[Ines' place] gus is asking ines how he can talk to este, learns that este is in jail and then hears ines casually mention cynthia(vero's disguise name). gus is all, "who is este tal cynthia?" ines makes mention that cyn seemed to be interested in involving herself w/este's drug business. gus decides, "i'm going to talk to this girl. see what she knows." off to the cabaret they go.
[Cabaret] cyn/vero is wearing an awful gold get-up and flirting with random guy. gus walks in, sees her and goes to talk to her. he introduces himself. vero realizes who he is, that he's the suspected narco guy, and that he's the guy from the morning. she acts all tough. gus just stares and stares at her, captured by something in her eyes.
Freeze Frame
tomorrow: cyn/vero & gus kiss in the middle of the club, ines gets all jealous and yells at cyn/vero (who can blame her?), vero vero talks to some cop friend saying, "omigosh, i just met the most wonderful man."
today's episode was more interesting than yesterday's (i thought all of their "omigosh, i've met the most amazing man/woman" scenes seemed a little cheesy).
here's all the episode i remember at this moment.
[Cop Headquarters]after gustavo is interrogated by veronica, Head Good Cop, who turns out to have been a friend of gustavo's father (and always secretly believed his innocence) gives gus the letter ferrera wrote him. vero and HGC watch as gus reads it and is devastated.
they have to set him free b/c the ballistics test demonstrates that he could not have killed ferrera and his fam. HGC asks gus to join them in trying to find his father's killer. gus says, "cops are the worst people in the world. they're the same thing as the narcos. i have dignity, a word you don't know [sounds like marcela valencia, no?]. i will never be a cop." he storms off.
vero is devastated by the utter failure of the day. she feels guilty for deceiving gus, especially when it turns out that he's purely innocent. and she's totally tormented by his accusations that the cops killed ferrera's family by not getting there fast enough. she decides to quit the force. esteban proposes to her [sheesh, this guy looks like he needs some emotional/psychological healing... he's way too needy/attached] and she promises to consider it.
[Cemetary...Gus Home] gus goes to his father's grave and asks for forgiveness for hating him. "i promise you, i will avenge you." back at his house, all of his barrio friends (including abuela, who is by far my favorite character of the whole novela... did you all notice how she went after that guy with a broom last night as he was trying to attack her nieto? yeah, that woman gets all the points) are gathered to listen to gus.
he reads them the letter. they are devastated, confused, relieved. he says, "i'm going to avenge my dad." his mom says, "what you're going to do is come to my room and we're going to have a talk." (she wants to send him back to SD, she doesn't want to lose him.)
instead, gus storms out of the place. he gives tarta an assignment to go and do reconnaissance work in some other neighborhood. gosh, tarta is a good friend. i'm afraid they're going to kill him off. what's up with his name, though?
"what are you going to do, gus?" asks tarta.
"something i should have done long ago," says gus.
[vero's dad's]
at his house he chats with his secret business partner talking about how they need to find a way to bribe the Hardcore Cop Brigade (the one that vero's in)... but money won't work b/c these people are untouchable... they need to find something.
[mental health hospital]
some crazy woman is being drugged to keep her crazy b/c she knows something really important. some normal looking but quite insane woman working for vero's dad wants to keep it that way, per the orders of vero's dad. hmm... could it be that at some point at the very end of the novela, this crazy woman will be the key to solving all the intricate web of deception?
[Cop Headquarters] vero is there, hanging out with her former coworkers, who are sad she's leaving.
in another room, Head Good Cop sits in a tiny, cluttered, believable office. the door opens and in walk gus. he says, "alright. i'm going to join you guys. i want to find the man who killed my father."
HGC says, "you know what this will mean."
gus says, "yes. the scorn and derision of all in the barrio. they will think me a traitor. i'm ready to face that."
HGC says, "great. let's get started."
in the main meeting room, vero stares off into the distance when HGC comes out and tells her once again, "i don't accept your resignation. i need you to finish what you started. don't give up."
she looks at him sadly, as if wondering what on earth could possibly make her want to stay in such a frustrating job. sigh... it's all hopeless anyway.
