Episode 36 - The Blackmail

Marcela came home from her trip to the US and went in to see Armando to tell him that she had already bought her wedding trousseau and fabric for her wedding dress. She said this in front of Mario and Betty, who didn’t take the news very well.

Marcela showed Hugo the fabric for her dress and asked Mariana for the sales reports, and was very concerned to see how badly it has gone. Hugo told her that it was due to the poor quality fabrics they used.

Marcela went to the board room where she found Armando, Mario, and Betty and asked them for an explanation. Marcela blamed Armando for being so stubborn about using the poor quality fabrics and asked him how much money they’ve lost…

She then aimed her guns at Betty, who was standing, to tell her since she must know them by heart. Betty said nothing. Armando told Marcela to calm down, that EcoModa was sufficiently strong to handle this drawback, which was all it was. Armando asked Betty to please sit down… Marcela gave her one of those ‘if looks could kill’ looks and told Armando that for once she’d like to have a conversation in private, meaning without ugly Betty around, since she was not a stockholder.

Armando told Marcela that Betty was for all intents the Financial VP and that he needed her there. Marcela sarcastically gave Betty a hand and blamed her for the financial disaster, but Armando stood up for her saying that Betty was just following orders. Betty said that she’d rather leave and go out to lunch and let them talk in private. After some more arguing, Armando, Mario and Marcela decide that they have to launch a new collection as soon as possible. So they told Hugo to get going. Hugo reminded Armando, mockingly, about the fact that the fabrics must be of top quality.

Hugo had asked Inesita to select the new fitting model from a group waiting in the lobby. Without realizing it, Inesita selected Jenny, Sofia’s husband’s mistress.

The cartel came back from lunch and Freddy told them that he had seen a model tailor made for him, referring to Jenny, and Aura Maria got very jealous.

Hugo reminded Armando about their bet and the fact that he had to dress up in drag.

Mario told Armando that it was obvious they were not going to meet their business goals and it was time to come clean with the board. Armando told him that he was not going to hand the presidency and his head in a silver platter to Daniel.

Sofia had a fit when she saw Jenny and started asking for her not to be hired. The cartel tried to calm her down, but she went to Hugo’s corner to tell him that he couldn’t hire Jenny because she took her husband away from her. Hugo, just to be contrary, told her right at that moment that he was hiring Jenny. Sofia went to Armando to tell her about her problem.Armando asked Hugo not to hire Jenny, but Hugo just to spite Armando and Sofia hired her. Armando told Sofia that he couldn’t do anything about Hugo’s decision, and Sofia went off crying.

Marcela didn’t want Jenny to be hired from the first moment she saw her, and when she found out that Jenny was Sofia’s husband’s mistress she was even more against it. She told Armando that they couldn’t do that to Sofia, but Armando told her that he already tried reasoning with Hugo but did not cut any ice with him.

Armando asked Marcela not to tell her brother or his parents about the failure of the most recent collection, and Marcela didn’t like it. Betty explained to Armando that the consequences of the loan that TerraModa has given EcoModa and that she will have to register the business situation with the Chamber of Commerce. Marcela told Sofia that Hugo won’t budge on hiring Jenny. Patricia told Marcela that Aura Maria took Mario away from her.

Betty told Armando that she felt terrible for the problems at EcoModa and also that she felt it was her fault that the collection failed since it was her economic analysis that led to buying the cheaper fabrics. Armando told her that she shouldn’t feel bad because it was his decision since he accepted the conditions to be able to meet his goals, and he knew that she had told him that she didn’t know anything about the fashion business – that all the responsibility was his. Betty told him that she was here for him and will do everything she could to prevent having to have TerraModa take over EcoModa.

Jenny called Efrain (Sofia’s husband) to tell him that she’ll be working at EcoModa, but he asked her to leave immediately because Sofia was going to kill her. Sofia talked to Efrain as well and demanded that he made Jenny leave EcoModa. Freddy arrived and asked if they already hired the new fitting model because she was a “remamita,” which infuriated Sofia, who slapped poor Freddy.

Armando told Betty that TerraModa was established with a seed investment of $160 million pesos, but that she was able to lend EcoModa $200 million pesos – how did she accomplish that? She told him that she invested the money in the stock market. Armando congratulated her but also askd her how come she always used the pronoun “we” when talking about TerraModa. She explained that a friend from school, Nicolas Mora, was helping her out, but made it clear that Nicolas was not aware of anything about why TerraModa was established, that he was just an employee. Armando reminded her that no one should know the real reason behind TerraModa, only Betty, himself, and Mario.