Domenica Montero recap episode 9ish

 Domenica Montero recap ep 9 

This is a from-memory recap and may be referencing events from previous episodes: please don’t assume everything I write is accurate; my Spanish vocabulary and grammar level is at best intermediate. This page is meant to be a supplement to the Caray Caray blog of English language recaps of Spanish telenovelas.

Episode 9 (más o menos)

Earlier, Kiki put a spider in Domenica’s bra drawer (not kidding - it’s nestled among her dainties) and Domenica got bit just as Luis came over to rip her a new one over tearing down his fences near the Laguna. She’s not responding well to the bite. Switching quickly to doctor mode, he rushes her (along with Tia and Nana) to a nearby Pueblo for an antivenin, but the clinic is closed. Domenica is looking muy mal so in his rush to find another clinic he leaves Tia and Nana in the neighboring pueblo to find their way home. They hitch a ride with Osvaldo (Gabriel’s desgraciado of son who is secretly dating Prudencio’s granddaughter). Granddaughter has to sit in the back of the truck while the ladies are in the cab.

Meanwhile, Luis gets Domenica to another clinic where she is successfully treated. Turns out she is hypersensitive to venom, and even bee stings could be serious or fatal. She and Luis have a few warm fuzzy moments during her touch-and-go recovery, but eventually they start bickering again about who ordered the fences to be torn down. (It wasn’t Dominica - it was her scoundrel capataz.)

Back at the hacienda, there’s this big kerfuffle going on between the son of Gabriel (corrupt store owner and Gossip Lady’s husband) and Pedro. The desgraciado son’s name is Osvaldo (who gave Tia and Nana a ride earlier). He’s insufferably arrogant.

The setup is that Prudencio and Luis’s men came to visit La Joya to iron out this land business and the pulling down fences by the capataz (Domenica wasn’t there to talk to Prudencio, but Kiki told the men what they wanted to hear).

Prudencio sees his granddaughter hiding in the back of Osvaldo’s truck and knows what’s up. He chews out Osvaldo (because the custom is to ask permission before dating a guy’s daughter or granddaughter) and tells him some uncomfortable truths about being an entitled little brat who thinks money can compensate for not having a decent character. 

As Prudencio leaves with his granddaughter, Osvaldo rushes behind him to attack him, but before he can, Pedro materializes to stop him and a big fight ensues. A lot of the staff from both haciendas are witnesses. Osvaldo pulls out a knife because he’s a coward. Nieves gets in the way and gets a bloody (but superficial) slash on her belly. Pedro licks Osvaldo pretty good, but he’s okay and hey, Osvaldo brought a knife, so he’s told to accept defeat. 

Gabriel is upset that his coward of a son was beat up. They talk about Pedro as a nobody - a son of nobody (though we the audience are not oblivious to all the foreshadowing that points to Pedro being Luis’s half brother through Luis’s father’s affair).

Gabriel asks the Presidente Municipal (who he had “business” with) to charge Pedro with attempted homicide. He’s dragged off to jail even though a whole lot of people saw the fight.

Dominica is recovering from her spider bite but is outraged when she hears that Pedro is arrested. Genaro, her capataz, assures her he’ll get Pedro out, but he does nothing. 

Domenica is well versed on the law and would like the “victim” to get a medical exam to see if the injuries rise to the level of attempted homicide. The presidente municipal and his cronies say “we don’t do things that way out here” but Domenica isn’t having it. She calls upon Luis that night (he answers to door shirtless, which makes her a bit awkward) to ask him to do the exam. He is full of as much righteous indignation as Dominica so he’s right on board. Mercedes, his mom, also is right on board with helping that muchacho because she knows he wouldn’t hurt anyone. There’s this moment of solidarity between Domenica and Mercedes over their shared concern over Pedro.

Pedro is getting the extra treatment at the jail as cops are kicking him hard in the abdomen and ribs. Domenica visits him and he tells her he’s in pain, his ribs hurt and he can hardly breathe. I think I heard something about him being threatened if he said anything, or rather, I think the police threatened Nieve if he said anything anything.

Dominica gets Luis to look at Pedro and he says that his injuries do not appear to be from a fall (the official story) but Pedro refuses to admit he was beaten up because of the threats.

Luis did an exam on Osvaldo (who was told by his dad to really play up how injured he was). Luis sees through it and says Osvaldo is going to be fine and it’s superficial.

Domenica and Luis make a stink about Pedro’s injuries, and the fact that he’s worse off than Osvaldo. The presidente municipal says that we’ll have to lock up everyone while we investigate this mess. It was revealed that Osvaldo brought a knife to the fight which changes things considerably and Osvaldo and his dad are worried.

Domenica cannot bear to see Pedro stay the night in jail - she’s concerned about his injuries - so I infer that she cut a deal with the presidente municipal et al to drop the whole thing. Osvaldo isn’t scrutinized for bringing a knife, and Pedro gets out now.

Luis is really pissed off at Domenica because he feels Osvaldo is big trouble and dangerous and needs to face the consequences now. He chastises Domenica for being high handed and wanting her own way.

Also, in previous episodes (I believe) Domenica offered to buy Luis’s hacienda for a good price (thus resolving the land dispute) but Luis said he’d sell to anyone BUT her. He repeats that vow at the end of this episode , and Domenica reminds him that he’ll have to put up with her odious presence, so there!

Luis is very depressed after the death of his baby and his wife. He tells his mom he has lost meaning in life and thinks that building up the hacienda will give him the focus he needs.

In another scene, Mercedes has a flashback where she finds out her husband not only was unfaithful, but there’s a baby. She tells her husband that if he wants his kid in his life that’s his business, but she’s not involved. She plans to go to Spain with Luis and forget all this.

It seems like her unfaithful husband’s girlfriend died in childbirth, and who knows what happened to the kid. Back to present day, Mercedes asks Prudencio what happened to the kid, expressing regret because she knows the baby was innocent. Prudencio asks her why does she want to know - she says she’s not sure. Prudencio (who we all know has ALL the secrets) doesn’t tell her anything.

On a side note, it looks like Nana and Prudencio had some sort of something back in the day, when they see each other for the first time in ages. Meaningful looks and something about “we’ll talk later.”

There are also some sad/frustrating scenes with the teenaged daughter of Gabriel and his gossipy wife, and also the younger son.

The younger daughter is vey school oriented and wants to study medicine, but her dad is too machisto and has no intention of helping her or supporting her and actively tries to sabotage her studies. Her mom (the town gossip) is also so under her misogynistic husband’s thumb that she is not supportive of her daughter either.

The daughter, to her credit, sees all this clearly, is obviously disappointed but also internally rebellious, and I predict that Domenica will play a part in helping her in the future. 

There is a preteen little brother/younger son of Gabriel and his gossipy wife - he too seems to favor his sister and values education and does not want to be a misogynist like his dad.