Alright, it’s been bothering me for a while now, so I went back and watched the first episode of this show to remind myself whether or not Manuel has actually graduated high school. It turns out that Manuel’s friends only ask if he’s going to repeat 10th grade, not that he’s going to do high school all over again — so I guess the most generous interpretation of his age is that he’s only a year ahead of his class in Argentina, making him 17 and technically still a student. So, FINE. WHATEVER. YOU WIN THIS TIME, SHOW.
Also, this episode was pretty boring, so the recap kind of is, too :/ Sorry to take so long to post something this lame. I feel like Lorde dropping Solar Power.
Anyway, previously on Rebelde Way: let’s finally get to the “Mia’s mysterious missing mother” plot that’s been hinted at for the past 200 episodes! Sonia’s hired a PI to find Mama C, conveniently right as Mama C has returned to Buenos Aires. The PI found her within like two days, and now Sonia has to fess up to Papa C.
But first, let’s have an anticlimactic ending to Mia’s mother seeing her for the first time! Mama C comes to the clinic-that-apparently-performs-brain-surgery, runs into Mia, and then just asks her for directions before running off. Glad we brought in the suspenseful violins for that.
Back to Papa C and Sonia. Sonia admits that she hired a PI to find Mama C, and they get into a shouting match over whether or not Sonia should be allowed to nose into Papa C’s life like this. Sonia says that he was going to have to deal with this at some point, and Papa C’s like, “You don’t know that, I was perfectly happy living in denial!” He asks Sonia what she plans to do if Mama C makes contact with Mia, and Sonia shrugs that Mia said she’s not interested in getting to know her mom. Papa C’s like, “What? Since when?”
Guido is studying with Laura, and when Tomás tries to pull him away, he’s like, “Excuse me, can you not see that I am basking in Laura’s presence, because the writers have randomly decided that I am in love with her now?” Tomás gives up and goes back to Pablo, and they decide to enact their plot against Javier without him instead. They engage in a bit of drive-by bullying against Marcos and destroy one of his pens (heinous!) and Javier’s eyes get all shifty in the background. Honestly, their fake-acting is so shit, this is really Javier’s own fault if he doesn’t see through it.
Mama D comes to Dunoff and tells him that she thinks he’s being too harsh on Pilar. Dunoff’s like, “Stop saying words” and Mama D snaps at him for never listening to what anyone else wants. She storms out and Michi’s like, “Just so you know, I was eavesdropping, and she’s totally right.” She tells him to stop being so cowardly and to take action for once in his life — even if he ends up supporting Papa B’s evil mechanisms, at least he’s standing for SOMETHING.
Pilar comes into the lounge and sees Tomás. They exchange dramatic anguished glances before Tomás runs off, lest Dunoff catch them. Aw, man, I love these two. I can’t help it. I want them to be together so bad. Pilar wails to Marizza that she doesn’t know how to get Tomás back, and Marizza suggests seducing him via sending him sexy letters and photos. Not, like, sexting though, because this is 2003. Pilar’s like, “That’s brilliant! Giving my high school boyfriend nudes will never backfire!”
Marizza goes over to where Pablo’s working at the computer. Cutely, he’s typing up everything that’s ever happened in the history of Erreway, so he can give it to Manuel to help him remember. God bless Pablo for being one of like, four characters to be a better person at the end of this show than when it started. (The other three in my running at the moment are Mia, Pilar, and Vico.) Marizza tells him not to worry, because Manuel has a bunch of doctors looking after him. I mean, only if you let them do their job and stop actively disobeying their advice, Marizza. Anyway, she tells Pablo to start worrying more about himself: has he studied for their history test yet? Pablo starts panicking, because he totally hasn’t, so Marizza gets the bright idea to break into the teacher’s lounge and steal the answer key.
