Previously on Rebelde Way: Miranda’s just been chilling in the school basement since his firing, I guess. As you do.
Michi brings Pablo down to meet him, and Miranda shows Pablo a bunch of folders from Dunoff’s office. He tells Pablo that this is proof that Papa B is using Elite Way to launder his dirty mafia money or whatever the hell Papa B is up to. Miranda wants to blow the whistle and go public with the documents. He’s like, “I am once again asking for your financial support” and Pablo’s like, “But I can’t go against my father!!!” Okay, I am starting to see why Marizza’s getting fed up with Pablo. Sir, we have exactly 104 minutes left in this show, you need to hurry up with this plot.
Pablo says that he was willing to stick up for Feli, but actually accusing Papa B of money laundering is too real for him. He says that he hates ideologies, and Miranda’s like, “No, you hate politics, which is different from having an ideology.” He tells Pablo that Pablo expresses his ideology in his music, and that’s why Papa B wants to suppress it so badly. Yeah, “Sweet Baby” is the sound of the revolution. Also isn’t Mia the lyricist, and Pablo the composer (and Manuel and Marizza are just riding their coattails)? Whatever. Anyway, apparently that’s all it takes to get through to Pablo and he’s like, “I’m gonna go be rebelde now!”
Over at Lujan’s foster home, Mauro is all salty with Lujan for leaving them to live with Marizza. Lujan tries to explain to Mauro that, like, he’s nice and all, but she’s known Marizza way longer than she’s known him, plus she’s much less of a financial burden to Sonia and Papa C than she is to Sara. Mauro is still all bitter and aggro, and Lujan is like, “Dude, what is your DEAL?” Mauro’s like, “This is my deal!” and lunges forward and kisses her. Lujan is a little weirded out, but when Mauro tells her that he likes her, she doesn’t reject him. Then they make out. I mean…enjoy it while it lasts, Mauro, because you’re getting dumped by the next episode.
Manuel’s doctor tells Papa C, Mia, and Marizza that Manuel is doing just great. All that drama about him being bedridden for life was all for nothing! Isn’t that funny! Pablo rocks up and the doctor congratulates him for helping Manuel: “Your work with him was impeccable, better than a professional.” That is hilarious. Then again, I’ve seen the hospital that doctor works at; the bar is incredibly low. The doctor tells them that Manuel’s prognosis is good, and everyone is happy, except Marizza, of course. She yells at them for daring to celebrate Manuel’s recovery if it means that he’s still going back to Mexico. Papa C tells her that, if Manuel gets his memory back and wants to come back to Argentina, he can — but right now he only remembers his life in Mexico. Marizza’s like “Stop saying words” and stomps off. Mia chases after her and tries to comfort her, but Marizza snaps at her too. She cries that they’re abandoning Manuel and abandoning the band, and now their musical dream is dead. Aw. Cheer up, Marizza, you had two albums. That’s as many as Joy Division had!
Michi takes Dunoff out for coffee. She’s like, “I’m worried about you,” and Dunoff’s like, “Why? It’s only my first day of being unemployed in thirty years after being unceremoniously fired and getting on the wrong side of our corrupt government. Everything is fine.” Heh. He admits that he’s freaking out over all the legal bullshit he has to wade through, and he’d rather be back at school: “I even miss the fourth year! What’s happened to me?” Anyway, Mama D shows up, and Michi excuses herself to leave them alone. Mama D tells Dunoff that she thinks his new rebeldia is super hot and she wants to get back together with him.
Meanwhile, Manuel prepares to leave Elite Way. All the kids say goodbye to him in slow motion, because this episode wasn’t long enough already. We cut between shots of everyone giving Manuel a goodbye hug and Mia crying dramatically on the stairs. It would be more effective if she didn’t just look like she has a migraine headache.
She doesn’t approach him, and Manuel’s all, “Mia, aren’t you going to say goodbye to me?” He is such a “Where’s my hug?” guy. Anyway, Mia sucks it up and hugs him, and then she fantasizes about him getting his memory back and making out with her in front of God and everybody. But it doesn’t happen, and Manuel peaces out with Papa B, Pablo, and his friend from Mexico.
