So did I get that right, Fina managed to get herself a Cottagecore Copy of Marta (better take yet by @madronash: a Chacracore Copy) out in the pampas, who comes with a career option built in, but without the closet and criminal charges?
And who is otherwise basically Marta: affluent with a countryside home, older, established, worldly, well-connected, independent, successful in a profession, caring, generous, a role model, someone who inspires admiration (remember Fina’s early „I don’t know a single one of the factory girls who wouldn’t want to be you“?), and also someone with whom Fina has ended up in a blend of affective and economic dependency? (Bianca may not be her employer, but Fina apparently pays no rent and sleeps with the landowner).
That sounds like a classic replacement pattern.
This scene with Digna (and again: what a great scene partner is Ana Fernández!) was, to me, more painful to watch than 182 eps of Fina’s absence. Not because it couldn’t be construed narratively (with some squinting) as a soapy step on a swerving way that could still lead towards Marta as the one true goal, but because it showed the opposite. On the visual level, it chucked the narrative from the sky (at least at first watch, but let's dig into the rewatch edition).
In terms of character motivation it could be said that Fina still needs to adjust, Fina is traumatized, Fina has consistently avoided talking to Marta out of a misguided attempt to protect her even before she left (baby plot), Fina found a freer life now, and whiles she still may love Marta, she doesn’t want to go back to living in the shadows around her. That's consistent, in character, and requires no narrative beam-me-up maneuver.
In terms of narrative, Fina gets more nuanced dialog lines here about how she still loves Marta („I realized our love was intact“ - which it is clearly not, or she would allow for it to adjust to their reality and not keep it frozen in nostalgia and obligation, but there is still something there), how she only came clean to Bianca about Marta after Marta’s letter arrived, how she almost fainted at said letter, how she is, with Bianca, "as happy as someone with my past can be" (i.e. someone who got ripped away from Her Wife and her whole life about a year ago?), while Bianca is, ambiguously, "everything I long for" in her Marta-ish qualities, and to whom "above all, I am indebted". It sounds starstruck, not impassioned. Plus there is the fact that Fina is staying in Toledo even when a much better life is waiting elsewhere. (really, it is a lot less hurtful at rewatching if you focus on the dialog lines)
That this doesn’t transport with this degree of undertow is a show-vs-tell issue (pointed out also at yesterday’s Liquor Cart by @bloomsberries): Fina tells Digna she still loves Marta, but all the viewers have seen as of ep 562 is a Fina supremely uncomfortable or muted or reserved or cagey whenever she is in Marta’s presence (double hurt: she is old Fina around everyone else: grumpy with Miguel, laughing with Claudia, snarky with Tasio, daughterly with Digna). There is no visible conflict regarding Marta, no switch between happiness and then guilt, between adoration and then distance, between desire and then doubts. It's consistently unhappy. In contrast, the only time Fina looks genuinely happy (except when talking to Claudia) is here, when she talks about her new life with Bianca the Chacracore Copy: "we live in the countryside" (and I think back to that pastoral scene painting that hangs above Fina’s guestroom bed and Hey Prop Department are you sure you don’t need any of these knives back?)
This discrepancy between telling and showing is so consistent between Performance and Directing that it seems a conscious choice, and I assume it is to build the distance between Marta and Fina to breaking point clearly and without any detours, even if the writing would offer a chance for more nuance in delivering and framing the lines.
Would Fina giving Marta one look that isn’t caged but longing ruin the entire distance Directing is currently building?
Hmm. You know what: that is a fair question. We have seen what these two can cause with just one look and it might indeed ruin the impact and lessen the maximum heartbreak these characters (and we) are hurtling towards. Or perhaps there simply wasn’t enough time to go for more nuance? This is a telenovela, after all.
For now, Fina has a new girlfriend with whom she shared a tranquil life until just a few days ago (posttraumatic rebound idyll with the Chacracore Copy), who told her to go break up with Marta cleanly (and, who knows, perhaps it will turn out it was Bianca who set Fina free in sending her back to Marta? Because after hearing their tale, Bianca connected the dots and was smarter than Cloe?), and who makes her smile and about whom Fina says - over a lush, romantic little sound layer that I already hate with a passion - that she loves her very much and is very happy with her. (Why are you in Toledo then, Fina? Why? I don’t see it.)
Let’s see how you write your way back from this one, Writing Room! Although right now, analyzing those dialog lines, I do think that the Writing Room has our backs. Directing and Performance seem more out for blood, but in the end: that’s the name of the game.
SdL is very good with feeding the constant craving of the soap format, with letting a viewer come close to a release but never fully reach it, at least when it is about the big story. At the core, it is contrasting aims: tension towards relief (the viewers and their feels) versus never-ending tension (crews doing their job). We just got a crumb cake peak (#561!); we’re back to Yearning Square 1 at the bottom of the mountain. Or were the crumbs too few and we just got lost in the woods, or in the pampas as it were, and now some gingerbread chacra witch is going to gnaw our bones clear?
If the crumbs are too few and not visible enough, a narrative teeters or even tanks. How to build obstacles that are side plots but don’t unseat the core narrative? How to dole out crumbs that sustain but never satiate, yet still renovate enough to keep viewers coming back? This Writing Room knows how to do that very well. And it’s congenially mirrored in the show’s setup, too (as @madronash pointed out): the show’s core is women dreaming of freedom and struggling towards it. It’s not about them ever attaining it for more than a moment.
