ash madrone

Fine, this episode hurt a lot. But it also offers at last a perspective that finds logic in Fina's consistently muted and caged mode around Marta which seems so at odds with her decision to stay and her claim that she is still in love with Marta.

It feels abstract, several of us have stated (at the Liqour Cart and here at "1 cap per ep") because we cannot see it. But what if it is just as abstract for Fina as it is for the viewers? What if she has locked herself away so much that she runs at 10% and simply cannot feel as much?

And the reason for that may be, yes, trauma, but this trauma has just talken on a more specific slant and it ties together several facts: Fina's chronic lying even when it borders on the ridiculous; Fina's constant tension, unhappiness and guilt next to Marta; Fina's tale of having been saved by Bianca, from death's door and also in terms of romance; Fina's description of her Chacracore life as a perfect idyll where she didn't have to be closeted (honey, if I lived in front of three sheep and a cow out in the steppe, I wouldn't have to be closeted, either).

The episode offers a look at Fina's state of mind without the added layer of Marta. First, there's run-in at the Casa Grande between Fina and Cloe that Digna extends - perhaps (as theorized with @madronash) to shock Fina back into feeling things? There is a bit of Fina swagger when she eyes the competition and is annoyed:

Cloe gets her Horror Organ Character Motif at 00:27:18 (Mafin Drive Cut) and the moment is awkward: Cloe's annoyed huff covered by a strained smile, Fina's belligerent stance followed by an annoyed little shrug at Digna:

The scene is, despite everything, not without hilarity.

An educated, suffering Cloe asks Fina how her return is going and and Fina says "emocionante!" while her face says everything but not that:

Fina also states that she doesn't want to stay at the Casa Grande, that she wants her own place, paid for with her own work, and her reaction to Cloe's "But you have Marta'a love as a constant, you are so lucky!" (accompanied by the Wrong Flutes Romance Motif at 00:28:48) is more caged distress.

Fina, by the looks of it, doesn't have the capacity to take in Marta's love at the moment. Fina's heart, for all her claims of not being in the closet in Argentina, is under an invisibility coat in a strongbox inside a vault in the hidden cellar department to an underground bunker.

Meanwhile, Cloe seems to be getting a growth curve after all where she realizes that being in love is just that: being in love, and not expecting it to be requited or being entitled to a reward for her feelings. Now if even Cloe (pushy Cloe who wouldn't take a hint even if it hit her over the head in the shape of Fina) looks like the more dedicated and selfless option in the room: oh dear.

Two variants of "green. ugly." jealousy over a woman who is not even in the room. Well played, costuming, with the sharp, cold green.

The next larger puzzle piece is Fina breaking up with Bianca over the phone, calling her "mi amor" in tears (you dare to touch "Amor", Writing Room? Jail for you for 1,000 episodes!) while she declares, "I love you with all my soul."

OUCH!!!

After Bianca hangs up on Fina, the Sound Department unpacks the Haunted Flutes Motif (00:37:36) again for a closeup of the metaphorical handcuff bracelet that is revealed to carry the initials F and B (which Marta puts together in the preview while Fina keeps lying, pathetically: “I found it somewhere in Buenos Aires.”)

Finally, insults to injury, Fina tells Digna that she feels terrible about breaking poor Bianca's heart; that with Bianca everything has always been easy, and with Marta hard. The Haunted Flutes turn to a softly nostalgic piano tune (00:38:52) while Fina describes her Chacrocore Rebound Idyll, underlined by the pastoral idyll painting on the guestroom wall behind herself and Dogna.

And finally, with the Sound Department unpacking the Romance Farewell Motif (00:39:34) to which Fina once wrote her farewell letter to Marta, Digna tells Fina not to stay with Marta or in Toledo out of obligation.

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

OUCH.

Is there actually anything left to salvage at this point?

Surprisingly, and looking beyond the top layer of hurt: yes. This is built with hidden layers and a Mafin torch path. And Editing seems to think so, too, because they intercut once more their main couples processing through a current triangle stuation (sorry, Cloe: you are not involved) – it is Marta/Fina/Bianca intercut with Begoña/Andrés/Valentina, teasing at the same threads: Valentina being insecure; a flashback to María as the master manipulator (as stated by @newsfromthegutter).

