Thursday, December 3, 2015

El Final

Like Jessie, I couldn't wait. After hearing about all the elements that can go into a finale, I felt like I was ready to watch the finale of La Usurpadora. I haven't made it through all 101 of the previous episodes, but I've actually grown more and more invested in the show as the semester has gone on. I've stopped rolling my eyes and pretending I don't love the dramatic music and the melodrama and all the yelling (so much yelling ...) and embraced the rosa nature of this show. As invested as I am, though, I thought I might have an idea how the finale would go and I wanted to see if I was right. Besides, as Dr. A told us once, sometimes the fun isn't in finding out what happens, it's in seeing how they get there. With finals coming up, and after our discussion the other night, I wasn't sure I could wait to see that.

So. Every telenovela rosa ends with a Catholic wedding, huh? Well ...

Okay, fair enough.
But let me rewind a little. So, I thought I knew what was coming. Paola, the evil twin, would get her comeuppance, maybe die a dramatic death. Somehow, some way, Paulina and Carlos Daniel would be together and have a beautiful wedding (none of that Padrón business of dealing with the couple post-wedding), and they would become the perfect family. And I've known since probably the second episode that Fidelina is Estefanía's mother, so obviously that needed to come out. As for the rest? The slimy Willy had always given me my doubts, but I thought maybe Paulina had managed to fix him and Estefanía for good. After all, babies fix everything, right?

Oh, if only. 

So maybe I should have seen this coming. When you're married to this ...


... you generally don't escape unscathed.

Poor Estefanía.
As it turns out, Willie tried to burn down the factory, and that was the last straw for Estefanía. She has a fit, and the other characters determine that she has gone crazy. As in, this appears to be the official diagnosis: "ella ha perdido la razón." Because, as it turns out, I underestimated the power of karma. As the other Brachos realize, she is being punished for her arrogance. Willie, of course, is punished for being a giant slimeball.

But it doesn't stop there. It only gets more rosa from here on out, so hold on. The karma is almost too strong.

The evil twin dies. But on her deathbed, with her last breath, she wishes her sister happiness with her husband. A redemption? Maybe, but more importantly, for Paulina it's a blessing. Now she can marry her true love -- and we knew he was her true love from the moment she laid eyes on him -- without losing an ounce of her goodness. And speaking of redemption (as we sort of were), guess who else gets his own little happy ending? None other than Osvaldo, Paulina's cheating ex-fiancé. I'll admit, for a while I thought we'd never hear from him again. But when he came back, I knew it wouldn't be that easy to get rid of him. So, in maybe the ultimate case of "pair the spares" mentality, he ends up with Carlos Daniel's brief lover, Verónica. And Carlos Daniel's brother, Rodrigo, at first suspicious and misogynistic (I guess that second one is fixed too?) has come to see Paulina as family. And he and his wife even end up with a baby, although I guess I'll leave that one unspoiled, just to keep a little mystery. Meanwhile, Estefanía is committed and now believes she is a nun ... although perhaps this is for the better. And then, finally, Paulina gets her perfect wedding. Everyone comes together, everyone oohs and ahhs at the bride, and everyone gets their closing camera shot.

WHEW.

Y'all, I love this show, I really do. I love its crazy melodramatics and its unbelievable plot twists and its enthusiastic overacting. And the finale is exactly what this ridiculous, amazing show deserves. I can't really explain it except to remind you that, as we learned, telenovelas cannot be understood without understanding the emotions involved. It got me. I love these characters -- or, in a few instances, love to hate them -- and I want (or need) them to have their happy endings. Even more than that, I get to leave this class with the knowledge that people all over the world watched this episode and this show just like I did, clutching their faces or yelling at the TV or maybe even wiping their eyes every once in a while. What a way to bring millions of people together.

So I got to see all the neat little storylines tied up like bows, and now I get to keep watching to see how they all get there. There's a long road ahead paved with telenovelas, and I can't wait to go down it.

1 comment:

  1. This comment isn't going to be very official haha but I'm totally down for telenovela Tuesdays next semester!!! It would be interesting to dip into some Brazilian telenovelas like Avenida Brasil since we both had Mexican, or in my case Colombian based telenovelas.

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