Yet in Mafin, SdL had/has a perfect North Star narrative that was compelling entirely through character and chemistry. Look how these two characters keep choosing each other against all external odds! And now the question could be, perhaps: will they choose each other against all internal odds, too? In absence of external odds? (And for now, they are parading „no!“, but why set up such a domino if not to topple it? The aircraft carrier is back on its truck on the serpentine road...)
The Writing Room and even more so Directing have decided to kick the North Star around to renovate the story, and I assume they will put it back in the sky, but it is a marked departure from the promise of their narrative setup. Fina’s face up there just did the work.
How do you maintain „I still love her“ as a baseline while your dialog lines and your face and your body language deliver „I love someone else now and have a better life with them“?
Sure, the argument can now be: Fina, it seems, basically got attached to a Marta copy who wields emotional power over her ("lifesaver") but who also offers her a freer life, and it’s more about that life than about the person offering it (and Fina says she still loves Marta, but again: we don’t see any of that in her face or in Directing post 652, and there are no prop hints, either. Or rather: there are prop hints in the opposite direction (I am still not over the suizos, but at least they were present?)).
But the painful thing is: this Fina, who is so reluctant and uncomfortable next to Marta, would be better off back in Argentina.
(Fina eventually choosing Marta regardless - if that’s where the longterm storyline is going - could be the next crumb stop, but what would be the plot situation for that? Something trite and external like an illness or jealousy or a push from Bianca, or something more rewarding about Marta being Marta? Here we go, curve, here we go…)
Final Note: I love Digna basically becoming the interim director of the perfumeria in the shadows now. Her little notebook and glasses at the beginning go the scene!
Also, final silver lining given by this scene's context in the entire episode: Editing has our backs, too. The scene between Digna and Fina about a woman coming between Mafin is cut right around a scene of Andrés and Valentina arguing about Begoña’s role in Andrés’ life. All right. It’s Endgame Couple Therapy Meta Session.
And with that, the crumb hunt is reopened. Go, Mafin.
Marta and Fina, together again, in their own house, in their own bed. For this episode, there is just that, and it is joyous.
(hat tip to @anandabrat whose fiber art piece embodies so much of this wait, this build-up and its care)
For this episode, the crews really pulled all the stops to orchestrate a reunion that delivered on all counts and then some. We didn't get one reunion scene, we got four, in different modes: overwhelmed, solemn, intimate, and domestic with family. The riches of this! (I know, "but just one episode!" - but, have you see this one episode? So much bliss to commit to memory, like a Restore Point in case the sharkfins start appearing!)
After tag-reblogging every gifset that @clairedsfield has made for the occasion, much of this will be a repeat, but here are some (more) thoughts in terms of blocking, editing, writing and performance. And this is shorter than planned already; I had nearly twice as many caps, but Tumblr apparently has a "30 images per post" policy. Who would have thought, usually I only max out on tags (for which I blame @clairedsfield's gif sets).
The episode starts off with a perfect overlay of Marta's head with the the head of the Perfumerias de la Reina Spirit Animal woman's head on the hallway poster: same height, same hairdo as Marta walks out towards Fina's voice. Camera Team on point!
Next, the Sound Department brings back The Mafin Main Theme ("Pasión Oculta", which I would still rename "Mi Mujer") - not as they see each other down the hallway, but it is timed between intro and main motif to the exact moment they fall into each other's arms at 00:02:00 (all time stamps, again, thanks to the Mafin Drive Cut and the wonderful work of @caskettmyheart and her team: @mafin-libertad, @thexfridax, @galacticdesperado, @lifeisbettergay, @newsfromthegutter - I hope I didn't forget anyone!) and AAAAAAHHHH.
Marta is even lifting Fina up for a second, and Cloe in the background may finally be getting a clue (though probably not, with how press is trying to hammer home "triangle" on the meta level. But look at this: There is no third wheel!) as the Mafin Theme plays quietly underneath their entire first dialog, timed right through (it's usually not overlayed with dialog).
Sound Department says, "They're home." (Sound Department, please have some champagne with us)
Also that moment of "coming home to the scent of you", in the hallway of a perfume factory... yeah:
Look at how they are the absolute center of the following shot, with a history (or future) behind them, and in perfect balance. All verticals align, their heads just above the marble paneling:
And since I am only getting around to typing this a week later (sorry, there were many, many caps to take): even taking into account the five episodes that follow this one, the heartfelt "mi amor" that Fina offers first of all? That's it. That's the actual endgame.
You can pry The Forehead Fusion of Forever from my cold dead hands. Also that smile (and Camera still manages to balance them against the poster on the wall).
After following Marta from despair to desolation to being duped to finally determined to find Fina, here is the full circle moment of perfect bliss for Marta: that one exhale, a half-smile through kissed-off lipstick, and the crease in her brow easing out at last. Marta is at peace for the first time since Fina left, and that was beautifully performed and caught at close angle to reveberate with the audience.
Where does one cut from that overwhelmingly perfect, and perfectly overwhelming, reunion?
To Damián in shirtsleeves and a loosened tie (reader: he can pull it off), sharing a glass of something with Digna over romantic jazz (Camera and Prop Department love their fancy cream-colored record player and so do I!) and both respecting Marta's decision to travel to Buenos Aires to search for Fina:
But there's more to it - Editing does get in a meta commentary here - because the scene then shifts back to Marta and FIna, seated in The Office, and this is intercutting the established long-term couples (marriages!) on the show:
Of course it has to be this office space, calling up the many talks they have had in here before, especially at the table in the front, with its visual weight of the crystal ashtray.
