The way Belmonte has Marta's face soften at the mere mention of "Fina", to then have Marta become gradually more closed off over the rest of the scene, ending in defiance.
The gaslighting plot is back full force!
But, from the start...
In the initial scenes of the episode, Marta is stil the competent businesswoman in the executive chair, proud of Digna for taking a further step into the company:
This shifts with Pelayo's return: Marta is unsuspecting and friendly, happy to have her gay bestie/beard back. Costuming places them in the same camp: Marta's dense, small, red/black check with her Western belt is matched by Pelayo's broader plaid check in black/red
The first of their two scenes starts with a little heartbreak (for us) - Marta being happy for Pelayo and Darío, who are living the Gay Dream....
...then it's a little heartbreak for Marta, who is surprised that "people who feel differently" can be in love and breathe freely in Mexico. Pelayo rejected love for so long, and Marta did not, and yet Marta never got to live that freely with Fina, who is, again, a shadow in the room:
They sit perfectly centered, the shot is balanced, with the lit record player board in the background between them, with the gold tones on the phone center left, with the golden figurines back right. The golden cage! And Pelayo comes bearing a fitting gift: a gold necklace (that Darío helped pick out, and we will not talk kindly of Darío any longer after tomorrow); the shot of Marta holding it up is the image of her hands in a chain of gold.
Belmonte adds another nice facial contrast of defensive smile versus eyes when Marta tells Pelayo that things with Cloe are going badly, since they have ended:
This setup carries in into the second scene which is highlighted by being placed as the very end of the episode bringing the cliffhanger (nervous Pelayo!) and giving it - and the resurging Gaslight Marta plotline - added importance.
Pelayo wants to know why Marta broke up with Cloe, and he immediately gets shifty eyes when Marta admits that she cannot get over Fina, which brings us back to the cap for this ep, and the way Marta's entire face shifts:
Heartbreaking (for us, again): Marta saying "I've tried to forget her, I swear." As if she would owe him that. As if he would have any right to demand that.
Pelayo, unsubtly, picks up right where he left off: disparaging Fina for abandoning Marta and making her miserable, and Marta gets the line, "I am not of the same opinion as you about my relationship with Fina".
Yes, Marta. You're onto something here! Because he always wanted Fina gone, and you only wanted Fina closer. And look where you are now. Fina is gone. Please connect the dots.
But now, with Pelayo saying he doesn't understand how Marta still isn't over a woman who treated her this badly (yes, Writing Room, making me Really Mad At Pelayo in his first episode is working Perfectly, thanks for asking) and with trying to push her back towards Cloe, Marta - who thought she had a friend back in her corner - is cornered and her defenses come up bit by bit, in facial expressions, gestures and posture, until she ends with a sad, defiant chin tilt.
..."why are you so agited about this?"...
..."these are my feelings, not yours"...
..."I know I went through hell because of her." (so what! She still loves her! Defiant little chin tilt! This is fine I am fine oh God this is ep. 1 of "Gaslight Revisited" and I am already seething)
As Marta steps out of the scene, Pelayo gets a Fina flashback - Fina occupying the right side of the screen, exactly like Marta before and after this flashback - of him forcing Fina into accepting exile, and of a crying Fina stating that being without Marta is like being buried alive, paralleling Marta's "descent to hell" with Fina's suffering.
(Editing is not making prisoners today, I see.)
Marta returning to the scene, once more shot on the right even though they have gotten up and are now in different positions, circles back to friendly, unsuspecting Marta who of course will cancel the dinner reservation to be gaslit some more at home instead:
And now that Marta has admitted to Pelayo that she cannot forget Fina because there was no closure ("I feel our relationship hasn't ended") - my bet is on Pelayo trying to fabricate a closure so that Marta will stop thinking about Fina and possibly finding out what he did to her (to both of them!).
Will he fake her death, fabricate a story on how she has moved on, push Marta at Cloe, or all three? It seems that we have Mafin months ahead to watch it all play out!
The show is toying with a Marta-between-Cloe-and-Fina setup: Cloe gets an extended solo sequence without dialogue that does not move forward plot and only serves as affective exposition.
Cloe gets up to look at designs, sighs, looks over at Marta's empty desk, frowns and sighs some more before she looks back at her designs. “Not over her yet” neon sign.
But enter Valentina! And there's the other (more subtextual) thing the show is toying with: fine, call your pretty best friend "gorgeous" ("guapísima"). Address her playfully as "Miss".
But insert a chin touch and three prolonged moments of handholding on knees? Did someone steel the luzgoña mantle off the mantle this quickly?! (nobody will ever level up to the epic that was/is luzgoña, but I continue to enjoy these two together. Cloe around Marta is over the top; Cloe around Valentina? Effortlessly charming. Even if dramaturgy employs her to sell Andrés as an option.)
The much better option? Gets in a handholding hattrick here:
Strong start with a knee touch that remains for more than 5 seconds! Valentina doesn't seem uncomfortable in the least.
One minute later: a hand on hand on knee variant while their bodies are angled towards each other.
…and finally: Valentina holding onto Cloe's hand that rests sort-of on her knee. Again.
Show. What are you trying to tell me? Is Luz raising an eyebrow somewhere in pretend Barcelona?
Nieves in her coat, walking into a empty-looking cantina with a pinch of Hopper...
...paralleling a moment at 00:20:12 (Mafin Drive Cut) when the camera follows Digna in her off-white coat entering the office at Industrial de la Reina, likewise walking into a situation she dreads, likewise having to tell a family member that another family member committed a betrayal (even if Julia isn't aware that she is being manipulated).
