Previously on Rebelde Way: Manuel has finally awoken from his brain surgery, but with partial amnesia. Omg, do you guys think he’ll remember Mia, or do you think he’s forgotten her so that we can throw one more wrench into their relationship before the show ends?
If you guessed the second one, you’re correct! Manuel doesn’t recognize her, and asks if she’s family. “No, I’m just a classmate,” Mia says. What? I mean, you could at least say you’re one of his friends, girl. Manuel says he has a bunch of images in his head but he doesn’t know what any of them mean, and he begs Mia to tell him what’s happened to him. Awkward.
Back in the waiting room, everyone wonders what’s taking so long, and Lujan suggests that maybe Mia’s busy re-introducing herself to Manuel. Marizza’s all, “How very DARE you say such a thing! Maybe you should just SHUT UP because you’re BRINGING US ALL DOWN!” Sigh. I think I’ve already said all there is to say about Marizza’s willful ignorance re: brain surgery, so let’s just move on. Mia comes back in and tells them that Manuel didn’t recognize her. Marizza wants to storm in and see if he recognizes the rest of them, and Papa C says that he’ll check if it’s okay with the doctor first. Naturally, as soon as he leaves, Marizza drags everyone into Manuel’s room. You know, directly against the doctors’ orders. Have we considered that Manuel’s brain damage is partly Marizza’s fault because she refuses to let him recover properly?
They all line up next to his bed and Marizza asks if he knows any of them, in a warped game-show kind of way. Manuel’s like, “What up Pablo,” and Pablo beams. Aw! Bros forever! Then we get a clip of them performing “Inmortal” together that goes on for longer than it needs to.
Manuel says he remembers singing with Pablo, but he doesn’t remember the rest of the band, or Marcos and Lujan. To be fair, when did Manuel and Lujan ever hang out?
Miranda comes into Dunoff’s office and is like, “So let’s talk about those checks.” Dunoff blusters that FIRST OF ALL, Miranda is wrong for going through his papers in the first place, and SECOND OF ALL, Dunoff is the principal here so he does not have to explain anything, so if Miranda could stop asking questions, that would be great. Then Papa B calls and Dunoff’s like, “And THIRD OF ALL, you can leave my office now.”
Miranda leaves the office and finds Lalo in the lobby, on the phone with someone, begging for money. He’s like, “I know I’ve asked for money before, but this time I REALLY NEED IT.” Yikes. Feli is screwed. Lalo then references that the cousin of whoever he’s talking to has been in jail, which makes Miranda suspicious.
Guido and Tomás confront Leti over their paychecks, and she tells them that they never signed a formal contract, so technically they’ve never worked for her mom. Good luck going to the labor board! Then Leti’s mom comes in, wailing that they’ve received a shutdown order from the city, and Guido and Tomás swan off laughing.
What a weird plot. I mean, Leti’s mom and her sketchy store deserve to be investigated for labor violations, but like…am I supposed to care when bad things happen to Guido and Tomás? Didn’t this whole plot kick off with them sexually harassing Leti’s mom, but it’s fine because Leti’s mom is a wage stealer so we’re supposed to root for Guido and Tomás? Whatever. I don’t care about any of this. Anyway, Guido’s like, “Whoa…Tomás…isn’t it weird that yesterday I gave Javier the store address, and today the city government has shut it down? You know, the city government that’s run by Papa B?” Tomás is like, “Yeah, but I don’t understand how.” Poor dumb Tomás.
Miranda catches up to Lalo in the courtyard and drags him off to have a talk. Apparently when Lalo mentioned that his friend’s cousin was in jail, Miranda immediately figured out that…Lalo was considering doing crime himself? I don’t know. Anyway, he scolds Lalo for even thinking about besmirching the law, and says that he won’t be of any use to Feli and his child if he’s in jail. Lalo breaks down and wails that he can’t find any honest work, so what is he supposed to do? Miranda’s like, “Idk, I just brought you in here to moralize at you, I didn’t actually think about the reality of your socioeconomic situation.” He tells Lalo to be ~rebelde~ and fight against people’s perceptions of him. Lalo’s like, “That’s nice, but my whole point is that I’m trying to find a job and I can’t get one BECAUSE I’m poor.” Miranda offers Lalo a job as his personal assistant.
Okay, but like…what was Lalo going to do? Sell drugs? Break into houses? Was he going to kill a man?