There is a way to make sense of this from a Mafin perspective (for today. God knows what next week will bring), and that actually starts with the lying, and the muted reaction of Fina to Marta: As asked above: what if Fina is currently on a trauma lockdown and keeps herself cut of from feeling anything deeper that could hurt her again?

A Fina at 10% could say “I love you with all of my soul” to someone else without lying and still staying true to Marta, if that soul currently amounts to only 10%. (but that is only one part of the equation; Fina's reaction patterns around Bianca are another: she may be dishing out an appeasement lie she has been groomed to believe).

FIna's trauma has been emphasized since her return. She has been shown having flashbacks and PTSD reactions. And that’s a different backdrop for “I love Marta but I am conflicted about it” than showing two warring mindsets that are equally present. This looks more like one mindset sitting on top of another that is locked away.

We have stated that we don't see at all, in Fina's expression, a moment of joy next to Marta followed by one two of guilt. Instead, it's tension all the time. There was only that first exuberant reunion that, in this reading, broke containment and founds its way to the surface in its immensity, but that has been quickly locked away again. Which is to say, FIna is in Muted Mode at the moment; she cannot and will not allow herself to feel more deeply or fully because she is scared to feel and be vulnerable again.

Now add to that: Bianca aka Chacracore Barbie. We’ve pointed out since 568 that there is at least a steep power imbalance going on, with the rich landowner artist sugar mama nursing a battered, penniless young stranger back to health and into her arms. Honi soit qui mal y pense?

Fina, in turn, idealizes that rebound idyll so fully that if decloaks itself as a projection: when Fina first called Bianca (which the audience saw) and left a message, it became clear that she had to refer to her as "Doña Bianca" when talking to her staff, and that the staff didn't know about their relationship. In #571, it turns that "Ramiro" didn't rely the message.

Now: Fina apologizes for that (even though she wouldn't have to); and Bianca - in Fina's words: mature, worldly, artistic, free - apparently rebukes Fina, prompting Fina to state, "Yes, I know I cannot insist much."

That doesn't sound like "freedom and no closet". That sounds like a lot of closet and power imbalance. And Fina is not delighted to hear Bianca's voice here; her face doesn't instinctively relax at its sound. She is tense:

Fina seems, essentially, lost. At 00:36:29, the Haunted Empty Fifths (present over the world's most underappreciated flan with Marta) sound up again.

Fina apologizes constantly to Bianca: For wanting to stay. Then she tries to justify her decision when Bianca apparently rejects it and tells Fina that she is "confused" for wanting to stay with Marta. She further devalues Fina's decision by telling her she is making a mistake. And the audience can then deduce from Fina’s “what do you mean I don't love you, of course I love you!” that Bianca at the other end of the line is piling on the accusations, including a classic "You don't love me!"

Still, the perfect projection (and the power imbalance) rear back up when Fina says - not wistful, but defensive - "everything with you has always been wonderful, I cannot say a word against that".

An increasingly desperate Fina pleads with Bianca (who seems to push her emotions onto Fina and understand it as Fina's job to balance them?) not to cry, then Bianca hangs up on her.

Uhm. This is not a breezy chacra cocktail with a jaunty little umbrella in it. This is a cocktail with two dozen red flags sticking out and it's called "Don't You Know That You're Toxic".

Fina takes a shaky breath and the camera shows, over the Haunted Flutes Motif, the inside of Fina's bracelet and the enbraved initials F - B ("fucking bitch"? ehm. sorry. nevermind my inner five-year old, they stole a glass from the liquor cart today):

At the Liquor Cart for #571, @ozmoz, @lasllamasnotienenorden, @bloomsberries and I have speculated about Fina being in a manipulative or abusive relationship with Bianca, who has the hot, young, battered stranger in isolation on her lands; and, sure: she nursed Fina through a life-threatening illness, but it's also an illness (transmitted by animals) that Fina likely got on her farm in the first place?

What is becoming apparent across this week's episdoes is that Fina feels utterly unsafe and is unable to trust anyone at the moment, even locking out Marta. Digna is the only one who may be able to get through to her, just a bit, and Digna is asking smart, careful question.

Fina states, "She [Bianca] told me I was making a mistake because of how hard things have always been with Marta, and with her, everything has always been easy."

"Because of her character?" Digna asks (and what a subtle delivery by Fernández there!)