Here, they have gone from quietly intimate to flirtatious to defiantly choosing each other, and that is, hopefully, also a comment on their connection and their commitment going forward. Because in this scene, the Writing Room drops the first small drop of ink into our celebratory champagne, small enough to to pass unnoticed, but by the next ep, the color will have unfurled and dispersed within the bottle.
It's Fina saying she doesn't know how long she will stay, and Marta taking it like a blow to the stomach: "Do you mean to go back, to Argentina?"
And Fina's reply of "I thought so" twists the knife a little further (look at Marta'a face!):
Fina's (successful! rewarding!) new life abroad is a dramaturgical move that now allows the Writing Room to smoothly write out Fina at any point, back to her artists' collective in Argentina.
Yet, with a freer life now at her disposal, it also makes Fina's reason for returning and staying apparent - after having thought that she would never see Marta again, having given her up and set her free; after then receiving her letter which has apparently been enough to make her take the first plane available; after then falling into Marta's arms without a single moment of hesitation: it's Marta.
Still, this is a point where Brunet gives Fina a first bit of hesitation, torn between two lives now: she doesn't even know where she will sleep, she says, and Marta is so sure now, so uncompromising in her commitment: you will sleep where I sleep (every day of life I have left, if you want to).
And here, Fina is muted in her reaction: moved, but looking as if she were not at liberty to commit with the same conviction and joy.
But still Fina goes on to proclaim that Marta is her love and her home, and that does not come across as dishonest. If Fina has realized out in the hallway, after a year of believing she would never see Marta again, upon seeing her, that she cannot walk away? That is also a proclamation.
Whatever struggles lay ahead, home is where the heart is, and the Writing Room, after Fina was always the more open-hearted one, the one with her heart on her sleeve, the hothead, next to a more reluctant Marta caught in her family's and her job's expectations, now passes that particular torch to Marta and it's great.
This change of positions allows them to put Marta in the situation of the fearlessly committed Romantic Lesbian Heroine (tm), and the way she proclaims here, without a blink, that she will discard their shared home if Fina wants to be elsewhere? If the Marta of the earlier 300s could see herself here! if the Marta who canceled on Callas could see herself here! Swoon.
On a sidenote, the only hands that are allowed on Marta's Jaw are back where they belong. Nature is healing:
The scene's concluding kiss is shot in a way that centers Fina's bracelet, which is new.
And someone else on this show has a newish bracelet, from a woman who has kept her company, but doesn't love her, and that's Cloe. What if Fina has a bracelet from someone who could never be Marta? (as @veganpepsibaby has asked):
Moving from solemn to intimate and gently flirtatious: the third sequence is set in the Mafinca. The Bedroom, the Bed, and it is a close follow up to their last shared scene before Fina's departure (episode 377), in this same bed. And under the same blanket!
The Mafin Blanket, which I will now always look at as the sea of waves crocheted to carry Fina home, across many months (all thanks to Penelope/@anandabrat), makes a return.
And there is the second tiny drop of ink into our champagne: Fina's brooding look.
On the one hand, I could argue that back home in bed with her wife against all odds, there should obviously nothing but bliss for Fina, but on the other hand, they need to work through so many things (Santiago, Pelayo, their time apart and the battles each one of them has fought on their own, Fina's growing wings abroad, towards freedom and a new career, Marta's newly fierce commitment to their relationship that will have to adjust to these changes).
Of course course these two could not just fall back into each other (there are things to work through!), but instead of going the slow route, Writing and Directing gave us the "they fall back into each other at first sight of course!" anyway. But, also of course, it cannot be more than this one moment, yet Marta and Fina (and the audience) got this one moment.
They also got a pajama upgrade. Look at the sleeve width on Fina's shirt: those are men's pajamas. Fina's new gay wardrobe is a joy. (honorable mention for Marta in the roses and pale pink. I still choose to believe they belong to a set with trousers).
Look at Fina touching Marta's shirt, and then reaching out to touch her face, and how her expression changes to wondrous...
...and then shifts into a smile when a sleepy Marta curls into her.
The trust and intimacy is echoed on the sound level: as of 00:09:28, the Love Awakening Motif plays, breaking through the fog (also that of Fina's mind apparently).
Those chords were there when Marta first dreamed of Fina in the store in episode 19, and they are there when Fina looks at her here and Marta wakes up stating she had feared that Fina's return had been but a dream. (It was also there in episode 548, when Marta dreams of recovering Fina in front of the bouquet of white roses, after Darío tells her about Buenos Aires.)
The Love Awakening Motif continues to play, with its second half of the little fifth drop-and-rise motif that has turned into Marta's Search Motif, but it continues to play as Love Motif underlining their conversation here, including Fina admitting that she thought she would never see Marta again (also a hook, to explain further ahead, how she has built a life abroad on that assumption?):
Something else that is returning here: hands! In this case, how Marta reaches out and maintains contact.
This entire bed sequence highlights the intimacy, familiarity, and vulnerability these two share (and, thinking dramaturgically: upsetting that and making them have to rebuild it makes for a fall from heights unparalleled), yet it is different in that Marta is so fearless and open here, the one leading and not following, in this new dynamic.
