#manuela

SdL Prop Crew, please never change. Same goes for the Costume Department who unpacked the full Jersey of Fury outfit again. In addition, Belmonte got to unpack her comedy chops with some dead-on assist by Aniorte. (the timing! the mimics!)

I need a heist/spy buddy movie with these two, stat. One where everything goes wrong and we get more of Marta's nervous eye gestures and more of Manuela' dead-pen segues as a result.

But to dig a little deeper: Marta de la Reina going out of her way (and her comfort zone) to put Carmen at ease, unafraid of making herself look like an idiot in the process? Stocking-clad Marta between cheap sherry and kitschy boleros, equal parts awkward and earnest in pretending that she knows how to chill?

That was adorable. As was the idea that she might be able to sit down on a couch with any measure of comfort in that skirt.

Yet there is more about that scene: Marta is in the full Jersey of Fury outfit that is linked to flirting and declarations, in relation to of Fina (photography road trip! “Fina hasn’t cared about my money from Day One!”) - moments of being honest or at ease. And this is another one.

In color dramaturgy, Carmen's teal and Marta's orange are on opposite ends of the spectrum, illustrating their class contrast, but Marta is really trying to bridge it (emphasis on "trying").

Cheers to that! And to more scenes with these three!

(On the Fino sherry: when Marta says it's "diferente" - it took me a minute, but you know where we got such a singled out half-laugh pronounciation plus eyebrow raise of "diferente" from Marta before? ep. 40 Illescas champagne toast, that's where. Here's to trying new things and adapting!)

Marta may have no idea how that record player works but she took her evening off (no one else to rather spend it with around? No? Interesting), conspired with Manuela, organized some supermarket shelf sherry, took off her shoes, and organized a gift (no opera dress in the box this time):

Look how pleased Marta is at making at least ONE woman working in her shop happy at the moment!

And I love how she gets this scene – this scene about being goofy, and open, and imperfect, and allowing herself that vulnerability because she cares about someone else - with Carmen (and the dead serious accomplice look exchanged with Manuela will keep my laughing until spring (and Fina) is finally here!), and not with Cloe.

And that is another interesting paralleling of dissonance, if we look at the mood of this scene:

In ep. 500, the birthday frolicking between the privileged women’s bodies of Marta and Cloe was offset against the sexual violence suffered by the working class women’s bodies of Fina and Valentina, who both had their lives destroyed in the aftermath (by having to leave their whole lives behind as an ongoing act of violence).

In ep. 501, we had Marta - who apparently slept at home after her hotel date with Cloe? - tease Carmen over breakfast and then later declare, very seriously, to Andrés how she, too, lost the love of her life (Fina) contrasted with a giddy Cloe telling Valentina how in love with Marta she is.

And here, in ep. 504, we get Marta having fun and unwinding (as much as she can), apparently calling it an early night and organizing a gift and conspiring with Manuela to put her sister-in-law at ease – quite an elaborate scheme – while Cloe lives through a harsh, hurtful confrontation with Gabriel, at the other end of the emotional spectrum.

And another thought: this scene between Marta, Carmen and Manuela, staging how awkward and earnest Marta is in trying to let go a little as if she didn't know how to take off shoes and listen to music, at second thought rang a little off. It did so because we have seen Marta at ease like that before: in her own home with Fina. Fina who has gone on record with the shopgirls saying that happiness is sitting curled up with Marta on the couch listening to the radio. But perhaps this isn’t forgetfulness in a fast and busy writing room for the sake of making the ever-poised Marta fail at something (and adorably so). Perhaps this is Marta trying to regain an ease in her life that she has had with Fina, but that she has lost to the rigidity and control she has had to exert over herself to not fall apart every day at all hours?

And, again: if so, then whom does Marta choose for that step? It is not Cloe, who would be ready, willing and able (but would have none of the working class connotations). It is Carmen, who shares not only Fina’s former workspace and is one of Fina's closest friends, but who has a similar working class stance on life and luxuries that Marta may reach out to here because it is familiar and because she misses it. Because it is things Fina would have said, too.