I see I’m not a main character after all!” Nope, and you never were, Facu! He storms off all offended, but then Marizza promises him that once the race is over, she won’t have anything more to do with Pablo and she’ll be all over Facundo and his goatee. Facundo, though, swears that Pablo won’t be racing with Marizza. Dun dun dun!
Meanwhile, Mia’s melting down because she found out that she and Marizza have the same birthday. For some reason, Sonia thinks the solution is trying to convince them to have a joint party. “You have so many things in common!” she says. I mean, they do, but that’s subtext, Sonia! They don’t know that yet! Anyway, it doesn’t even matter, since Marizza wants to go to Machu Picchu for her birthday, not have a party. So there’ll be no conflict at all! And yet, I bet somehow there will be.
Hilario comes to Hilda’s house to deliver some contrivance that Mansilla pawned off on him. For some reason, he’s all shocked to find out that he’s at Hilda’s house (“Hilda Acosta?” he asks, like he knows any other Hilda). Her hired girl or whoever lets him in, and Hilda comes out of the bathroom in her robe and face mask (in the middle of the afternoon? whatever), and jams to classical music for like five minutes before noticing there’s a dude in her house. Naturally, she doesn’t take to well to this, and Hilario’s all like, “Don’t be immature, there’s no reason to freak out about finding a guy in your house uninvited!” She kicks him out and cries. She finds the note he was delivering from Mansilla, where Mansilla’s like, “You can run but you can’t hide from telenovela fate, Hilda!”
Luna finishes her Math Olympics assignment or whatever and is going over the competition with Renata. She’s not too confident about her answers, which doesn’t please Renata at all. I mean, they’re in 10th grade and still on long division, Renata. They weren’t gonna be winning any awards. Nico finishes his test too, and Renata’s like, “Oh hey, your dad came by and I told him your girlfriend isn’t Jewish. Just FYI!”
Mansilla asks Sonia to come back and teach the dance class (what dance class? Aren’t they all taking music with Hilario now?). Sonia says she’ll do it, as long as Marizza is okay with it. Then Pepa calls, panicking that Luca is at the theater, all ready to go to Madrid. She’s like, “What do I do? Do I tell him you lied to him?” Sonia’s like, “Jesus Christ, Pepa, no.”
Avril Lavigne marks Nico’s return to school. At some point, I think it’s less pathetic that this show is constantly playing her music, and more pathetic that I can still recognize all her songs solely from the opening notes. Look, I wore out Let Go in 2002, all right? I was a middle schooler with A LOT OF FEELINGS. Anyway, Nico comes back looking rather upset, which Manuel steamrolls right over to update him on the Angelita situation. Then Blas comes in and flexes his micropenis by telling Manuel to go clean up the not-library. It has no books and nobody on this show ever studies; how can it possibly need cleaning? But somehow it does. Anyway, Manuel tells Nico that once he meets Angelita, Blas won’t be able to boss him around anymore. Nico’s still emo, and ends up spilling his love life troubles to Manuel. Manuel, bizarrely the voice of reason, tells Nico to just talk it out with his dad. But no, Nico has a much more sensible solution: he’ll run away! That always works for people on this show!
Sonia tells Marizza about possibly teaching the dance class again, and Marizza confesses to her drag racing shenanigans. They both flip out and forbid the other to do their respective thing. Sonia promises she won’t teach the class if Marizza won’t compete in the race. Marizza agrees. Lujan, who’s been in the corner of this scene the whole time, wonders how Marizza’s going to win the bet with Simon if she’s not racing. Marizza’s like, “Did you think I told my mother the truth? Have you met me?” Then Marcos knocks on the door, asking for Lujan. Lujan’s like, “He knows that I made a deal with Blas to see him in the hospital! He’ll think I like him!” Marizza’s like, “You do like him, dingus.”
