Previously on Rebelde Way: A mysterious pair of shoes stalked Marizza while she was in the shower. Lest you think that this has turned into Rebelde Way’s answer to Psycho, let me just spoil that it is CLEARLY Lujan, and I don’t know what kind of cliffhanger they thought that was.
Anyway, Lujan tells Marizza that she came back because she heard about Marizza’s boy problems. Good to know that Lujan cares about the important things.
Over at Casa Bustamante, Guido helps the random girl that was hitting on Tomas out of the pool. Laura walks in on them when Guido is rubbing her down with a towel, which Laura does not like at all. Laura snipes that they’re all heading back to school and Guido’s like, “OMG, Laura my love, don’t go without me!” The random girl tries to make him stay, and Guido’s like, “Shut up, you’re not even a real character” and shoves her in the pool again. Okay, it was funny the first time, but now I feel kind of bad for this girl. This show really heard me be like, “I wish the boys would stop cheating on their girlfriends with every random character who expresses interest in them” and curled that monkey’s paw, huh.
Mama C calls Mia and tells her that she got the green light for Mia’s article, and Mia’s friend can be on the cover. LOL, of course the magazine editor agreed to it. You know how editors love to hand cover stories to 15-year-olds. Mia squeals that having a mom is awesome. Mama C’s like, “I’m sure your father would’ve done the same thing,” and Mia’s like, “Shut up and let me put you on a pedestal.”
As it turns out, Mama C was calling from a cafe, where she’s having lunch with Papa C. Papa C tells her that he’s offering her custody of Mia: Mia wants to be with Mama C, and Papa C’s willing to let her go if it would make her happy. Mama C is not enthused about the idea, and keeps beating herself up about what a bad mother she is and how Mia would be much happier with Papa C. I mean, she’s probably not wrong, but as Papa C says, “Why don’t you at least try?” Mama C’s like, “Eh, I just don’t really want to.” Not in so many words.
Guido calls Papa Javier, referring to himself as Javier’s best friend. He asks Papa Javier to come to school so that they can talk about Javier, and Papa Javier agrees. It’s kind of weird that Guido’s plan apparently hinges on getting Papa Javier to come to the school, when it’s previously been established that Papa Javier gives so little of a fuck about his son that he only comes to see him when he’s legally forced to. But whatever.
Tomas and Guido high-five over his plot to destroy Javier, but Pablo is too emo to celebrate. He won’t tell the other guys what’s wrong, but he flashbacks to the day’s photoshoot with Papa B. He’s like, “Gosh, why do I feel guilty over helping my abusive, corrupt father with his political campaign? Should I perhaps not be doing this?”
Feli calls her house, and the servant who answers tells her that no one will take her calls, as Feli no longer belongs to the Mitre family. Feli cries and Lalo’s like, “But look on the bright side! You have me!” I mean, fine, in total fairness: Lalo is kind of a creep, but he’s willing to step up and work and be a father, which puts him ahead of like, 80% of dudes who have ever accidentally knocked up a girl. That said, being tied to him for life absolutely would not console me at all.
Lujan catches Marizza up on all that’s happened to her, and tells her that her foster mom is actually pretty chill and not some kind of child-snatcher. Marizza’s like, “Yeah, but that dude who works at the store with you is a dick, what’s his damage?” Lujan gushes that Mauro is actually really awesome — she’s full of admiration for how he overcame his drug addiction. Marizza is suspicious that Lujan likes Mauro, but Lujan denies it. You better not, Lujan! There are only 4 episodes left! I don’t have time for another love triangle!
Back at school, Vico gushes to Rocco that her dad’s been regularly going to his AA meetings and everything is awesome. Her life is finally starting to turn around! Rocco, like me, is clearly suspicious that this won’t last, but he merely says that he’s happy for her. He suggests that they take a trip together once school gets out — he knows a guy who’s offered them a gig playing music at a club down the coast for the summer. Vico cheerfully agrees and they make out.
