There's a scene in Episode 79 where Marcela is trying to initiate relations with Armando that has him zoned out, thinking about Betty and all that's happened recently, where he has displayed nothing but jealousy, so he ruminates about these moments instead of focusing on his blushing wife to be.
From all of these flashbacks, he thinks of the day that Berta told him about Nicolas Mora being Betty's eternal love and it got me thinking, if Armando is zoned out, feeling jealousy, thinking of these instances, that must mean that when Berta was telling him about Nicolas it wasn't simple speculating that he was jealous but rather a fact of the matter; Armando has been jealous, romantically, of Nicolas from the very beginning.
I'm fully aware that I have written what feels like hundreds of post breaking this down, so it's sort of beating a dead horse, no? Well while I was confident in what I was writing based on how many hours I spent studying certain scenes as if my life depended on it(I honestly miss it lmbo), it was always just writer speculation that was based on what I know about writing and the bit I did know about script writing(tv/movie writing) this just confirmed it in a canon type of way, meaning it's what the writer was intending, purposefully, telling and showing the audience.
Rewatching Betty these past couple of weeks without the intent to study the writing or directing and simply viewing it for fun has had me holding my breath wondering if I got certain things wrong or got them right, and honestly I only got one thing wrong(a huge surprise to those(Are they still here?) who think I hate Morch and justify Armando) and that's something about Marcela's character that I honestly really want to talk about.
But this post isn't about that.
Let us consider one important part of Armando's personality that he himself tells us at the beginning of the story: He doesn't know what love is.
As Betty finds clever ways to not spend time with him, evade his questions, play with his emotions, Nicolas becomes the primary source of Betty's smiles and forgetfulness about him(Armando).
Before this sequence of flashbacks, Armando sat in his car, stalking Betty and Nicolas, who came out of the house, dancing and playing around with his brand new car, imagining a life that could be, Armando stares at him with disdain maybe thinking "What does Betty see in this idiot? How can he be taking my Betty when he's a poor nerdy dork? He's just using her!".
As an audience we're fully aware of all the facts; as we hear Betty narrate what she writers in her diary about how she has no idea how she musters the strength to reject him and not become puddy by the simple sound of his voice or stares, that she knows his affliction is not based on the fact that he misses her or her affections, we see a man that is very much feeling the affliction of Betty's rejection and affection, but rather she thinks that it's about the company, this man walks into his fiancé's bedroom, ready to put on a an act, a woman who aches and is desperate for the man she longs for, tells him how much she desires him, he zones out, thinking of Betty and her rejection, and remembers what Berta told him.
But this is what the characters know:
In the middle of a great tragedy, Betty and Nicolas, would fall in love and as he himself expressed that same day, he knew it was going to happen, that it was a fact, that Nicolas would win Betty's heart, now he(Armando) has become nothing but insignificant to Betty, back to square one. Armando feels like he isn't good enough for Betty that he wasn't able to stop the hand of destiny, and all of this, in the middle of his great tragedy,( but what we know is that Eco Moda is on track with paying off their debt so yes, this is a cause of concern for Armando, the fate of his family and employees rests on his shoulders based on how well they do with the new collection) What is this tragedy? He has been feeling nothing but pain due to Betty's disinterest in him the past couple of days and we get that confirmation in this episode.
Betty says she double booked a date with Nicolas and Armando the previous night because she was forgetful, that it had to be due to love, and Armando takes that as Betty admitting that she has fallen for Nicolas.
Nicolas and his upper hand of fate being on his side, plague him even in his sleep. He dreams a nightmare where he walks into the parking garage of Eco Moda and finds Nicola's brand new Mercedes Benz, empty, but as he nears the front he finds Betty on the driver's side, and Nicolas on the passenger side, making out, he calls out her name, she turns to look at him, her glasses fall, she smiles, readjusted them, and returns to kiss him, he yells at her to admit who she's in love with, him or Nicolas, and as she continues to makeout with Nicolas, the sunroof glass closes and he screams out her name over and over again.
