10 MORE EPISODES! 10 MORE EPISODES! I CAN SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL…no, wait, I can’t, because that still feels like a million years away. Plus there’s all 179 episodes of season two.
So alright! First we have the opening credits, for the first time in forever. Then, opening monologue: We have to be ~united, we need each other to fight for our rights. Potentially to party, seeing as this is Elite Way.
Marizza’s been up on her high horse about Pilar lying about Mansilla leaving, as Mansilla has been telling lies to children about him staying another year. Now it’s the moment of truth: will Mansilla finally admit what the students are going to learn within the next month or so anyway, or will he throw Pilar under the bus yet again? It’s resolved pretty quickly: Mansilla admits that it’s true, and Pilar gets a smug look on her face. The rest of the students are kind of like, “Whatever,” except for Marizza, who flips out (as usual). She shrieks that she doesn’t want to learn about ethics from a liar, and storms out of class.
Dunoff gets mad at Gloria because the classifieds are missing from his newspaper. Why does he want to read them anyway? Then Mansilla comes in and announces he’s leaving, and Dunoff sends Gloria off while the menfolk talk. She decides to eavesdrop on their conversation instead. God bless. Pablo, Tomás, and Guido catch her at it, and needle her into giving them Simon’s telephone number.
Marizza’s emoing in the gym about losing her #3 enabler (#s 1 and 2 being Lujan and Sonia, probably). Pilar finds her and says all the girls are looking for her, but Marizza says she doesn’t want to talk to anyone. She does want to apologize to Pilar, though. Aw! I don’t know where her conscience escaped from this time, but it’s nice whenever it pops up.
Lujan and Luna are equally emo over Mansilla leaving, but then Fernanda and Belen pop up with the newspaper classifieds. Where’s Random Amanda? This whole thing was kind of her idea, no? They call one of the listings (a guy named Popeye, sweet Jesus) and ask him to come over for the day.
In Dunoff’s office, Mansilla’s all, “My work here is done! All the kids are now well-adjusted and will definitely not cause another whole season’s worth of drama!” Dunoff calls Etchamendi all excited that Mansilla’s finally leaving, and they’re free to be shady without his interference. Pilar overhears Dunoff bragging about it, and she’s like, “Omg, my father is corrupt! THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION!”
Blas swings by the boys’ lockers to swing his dick around and go through the lockers for no reason I can see. Nico convinces Manuel that he has to confront Blas right now, this very minute. Manuel’s like, “I’m Papa C’s favorite and you can’t touch me, and soon me and my whole family are gonna be chilling in the house he’s renting to us.” In the background, Nico’s like, “YOU TELL HIM, SON!” Hee. Blas is not happy.
“Unlike me, he gets to live less than a thousand feet from a school zone :(“
All the kids continue to be emo over Mansilla, except Marizza. She’s decided to be mad at him instead, because when in doubt: get up on that moral high horse and be pissy about the behavior of everyone around you. Then Pilar comes in and announces to the class that she knows the real reason Mansilla is leaving.
Pablo, Guido, and Tomás are all skipping class to call Simon. Their absences must be off the charts. I’d say they’re gonna be in summer school for the rest of their lives, but that would imply that Elite Way cares about such things. Anyway, Pablo volunteers Tomás to talk to Simon, because for some reason he trusts Tomás not to fuck it up? Tomás, God love him, passes the buck to Guido. A woman answers the phone and offers to take a message. “With whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?” smarms Guido, as he does every time he senses a double-X chromosome. “His wife,” the woman says. OH SNAP! Wait, dude, how old is Simon? Ick.
Random interlude of “Será porque te quiero.” I forgot that the video has this totally weird part where Luisana Lopilato mouths the words, but it’s Felipe Colombo’s voice coming out of her mouth. Some bizarre surrealism with your teen telenovela!
The next day, presumably. At Casa Colucci, Papa C is trying to win Peter back. Mercedes expresses her doubts, especially since Peter went over the Sonia side. Papa C snarls not to ever mention Sonia Rey again, and Mercedes chirps that she’d be happy to.