Marizza walks Lujan to the doors of Elite Way, but says that before Lujan leaves, Marizza wants to know how, exactly, their fight started. So then she and Lujan sit down in the middle of the main staircase and talk it out. I don’t know why they didn’t just do this when they were having their talk in Marizza’s room earlier — like, just for filming purposes, they did not need this extra scene. Anyway, Lujan tells Marizza that Javier was messing with her head and making her think that Marizza didn’t care about her. Marizza’s like, “Ah, and in another time, I would’ve killed him.” I mean…you can still kill him now, Marizza. It’s not too late! Lujan adds that, even after she figured out that Javier was being a dick, she went to apologize and overheard Marizza saying that Lujan was dead to her. Marizza’s like, “Well, actually, that’s your fault for believing me! You know I say stupid things when I’m mad!” Way to not take responsibility, Marizza.
Lujan says that it hasn’t been all bad — she’s learning to stand on her own and find her place in the world. “But your real place in the world doesn’t mean anything without the people who love you,” Marizza wibbles. She swears that they’ll find a way to get Lujan back. This is silly. You know where Lujan is and you guys are friends again! You live in the same city! You can just visit each other! It’s actually perfectly healthy for Lujan to have her own life and learn not to be so co-dependent on Marizza! Whatever, I know true happiness in this show is only gained by Marizza having her way. Anyway, Lujan and Marizza hug it out.
Mia finds Sol at her locker and is like, “We’re going to talk now, whether you like it or not!” She grabs Sol by the neck and throws her up against the lockers, ranting about how much she’d love to throttle her, and then…she says that the whole thing with Francis Util’s runway show was a mistake and they’ll make it up to Sol. Oh. So the dramatic strangling was just so they could have a cliffhanger before the commercial break, huh?
Anyway, Mia’s like, “We’ll make it up to you by getting you the cover of another magazine!” and Sol believes her even though Mia literally just admitted that she hates Sol and wishes she would die. Also, Sol’s been tricked by modeling opportunities at least 3 times now, lest we forget the hemorrhoid modeling job that Maxi got for her. She never learns.
Dunoff tells Pilar and Mama D that they don’t have enough money for a vacation this year. Wow, and they already fell to the lows of going to Mar Chiquita last year. Mama D starts yelling at him for being an irresponsible spendthrift — “Are you spending all that money on golf clubs?!” she shrieks. Hee. That said, I kind of can’t tell if she’s mad that he’s ruining Pilar’s summer, or if she somehow expected to go on vacation, too. (Like, you’re divorced! Even if you’re still doing amicable family vacations, I feel like your ex-husband wouldn’t be paying for you?) Anyway, Dunoff won’t admit that he’s being financially punished for being ~rebelde~, so he just huffs that money is tight right now. Oh, and he can’t afford Mama D’s alimony, either. Mama D doesn’t like that at all.
Marizza and Sonia go out for lunch together, and Marizza FINALLY broaches the topic of Sonia adopting Lujan. It is pretty hilarious that it’s taken until now for this option to occur to her. Sonia doesn’t immediately jump at the idea, which pisses Marizza off. They don’t argue further, though, because Hilda shows up and says that she got the results of her health tests back. She pretends like they’re bad and she’s dying for a minute, then is like, “Just kidding! I’m perfectly healthy!” Everyone has a hearty chuckle. Still, Hilda says that she doesn’t plan to return to teaching. Whatever, these kids aren’t going to go back for a fifth year of school anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Back at school, Michi runs into Pilar and tells her that she should turn that frown upside down, because Michi has a check in Dunoff’s name. “It’s got lots of zeroes, that should make him happy,” she says. (Pilar: “Did you open it?” Michi: “It was for a good cause! I had to sign it! I wasn’t being nosy!” Hee.) Pilar emos that all the money in the world won’t make her parents stop hating each other.
Pilar fucks off to class, and Lalo shows up, asking Michi where Feli is. He says that things with her mom didn’t go so well, and Michi grabs him by the ear, demanding to know what exactly went down.
