Women in Blue – Gabina

By: Gladys Luna

Gabina (Amorita Rasgado) and Chava (Alejandro Guerrero) are at the town fair talking about how disappointed she is to have found out how police truly work. Chava pretends to understand her and encourages her to join him on looking for a way to start from scratch. He suggests her to meet him the next day, burn their work uniforms and start all over together to what the woman agrees. She kisses him and then say goodbye to each other and when she turns her back on him, we can see his features turn a little devilish as he watches her walk away.  Later that night, he steals a van and stabs the owner then, goes to his house and prepares everything for the next day while in the background, we can see a board filled with his prior victims’ pictures, including Gabina.

The next morning, María (Bárbara Mori) and Alejandro (Leonardo Sbaraglia) finally talk to Alex (Diego Escalona) and Mar (Isabella Oceguera) about their decision on taking some time away from each other. As it was expected, Alex blames his mother for it but Alejandro confesses that she had nothing to do with it and it’s actually him who had been reckless about their relationship and the reason of their current situation. On the other hand, Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana) has come to the realization that she might need professional help in order to understand her own behavior and to overcome her parents’ death so she decides to share that information with her grandmother (Paloma Woolrich), who immediately opposes to that idea but Ángeles is determined to move along with it.

At the station, Gerardo (Horacio García Rojas) meets with Escobedo (Christian Tappán) to show him the sketch of The Undresser and to ask him to inform the press about it so every woman in the city would know his face and protect themselves from him but the man refuses to do it since he believes that it will only alert the killer and help him escape so instead, he orders him to make some copies of the sketch and distribute it among the police corps. Valentina (Natalia Téllez)  wakes up at her parents’ (Rosa María Bianchi and Luis Rábago) house looking completely disheveled; she meets with them at the kitchen and they greet her with such love trying to be supportive of their current situation. The woman reads the newspaper and the first thing she sees is a reportage about Lucas (Sebastián Buitrón) something that brings back the guilt she has been feeling all along and expressing how such a bad influence she is for others but her father is quick to comfort her and let her know that it is a fortune to have her in their lives.

María and Ángeles meet at the station; Gabina is nowhere to be found and certainly, Valentina is isn’t still in her best shape to show up to work. The two cops meet with Octavio (Miguel Rodarte) and Ángeles informs him that she has been reading Gregorio’s (Bruno Bichir) book and that it would help them understand the killer’s behavior and modus operandi even better. The three of them talk with Gerardo and let him know everything they have found about The Undresser. Although at first the cop is upset that his orders weren’t followed, he decides to take the information into consideration. In the meantime, Gabina searches for her partners to let them know she is quitting her job but since they are not around, she decides to leave them a farewell note along with her badge, saying that she will explain everything later and it is there when she sees Benito’s (Chava) sketch over the table and realizes that the man she had a date with the prior night, is The Undresser so, she runs to Gerardo’s office where María, Ángeles and Octavio are and confesses everything she knows about the killer and tells them that she knows the exact location where he will be that same afternoon which is the apartment she shares with Valentina. Gerardo organizes different squads and orders for them to surround the building and the streets near the place. Gabina offers to go with him claiming that if she doesn’t show up, he might realize that his plans have been discovered. María and Ángeles also want to go with them but Gerardo offers them to stay and in exchange, they will be allowed in the interrogation room with him.  María takes the chance to call Valentina at her parents’ house to put her up to speed but she is told that her sister is on her way to the apartment to get some clean clothes so, María decides to go in search of her sister and asks Ángeles to call her at the apartment and let her know that the killer is on his way over there but before the woman can reach to her, Valentina is intercepted by Benito at the entrance of the building where he tells her that he is there to meet with Gabina but first, he would like to use her bathroom. Valentina lets the man in and then she gets the call from Ángeles letting her know who is Chava and although she tries to pretend to be on the phone with her father, Benito is quick to realize what is happening so he hangs up the call. Ángeles understands that they have been caught so she calls for back up. The cops arrive to the apartment but there are no signs of Valentina; María enters the place and bursts into tears when seeing that her sister might be in danger but Octavio tries to calm her down saying that if she really wants to be of use, she needs to keep herself together.