In my previous post I mentioned how Terra Moda and Eco Moda hold a strong symbolic place in Armando's life; Eco Moda was everything Armando knew and loved, until Terra Moda was created, it became a direct representation of his fragile ego, that is directly impacted by Nicolas Mora. This nightmare of his breaks it down perfectly.
The car represents both Terra Moda and Eco Moda, something that he finds confusing and alarming, which directly points to his distrust of Nicolas and how he might be influencing Betty to misuse it and how that can impact his family, Betty being on the driver seats also holds that significance because she is the one approving of all of this because of Nicolas. that she is allowing the love she feels for him(Nicolas) to drive her impulses. Now what truly horrifies him in this nightmare is Betty and Nicolas making out, the window closing on him, as Betty ignores him and basically tells him she chooses Nicolas.
When he wakes up yelling her name, Marcela asks him about it, and unlike the other time he woke up screaming in his sleep, and doesn't tell Marce(she told him if he didn't share the nightmare is because he secretly wanted it to become a reality, in that dream he was chasing Betty and they kissed and he didn't tell her even a made up version of said dream which lets be honest Marcela would have found hilarious) but this time he does, he said he dreamt that they were taking away Eco Moda from him.
Who begins to take presidency and priority in Armando's life? Who is the cause of his afflictions and pain?
None other than Beatriz Pinzon Solano.
His biggest fear wasn't just losing Eco Moda, but ultimately, what it's always been: Losing Betty, the person who loved him just as he was, the person who awoke something in him that made him want to be a better person, not only in theory, but in practice as he himself told Betty that he liked being good to her, that he liked behaving for her.
While yes Armando wasn't always in love with her, especially at the beginning, he did care about her. He cared about her as a friend, someone who he admired for all the morals and ethics she had and especially because of her integrity. Armando loved that she came from a hard working and honest family, that she was unlike all the snobs he was constantly surrounded by. Its why I always say that the only thing that prevented Armando from being honest with himself about what he felt for Betty was his own prejudice and society's.
He always explained to Calderon that he felt guilty for what he was doing to Betty, while yes, his own prejudice made him not want to kiss Betty or think of her in a physical way, he always knew that her kisses were special, and that they meant something to him because of that, he always said he could tell that Betty cared deeply for him, why? Because he did too.
At the launch of the previous collection he said he knew that the feelings would be mutual between Betty and her eternal love, which we as an audience know it's Armando not Nicolas, but he didn't. Do you notice how Armando never doubted that someone could fall in love with Betty? Especially when she became the representation of 98 million dollars? With her personality attributions she's already worthy of it(love), but if prejudice imposes one to pursue her, well being rich surely will remove that obstacle.
It was always her, he was just too much of a coward and stupid to admit and see it.
Betty herself says that she had thought that Armando was sincere about his feelings for her because she could feel it in his kisses, and that maybe at the beginning it wasn't like that, but after her birthday night, that they felt even more real.
She has been the object of his desires, afflictions, and love.
Now Mario doesn't need to tell Armando to follow Betty home, no, Armando follows her and Nicolas home, where Betty once more rejects his attempt to be with her by refusing to talk to him on the phone. In Armando's jealous induced mind, the only reason she didn't want to talk to him was because Nicolas was there and she was spending time with him.
The morning of Armando's nightmare, when he's in the office questioning Betty about the car, he said something along the lines of "Why that car? Why didn't you consult me about it?" once again Armando is worried about the company, we can't throw that away, of course he is! It's a source of anxiety for him, but so is this indifference from Betty.
See him and Betty have always been a team. All his victories are thanks to Betty, and (not all)her victories are thanks to Armando(his trust of her and his backing). They discuss everything together, even before the affair, they have always been a good team.
And all of a sudden, she makes a major move with the company that seized his, without consulting him. He feels excluded from Betty's life, no longer her team mate.
