Episode 3 Recap “The
Payback”
James is asleep in bed with Vanessa caressing his face; she
receives a set of angry texts from Ramon. He knows that she’s with James right
now; this makes her fidgety.
In the morning, James wakes up and the first thing he does
is kiss Vanessa’s nude backside, he notices that her skin is covered with
bruises. He worriedly wakes her up and when she sees the bruises herself, she
immediately runs inside the bathroom.
She’s scared that James might find out her true identity,
she steps out and faces him. James wants to go to the hospital to get her
checked out, he’s nervous that he might have hurt her. In turn, she
irrationally snaps at him; he’s not her boyfriend so why is he acting like one?
She pushes him to go home; he angrily gets dressed and leaves.
At the mansion, after examining her bruises, James scolds
Vanessa; he made it clear that she can't engage in any physical contact. She
angrily accuses him of having someone follow her wherever she goes; how else
can he know what she’s doing?
Ramon reminds her that he’s doing everything for her; he
gave her a second chance at life and all he asked is to follow his rules. Was
that so hard for her to do? She apologizes and tells him that it was just a
part of her revenge. He’s not gonna fall
for that excuse; if she keeps on disobeying him, he’s not gonna help her
whenever she shows any side effects from the operation.
He threatens her that the side effects will eventually turn
her into Bernadette again. She profusely asks Ramon to not let that happen. He
will only help her if she would stop disobeying him from now on. She nods in
agreement.
James confides with his friend Timothy about Vanessa. He
feels frustrated and hurt that she’s not reciprocating his feelings. Timothy
tells him that it’s karma; what he’s experiencing with Vanessa is payback for
what he did to his ex-girlfriends. He intentionally hurt them, made them curse
him out, and eventually drive one of them to attempt suicide. That last one clearly
reminded him of Bernadette.
Ramon shows his mom the picture of Vanessa’s bruise. She
can’t believe that Vanessa got that bruise from the physical intercourse with
James because they did a psychological rehab on her; they trained her to be
independent and strong-willed so it’s ironic that Vanessa would let James
physically harm her.
Ramon is not sure what caused the bruise which makes Regina
angrily snap at him; they used Bernadette as a subject of the experiment for
her, to make sure that it would be successful, so how could he be unsure? He’s
working hard to find solutions for the side effects but that doesn’t ease
Regina’s mind.
James goes to visit Eliza, Bernadette/Vanessa’s mom; he apologizes
about what happened between him and Bernadette. Mom is just thankful that he
didn’t bother Bernadette after what happened and she happily tells him that
Bernadette is doing well in Canada, so James should stop feeling guilty.
Vanessa sees the string of messages her mom left on her old
Facebook account. She replies that she’s sorry that she’s busy and she misses
her so much, more than she could possibly know. Meanwhile, Ramon extracts blood from Regina(for her operation?), she
notices how uneasy he is and tells him that he should act as her doctor and not
her son because her freedom depends on the success of their experiment.
Regina sees Ramon is once again obsessing over the real
Vanessa’s picture. She regrets letting him use Vanessa’s face for Bernadette’s
operation. Ramon assures her that he knows what he’s doing; he promises her
that he won’t fall in love with Bernadette, Ha! Good luck with that.
Vanessa sees James walk out of mom’s house; she clearly doesn’t like the two of them talking again. After James leaves, she visits mom with a box of cake in hand. Mom fusses over the cake; how it’s hers and Bernadette’s favorite. Vanessa tells mom that Bernadette misses her and she doesn’t have to worry about her because she’s doing great. Mom tells her that’s what she also told James.
Mom tells Vanessa the story of Bernadette and James; how
their love story ended bitterly. While Vanessa is silently listening, her cheeks
begin to turn red; mom notices and wonders if it’s because of allergies.
But, Ramon tells her that visiting mom would only soften her
heart and cloud her judgment, she shouldn't forget that she’s doing all this to
get back at James. Did she forget what they talked about? She has to follow his
rules and she should never forget that. He orders her to proceed to the lab for
her blood samples.
James is with his parents discussing the condo project. Mom
asks how James and Vanessa are doing, are they already in a relationship? James
shrugs and answers that it’s complicated. Mom gets the idea to invite her to
dinner while Dad advises him to tell Vanessa that it’s a business dinner so she
can’t refuse. He grins at the idea.
While Vanessa is working at a lab(for the V cream), she receives
a text from James inviting her to the family business dinner. She asks Ramon
for permission and he complies. She wonders why he’s allowing her to go so
easily; he replies that this is an important part of her revenge plan. She also
needs to get back at the family of the guy who destroyed her. Vanessa declares she’s
gonna show them that they made a big mistake rejecting her.
She goes to visit her dad at the cemetery; she apologizes
and asks for his forgiveness. Ever since dad died, no one stood up for her thus
she became weak but now it’s time for her to defend herself against all the
people who took advantage of her.
At the business meeting/family dinner, Bernadette presents
her designs and everyone looks impressed.
They head to the dining area for dinner and little sister Lucy, seeing
Vanessa, mockingly lists all of James ex-girlfriends, including Bernadette who
she brands as a psycho for attempting to kill herself because of James.