But Fina does not say a word about Bianca's character. She only repeats, "Everything!" and talks about not having had to hide their relationship in front of Bianca's clique, but that is, again, Fina loving the sensation of freedom, not Bianca's personality that she sums up as, wait for it, "she's free!"

And Digna gently suggests that at some point, perhaps Fina could be free with Marta, too, leaving Toledo to live their lives.

(and, of course: if FIna manages to unfreeze and stay for Marta and their love, that that's indeed greater than all the obstacles and could I please have my North Star back in the sky? Yes? Thank you.)

But back for a moment to Fina’s chronic, bad lying: as stated at the Liquor Cart to #571, this is the kind of lying you learn when you’re trying to survive in an abusive relationship, and it is possible that the Writing Room is going there, at least in part: You learn that like of lying when you need lie to appease your partner so they don’t get mad (because it is your fault if they become angry, and your job to make sure that they don't). You apologize for your feelings when they antagonize your partner, or you directly disconnect from them and repress them, always trying to stay on your partner's good side and not offer a crack that would invite retaliation.

And now look at Fina's armada of turtlenecks that, yes, are hot Professional Lesbian Wear, but also reminiscent of how Fina covered up after her time in prison and the attempted rape by Santiago. The turtlenecks are armor, too. And that armor went down for one moments in striped pajamas she didn't care to button up fully, and that moment was enough to break through the "Everything is Perfect!" Chacracore facade and stir up something that made Fina stay, but that she cannot work through at the moment. Not as unsafe and untethered as she feels.

And if "She saved my life!"-Bianca is someone who wields a lot power over Fina, and does so consciously and selflishly, then one line in Fina's conversation with Cloe gains a lot more weight: Fina's desire to have her own place, to pay her own bills, with her own work. Fina needs to be independent and in control of her own life again. Not a rent-free guest in some Chacracore Fantasy; but also not a family friend in the casa grande who needs to keep Marta or anyone else happy.

What do you need, Fina? What do you want? - Marta is no obligation, Digna states.

Right now, Fina is not in a relationship with anyone, and my take on it is that she isn't fit to be in one, either. She needs to sort herself out on her own first, and Marta will indeed need to come back to her advice to Andrés from a few episodes ago, about patiently staying and waiting and helping the woman she loves by showing her that she will not leave. Because as much as Marta will likely want to carry FIna through this, she can't. Fina needs to gets the ground back under her feet on her own.

(And none of this means they don't love each other. This is, in fact, built in a way that could showcase that they love each other more than anything. The Writing Room has set up a winding path and I still think the final destination is Mafin 2.0)

Marta gets to do a lot of quietly intimate "mhmm" sounds next to Fina across these past few eps (@madronash pointed out one such instance a few days go, and: agreed), playing up the trust and understanding in their day-to-day that Marta still believes to be there.

Marta is also back in the soft-fall pinstripes with the not-quite western front detail; fitting for the somber news at the company and worrying about the workers, but Marta smiles when she admits her private happiness while Fina, again, looks as if she wants to be elsewhere and we are getting an idea of where.

One new sound motif of two interchanging halting piano chords above single strings appears when Fina lies about Bianca to Marta, with Digna (and her delicate "well, I didn't know how you knew her so I did not ask") seeing right through her, at 00:37:00 in the Mafin Drive Cut; it keeps recurring until the end of the scene when Marta - in a lovely tribute to Carmen - asks Digna if she wants to share a Fino, and Digna agrees while Fina retreats further into herself.

The following would have been a comment at the Liquor Cart yesterday that turned a little too long, but it does serve as an episode commentary instead, on implications of Digna's eagle eyes versus Marta's utter lack of distrust when Fina reacts to the message that there was a call by Bianca (the Interim Doña with the Rural House aka "I'd rather dance with the cows 'til you came home" (Groucho Marx) since Fina has a pattern she is pavloved to, apparently).

Given the 569 preview, Bianca is indeed a secret not-quite-ex-yet-interim-liaision, here to mess with the Mafin narrative. In case of Cloe, that kind of setup turned into an underhanded underlining of Mafin (and what a deviously gleeful piece of writing that was). But what will it be this time, with a Fina who clearly does not want to grow roots in Toledo again, who doesn't want a darkroom or a home and who chooses not to talk to her wife?