Betty keeps everything "professional" in an attempt to have the strength to punish him for his betrayal, she herself says that what bothers him is that she used Terra Moda's capital, that she bought a car as expensive as that one, and that it was being used by the General manager, that just so happens to be Nicolas. Everything is about money, everything that revolves around that plan that she found out about in the letter, she focuses on because it is a reminder that that's why she is treating him that way, a reminder that Armando Mendoza didn't care about her as his partner, his lover, or his friend, but all he cared about was money, she says this with conviction...and when Armando says that that's not it, that he doesn't care about any of that, that he wants to talk to her about them, about how he feels the distance, her indifference, her rejection towards him, betty's walls crumble and you can see her pain, her guilt, her heart.
Armando begs her to go have lunch with him so that they can talk freely about their relationship, outside of the office, Betty regains her anger and tells him that they can't, that he has a very important lunch with a provider. Cue him saying he forgot about it and then Marcela walks in and he yells "What!" she apologizes angerly and Armando, looking at Betty with a pleading look says "Mi amor," turns towards Marcela and says "Mi amor!".
Fast forward Armando sitting down in Mario's office talking about what had just happened and ironically here, the rolls are reversed. How? Armando continues to make an emphasis on Eco Moda and the plan, while Mario goes along with it. Previously, Armando always focused on the ethics and morals of the plan, how messed up it was, how much guilt he felt, how terrible they were for doing whatever it was they were to Betty, Mario was always the one to remind him of the money and importance of Eco Moda. Even before this conversation, that same morning, minutes before the discussion with Betty about the car, Armando told Mario that he stalked Betty last night, and a shocked Mario subtly makes fun of him by saying "Huh, you said you were going to Marcela's apartment last night, who would have thunk?" why? Because Mario has been the one to constantly beg Armando to follow Betty and reconcile with her, no matter what, even if that means he has to sleep with her, but now, by his own accord, Armando lies to him about it, and doesn't consult him for it and eagerly, Mario expects a word by word replay of how the night ended.
Then an irritated Armando says: "What did you want me to do? Did you want me to go to sleep worried about her?" He catches himself, blinks rapidly(sign of stress) and covers his tracks to not let Mario "know" about his true feelings, "an-and-and the company? My company? huh?"
Returning to the argument he was having with Betty in her office about the car, Betty emphasis on the luxury of the car, everything that is materialistic about the plan, rubs it in has face that He's letting her know that she's just "too ugly" to drive a car like that. He refutes saying it's not that, she again counters this by saying "anyway you told me to say Nicolas was my boyfriend as to avoid any suspicion." and Armando glares at her as she sits down in front of her computer to type away, as if internally telling himself "what game is she trying to play here?" all of this, with a satisfying smirk on Betty's face.
All of this reminds me a game of chess and Betty is taking the lead.
In Armando there no longer is a debate of whether he loves Betty or not, there is no confusion about his feelings towards her. He knows he loves her, he knows that she is important to him, even to the degree, that she might just be as important or even more so, than Eco Moda.
At the conclusion of him recapping this argument to Mario he laments that what hurts him most is that she didn't buy that car for herself, that she did it for Nicolas. He reenacts Nicolas little acted out day dream of a life that could be because of the car and finally, when Mario goes on to say "How is this possible? At what point did you become careless about her!?"
Armando tells him, softly, a hand hovering above his eyebrow, covering part of his face, with his eyes closed: "Never, I have never been careless, never have I been careless about her," He looks at him, eyes wide, "In fact the last couple of times we went out I was very special towards her. Those were special nights for us."
In the middle of Mario's stupid commentary he goes off on "How's it possible that a man like you, a man with your qualities, could be losing a woman as ugly as Betty? a woman that's uglier than an ugly salamander, to a guy like him? What did you do?"
Armando sits there, eyes closed, lips drawn in a line, honestly looks like he's internally telling himself to just count to ten and remain calm and tells him that he's worried because Betty is pushing the limits and it's causing people to ask questions.