Miranda finally remembers that he is actually a teacher and shows up in the 4th year classroom. He says that they’re going to talk about Paulo Freire, and I laugh SO HARD because that is SO on brand for him. I mean, not that I have beef with Freire (although you can totally tell when someone takes his ideas too literally), it’s just such an obvious reference for Miranda that it cracked me up when the show actually made it. (To be fair, though, I think everyone who gets a teaching certification has at the very least read handouts with parts of Pedagogy of the Oppressed printed on them.)
Anyway, all the kids whine that Miranda’s hurting their brains with big words like “pedagogy.” Guido’s like, “I’ve already read three books, what more do you want from me?!” Miranda quotes some Freire at him, about how learning isn’t about reading a bunch of books and memorizing them. Pablo starts getting all aggro that he’s so sick of Miranda and his passive-aggressive platitudes about thinking for yourself and being a good person and all that shit. They’re pointless! Javier snipes that yeah, lectures about being a good person ARE pointless if corrupt people like Papa B will always be in charge. This would be a sicker burn if Javier hadn’t spent the past 150 episodes trying to snitch his way into being Papa B’s favorite son. Anyway, Pablo storms out of class and knocks over a chair. Miranda tells him that he can storm out all he likes now, but they’re going to talk about this later. Because, you know, this is a boarding school and Pablo can’t actually escape.
Mauro comes home to the foster house and finds Lujan in a good mood. She tells Mauro all about how she and Marizza are besties again, and asks him why he didn’t tell her that Marizza and Marcos came to see her. Mauro says that he thought Lujan was putting her past behind her, and Lujan’s like, “I thought so too, but then I realized that I’m not allowed to get over Marizza, because she is the protagonist and I’m just a secondary character.” Not in so many words. Mauro is all pissy and passive-aggressive. Then their foster mom walks in and tells Lujan that the lawyer’s office has called her back, and they want to meet with her. Lujan tells Mauro that she’s not going, and Mauro’s like, “Do you wanna resolve this plot or not?” Seriously, it would be funny how Lujan refuses to take literally any steps that might help her get closure about Blas, if it weren’t so baffling.
Over at the hospital, Manuel is FINALLY getting ready to leave. He confesses to Angeles that he’s scared: going back to Elite Way and being fully immersed in his old life is basically the last card he has to play — what if he STILL doesn’t get his memory back? Angeles assures him that he will get better, and soon he can go back to Mexico anyway. Manuel thanks her for “everything” she’s done for him, and…that’s basically it. So apart from the slightly flirty way they treated each other last episode, there’s no other indication that that uncomfortable kissing scene ever happened, so…I don’t know if it was a dream or not. It’s very ambiguous. Like Inception, if Inception were a telenovela.
Michi comforts Feli over losing her family and says that Feli has other people who care about her: Lalo, her friends, and Michi. Michi says that she really means it when she says she loves Feli, and to prove it, she offers Feli her house to stay in whenever Feli needs it. She also gives Feli…a check? A baby registry? idk, a sheet of paper that she says is a “already-paid gift” so that Feli’s baby can have a nice crib.
Pablo goes to have his meeting with Miranda and starts ranting about how life is miserable and people = shit and how there’s no point in trying to improve anything because the world has been trash from the very beginning. Miranda’s like, “Oookay, when I name-dropped a philosopher, I was not expecting you to escalate to full nihilism in the span of half an hour.” Pablo sighs that it’s too late for him — he’s a mess and he can never change, just like his father has never changed. Miranda’s like, “Au contraire! Your father was NOT always evil!” He gives Pablo all of Papa Miranda’s records from the beginning of his career, before Papa B fell to the dark side. He says that Pablo is free to read it if he’s ready.
Michi gives Dunoff the check and tells him to cheer up, he’s rich now. Dunoff tells her that this isn’t a good thing: the check is his severance pay. Michi’s like, “Oh.” Dunoff sighs that he used to fantasize about having this much money, and yet, he’s unhappy now! What could this mean?
