I sincerely hope Thony knows what she’s doing.

Who am I kidding? Thony rarely knows what she’s doing, yet she still manages to find a way out.

But choosing to put her trust in Jorge during The Cleaning Lady Season 3 Episode 4? I have my doubts about how this will work out for her in the long run.

Jorge isn’t Arman, and he’s proving that over and over again, so it’s strange to see Thony put her faith in him, even if he shows flashes of not being the worst human being.

When Fiona and Chris weren’t on that truck, Thony immediately went into scramble mode, which lately has felt like Thony’s only mode. She’s completely pushed everything to the back burner for the most part, just needing Fiona and Chris back in Vegas.

For three seasons now, we’ve seen Thony make rash decisions, and demanding her way into the desert was certainly one of those.

Jorge is a menacing figure, continuously proving he’s not someone to be taken lightly. Ramona may run the show, but Jorge’s right beside her, and he has his own power separate from his sister’s.

It’s also very obvious he and Ramona don’t have the same views and ideas about everything, which I think will eventually come to a head. But that’s a discussion for another day.

While Arman had a serious soft spot for Thony and her struggles, not a single part of me thinks Jorge cares nearly as much, though he’s not entirely oblivious to what she’s going through.

Jorge seems to want to figure Thony out, maybe because he wants to see what Arman sees in her and what makes her so valuable to him.

Every time they get moments to talk on a human level, you can tell they’ve got things in common, namely being single parents, but they’re fundamentally different people.

Seeing Jorge jamming along to music and behaving like a chill human shortly after shooting at Thony to leave with him in the most dramatic of ways gave me whiplash.

Jorge may have been looking for a break from the monotony of threatening people between his daughter’s soccer games, but seeing him go from one extreme to the other was still jarring.

While Thony called him out for basically wanting a little adventure in the desert, Jorge was spot on when he told Thony she loved the chaos surrounding her. Because a part of her has to; otherwise, she could make so many other choices in her everyday life.

Does she feel guilt for the positions she’s put her family in? Surely. And is the stress of dodging bullets and trying to keep her family together keeping her up at night? Perhaps.

But Thony also finds herself getting out of all the danger she’s found herself in, and it has to give her a rush. She’s not untouchable but must feel like there’s not much she isn’t capable of.

There are a lot of shows that deal with ordinary protagonists who are thrust into a life of crime, thrive in it, and then struggle to straddle that line between good and evil.

Thony’s certainly straddling a line, and the only thing keeping her slightly tethered to “good” is her family.

And her family was out in that desert fighting to get home.

Fiona, Chris, and Camilla were dealing with dehydration, the elements, and even lapses in faith as they slowly made their way through the desert, and you could not blame them.

The Cleaning Lady has never shied away from showing the actual realities of the world we live in, and it’s one of the many reasons it’s such an impactful television series.

The series has always excelled at showing situations that are currently happening, and maybe you didn’t know they were happening, but now you do, and perhaps you’ll have some empathy for the real people going through such difficult things.

Chris was hobbling and struggling, and giving up would have been the easy thing to do, right? It’s easy to lie down and let the weight of the world beat you into submission. It’s much harder to keep fighting.

Walking through this trail scattered with people’s belongings was such a stark reminder of those who walked those trails before them, scared and unsure of what would come next. They gave up so much in search of a better life, and every step Fiona and Chris took was getting them closer to their family.

The journey to that point had been so difficult, and they could not catch any sort of break. And when they split up, which was necessary so Fiona could move quickly and hopefully find help, I was sure something would go spectacularly wrong.

And it did for both sets of groups out there.

Thony and Jorge worked well together when given a chance against those cowardly vigilantes who held them up at gunpoint. Who knows what they would have done to literally anyone else they found in that situation or what they’d done in the past to people they’d encountered?

They were out there looking for trouble under the guise of retributive justice that wasn’t their place like all vigilantes.

Even still, when Jorge and Thony got the upper hand, a specific moment firmly juxtaposed the two of them. With Thony’s humanity sliding through and leaving a bottle of water at least, while Jorge took a bullet to it without thinking.

They’re not the same, and while you could also say similarly for Thony and Arman, there was also a deep understanding between them, born over time, that allowed them to think outside themselves sometimes.

To this point, it’s hard to see that in Jorge.

The other vigilantes had the caravan holding Fiona, Chris, and others fighting for their lives due to a gas leak, and if not for Fiona, Jorge and Thony would have stumbled upon something much worse.

Fiona was truly the MVP of this hour, displaying incredible courage when faced with what sometimes had to feel like insurmountable odds. She had two kids reliant upon her, and she never gave up, singularly focused on making sure they all got out of that damn desert.

I felt like I could finally take a deep sigh of relief when everyone was back at the De La Rosa residence and able to genuinely smile and just be in each other’s space.

Who knows how long the happiness will last for everyone, but sometimes you have to take the win and worry about worrying some other time.

What’s coming next for Nadia is a partnership for Ramona!

In a perfect world, I would have Thony and Nadia working together as the two people caring about Arman the most, trying to figure out what happened to him.

But that’s not happening, and instead, they’re both wrapped up with the Sanchez siblings, but in different ways.

Pissing off the FBI will almost always cost you something in the end, and for Nadia, it’s money. And without money, there’s not a whole lot she can do.

I applaud Nadia for not just sitting around and waiting for Arman to show up, but already having been warned by Jorge that she needed to stop looking for Arman so loudly, it seemed like a dangerous play to hire a bounty hunter.

Nadia and Ramona have the same agenda: finding Arman.

Working together toward that common goal makes sense on the surface, but these women do not know each other. They’re entering this agreement without knowing much about one another, which is tricky.

The thing about trust, Nadia, is that it goes both ways. Don't forget that.
Ramona

Permalink: The thing about trust, Nadia, is that it goes both ways. Don't forget that.

How much can they trust each other? Their interests align on exactly one thing right now, but what happens when other interests pull them apart?

It was a nice final shot seeing that building crumble and a toast to the future, but it’d be awfully naïve to think it’ll be smooth sailing from here.

Extra Clean Notes

There are many instances during an episode where I wonder where Arman would have fit in or how he would have reacted to something. The character so integrated into every aspect of this series, and I’m so grateful they’re keeping that character and what Adan Canto brought it to alive through this season.

Thony keeps a lot bottled up because she’s not afforded the luxury of breaking down. But I liked seeing her take a moment to feel her feelings and let some of the pain and guilt she’s carrying out. She needed it.