Women in Blue – Laura

By: Gladys Luna

Ever since the last time they met Lucas (Sebastián Buitrón) and Valentina (Natalia Téllez) have been seeing each other behind Clara’s (Constanza Andrade) back but the cop is not willing to do that anymore so, Lucas promises that he will break up with his girlfriend just to be with her since he has realized he still loves her. The next day, Lucas arrives to his office and finds a letter placed over his typewriter that contains a message from The Undresser in which he threatens them with killing every single woman he finds if they don’t publish his letter. Although Lucas does not agree with following his orders, his boss (Luis Fernando Zárate) feels that the best decision is to do as the serial killer says and not to have the burden of those deaths over his shoulders. Meanwhile, at María’s (Bárbara Mori) house, the couple have been pretending still living under the same roof just to prevent their kids from suffering so, Alejandro (Leonardo Sbaraglia) sleeps at a hotel every night and comes back before their kids are awake and play the happy family game. That day, María informs her husband that he needs to show up at their son Alex (Diego Escalona) school for “Career Day” but the man says that he won’t be able to attend given that some clients will be visiting the office and he is in charge of them. On the tv, María sees that Jacobo Zabludovsky (Albi de Abreu) is interviewing the serial killer Gregorio Cadenas (Bruno Bichir) about his new book. When the man is asked about the message “169” that The Undresser has left at every location where his victims have been found, the only thing he says is that contrary to what the police thinks, the message has nothing to do with the Bible.

Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana) is reading the Bible looking for clues and when she is about to leave for work, sees her grandma (Paloma Woolrich) talking to Mario that the woman introduces as the neighbor that is there to help them fix their stove. Ángeles offers to pay him for his services but her grandma says that it’ll be enough if she agrees to go have dinner with him but the cop declines the offer. At the station, Escobedo (Christian Tappán) talks to the press about the letter that was published and assures them that Gerardo (Horacio García Rojas) will be the one to find the killer. Later on, Commander Herrera (Mario Zaragoza) scolds his son for not being able to solve the case yet and offers to help him except that if he accepts, they will have to do it his way.  Octavio (Miguel Rodarte) has managed to get some radios for the squad since he considers they need to be in constant communication. María approaches him and thanks him for being concerned about them, a gesture that does not go unnoticed by the others. After they leave the office, Valentina (Natalia Téllez) and María have a conversation about their current love lives when Jerónimo (Pablo Bracho) – Alejandro’s friend – shows up to talk about how their situation has impacted on his friend’s performance at work and takes the opportunity to tell her that if she doesn’t allow him back then, Alejandro may proceed legally against her and she will be forced to quit her job and go back to her housewife life. The woman goes to tell the others about her conversation with Jerónimo and while Gabina (Amorita Rasgado) is reading the Civil Code to confirm what the man told María, she realizes that the number 169 may not refer to the Bible but to a paragraph of the Civil Code and they believe that the killer is punishing their victims for having gone out of the regular norm and not to settle for just being housewives and to live at the expense of their husbands.

Lucas goes to the factory where Andrés López used to work and finds out that he was just a regular man that never got in trouble during his time there and who was dating a co-worker who also disappeared the same night he did. María reads Gregorio’s book and is convinced that the man might be able to help them find The Undresser so, she asks her sister to convince Lucas to get her a press badge for her so she can go pay a visit to Gregorio and she does. Her encounter with the killer is brief and does not provide her with the information she truly needs except for the comment in which he says that it takes practice to become a master giving an example of how he started playing piano while in prison and managed to become a good one and unfortunately for him, the instrument was destroyed on a fire so he couldn’t play anymore but he promises that if he gives her one then, he might help her with the case so, María resolves to send Gregorio the old piano that no one plays at her house anymore. Ángeles tells Gabriel (Juan Carlos Medellín) that her neighbor asked her out something that doesn’t sit well on him but tries not to react on it. He asks her if she likes the other man and Ángeles denies it and decides to ask Gabriel out instead. María waits outside their house for Alejandro to arrive and when he does, she hopes on his car and complains for having sent his friend to intimidate her; Alejandro does not seem to understand a thing of what she is saying and he is not even given the chance to explain himself since María tells him that their marriage is over and they should talk to their kids and tell them the truth.

Since the press conference that Escobedo gave, the station had been swamped so, Octavio believes that it is best for the squad to stay in the building attending phone calls. The group is ordered to categorize the calls based on the matter and urgency. Ángeles gets a call from a woman claiming that her cousin was attacked a while ago in the same way that The Undresser does and she managed to escape but she had remained silence out of fear of being chased again. The cops inform Lozano (Julio César Luna) about it but he dismisses the information since the attack happened way before the killers’ first murder but the women do not let it go and visit the woman who called them and she explains everything that happened to her cousin. While she was narrating how the killer tied her cousin, María notices that the woman is touching her wrists as though she was remembering something and realizes that she is talking about herself.

María shows up late at her son’s “Career Day” and says that her husband won’t be attending since he is busy with work so she will take his place. Alex (Diego Escalona) feels embarrassed to see her there, the only woman in the middle of his classmates’ fathers but that don’t stop her. When is her turn to talk and explain what she does, the kids are so marveled by her that everyone wants to ask her something and Alex receives compliments from her classmates on her mom’s job. María leaves the classroom sometime after and Alex runs after her to thank her for showing up. In the meantime, Herrera has ordered Gabriel, Gerardo, Gilberto (Marco Antonio Aguirre) and Díaz (Ricardo Esquerra) to take all of the victims’ co-workers to an isolated place and torture them until they get something. Escobedo finds out about their plans and informs the President Echeverría (Alejandro de la Madrid) hoping he would stop them but he couldn’t care less about the methods; he just wants results. Gabina asks Chela (Azalia Ortíz) about Gerardo’s whereabouts and the woman tells her that he left earlier with her father and brothers and she doesn’t know where to but Lozano is about to meet them so she suggests to ask him. Instead of doing that, Gabina follows him and sees her father and brothers torturing people. Lucas calls Valentina and tells her what he found out about Andrés and the night he died and confirms that The Undresser’s first victim was the woman that Andrés was dating. María steals Octavio’s keys to open the room where the unsolved cased files are stored and when she is about to leave, Octavio shows up and scolds her for going behind his back and also fires her for not obey his orders. She informs him what she knows about the woman they visited earlier but he asks her for proofs which she doesn’t have so she goes to visit her again and tells her she knows that the real victim was her and convinces her to cooperate with them to solve the case. María goes to Octavio’s house and shows the proof he needed; she has the rope that the other woman gave her and that the killer used to tie her. Octavio praises her on her good job and María thanks him for believing in her. He admits her back into the squad and all of a sudden, they start kissing but then stop when realizing of the trouble they might get into.

At the end of the day, we see a sequence in which Gregorio is playing the piano in the middle of the room while the other inmates and cops are gathered around him watching him in awe while Ángeles finally goes on a date with Gabriel and they touch hands for the very first time, María receives a folder from Gregorio at the station, Alejandro visits Jerónimo, punches him on the face and asks him to leave his wife alone, Herrera questions Gerardo if they had any progress with the interrogation and he just nods with his head then goes back home to his wife and cries while hugging her, Valentina goes to see Lucas and finds his apartment outside down and him lying on the floor all covered in blood then rushes to call for an ambulance and finally, Gregorio closes his performance while everyone claps at him.