When we last left Manuel, he was being accused of orchestrating his own kidnapping, because literally every adult on this show is useless. Manuel protests, but the investigator guy (did he give his name? Whatever, I don’t care that much) informs him that the ransom money was found in an airport locker, and the locker was under Manuel’s name. What kind of dumbass would put his own name on the ransom money? Inspector Douchebag is like, “Stop saying words.”
Meanwhile, at Lujan’s Picnic of Crazy, Marcos and Laura are trying to convince Lujan that passive-aggressively throwing a breakup picnic for Marcos was not the way to deal with her problems. Marcos sits Lujan down and tries to explain to her that just because they have nothing in common, that doesn’t mean they can’t make out. Jokes aside, he points out that their differences make them stronger, and he doesn’t wanna break up with her just because he loves anime and she loves violence. Lujan’s all twitterpated, and later she runs back to relate this pearl of wisdom to Laura, who’s like, “That’s only what I’ve been telling you for the last ten episodes, but whatever.”
Pablo, Tomás, and Guido try to come up with a name for their party. Yikes. I feel bad for Pablo, because the collective IQ of Marizza’s team is just…so much higher than his. Tomás is so distressed that he runs to Ana, and she comes up with the name “Fuerza Motriz.” To be honest, it sounds just a little bit like a rip-off of Marizza’s anyway. Tomás goes back to Pablo and takes the credit for thinking of the name.
Lujan and Marizza get down to business, re: the election. They have all the tickets for the raffle, but still don’t have a prize. Marizza decides to sell off her ATV, and Lujan’s all shocked because that was Marizza’s quince present. I mean, where the fuck was Marizza gonna drive that thing anyway? Marizza’s like, “A high school election is way more important than my expensive 15th birthday present!”
In the cafeteria, Diego is…triple-agenting? For Pilar? Man, Diego ain’t loyal to anyone. Lujan tells Diego and Laura about the raffle, and then Diego runs off to tattle to Pilar. He expresses some doubt about this whole triple-agent thing, and Pilar’s like, “Did I ask for your opinion? Hush.” Heh. I love Pilar’s Machiavellian, better-to-be-feared-than-loved approach to interacting with her classmates. Diego also tells Pilar about Marizza thinking there was a body in her room, and Pilar’s like, “Say what?”
Pilar immediately starts shooting her mouth off about the body in class, and Pablo takes the opportunity to loudly announce that maybe it’s not a good idea to have a CRAZY person with HALLUCINATIONS as their class president. Marizza fires back that the Bustamantes are all corrupt. Ah, mud-slinging, a key component of any election. Things get worse for Marizza when she tries to hype up PILAS in the main hall and announces that her cabinet consists of Laura, Lujan, and…Manuel, who’s being dragged away from the school by the Argentinian FBI in front of God and everybody.
Mia runs up and demands to know what’s going on, and they tell him that Manuel’s being taken in for arranging his own kidnapping for ransom money. Nobody considers that Manuel already has a direct hookup to the Colucci fortune (Papa C was going to give him a house last season!), so why would he even need to get his hands on it this way? Inspector Douchebag hauls Manuel off, which really puts a damper on Marizza’s rally.
Gloria feeds Mama D more of Madame Finsky’s snake oil. Then, in case that doesn’t work, she suggests that Mama D stop distracting Dunoff from his studies with her vagina. Mama D’s like, “Don’t worry, we haven’t had sex in aaaages.” Gloria is pleased.
Mia spills the whole sordid kidnapping story to the class, and they’re all sweetly comforting. Marizza’s like, “You have my sword,” and Lujan’s like, “And my bow!” (Aw, Lujan!), and Laura’s like, “And my axe!” Pablo offers to ask Papa B for help, and Marizza starts ragging on him for running to his dad. I mean, if the FBI’s involved, I think you’re gonna have to get someone higher up than a bunch of high school students, Marizza. Mia says she wants to handle this alone, but then Dunoff rocks up and says he will be handling this. This reassures me like, only slightly more than if it were Blas. Anyway, Dunoff’s first order of business is to pretend it’s not happening, as per usual. He’s like, “If Manuel’s still arrested tomorrow, then I’ll look into it.”