Pablo makes Guido call Simon’s house again just to be sure it’s not a joke, and they get his wife again. They puzzle over what to do, but then Manuel drags them off to class. They decide that they have to bust Dunoff to get Mansilla to stay, and Marcos comes up with a plan. It could get them all expelled, but they have to risk themselves for Mansilla! What? He’s not your dad, guys.
Hilda walks in on Gloria and Hilario getting on like a house on fire, and she’s all jealous. Ugh, love yourself, Hilda. Gloria asks Hilario about his nephew, and Hilario’s like, “What nephew?” He quickly remembers that he does have a single nephew, who’s a firefighter. Gloria’s like, “Sign me up!”
Over in her dressing room, Sonia’s telling Pepa that Papa C is dead to her. They’ll never have an angry conversation and get way too close to each other’s faces again! Whatever, I bet they will. Sonia’s old photographer friend from a million episodes shows up — I think he’s Simon’s uncle or something? Whatever — and Sonia says she wants to know more about Simon. The uncle hems and haws about how he can’t really talk about Simon. He mentions that Simon’s lived by himself, ever since he was sixteen, when ~the problem~ happened. Sonia’s like, “What problem?” but of course the uncle won’t talk about it. HMMM. He immediately runs off to tell Simon that Sonia’s been asking about him.
The students lock themselves in the classroom to protest Mansilla’s resignation. Whatever, this is probably the longest they’ve spent in the classroom in the entire year. The teachers should be happy about this.
Hilda and Blas get Dunoff to intervene, because apparently this school doesn’t have a janitor who can open the door. Renata’s like, “Dude, just get Mansilla,” and Dunoff’s like, “WE DO NOT NEGOTIATE!” Meanwhile, Lujan and Luna look out the window and realize that the male escort for Gloria has arrived. They fret over what to do, and while they argue over whether or not to send Lujan out to intercept him, she escapes through the window. Somehow no one else notices until she’s gone, and then Marcos freaks out and his voice starts cracking all over the place. Puberty is a rough time, man. Meanwhile, Lujan is panicking over climbing on the ledge of the school. Whatever, Lujan. If Anne of Green Gables can walk the Barrys’ ridgepole, you can do it too. I can’t believe Anne of Green Gables is a tougher orphan than Lujan. She sees Hilario pass below and decides to jump on him to break her fall. What the hell, Lujan! At least pick someone who won’t get a heart attack from the shock! She tells Hilario that his nephew is here, and they get their act together enough to introduce Popeye to Gloria, pretending his name is Alejandro. “You know, when I was little, I wanted to be a firefighter,” she cutely tells him. Aw, Gloria!
Renata busts in on Mansilla’s big important meeting with the school board, and tells him to come back to school. Mansilla’s like, “I’m kind of in the biggest meeting of my academic career here,” and Renata’s like, “What’s more important to you, improving Argentina’s educational system, or continuing to enable those bratty teenagers?” Mansilla’s like, “Dang, you right,” and runs out of the meeting.
After like, an hour in the classroom, everyone’s getting discouraged and crying over how their parents will kill them. If this were my school, after an hour it would’ve devolved into gossiping and playing MASH on the chalkboard. Dunoff eventually comes in and is like, “Aha! I bet you didn’t know I have a duplicate of every key!” “What kind of school doesn’t have a master key ring?” nobody asks, although they should. He, Blas, and Etchamendi march in to yell at the kids. Manuel insists none of them will leave until Mansilla comes back, and Etchamendi gives them one last chance to cave and leave the classroom before they start handing out punishments. Feli punks out, as do Tomás and a bunch of tertiary characters. Etchamendi says they’re going to call everyone’s parents, and Dunoff adds that the scholarship students will lose their scholarships. He points out Vico, Nico, Luna, and Manuel, and says they can start packing their things. Manuel refuses to leave, and so does Vico. Get down with your bad self, Vico! She’s fun when she has a personality. The music gets all dramatic in the background. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
Sandra reams out everyone who left the sit-in for being cowardly custards and not standing up for great justice and rebeldía and all that. They were gonna get expelled, Sandra. And Mansilla’s leaving anyway!
