devious maids

Chapter 8~

The others all face the usual dramas -- bickering employees in backstabbing nonsense, unwanted attentions and public assignations. But that's just the mundane for the maids.

Marisol is awakened by a call from the police. Nick was the victim of a hit and run, and because he had been jogging, he had no ID on him.

His evil maid, Opal is the culprit. She fears that he will kick her out of the mansion, refuses his generous severance check and worries that the truth will come out that years ago, she pushed his former wife, and her then-lover, Dahlia, off a bridge, killing her.

Opal returned to the bridge, knowing Nick's jogging route, and mowed him down. Her crime was ill planned; she used her son, Ethan's car. Ethan figures out what she did. Toward the end, when the police are coming over to ask questions, Ethan agrees to serve as Opal's alibi with one provision: Ethan wants his mother to leave the house. Now. He wants nothing else to do with her -- a terminal goodbye.

That terminal goodbye is what Ty was hoping when he spiked his uncle Spence's stew with cleanser. Ty is besotted with Carmen, though he has zero chance with her.

She's gorgeous, sexy, avaricious, ambitious and twice his age. He also killed her in-the-closet fiance. He is a troubled, awkward teenager. He's deluded himself to thinking he could be with her, if he just gets his uncle out of the way. It doesn't work. Spence has been through far worse -- he's a career soap opera actor and was married to a woman who defines evil.

The drama that was a surprise is Genevieve's. She comes home and finds Zoila collapsed in a chair, the vacuum running. Genevieve thinks Zoila is dead, but instead she's happily exhausted after a night with Javier.

Genevieve tries pumping Zoila for details about her night, but Zoila isn't saying other than she's pleasantly surprised to learn that sex can last longer than the commercials during football games.

Genevieve insists on having Javier over to dinner, and she can't help herself from flirting shamelessly.

"You are successful and charming and handsome," she coos to Javier. "And the only one question in my mind is, 'What are you doing with Zoila?'"

Javier remains his charming self and invites her to the restaurant. Genevieve talks about her birthday, how she's turning 46 next week. Zoila screams that Genevieve is turning 61.

The next day, Genevieve finds out that her kidneys are shutting down and she is going on dialysis. The two women immediately get their relationship on track. True, one pays the other to clean her toilets -- and it's a fair bet there are a dozen in that mansion -- but these two love each other.

As do Marisol and Nick, though Marisol harbors some doubts about him. Still, she marries him bedside because Nick wanted to be married should he die in surgery, which he must have as a result of Opal running him over.

The less dramatic plot lines have the angry and damaged Lucinda forced to leave her father Kenneth's home, where Rosie is the maid. Kenneth's nephew, Reggie, and Rosie are dating, and Reggie wants power of attorney taken away from Lucinda since she almost bashed in her father's head until Rosie intervened.

Rosie has had it with Lucinda because she is always cursing and Rosie's son, Miguel, is learning English. He picked up some choice words and shared them at school.

The drama at the house of dysfunction, the Powells' mansion, continues. Adrian is aware that his wife, Evelyn and security guard Tony are having an affair. He just wants to prove it.

Rather than fire Tony, confront Evelyn, or say nothing -- considering the kinky infidelities she put up with for years, silence is an option -- Adrian decides it would be much more fun to catch them in the act. So he bugs the house with cameras and microphones.

Adrian asks Valentina to drive him to the therapist. Evelyn says she wants to go shopping, knowing that cameras are on them. They too get into a car, with Valentina trailing Tony.

When Tony parks and climbs into the back seat and on top of Evelyn, Adrian gets out of his car, peers in to see his wife in the throes of passion and all but has a stroke. And that's the low emotion.