We can never separate Armando from Eco Moda. Eco Moda is what he aspires to be in his life. He craves his parents approval more than anything, he depends on it for his ego. Eco Moda is the center of Armando's life. It's what he loves most.
How do things start to fall apart for him?
From the very beginning Armando is an arrogant, egocentric, neurotic CEO. We know that Armando doesn't see a challenge he can't conquer, simply a speed bump. He's a determined and confident man. He is goal oriented, charismatic, prideful, and his existence alone demands respect. In the wise words of all the women who have had the unfortunate event of falling for him: What a man, what a man. He's an attractive man, not only physically, but personality wise.
Now, attach millions of dollars to his name. Attach a prestigious family name and power.
Outwardly, Armando is what every woman desires. At least, stereotypically.
Of course, it makes total sense, that because of arrogance, pride, and ego, he won't admit to making a mistake as small as a thumbtack, that could cause an entire economic disaster for his beloved Eco Moda, because what he craved most, was presidency, the legacy of his father. He saw this title as his birth right, his property, that no one but him could have.
So what does he do? With the assistance of his new assistant, he establishes a strict economic budget for a new collection, in hopes, that it would save him from admitting his business plan was flawed, therefore losing his birth right to being the president of Eco Moda. It would be a huge blow for his ego and his image.
But, just to slap him in the face, the collection is a total failure because of the budget, it ruins the prestigious reputation of Eco Moda, and again, instead of admitting to all of this, he asks his assistant to help him lie and embellish a balance of the company for the next executive board meeting.
And before the banks or anyone seizes Eco Moda and takes it away from his parents, Marcela, or him, and he admits defeat to Daniel, he comes up with a clever plan: Create a legitimate company that in case of anything, can protect Eco Moda from being liquidated and consequently lose everything his parents and Marcela's parents worked so hard for, as well as the livelihood of his employees. Armando might have been emotionally stupid, but he wasn't a walking idiot. Contrary to the ONE number that ruined his entire business plan, he was a smart and clever man.
But see this is where emotions take precedence, well at least they start to, because his personal life has been bleeding into his professional life, it first started with Marcela and him fight about their relationship at the office, then Marcela wanting Betty's head.
Betty becomes Armando's number one ally and consultant at the office, and soon, in his personal life. We see this man of stone and unfazed by his Assistant's qualities and emotions to being so deeply impacted by her that the mere idea of firing her, is unthinkable to him, not only is she brilliant in what she does, but she is unconditional and loyal to him to a T, so naturally, she is the perfect candidate to be entrusted with a new company that will seize Eco Moda if it comes down to it.
And working side by side, shoulder to shoulder, hitting brick walls, and bumps along the way, Betty helps fund a new collection, while also seizing Eco Moda in the process, through connections and relations with the banks, to keep the company afloat. We aren't given time stamps on how long this took, but Armando credits Betty for all her hard work being the sole reason the new collection could be launched so soon.
He never doubted her integrity, loyalty, or unconditionality, Betty is of his whole trust. He admires her as a collogue, his team mate, his partner in crime, but not just like any employee of his, because Betty awakes and evokes something inside of him that no one ever has or does: tenderness.
And then all of a sudden, his Betty, has a boyfriend, a man whom she is head over heels in love with, a man that she hired to work for his back up plan company, and while she told them about the existence of Nicolas, his role, and even offered to fire him if it made them uncomfortable or doubt of her integrity, what pains is that his dear ole' pal, didn't disclose that she had a boyfriend, especially one that she had talked about to him.
And while all of this inner turmoil begins to consume him, who else is there to persuade and manipulate? None other than Mario Calderon, who directly benefits from all of Armando's prestigious attributes and reputation, and he lets his paranoia and fear of Betty betraying them both, antagonize and provoke Armando.
