Last night’s episode of Al Otro Lado del Muro on Telemundo was the very definition
of Must See TV, and if Telemundo would ever steam the entire run of the show I think viewers would end up literally glued to their couches, having not moved for approximately 100-120 hours.
First of all, I’m very proud that I had a tiny bit of input on Sofia’s confession and what’s coming NEXT by answering a few questions for the show’s writer Laura Sosa Pedroza about the criminal justice system in the USA!!
Watching the show last night, I felt that law school and 20 years in the business had FINALLY paid off!!!
While I watched the scene where Sofia confessed, I thought I should have included a clause in my contract where I play the prosecutor,
but then I remembered that there was no contract, and even if there had been one, I don’t know where the “clauses” go, or what a “clause” actually is.
I am not that kind of a lawyer.
Alright, now let’s get down to last night’s episode!
Sofia is the best evidence that a Beauty Queen can still be the smartest person in the room.
When she didn’t make any headway with Joel from Interpol, she called for the FBI.
Not only did she realize that it’s the the FBI, not Interpol, who is the police department who can get things done in the USA, but also she somehow knew that the FBI agent assigned to her case was going to be the very handsome and smart “Richie Garcia” played by one of my favorites, Christopher Millan !
Unfortunately, before Agent Garcia could meet up with Sofia and the prosecutor for what I would have described as a “proffer,” – a meeting to see what evidence Sofia could offer against others in exchange for leniency – Sofia had another visit from the always unwanted Paula.
Since Paula’s Boss and Boyfriend The Governor is now perpetually drunk and mooning over the loss of Sofia (even though he’s the one who framed her),
and since the Corrupt Congressman in the USA is now Confined to Quarters,
it’s once again left to Paula to get the job done,
especially since Los Pinos is breathing down the Governor’s neck, and not in a good way.
Plus, the Congressman has someone on the inside who told him that Sofia was asking to speak to the FBI.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Who could that Inside Man be??
So Sofia is escorted into the jail Visiting room reserved for visitors from Mexico who are visiting Sofia for the purpose of torturing her, and there is Paula.
Paula is a pragmatist – an evil pragmatist, but a pragmatist for sure.
One thing I love about Paula (even though I hate her) is that she never makes small talk.
In fact, I’ll bet that Paula has not once in her whole life ever discussed the weather, or sports scores, and I can tell you from experience could not survive a Baby Shower.
Anyway, so Paula is there to cut a deal with Sofia:
Confess to it all – the murder of Joel’s sister, the Human Trafficking – all of it, take the Governor out of it, and in exchange?
What’s in it for Sofia?
Paula will not tell the Governor where Alondra is, and will leave Eliza to raise her as her own.
And if Sofia doesn’t confess?
Then Paula will not only ship Alondra to Thailand, she’ll take Eliza’s daughter too.
For Sofia, there was no choice.
Next up for Sofia was her meeting with the FBI and prosecutor, to which Joel was invited, but told to keep quiet. The prosecutor pointedly reminded Joel that he had no jurisdiction there.
The prosecutor is correct, but I wanted someone to remind her a California prosecutor does not have jurisdiction over a murder in Mexico either.
So maybe she should have piped down herself and let the only person in that room with any jurisdiction over anything, FBI Agent Garcia, take over!!
No one in that Visiting Room was prepared for Sofia’s confession, which included killing Joel’s sister, running the Human Trafficking Ring out of her father’s ranch in Mexico, and even hacking the 2016 Presidential election.
And of course now that she was confessing to all of these things, Joel didn’t believe her at first, and rejected her confession,
but I think he eventually came around during their later, private meeting when she really sold it, a quality she learned as a pageant contestant.
The prosecutor was very unhappy with the confession, because now, as a witness to the confession, she can’t try the case, and lost the opportunity for scene visits to Mexico.
Agent Garcia was very skeptical of the confession, because he knows that a confession is almost never that easy to obtain. It will happen, but not before some pop, cigarettes, potato chips, McDonald’s and pizza.
And a bit of cat and mouse.
But in #AlOtroLadoDelMuro, Sofia walked into the room, fired her lawyer (a good thing because he was also Pastrana’s lawyer), and confessed to everything.
Everything.
Then she called Eliza and asked her to raise her daughter Alondra, because she was going to be locked up for awhile.
“Awhile” is one way to put it, if “Awhile” is another way to say “Forever” in Spanish.
Remember, she confessed to the pre-meditated, cold-blooded murder of a pregnant journalist because the pregnant journalist was about to expose her human trafficking ring of little girls.
I guess now that she is representing herself, she’s going to have to throw herself on the Mercy of the Court, and hope that Mercy has a big, cushion-y forgiving, lap.
And meanwhile, in other happenings on this great show, Steve barely remembers his wife, has no memory of his son, but can’t forget Eliza, who visited him when he had amnesia.
Max, Steve’s brother-in-law and Eliza’s husband, is doing a pretty good job of forgetting Eliza and the two kids he has with Eliza, as he and his Evil Battle-Axe of a Wife (his OTHER wife) Jennifer prepare to move to Manhattan.
At Sofia’s direction, Eliza returns the Human Trafficking evidence to Pastrana, who gives it to Paula, who gives it to the Congressman.
Patrick had the unenviable job of explaining to Joel why Pastrana was released without charges after Joel arrested Pastrana when he caught him trying to break into the Bakery/Apartment while Eliza was inside with Alondra, which actually is a Home Invasion.
No witnesses, and no jurisdiction.
If you ask me, since Joel is a witness to at least three different murders committed by Pastrana, including being accountable for the murder of a police officer in L.A., I found Patrick’s answer very suspicious and thought he might have been making it up as he goes along.
Angry as Joel was, Patrick cheered him up when he told Joel that Joel could sit in on Sofia’s proffer.
But I say keep your eyes on Patrick, which is actually pretty easy!
It looks like as Sofia prepares for life in prison, Life Goes On for Governor Ernesto as he publicly distances himself from Sofia and privately has alcohol-fueled empty sex with Paula in his office.
If I was Paula I’d demand a raise.
I cannot wait to watch the Sentencing Hearing, which I hope happens tonight.
Agent Garcia knows something is wrong with Sofia and that confession, Joel seems to accept the confession, and if you ask me, Patrick continues to be the Wild Card.
It is hard for me to evaluate him fairly because he has awesome dimples.
Don’t miss tonight’s episode!