Cuestión de Sexo recap Episodes 3.01 and 3.02

By Contributing Writer on Thursday, March 5, 2009 - 17:29

By Ingrid Diaz

Cuestión de Sexo returned for its third season on Spain’s channel four and surprised everyone by introducing a lesbian storyline in its second episode.

The show centers around Diego, his wife Alba, their daughter Sofía and a few other members of the family (Alba’s sisters, Diego’s brother…) but the one we care about is Sofía.

In the first episode of the season, Sofía returns to Spain after spending some time gallivanting through Europe. She stops in at her parents’ home long enough to drop the I-bomb: Independence! She’s eighteen and she’s over the whole living-with-the-parents thing. She’s setting out on her own. No, no, they don’t need to worry about a thing. She’s got the whole thing covered. She’s in and out and leaves her parents in a state of befuddlement.

Sofía’s ally in the road to independence is Gonzalo. Gonzalo is a shy, bumbling, socially-awkward guy who’s madly in love with Sofía and will do pretty much anything for her, and she seems pretty okay with letting him follow her around like a puppy.

Sofía’s big Independence Plan is to (secretly and temporarily) move into an empty apartment belonging to a woman named Sandra (who happens to be Diego’s ex, and who also happens to be played by Sandra Collantes, whom some of you might recognize from the awesome lesbian webseries Chica Busca Chica). Sandra also owns the bar that most of the characters hang out at.

Throughout the episode, Sofía keeps ignoring mysterious phone calls and acting strange. After one particular call, she gets visibly anxious and asks Gonzalo to stay with her (in the don’t-leave-me-alone-with-the-ringing-phone way, not in the want-to-rip-off-your-not-so-sexy-pink-sweater way). Gonzalo starts to shake with nerves at the mere suggestion. But of course he stays.

The next day, a woman named Nines stops by Sofía’s secret lair claiming to be Gonzalo’s fiancée and accusing Sofía of sleeping with her future husband. Sofía’s merely confused and then shocked as the lady slaps her. She didn’t even know Gonzalo was engaged.

At Sandra’s bar, Sofía talks to Gonzalo about his fiancée’s vist and he admits (in a rambling, nervous way) that he got engaged while Sofía was away because he was depressed about her being gone. And she asks him if he was really in such poor shape without her, and this leads him to accidentally admit that he’s in love with her. Sofía tells him not to do this, and looks frustrated and slightly annoyed by the confession. She tells him he’s like all the other guys, because he’s just using Nines as a backup. She starts to turn away from him, but he tells her that she needs him, because she can’t stay in Sandra’s apartment forever.

At this point, Sandra walks by and overhears this. And Sofía admits that she’s been staying in the apartment but that she’ll move out immediately. Sandra says she’s got a better idea.

The better idea proves to be a pretty good one. Sofía gets to stay in the apartment in exchange for working as a waitress at the bar.

The mysterious phone calls, however, continue, and soon we see that the person calling is a girl. And she’s outside the bar, watching Sofía. Dun dun duuuunn!

The second episode continues this intriguing storyline. Sofía is working at the bar when she spots the girl outside. She panics and hides behind Gonzalo.

She then asks him if there’s a girl outside. He looks, but the girl is gone. Sofía then admits that ever since she got back, a girl’s been following her. Gonzalo becomes incredibly concerned and tells Sofía that she should tell her father, but Sofía makes Gonzalo promise that he won’t say anything.

Later on, Sofía is cleaning up at the bar after closing when the girl appears outside again and knocks.

Sofía: What are you doing here?

Dani: You already know. Let me in.

Sofía: No no no. I can’t.

Dani: We need to talk, Sofía.

Sofía: I can’t. Leave me alone.

Dani: Why are you scared?

Sofía: Leave!

Sofía backs away from the door, ignoring as Dani calls after her, and hides behind the bar.

Dani: You can’t change what happened! Sofía!