At 00:10:26, a variant on the Love Motif sounds and then continues to meander, notably switching to major at 00:10:40 when Fina tells Marta that she realized there were beautiful things out there in Argentina for her, too, which made her hold on.
To Fina, it may seem that Marta is the same since she is still in the same place, but when Marta mentions the blackmail over her diary, there is a brief moment of surprise: it hasn't been a sad but cushy cage of roses for Marta, either. She may not have passed hunger, but various betrayals (Gabriel, Pelayo, presumambly Fina abandoning her):
There is an interesting line on that difference in how they have lived their rupture: Marta framed it, under Pelayo's gaslighting, as Fina abonding her and their love, whereas for Fina, it was being forced to rescind their love, but, true to her letter, also as setting Marta (and herself) free to fly and live. And that is a very different mindset to live with after a separation. One that might come up again?
The shot opening out to the bedroom has Fina's short red coat as the spot that pulls the color focus, but it is very amusing that the coat is placed on top of the trousers, as if she would have taken off the trousers first. Balancing this on the front right is Marta's pinstripe jacket (has Fina unbuttoned it again?), and the glimpse at her broader belt (gay points!):
On the sound level, there are Pelayo's Sinister Gaslighting Woodwinds at 00:11:50, when Fina says she is convinced he was already planning to get rid of her the moment he helped them with Santiago's body, which leads to Marta's confession of "he made me think you left me" and Fina being aghast at the thought, saying she would have never.
The woodwinds sound up again at 00:12:20 - for Fina, their separation narrative seems to be "I told you I loved you and always would, but that I had to leave and you should go on living."
Oh, Fina Valero. Do you understand how much Marta de la Reina, Romantic Heroine and Intense Lesbian, loves you? Not yet, I gather.
Marta repeats her words of episode 377 (when they were last in this bed, under this blanket. Excuse me, I need a minute and a tissue. Full circle! The fullest of circles is what we have come!): "I want to spend my life with you."
Over more hands (I have missed how these two performers have their characters put their hands on each other!), at 00:13:03 the Love Theme returns as a warm, low meander, when Marta declares she wants to be happy and enjoy Fina ("disfrutarte"). And Fina here may be muted because she is conflicted, but she is not cunning.
That smile there? If that is a conscious lie, I never writ nor no man ever loved.
As they cuddle up, pondering whether they should start to believe in destiny again (it's not destiny! It's you two continuing to choose each other! That's the magic! You didn't wait for kismet, you both bought plane tickets!), the Love Motif continues to meander warmly (00:13:12), and if we had any doubt what the next kisses will lead to, the Camera moves from the bed (and the soft fall of The Mafin Blanket) to the writing desk where a desperately crying Fina wrote her farewell letter (seen in flashback in episode 378) and centers a pair of open scissors on its surface. *snort*
Never mind where the international letters suddenly come from (cutting out stamps for collection and saving would have been normal at the time), this is the Prop Department and Directing/Editing winking at us (straight audiences mostly won't get the joke), and possibly rolling their eyes with us at the double standard of showing queer love-making.
Same, dear backstage queers. Same.
Finally, domestic bliss. The daughters get to tell mama that they are home and reunited!
Ana Fernández proves again to be a phenomenal scene partner, with Digna's nerves highlighting Marta's deep happiness.
One small detail I noticed at 00:42:42: when Marta tells Digna that everything is all right - "todo está bien" - it is the same cadence and the same facial expression as when Marta once told Fina on a park bench in Madrid, during their happy escapadas era in the early 100s, "todo está bien". And for this moment, it is:
And the joy these three manage to convey here at the reunion. The sheer joy between Fina's exuberance, Digna's tearful surprise, and Marta's glowing happiness! (I've said elswhere that I would bottle this if I could, and I stand by it.)
And then there is the small detail of Marta being the one to make the coffee and performing the wife, and the domestic lilt of it (no one brought out The MdlR Apron for this, which we know is at the Casa Grande, but we still need some ammunition for further down the road!), and being so pleased to be able to do so. Oh, and how Fina automatically turns to look at her and smiles then.
And note how at 46:07, Marta sits down as closely as possible to Fina (Fina and her fabulous navy pants, and Marta twists her own legs so that she sits in parallel to Fina rather than forward. Any closer? Impossible in front of mama, she'd have to climb into her lap.)
And there's one moment - the Restore Point to save before the rollercoaster will start its downward track again since this is a telenovela and I know I said 'this will not last but at least there is this moment' - at 00:46:49, of that instinctive communication and connection that Brunet and Belmonte have always managed to build so convincingly for their characters. One moment of domestic bliss and immediate understanding (and matching turtlenecks. Just look how happy they both look here), come what may:
Was it just an episode? Yes. But it was this episode, and it was perfect. They (and we) got it all. We really got it all. We got so many variants of this cake, after the tragic epic 377 fall and the 182-episodes--long slow build towards this reunion.
We got So. Much. Cake. (or, as @roadien60 phrased it, so many muffins, as it were)
Mindblowing really, even more so given the constraints and speed demands of the genre, that so many people on all crews care enough about this narrative to pull this off. My profound thanks to everyone involved in making this come true.
*************
Author's note:
Fina ha vuelto, and that's the point the "1 cap for ep" series has been building towards since I started it at the beginning of Season 3, with the aim to highlight the level of craft going into the story.
