Domenica Montero English language recap episodes 18-20

 Domenica Montero episodios 17-20

These will be briefer recaps and somewhat lumped together in themes, and not everything is in chronological order - this binge watch has taken it out of me, but finally I’ve caught up!

At the beginning of episode 17, we resume with Luis and Domenica locking lips. The next thing we see, he’s working on the buttons of her top. I’m thinking, wow, after a few kisses this is what you expect, Luis Fernando? Bit audacious there, aren’t you? Well, Domenica is more gracious than I would be, she just stops him and shakes her head. He accepts this.

They talk about what “this” is, and hash out their concerns, like maybe this is, whatever, rebound, loneliness, whatever? (I know that there’s a trend among widowers to remarry very fast - it’s a thing, but it is not because of lack of love for the deceased wife. A google search will explain more.)  Domenica and Luis decide to see where it goes.

I have three episodes swirling in my head at the same time, so I’m going to condense things and go back and forth. I suspect I’ll miss things, forgive me!

* Tia is frantic to discourage Domenica’s relationship with Luis. She feels that Kiara is so emotionally fragile, that she must not be disappointed regarding this hoped-for romance with Luis. She even appeals to Godfather to try to talk Domenica out of seeing Luis, in order to give Kiara a shot at him. Godfather of course is appalled at such a thing. She tells him that Kiara ingested a bunch of pills when things went south with an American boyfriend, and Tia is going to watch Kiara like a hawk so it never happens again.

* There’s a lot of back and forth about planting those beans in the land on the north. It seems like the future of Luis’s hacienda depends on that crop, which will mature fast so the proceeds from the sale can fund more things to help the hacienda grow. Everything hinges on that crop being a success.

* The women’s center is being arranged, with Cute Lawyer handling all the details of the sale, etc. The secretary of Cosme (presidente municipal) is related to the guy selling the house to Cute Lawyer, so she is introduced to him at Cosme’s office. They definitely are aware of each other. At some point the misunderstanding is cleared up and she doesn’t think Cute Lawyer is Domenica’s novio.

* The time comes when Kiara has to find out that Domenica and Luis are an item. She appears to take it very well, even says that she wouldn’t let a man interfere with her relationship with her family. She seems cool as a cucumber, but the minute she is alone with Domenica, she slaps her and screeches about the “promise” that Domenica made to not get in the way of any hypothetical romance Kiara had with Luis. The whole thing is nuts; the promise only applied IF Luis was interested in Kiara, and he never was. Tia and Kiara both act like it was some vow to be indefinitely hands-off of Luis, as if he is was some trophy. Anyway, Domenica says it wasn’t like that, and defends herself, but everyone has an opinion, and it’s a bit tiresome.  

* I’m a bit confused about what appears to be Prudencio’s complicated love life. It appears Nicolesa (Nana) was his novia back in the day and they both still seem sweet on each other. At the same time, Prudencio has some sort of thing going on for Mercedes, and we see subtle reactions and expressions from Mercedes which suggest she is not oblivious of him either. There’s one scene where he is comforting her late at night when he finds her sitting pensively in the kitchen in her jammies. Granddaughter (Adelaida?or something?) walks in on them and later Mercedes feels she needs to “explain” why she was hugging Prudencio. Granddaughter has a bit of a blunt tone to her, she says something to the effect that there’s nothing odd about hugging someone you’ve known a long time, unless you think it’s shameful to hug a “peon.” Granddaughter goes on to say that Prudencio always taught her about maintaining the separation of social clases (peon vs patron), and besides, lest Mercedes worry that Prudencio would ever misinterpret the meaning of any hugs, he only loved one other woman besides his late wife, so (I interpret) she believes that his heart is not free.

* Domenica gives the title to the house bought in the center of town to Kiara, as a form of patrimony and to compensate for being scammed by Max too. Kiara is delighted and accepts with a hug. It was decided earlier that Tia and Kiara can move to the women’s center and make it their home, they will receive some sort of salary, and Kiara and Tia will not be at the hacienda anymore, which suits Tia. Tia craves some  independence, but also thinks Kiara is fragile and needs to keep her distance. Them staying in-town works for everyone; Domenica doesn’t want her family to be too far away.

