So you know who else adapted Rebelde Way? Chile! Because…Argentina is so far away from them? I don’t know. But adapt it they did, and it ran for 80 episodes. Wait, only 80? Are you telling me that if I had recapped this version instead, I could’ve knocked it out in like a year and a half? (JK, I’m sure I would’ve had a different mental breakdown halfway through and taken 10 years to finish it anyway.)
I like this adaptation a lot, actually — from what I saw of it, anyway. It sticks closer to the original show than the others and feels probably the most like what Rebelde Way could’ve been if they used more than one set for the school hallway. Also, this version was made in 2009, and upon the first sight of someone wearing a long-sleeved shirt under a T-shirt, I immediately had the urge to get side-swept bangs, put on a pair of Converse, and listen to “Shake It” by Metro Station. I am but a simple millennial.
Anyway, we open with some dude driving all crazy, while having a frantic conversation on his cell phone. He’s like, “Whatever terrible news you’re telling me is going to destroy me!”
We flashback to see that it’s Manuel’s birthday. The pathos of it all! Papa Manuel gets the call right in the middle of the party, and he leaves to take it. Mama Manuel tells Manuel to chase after his father and make sure he doesn’t drive himself off a cliff or whatever. Way to put the responsibility for his father’s life on your teenage son, lady. Manuel hops on his motorcycle and follows his dad, but he’s too late, and Papa Manuel gets in a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler. I mean…kind of his fault for talking on the phone while driving, tbh.
Manuel pulls up to the crash, along with like half his party guests, because apparently they were like, “Let’s just all follow Manuel on his motorcycle chase down the highway in a 10-car caravan instead of like…waiting for him to get back.”
Papa Manuel’s last words are “Colucci”, because I guess he didn’t want to take the opportunity to tell his son that he loves him with his dying breath or anything. The highway patrol drags Manuel out of the car, which then explodes because why not. The party guests all run away, perhaps realizing that they should’ve just stayed at the party. Manuel stands there screaming “PAPAAAA” really awkwardly. Ah, as he always does.
~~ONE YEAR LATER~~
We are at Elite Way once again, where some blonde girl is on her phone, wibbling at her dad to come to her school show. When she hangs up, some chubby girl rocks up and wails that she’s sooo nervous, it’s making her hungry. Does anyone have snacks? Good to see that in the 7 years between the airing of OG Rebelde Way and this one, we haven’t developed any sensitivity about how to depict overweight people on television.
An interesting thing about Chilean Mia is that she has a tendency to tilt her head or purse her lips in a way that makes her look a lot like Regina George? I’m trying to figure out if the actress is genuinely imitating Mean Girls or if it’s just a coincidence. Also, much like all the other adaptations, all the kids have been aged up to 17 here, which makes Mia seem a little sassier/meaner than in the original.
Meanwhile, Manuel inserts a CD(!) into his computer’s disc drive(!!!!) to run some kind of mad haxxor program, which he uses to hack into Elite Way’s — sorry, Colegio Alto Santiago’s — database. He finds the list of scholarship students and adds his name, “Manuel Santander” to it. I mean…I respect this more than original flavor Manuel desperately studying to pass a scholarship exam so he could repeat the 10th grade, tbh.
Then Manuel googles Papa C and finds out that he has a 17-year-old daughter named “Maria Jose.” Not to be confused with Jose Lujan, which is Lujan’s name in the Mexican adaptation, or Maria Jesus, the tradge gym teacher who was in love with Blas. Manuel pulls up a photo of Maria Jose, which loads in chunks like Manuel is still on dial-up. I don’t understand how he could access Colegio Alto Santiago’s student list in 0.5 seconds but it takes a full minute for a JPEG to load.