Marizza also doesn’t give Manuel a goodbye hug, but he’s like “Eh, whatever,” I guess because he doesn’t wanna fuck her. After Manuel leaves, Marizza asks Mia why she didn’t just tell Manuel she was his ex-girlfriend. Mia cries that she wanted Manuel to remember on his own.
Manuel goes to the airport and has a tearful goodbye with Papa C. Then, just as he’s walking through the terminal with Pablo and Mexican Bestie, he stops and is like, “Hold up guys, I think it’s time for me to remember everything just as I’m about to leave Argentina!” The camera starts spinning dramatically around Manuel as he realizes: “Mia is my great love!” Pablo’s like, “Yeah! You guys went to Galapagos together and then you started pressuring her to have sex and when she wasn’t ready, you cheated on her and were a giant jerk to her every time she tried to move on!” Not in so many words. “Who are you guys talking about?” poor Mexican Bestie derps, so then Manuel decides to recap the show for him. Mexican Bestie’s like, “Wow that’s a great story, can I adapt a remake of it in Mexico when I get back?” Just kidding.
Anyway, Pablo’s like, “Great, you’ve recovered your memory, let’s turn this train around and get you and Mia back together.” Manuel whines that Mia doesn’t want him anymore, and it’s better if they stay apart. “NO!” Pablo yells and honestly, I can’t blame him. MANUEL, JUST GET BACK TOGETHER SO WE CAN WRAP THIS SHIT UP, I SWEAR TO GOD.
Manuel keeps insisting that he has to go, so Pablo gives up, but decides to give him a parting gift: a CD of “Tiempo.” THAT IS THE FUNNIEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. It’s still in its shrink wrap, like Pablo just picked it up from Tower Records.
Manuel’s like, “I don’t remember making this at all” which is fair enough, because at no point did we ever see them writing, recording, or taking photos for this album, either. Then they man-hug it out and Manuel leaves. Forever. Definitely. He is absolutely getting on that plane and in no way is going to show up again just in time for the end of this show.
Back at Casa Colucci, Sonia is still going on about how Papa C might leave her for Mama C. Sonia, Mama C is gone! She’s peaced out back to rehab or Spain or Italy or wherever the hell she’s been for the past 15 years! You’re in this show, you should know these things better than I do! Anyway, she frets to Hilda that she doesn’t think Papa C really accepts her for who she is. Hilda’s like, “Well, if you think he doesn’t accept YOU, why do you think he wants to get back together with his coke-snorting ex-wife?” Not in those words. Her pep talk is promptly ruined, though, when the mailman delivers a gift from Mama C, with a note thanking Papa C for “the only real years of my life, until we meet again.” Sonia of course immediately assumes that the padres Colucci are planning to carry on a long-distance affair.
In Mia’s room, Belen makes a snide remark about how Mia’s ex-boyfriend is a sad amnesiac who doesn’t love her anymore, then flounces off with Sol. Er…why is Belen still on Sol’s side? Doesn’t she spend most of her time clowning her? (Really, who IS Belen? I have so many questions.) Anyway, as soon as they walk into the hallway, Sol starts screaming, because Marizza’s plastered the photoshopped picture of her with zits and eye bags (you know, from smoking the devil’s lettuce) all over the school.
All the girls have yet another hearty chuckle over owning Sol, except for Marizza. She tells Lujan and Laura that she’s still emo over Manuel, and Lujan’s like, “That’s rough buddy. Anyway, guess what, I made out with Mauro.” Laura and Marizza are happy for her, but Lujan worries that she’s still too hung up on Marcos to move on with Mauro. They really should’ve given Mauro a name that was more than 2 letters off from Lujan’s ex-boyfriend. Marizza’s all enthused over Lujan’s budding love affair, as she needs something to take her mind off of Pablo. She muses that it’s weird that he was ready to be all rebelde for Feli, but all of a sudden he’s backed down.