In the cafeteria, Guido sits behind Laura and dramatically crosses out names in his little black book, loudly sighing that he’s tired of sleeping around. He wants a real, committed relationship now, with a nice girl, not one of those bimboes he used to go out with! Well, nothing is more attractive than a guy who treats a bunch of women as disposable and then decides that he wants an angel of the house now that he’s ready to settle down. Anyway, Laura ovehears him monologuing and moves over to sit by Marcos. Ha! Suffer, Guido.
Marcos wibbles to Laura to Lujan came to see Marizza, but she didn’t even say hi to him. Laura’s like, “OMG, that must have been so traumatic for you” and pulls Marcos into her bosom. Guido watches all salty that like…there are guys that Laura likes better than him, I guess. Anyway, then he gets a call from Tomas, telling him that Papa Javier has landed. Guido meets with Javier’s dad and pretends to be Javier’s boyfriend, haha, it’s funny because of homophobia, get it? Javier’s dad is all horrified at the very idea, and he tells Javier that he’s going to pull him out of Elite Way, since clearly it’s a hotbed of degeneracy and sodomy. To be fair, if Javier’s dad had ever read British literature, he would know that’s just par for the course at boarding school.
Dunoff shows Miranda the check he got from Papa B and Etchamendi. Miranda’s like, “Well, what are you going to do about it?” and Dunoff’s like, “Oh. Wasn’t expecting you to actually tell me to make my own decisions.” He manages to stand up for himself, though, and when Etchamendi comes by to dismiss him, Dunoff hands the check back and says that Etchamendi and Papa B will have to find a real reason to fire him. Aw! Again, I like the muted realism of Dunoff’s character growth in these last few episodes a lot. It’s also nice that he does actually learn to make his own decisions, instead of transferring his servitude from Papa B to Miranda.
“Let’s not make things so complicated,” Etchamendi says. “You’re acting like you’re somebody else, it’s getting me frustrated,” he doesn’t add (but he should have). Dunoff says that he wants to have the school inspected to make sure they’re complying with things as they should. Etchamendi’s like, “Wow, that would REALLY fuck things up for me,” and Dunoff’s like, “Yeah, well…me and Miranda are gonna take a walk.” Hee.
Papa C brings Manuel back to Elite Way and all the kids are thrilled to see him, except Mia. (Carmen is also not thrilled to have one of these little shits back in her class. Hee.) Pablo holds his hand up for a high-five and Manuel successfully hits it, in slo-mo. Heh. The amount of pathos they’ve dedicated to whether or not Manuel can successfully slap someone else’s hand is actually hilarious at this point. Manuel then asks where Mia is, but she’s run out of the room to avoid seeing him.
Sol’s dad tells her that he’s pulling her out of school early, to go…somewhere, he won’t tell her where. Sol begs him to wait until after she has her international modeling debut in Mia’s mom’s magazine, but her dad shuts her down.
Lujan and Mauro go to the lawyer’s office, and Lujan whines some more about how this is a waste of time and they won’t even find anything useful out. Lujan, do you want to get closure on Blas or not? Truly, she has been testing my love for her with all this bullshit. Lujan wibbles that the only thing she wanted was to know whether or not Blas loved her, and now she’ll never know. LUJAN, HE ONCE TRIED TO CHOKE YOU. LET THAT MAN GO. Anyway, the lawyer tells Lujan that Blas — under his real name, Ricardo Fara — left a will regarding Lujan’s future guardianship, as well as a letter for Lujan. The lawyer says that Blas left them with him “months ago.” So…Blas committed suicide? Is that where we’re going?