Pilar convinces her mom to talk to Dunoff on her behalf, and when she sees Tomás, she runs up to tell him the good news. Guido gets in between them while Tomás explains — from a respectable distance — that he really doesn’t want Dunoff to kick him out. He’s like, “I’d never survive in a real school with actual homework and tests!” Guido’s like, “Begone, temptress!” and Pilar leaves, but not before exchanging longing glances with Tomás. I hate that I love them together.
Marcos, Marizza, and Lujan come back to school. Lujan’s like, “I can’t believe he forgot all of us and recognized fucking PABLO.” Hee! Full offense, but the three of you could only dream of having Pablo’s character development. “I mean, why not Mia? He must have way more important memories of her than of Pablo,” Lujan adds. Is this fuel for the Manuel/Pablo shippers? ARE there any Manuel/Pablo shippers? Show yourselves, this is a safe space! Anyway, they shrug that hopefully Pablo will help Manuel recover his memories of the rest of them, and then they split up to go to bed.
Sol intercepts Marizza and tells her that she got tired of waiting for Marizza to make good on her promise, so she left an anonymous letter in Dunoff’s office spilling the beans about Feli. Marizza throws Sol to the ground and snaps that if Sol fucks this up for Feli, Marizza will make sure she NEVER becomes a model. Yeah, thinking about it, it is really dumb of Sol to try to bully the only girls in school with connections to the fashion and entertainment industries that she wants to break into.
Sol has clearly underestimated Dunoff’s cowardice, however, because when he sees the letter, he’s just like, “Oh hell no, I don’t need more problems in my life.” HA! This gives Marizza enough time to burst in and try to distract him while she steals the letter, but he catches her and tells her to fork it over.
Marizza runs off to Mia’s room instead, where Pilar is luckily hanging out, complaining about Tomás. Laura is also there, straightening her hair. Why are they all hanging out in Mia’s room with Feli and Vico? Do any of these girls even like each other? Anyway, Pilar says that the letter was from her and she dramatically reads it out, pretending that it’s about how she’s going to run away from home (and school) because Dunoff won’t let her be with Tomás. Dunoff says that he’ll tell security to stop her from leaving (because they’re so good at that normally?) and that all of them are punished. Vico and Laura are in the background like, “What did we do?” Anyway, Dunoff storms out and all the girls celebrate Pilar throwing herself under the bus for Feli. Since when is Pilar so self-sacrificing anyway?
Papa C and Sonia walk in some garden and talk about how miserable Mia is over Manuel. So…nothing new there. Sonia says that Manuel just needs time to recover, and then everything will be totally fine. Oh, so are we saying that Marizza’s method of “barge into his hospital room and get mad that the doctors want to take his recovery slowly” isn’t a good idea after all? Papa C says that he loves how positive Sonia is and they make out.
Mama C calls around and finds out that Papa C’s factory is closed, but she gets his details from…some dude she’s on the phone with. She wanders up to the house and sees Papa C and Sonia kissing through the gate.
At the hospital, Pablo is helping Manuel get oriented. Manuel’s like, “So you’re telling me that I was in a famous pop band that was known all over South America even though we never put out an album or did press?” Pablo’s like, “Well, it just sounds silly when you say it like that.” Manuel is upset that he can’t remember more, and Pablo tells him to look on the bright side — he’s lucky to have the telenovela version of amnesia where he’s conveniently only forgotten the plot and still remembers how to use the bathroom on his own.
Or…apparently not, since the nurse comes in and says they’re going to do some cognitive tests. She hands Manuel some colored blocks and tells him to put the blocks in a matching tray. Manuel mixes up all the colors instead.
Mia finally stops crying to come out from her room. Sonia tries to be nice her, but Mia is all snarky about how Sonia isn’t her REAL mom and how DARE she try to be nice to her. Sonia loses her temper and starts yelling at Mia for being selfish and obnoxious. Papa C walks in and is like, “Wow, I give you one compliment and you go off the rails two seconds later.” Sonia storms out and Mama C pops out of the bushes to confront her.
Back at school, Laura goes to use the computer, and brushes past Guido when she walks by. Guido’s like, “Omg, she shocked me with her electric feel! What could this mean!” Guido tells Tomás to go talk to Laura and brush up against her to see if she just has a ton of static electricity or something. Pilar walks by and gets mad that Tomás is all over Laura, and Guido’s like, “He’s just trying to stay away from you since your dad is going to kick you both out of school if you’re seen together! He’s hitting on Laura for YOU, Pilar!” Pilar’s like, whatever, and runs away. Tomás comes back and tells Guido that he didn’t feel any kind of sparks from Laura, so clearly this is just a Guido thing.