The Undresser has taken Valentina to another location while Gerardo meets with Escobedo trying to convince him to let him say publicly everything that has happened so far but once again, the man denies it and only allows him to go to the news to present the killers’ sketch without saying a word about Valentina’s kidnapping. Gabina waits for Gerardo to come back from his encounter with Escobedo and gives him a picture of Valentina so he could present it to the press but the cop says that he is not allowed to do that, something that makes the woman to scream out of anger and frustration but there is nothing that could change her brother’s mind. Right that moment, María interrupts them saying that they got an address about the killer’s possible current home. Before they leave, Octavio gives the three women a gun each saying that he should had done that a long time ago. A full squad arrives to the killer’s house and in appearance, is like anyone’s home but Ángeles manages to find a secret door to his little room of horrors in which they find terrifying things such as pictures of the prior victims, mannequins, his uniform, among other things but unfortunately, there’s still no trace of Valentina. Benito arrives to the place but when he sees that it is surrounded by cops he drives away immediately.

On the other hand, Alejandro meets with his boss (Alfredo Alfonso) who tells him that because of him, Francesca (María de la Fuente) – Alejandro’s ex-lover – decided to break their work relationship with them so he asks him to go meet with her in Acapulco and convince her to come back and if he does, he could become a new partner but if he refuses, he’ll be fired something that Alejandro is not surprised of who takes the chance to face his boss and say that he knows he likes to play dirty and that he is aware that the reason he was not given a promotion in the first place was because María is a cop but he is left speechless when his boss confesses that the only reason he was not promoted was because of his own performance since he didn’t know anything about María’s job. Later that day, Gerardo goes to the prime-time news with Jacobo Zabludovsky (Albi de Abreu) and presents the sketch of The Undresser. When they go to a commercial break, María shows up asking Gerardo to show her sister’s picture but he says that although he can’t do that, he will allow her to do it herself hence, when they go live again, María sends a message to The Undresser saying that she knows his story and everything he’s been through but asks him to release his sister. Suddenly, they get a call from Benito who thanks María for understand him but who also tells her that she knows that everything happens for a reason then hangs up abruptly. Later, he enters a store where the saleswoman (Luz Zavala) is watching the news something that allows her to recognize him immediately so she calls the police while he is looking for some ropes in the back of the store. When the police arrive, they find out that the killer has escaped through the back of the store.

Escobedo meets with the President Echeverría (Alejandro de la Madrid) who tells him that he will be removed from his job and now Commander Herrera (Mario Zaragoza) will be in charge of The Undresser’s case. Also, he tells them that as soon as the nightmare is over, he should resign. At the station, everyone is discussing about what they know so far about The Undresser in search of new clues while María can’t think of nothing but her sister. Suddenly, they realize that all of the mannequins they found at the killer’s house belong to a factory Lucas (Sebastián Buitrón) has previously mentioned so, Commander Herrera organizes a whole new squad and go straight to the factory. Half of the team enter the place while the others surround the area. They play cat and mouse for a while until Benito sees the opportunity to beat Gerardo in the head but Gabina sees him and shoots him. Once he is tied up, Commander Herrera starts to question him about Valentina’s whereabouts but he refuses to talk about it. Even María tries to make him talk but to no avail. When they feel like they have to be more aggressive towards him, Gabina asks for the chance to talk to him and he confesses that Valentina is at the maintenance cabin located at the park where Tito Flores used to store his tools. Everyone goes in search of Valentina except for Gabina and Commander Herrera who decide to stay inside the factory. While the others are looking for Valentina, Gabina asks Benito how he planned to kill her and he explained in detail everything he wanted to do to her. All of a sudden, the cops waiting outside the factory hear a gunshot and when they enter, they see that Benito has been killed while at the cabin, the other team realizes that The Undresser has lied to them and Valentina is not there.