Do you remember like, way back at the very beginning of this show, where occasionally time would pass between the episodes? Yeah, we haven’t done that in like 200 episodes. Once more we pick up right where we left off: with Mia’s lawyer pressuring her to make the final call on whether or not Manuel is guilty. Sure, that will definitely get him an unbiased opinion, free of outside coercion. And why is Manuel’s only tangentially-involved teenage girlfriend the main factor in the argument?
Mia was certain Manuel’s innocent, but thanks to Blas’s intervention, now she’s not so sure. She waffles, but eventually comes down on the side of “yes.” “We all think he is,” Blas adds. Fuck you, Blas, you literally just said he wasn’t five minutes ago. The lawyer’s like, “Cool, well I still don’t really think he is, so bye.” Then what was even the point of asking Mia’s opinion? And shouldn’t you be arguing to get your client off the hook anyway? The lawyer leaves, and Blas tells Mia she did the right thing. You know, I was really freaked out by how excited the kids were to let the dogs eat him, but I’m starting to wish they had just given in to their murderous sides.
The next day, Mia announces to the class that Manuel will be coming back soon, and everyone cheers. “So that means he’s innocent,” Belen says. That’s an opening, and Mia fucks it right up by hesitating and saying maaaaybe. What the fuck, Mia? Guido takes the opportunity to jump on that and be all, “Lock him up!” Marizza snorts that this is so typical of the fake He-Man’s party. Hey, we haven’t heard Marizza call Pablo that in ages! What a throwback. Pablo and Guido needle Marizza about not being able to work on her campaign, and Marizza storms up to the front and loudly congratulates Mia — “She might have only a single neuron, but she has a good heart!” That’s pretty sweet, from Marizza.
Okay, so: on the one hand, it’s mildly interesting for them to finally bring up that Manuel lying to Mia for a year is having consequences for her ability to trust him. On the other hand, she was totally fine going on a remote island vacation alone with him, and apparently he spent half the summer with access to Papa C’s business, so she’s being a little arbitrary with her judgment here.
Gloria’s making more sex tea for Dunoff, and has stepped up her plan: she’s ordered a bunch of copies of Hustler (ew), planning to get him all sexually frustrated. Since he and Mama D aren’t having sex anymore, Gloria can then swoop in and have Dunoff pick up what she’s putting down. It’s…not a terrible plan, as far as plans in this show go. That’s not a high bar to clear, admittedly.
Marizza and Lujan hang out in the bathroom, and Marizza rants about getting busted for the raffle. Pilar comes in, and they immediately accuse her of snitching. “Why do you blame me for everything that goes wrong here?” Pilar wails. Uh…because it was mostly your fault? I’m just saying. Pilar says she’ll prove she’s not a snitch anymore by talking to her dad and convincing him to lift Marizza’s punishment, and stalks off. Marizza wonders to Lujan if Pilar’s telling the truth.
Meanwhile, Tomás has officially been purged from Pablo’s party. Pablo and Guido are giving him the cold shoulder, talking about him like he’s not in the room. Even Guido thinks Pablo’s being a bit overboard with this, but Pablo’s like, “If you’re not with me, you’re against me!” Guido and Tomás are like, “Yikes.”
Back at the jail, the lawyer comes to see Manuel and he’s like, “So your 15-year-old girlfriend says you didn’t do it, but she said it like she wasn’t totally sure, probably because she’s a teenager and not equipped to deal with this on any level, so I’m just gonna go ahead and say you’re guilty.” A+ due process! Manuel flips his shit that Mia’s ~betrayed~ him.
Marizza meets up with Laura to talk strategy, and Laura reluctantly says the smartest thing to do would be to remove Manuel from Marizza’s “cabinet.” Laura insists that she believes that Manuel is innocent too, but he’s really fucking with their chances of winning, and Marizza might have to choose between him and the presidency. Marizza says she would choose Manuel every time, and she doesn’t want to be in politics if it means she has to compromise her opinion. So…Marizza definitely doesn’t want to be in politics, then. Laura smiles and says she believes in Marizza for president more than ever now. That’s…the exact opposite of what you just told her, Laura.