Guido wanders over and says hi to Laura. She tells him that she’s emailing Lola, which is nice. I’m glad that the show didn’t completely forget about Lola’s existence as soon as she left. Laura like, lightly touches the leg of Guido’s pants with her shoe and he immediately loses his mind and spills his soda on the monitor. The computer immediately short circuits. That’s how technology works!
Francisco storms back to his room all pissed that Mia’s dumped him, and he starts throwing Marcos’s plastic dinosaurs at the wall in frustration. Man, what does Marcos have to do with this, Francisco? Marcos comes in and is like, “Not my dinosaurs!” Hee. Francisco yells at him that he’s sick of being USED and PLAYED WITH, and he’ll throw all the damn dinosaurs he wants because Mia broke up with him! Marcos yells back that Francisco needs to get over himself, considering how serious Manuel’s situation is. Francisco’s like, “Say what?”
Mama C and Sonia go to a cafe to talk, but Mama C isn’t very forthcoming. Sonia’s like, “So like…why did you leave your husband and infant daughter? And why have you suddenly decided to appear 17 episodes from the end of this show? Are you planning to reconnect with your child at all?” Mama C’s like, “Stop asking questions” and changes the subject to Papa C. She tells Sonia that she and Papa C are still legally married, so Sonia can’t marry him. Sonia weirdly says that she and Papa C don’t need a piece of paper to be together — which is true, but…they are engaged, aren’t they? Whatever. Sonia tells Mama C that she pities her for being a coward and hiding from her own daughter, then swans off.
Marizza and Pilar tell Sol that they managed to intercept her letter, but Sonia’s gotten Sol another interview with the magazine editor, so Sol is getting what she wants and there’s no need for her to follow through on her threat. What? They’re being so dumb right now. They should’ve let Sol believe that Dunoff read the letter and just didn’t take any action. Now she knows that she still has leverage over them! Marizza, you amateur. Case in point: Sol is pleased to hear that she’s getting her wish after all, but she reminds Marizza and Pilar that Feli’s future is still in her hands.
Papa B yells at Dunoff for being dumb enough to leave evidence of their sketchy behavior around the office. Dunoff’s like, “It’s not my fault! I didn’t think Miranda was going to actually look around the office when I let him use it!” He frets that Miranda seems to be planning to take their shady financials to the school board and Papa B’s like, “The blame for this is going to fall squarely on you and I have absolutely zero intention of helping you so idk why you’re even telling me this.” Michi, eavesdropping at the door, hears all of this.
Francisco, having found out about Manuel’s condition offscreen, comes to see him. Manuel doesn’t remember him, either, and Francisco’s like, “Understandable, since I was just invented for this season.” Manuel says he has a question: “Do I have a girlfriend or something? Because I have, like, this weird feeling…” Does Manuel’s amnesia also include forgetting what an erection is? Anyway, Francisco tells him that he doesn’t have a girlfriend. I feel like we’re supposed to think that Francisco is being a lying jerk, but like, it’s true. “You cheated on Mia and then you broke up but you’re still obsessed with her and think you have a say in what she does with her life” is not the same thing as having a girlfriend, Manuel!
Miranda and Lalo come back to the office, and Miranda tells Michi that Lalo is his new assistant. Michi starts freaking out that Lalo isn’t supposed to be within 200 meters of Feli or some shit, then she also freaks out that Dunoff and Papa B are having a meeting, and neither of them are happy. She tells Miranda, “You’ve made Bustamante very nervous!” Miranda is pleased.
Sonia comes to see Mia, who’s crawled back into her bed to cry some more about Manuel. Mia, you dated for like four months and then he cheated on you. Please have some perspective. Sonia chirps that in a way, it’s a good thing that Manuel doesn’t remember Mia: now Mia can make him fall in love with her again, without all their past drama between them! So basically…the writers were too lazy to write some dialogue where Mia and Manuel actually work through their problems, so they just hit the reset button. I respect the ballsiness, tbh. That perks Mia right up and she decides to go back to the hospital. God forbid she have any reservations about dating her douchey ex-boyfriend again.