Anyway, Manuel’s mother tells him that they’ve found a new house and they need to move on with their lives and not focus on getting revenge on men whom they blame for their father’s death, or you know, something like that. For some reason, though, she’s totally accepting when Manuel tells her that he’s been mysteriously accepted into a faraway boarding school that, presumably, he has at no point mentioned applying to. (We don’t hear where he’s from in these first couple of episodes, but I believe a later episode mentions that Manuel is meant to be from Iquique?)
Back at school, Pablo Bustamante whines that he’s too OLD and MATURE to go to Disney over the summer, and YOU’RE RUINING MY LIFE, DAD! Chilean Papa B snaps at him that Disney is the ideal vacation, so that the Bustamantes can be photographed doing wholesome family things together. Pablo scowls that he can’t believe he, a 16-year-old, is being forced to go to Disney. Like he’s a child!
The Chilean Bustamantes are fine, if not very remarkable. Pablo seems appropriately bratty; not much to say about this take on him apart from the fact that he has an extremely tight perm. Papa B doesn’t seem particularly imposing or threatening, and Mama B isn’t particularly distant and sad, nor is she particularly apathetic. So far, they’re acting like completely normal parents. Corazón rebelde, if you’re not going to stick to easily-recognizable archetypes so that everyone’s character is obvious within the first 5 minutes of the show, I don’t know why you even bother calling yourself a telenovela.
Maria Jose’s driver shows up to the ceremony, but there’s still no sign of Papa C. Maria Jose huffs that Papa C has forced her hand and now she has no choice but to perform an inappropriate dance in front of her classmates! “Play track 5!” she tells her friends. “TRACK 5?!” all the girls gasp. You kind of wonder why that track is on their show CD to begin with…but let’s not ask too many questions. Maria Jose says that if her father won’t show up for a good reason, maybe he’ll show up for a bad one.
“She’s gone crazy,” Not-Feli (“Francisca” aka “Fran”) says, with the absolute least enthusiasm possible.
Anyway, track 5? Is “Fuego” by Pitbull. This is the exact moment when I fell in love with this adaptation. You guys! I too went to a lot of school assemblies in 2009 where they played Pitbull over the loudspeakers! This show is like a biography of my LIFE. The stripping scene is otherwise pretty close to the original, probably the closest of all the adaptations. All the kids start cheering Maria Jose on, and they start chanting her nickname, “Cote”, while all the teachers hurry to shut the music off. Maria Jose actually goes by “Cote” for most of the show, so that’s what I’ll call her from now on.
Meanwhile, over in some photography studio, Sonia Rey is rolling around on a bed while a photographer takes pictures of her. She sits up and asks where the hell her daughter Marizza Martina is, since they’re meant to be taking some photos together. Martina waltzes in and sighs that she couldn’t stand the outfit they gave her to wear, so instead she’s wearing what she wants. As we know, she’s wearing nothing at all except her underwear and some paint on her boobs. Let’s just ignore this in favor of pointing out that “Know Your Enemy” is playing in the background. Who chose the music for this show? I want to run away with them.
Anyway, Sonia shrieks at Martina to cover up, and Martina snipes, “I wear what I want, okay, MOM?” Oh, goody, after the slightly less psychotically antagonistic Brazilian version of Marizza, we’re back to her being totally insufferable again. Thanks. Naturally, Martina’s absentee father chooses that exact moment to come back into her life, and he storms into the studio in a fury. “Federico!” Sonia gasps. “Papa,” Martina deadpans. Then the camera zooms unnecessarily close to everyone’s faces while dramatic music plays. HA! I love this so much.
Cote cries to her friends — the aforementioned Fran and another girl named Vico — about how her dad doesn’t love her. “Here, have some chocolate,” Fran says. Cote’s like, “I don’t want to go to Taco Bell chocolate, Fran! God, you’re so stupid!”
In his office, Not-Dunoff (“Marcelo Ortuzar”) is running around, fielding calls from presumably angry parents. “It’s a scandal!” he wails into the phone. Hee. Then Papa C shows up. Much like the padres Bustamante, his outer appearance doesn’t really align with what we know about his character? His hair is kind of crazy and he’s smiley and smarmy in a way that doesn’t match the distant, cold father vibe he’s meant to be giving off.