Pilar convinces Dunoff to let Marizza go ahead with the raffle. Sadly, her logic isn’t anything like, “Every school on earth uses raffles to raise money, and why the fuck are they banned in particular anyway?” Instead, she says that Marizza is doing a good thing (giving away one of her personal items in exchange for support) — “Sure, she’s obnoxious, and rude, and immature, but this is a nice thing she’s doing!” Pilar says. Hee. Dunoff sighs that he is sick of following the rules to the letter. Then why do you keep doing it, huh, Dunoff? And so he agrees to let the raffle go ahead. Well played, Pilar.
Vico swings by to snap at Rocco for giving her a cassette. She’s like, “Are you hitting on me via cassette tape?” “Would that bother you?” Rocco asks. She tells him she’s not interested, and none of the alternative rock music in the world will change her mind. Bianca comes to sit down next to Rocco, having witnessed all this, and asks if he has a thing for Vico. After all, he gave her a cassette! “If giving a cassette is a declaration of love to you, this must be a marriage proposal,” he says, digging out a CD and giving it to Bianca. Uh-oh, don’t give her ideas, Rocco.
Weirdly, there’s an interview about (not with) Britney Spears going on in the background — in English — and I got distracted trying to figure out who it was. Some blonde girl who worked with Britney in the 2000s? That could be anybody.
Mia comes to visit Manuel in jail, and Manuel yells at her for not being certain of his innocence. Manuel is an asshole like 80% of the time, but I gotta say, I would hope his girlfriend would be more certain that he didn’t arrange his own kidnapping for her family’s fortune that he has direct access to already. Mia’s not wrong to point out that the only reason they met is because he came to Argentina to pull an Inigo Montoya on Papa C, but frankly it’s dumb for her to be worrying about that now, rather than, oh, say, when she was alone on a deserted island with him. Manuel asks her to swear that she believes him, but Mia starts crying that so many things have happened to make her doubt him. “Do you realize how it’s been for me?” she wibbles. Manuel’s like, “The fuck? Do you realize how it’s been for me?” and dang, he’s not wrong. I mean, only one of you was held up at gunpoint and is now in jail, Mia! And it’s not you! Mia can’t swear that he’s innocent, so Manuel kicks her out.
It’s depressing that Season 2 is so good on the Marizza front, because honestly it’s not an improvement in any other way. It might even be worse. It’s really noticeable how a bunch of previously likeable (Mia, Marcos) or at least relatively normal characters (Manuel) are now huge assholes for no real reason. Sigh.
Back at Elite Way, Pablo swings by to needle Marizza about her campaign and generally be a dick. Then Dunoff comes into the cafeteria and announces that the raffle is going ahead. As thanks, Marizza gives Pilar a ticket for free.
The Broadway producer comes to see Sonia, and ah, his inappropriately aged date was actually his daughter. I feel better about that, although I don’t know what it says that something about her behavior, attire, or this show in general made me immediately assume that she was his date. Anyway, the producer tells Sonia that he’s not just interested in her, he’s also interested in Erreway. Of course he is. They can’t lipsync a single song without everyone in Buenos Aires falling over themselves to praise them. The producer tells Sonia that his daughter listens to Erreway every day. They only have what, 10 songs at this point? She must be getting bored fast.
Sonia calls Erreway in to talk to the producer, instead of, you know, their parents or guardians. Sure, let’s just ask a bunch of teenagers if they want to ditch school and go be famous in New York City. I’m sure you’ll get a perfectly rational and thought-out response. The producer tries to push them into making a decision right away, but Marizza wants to hold off until Manuel’s out of jail. Pablo is an asshole about it and wants to ditch Manuel, because politics is making him evil. He’s turning into his father, get it?
I’m gonna condense the whole Gloria/Dunoff subplot into one paragraph here. Gloria pretends to have confiscated the porn magazines from some boys, and gives them to Dunoff. Then she shoves her boobs in his face some more. Dunoff gets all het up over the magazines and tries to get into Mama D’s pants. She keeps blowing him off, and Dunoff starts checking out Gloria. Then Mama D finds the magazines in Dunoff’s desk drawer. Okay, let’s move on.
Bianca tries to make up with Lola again, but they get into another fight. Lola still thinks Bianca betrayed her; Bianca snaps at Lola that she wants to be her friend, but she wants to be a real friend, not just a flunky who does whatever Lola wants. It’s actually kind of irritating that you have people calling out Lola like this when Season 1 Marizza just skated by without criticism. I mean, Lola deserves criticism too, but at least she has a tragic backstory explaining why she’s the way she is. Marizza was just a jerk and everyone let her get away with it.