Nico goes to Mansilla and asks him to intervene in Papa Provenza’s meeting with Dunoff, and tell Papa Provenza that Luna is Jewish. Mansilla agrees to meet with Papa Provenza instead, and he goes along with the lie that Luna is Jewish. He BSes that Renata is new, and kinda slow on the uptake. Renata overhears all this and is not happy.
In the cafeteria, Mia’s gushing over some quince dresses with Vico. She’s like, “Oh, btw, how did stalking Feli about her doctor’s visit go?” Vico’s like, “Eh, didn’t really find anything out.” Mia’s like, “Huh. Oh, well, back to the dresses.” Oh, Mia. Marizza comes in and needles Mia about being shallow, as she does, and Mia and Vico one up her by bragging that Sonia’s going to help plan Mia’s party. Marizza does not like that, at all. Lujan, being weirdly sensible, says that if Marizza doesn’t want Sonia to help Mia, she should tell her. Then Marcos shows up and tries to talk to Lujan, and she runs away. Marcos chases her through the school, but eventually loses her.
…you know, it occurs to me that between her violence and his niceness, they’re basically Helga and Arnold from Hey Arnold. Lujan even has the big ol’ eyebrows. Except she writes less poetry, probably.
Sandra signs a form for Manuel to leave and see Angelita, under the guise of going to the dentist. Blas shows up to block Manuel, but Gloria hates Blas enough to defend Manuel and let him go. Ha! This is what happens when you wave your dick around and piss everyone off, Blas.
Mia calls Luca to school to ask him to help plan her party. He tells her that he’ll help her, but everything has to be arranged, because he’s going on a trip soon. Mia chirps that it’s fine if he’s not here, because Sonia can help her! Luca’s like, “Say what?” He goes off to ask Marizza, and she hedges that Sonia didn’t tell her about a trip to Spain — but she also didn’t tell her that she was helping Mia with her quince, so you know, that Sonia! So wacky! That just confirms it for Luca, and he leaves all sadly.
Manuel meets with Angelita, and she confirms that Blas, aka Juan, is her nephew. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with him, because he messed up her life many years ago. Manuel’s like, “Tell me more! (Like does he have a car?)” Angelita hustles off to get coffee, and then FUCKING BLAS POPS INTO THE FRAME! AAAAH!
This legitimately scared me. I mean, Blas always scares me because he’s a sex offender and everything, but I was not expecting him to just come out of fucking nowhere.
“Angelita” comes back out, and Blas passes her a wad of money and thanks her. She’s like, “Whenever you need ‘Angelita’ for another job, she’s ready!”, just in case it wasn’t already really fucking obvious that Blas hired her to play Manuel. Blas reveals that he planted the phone number for the home in the first place, and he grabs the folder with all his incriminating information and leaves. Uh…so is everything in that folder fake, then? There’s literally nothing else incriminating in there? By going to such lengths to cover his history up, Blas is really just making it clear that he does have a sordid past? Whatever.
Random AIM Lady comes back with a cake for Mansilla. She tells Gloria that the girls lied about the sexual assault (women lie about it all the time, amirite?!), but the kids at Elite Way are very good and should be proud to have a teacher like Mansilla. Random AIM Lady, you’re not going to get with Mansilla. You don’t even have a name. Renata comes in and offers to take the cake to Mansilla, and of course takes the opportunity to read the card. AIM Lady is all, “Thank you for fixing my life, like you do with everyone!”, and Renata’s all bitter. Mansilla comes in and Renata offers to cut the cake. “Is it just me, or are we getting along better?” Mansilla asks. Renata chirps that they are, and she also has a present for him, for telling Papa Provenza that she’s slow: she shoves the cake in his face. Heh.
Sonia goes back to the theater, only to find that Pepa’s packed all her bags for her. “Well, you said to act as if you really were going on vacation,” Pepa derps. She asks why Sonia doesn’t just tell Luca the truth, and Sonia says that she loves Luca and she can’t let him throw away this opportunity. Pepa observes that Sonia doesn’t really love Luca; if she did, she’d want to be with him. Then Mia calls, interrupting Pepa’s armchair psychologist session, and tells her that Marizza knows about the quince.