From a meta point of view (dramaturgy, story pull, audience engagement, etc.) I don't think it would be a narratively or economically sound choice to break up Mafin permanently. Add to that how the creative team and crews clearly care about the storyline; why would they suddenly chuck it to the wind?

What does make sense, however, from a storytelling point of view (maximize drama!), is a temporary break-up: to give them a dizzying high (ep 561) , then have them separate painfully (slower, but not so slow as to make them unsalvageable as a couple), and to then have them build their way back towards each other in a slow burn.

And that might take time, perhaps until the end of the season, or even moving into the next season. If we look, for comparison, at the timeframes they are pulling with Began (if Began is still set up to be endgame, which I assume, even though I don't see it sustained onscreen), those are long narrative spans that are on the table.

I am seeing the same thing @blancdansnoir pointed out at the #568 Liquor Cart: Fina looks happier at the mention of Bianca in the #569 preview than, post-561, at the continued presence of Marta next to her, and there isn't much facial nuance about it. And that doesn't add up (yet), in terms of the narrative that drove their story until episode 561. Also it might not be what viewers invested in the story which was told up until episode 561 want to tune in for. Some people who were constant, constructive voices in this tag across the past year have already decided to take a step back and I feel it as a loss.

If this is a longer, bigger arc, Bianca will likely appear on screen and she will need to be given some weight to cause gravity shifts. But the question would very much be how that were framed: The entire Marta/Cloe involvement was carefully and explicitly framed as "this happened only because Marta thought that Fina was not available and even then she was unable to forget about her".

So if they framed Bianca as "this only happened because Fina thought she would never get to see Marta again and tried to move on with her life, but then the moment she saw Marta again, that lock burst open again", that would yank the Mafin chain (and with the current secrecy and conscious lying: considerably), but it would not break the narrative, necessarily.

It is too soon to tell whether this will be an extended jumpscare or a permanent dissolution. My money is still on the former, but there are no clear signs yet.

Meanwhile, all the little references given are deliberate 180s to their prior story: Look how we don't care about suizos and patisserie portmanteaus! Look how Fina has changed in looks and behavior! Look how there is no Mafinca any longer! Look at how the running gag about them wanting each other but not having a place has turned into having a place but not going for it! Look at how Marta (as @bloomsberries pointed out at the #568 Liquor Cart), after being horribly gaslit by a person she trusted, is being kept in the dark by her wife, at length! Look how Marta dotes on Fina ("I organized your favorite breakfast"), look at how umcomfortable Fina is in turn! Look how trusting and how in love Marta is, and how Fina is certainly not the first and possibly not even the second! Look how they are so close again at last, yet so incredibly far away from each other! Look at it, look at it!

Why set this up so explicitly and gleefully if not to deliver a spectacular U-Turn? This is a telenovela, not arthouse, and its curves tend to have a sway akin to transporting an aircraft carrier to port via truck on a serpentine road.

Could the Writing Room make Marta and Fina come back from this break they are hurtling toward, and have them find each other again? Sure. (and that could be glorious. If we can sort the shards into a pattern again, and it might take seasons and stretches of credibility, like with the other long-term lead couples on the show: Andrés/Begoña and Damián/Digna)

Does it feel more like "Hulk. Smash Hearts. With Hammer. Haha!" right now? Also sure.

Not just because it is loaded with suffocating memories (above all, Santiago) but also because that house in the mountains with her wife may not be Fina's dream anymore. At least not this house. Hopefully, still this wife.

But this one hurts because the Mafinca was both a dream and a promise of a home, and it is not Fina's any longer, by the looks of it.

In ep 548, Marta, finally aware of the truth, dreamt of Fina, with the Treu Flutes Motif returning, in front of a purposefully placed bouquet of white roses: Isidro's roses. Their roses.

When Marta got married in episode 269, Fina brought her a bouquet from their garden as a token from her; when Marta tells Cloe about her wedding in episode 517, she mentions that bouquet again: She had brought me flowers from our garden.

And here we are, at episode 564, and "There is a garden with roses my father planted behind the house that I share with my wife: that is our home" has just turned into a thing of the past: a dream and a promise broken.

Or perhaps: a dream shed. Could Fina find a new one, together with Marta? Whereto would Marta's dreams evolve - Marta, who is willing in a heartbeat here to give up this house because it won't be home if Fina doesn't want to be in it?

I hope so.

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.