Guido manages to pull himself away from Laura long enough to ask Tomás what he wanted to talk about earlier. Tomás fills Guido on him and Pablo’s master plan to get Marcos close to Javier, so Marcos can spy on him/sabotage him for them. He’s like, “Thanks for just sitting on your ass and pretending to study while we were working on getting Javier, by the way.” Guido wibbles that he wanted to help, but it was like he physically couldn’t — he was rooted to the spot, he couldn’t leave Laura’s side! Tomás is like, “What, do you like her?” and Guido’s like, “Omg…maybe? Could such a thing be possible?”
Over at Casa Colucci, Papa C and Miranda talk about their investigation into Papa B. Sonia comes by and says that she’s heading out, and Papa C’s all hurt that she’s leaving. He doesn’t argue in front of Miranda, though, and Sonia waltzes out.
Manuel cries to his nurse that he knows there are things he doesn’t remember, but he doesn’t know how to get his memory back. He wails that he just knows that he’s going to be stuck like this forever, and he’d rather be dead. The nurse tries to reassure him that he came out of surgery like three days ago and it’s still early, and Manuel’s like, “What do you mean, three days is plenty of time to recover from brain surgery! I’ll never get my memory back!”
The next day, Sol is rude to Feli about her weight and Feli snaps back at her. Vico congratulates Feli on standing up for herself, and Feli gushes that she’s too happy about seeing Lalo to let Sol bring her down. That pisses Vico right off and she snaps at Feli to shut up about Lalo. She yells that Feli talks about Lalo constantly and she’s sick of it. I mean…I actually think Vico is right, but she’s also way too het up over this? Like, Feli’s being annoying, but she’s not “yell at her until your voice cracks” annoying, you know?
Cafeteria. Pilar’s set her plan into motion by sending Tomás a sexy letter, but she’s not sure how to up the ante for the next one. Lujan’s like, “Why don’t you just write, ‘Tomi, I love you and I miss you’?” “I want to write something erotic,” Pilar deadpans. Hee. Fernanda says that she should write that she sees stars when Tomás kisses her. Pilar groans that it’s not sexy enough. Poor Pilar. It’s too bad she’s 19 years away from W.A.P. Finally, Fernanda has a brainwave and says Pilar should send Tomás one of her bikini modeling photos.
Pablo and Marcos decide to stage another bullying event to get Javier’s attention. Marcos goes into the cafeteria and orders some coffee and Bubbaloo, because…chewing gum is a breakfast food? I don’t know. Pablo cuts in line and yells at Marcos when he tries to defend himself. Lujan intervenes and shoves Pablo off Marcos, while Javier watches with interest.
Hilda and Sonia meet up at a cafe and order coffee. No bubblegum? Is this really a balanced breakfast, then? Apparently Sonia spent the night at her old house after her fight with Papa C, and Hilda scolds her for running away every time they argue. “Real married people still have to sleep in the same bed after a fight,” she reminds her. Sonia’s like, “Pfft, only plebes who don’t have two houses do that.” Just kidding. She merely remarks that she and Papa C aren’t technically married, and this fight was different from all the rest. Before she can explain how, though, Papa C shows up. Hilda skedaddles to give them some privacy. So I guess she’s just not going to get her coffee, then?
Pablo calls the hospital and tells the nurse that the gang’s all coming over to see Manuel after school. The nurse passes the message along, but Manuel doesn’t want to see them: “I don’t know if they’re my friends; to me, they’re just a bunch of strangers.” Fair enough. He asks her to keep them away, and his parents, too. The nurse is like, “Your parents? You do remember that this whole show started because your dad is dead, right?” No, Manuel thinks that Sonia and Papa C are his mom and dad. Well, that would make him and Mia dating INCREDIBLY awkward.