HGC says, "alright. listen up, everybody. from now on, we're going to be doing things differently around here. we've got a very important addition to our team. let me introduce you to him."
out walks gustavo. shocked faces everywhere.
Freeze Frame
laughs of delight from chriss in her living room.
www.telenovela-world.com: what happened on Friday [5/23/03] Author: chriss (---) Date: 05-24-03 15:29 PDT
... note that i'll be at a religious retreat for all of next week, so i won't be watching any of ladron (and i'm not taping it) so i'd love it if someone caught me up... just brief one line summaries of the major plot points of the week is quite enough, like: "este found them and is all distraught" "gus took the key to the heladeria & found the money and an erased computer disk that he must take back to SD to get it read by an old techy friend of his"...
[catholic church]
antonio wants to confess. he tells anselmo that he's all eaten up inside by the fact that vero is a cop. she's the light of his soul, he says. he's terrified that she discover things about him b/c if she does, he'll have to silence her. he gets all torn up by this, very emotional. it seems as if he's actually conflicted by his care for himself and his care for vero.
aselmo (priest) then gives the viewer tons of info by saying things like: you'd kill vero? is that why you raised her? to kill her? is that why you took her as your daughter, knowing that she actually isn't your daughter?
turns out that crazy lady (teresa) left her husband (antonio's brother) for antonio, but none of them knew she was already pregnant. hmm... seems antonio loved vero from the very first.
also we learn that anselmo entrusted maria to antonio's care and under those pretexts, antonio seduced her.
[tony's car]
he's got a gun, got booze, got his mom's car and he's going for a joyride. he drives up to a corner where he buys some drugs and picks up a prostitute.
later, she asks to see money before she does anything. he shows her his currency: the gun he presses against her temple. she escapes from the car. he drives on and, falling asleep at the wheel, crashes.
[maria's house]
s he's gone to talk to priest anselmo about the fact that tony vanished. anselmo accompanies her to her home so that they can go search for tony. she gets a call from the hospital telling her tony was in an accident. they rush off to the hospital.
[cabaret] gus is feeling all sad b/c he overhears vero accept este's proposal. but, as we find out later, he's down but not out.
he pesters ines to get Bald Bad Guy to chat w/him. BBG finally agrees when he hears that ines' insistant friend is a guy with news from Ferreira. gus goes into the bathroom and takes off the super secret mic. this freaks out the guys in the van who think he's going to betray them now that gus got what he needed out of the cops (the half of the $20).
a mysterious bad guy notices gus and calls ramiro to tell him that gustavo is there with BBG. ramiro, per antonio's orders, gives the okay to kill BBG but to keep gus alive. they want to question him a little before killing him.
gus goes into the BBG's office and, after being searched, displays the $20 bill. BBG has just inhaled some coke and so he's pretty strung out. after demanding to know who gus is and realizing that gus is the very image of his father, he trusts him. he gives gus a key.
G: "what's this key to?"
BBG: "the place where $500k is and information necessary to finding your dad's killers."
G: "so why didn't you take out the $500K?"
BBG: "b/c i don't know what the key is to. ferreira kept that knowledge, i kept the key. that way we'd never betray one another. but now my life is worthless. i'm a dead man. i want nothing to do w/this. take it."
G: "wait, he didn't give you any clues about what the key's to?"
BBG: "hmm... he said something about a place where your dad and he would hangout"
as gus is inside, the van cops notice other baddies going into the cabaret, presumable to kill BBG. chepe tells vero to get out of there and then says that there are people who are going to x-out BBG. vero says, "and gus? they're going to kill him. they're going to kill him."
she can't let that happen. she lights a trashcan full of paper and, causing a fire, evacuates all of the cabaret except for gus & BBG in the office. she storms the office, pulls a gun and tells them to get out of there.
as they rush out, the baddies who are trying to kill BBG attack. they kill BBG. vero shoots one of them dead. gus is injured, although not too bad, we later learn.
doubled in pain, gus runs out of the backside of the cabaret w/vero. he picks the lock of a nearby car w/vero's bobby pin and then hotwires it the same. all the while, they're increasing the romantic tension between the two via looks and other stuff.
they drive off. vero calls chepe to tell him that they are okay. chepe tells her, "great, we'll meet you at the brigade in 20 minutes." but vero hangs up on him b/c she's upset that they were basically using gus as a human shield to get what they want.