Marizza, Laura, and Lujan go on a selling spree with the raffle tickets, and successfully sell them all. They squeal that they’ll announce the winner in half an hour and run off together. “Half an hour,” Pilar says, creeping out behind them. Scare chord!
Pablo tells Guido that he should find a girl, since Pablo’s trying the old “join my political party and you’ll get chicks” move. I mean, I say it like a joke, but that’s the M.O. of a good chunk of advertising. Anyway, luckily for Guido, some girl we’ve never seen before rocks into the room immediately after Pablo leaves. Her name is Augustina, and she doesn’t love herself, because Guido literally leans over her and shows her how to hit a pool ball even though A) she didn’t ask him and B) he doesn’t even introduce himself first. He’s just some rando that leans his entire body over hers and assumes she doesn’t know how to play pool. Guido invites her out this afternoon, and she says she’s busy, but she’s free tonight. Augustina is a sad person.
Everyone gathers for the announcement of the raffle winner, and who should it be but Pilar? That’s quite lucky. They all congratulate her, but she runs off quickly to catch up with her dad, for some mysterious reason.
The lawyer comes to meet with Mia again, and tells her that the police think Manuel had accomplices, making him the head of the gang that kidnapped him. So…they still think he arranged his own kidnapping. They’re literally exactly where they started. The lawyer also says that Manuel seems to have given up on defending himself. Maybe because literally no one believes he’s innocent, not even his own girlfriend. Then the lawyer says that Manuel’s situation isn’t hopeless because he’s a minor. Uh, then why were you making it sound hopeless, lawyer dude? Like, don’t be all, “Are you sure he’s innocent, ’cause he seems pretty guilty, and he could go to jail FOREVER!” and then be like, “Oh, well, he could still get off on a technicality.”
Mia asks if the lawyer thinks Manuel is innocent, and Lawyer Dude explains that his opinion doesn’t matter: his job is to either get Manuel off the hook, or at least mitigate his sentence. “I don’t care!” Mia bursts out. Well damn, excuse him for trying to explain what his position is in all this craziness. Lawyer Dude tells her that his personal opinion is that Manuel might be guilty. Mia heaves a sigh of despair. Mia, you know Manuel better than he does, why do you even care what he thinks?
Pilar runs into the laundry room holding the raffle tickets, revealing that all the tickets have her number on them, and she rigged the raffle. Pablo gets all threateny that it sure would be a pity for it to come out that Dunoff’s daughter — or possibly Dunoff — himself rigged the raffle, especially since he’s just be rehired and all. Pilar panics and begs him not to bring her dad into this. Pablo agrees to keep it a secret, if Pilar leaves PILAS and joins Fuerza Motriz.
Guido goes to the lounge to hit on Augustina some more. Then he gets a phone call about some pamphlets he needs to make for Pablo’s campaign. The pamphlets are gonna cost about 200 pesos; when Pablo asks how much, Guido darts a look over at Augustina and tells Pablo he needs 400. Fucking Guido.
Feli and Fernanda walk through the courtyard talking about boys. Speaking of, they then run across a shirtless Francisco working on a garden. Feli is still a little hung up on him, or on his body at least. Fernanda is all snippy that he’s from the countryside and she would never lower herself, a member of the English nobility, to date a farmer…but then Francisco waves at them and Fernanda’s all transfixed by his abs, and she waves back.
Sonia practices gushing her thanks to an imaginary audience in English. (“Thank you, thank you, I am your friend, I love you!”) There’s a lot of random English in this episode. Earlier, Mama D was trying to help Dunoff practice his English and said “I’d rather have tea” and it took me a second to get over my WTF reaction. Anyway, Andres rocks in and they circlejerk about how awesome Sonia is. Andres says she’s so awesome that she has interview with one of the greatest fashion designers in the world — Franco Colucci! I’m thinking maybe Andres is not a great agent. I mean, he doesn’t have a lot of connections to exploit here. Sonia is all disgusted by the idea, but agrees to it because I guess she figures she can keep harassing Papa C through the interview.
Pablo flashbacks to all the good times with Tomás. Another black-and-white montage! Their love was so real. Guido comes in and tries to convince Pablo that they’re better off without Tomás, because Tomás was weak. I mean…he’s not wrong, in the sense that Tomás is incredibly weak-willed. Pablo huffs that he doesn’t care about Tomás. You can say that, Pablo, but I know the truth! I saw your sad montage!