You know, I’m of two minds about this. I get that they’re trying to teach a lesson about not conforming or doing what’s easy over what’s right. The thing is, being aimed primarily at preteens and teens, the stakes are naturally a lot lower than their reactions warrant, so it usually seems like everyone is risking their entire educational careers for nothing/ostracizing their classmates for being sensible. On the other hand, expulsion or punishment by abusive parents are better high school analogies for real-world consequences than, “If you don’t conform you might have to sit alone at lunch” which is usually the worst thing that happens in most children’s or YA media. So I can see what they’re going for here, although I also feel weird suggesting that it’s entirely intentional.
ANYWAY. Sandra’s like, “Why do you want to stay in this school so bad? Do you really think it’s the best place in the world?” Heh. She’s like, “If you love it so much, you should try to improve it.” Well…how are they gonna improve it if they get expelled, Sandra? She is truly master of the mixed message. Tomás is all moved by her speech, and they sneak back into the classroom.
Mansilla finally gets his butt to school, and pretends that he never resigned. Dunoff’s like, “Say what?” while Etchamendi glares daggers at him. Feli and Tomás deliver the news to the rest of the class that it looks like Mansilla is negotiating, and they all cheer that he’s going to stay. Except not, because Dunoff waltzes in and announces that they’ve reached an agreement: Mansilla will resign of his own will, instead of being fired. Is that…not what happened in the beginning? I don’t know anymore. Oh, wait, I spoke too soon: Mansilla explains to them that he was always planning to leave, to teach at another school. The kids are all salty and accuse him of caring more about money than about ethics and ~rebeldía. So like…when he told them not to be assholes to each other, they somehow thought he meant that he was never going to leave them ever? I like Mansilla most of the time, but he’s no George Feeny. Anyway, Dunoff says he won’t expel anyone, but they all have to shut up and deal with Mansilla leaving.
Simon’s in the cafeteria, taking photos of Cata, when all the kids show up from class. Pablo tries to hit Simon and Marizza with THE TRUTH! about Simon being married, but they just shrug him off and flounce off. Simon tells Marizza that Sonia’s been asking around about him — he mentions that she called his house and hung up, so that was his home. He says he doesn’t mind that Sonia’s worried about Marizza, and he has nothing to hide, but he would still like it everyone stopped asking questions about his past now. SUSPICIOUS. Marizza, like a dumbass, says she doesn’t care to know anything about him.
Mansilla and Renata fight over how he handled his leaving. Then, to top it off, he gets a message from the board that his project has been denied, so there was no point to him resigning at all. He’s pissy with Renata, although to be fair, it’s partially her fault for busting in on him at that meeting.
Mia is cutely trying to get Manuel to play a game with her, because…they’re suddenly not fighting anymore? I don’t know. The rest of Erreway shows up, but Pablo’s forgotten the music, so he runs off to get it. He meets with Tomás and Guido instead, and tells them to find Simon’s address so that they can find a way to have Marizza see Simon’s wife with her own eyes. Why does he keep trusting these two to do things for him? Predictably, they fuck it up, but they luck out when Popeye shows up to distract Gloria. They find Simon’s address and bolt.
Meanwhile, one of Papa B’s shady guys calls to tell him that Erreway has a connection to Elite Way. Papa B’s like, “Ooh, I know all about shady connections. We have to go deeper!” He goes to Elite Way himself and bangs into Dunoff’s office. He’s like, “Did you know that there is a RRRRROCK AND RRROLL band in this school?” Man, I wish I could roll my Rs.
In the chem room, Erreway is trying to plan out their setlist. It’s difficult for them, obviously, since they’ve never played more than one song at once. Almost like they’re not a real band! Then Dunoff shows up and pulls Pablo out, and tells him he wants Pablo to find out who’s in the school’s rock band. Pablo’s like, “Well, this is awkward.”
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