Written by Manolo Caro & Monika Revilla & Fernando Pérez
Directed by Manolo Caro
Lázaro: "You did nothing wrong."
Gabino: "Yes I did. I love you and that's the problem."
Lázaro: "And I love you too. So what."
Gabino: "Not in the same way."
Lázaro: "But I still love you and that can never be a problem. You got that?"
Wow, this was not an easy episode to sit through. Not easy in the slightest. Things were set up that if Gabino was outed, things would get bad pretty quickly and this episode did not shy away from that at all as various people reacted badly to Gabino being gay.
First of all, there Cayetana taking the woman scorned angle to toxic levels. She was angry about Gabino leaving her at the side of the road from the previous episode but her anger stemmed more from Lázaro not wanting to be with her, which resulted in her causing the most damage throughout the entire episode.
Then there's Alonso. Now there is a guy so horribly in denial about his sexuality that he took an overzealous pleasure in kidnapping and torturing both Gabino and Lázaro with his asshole friends while almost succumbing to some late night cruising after his brutal attack on his former friend. I find myself more angered than sympathetic towards Alonso and I'm taking the time period here into context as well.
As for Amparo and Gregorio, well they were never going to be the most open minded about Gabino being gay and this episode proved it as Amparo enabled Gregorio's homophobia while the latter attempted to scare Gabino straight with a horrifying sequence involving another gay man being tortured during this episode.
With these four characters being against Gabino, at least we had two characters firmly on his side. Lázaro might not be gay himself but I loved his unconditional support for Gabino, hence the bits of dialogue that I quoted to open up this review. It's a shame this miniseries didn't give us those two as an actual couple but we could all do with a friend like Lázaro from time to time,
Saying that, Lázaro's lust for Mina was definitely awkward to watch in parts as he made his attraction towards her known here. Mina herself also seemed rather attracted to him and seemed to try to fight while also initially trying to get Gabino to apologise to Cayetana before enabling Gabino and Lázaro to flee for Paris by the end of this episode.
- Amparo seemed to scupper Rosario's plans to help her husband and for a brief moment, Mina did have an upper hand with her mother in law but lost it during the last scene.
- Some of the dream sequence type moments are beautifully shot but feel a little jarring. One example being Cayetana's creepy sing song moment while brushing her hair.
- It seems that Amparo was also responsible for killing her husband and that Gabino was somewhat aware of this.
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.
Despite being uncomfortable during various scenes, this was an absolutely absorbing episode. Some genuinely stellar performances from all the main actors, more beautifully shot and lit sequences and a great use of score music as well.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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