Anyway, Papa C and Ortuzar sigh over what a scandal it all is, and Ortuzar says that the other parents want Cote to be expelled. Papa C smarms some more about how it would be a real shame if he were to use his influence to ruin Coleto Alto Santiago’s reputation, and he just knows Ortuzar wouldn’t make him do that. Oh, is Papa C the villain of this version? What a twist that would be. Ortuzar mumbles that he won’t expel Cote after all, and then proceeds to make the face I make at work every day:
Back in Sonia and Martina’s plotline: Papa Spirito Valdivieso (sure?) says that he won’t stand for this scandal! He adds that he’s already set Martina up to be enrolled at Alto Santiago, and a scare chord goes off as everyone gasps at the horror of it all. I mean…in total fairness, Elite Way is a hilariously terrible school. Maybe it’s just that, in this universe, everyone is actually aware of it. Blah blah if Martina doesn’t go to Alto Santiago Papa Valdivieso will take her away to live with him blah. Martina says she’ll die first and then stomps off while the camera zooms dramatically in on everyone again. God bless.
Papa C tells Cote that dancing to Pitbull at school was way out of line, and instead of going on a fancy vacation, she’s sentenced to instead spend her summer in the school’s Vacance Club. Cote cries that this is the most tragical thing that’s ever happened to her.
Pablo and his friend Tomás — whose name I’m not sure has actually been said yet, but whatever, it’s clearly Tomás — sneak out and go…somewhere. It’s nighttime when they leave, but then we suddenly cut to them in the middle of the day, fucking around in the pool of some mansion while The Used plays in the background. HEE!
The doorbell rings and Pablo and Tomás panic. I guess this is some random empty house they broke into? Luckily for them, however, it just turns out to be some teenage girls who don’t love themselves. Tomás lies and says that they’re related to whoever actually lives here, then invites the girls to hang out for a while and wait for the real occupants to return. The girls have zero self-preservation instincts and waltz into the house with these rando boys, then continue to ignore their stranger danger by agreeing to go to a second location with Pablo and Tomás. I didn’t catch where exactly they plan to go, but whatever, you know the drill: Pablo offers to take them there in “his car”; when Tomás is like, “You don’t have a car,” Pablo’s like, “Stop saying words.”
Back at school, our Sandra and Luna expies walk by. Luna gushes over how fancy Alto Santiago is and how awesome it’ll be to go here. Then Papa B comes barreling in, yelling that Pablo is gone. He shows Gloria a note that Pablo left, which says…well, the video is too low-quality for me to make out what it says, but the gist of it is that Pablo has snuck out. Gloria’s like :O
Vico and Fran show back up and tell Cote that they’re coming on the Vacance Club trip with her, as we knew they must, so that all of our protagonists can hang out together.
Papa B storms on over to Ortuzar’s office and is like, “You’d think with the cost of tuition, this school would keep a better eye on its students!” Yes, you would think that, wouldn’t you? Ortuzar protests that it’s soooo hard to do his job, with Pablo in particular, since he’s so difficult. I was waiting for him to say that Pablo is rebelde, but he didn’t 🙁 Papa B snarls at Ortuzar to do his job — “Or do you want a scandal?” he threatens.
Meanwhile, Manuel rolls up to Alto Santiago with his guitar on his back. Gloria immediately stops him and tells him that “those kinds of activities” aren’t allowed at Alto Santiago. How foolish of Manuel to have assumed that music is allowed at this school! It’s not like rich schools have, like, orchestras or anything to allow their students to play instruments. Once again, I am amused by how the pitch for this show is like, “This school is so elite and fancy and wealthy that it has absolutely no extracurriculars or facilities for its students.”