The issue was never Betty in Armando's eyes. Logically a woman with some many attractive qualities in a work related environment like Betty, has to be that and more in a romantic relationship, of course, for love, she would give and do anything for the man she loves, and ignore all the red flags because she has no other choice because she's ugly, and a man that allows prejudice to guide him would not let a multi-million dollar opportunity to just walk right past them, because neither would they(Armando and Mario and everyone they're surrounded by.) and this distrust begins to ferment in Armando in regards of Nicolas, because not only will that guy pursuit Betty because of the money and take away his parents patrimony, but his Betty would be used against him, his Betty would betray him for love, and his Betty would no longer be his.
So he agrees to participate in Mario's grotesque plan to seduce Betty therefore secure the fate of Eco Moda. In a perfect world this is what happens; Eco Moda overcomes it's financial crisis, Betty returns the company, doesn't betray him, only shares her quirks and qualities with him, and she stays his assistant forever, he never admits defeat, his ego is untouchable, he marries Marcela for five years, still cheats on her, and then divorces her, and he stays as the president of Eco Moda until he dies.
Take a reading break if you need one.
It then it finally happens; about two or three episodes later Armando tells Mario a play by play about how Mariana's prediction was right and how he has always told Mario about them(that Betty's life would change as well as her eternal love's life); the exact reason he decided to go along with the plan and these are the reasons why:
1: Their purpose(Fate) is becoming a reality.
Why: "Nicolas is opening Beatriz's eyes. She tells him everything, she trusts him completely and he takes advantage of that by manipulating her, telling her she can be a different woman, a rich woman."
How: When Armando first heard of the news Betty had a boyfriend, what hurt him was that she hadn't told him, what made it feel like betrayal was that he wasn't expecting that his girl could have a boyfriend and that while she knew about all of his escapades and affairs(his intimacy) he didn't know anything about her private and personal life. He was jealous of Nicolas, yet he was in denial of it, so when Berta tells him about Mariana's predictions, Armando has a scape goat; he feels what he does because he's worried about the company. He always was, but now, it's amplified. Now whoever Betty loves is interlinked with the company. Meaning that as dedicated and giving as Betty is towards him by simply being her boss, anyone she falls for, she will give more of herself to, could use what she feels, to manipulate and harm him, Por que con el dinero baila el perro.
He makes an emphasis on how regardless of how smart and how many specialties/degrees they had, while valid, that they(Betty and Nicolas) were still broke people. Thus he believes Nicolas is manipulating and influencing her to carelessly spend his money. Therefore this proves that Betty's life is changing and in return she's also changing that "desgraciado's" life.
She becomes owner of a company that is worth a lot, seizing a company that surpasses the value of the other company, becoming owner of a fortune and spends that money showing off by buying an expensive car, a car neither he nor Mario could afford, all to be used and at the disposal of Nicolas. Going out with her friends and buying them an expensive Lunch just to boast about having a rich boyfriend
Thus all of this is only evidence that both their lives are changing. This was a fear of his from the get go. Ergo losing everything that comes along with what Eco Moda represents and benefits him from, as well as Betty.
1: Their fate is becoming a reality, she is changing his life, therefore he is changing her life.
Why: Armando hired Betty for two reasons: He didn't want Marcela to have her spy knowing about his affairs, and she was smart(She also appealed to his ego during her second job interview). Through time she proves to be a valuable member of his team; she understands economy, therefore he doesn't have to work with Daniel's spy(that family sure loves spies, huh?) and her dedication to him makes her trustworthy. Professionally Betty proves her worth and role in Eco Moda, to the point that Armando is willing to endure fights and arguments with his fiancé to keep Betty on his team.
Betty not only proves her loyalty at work for Armando, but her integrity and morals, which moves him to want to be a better boss to her. Especially after his "Diva" night. Does he succeed? No. He still has his neurotic moments, but when he hears about how much he yells at her, the image that her father has of him, of the way he treats her, a person whom he admires for all she does for him at work, that she gets yelled at by, verbally assaulted by, he says he will try to do better by her. This is the beginning of their so called fate becoming a reality.