[in van] este is all distraught, thinking that gus has kidnapped vero.
[vero/gus in car]
g: i thought you didn't care whether anything happened to me.
v: no, gus. i do care.... i do care.
g: where are we going?
v: a safe place.
[old house w/draped furniture] vero takes gus to a house that she and her mom used to weekend at many years before.
there she cleans his wound. the room is lit only by candlelight.
v: i'll find a bed where you can sleep.
g: where are you going to sleep?
v: i'll keep watch.
g: so, you're going to marry este?
v: [pause] yes
g: then why are you doing all this for me?
v: i might as well ask you why you said that you like me (que te gusto).
g: i said it b/c it's true. i like you. i love you. i want to protect you. blah blah more romantic stuff that it seems is very unlikely could develop in real life in, um, 2 days.
vero draws back as he moves in for a kiss.
g: no, don't be afraid. don't ever be afraid.
they kiss... Freeze Frame
advance of monday:
indeed, they sleep together. and guess what else happens? the cops who've been searching for vero & gus breakdown the door to the house and catch them.
... not my favorite plot development... too easy, too predictable. oh well.
Chriss
USA, 5/26-30/03:
www.telenovela-world.com: chriss- per your request: short and sweet summary for Monday 5/26/03
Author: Janet Date: 05-26-03 23:24 PDT
Here’s what I remember - please note that I still don’t know everyone’s names; also, I’m not sure I got everything right so corrections are welcome...
We pick up with Veronica and Gustavo hangin’ in the empty summer house in the woods. Gustavo’s already half undressed due to the wound bandaging foreplay. After starting to kiss, Vero makes a half-hearted attempt to back out: “this isn’t gonna happen”; but it does - we end up with Vero and Gustavo kissing by candlelight/firelight, and a lot of artistic posturing in the sheets through the night. Gustavo endulges in some romantic but clichéd pillow talk, but Vero is smart enough to be a bit cynical and figures she knows a smooth talker when she sees one (or beds one) - so she states “it’s not going to happen again.” I guess it just must have been all that adrenalin that gets kicked up doing that undercover work...
Antonio, meanwhile, is at the hospital trying to see what happened with Tony, but his mama won’t let Antonio go into his room to see him. Antonio is at least able to smooth some things out with cops hanging out at the hospital by flashing his badge (as they found Tony with a handgun and drugs, I believe). Once home, Antonio confronts long, darkhaired woman (Mistress #2?) because he figured out she didn’t give him the phone messages earlier in the day relating to Tony being missing. Dark-haired woman is acting out her jealousy, and I can understand a bit where Humberto Zurita is concerned; but I’m starting to think she’s not that bright - more behavior like that and I’m sure she’ll be in serious trouble...
Back in cop land, Chepe, Esteban, and the gang (well, especially Esteban) are freakin’ because they don’t know where Veronica is, as she hasn’t communicated with anyone - and the idea is put out there (don’t remember the details, but I’m betting it was Esteban) that Gustavo may have kidnapped Vero. Chepe ends up going to Antonio and fesses up that Vero went missing and explains that Gustavo whatever (forgot last name) is working with them. Antonio rightly upbraids Chepe for putting Vero in danger by having an untrained, unprepared nonprofessional work with her, but then he does give Chepe the lead on where to find them.
Scenes of the undercover team sneaking around in the woods are interspersed with scenes of Vero and Gustavo talking in the morning, still wearing artfully draped sheets. He’s talking magic, “te amo,” and “por toda la vida”; but Vero sees no future in their relationship and is more realistic about the length of a relationship with a charmer like Gustavo - I guess she’s also thinking about Inés. Vero and Gus manage to be halfway dressed when her cop friends bust in, pulling guns on Gustavo (of course Esteban manages to be the one holding a gun to Gustavo’s head, as he frantically yells at Vero “Did he hurt you?!!”). Looks like Vero and Gustavo will have to finish their conversation another time. Once out in the van, Esteban gets the word from Chepe by phone that they have to let Gustavo go.
Escrito desde Jul 21, 2003, 8:47 AM de la dirección IP 128.248.12.180