Pilar comes in and tells the girls that Etchamendi is their new principal, and Pablo is his one-man Inquisitorial Squad. Marizza is like, “Disappointed but not surprised.”
As it turns out, apparently Pablo’s role is in fact kind of a big deal. Etchamendi, Papa B, and Some Committee Guy gather to discuss Feli’s expulsion, and they say that they’ve gotten Carmen’s signature on the decree — now they just need Pablo’s. I’m sorry, WHAT? A 16-year-old is allowed to sign off on whether or not one of his classmates is PERMANENTLY EXPELLED? Every time I think this school can’t get more fucked up, they prove me wrong. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, since Papa B just forges Pablo’s signature for him anyway.
Sol comes to the office to pick up her transfer materials, since she’s leaving Elite Way. She walks in just as Papa B is forging Pablo’s signature and hears them cackle that Feli is officially expelled. Michi hands Sol her documents and tells her to say goodbye to everyone, and then Papa B starts yelling that there’s no time for goodbyes and emotions are dumb. Michi starts going off on him all like, “You don’t know what’s really important in this life because you are a sad, strange little man!!!” and like…she’s right, I guess, but Michi’s always yelling, so it doesn’t feel particularly powerful coming from her. She probably reacts like this when someone takes her spot in the grocery store parking lot.
Sol swings by to get one more dig in at her classmates, and she tells them that Feli has been expelled for real, and Pablo helped sign off on it. Once again, I am baffled by the assumption that Feli would’ve been able to keep attending Elite Way if it weren’t for that no-good meddling Sol. Like, several girls I went to high school with got pregnant during the school year, and literally all of them dropped out and never came back. I don’t know if any of them eventually finished their education as adults, but either way, having a baby definitely disrupted their schooling. Whatever. Marizza is disappointed, again, some more.
Laura and Guido make out, and Agustina catches them. OMG, what’s up Agustina!! I hope you’ve been doing well with literally all of your friends written off the show!! Anyway, she runs off and knocks right into Francisco. She’s like, “Oh no, did I give you brain damage?!” I mean, if there’s anyone else on this show who would benefit from getting a brain injury and having his personality totally reset, it’s Francisco. And maybe Guido. Agustina keeps bugging Francisco about how many fingers she’s holding up and what year it is, and he starts yelling at her to fuck off.
For some reason, this makes Agustina think he’ll be sympathetic to her emotional woes…somehow. She starts crying to him that she can’t stand to see Guido with Laura, since that means that she “lost” the breakup, and Francisco yells at her for wasting his time with her shallow concerns. Then it escalates into them both screaming at each other for like 20 seconds for no real reason. I don’t know what the point of this scene was, except perhaps to convince us that one (1) of the new third-year class wasn’t trapped in Cris Morena’s basement.
Feli cries some more over getting expelled and wails that she has to see Miranda, since only he can help her now, even though he’s on the run from Papa B’s secret police or whoever. Sigh. I swear to God, every scene with Feli ever since she got pregnant has gone something like: Feli gets bad news > Feli starts crying and wailing that her life is over > someone gently tries to cheer her up and/or suggest that she take some small, realistic steps towards improving her situation > Feli refuses to do literally anything herself and just keeps crying for Lalo/Michi/Miranda/Marizza until one of them fixes the problem for her. I’m so tired.
ANYWAY. Papa B comes in and announces that Feli’s expelled and Feli’s like, “What?” I’m also like, “What?” because…Sol just told you that! Why are you surprised! Marizza asks Papa B if Pablo really agreed with this decision, and Papa B snarks that Marizza can come look at Pablo’s signature if she wants proof. Feli starts crying some more about how she doesn’t know what to do or where to go, and Lalo has to, like, remind her that they literally have a house together. Then Mia suggests that Feli should just refuse to leave, and Rocco’s like, “Oooh, we should have a protest!” Marizza reassures Feli that they’ll all take care of this for her. SIGH. See the above paragraph.