How: Betty never gave Armando a reason to doubt her. She has been loyal to him, and even when tempted to take money under the table, she didn't because she couldn't bare betraying the man who trusted her so much, who had given her so much responsibilities, because she knew it went against everything her father had instilled in her from a young age. This just confirms to Armando that Betty is human, not the computer everyone mocks her for, but she is someone that is true and real, and all the more worthy of his trust, because despite being tempted to take the money, she didn't. Armando then chooses her to be the one to start up a company that will be there as a plan B if all things go wrong, in order to protect his family's business.
All of a sudden, not only is Betty's role in Eco Moda and as a valuable member of Armando's team all the more important, this just makes Armando admire her even more, because with all of that power she has, not once, even did she consider filling herself with pride and demanding respect or boasting about her importance, instead she continuously reminded him that she understood him and his fears and that his trust was not misplaced, that she would take care of everything he knew and loved(Eco Moda) as if it were her own life and he believes her. How was he not supposed to care for her? For the first time in this idiot's life, he has someone who backs him up, someone who willingly shares the burden with him. Someone who sticks by him through thick and thin, without ever asking for anything in return. Betty doesn't directly change his life on an outside perspective, she changes his life to the very core of who he is and he allows this willingly, until he is confronted with the fact that this woman who has done nothing but reassure him and be his accomplice, might be in love.
Betty's long life dream then becomes a reality, changing her life forever, when Armando, under the pretense that he is doing this for the good of the company and Betty, decides to woe her in order to protect his company and her, Armando ends up falling in love.
So when her rejection comes, he says that she is making his life miserable, that she is making his life bitter. And that in fact his life is changing because of it.
Betty has always been unconditional, but she had her moments where she was tempted to do wrong, duh, she is human. She always had moments of arrogance in her role in Eco Moda, she was witty with her come backs towards Daniel and Patsy Pats, but she was cunning and smart and knew how to defend her job and importance. Sometimes she left out a detail or so when explaining things and ironically, this is something that Armando did admire about her: the ways he knew how to manage people and their tempers.
So when she finds out about Mario's stupid plan and Armando's willingness to participate in it, she feels the anger, the betrayal, and the hurt, to the point that she doesn't want to talk to Armando about it, like Cata had suggested, instead, she convinces herself that history is repeating itself and that unlike before, she won't let it slide and she will make all of Armando's fears come to life. Without this revelation, Betty would have never taken a swim in the dirty festering waters that made Armando. She made the man she swore she loved, suffer, because she thought the source of his pain wasn't her emotional rejection, but rather, the bad management she was having with Terra Moda. She knew exactly where to strike him, and she didn't think twice about it. Armando became the target of her self-hatred and her hate of society. This no doubt impacted her entire life.
The only one that has been manipulating(though I say this lightly as Betty's unconditionality hardly needed more than a gentle tap on the shoulder to do whatever Armando asked her to do) Betty has been Armando and corrupting her morals is him.
Betty agreed to create a fraud of a company for Armando, she agreed to have an illicit and clandestine affair with her boss and the only reason this made her even more special to Armando's eyes was that it was done for him, that she was doing it all for him. This is a cycle that repeats itself over and over again. Betty shows him kindness and Armando does whatever to cling to those feelings, stupid enough to deny his feelings and end up falling in love and ruining their relationship, thereafter, having trusted said woman, with his heart and head, to deliver with a pretty bow to the executive committee at their board meeting, to ravish and shred to pieces, after she psychologically abused him.
By no means am I saying that Armando was a poor saint victim. This was the consequence of his choices. He had three different instances where he was able to tell Betty about the plan, that he could fess up and tell her that while yes, the beginning of the plan was to keep her away from Nicolas in the case that he could influences and manipulate her to become prideful and greedy with the money, there was still a silent lament that he could lose Betty, and for whatever reason that was, the idea of it, scared him enough to act stupidly and irrational.