Marizza tells Mia that Manuel has been asking after her, but Mia is not at all pleased to hear it. She snaps that she doesn’t want to spend time teaching Manuel how to read or write or whatever, and Marizza says, “You know, you’re being really selfish right now. You’re just thinking about yourself, and not about Manuel.” Yeah, Mia only put up with Manuel while he pushed her into sex, cheated on her, and then physically assaulted her after she moved on from him. Clearly, Manuel still deserves even more of Mia’s time and energy! Marizza, you’ve been less annoying than usual in this season but you’re kind of sucking these past few episodes.
Marizza adds that Manuel needs his friends right now, which — he HAS friends around him! He just happens to not have the one girl he’s obsessed with. It’s very “incel complaining about girls not liking them, when actually it’s just one particular girl or group of girls that turned them down.” Anyway, Mia snipes at Marizza that clearly Manuel doesn’t like her that much, since when he remembered his grand love, he thought it was Sabrina. That’s…kind of missing the point as to why this is fucked up, but whatever, at least Mia’s not rolling over and agreeing with Marizza.
Mia tries to storm off, but Sol stops her. She says that she wants the number for the magazine, and if Mia doesn’t give it to her, Sol’s going to tell Dunoff that Feli’s pregnant. Again! Who cares! It’s the end of the school year and Feli’s dropping out to live in sin with Lalo, so WHO CARES!!!
(I mean, okay, I am actually not sure if Feli is dropping out — they spend a lot of time acting like she’s going to keep studying at Elite Way, but like…how? It’s a boarding school! She’s planning to move in with Lalo! Her parents definitely are not going to pay tuition for next year! I swear.)
Back at the lawyer’s office, the lawyer tells Lujan that per Blas’s will, she can choose whoever she wants to be her new guardian. Mauro snarks that Lujan would stay at the Convenience Store Foster Home if she were smart — Sara is an actually decent foster parent, which are few and far between, and Lujan doesn’t feel indebted to her the way she would if she asked a friend to take her in. At first Lujan is defensive, but then she seems to be considering it.
Manuel hangs out in the cafeteria, surrounded by everyone except Mia. Pablo’s like, “You know what someone recovering from brain damage needs? Bubbaloo!” Marizza snipes at Pablo for opening the gum for Manuel and Pablo snipes at Marizza for not wanting to help, blah blah tension blah. Manuel says he’ll open the gum on his own if they give him a “prize”, and by that, he means Mia. Gross. Marizza agrees to manipulate Mia into seeing Manuel. She’s such a terrible friend.
Pilar tells Mama D that Dunoff’s received a check for a ton of money. Mama D doesn’t believe her, and they’re arguing when Dunoff comes in. He’s sighing about how terrible it is that Manuel is in a wheelchair and how sorry Dunoff feels for him. Aw man, does Dunoff care about the kids now, too? I was here for him learning to stick up for himself, but I miss how little of a shit he gave about the kids’ melodrama.
Dunoff explains to Pilar and Mama D that he’s decided to be ~rebelde~ (not actually using the word, tragically), and the check is hush money to get him to step down. Pilar immediately changes her tune and says she doesn’t care about going on vacation. She tells Dunoff that she’s proud of him and they all hug it out. Aw.
Guido gives Marcos the contact info for all the girls that Guido is no longer interested in. He tries to BS that Marcos is just such a catch, he can do better than the girls at Elite Way, so why not date outside the school? Far, far outside it? Marcos just looks at him and is like, “What do you want?” Hee. Guido asks Marcos to stay away from Laura and Marcos is like, “Why, do you like her?” Guido confesses that he does, and Marcos says, “You’re not really the kind of guy Laura likes. Like, she’s not into shallow, sexist guys.” I mean…could’ve fooled me; she dated you, Marcos. Then he adds, “And look at the way you dress! You leave way too many buttons of your shirt open!” Okay, hee.
Marizza hides Manuel in Mia’s bed, then tricks Mia into going in and finding him. LMAO. So it’s bad to help your abusive father win a political campaign in exchange for him no longer abusing you, but it’s fine to put one of your friends directly in the path of her abusive ex-boyfriend. Marizza’s moral code is so fucked up.
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