Anyway. In the next scene, Sonia and Pepa arrive, with Martina in tow. Martina once again is not convincing me that she’s not just Ashley Tisdale with a dye job:
All the kids are thrilled to see Sonia Rey in the flesh, which Martina does not like at all. Sonia approaches Cote, Fran, and Vico, and introduces Martina to them. Much glaring and loud rock music ensues. Cote finally says, “So…your name is Martina?” and Martina decides that that’s the most offensive thing anyone has said to her all week and gets all aggro about how it IS and did Cote not HEAR her or anything? O! Kay! Cote and Fran lightly mock Martina’s outfit and she retaliates by dumping her soda on them. I mean, whatever. They’re not wrong. Martina is one of those people who deliberately does things for attention and then gets annoyed when she doesn’t receive the exact kind of attention she wants.
Martina is assigned to room with Cote, which both girls throw a fit about. Gloria tells them to suck it up, and Cote tells Martina she won’t last a minute at Alto Santiago. Martina snides back that she doesn’t intend to stay anyway. All this goes down while “I Kissed a Girl” is playing in the background, so, uh…make of that what you will. Rebelde Way’s ending would’ve been 500% better if it had ended with Mia and Marizza getting together, tbh.
Sonia goes to the office and runs into Ortuzar, who pervs all over her about how they last saw each other 20 years ago. Thankfully, though, they don’t go into how she was a “young girl” and Ortuzar was a grown-ass man when they met. Small mercies. Then Martina storms in, shrieking about how horrendous this school is. She’ll never fit in here! All these kids are so spoiled and demanding; she can’t relate to them at all! Sonia pulls her aside and tells her that her dad wants to take her to live with him* for real, so Martina better pull herself together. This manages to knock some sense into Martina, who apologizes to Dunoff (although not very sincerely, it must be said).
*The dad keeps saying he’s going to take her to…Puntarenas, if I’m hearing correctly? Which is in Costa Rica? Oh, there is a place in southern Chile called Punta Arenas, which seems more likely. I suppose that much like Southern Argentina, Southern Chile is a black hole from which you can never return.
Another family rocks up, consisting of two overexcited parents and their son who is all cranky and embarrassed to be seen with them. It’s Guido! His dad says that he’s proud that the son of a simple butcher has made it to such a fancy school and Guido’s like, “Ugh, quit boring me with our socioeconomic situation.” Chilean Guido looks a little bit more outwardly dickish than Original Flavor Guido. It’s the hair, I think. No good ever came of a teen boy who spiked up the front of his hair like that.
We cut over to the inside of the school again, with the show’s theme playing over the transition. It sounds really close to the Mexican theme song, but I just listened to them back-to-back and they are not actually the same. Anyway, Cote & Co run into a girl who’s carrying a duffel bag, which pretty much immediately signifies that she’s our Lujan counterpart. In this version, she’s named Maite, but is otherwise pretty much the same. Maite asks where her room is, and Cote gets all snippy about how unmannered she is and how Cote is going to have to teach her how to act like a normal human being. Maite snaps that she’s not interested in “Barbies” or being popular, then Luna comes up and drags her off before Maite can cut someone. To be fair, maybe Cote would’ve been more intimidated if Maite had grabbed a fly out of midair.
Over in the office, a bunch of male scholarship students are gathered around, being signed in by Gloria. She singles out one of them, a “Nicolas Hurtado”, and notes that his name sounds familiar. Nico blusters that it’s a totally common name and his family is DEFINITELY not important. Oookay. Then some other nerd walks in in the midst of an asthma attack, or maybe he’s just really excited about Vacance Club, because he’s gasping for breath about how Ortuzar is announcing the summer schedule now. Gloria identifies this kid as Marcos. After Marcos leaves, Guido’s like, “Haha, what a mouth breather” and Manuel gets all snippy with him about making fun of the uncool kids. Judging people you don’t know is wrong! Unless you’re judging someone just because she happens to be the daughter of someone you hate, then it’s totally fine.