Francisco ropes Fernanda into helping out with his garden. She’s all freaked out by the concept of manual labor (horrors!), but ends up watering the plants while he does…farmer stuff with them. I don’t know. Fernanda clunkily exposits that the garden was planted by a teacher who isn’t at Elite Way anymore. Is that a reference to Mansilla? The garden’s not in the same spot where he planted it; then again, the entire design of Elite Way has been rearranged somewhat. Francisco tells Fernanda that he’s started tending the garden to feel useful, because he’s used to working the land. Because he’s from the country, if you’ve forgotten. He makes fun of her for being a city girl until she gets mad and sprays him with the hose, then runs off. She leaves her shoes behind, though. She’s practically Cinderella!
While we’re having sad montages, Mia has one of all the good times with her and Manuel. How can she know if he’s guilty or not? Oh my God, whatever.
Ana comforts Tomás over his new friendlessness, and they have some mild flirtation. He asks if she has a boyfriend, and she says. “No. Why?” They’re briefly interrupted by Vico and Feli — Vico tells Feli that Rocco thinks they have chemistry, and they both say, “Loser!”, and then stare at Tomás and Ana for a few seconds, for some reason. Poor Ana tries to ask Tomás why he’s interested in her relationship status again, and Tomás is like, “Whatever, just curious.” OR IS HE? Weirdly, he looks at Vico and Feli before answering. Did something about their conversation re: Rocco make him think he can’t like Ana? It’s not like she’s a mall goth who everyone hates.
Dante and Bianca gather to talk about Lola behind her back. Hee. Dante is all pissy, and says that Lola deserves to be sad and friendless because she rejected him when he tried to date her. Shut up, Dante. Some random kid rocks up and starts talking mad shit about Lola too. They all wander off, while Lola watches them. See, this? This is the kind of thing that should’ve been happening to Marizza in season 1. Her classmates should’ve been like, “Why the fuck is she so pushy and judgmental?”, instead of being like, “Marizza, I love how pushy and judgmental you are!”
Mia frets to Blas about how she just doesn’t KNOW Manuel is innocent, on the other hand, she is 100% assured that Blas is an awesome person who saved Manuel out of the goodness of his heart. Uggghgh. But then! THEN! Mia has a brainwave: Blas saved Manuel, then they took Manuel back to school, and he hasn’t left since. When did Manuel have the time to put the ransom money in a locker? Blas clearly panics at this flaw in his plan, and he’s like, “Uh…but he probably did! Somehow! Let’s not be hasty!” Mia’s dumb ass is like, “Oh, well, maybe. Yeah, you’re right.” Dammit, Mia. So close, yet so very, very far.
Montage of Sonia posing for the magazine, aka an excuse for the audience to perv on Catherine Fulop. The photographer is like, “Sonia, you’re so amazing, you’re perfect, you have no character flaws whatsoever.” He wants to hire her for…a campaign? Maybe? And Sonia agrees because it’ll make Papa C mad. Or something. Honestly, I wasn’t listening, because I don’t give a fuck.
Francisco returns Fernanda’s shoes, but she’s still mad at him.
Marizza, Laura, and Lujan gush over how much money they’ve raised. Laura’s still worried, though, because Fuerza Motriz has really gotten a lot of mileage out of smearing Manuel, and PILAS by association. They really have to work to catch up to Pablo. Marizza and Lujan tell her to think positive, and say there’s no way Marizza can lose to Pablo. OH GOD. I just had horrible flashbacks to all of 2016.
Bianca and Lola make up. Although I would add, Bianca once again says she wants to be real friends, not just Lola’s sidekick. Lola doesn’t promise not to treat Bianca like dirt and all, and merely says she and Bianca are best friends. Sadly, that’s good enough for Bianca, and they hug.
Mia and Lawyer Dude go to the airport, where Manuel supposedly put the ransom money in a storage locker. Mia immediately notes that it’s not Manuel’s handwriting on the registration papers, and Lawyer Dude says that the rest of the gang is illiterate. So who could it be? Omg, could it be a separate person? Could it be someone who hates Manuel, and wants to get into his underage girlfriend’s pants? WHO? But then the police call and tell Lawyer Dude that Manuel’s just finished giving his confession, and he’s pleaded guilty.
“No,” Mia sobs, sinking into a nearby chair. Oh boy, they really should not have given Luisana Lopilato this subplot. Anything that asks her to do the majority of the heavy lifting, acting-wise, was never going to turn out well.
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