Women in Blue – Norma

By: Gladys Luna

Now that “The Undresser” has died, the reporters are gathered around the Santiago Park attempting to get an impression of the citizens before this news. Even María (Bárbara Mori) is questioned about her thoughts on it and as it is expected, she bluntly admits that she still has her doubts about that Tito (Abraham Jurado) was actually the killer. Later on, we see María walking around the park until she sees a car that looks exactly like the one that Jessica (Montserrat Ángeles) described parked in front of her. She takes a look at it and sees a rope inside then, hears some noises coming from the trunk and immediately goes to open it only to find a woman tied up in there and when she is about to reach for her, she suddenly wakes up revealing that the whole thing was just a nightmare.

The morning has come and now María is cooking breakfast for her family and when she sees the news about Tito’s death in the newspaper that Alejandro (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is reading, flashes of the torture that the so “presumed” killer went through come to her mind but she is soon taken back to reality when the phone rings; Alejandro’s boss Mr. Cabos (Alfredo Alonso) invites him and María for dinner that same night. Once the call ends, María congratulates her husband assuming that the reason behind the man’s invitation is to announce his promotion at the architecture firm but Alejandro does not want to get his hopes up about it. Alex (Diego Escalona), the couple’s young son gets excited believing that now that his dad will be promoted, maybe his mother won’t have to work again but the woman confirms that nothing would change and she will continue to be a cop something that makes the kid to get mad at her.

While getting herself ready to work, Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana) imitates María’s moves in front of the mirror until she is suddenly interrupted by her grandmother Consuelo (Paloma Woolrich) calling her for breakfast. The woman asks her about her new job and new co-workers but there’s not much information she can get from her granddaughter since the only thing she has in mind is to get more money to pay the bills. Consuelo encourages her to live her own life and find a boyfriend she can spend her time with so she won’t be on her own something that does not seem to be a topic that makes Ángeles feel comfortable with making her end the conversation abruptly and leave for work. Meanwhile at Valentina’s (Natalia Téllez) apartment, the woman gets up and makes her way straight to the bathroom but is stopped right on her tracks when seeing Gabina (Amorita Rasgado) sitting at the living room, all dressed up in her uniform and ready to start the day. As she approaches to her, she notices that the young woman has even cleaned her apartment something that she is not so happy with since she believes Gabina has over stepped her space. Gabina is certain that as soon as her father (Mario Zaragoza) cools off, she’ll be able to return home but Valentina makes sure to let her know that her father does not seem to be the type that just let things go easily so, she offers her to be her roommate as long as she helps her pay the rent.

At the station, Octavio (Miguel Rodarte) informs the squad that based on the captain’s orders now they have to split their time between the station and the city parks only. Valentina confronts him about the reason why they have changed their minds but the man is not interested in offering any explanations so taking advantage of this situation, they end up serving coffee to the other cops as well as filing a big pile of old archives for Lozano (Julio César Luna) without even having a decent space to work at. María shows up at Gerardo’s (Horacio García Rojas) office to offer some help and takes the chance to look at the board in which they have in display all the information about the victims of The Undresser and tries to make some conversation about it but he refuses to speak and asks her to leave his office instead. María convinces the others at her squad to help her dig further into the serial killer’s case and assigns a task for each one of them except for Gabina who is convinced that this will end up badly for them. Natalia blackmails Chela (Azalia Ortíz), who works at the station front desk and is regularly seen doing nothing and convinces her to give her the address of Tito’s mother meanwhile Ángeles pays a visit to her old department and uses her connections there to obtain a copy of Tito’s fingerprints. Once they have the information they need, María and her sister use their lunch break to visit Norma (Norma Angélica), Tito’s mother who at first, closes the door right on their noses but then, allows them into her house once they tell her that they believe in her son’s innocence. The woman explains that Tito had an accident with a horse that left him unable to perform any movement properly among other things and this, led him unfortunately to be involved in a misunderstanding with a girl he tried to innocently kiss and that put him in jail for a month. Since then, he also stopped talking and her mother was in charge to take him to work and pick him up every day using the bus given that he even forgot how to come back home and this is why she believes that her son had nothing to do with the murder he was accused of and that took him to the grave.

In the meantime, somewhere in the city, a mysterious man (Pablo Perroni) shows up at a shoe store for the umpteenth time trying to convince a young saleswoman to go out with him but just like any other time before, he ends up being rejected which makes him swear that she will regret not agreeing to go out with him. Octavio pays a visit to Herrera, Gabina’s father, to ask for an office for his team to work at but he openly refuses to help him. Seeing that he will not get anything from this, Octavio asks for Escobedo’s (Christian Tappán) help and he personally calls Herrera and practically orders him to make some space for the women in blue to work at. Díaz (Ricardo Esquerra) is in charge to lead the squad to a dark and moisty basement that he presents to them as their new office space. María, Valentina and Ángeles approach to Gerardo – who is in the company of Gabriel (Juan Carlos Medellín), Díaz and Lozano – to expose the findings of the research they made about The Undresser as well as their reasons why they believe he was not the murderer. Gerardo listens to them attentively and calls for everyone’s attention and praises them then asks for Octavio to join them only to end up calling them out for breaking the rules and discredit the work they have done. He asks Octavio to suspend them temporarily for their insubordination and assures him that he will present a complain about them, leaving the other man with no other choice but to ask him to show some mercy on them and take a step back on his decision.  Of course, Octavio meets with María later and asks her to stop the nonsense if she wants to be a good leader. Later on, Gabriel comes across Ángeles and congratulates her on the research they made since he considers it to be very good and after sharing some conversation, he offers to walk her home to what she agrees to.

María and Alejandro arrive at Cabo’s house but before they go in, he asks his wife not to mention anything about being a cop. At first, María doesn’t feel so well with this request but agrees to it in order to help him. The dinner is in full swing and Cabos, his wife Esther (Alma Rosa Añorve), María and Alejandro seem to be having a good time talking about future plans, their kids and whatnot then, Cabos takes Alejandro to play pool with him to another area of the house meanwhile Esther and María enjoy a dessert in the living room. María praises the other woman’s taste in decoration; while talking about doing what they love and truly enjoy, Esther confesses that she has been taking some interior design lessons something that makes María feel confident to say that she is a cop. This confession, makes Esther evidently uneasy but says nothing about it. Later on, once María and Alejandro are back at home, they fight over what she did since he believes the promotion had slipped through his fingers.

Octavio has been out drinking and while he is making his way to his car, is welcomed with a punch from Gilberto (Marco Antonio Aguirre) who advises him not to mess with the Herrera’s. Right that moment, Gerardo shows up and asks him not to bother his father again or he will have to face some troubles. Gilberto beats him some more and warns him to keep himself away from them or he will kill him.

María is at the cemetery and pays a visit to Natalia’s (María José Mariscal) grave while remembering the accident in which the young woman had died. She spends some time crying and asking for her forgiveness then, when she is about to leave, she is faced with the same car that she believes could belong to the killer and turns her back on it while waiting for it to pass her by slowly.