Instead of making up, Sonia and Papa C proceed to fight in front of the entire cafe. HEE! Sonia tells Papa C that he just doesn’t ~understand~ her, and Papa C tells her that she shouldn’t have messed in his life without telling him. Sonia’s like, “It’s not my fault you’re living in permanent denial about your ex-wife!” Honestly, it kind of just seems like they’re having the same argument about Mama C as before? But then Sonia’s like, “I did it for love! Because we have to learn to confront things together!” and then they make out. Sure. Whatever. Papa C agrees to talk to Mia soon.
We get a panning shot of the classroom through what I guess is supposed to be Hilda’s eyes, since there’s a pair of glasses at the bottom of the frame. The kids are taking their test, or some of them are, anyway. Javier cheats off of Marcos and Guido cheats off of Laura.
Pilar has given an envelope to Tomás with a couple of pieces of her bikini photo in them. I’m assuming she’s going to keep giving him pieces until he has enough to assemble the full picture? Brave of her to assume Tomás knows how to put together a puzzle, tbh. Anyway, in the meantime, she spends the entire history exam like, flashing her thigh at him and winking across the room. Presumably all the other kids are noticing this and are just trying to ignore it, like when two of my classmates started “dating” in 7th grade and they used to kiss behind the lift-top desks in the middle of math class while the rest of us just sat there like, “Awkward.”
Dunoff calls Miranda in to a meeting and says he’s going to explain everything about the checks to him. We cut away from his actual explanation, I guess because it’s long and boring and the writers don’t know enough about money laundering to write dialogue about it. In fairness, I certainly wouldn’t be able to understand an explanation of money laundering in Spanish, so it all works out. Anyway, Dunoff wibbles that Papa B peer-pressured him into signing the checks; he sighs that he knows he fucked up and he’ll never work again. He’s like, “All I wanted to do was sit with the cool corrupt politicians!” This self-awareness wins some sympathy from Miranda, who vagues that the process will be long, but Dunoff’s life might not be over yet if he cooperates with whoever Miranda plans to report this to. Dunoff asks why Miranda’s doing this, and Miranda says, “For great justice! I am very interested in justice. Because I’ve suffered. Because of a lack of justice.” Cool, that explained nothing.
Lalo comes to see Feli, and she cries all over him about Manuel. “I don’t understand why bad things happen to good people!” she wails. I…don’t even have the energy to go there. Anyway, Feli’s mom comes to the school and is all offended to see Lalo and Feli together again, some more. Lalo tells her that he works for Miranda now and is allowed to be at the school, and Feli’s mom storms off in a huff. She barges into Dunoff and Miranda’s meeting and yells that Elite Way is turning into a school full of criminals. I mean…was it not before? They had like three sex offenders on the payroll!
Manuel’s doctor finally comes to see him and is like, “Sorry I never did any follow up on your treatment after the whole brain surgery thing.” Just kidding. He’s trying to insist that Manuel go to therapy of some kind — not sure if it’s physical or mental — but Manuel refuses to go. The doctor starts getting on Manuel for being difficult and uncooperative, but then Manuel hobbles out of bed and immediately collapses. He’s like, “See? I can’t walk.” I can’t tell if he’s faking it or not? Either way, the doctor’s just like, “Oh, well, guess you’ll just have to be bedridden forever then” instead of like…getting him a wheelchair? You’d think a place that performs brain surgery would be better equipped to deal with people who lose their motor functions.
Marcos thanks Lujan for sticking up for him in the cafeteria, but Lujan snipes at him that she would’ve done it for anyone and he’s not special. Marcos is like “Okay :(” Then Javier rocks up and thanks Marcos for letting him cheat off his history test. He’s like, “I bet you wouldn’t have done that for Pablo or Tomás, since they’re bullying jerks, right?” Marcos says that he feels bad for Pablo, since things are really tough for him right now, what with his workplace shutting down and all. Javier seems intrigued by this like…did he not know that Papa B shut that place down? Did he just assume Pablo wouldn’t mention it to anyone? IDK why he looks so interested in something that he like, already knows he did.