All the kids gather while Ortuzar gives a speech welcoming the new kids and lecturing them about not causing any scandals during Vacance Club, blah blah blah. Cote and Manuel lock eyes during his speech, and Cote gets all twitterpated.
After the speech, Martina goes back inside with Maite and Luna. She whines that they should just call Vacance Club what it really is, a concentration camp. Again, I cannot deal with Martina supposedly being less spoiled and self-centered than Cote when she’s out here comparing her fancy boarding school summer trip to Bergen-Belsen. The trio is approached by Pilar, and Martina cackles directly to her face about how much this school sucks and how pretentious the principal is, labeling everything in English. (It is? “Alto Santiago” is Spanish and “Vacance” is French. But whatever, I’ll take their word for it.) Pilar says that she’s the principal’s daughter, and Martina’s like, “Haha…awkward…bye.” The three girls run away, laughing the entire time, and Pilar’s like 😐
Pablo, Tomás, and the Tragic Girls go racing down some streets. They see some motorcycle cops at the end of the road, so Pablo does a U-turn and speeds off the other way. Weirdly, that does not throw the cops off his trail, and they chase him until he crashes into a tree. The cop wants to arrest him and Pablo’s like, “But my dad is the mayor!” and the cop snaps that he doesn’t care; Pablo was driving without a license and that’s that. Aw, props to this guy, least corrupt policeman in the entire Rebelde Way universe.
Maite, Luna, and Martina go to the bathroom, probably to talk shit about Pilar, because that’s what teen girls do in the bathroom together. They’re stopped short by the sight of a message on the mirror, saying SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS, PREPARE FOR THE WORST YEAR OF YOUR LIVES. I appreciate that it was written big enough so I could still see it in 360p!
Cote and her friends come in, too, and Cote FLIPS OUT when she sees the message on the mirror, for some reason. She shrieks “NOT AGAIN!” and runs out, and all the other girls run out, too. Cote starts yelling at everyone in the main hall about how they can’t let this happen again, while Pilar exposits to the new girls that every year, ~someone~ bullies the scholarship students until they leave. For some reason, Martina gets all up in Cote and Pilar’s faces about the injustice of it all. I don’t know why she’s giving them such attitude when it’s pretty clear that Cote opposes this too? Whatever. Cote says she’s going to talk to Ortuzar.
Manuel sneaks into the office and finds Cote’s student file. Naturally, Cote walks in at that very moment, saying that they need to talk about ~the Society~. She sees Manuel and is like “The fuck are you doing?” and Manuel proceeds to act totally sketchy and suspicious, stammering and failing to come up with an excuse. You’re just holding a folder, Manuel! Just say it’s your transcript or something! I’d be way better at executing a revenge plot than this guy.
Anyway, they hear people coming, so Manuel immediately hustles Cote off into a side cabinet and covers her mouth so she can’t scream. All the teen girls who thought Twilight was romantic in 2009 swoon.
Next episode! We pick up right where we left off. Manuel tells Cote not to make a sound while he escapes. Despite the creepiness of this, Cote doesn’t love herself and is all twitterpated by being so close to Manuel. She’s like, “I hope he pulls the engine out of my car so I can’t go see my other guy friends some day!”
Ortuzar comes into the main hall and finds everyone in an uproar. The kids explain to him about the bathroom graffiti, and Ortuzar accuses Pilar of stirring shit. Pilar protests that she’s not lying, but when they go to the bathroom, the graffiti is gone.
Manuel’s mom calls to wish him a happy birthday. Wow, I can’t believe literally every adaptation has managed to show his mom after the first episode, while the original version was like, “Does Manuel even have a mom?” Manuel’s mom cries a bit over this being the anniversary of Papa Manuel’s death, and Manuel ominously assures her that everything will turn out fine. He hangs up on his mom and monologues that he’ll carry out his revenge plot if it’s the last thing he does. He’s all, “I am justice!“
Marcos walks by and is like, “Dude, who are you talking to?” Hee. He and Manuel get to talking, and Marcos tells him that he knows everything about everyone at the school. Manuel’s like, “Tell me more about that Colucci girl!” and Marcos is like, “She’s the queen bee, the star, the other two are just her little workers.” He’s shocked that Manuel would even dare to say Cote’s name aloud.