I will continue to write entries for this series (I will need to process. I will need to process so much!) but perhaps not for every ep or not as in-depth, since the time commitment on this is huge, and time is scarce. And I am not as willing to put in the time when instead of moving towards Mafin, it's about pulling the very foundations of Mafin into doubt. (I still believe they are endgame, as far as contract run times will allow, but the latest curveball towards internal conflict as of episode 562 - independent of how well it is written - is giving me anxieties.)
The point was to add to the tag in a constructive manner in uncertain times, when we didn't even know whether Fina (and Mafin) would make a return. Now that Fina is back, there is more and different activity in the tag, so this little series, which has been a tribute to upholding the narrative on all levels of craft, can shift to the backburner.
Thank you to everyone who shared this spirit of constructive engagement - and a heartfelt thank you, of course, to all the craftspeople whose work and dedication inspired this in the first place.
No, I did not enjoy watching it, but I tried to think about why it was set it up this way and delivered this way, and what it does for a narrative that is pointing back and forward towards Fina with big neon signs left and right.
The overarching frame is a sling that is being pulled back now (and yes, it hurts) to be then set lose to hurtle everything in the opposite direction.
Fina may likely come back to see Marta with Cloe, and if all there is between Marta and Cloe are fights and lukewarm coffee dates, that relationship offers no momentum that Fina can crash or tear asunder.
Auxiliary to that is to show here, in this sequence, how Cloe has fallen for Marta, while Marta is calmy calling the shots, enjoying being all swagger and suave and gallant, but it’s smooth sailing: she isn’t rattled.
Now watching that scene it itself… yeah. No. In terms of content, that was hard to stomach. But in terms of larger narrative settings, it pushed some things into place: like, as mentioned above, Marta being content with getting to be all swagger and seduction and calling the shots, while the only one with a breathless smile is Cloe, additionally blocked for much of the dialogue in a way that she has to look up at Marta who is seated on her desk.
And yes, there is playful banter and flirting. And seeing Marta doing that with someone not Fina... hurt. Marta getting underneath Cloe’s shirt when – as @roadien60 has pointed out – the only person who has ever taken a shirt off Fina on-screen was Santiago made me feel exactly as betrayed for Fina as I was probably supposed to feel.
So, wider framework. You know what was absent from that scene? Declarations of love or deeper sentiment (so common on birthdays). And a gift for “the first time I saw you” also looks backwards, not towards the future. Did anyone mention the future here? (beyond the hotel evening) Nope.
The issue I take with the writing room is that the “how we ended up together, a brief recap” completely skirts Cloe’s pushiness and petulance in their entire Season 2 arc, as if it was meet-cute (it was not. But perhaps it doesn’t matter as much because this relationship doesn’t matter as much, at least to Marta?). Perhaps part of the Season 3 reset of Cloe to meeker and younger, too.
And on the note of pushiness vs. respect we are back on the topic of Fina, and of course this office seduction scene with Cloe is another parallel to a classic Mafin scene: the Despachamiento.
My first reaction was “Ouch, really?”
My second was, “Let’s spot the differences.”
What do we have here at the Birthday Bash?
No declarations of love. No conversations on character, the future, intermingling lives. Just the tale that turns late Season 2 into a meet-cute.
There are no trembling breaths on Marta’s part. If Marta is supposed to look gone, MB delivers that, and while there’s intimacy here and flirtatious banter and easy desire, Marta’s world is clearly not getting shattered.
Most notably, in the directing, there is no staging of mutuality or balance, or of Cloe undressing Marta. We only see Marta getting under Cloe’s shirt (thanks, Ennis, for your belt, which has prevented things that would have made me need another drink).
Cloe has been shown as working all day and just coming back in from Madrid; Fina was usually waiting for Marta and Madrid was their hideaway spot (honorable mention to un precioso hotel en Illescas).
My prediction is on Fina swaggering back into town (press already teased, “por todo lo alto”) and not waiting around this time. And this sequence in the end will have been a setup also for that.
There are two close parallels that I found gutting, though – even if I know they are creating a counterweight for the motion I am waiting for (Fina. That motion is Fina).
The first is Cloe asking “¿qué hotel?” with that delighted smile, and that is a direct parallel to a delighted Fina asking “¿qué hotel?” in Illescas in ep. 37 before she admits that she's on cloud nine. Cloe may be on a cloud here in ep. 500, too. But Marta? ep. 37: yes. ep. 500: no clouds in sight.
On the one hand, that is a full 180 for Marta who has gone from “I am so nervous I cannot even take off my own shirt and prefer to wait” to “I’m remembering to lock the door and will have your shirt off in between teasing dialogue before you realize it, so where do I sign up for the Shane Award?”. Which, yes, okay. We get the point.
But on the other hand, it’s also outlining the difference, once more, between a Marta being shaken to the core, or and a Marta setting up a smooth shake because she can. One could argue that it’s, again, there to show how far Marta has come since her coming out, but it would have been easy to show Marta a little shaken here, a little more taken with Cloe, to have her say something not just playful, but also romantic, but: they didn’t write that in. And it wasn't in the acting, either.
The second, even more hurtful thing, is the use of one of the motifs that was repeatedly used for romantic Mafin moments in the sound score (in the Mafin Drive cut: around 00:43:15).