Vanessa looks like she’s ready to cut her with the steak knife
she’s holding. But, she controls herself, instead she agrees with Lucy; no girl
should love a guy to the point of turning into a psycho. She advises Lucy to never
love a guy that way. Lucy brags to everyone that even Vanessa agrees with her,
she compliments Vanessa’s skin and asks for her beauty secret. Vanessa replies
that she’s using a really effective but inexpensive skin cream.
Vanessa is in the powder room, freshening up. She steps out
and Lucy goes inside, she notices the face cream that Vanessa left behind. Lucy
wonders if it’s effective just like Vanessa said; so she uses it on her face. James hands Vanessa coffee and thanks her for coming; Vanessa retorts that it’s
just for business. Lucy walks in on them with a reddening face full of rashes
and she’s in pain; she tells them that she used Vanessa’s face cream.
Vanessa scolds her; it’s not a beauty cream but a skin care
medication. She apologizes to her parents that she didn’t mean to leave the cream
behind. They tell her that it’s not her fault and when they step out to treat
Lucy, Vanessa smiles indicating that she planned this.
At the lab, Ramon walks in on Vanessa working on a new
formula, she tells him that it’s for a whitening cream but he knows that she’s
lying. She’s working on an antidote for skin allergies(for Lucy). He insists
that she could only use the lab for his company’s products and not for other
things. Secondly, if she’s extracting her revenge, she should stick by it. Vanessa wonders how he could have known what she did to
Lucy, Ramon answers that he knows everything so she shouldn’t even try
deceiving him.
Later that night, Vanessa gives Lucy the skin cream to treat
her skin. James tells her that she reminds him of his old girlfriend Bernadette
who’s a chemist (uh-oh). He also notices that the skin cream is from Mendoza
lab(Ramon’s company). Vanessa gets jumpy and tells him that Mendoza lab is a big
company and their products really work; his ex-girlfriend Bernadette works there
but she’s only a customer.
Lucy thanks her and leaves the two of them alone. Vanessa asks James if
he loved Bernadette and he answers no. So, he just fooled Bernadette? Just like
the other girls before her. Yes, but he regrets doing that to her, Bernadette was
really kind and earnest. Vanessa asks him if he had the chance to apologize to
Bernadette, will he?
James answers yes he will, in a heartbeat, but he thinks
that Bernadette’s mom was right; they shouldn’t see each other again because Bernadette is happy and she already moved on. His answer makes Vanessa smile and she grabs him for a sudden
kiss. When she pulls away, he asks if that kiss meant nothing, she kisses him
again passionately.
Back at the mansion, Ramon angrily confronts Vanessa for
kissing James. She replies that she didn’t mean to fall for him again. That
wasn’t part of their plan, how could she easily believe James? She tells him
that it’s not her fault if she can’t teach her heart not to love. Ramon doesn’t
believe her; she wanted to fall for James again.
She screams at his face that maybe she wanted to, but there’s nothing she could do now, she loves James. Ramon is outraged; he strikes his hand ready to hit her but he notices a huge scar on her neck, this sends them both into panic and Vanessa starts to convulse.
She screams at his face that maybe she wanted to, but there’s nothing she could do now, she loves James. Ramon is outraged; he strikes his hand ready to hit her but he notices a huge scar on her neck, this sends them both into panic and Vanessa starts to convulse.
Later, Vanessa is unconscious and lying in bed with
bandages wrapped around her neck. Ramon, intently staring at her, starts
undressing (I don’t like that look on his face). He slowly leans in closer to
her face and kisses her on the lips.
Comments
Comments
Damn! I know that Ramon is obsessed but I didn’t think that
he would actually go there. This show was already dark but it just got darker; rape is a sensitive subject and I hope they don’t downplay it in the next
episode. Yes, as much as I don't want him to actually succeed raping her,
unfortunately I saw the preview for next episode, and he succeeded because
Vanessa goes to the doctor and she finds out that she has lacerations in her
genitals and it looks like Ramon is gonna do it again. There was a snippet of
him putting her to sleep and creepily closing the blinds.
It was a little off-putting to root for Vanessa because her
revenge is all for the wrong reasons, I could never stand by her but I do feel
sorry for her. She was just a girl who fell in love, got hurt and wanted to end
the pain by offing herself. Even if she was mentally unstable (which fueled her obsession
more), Ramon just used that obsession and made it much worse(by manipulating her) knowing she’s desperate and vulnerable. He used her
as the test subject for his mom’s operation and now he’s gonna use her for his
sick and twisted desires.
I appreciate the little character moments from the parents,
especially James’, they just want their son to be happy and they would do
anything to help him win the girl. I’m sure they don’t even know that James
used to be a playboy and would intentionally hurt his ex-girlfriends so I don’t
want to see them become a part of Vanessa’s revenge plan as with Bernadette’s
mom, she’s still under the impression that Bernadette is living happily in
Canada and she is intentionally letting her be by herself so she could move on
even if that means that they can’t see each other, she’s just a mom who wants
what she thinks is best for her only daughter.
I hope Vanessa realizes that Ramon is crazy and delusional, the
sooner the better, so she could immediately cut her ties off with him(although that's an uphill battle). While we're
at it, I hope she realizes that revenge was never the answer because the more
she’s hurting people, the more it’s hurting her too.
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