Next time we see Sofía she has Gonzalo at her side and they’re at her apartment. She thanks him for coming to pick her up and he tells her he hadn’t been busy. He’d just been listening to Laura Pausini and writing thoughts in a notebook. Sofía asks him what he’s been writing, but he says he won’t tell her until she tells him why that girl is following her. Sofía doesn’t want to talk about it and turns on the TV.

They sit on the couch and Gonzalo struggles with himself. Eventually, he puts his arm around her. Sofía doesn’t seem to mind, and leans over with her couch cushion to rest against him. This gives him the courage to confess that the notebook in which he’s been writing isn’t a notebook, but a diary. A masculine one (naturally). And that pretty much everything he writes in it is about him and Sofía and that he’s already gone through nine diaries in the year since they met.

He tells her she’s the most amazing woman he’s ever known and that it kills him to think that they’ll never be together. And he doesn’t think he’ll ever get over it. He asks her if she thinks she could ever feel the same way about him.

Alas… Sofía has fallen asleep.

Say it with me: She’s just not that into you!

Next day, Sofía is fighting with some IKEA furniture and Gonzalo drops by with a few movies. He’s concerned still about the stalker girl, but Sofía is more interested in him helping her build her bookcase.

He decides to broach the subject of their potential romantic future, and Sofía dismisses the possibility by reminding him that he’s engaged. Gonzalo replies by saying that for all he knows she might change her mind and melodramatically stop the wedding as a big romantic gesture. Sofía doesn’t think that’s likely to happen. Gonzalo gets frightened by the sound of the elevator and nervously asks Sofía if her stalker isn’t a big burly woman.

Later, we return to find that Gonzalo is inexplicably using a power drill to put together Sofía’s Billy bookcase. In the process he drills a hole right through the wood and tries to hide it by putting a book over the hole. Thankfully for him there’s a knock at the door.

For the first time ever, Sofía doesn’t bother to look through the peephole, and so it’s no surprise to us that the person at the other side of the door is … (dun dun dunn) Dani!

And here we go again.

Sofía: What are you doing here? How do you know where I live?

Dani: I followed you.

Well, duh. Stalking 101 is the first class they teach in Lesbian University. Silly, Sofía. Gonzalo runs to the door, drill in hand.

Gonzalo: Is this the stalker?

Dani: Stalker? That’s what you’ve been saying about me?

Gonzalo: Get out of here! She doesn’t want to see you. I have a drill in my hands!

He turns the drill on to make it seem more threatening but accidentally yanks the plug from the outlet. Dani has hardly even blinked at his threats.

Dani: Look, Sofía, you can lie to people. But that’s not going to change what happened.

Gonzalo: Get out of here, crazy woman!

Dani leaves and Sofía, who has said not a word, closes the door. Gonzalo is rambling happily about how he ran her off with his intimidating demeanor, but notices that Sofía isn’t looking very happy.

Gonzalo: Sofi, what’s wrong? What’s going on between the two of you? If you owe her money I can dip into a pension fund I have. Sure, they’ll penalize me, but if it’s necessary I’ll do it.

Sofía: It’s not that … it’s far more complicated.

Gonzalo doesn’t really get the gist of what she means by “complicated” and laments (to himself) the fact that the situation looks bleak because he doesn’t know how to tell her about the hole in the bookcase.

Sofía seems to meditate long and hard off-camera, because when we see her again, she’s chasing after Dani outside by what appears to be a park. Clearly, they both keep tabs on each other using some sort of GPS (Gay Person Stalking) device.

Sofía: Dani! Dani! Wait!

Dani: Haven’t you embarrassed me enough?

Sofía answers by kissing Dani in the middle of the sidewalk. And Dani kisses her back. And then they just stand there making out for longer than the director lets us watch.

Next time on Cuestión de Sexo: Dani tries to kiss Sofía at the bar, but Sofía pushes her away and tells her that it’s not a good place. Dani takes this to mean Sofía is ashamed to be seen together with her.