I hear that, and I see Fina, and, yes, I wanted to hit things upon hearing that here when Marta unpacks the bracelet. How dare!! (I know I am supposed to feel this way. I know payoff is underway in a bob and trousers. But that doesn’t meant that watching this didn’t hurt. Playbook is clearly unfolding as planned.)
The most telling thing, though, was the commentary on the Marta/Cloe scene through its intercutting with Valentina telling Carmen and Claudia that she was raped by Rodrigo, and that then her mother didn’t want her to report him, so she fled, and asked Cloe for help. So we have Cloe threaded through both scenes: her birthday office moment, and Valentina’s dinner.
But this paralleling evokes Fina in both scenes, too – in the first one because she and her experiences of sexual violence are explicitly named, in the second one because there’s the “¿qué hotel?” line and someone is making out with Marta in the office (which we all know would be Fina or no one at all if Marta knew the truth).
And look at the Mafin framing: we go from Marta kissing Cloe and “¿qué hotel?” directly to “she blushed” and “Fina was very Fina”, and “we miss Fina!” The frame to that office scene? It's Fina.
And the next bit is about weight because in the dorm room, Carmen and Claudia tell Valentina how Fina was stalked and suffered sexual violence, which is enough to make Valentina open up about having been raped by her fiancé. And we go from that weight, and from the weight of Fina’s fear and her flight and her grueling experiences to Marta and Cloe effectively throwing around baubles (okay, a bracelet) and innuendos.
And how does that come across in comparison?
As very shallow (and jarring).
And as another betrayal of Fina, even if unbeknownst (because Marta still believes Fina left her willingly and didn’t love her enough to stay, and imagine how much more horrible this past half year would have been with that “but we need to throw another woman at Marta!” directive in a scenario where Marta would know that Fina e.g. simply went to take on a photograpyh apprenticeship somewhere and Marta then would have gotten a cheating storyline).
So what this entire birthday scene, in how it is fit into the episode, says in the end, is – once more – “But she isn’t Fina, and this is not on the same level.”
But Fina will be back, and MB and AB are going to act the hell out of it, and I cannot wait (even if I may need to write a few more processing posts like this one because this sequence sure twisted the knife).
How these two are literally not in the same room, or on the same page, at all. (Thanks, Camera Team. You want your knives back?)
After saying "Endgame!" in #568, Editing is saying "but for now: major crisis!" in #570 by intercutting, as an episode opener, Beatriz killing her relationship with Álvaro (and Álvaro himself) with Fina killing her relationship with Marta over lies and yet more lies.
How are they going to account for all of Fina's lying? Especially since she's a terrible liar and even lovestruck Marta calls her on some of it. They may be formally together, but a wasteland in terms of an actual relationship and communication (and it hurts to watch. It hurts!) because Fina keeps a lid on things, which means that she neither trusts their relationship right now nor is she giving it a chance to prove itself.
Outwardly, they're having flan in the dining room (and I take it back: no smiling at Marta hurt less than strained fake smiling at Marta).
Inwardly, we get Fina's new Haunted Flutes Motif (00:02:07 in the Mafin Drive Cut) and Fina turning away from Marta when Miguel calls in with her test results. Belmonte gets in a blink-and-you-miss-it, excellent reaction look by Marta: hurt and bewildered.
That call is followed by more lying and Marta pointedly asking, "The doctor is calling you? About a headache?"
And Fina is lying so badly about "I think it's necessary to have uhm some bloodwork done... for precaution" that it makes me wince, and on the sound layer, the lone final a' fermata of Fina's Haunted Flutes Motif gets an octave-down echo companion piece in two pale, single cello notes: Hauntosphere is here to stay, it seems (00:04:07).
Editing is going in for the kill today: Fina lies about "some neighbors" taking care of her during her brucellosis recovery to Marta's trusting face, right after Beatriz shoots Álvaro dead. One relationship blown up and a second on the way, and we get haunted, empty fifth jumps on piano over a held g' flat, teasing first g flat minor (although: probably f sharp minor, with the D Major third parallel popping up next) and then D Major when Marta says "We are here now, for the one to take care of the other" (just as she promised to Fina after her release from prison, "until the end of my days" -- are you not running out of knives to throw at me yet, novelita?) and Fina is, again, locking herself away under trauma, now more than ever:
And the uncomfortable truth is that keeping silent about Bianca showcases how Fina is living (or not living) two lives right now that she considers irreconcilable, and she has not yet made a decision (not holding my breath for a break-up with Bianca on the phone in #571 as teased in the preview; but crossing my fingers that the Writing Room will spare us te quieros there. Please. This week has already been enough torture on the Mafin heart).
Marta could so easily tell Fina about her relationship with Cloe because Marta knew very clearly that Cloe is over, that they never were in actual te quiero territory, and that she wants Fina. While Fina needs to shift from "Bottled Up Trauma Covered With a Comforting Rebound" to "Working Through The Trauma and Trusting My Loved Ones Again". (Brunet will get to play a big breakdown down the road, I expect. Belmonte will get to play another, and the audience will slowly get to reconnect with Fina who seems to have lost all sense of safety and trust. Hence the lies? That would be an explanation. The Writing Room also underlines again that Fina nearly died, so allowing Bianca close was initially not a choice, but survival instinct, which serves as a nice metaphor for the Chacracore Copy Rebound Scenario overall).