Papa B brings Pablo to the auto shop to see his new drag racing car, and leaves him to talk cars with the mechanic. As he pulls away, Facundo rocks up, his goatee trembling with anger. While Pablo and the mechanic are off being contrivedly distracted, Facundo crawls under the car and fucks with it. He runs off, and then Simon shows up, demanding more money to throw the race. Pablo’s like, “No way”, so Simon beats him up. I mean, not very realistically, but we’re meant to believe that Pablo’s doubled over in pain, so let’s go with it. Man, this is not his day.
Blas finds Lujan and, thinking she’s involved with Manuel’s investigation (which she kinda is), he throws her up against the wall and starts threatening her. Appropriate! Marcos rocks up and defends her, and calls Mansilla over. Blas gives up, and Lujan escapes. (Meanwhile, Marcos is like, “Mansilla, what’s up with you?” and Mansilla mumbles, “Cake.” Hee.)
Luca confronts Sonia and calls her out for lying to him. He’s all like, “You should’ve talked to me!” Oh, Luca, if anyone actually straight up talked to each other, this telenovela would be like, ten episodes. He snaps that he’s going to leave after all, because there’s nothing left for him here. Wow, it’s gonna be super awkward when Sonia marries Papa C and they become in-laws. Maybe Luca will just have quietly disappeared into the ether by then.
Marcos catches Lujan, again, some more. He asks why she visited him in the hospital, and suggests that maybe she likes him. He goes for the lean-in, but Lujan denies liking him and runs away. Again. Then Blas corners her, again. Wow, you could’ve cut out the entire previous scene with the three of them with absolutely no difference whatsoever.
Blas drags her off and makes her join in Manuel’s punishment of cleaning the library. Manuel thanks him for the help: after all, if one of them each takes a shelf, they should be done in like five minutes. Manuel tells Lujan that he’s come up with another plan: “Angelita” must know who Blas really is, since she was in touch with him and he was paying her. So there must be something in her house about him, if they can get in to find it. And she already knows Manuel’s face, ergo, Lujan has to go in. Lujan’s like, “I mean, if I can’t punch my way into the house, there’s not a lot I can do.”
Peter tells Papa C that Luca said goodbye to him, and Papa C muses that whatever’s going on, Sonia would know. He goes over to see her, just as she’s trying to call Luca. His phone’s disconnected, and Pepa lets it slip that it’s Sonia’s fault that he’s disappeared. They start fighting, and then Mia and Marizza show up all pissed about Mia’s party. Rough life, Sonia. She snaps that she’s busy with the Luca problem, and Marizza snarks that he’s just another trophy for Sonia’s cabinet. “Don’t talk to your mother like that,” Papa C snaps. Everyone stares at him, and he blusters that they should go look for Luca.
Renata tells Mansilla that she’s found out some interesting things: A) Luna isn’t Jewish, and B) Nico isn’t listed as Jewish either. So what is the truth? She snaps that she doesn’t like lying, and she won’t go along with it. Then they get interrupted by a call from Renata’s boyfriend (who’s gone through Gloria, for some reason). Mansilla’s like, “She has a boyfriend?” Gloria sighs that she doesn’t understand the luck some people have. She kind of gives Mansilla the eye as she says it, and Mansilla’s like, “Yeah…this isn’t happening, Gloria.”
Marcos’s dad shows up, and gives Marcos some piece of paper. “No puede ser!” Marcos says. If this were a drinking game, we’d take a shot right now. Lujan witnesses this dramatic moment, and is perturbed.
Back at the auto shop, Pablo recovers from his fight with Simon and tells the mechanic he wants to test drive the car. It turns out Facundo’s cut the brakes, and Pablo crashes the car. Aw, Facundo, why you gotta be like this?
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