Rafaela
Rafaela seems to have warmed up to Leonardo a little, especially now that Alma broke up with him (in episode 20). I don’t think she trusts him, but she keeps seeking him out and is still interested in doing business with him. Maybe she’s bored. Maybe she’s intrigued by him. Maybe they just needed a reason to keep Leonardo around. Maybe all of the above.
Alma
Alma is a little emo now because she misses Leonardo but she can’t get back together with him because she can’t tell him about the male escort service. And Leonardo is emo because he misses Alma and has fallen totally in obsession with her and even playing board games with hookers does not alleviate his pain. Woe. He’s frustrated because he knows Alma is hiding something from him but he doesn’t know what it is. His guess is that she’s a prostitute. Ha! Please, sir, have you not met the woman? Lady Alma is nobody’s slore. She runs the place, yo. By the way, Leonardo doesn’t seem to mind too much that he’s actually hiding stuff from Alma, too. Such as, say, that he purposely sought her out because he wanted to know if she had anything to do with Maximo’s death, since, you know, Maximo was Leonardo’s mentor. But whatever. Men are above such things as conscience and guilt.
Alma’s only a little emo, though, because she’s also busy trying to solve other people’s problems. Some lady came to her Women Sexuality class (I still don’t know what exactly it is she teaches, but that sounds accurate enough, given the subject matter), and Alma decides the woman needs some help. So she’s been using Alejandro (male escort extraordinaire) to dig deep into the lady’s psyche. In the process they discover that the woman was molested by her uncle and also that Alejandro was molested as a child.
All in a day’s work for Alma Aparicio.
Mercedes
Ever since Claudio gave Mercedes the name of her dead husband’s mistress, Mercedes can think of nothing else. She debates incessantly over whether or not to call the woman, meet the woman, what to say to the woman, what the woman might look like, etc. This goes on for a couple of episodes, though eventually she does manage to track down the lady — whose name is Olga — and agree to meet up. Oh hi, awkwardness.
Leading up to the meet up, Mercedes (and her sisters) talk ad nauseam about what might happen during that meet up and what the lady might look like and what she’ll say to the lady, etc. Mercedes’ biggest nightmare is that Olga will turn out to be a 20-something wet t-shirt contest winning nymphomaniac Maxim-cover model (or something). As it turns out, Olga is like 30-40% less attractive than Mercedes and is actually a pretty groovy chick who is less anal retentive than Perfect Mercedes Aparicio. They have a nice chat and Mercedes finds out that her husband’s last words were, “If Mercedes finds out, she’ll kill me.” Fitting, I think.
Mercedes is growing closer to Claudio, who has pulled a Helena Peabody-esque personality change and is now a pretty groovy dude.
Julia/Mariana (and Armando)
Okay, so we’re not yet rid of Armando. Perhaps we will never be rid of Armando. Sadness.
Julia and Mariana made up (but not out, unfortunately), and have now joined an acting workshop that disturbs me to the core. But anyway, let’s first isolate the latest plot/conflict (because Armando’s sex addiction seems to have vanished into the void).
Armando gets the news that he’s going to Spain. Hooray! we think. But no. No, my friends. Because he wants Julia to go with him. But before that, we’ve got an introduction to the Friday the 13th Acting Workshop:
Eek.
Let’s look at something prettier.
Phew. That’s better.
So in this scene, Julia is talking about the mask and that she feels weird in it, but Mariana tells her she needs to be one with the mask and use it like the metaphorical mask she puts on every day.
Then Julia’s phone starts ringing and it’s Armando. Julia says she doesn’t want to talk to him because she doesn’t want to fall back into his orbit. She doesn’t want to revolve around him. “I want something else. I need something else.”
Mariana replies by putting on the mask and approaching Julia and putting on her mask and looking at her like, “I’m the thing you need, you dumbnut.”
And I think I’m going to have nightmares.
Let’s move on to the acting workshop, hosted by Jason Voorhees’ long lost Thespian twin. The instructor calls on Julia and Mariana to act the parts of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. Julia is Little Red and Mariana is the Wolf. The “wolf” asks “Little Red Riding Hood” why she doesn’t love him.
Julia/LRRH: I’d like to love you, little wolf, even though you’re so different from me. But I should find the path alone.
Mariana (breaking character): Alone? Alone? Do you know who Julia is? Julia is the mirror upon which Mariana looks but doesn’t see herself.
There’s a brief pause of awkwardness. And then the scary instructor yells and tells them to start over.
After class, Julia and Mariana act like nothing weird happened and make plans to go eat and work on their play (I assume it’s Randomness & Chaos but maybe they’ve moved on to something else). Anyway, then Armando shows up and ruins everything. He wants to “talk”. He tells Julia about moving to Spain and that he wants her to go with him and she blows him off but they end up talking anyway.
And of course, an episode would not be complete without some emo Mariana.
In the next episode (22), Armando continues to pressure Julia into making a decision about going to Spain with him. She’s annoyed at him for pressuring her but she is still considering it. I can’t tell if she’s considering it because she wants to go to Spain or because she wants to get back together with him or both or what. But the other side of the coin is that if she leaves for Spain then she leaves Mariana.
Armando has gotten it into his head that there’s something going on between Mariana and Julia, so he goes to Mariana to talk to her about things and ask her to convince Julia to go to Spain with him. The two of them spend the entire night getting drunk and talking about Julia. Armando insists that Julia has feelings for Mariana, but Mariana tells him that there’s nothing going on between them and that Julia’s decision to go to Spain should be an easy one. But Armando’s not so sure because he doesn’t think Julia will leave Mariana.