But there is a small step in the direction of processing trauma for Fina - and Editing intercuts Tasio talking with his father to Fina talking to Digna as her mother figure for this - because at last Fina tells Digna about the death of Santiago and Pelayo's ensuing blackmail, and Digna is the perfect audience who knows a thing or two about being implicated in the death of bad men.
The Writing Room and also Directing are giving more space to Fina's trauma; she gets another flashback (starting again with Marta: her voice telling her to run) and a PTSD reaction.
In this dialog - where Fina finally speaks a truth, with her voice breaking - Digna calls Marta "el amor de tu vida" when she speaks of Fina having had to abandon her, and Fina assents, and right off Fina's confession - "he forced me to leave!" - Fina adds "That's why I thought I would never see Marta again, and that's why I was capable of falling in love with another woman."
The Writing Room is careful to explicitly frame the causality chain in a way that does not unseat the long-term Mafin narrative (just like they did with Marta and Cloe: in both cases the assumption is that the actual loved one is lost before embarking on another relationship), whereas Fina's decision at this point, which is to stay with Marta and break up with Bianca, comes across as unconvincing (Bianca will show up in front of an unsuspecting Marta, won't she) - and that's logical: Fina may have feelings for two women to sort through, but most of all, she has a lot of feelings locked away, and at the moment, she is not in a relationship with anyone: regarding Bianca, there is is the distance of both geography and an overarching frame of love that is Marta. Regarding Marta, Fina keeps her at a distance with her lies.
And the Sound Department has a good reason why there have been no traces of the two central True Flutes Mafin Motifs since episode 561.
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!
Last Samurai Marta preparing to take back the company, just and brave!
We already lost our minds about this scene at the liquor cart on Tuesday, so this is collecting a few points that have also been made by @roadien60 and @bloomsberries, among others.
Look at the interplay of the Light, Positioning (Directing), Camera, and Costuming to get that perfectly aligned pose of Marta in her it-is-no-coincidence-this-looks-like-a-samurai-collar blouse! The just heroine has walked into the hallway to deliver justice and salvation and reclaim the family legacy! (it is no coincidence we get that blouse together with the Morpheus-trains-Neo-in-Matrix (1)-calm in opposing Gabriel also in 526!)
But first things first: Marta (possibly the only woman on earth who can pull off beige this way) stand a little off center to make a dynamic diagonale, but she is perfectly centered in the window behind her. Her position more to the right is balanced by the woman on the framed de la Reina heritage poster to the left, whose hairstyle and white top Marta matches.
Second, Marta is wearing a skirt that is beige like the company marble walls around her, but with a dark brown horizontal stripe on the top (it is mirrored also towards the bottom), and, in as a result, she is turned into a a personification of the company here: white, beige, dark brown in its hallways. Also, she is perfectly aligned horizontally: with the beige of the skirt to the beige of the marble, the white of the belt to the white light reflex line on the windowsill, the dark brown top line of the skirt matching the dark brown window frame, and then the white of the shirt matching the lit window behind her.
Guuuuuh this is so perfect I want to scream. Who in Costuming and Set Design and Directing thinks this up; don't you people ever sleep? (this is so staggeringly good, please never stop).
But, back to the start:
Past Cloe and the office, there is the Perfumerias de la Reina poster on display (I think it was there in recent eps? Didn't Pablo walk past it?). The woman on the poster has a hairstyle similar to Season 3 Marta. In contrast, we see Cloe in the office, in a bright green skirt that does not blend into the company colors, with a returing blouse with a bow, but note how the bow is here tied very small (to the sides), making it different from the times where it was used to create a parallel to the old dependienta blouse bows and Fina.
In walks Marta, who perfectly overlays the woman in the poster (also allowing a look at the skirt design with its two dark brown stripes - the top one aligning with the bottom poster frame in the hallway):
Up to here, Marta is still inside the poster frame, now she breaks it as if stepping out of it, like the true directora she is destined to become again, taking the company spirit and moving it forward (also the stripe on her skirt is still alighing with the poster frame on the wall aaaaaaaaahh):
Even when Marta and Cloe exit the office in an argument, Marta's mark is placed so that her head covers the head of the woman, and even the hair color is similar with how it is lit now:
Who is the company here, and who is the interloper?
As the discussion continues, Marta trying to convince Cloe to help her for the good for the company and Cloe being snappy, Marta is mirrored by the poster, both turned towards Cloe in their midst (here already on great diplay: the alignment of Marta's outfit with the marble/sill/window frame behind her):
And now we get to the staging of Heroic Marta fighing for the company, opposite a flippant Cloe:
Last Perfume Samurai to the rescue!
The amount of lines Marta gets, in relation to the company (also in the earlier breakfast scene with Digna), that deal in "brave", "valiant", "fair" and "just" are just stacked on and on.
Here we have Cloe asking, "you never give in, do you?", and Marta gets to proclaim "never!", but not in the simple form of "nunca", but in the more poetic and old-fashioned "¡jamás!" - if it is, again, "for a just cause" (that is, in this case, also profitable):
This leads us to an interesting Hitchcock supense frame, where we see the just heroine (for whom we are supposed to root), but we also see an information that Heroic Marta does not get (while we do), which is Cloe's calcluating face - and Cloe is still perfectly centered between the two heads (Marta and the poster), and here it really shows how small they tied her bow here (I'd wager because this scene is not about a parallel to Fina):
And once Cloe walks off, there she is, valiant and brave and just and NEVER giving up: the Last Samurai of the Perfumeria!