Guido tells Pablo and their firing and the service station getting shut down. He thinks Javier and Papa B were behind it, and for some reason they…send Tomás to interrogate Javier. What? Javier’s no brain trust, but he’s gonna eat Tomás alive.
Mama C parks her car outside the hospital — I guess I should mention that they keep calling the place where Manuel is a “clinic” but I feel like clinics don’t usually perform brain operations? I could be wrong, but whatever, I decided to keep referring to it as a hospital for consistency. ANYWAY. Mama C is outside watching for Mia, and she sees her and Sonia walk in together.
Miranda calls Pablo in for some kind of guidance counseling session, because why not. He tries to ask Pablo about his family — perhaps, specifically, about any shady things Pablo’s dad might be up to — but Pablo shuts down and says he doesn’t want to talk about it. Miranda lets it go.
Guido asks Laura if she’s sure that the computer exploded because he spilled soda on it, and not because of the electric shock of their attraction to each other. Laura’s like, “…no, it was the soda.” Guido tells her that he’s been acting weird because he has a thing for her, but not like, an actual crush, because he finds her personality super boring and off-putting, so he would never actually DATE her, obviously. Laura says that she would never date him either. Then he offers to study with her, and Laura’s like, “For sure!” So…you’re just gonna ignore how he’s still trying to get into your parents anyway, Laura? Whatever. They go off to study geography and Laura says she’d like to go to Asia one day. “Ah, yes, Asia’s a nice country,” Guido says. Laura: “It’s a continent, Guido.” Jesus, Laura, love yourself.
Tomás approaches Javier and tries to butter him up with Bubbaloo. Hee! He pouts and tells Javier that he fought with Guido, and he could really use a friend right now. “You’re not that good at acting,” Javier says, stalking off. Aw, poor dumb Tomás. Marcos is sitting nearby and asks what that was all about, so Tomás explains how he, Pablo, and Guido are trying to bring Javier down. Marcos is still all salty over Javier dating Lujan, and he offers to help.
Mia and Francisco see each other at the hospital and they’re like, “Well, this is awkward.” Francisco apologizes to her for being a jerk and says he’s still here for her as a friend. “You can count on me for anything you need help with,” he says. Mia sighs that nothing can help solve her Manuel-related dickmatization. Well, at least she’s self-aware.
Mia goes back to see Manuel. He’s all happy to see her, and for a moment she thinks he remembers her, but it turns out that he’s just pleased to have company. He asks her to tell him about the band, and she says, “We were very famous.” Inexplicably so! Manuel calls the nurse, Angeles, in and tells her that he wasn’t lying, he totally was a famous rockstar. Angeles teases him for being a liar and Mia gets all salty. Part of me is like, “Way to be irrational, Mia, there’s no way he’s going to hook up with his nurse. She’s way too old for him and it’s totally unethical” but then I realized that that has NEVER stopped this show.
Feli, Rocco, Vico, and Pilar gather to study for their upcoming super-important end-of-the-year exams which they are probably never going to talk about again. Pilar and Feli are all distracted over their respective boyfriends, to Rocco’s exasperation. Hee. I feel you, Rocco. Lalo comes to say hi to Feli, and Dunoff catches them. He’s all ready to kick Lalo out of the school (again, some more), but Lalo smugly tells him that he can take it up with his boss, Miranda. Dunoff apparently thinks that this is something he can use against Miranda, because he beams and scuttles away.
Sonia finally decides to woman up and tell Papa C about finding Mama C. She approaches him and tells him that she did something bad — “I did it for love, but now I’m afraid it was the biggest mistake of my life.” Papa C’s like, “Well, that doesn’t sound ominous at all.”
Dunoff drags Miranda into his office and huffs that he can’t hire Lalo to work in the school, since Lalo’s already been banned for being inappropriate with a student. In total fairness, that is actually a pretty good reason to bar Lalo from the school, but let’s just skate on by that. Miranda’s like, “Is hiring Lalo as bad as writing sketchy checks for Papa B?” Dunoff tries to play dumb, but Miranda tells him that he already knows everything.
Mia emos to Francisco that Manuel doesn’t remember her and the only person he’s happy to see is his nurse. Francisco reassures her that Manuel will definitely choose her again — it might take another 17 (jfc) episodes, and God knows how many more romantic false leads this show will manage to crowbar in, but they’ll be together at the end! He then goes off to find a plot contrivance, leaving Mia alone in the waiting room. Mama C walks in and approaches Mia. Wow, they just let anyone into the patient wing.
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