Papa C drives Pablo back to the school, and Pablo insists on getting out further down the block and walking the rest of the way. Papa C’s like, “That’s the most unnecessary thing I’ve ever heard, why do you want to do that?” “To facilitate the next scene,” Pablo doesn’t say. As he walks, two guys in suits approach him and say that they have a message from Miranda.
In Mia’s room, Feli rants to Vico that she can’t just sit here and do nothing while everyone else carries out Marizza’s master plan. She can’t? Because she’s been pretty happy doing that literally every other time someone else was saving her butt. Whatever.
Mia comes in and Feli immediately asks what’s going on. Mia’s like, “Hold up, I gotta angst about Manuel first.” She wonders if he’s made it back to Mexico, and Vico tells Mia that she has to let Manuel go. “Just let him be a good memory,” she says. Mia says that Sonia also told her that she’ll love again, and Feli butts in like, “Can’t relate, Lalo is my only love!” First of all, read the room, Feli. Second of all, I have been watching this show for TEN YEARS, and you’ve thirsted over like twenty boys over the course of this show. I KNOW WHAT YOU’VE BEEN UP TO, MISSY. Mia’s like, “Wow, good for you.” Then Vico sees something in the newspaper she’s reading. She shows it to the other girls and they’re all shook.
Mia calls Papa C and tells him to look at the paper. He sees an ad for Sonia’s show, in which she’s wearing one of her sexy costumes. Papa C’s all horrified that she’s gone back to her working woman ways. Hilda tells him that Sonia was afraid of this very thing, and Papa C better put up and deal with her job or break up with her.
Mauro comes to visit Lujan and asks if she’s been thinking about them. Lujan’s like, “Of course! I’ve been thinking about our plans to build a home for orphans!” and Mauro’s like no fuck them kids, I’m trying to talk about how we made out. Lujan says that she’s not sure she’s ready for a relationship, and Mauro’s like, “Is it because you’re getting back together with Marcos in the next episode?” Lujan wibbles that she doesn’t know, and Mauro agrees to wait for her. Naturally, Marcos sees them having their intense conversation and immediately storms out assuming the worst.
The suit guys take Pablo to some restaurant, where Miranda, Dunoff, Mama D, and Hilda are hanging out. The two suit guys are lawyers, whom Miranda and Dunoff are working with to expose Elite Way. Mama D says that Elite Way is a hotbed of corruption, and this exposure could shut the school down. I mean…we knew this. I’m mostly just shocked at the idea that there might actually be consequences for Elite Way being so fucking shady. Anyway, Lawyer 1 says that they need Elite Way’s account book for proof of Papa B’s shady financials, and Dunoff says that it’s still in the school. They need someone to get inside and take it. Gosh, I wonder who that’s going to be?
There’s an intial fake-out where Pablo calls and asks Michi to grab the book, but of course her attempt fails spectacularly and Pablo has to be the one to retrieve it, as we all knew would happen.
(Weirdly, Pablo calls Michi on the school phone to tell her about the account book. Are none of them concerned that the phone is tapped? What kind of resistance leader are you, Miranda? Buy a burner like a normal person!)
The kids notice that Papa B’s back at the school and gather to confront him. All the fourth years stand on the steps of the main hall in front of Feli, telling Papa B that he’ll have to go through them to throw Feli out. Papa B’s like, “Fine, then I’ll just expel all of you. Anyone who wants to see their senior year should step down now.” All the tertiary characters jump ship because nobody bothered to give them any character motivation. Tomás and Guido are also ready to give up, but Pilar and Laura pull them back in line. Heh. Nobody else leaves, and Papa B says that he’s going to have to resort to force.
When we cut back from the commercial break, Papa B’s called in the cops, who hustle all the kids out of school. Pablo comes back just in time to see all this chaos break out, and he sneaks past them into the office. Of course, it doesn’t matter, because after kicking all the kids outside, Papa B goes back to the office, too. He catches Pablo and asks whose side Pablo is on. “Yours, of course,” Pablo says. Papa B says that he should prove it by going outside and standing with Papa B. Pablo’s like, “Or I could support you, you know, from here. Inside.”