And - borrowing an image from the earlier breakfast scene with Digna, where Marta has also just said something about bravery and justice - this isprobably all of us at witnessing the insane detail work in this scene:
The "waiting by the phone" opening sequence with the jaunty little rom-com tune underneath.
This one:
First of all, it's delightful to see how this show has established its groove to a point where it can now allow itself tongue-in-cheek things like these - "How about we make a little rom-com montage with Marta waiting not by one phone, but by many phones?" With a little tune that sounds as if Doris Day were about to bust out "Mr. Sandman".
But then take the opening shot above - Prop Department: another paperback from the publisher that has those characteristic orange sleeve rectangles? - where the view through the doors, then at the foliage curtains and then at the white window curtains creates a deepening room that repeats, on a visual level, Marta's sensation of endless waiting. Love it.
Next to phone #2, they have even put a Detective-ish Looking Glass! (Prop Department, did you have as much fun setting this up as I had watching it?)
But Marta has become pro-active in her search for Fina, ever since that photo feature, so she calls---
---in vain!
It's not open comedy, but: to deliver, within 4 eps, symbolist melodrama, gripping stage-vibe drama, a camp hat tip to Almodóvar AND this slightly angsty rom-com vibe? Mad props to this crew for its range.
But we get even more rom-com here, with the "let me talk to my wiser confidant who will counter my angst with A+ encouragement" trope: another Belmonte/Fernández delivery, much lighter in tone than in 547, but just as smooth (and, hello Costuming, delivering another red/blue instance!)
"It would be understandable if she has moved on, I don't even know whether she still loves me"...
..."She loved you so much she defied her only family to be with you, she would have done anything for you!"
Yes please. I do not tire of reading 3438726481621 variants of this particular fanfic.
Also, remember the white rose bouquet in 548 next to that Apollo-and-Daphne (I presume) statuette visible righthand behind Digna? That bouquet was an intentional one-time placement for the Mafin/Isidro recall, because it is gone here (it would be half behind Digna otherwise):
But! More rom-com tropes! The Sibling detective team scouts the Hispanoamerican press. Marta is indignated that her talented wife does not have a single photo featured on this day!
And finally, the awkward setup of Cloe being present when the Buenos Aires Editor finally calls, and Marta has to ask about one Serafina Valero in front of her ex-affair (who again looks hurt by the mere mention of Fina's name, but then listens to the Pelayo crimes and encourages Marta regardless to keep looking and making use of Darío despite his shady morals).
The narrative setup is curious. While there are no Wrong Flutes in this scene, and while Cloe doesn't get to say "Only because we aren't together, it doesn't mean that X", the way Cloe is filmed looking uncomfortable with the mention of Fina, it is another reminder that Cloe is still in love with Marta: poor queer Cloe.
And "poor queer Cloe" returns at the end of ep as an undercurrent when Rodrigo is so clearly jealous of her and immediately suspects that Cloe has enticed Valentina away from him (coupled with the preview of Cloe getting attacked at the store at night by him, this trope may be expanded upon) - so queer Cloe under siege might be more of an issue?
Marta, meanwhile, doesn't think beyond Fina Fina Fina and while she is desperate when the editor call leads nowhere, there's also an idea of a proud "That's my wife!" smile for a moment at Fina having refused any help from Pelayo. She knows her so well.
I am here for a dozen sequels of "SdL, Angsty Rom-Com Edition"!
Proof that the de la Reinas keep at least one florist in business on a daily basis!
Again, Marta and Andrés converse on a couch in the distance, this time filmed from the inside (dining room), not from the outside. Again, they are talking about their parallel romance threads with shop girls from the perfume store.
This scene is about Andrés wanting to get closer to Valentina, and Marta distancing herself from Cloe, but it is anchored by Valentina managing her trauma as a rape survivor.
It builds on this earlier moment of two women having a conversation in transitory spaces in this ep, where Cloe, talking to Valentina, is angry about Marta so easily keeping her distance...
...and her blouse bow, which was tied in 525 in a small and aligned manner that made it look less like a bow, is now back to being tied a little larger, and bent so that the loops are visible: we are not discussing the future of the company now, we are again discussing romance, where the bow in the wrong shape and color is another point in how Fina is in the room, an how Cloe is not her:
Meanwhile, Marta can already joke about "well, this was an exceptional moment of Cloe helping me out because she generally tries to avoid me now".
She doesn't pass on her knowledge about Valentina having experienced sexualized violence (good. And Marta still doesn't know the details herself)...
...but Marta does flash back to the moment where she learned about Valentina's "bad experience" with Rodrigo from Cloe, which was when Cloe was wearing the pink chiffon blouse with the bow that very directly called up Fina, and her parallel experience of sexual violence:
The flashback, before Marta decides to keep the confidence and not share what she knows with Andrés, cuts out a central moment of that scene, which is the image of Marta touching that bow, obviously thinking of Fina while she says, distraught, "it wouldn't be the first time something like this happens".
We do, however, still see Marta's expression at reaching out:
I would assume they cut out the moment of Marta's hand on that bow because the current scene, on the couch with Andrés, is not about Fina's trauma or about Marta remembering Fina, but about Valentina's trauma and Marta remembering the conversation about it, even though abck then, it was centrally about remembering Fina, but that would interfere with the narrative thread here (the same indirect parallel then happens again in 528).