No offense to Chilean Marcos, but he is way more naturally dorky than Argentinian Marcos (who actually had, like, an insanely strong jawline and cheekbones under the glasses), which makes me wonder if he’s going to get a makeover. I feel like this dude might not look as good with an eyebrow ring (although I’d support him if he wants to rock it! You do you, my dude).
Cote gushes to her friends that she met the most amazing guy. He manhandled her and pinned her to a wall! He’s perfect boyfriend material!
Manuel goes to the cafeteria, and Not-Sandra (never caught her actual name) introduces him to Luna. (When Luna walks in, Not-Sandra says, “Hablando de la reina de Roma,” which I only mention because my Spanish teacher taught us that idiom sometime in my junior year of high school, and I have literally never heard anyone use it in casual conversation until now. Anyway.)
Fran also walks in and develops a crush on Manuel on sight. Time will tell if she’s as crazy-eyed as original flavor Feli, but so far, I like Fran a little better? On a purely shallow basis, her little headbands and flippy hair make her seem more cute and girlish, which dampens the stalkery undertones of her neediness.
Meanwhile, Pablo and Tomás have ended up in jail. Pablo is blasé about the whole thing, but gets less blasé after Tomás is bailed out before him. Papa B eventually shows up and reveals that he is, in fact, just as evil as his original incarnation. I’m intrigued by the choice to play him as sort of buffoonish and dad-like up until this moment! Anyway, Papa B drags Pablo out of jail in a fury and yells about the scandal that he’s caused. Say “scandal” again! Papa B gets all emotionally abusive about how Pablo’s brothers are all successful and Pablo is the family fuck-up. Then he says that he’s worked out a deal where Pablo can do community service as punishment, and Pablo gasps at the thought of working amongst the plebs.
Back at school, Tomás bumps into Manuel and gets all aggro about how he needs to WATCH where he’s GOING. Manuel’s like, “You know what I like about rich kids? Nothing!” and the two glare at each other for a bit before stalking off. It’s a little easier to take seriously than the original scene, since at least Chilean Manuel isn’t wearing those horrendous orange pants.
All the kids board the bus for Vacance Club. Half the girls are already in their bikini tops, which seems uncomfortable. I wouldn’t want to sit on a charter bus for longer than half an hour without a shirt, but whatever. This includes Cote, obviously, and all the boys ogle her when she gets on the bus while “Hot” by Avril Lavigne plays. Hee! I bet this show was developed when “Girlfriend” was still the most-viewed music video on YouTube. It’s good to see that this version also keeps in the tradition of playing Avril constantly, although I could do without the tradition of constantly objectifying teenage girls. (Speaking of “Girlfriend”, that’s Cote’s ringtone. Amazing.)
Martina and her friends complain about Cote some more, then segue into asking about everyone’s backstories. Maite says that she came to Alto Santiago to play sports, and there’s some mysterious dude who pays her tuition, but she has no idea who he is. Gosh, I wonder if we’ll find out?
Pilar nearly misses the bus and has to chase after it. All the kids laugh at her, and then boo her once she boards the bus, Martina included. I’m not totally sure why Martina hates Pilar already? I missed some of the dialogue when they were talking about the scholarship students; I can’t tell if Pilar is in on the whole Society thing or if Martina has decided to hate her because Pilar is the principal’s daughter. Whatever. Then the bus passes by Sonia, where she’s talking to Ortuzar outside the school. All the kids clamor for a glimpse of her, and Martina slumps down in her seat and looks sad. Aw! Much like the Brazilian version, Chilean Marizza is a little better at portraying Martina/Marizza’s genuine discomfort with her mother’s fame. (Camila Bordonaba was one of the better actors in Rebelde Way, but I don’t know, she still always seemed kind of bratty in the first season; she didn’t really sell the idea that Marizza genuinely felt sad over her mother until further into the show, which made it hard to feel sympathy for her.)