Papa B obviously won’t let that fly, so Pablo has to go outside and show his face to everyone. All the kids are like, “Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” (“Marizza was right!” Guido says. I mean, let’s not go that far, Guido.) Poor Tomás wails that he’s going to kill Pablo and tries to rush him. Aw, I bet this hurts for Tomás most of all.
Sonia puts on her show at some restaurant. I can’t think of anything I’d want to watch less while I was eating. The show goes well but she is sad, so very sad that she’s alone. But then! Papa C shows up and makes a big romantic gesture, getting up onstage and confessing his love for her. He tells her that he knows he fucked up, but he’s decided to accept her and her job and not be such a dick anymore. Then he proposes to her and she accepts. Didn’t…they…already get engaged? Whatever. They make out onstage and everyone cheers.
(I just looked it up and there’s a bit where Sonia rips her ring off after she and Papa C have a fight, but they get back together 5 minutes later, so I…assumed their engagement was never really broken? Was that wrong? I don’t know anymore.)
All the kids go to the restaurant, where La Resistance is inexplicably still hanging out. Their bill must be huge by now. Also, way to keep your meeting base secret, Miranda. Anyway, Miranda tells them that Pablo is a double agent, but they’re all like, “Stop ruining our righteous anger with facts.” Marizza changes the subject and says that they’re planning to occupy Wall Street Elite Way.
We speed forward to the evening. Ines tells Papa B that she’s leaving Buenos Aires because she is yet another loose end that needs to be tied up before the finale so that she can be closer to Javier. Papa B’s like, “Cool. Wasn’t really that invested in this relationship anyway.” After she leaves, Papa B gets the call that the kids have stormed Elite Way, and he and Pablo speed over there.
Papa B rocks up to the makeshift protest, which involves all the kids basically standing around on the steps, while the adults have set up a little table and are drinking coffee. Hee. He demands to know what’s going on, and Dunoff’s like, “We’re being in with the law and down with the truth!” Then Papa B appeals to Hilda like, “Hilda, how can you throw away your reputation on this protest? It is clearly a farce!” to which Hilda says, “That’s YOUR opinion!” What kind of comeback is that?
Then everyone starts chanting “JUSTICIA, JUSTICIA” and then Pablo rolls up with an entire news crew, who I guess he managed to summon and convince of this breaking story in about 10 minutes. All the kids start yelling about how Papa B is trying to unjustly expel a pregnant student, then Feli gets on the mic and is like “I’M the pregnant student and I don’t care who knows it!!!” I mean…is there anyone left in Buenos Aires who doesn’t know that, at this point?
Anyway, Pablo’s like, “Uh, guys, I think the money laundering is a bigger deal at this point,” and he accuses Papa B publicly. Papa B denies it, of course, and asks where the receipts are. Pablo says that they’re in the principal’s office, and he has the key.
Then some dude who we have never seen before rolls up. He introduces himself as a deus ex machina a judge from the federal court, who luckily chose this very moment to investigate Elite Way. He tells Papa B to come with him and show him the account books. (“Justicia, justicia,” Michi starts chanting as they walk away, all by herself. LMAO.)
Everyone runs off to keep following the drama, but Pablo and Marizza stay behind. Marizza’s like, “Cool, I guess you’re not evil after all,” and Pablo’s like, “Yeah, and now you feel like a dick.” Not in so many words. He says that even though they love each other, they don’t trust each other. A relationship can never work like that, so it’s best that they let it be just a good memory. Just like Vico told Mia about Manuel! Parallels, do you see them? He walks off and Marizza slumps on the ground in tears. I mean…I’m glad she’s showing some human emotion, but come on Marizza, you’re about to send your mortal enemy to jail and possibly trigger a massive government scandal. Now is not the time to be crying over boys!
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