A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE: NO ONE BUT YOU (Snippet 1)

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, things are a bit boring now that CATALINA y SEBASTIAN has wrapped up, although there's LA REVANCHA on STV and EL CUERPO DEL DESEO on AIT, GoTel as well as Superscreen (which was once called Clapperboard )but somehow I just don't fell inclined to follow them, which is why there are no posts about them in this blog.

Instead I'm taking my visitors waaaaayyy back in time to about 1993,when NTA presented us with a telenovela most people argued was as fabulous as its predecessor, THE RICH ALSO CRY. This was TU O NADIE or as we knew it then as NO ONE BUT YOU, a.k.a YOU OR NO ONE.

Starring Andres Garcia (currently playing Pedro José Donoso in EL CUERPO DEL DESEO) the lovely Lucia Mendez and Salvador Pineda as the villain, Max(see him as the very nasty and obsessive Lucio in ESMERALDA).

The story opens to the city of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Raquel Samaniego, the beautiful heroine of the story,  reddish brown curls framing her face,  is just returning from the shop where she had purchased her dress for her wedding to her love whom she had been dating for six months; a young engineer called Antonio Lombardo. She enters the humble apartment she shares with her disdainful younger pouty faced  sister Martha (Luz Maria Jerez) and their widowed (and simple minded) father, Don Daniel. Call me harsh but these two are going  cause poor Raquel a lot of  trouble several episodes from now. Moving on...

Raquel shows her wedding dress to Martha who admires it.  Raquel  then receives a phone call from her fiance, who promises to return from his business trip in time for their wedding day that very weekend. But as soon as he hangs up, the fiance's face visibly changes as his henchman, Luis (Tony Bravo) tells him his stepbrother, Antonio wanted to see him.
  
Ehh???

The viewers are initially confused but it's actually simple as we follow it.

 Raquel's fiance's real name is Maximilliano Alveniz and he's the stepbrother of the real Antonio Lombardo, a fabulously wealthy  man whose father, the late Alberto Lombardo,  married Max's widowed mother, Victoria. Alberto had left a huge trust fund and a permanent position in his company to Max in his Will but to the angry and greedy Max, he had been cheated as Antonio (the legal and true heir) had been given the entire estate, minus a big trust to Antonio's married sister Camilla. Let's go on...

Max sulkily goes to find Antonio, who is at the balcony watching the ocean view. We don't see his face immediately but  Antonio turns when Max demands to know what he wants.  The camera zooms in on   a very  handsome man roughly  in his mid or late thirties - the extremely yummy and manly looking hero of the story, played by  Andres Garcia.

 Max gives him the deep stink-eye (he's very good at that as viewers will find out for the rest of the telenovela) and  flares up as usual at the calm yet firm queries from his stepbrother about some business matters- Max had approved   a construction project Antonio didn't authorise. After Antonio informs him the project was a no go,  he walks out on him, running into  Mummy  Victoria (Magda Guzman; La Usurpandora  viewers will recognise as Fidelina) who guessed from the scowl on her son's face and snarky words  that there has been another   altercation between him and his stepbrother. 

 When she asks him what happened between him and his 'brother', Max coldly reminds her that just because she married Tonio's late father- Alberto- it doesn't make Tonio his brother and how unfair 'the old man' had been to him and Victoria, leaving the bulk of his wealth to Antonio.

  Is this guy for real? 

Back in Guadalajara, Marnie wonders why Raquel and Tony preferred to have a small civil ceremony, which will not be .attended by their friends. Raquel reminded her of their plan to  have a large church wedding after there's more money. Martha goes all sulky when Raquel tells her she will have to start paying the rent and other bills after the wedding, as their father will not be able to, apparently Raquel is the only one in the household that has a steady job and has been the primary provider. 

In Acapulco,  the  Lombardos are at dinner and Victoria tells Antonio that Maura (his girlfriend) came looking for him while he was out but Antonio doesn't seem interested in calling her back, as he was going to be busy the next day. Max tells them both he will be going out of town and gets angry when Antonio tells him he could go since there's nothing serious pending- snappishly telling him he didn't need his permission, storming off.   

Distressed, Victoria  discusses his latest argument with Max, urging him to see Max's  ( non existent) good qualities. Antonio calmly brushes Victoria's concerns aside, he's  more than used to Max's tantrums  and envy and reminds her that he only tolerated Max because of her. Planting an affectionate  kiss on his stepmother's  hand, he  bade her goodnight.

 

Don Daniel returns after celebrating his favourite daughter's upcoming wedding at the bar with his friends, brushing off Raquel's worry about him ruining his health with too much drink. 

At Guadalajara a few days later, Max and Raquel have their civil wedding in Raquel's apartment officiated by a judge. Max used Antonio's signature (he spent hours practising it)on the marriage certificate after the bride signed, then followed by Don Daniel, Martha and the judge's secretary who are the only witnesses.

The couple then go to his apartment where he begins to  passionately kiss her neck but she gently pulls away, reminding him that they were not yet married by the church. Yah... our heroine is old fashioned that way. He's about to argue when the phone rings. It's Luis, to tell him that Antonio was leaving on a business trip.

Raquel is very confused when he tells her the office demands his presence and takes her home, with the promise of calling her and arranging the big church wedding after he got back from his trip.
Antonio is mildly surprised to see Max back from his vacation, Max sullenly lies that he had some work to catch up on.

Antonio leaves the mansion and the villain asks Luis if the trap has been set... the reply... YES.

Oh no... the foreshadowing of murder afoot.  

Antonio and two men enter his private plane and take off. They haven't been in the air long before the plane makes odd noises and moves in an alarming way. The pilot does his best but is unable to prevent what happened next. The plane plunges down a valley and there's a huge CRASH!

Back in Guadalajara, Don Daniel talk with Raquel about Tony. When the subject of finances come up, Daniel tells Raquel a  rich old woman wishes to have an estate sale but Daniel's friend doesn't have the capital to buy several of the items. Raquel is appalled when Daniel coaxingly asks her to help him out with the  money. She doesn't approve of Daniel's relationship with his so called friend because he sells stolen goods. 

Back at the mansion, Antonio's sister Camilla and his voluptuous girlfriend, Maura (eww)  are at the pool, discussing him. They go in just as Max is about to relay the bad news to his mother... Antonio's plane had crashed and there were no survivors! The three women burst into tears.

Camilla runs to her house at the other end of the beach to tell her husband Claudio the bad news. He looks pensive then gently reminds her that Antonio's estate was now theirs. Very sensitive Claudio. 

Camilla is of course  furious. 'What are you talking about, Antonio was my brother!' and cries again.

As Victoria is grieving, Max gives her another surprise, he hands her a document he had found in Antonio's drawer in his room.To her amazement, it's a marriage certificate; why on earth had he gotten married without telling anyone and to a girl they did not know?

Finding the number in Antonio's address book(Max's doing), Victoria calls Guadalajara. Raquel is amazed when Victoria introduces herself as Antonio's stepmother as he'd told her many times that he had no family. Victoria gently gave her the bad news.

                             'NO!' Raquel cried out in anguish. 'IT CAN'T BE TRUE!'

Meanwhile, several miles away from Acapulco, Antonio, the only survivor, regains consciousness. Not knowing where he is, he  staggers away from the wrecked plane and the dead bodies of his friends.

                          To read ALL the episodes in the proper order click  HERE