* The lawyer friend of Luis discovers an old photo and a letter fall out of a book when he is browsing in Luis’s library. He confronts Mercedes about it; he wants to know if Luis knows that he has a half sibling. 

Luis interrupts them and sees the photo - it is the aforementioned “Carmen,” great with child. Luis comments that he didn’t know she married and had a kid,  it he wishes her well, because he remembers her from when he was young and always got along with her. Mercedes haltingly says that Carmen never married and this all happened around the time that Luis went to the USA to study. After Luis is gone, Mercedes admits that yes, there’s a kid, but Luis doesn’t know, and she begs lawyer friend not to tell. He promises.

* There’s a few brief scenes which hint that Godfather might be sweet on Tia, and Domenica notes this too.

* Kiara admits to Generó that her supposed “crisis” where she rode off on a horse and scared everyone, as well as her supposed suicide attempt over the American ex novio, were just acts to manipulate her way out of something.

* There are a few more scenes definitely hinting that presidente municipal’s secretary Blanca, I think her name is, and Cute Lawyer are destined for each other. He notices her, but at the same time, still pines for Kiara. 

* Nieves asks Kiara to advise her on fashion (since she has some clothing money), Kiara says she is a woman of fashion, and can’t help with pueblo garb. 

* Kiara and Generó are both very upset about Domenica and Luis being together, but for different reasons. Right after Kiara first found out about them, she tried to convince Domenica that Luis wasn’t just being polite with her (Kiara), that he was definitely flirting, and that Kiara has been around the block enough to recognize when a guy is interested. She’s hoping to undermine Domenica’s somewhat fragile faith in anything masculine, but ultimately Domenica chooses to trust Luis. Generó, however, manipulates things and prepares a bombshell -  the actual true fact that Luis is currently planning on growing a crop on disputed land, and hasn’t told her. Domenica looks very shaken by this at the end of episode 17.

* During the start of episode 18, Domenica talks with Luis and actually listens to what he has to say - he’s willing to make a deal with her, he’s not doing this in bad faith. In the end he agrees to pay her to rent half of the north side of the laguna, and she accepts. She’s trying so hard to be trusting.

* Roque is tasked to lead Luis out on some wild goose chase out in the boonies, so that Generó can pick him off with his rifle. Roque has a last minute change of heart because Luis is such a great, generous guy. At the last minute Roque tries to protect Luis from a sniper bullet, ends up dangling off the edge of a cliff, and Luis has to save him. 

Turns out Roque has a wife and daughter who left, he doesn’t know where they are, but he misses them. Generó, who visits Roque in the middle of the night later, is annoyed with him for ruining his plot to kill Luis. Roque is no longer onboard with Generó, so Generó accepts this but threatens Roque’s wife and daughter if Roque blabs. (Generó claims he knows where the wife and daughter are.)

* It appears the corrupt three (Cosme, Gabriel, and I think Generó knows about this) are conspiring to prevent Luis from buying supplies from nearby providers. Also, I get a vibe that they are planning on spoiling, poisoning, or somehow sabotaging Luis’s crop. I am getting a little fuzzy on this, but I think Cosme and Gabriel want to mess with Domenica’s hacienda too, but Generó won’t be in on that. 

* Since Kiara is moving to town, she talks to Generó about him visiting her there so they can continue their trysts. He doesn’t want to, too many gossips in town. He says she’s not worth the bother. They go back and forth and then it’s suggested that they take advantage of her being with him now, so they start to get busy. Nieves at this moment walks in on them (I think he left the door open), and she says his name awkwardly. Both Kiara and Generó are busted, them hooking up is not something they want getting out - so Generó immediately gets our his belt to whip Nieves in another room while Kiara, to her credit, cringes and yells at him to stop. Of course he doesn’t. Nieves is told not to blab about what she saw.

* Nieves wears a long sleeve shirt to hide the welt marks, and insists that she had some sort of accident. Pedro knows it was Generó and loses it to the point that he has a gun to Gerero’s temple and wants to shoot. Prudencio is able to talk him out of it, primarily by saying that it would hurt Mercedes too much, but also appealing to him to not ruin his own life.