Feli cries to Lalo some more that her mom is going to corner Miranda and Miranda’s going to spill the beans about her pregnancy, and then she’ll get kicked out of Elite Way for sure. Mia and Vico come up and report that Miranda and Feli’s mom are still in a meeting together, and Feli snaps, “Is it good or bad?!” Vico’s like, “We…don’t know? Because they’re still in the meeting?”
Meanwhile, Pablo and Marizza have taken it upon themselves to tell the rest of the class about Manuel’s surgery and subsequent recovery. Shouldn’t this be the teacher’s job, if Manuel’s guardian chooses to share it? Whatever. Anyway, all the kids express sympathy and want to go visit Manuel in the hospital, except for Sol, naturally. She’s all, “I’m about to say it! I don’t care that Manuel broke his frontal lobe!”
Miranda tries to convince Feli’s mom to let Feli make her own choices, but Feli’s mom insists that Lalo is only after Feli’s money. She knows how boys like that are, and she’s seen too many of her friends’ daughters make the same mistake. Oh, her FRIENDS’ daughters? I wonder if this is leading up into a reveal that a boy took advantage of Feli’s mom when she was young or something. That would make sense, but on the other hand, I don’t want to spend any more time on this subplot than we have to. Anyway, Miranda tells Feli’s mom to hear her out. Sad music plays in the background as Feli’s mom looks thoughtful. So…is that all it took? You’re telling me no other person in her life told Feli’s mom to listen to her daughter?
Sonia and Papa C come to the clinic, and the doctor tells them that Manuel is refusing further treatment. Then he’s like, “However, in his amnesiac state, he thinks you two are his parents, so you should totally take advantage of that and manipulate him into going to therapy.” What the fuck! Someone take this man’s license away!
Papa C goes in and tells Manuel that as his father, he’s ordering Manuel to continue with his treatment. Manuel’s like, “Aha, but I know the truth! You are NOT my father!” Then what the fuck was that all about earlier, Manuel? Whatever. Papa C wibbles that Manuel’s father is dead, and his mother lives “far away” — what, he can’t tell Manuel that he’s actually Mexican? Has Manuel not noticed that he has a different accent from everyone else on this show?
(In fairness, I genuinely can’t tell if Manuel has an obvious Mexican accent or if Felipe Colombo’s has faded after like 30 years of living in Argentina.)
Anyway, Papa C tells Manuel that he was the son that Papa C always wanted to have. You…wanted a son who tries to pressure your daughter into sex and harasses her every time she tries to move on with her life? Oh, nevermind, it’s just because Manuel was a “fighter.” But if he’s just going to roll over and have amnesia forever, then FINE, Papa C won’t stop him.
Marizza comes up and tells Pablo and Marcos that they have to visit Manuel in groups: Pablo and Marizza will go in first, and then Marcos and Lujan, if that’s cool with him. Marcos is like, “That’s TOTALLY fine with me!” Aw. Of course, it doesn’t matter, since when they get to the clinic, Papa C tells them that Manuel doesn’t want to see any of them anyway. “No puede ser,” Mia deadpans. Hee. She can’t even dredge up any enthusiasm for that line anymore. Anyway, she runs out all distraught that Manuel doesn’t want to see them, and Sonia goes after her.
Hilda gushes to Carmen that Pablo’s history essay is EXCELLENT; who knew that he had such a grasp of Argentina’s complex geopolitics?! Carmen scoffs and says that Pablo didn’t write that. She shows Hilda some of Pablo’s literature homework and points out that the writing styles are completely different; Pablo’s essay is plagiarized. She’s like, “Your first mistake was trusting these damn kids!” Heh. We’re supposed to hate Carmen, but honestly half the time it’s just like, why are you booing her? SHE’S RIGHT.
Also like, now that I’m thinking about it, did Hilda not write the example essay herself? She didn’t even recognize Pablo copying her own work?