See because from the very beginning, from day one, Armando was smitten with Betty, not romantically, not physically, but he simply admired her, a smart woman like her, to say she knew that beside him she could achieve great things, she appealed to his ego and vanity.
Take a water break if you need one.
I've talked a lot about Armando's journey to admitting feelings for Betty and his attraction to her but I always tried to avoid the fact that it did make me a bit uncomfortable to think "How can you not find the person you like physically attractive from the very beginning?" because while I understand beauty is subjective and that Armando was very much a fan of societal beauty standards and cared a lot about his image, i.e. that the woman he was linked had to also be physically perfect, but life has taught me a lot in the past two years.
I have these two friends who weren't the least bit attracted to each other when they first met, but personality wise, they matched each other's freaks, because of that there were always rumors circulating that they were dating, though they were always adamite that there was nothing of those sorts of feelings or attractions between each other and were simply and only friends, about a year or so of evading dating rumors, they sat down all of their friends to break the news that they finally started dating.
My friend once said that when they first started dating they struggled finding one another PHYSICALLY attractive, but that they knew they liked each other's personalities a lot, and over time, as those feelings grew, that their physical attraction did too, to the point that they find each other the most attractive people for each other. They're getting married soon.
Armando didn't commit a crime by not finding Betty physically attractive. It was realistic. I am still in awe of Fernando's ability to write such realistic and well rounded characters. Armando was a man that his entire life was centered around being perfect, having the perfect image, in order to be seen, in order to please. His life is full of vanity, egos, and arrogance. Of course it makes sense that what he sought in women was the exact same thing.
Marcela was the only one though, that had a brain, as he said. I think to a degree, putting aside the physical attraction he had for her, that he did admire her intelligence, and somewhat class, maybe at the beginning he did find things about Marce that he admired and liked, enough that he was okay with marrying her, even if it meant he wasn't in love with her, he did love her, as a human being(though c'mon who are we kidding? He did it to win the Presidency). He was willing to make that sacrifice and he knew that it was something she wanted. He saw it as another task to do a chore list so that he could settle down, be a serious guy, and make his parents proud by proving he was maturing, growing, and not at all what they expect of him(the worst). Marrying her came with a lot of rewards.
But as the weeks go by, the months, he ends up falling in love with Betty, going through the whole denial, acceptance of said feelings and attractions as for what they were rather than what they meant, he then is hit with an unexpected brick wall: His love towards Marcela, even if superficial, never stopped him from cheating, and all of a sudden, even kissing Marcela, makes him feel guilty, not because "omg if she finds out I kissed Betty and then her she would so kill me" but in fact more of a "Omg I can't be kissing anybody that isn't Betty? How can I be betraying my girl like that? Why do I feel like I'm betraying her? She knows I'm engaged to Marcela... Regardless I'm not cheating on my girlfriend Beatriz Pinson Solano." and for a man of his caliber, a man that is a whore(again I use these terms gender neutral) and sleeps with only the best of the best, so long as they're in the same social statues as him, can't seem to...erm, function, with his physical duties in the relationship he's in with Marcela but can in fact willingly participate and day dream of it with Betty, he is left confused and haunted by this. He even tells this to Betty.
And all of this, all of his feelings are forcefully confronted when he sees that he is losing Betty. That she is rejecting him, she is indifferent about him, that she no longer wants to be with him, be in his team, be his ally, his support, his air to his lungs, his shadow, he has to admit, not just accept, that what he feels for Betty isn't based on guilt, or something that will vanish one day, but rather such a profound and intense yearning, longing, and desire for her, that he understands what love is.
Before anyone thinks I am glossing over Armando's behavior during these period of Betty's rejection; I'm not, he acted poorly, distastefully, and horrific.
It makes sense(Don't confuse this by thinking I'm saying it was okay, it was not morally correct!), however, that he acted the way he did. It goes with his character at this point of his character development, and he mirror's Marcela to a perfect T.
Hope you like this long post!