* Pedro is expressing more bitterness and says that maybe he’s a “bad seed” like the parents that abandoned him. He is much more affected that he appeared to be in previous episodes - he says he doesn’t feel whole or something like that. Prudencio noted that Pedro can let his anger get away from him, and it stems from resentment boiling up to the surface over all the abuse and bad treatment he got as a child. This explains why he lost control with Generó.

* It looks like Adelaida (? Prudencio’s granddaughter) and Nieves are in competition for Pedro - Pedro gives Adelaida a piece of paper with her name on it, he says,“the second name I learned to write, after my own.” She complains that he spelled it wrong and the letters look bad; he just walks off. But later, when confronting Nieves, Adelaida shows the paper and says Pedro prefers her, look what he wrote! Nieves is getting more and more depressed.

* Mercedes is really hell-bent against Domenica and has multiple conflicts with Luis about it. He always backs up Domenica. Mercedes is uncharacteristically hostile towards Domenica. Domenica tries to visit her to smooth things over, but to no avail. Merecedes finally declares that she won’t sign the contract written up for Luis to rent the land (which is already his land as far as he is concerned). She says it’s ridiculous to rent his own land. As she’s a co-owner, without her signature the deal can’t go through. Yes, she knows the hacienda will fail if they can’t get that crop in. She’s even reminded that Pedro’s investment will be lost - she still won’t budge. Pedro, when he hears about it, decides not to sign the contract either  - if Mercedes doesn’t want it, neither does he! Because, he explains to Luis and lawyer friend, I really am grateful to you two guys, but I’d die for Mercedes. 

* Mercedes and Adelaida are in town and are treated really bad by the townspeople. In part because Gossip lady (wife of Gabriel) is insinuating that Adelaida is a tramp, and also, they think Mercedes and her whole family are bad because Luis had the audacity to want her son Osvaldo put in jail for trying to knife someone, and also for punching Gabriel for his cruel song about Domenica. This further sours Mercedes against staying there, she just wants Luis to sell the hacienda and go.

* There’s a scene where Gabriel and his wife talk about their past; I think when they first married that she had the money and he didn’t, and it’s her money that started everything for them.

* There’s some thing where Kiara is “covering” for Nieves, who doesn’t want anyone to know that Generó whipped her. Kiara will back her up, if Nieves does some favors. One of those is to work at Kiara’s house in town a few times a week (I think?). Nieves looks too scared to refuse.

* Lawyer friend of Luis has a contact in the jewelry business and they find out they can probably track down the owner of that wedding ring found at the site of where SIL was hit and lost Luis’s and Paula’s baby. Every gem has a serial number etched into it. They can track down the store who sold the ring, and hopefully the buyer. It sounds like it’ll take a little while to do all of that. Meanwhile, around this time, Kiara has another opportunity to be along in Luis’s office and frantically looks for the ring so she can steal it. She is not successful; Luis walks in on her holding what I think is a baby rattle for his unborn child; he looks puzzled at why she would have it.

* We finally get a fuller picture of what happened to Pedro and how he ended up where he did. Mercedes gave Eugenio, unfaithful husband, an ultimatum, and he accepted it. She didn’t want anything to do with his other baby. So, he pawned the kid off on Prudencio, who did as he was told, because he knew he’d do better for the kid than who knows who else. I deduce that Prudencio was given money for the kid’s upkeep; Prudencio in turn trusted Pedro in the care of a cook who he thought was “good people” but he was wrong. She gave no attention or love to Pedro, he only got attention when he was fed (which explains his affinity for eating and the kitchen). The cook pocketed the money meant to support Pedro, so he didn’t live comfortably. Then Eugenio died and Prudencio supported him on his own - his own salary went to take care of Pedro. There wasn’t always enough, and Pedro didn’t have good clothes or schooling, but Prudencio was always there with love and advice.

Prudencio is telling Nana (Nicolesa) all this, and ends by saying that Pedro doesn’t know he’s the son of Eugenio and Luis’s half brother. At just this moment, Domenica walks in and hears - and says, “What? Pedro is Luis’s brother?

And that’s where episode 19 ends. 

This blog is meant to be a supplement to the Caray Caray Blog.