Fran tells Cote and Vico about her crush, but for contrivance purposes, refuses to point him out so that they can see. She instead says that he’s standing up right now, but when Cote turns to look, Manuel has leaned down and some other schlubby dude is standing up. Convenient!
Oh, yeah, and this is Vico, who doesn’t really do much in these first couple of episodes. She’s hooking up with Pablo and spends most of her time thirsting after him; most of the interaction between the girls is between Cote and Fran.
The bus also stops to pick up Pablo. He and Martina immediately exchange barbs. Vico is all twitterpated over seeing him, even though he completely ignores her to talk to Cote. She doesn’t love herself.
Even though it’s been like a week, Sonia is still at the same set, taking the same photos on the same bed…? Longest photoshoot ever. She cries to Pepa some more about Martina or whatever. Imma be honest, I never cared that much about Sonia’s storylines until she ended up with Papa C, so…let’s just move on.
The kids arrive at some beach somewhere, where they meet their camp counselor, a dude named Mauro. Wow, this adaptation really didn’t change much from the original. Anyway, Mauro’s like, “The first rule of Vacance Club is to have fun and be yourself!” Martina is immediately in love and starts plotting to make him notice her.
Everyone runs off to the beach. The boys fuck around and play football or swim, except for Marcos, who is reading because he is a nerd. Manuel and Guido come over to him, inexplicably. Why is Guido hanging out with them? Whatever. Marcos asks Manuel if it’s true that Manuel is beefing with Tomas now and warns him not to fuck with the popular boys. Manuel flexes about how he’s not afraid of no Hollister-wearing prepz.
Speaking of whom, Tomás and Pablo wander onto the beach, and Tomás points Manuel out to Pablo all like, “He really hurt my feelings :(” and Pablo swears vengeance, just as soon as he’s done with his community service.
Martina goes for a walk and comes across Pablo and Vico necking on the rocks. Man, I’d almost forgotten that Pablo and Vico were a thing way back in the beginning. The couples that this show has gone through are wild. Anyway, she eavesdrops and overhears their conversation. Vico is all insecure that Pablo was hitting on Cote on the bus, and she tells him that Cote tries to act mature, but she’s actually never gone very far with a guy.
Martina immediately runs back to stir shit with Cote and Fran. Cote storms off before Martina can tell her anything, but she manages to plant the idea in Fran’s head that Vico is talking about them behind their backs. Fran is like [shocked pikachu] and the camera zooms slowly in on her for maximum pathos.
Sometime later, Tomás brings Pablo his guitar on the beach all like, “I know you can’t live without your guitar bro” and Pablo’s like “That’s so thoughtful bro” and Tomás is like “I can’t bear to see you sad bro!” and Pablo’s like “Bro :’)” He refuses to play the guitar in front of everyone, though, for…some reason. Anyway, Tomás shrugs it off and says that they’re going to have a bonfire tonight with lots of blackjack and hookers. Pablo’s like “Nice.”
Some of the other boys play beach football or whatever. Marcos is bad at it and Guido gets all pissy that he didn’t save the goal or punt it or whatever, sports, whatever. Manuel gets all FOR GREAT JUSTICE about defending Marcos and then Mauro has to pull Manuel and Guido apart before they fight.
Fran cries to Cote that she doesn’t think her crush will like her back because of her weight, and Cote reassures her that any boy who’s worth it will like her anyway. Admittedly, she also says, “But you’re pretty on the inside!” so…baby steps. Still, once again, I feel the need to point out that Cote is generally pretty sweet and encouraging towards Fran, despite being painted as a shallow person.