At one point the conversation shifts to Mariana’s sexuality and Armando asks if she’s ever considered sleeping with men and that maybe if she had a good sexual experience with a guy she wouldn’t be gay anymore but Mariana’s like, “Not happening. I know what I like and what I don’t like.” And eventually Armando tells her that he admires her for her convictions and that, for someone with the world against her, she’s very strong and level-headed and has her s–t together. And while it sort of sounds like a compliment, and maybe he means it that way, he still says stuff like, “You know people prefer to kill children than given them to people like you for adoption?” And you can see that what he’s saying is getting to Mariana.
That’s all Mariana needs. More reasons to be emo.
Eventually the two of them fall asleep and that’s how Julia finds them the next morning.
Julia wakes them up and tells Mariana that they’re going to be late for acting class and then she and Armando get into another argument about Armando pressuring her.
In episode 23, we’re back at acting class (later that day) and Mariana is in the middle of an exercise that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me but that seems to involve her having to pick a male partner to do something with a male partner and she keeps moving from male partner to male partner (they’re in a circle) and she can’t decide and the instructor flips out and yells at Mariana like there’s no tomorrow and Mariana runs off crying.
Julia comes to find her and asks her what’s wrong. Mariana tells her that it’s her sexuality and that she can’t pretend to be anything different, not even for an acting workshop. That it’s a part of her and she can’t ignore it and that she hates it and she didn’t ask for it. And she goes on about how people hate her without even knowing her simply for being gay. And how she’s always going to be considered unnatural and immoral and an abomination.
Mariana says she wishes she could reincarnate into someone like Julia, someone who no one doubts is normal or natural. She wants people to see her for who she is inside. “That’s what I want for myself.”
Julia: Then you don’t see what I see. Because when I look at you, I say, “That’s what I want for me. I know you don’t believe me, but I understand you.”
Mariana: No, Julia. You can love me and you can support me … but you can never understand me.
And then Mariana walks away, and Julia is left alone.
And I’d give anything for thought bubbles.
Later on we’ve got more emo Mariana, alone in her apartment. Well, alone with the creepy mask.
Over at Casa Aparicio, there’s a fairly hilarious scene involving Armando serenading Julia. It’s hilarious because his singing is awful and also because the rest of the Aparicio household is in agreement that the singing is awful and must be made to stop. The sisters — Alma and Mercedes — are amused, but Rafaela and Aurelia beg Julia to go out there and make him stop. Julia’s annoyed that he was let in in the first place.
Once outside, Armando and Julia get into yet another discussion about Spain and Julia is irritated beyond words. She says she needs time. And he says they don’t have time because he’s leaving in a week. And they argue back and forth. Julia needs time. There’s no time. Come to Spain. I need more time. Blah blah. Until Julia successfully gets him to leave the premises. I’m fascinated by their ability to have the same argument over and over again without ever getting anywhere. Thankfully they’re blessed with problems that poof into the nothing (sex addiction? what sex addiction?)
In episode 24, Julia loses her mask. Literally, I mean. Aurelia and Rafaela find it in a pan, in the kitchen, but when Julia asks if they’ve seen her mask anywhere, they both say no.
Later on we’re treated to more creepy acting class. Mariana seems to have made progress with the male actor situation and when we drop in on them, she’s in the middle of a strange sort of physical activity that looks like wrestling but standing up. Thankfully the instructor puts a stop to it before we have to think too deeply about what that was and calls Julia up to the middle of the circle for an exercise I like to call “Really Obvious Theoretical Setup.”
It goes a bit like this:
Julia = A
Mariana = B
Random Male Actor = C
Premise: C loves A. But B also loves A. And A must decide between B and C.
So random male guy loves Julia but Mariana also loves Julia and Julia must decide between them. Wow. What a total departure from reality! Me thinks the instructor watches this soap opera.
The exercise in action looks something like this:
This goes on for several seconds. Mariana and the guy start pushing each other away, trying to pull Julia to them. Finally, Julia can’t take it anymore, pushes them both away, and runs out of the classroom.
Later on, Julia is back at her house, still searching for her mask, when Rafaela pops in with the mask she found earlier.
Rafaela: Is this what you’re looking for?
Julia: Where did you find it?
Rafaela: The problem has a solution. But while you’re still hiding behind the mask, you won’t be able to make a decision.
Gotta love Rafaela’s cryptic wisdom.
Back at Mariana’s, Mariana is talking to her camera and she is saying the following:
This is turning into the worst roller coaster in history. I’m dying of panic and no one wants to help me get down. On the contrary! He tells me that she wants to be with me. And then later tells me no. She does things that make me think yes. And then does things that make me understand that no. Is it possible that there’s a triangle here? A B and C? Or is there simply A and C and I’m just here to feed their confusion? In the end, I’m just a leftover.
And then more emo Mariana.
Meanwhile, Julia is still lost in the world of decision-making, even while asleep.
Aurelia (voiceover): Las Aparicio know a little something about hiding. They train in it from a young age. And for that reason they know you can hide fire, but that doesn’t mean the embers die out.
And we’re left with that lovely image. Is it a thought? A dream? Or just a visual illustration of what Julia’s dilemma looks like?
Until next time!
Ingrid Díaz is the author of Alix & Valerie, a professional blogger and non-recovering coffee addict. In her college days, she was a purple-haired LGBT rights activist. These days, she aims to change the world one lesbian love story at a time. You can read some of her work at www.midnightisland.com.