The next day, Pablo is walking around the school with Sol. He plans to have a press conference of sorts in the gym (the gym: not just for making out anymore! It’s going legit!) and wants Sol there to stand around and look pretty so the guys will want to be Pablo. Then Guido rocks up with a new idea for Pablo’s campaign: they should politicize Manuel’s arrest and make it seem like Marizza’s party is untrustworthy. Pablo hesitates: he believes Manuel is innocent, and plus, the dude was kidnapped and tortured, so this is a bit of a dick move. Guido’s all, “Welcome to the dirty world of politics!” Guys! It’s a STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTION.
The unimportant members of PILAS — i.e. Fernanda, Belen, and Pilar — are working on posters for the campaign. Fernanda looks like she hates her life. Hee! She wonders aloud if it’s true that Manuel arranged his own kidnapping, to which Pilar shrugs: “Todo puede ser.” (Anything’s possible.) I mean, I’ll take that over shrieking “No puede ser!” over something that clearly just happened. Anyway, Lujan comes in and tells them that Marizza’s going to raffle her ATV, and swears them all to secrecy (“Noble families don’t gossip,” sniffs Fernanda, whom I am starting to love), and Pilar’s like, “How could you possibly think I would tell anyone!” Then Pilar slips into a daydream about winning the ATV and giving all the girls at school a ride. All the girls? Is there something Pilar wants to tell the class?
Her daydream is immediately crushed, though, because the raffle tickets are going for 50 pesos, which Pilar definitely can’t afford. To make matters worse, Fernanda buys one right away, and even Belen has the money to blow on a ticket. Sucks to be Pilar.
Over in Sonia’s new and improved dressing room, Andres is all salty because he can’t find a job because he’s a total bum and has no work experience at all. I’ll spare you all the boring bits and tell you that Sonia gives him a job as her agent, which I’m sure will work out well for everyone involved.
Pablo and Guido put up a poster of Manuel calling him a criminal, and all the kids are like, “Crooked Manuel! Lock him up!” Marizza flips her shit when she sees it, and Pablo and Guido needle her about being associated with a crook.
Feli and Vico comfort Mia, but they’re soon usurped by Blas. Ugh. GO AWAY, BLAS. He tries to plant doubts in Mia’s head: after all, Manuel came to Argentina to stab her dad, so faking his own kidnapping isn’t that far beyond him. Mia’s like, “Hello, this novela hasn’t been in the vengeance genre since season one. We’re strictly teen romance now, keep up.”
Laura reports that PILAS is down by 50% in the polls. Man, Gallup and FiveThirtyEight wish they could work this fast. Laura says that it’s on account of the Manuel thing, and also everyone thinks Marizza is crazy now. What, they didn’t know that already just from being in class with her? Fernanda and Belen jump ship from the party, citing not wanting to be affiliated with Marizza’s crazy. As usual, Lujan gets all threateny on them for besmirching Marizza’s honor. Sure, because that will make the party seem less psycho.
Mia calls her dad’s lawyer and he agrees to help out with Manuel’s case. Blas keeps trying to comfort her, and leans in to kiss her. Mia’s like, “The fuck?” and Blas gets all passive-aggressive about how he just wants to be close to her, but he’ll accept that Manuel is Mia’s boyfriend, and Blas is just Mia’s friend. No! You’re not her friend either, Blas! You’re a fucking teacher!
Marizza’s going around the room collecting offers to buy raffle tickets, not wanting to hand them out until she gets the money. Mia swings by to thank Marizza for sticking up for Manuel. “If you want to thank me, buy a raffle ticket,” Marizza chirps. Heh. For some reason, Mia takes her seriously, and agrees to buy some.
Tomás hangs around Ana some more and compliments her, all while denying that he likes her. Pablo runs up and congratulates Tomás on coming up with the Fuerza Motriz name, and Ana gets all passive-aggressive about how Tomás must have just had a flash of brilliance when he invented the name. Even Tomás manages to realize that she’s pissed. Pablo leaves for his press conference, and Ana tells Tomás that working on Pablo’s campaign is turning him into an asshole. I mean, not in those precise words, but that’s the gist of it.