In a bid for Mauro’s attention, Martina tries to drown herself in the ocean. Mauro finally takes his sunglasses off and Jesus Christ, he looks just like Manuel. I can’t tell them apart!!! Put the sunglasses back on Mauro!!! Anyway, he gives her one round of CPR and she’s totally fine. Tragically for Martina, though, her mother shows up on a speedboat and immediately takes everyone’s attention away from her. Mauro’s like, “You’re not choking on water anymore right? K bye” and then also runs off to check out Sonia Rey. Sucks to be Martina.
Pablo goes down to the Bad Side of Town to do his community service. Some guy tells Pablo that by the end of the day, he wants Pablo to have given a new paint job to an entire bridge and the whole front facade of a nearby building. (I mean, some parts of the walls are covered in graffiti, but this dude is asking him to straight-up paint the whole thing.) Pablo’s like, “Is this a joke?” and I think we’re meant to think he’s being spoiled, but like, for real. That is a ton of ground to cover and he’s one person! What the hell! Anyway, a bunch of Insolent Youths watch him work and mock him.
Martina yells at Sonia for showing up and stomps off. “It’s so hard to be a mother,” Sonia wails, and then Mauro comes up WAYYYY too close behind her and says, “Is it also hard being so beautiful?” Ew. He’s so fucking corny, but Sonia doesn’t seem put off by this, or by his freakishly pointy nipples.
Vico denies talking about Cote behind her back, and insists that Martina was just spreading rumors. Fran FINALLY points Manuel out to Cote properly, and Cote’s like, “Yikes” upon the realization that she and Fran like the same guy. She plasters on a happy face and encourages Fran to go for Manuel. Aw.
Somehow, Fran works up the nerve to talk to Manuel, or SOMETHING happens, because a couple of scenes later, they’re riding around on an ATV while “Hot N Cold” plays in the background. Amazing. Throw on “Umbrella” and “Low” and you’ll have accurately soundtracked my first couple years of high school.
Fran invites Manuel to come to a bonfire that they’re having tonight, but Manuel blows her off. Then he sees Cote from afar and asks Fran about her. Fran IDes her as “Cote Colucci” and mentions that they’re best friends. Manuel clutches his pearls that the hot girl on the bus is also the daughter of his sworn enemy. Did he…not already know what she looked like? You know, when he Googled her? Whatever.
Anyway, now that he knows he can use Fran to get closer to her hotter friend, Manuel decides to go to the bonfire with her, thus becoming the first in a long line of boys to take advantage of Feli’s Fran’s low self-esteem. Manuel has always been a fuckboy, don’t let this show try to fool you!
We now have our cliffhangers, which will surely leave us on tenterhooks, as we have no idea how any of these plotlines will turn out: Sonia goes to Martina’s hotel room and finds her hanging in the closet. Pablo finally finishes painting an entire bridge and the facade of a large building in the dead of night, then is promptly jumped by the Insolent Youths. And Manuel and Cote finally come face-to-face at the bonfire. Manuel immediately plants a kiss on Fran, for no apparent reason than to make Cote mad. Man, fuck this guy. Time will tell if he turns out to be just as rapey, but so far, he’s way more of a jerk than Manuel was within the first 3 episodes.
I’ve only done 2 episodes, but I’m going to leave off here because 1) I ended up being swamped with way more IRL work than I expected, so I ran out of time on this and 2) we’ve made it way farther, plot-wise, into this adaption than we have in any of the others. I guess that’s to be expected if they compressed the entire 318-episode plot of the original into 80 episodes.
Also, honestly…this version is hilarious, although admittedly, I’m not sure it’s intentional. The exploding cars! The dramatic closeups with the suddenly-blaring music! The constant use of the world “scandal”! It actually kind of feels like a parody of a telenovela written by like, an SNL writer who has never seen a telenovela before. I might keep watching, just for fun, to see if they manage to keep up this level of excitement or if it spirals into the same repetitive bullshit that the original did.
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