Maxi accompanies Sol to her meeting with the modelling agency. He’s all fussy and pushy, asking the agency rep what kind of jobs Sol is going to do, because he won’t stand for his girlfriend to wear makeup and revealing clothes like some kind of scarlet woman! Sol kicks him out and the agency guy takes the opportunity to hit on her as soon as Maxi’s out of the room. Huh. I really thought we were going to make it through the next 16 episodes without another teen girl getting into a relationship with a 25-year-old, but I guess I was naive 🙁 Maxi eventually comes back, but Sol and the agent have gone off together.
Sonia tells Mia to fight for Manuel. Mia sniffles that Manuel doesn’t remember her and doesn’t even want to see her anymore. Sonia says that this time, Mia has to be the strong one, not Manuel. SIGH. I guess Sonia’s telling her, like, to not give up on Manuel and not to constantly run away from him because his amnesia’s ~too painful~ but like…you could be a little more sympathetic, Sonia! Mia’s 15! Maybe you could just be supportive and take some responsibility for Manuel’s recovery yourself since, like, you’re the adult and all. Anyway, Mia cries and apologizes for being mean to Sonia. She wibbles that she just wishes her mother were here to tell her what to do. Sonia says, “Well, I’ve totally never met her or anything, but I’m sure she would tell you the same thing I did: to fight for your love.” Is Mia’s mom Cheryl Cole?
Marizza and Pablo go to a restaurant. Pablo starts musing over ways they could break into the clinic and maybe see Manuel, and Marizza sighs that it’s pointless since Manuel doesn’t want to see them anyway. What? She doesn’t want to completely disregard Manuel’s wishes and his doctor’s advice for her own personal gain? This doesn’t seem like the Marizza I know and tolerate. Before they can plan any further, though, the waiter comes up and tells them that they have to leave: the restaurant is being shut down by a local ordinance. What, is Papa B just going to forcibly close every establishment that Pablo even sets foot in? He’s going to wreck Buenos Aires’s economy at this rate. Pablo is suspicious that yet another place he’s been to is being shut down.
Feli’s mom goes to talk to her about Lalo, and Feli’s all, “He’s the love of my life! I’m 15 years old and I’m old enough to do what I want!” She goes on about how Feli’s mom only cares about having the image of a perfect family and all she does is pressure Feli to be thin; she doesn’t care about whether or not Feli is happy at all. Then she says that her mom has lost her chance to have a relationship with Feli, and Feli feels sorry for her. I guess this is meant to be a mic drop moment, but again, it lacks any real power since 1) Feli only feels good about herself as long as Lalo is paying attention to her and 2) I am nearly 30 years old; I can’t take a 15-year-old seriously when they say that they’re not a child. YOU CAN’T EVEN VOTE, FELI.
Sonia encourages Mia to sneak into Manuel’s room, so she dresses up as an orderly to see him. She brings him a Discman (hee!) with Erreway’s CD in it (you know, the one they apparently have but never promote, nor did we ever see them record it, yet it’s sold a ton of copies?). She plays him a bit of “Será de Dios” and Manuel is all shook by it and refuses to listen to any more. He’s like, “Why won’t you let me be amnesiac in peace?!” and Mia’s like, “Because you can’t just have a seventeen-year blank hole in your memory, dude.” She shows him a bunch of photos of Erreway performing (taken by who, I don’t know).
Back at school, someone from the juvenile court calls Elite Way, asking for Lujan.
Over in the main hall, Marizza and Pablo come back to school, and Hilda intercepts them. She tells Pablo that he got a perfect grade on his exam, but before she finalizes his grade, she wants to give him the opportunity to come forward with anything that might be on his mind. Say, for example, if he cheated, or if someone else helped him cheat…Pablo bleats that he totally didn’t, but Marizza steps up and admits to stealing the answer key. Hey, do you think that now that Marizza’s done something that’s actually against the rules at most schools — and can even get in you in trouble in real life — she might get expelled?
(Nah, probably not.)
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