Rocco comes into the bathroom while someone’s belting out a song in the shower — quite well, although of course everyone on this show is a singer except for the actors actually portraying the band. He’s all impressed, then surprised to find out that the mystery singer is Vico. He tries to convince her to sing some more, but she snaps that she doesn’t sing in public. But…she did…that time for Hilda and Hilario? And also that time Nico was jamming on the piano? Whatever. They bond a little over music, and Rocco gives his usual spiel that Vico’s less of a dick than everyone else at the school. Vico rightly points out that Rocco hasn’t really given anyone a reason to like him. THANK YOU, VICO!
Diego tells Pablo about Marizza raffling off her ATV, and Pablo runs off to tattle to Dunoff. Dunoff is all appalled that Marizza would be holding a raffle in school. I’m so confused. I mean, I totally get that they would ban selling things on campus or whatever, but they’re all acting like raffles, specifically, are a hotbed of vice and sin. I don’t get it.
“NOT A RAFFLE!”
Tomás tries to tell Guido that they’re on a slippery slope of shady behavior, that’s surely going to end with them breaking into the Watergate hotel. Guido’s like, “Whatever, morals, whatever,” and blows Tomás off.
Etchamendi tells Dunoff that the situation with Manuel has to be handled delicately, i.e. they’re just gonna pretend it’s not happening, as per usual. Dunoff’s like, “When have I never botched a delicate situation?” Still, he thinks Manuel is innocent, but when Etchamendi asks if Dunoff will stick his neck out on that theory, Dunoff’s like, “Lol no.”
Pablo tells Sol he has a present for her, and gives her…a pin of his face. Hee. Sol’s not impressed, but tells Pablo she’ll wear it and stay with him for his sweet, sweet connections. Sol, you’re not supposed to admit that to his face. She’s not a very good gold-digger. She should learn from Melania Trump. To keep her on the hook, Pablo offers to set up an interview with her and Pablo the Modeling Agent, as there’s a job he might have for Sol.
Gloria buys yet another hundred-peso serum from Madame Finsky.
Vico goes back to her room, and finds a cassette(!) in her mailbox. From Rocco, I’m assuming? How did he manage to leave their conversation in the bathroom, run to his room, get (or make?) the tape, and deliver it before Vico got to her room? Whatever.
Blas meets with one of the “kidnappers” in some alley, and threatens that he knows the guy’s wife and kids, if the guy is thinking of leaving Blas’s troupe of evil traveling actors. Ah, I just realized that the envelopes Blas gave them last episode must have been the ransom money.
Tomás tries to tell Pablo that he doesn’t like the turn they’ve taken. He wants to run this campaign with facts and science! Pablo’s like, “People hate facts and science!” and advises that if Tomás can’t take the heat, he should get out of the kitchen. Tomás is like, “Fine”, and drops out of Pablo’s party. Wait, so now Pablo’s only party member is Guido? That’s tragic. All the fear-mongering in the world can’t help him now.
Tomás goes to see Ana and he’s like, “Man…who knew power corrupted people?” Ana’s like, “That’s rough, buddy.”
Gloria puts Viagra or whatever the hell she bought from Madame Finsky in Dunoff’s drink, but Marizza comes into the office before she can try to seduce him. Dunoff tells Marizza that he’s called her in to ask how her campaign is going. Oh, and also if he can buy some raffle tickets. Marizza’s like, “…raffle tickets? What raffle tickets? :D?” Dunoff flips out that running a raffle in the school is the GREATEST INJUSTICE THAT HAS EVER OCCURRED! So the scale at Elite Way is something like “selling raffle tickets” (most grievous) to “being a sex offender perving on female students” (petty crime). Nevertheless, Dunoff decides not to punish Marizza — not in the traditional sense, anyway. Instead, she has to suspend her campaign activities for 48 hours. Marizza likes that even less.
The Coluccis’ lawyer takes Manuel’s statement, then comes to see Mia at the school. Blas accompanies her, and starts dropping hints to the lawyer that Manuel is guilty. You guys, Blas is going to betray Manuel so he can get back into Mia’s pants? I am SHOCKED! The lawyer looks to Mia to be the tiebreaker: “Is that true, Mia? Manuel’s fate is in your hands now.” Oh, sure, put pressure on the 15-year-old girl to make your argument for a kidnapping case. I was gonna say this guy is not a great lawyer, but then I realized he’s about as competent at his job as all the other adults in this show.
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