What a difference a dressing down from your sister will make.

Jorge is clearly his sister's righthand man, but he's also got his own agenda he's been perfectly content to keep separate from his sister until he can't anymore.

And Ramona ensured during The Cleaning Lady Season 3 Episode 5 that Jorge understood that whatever he had going on with Thony was not about to get in the way of their family.

I was less than pleased with Thony for putting her trust in Jorge after he helped her find Fiona and Chris during The Cleaning Lady Season 3 Episode 4, and I felt extremely justified when Jorge followed the lead Thony gave him and then proceeded to sit by while the man who took Arman in the first place died.

Maybe it wasn't done on purpose, and maybe the guy wasn't talking, but who knows what some expert torturing would have gotten out of the guy.

Interestingly, we didn't see any of the torturing ourselves, not that we needed to, but we're forced to believe Jorge's version of events, which is awfully convenient.

Jorge's got some serious issues regarding Arman, and he's made it painfully clear he's not nearly as gung ho as his sister to welcome him into the fold.

Who's to say he and Dante didn't conspire to kill the man and then concoct that story for Ramona and Thony's benefit, as they're the two people who so desperately want Arman back?

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here, but there's something off about Jorge. Every "good" deed he's engaged in doesn't take away from him being a shady character. Thony would do well to remember he isn't Arman.

Thony didn't have time to question anything, though, because she was preoccupied with Luca's CPS interview and the upcoming court hearing.

Thony's made many mistakes and continues to do so, but Luca's disappearance wasn't on her. You could argue everything currently happening to her, and Luca goes back to her poor decision-making, but his leaving wasn't necessarily her fault.

Luca's fear of being taken away from his mom, his home, and the only family he's ever known must be frightening. This is a kid who's dealt with so much tragedy at such a young age, and the one constant for him has always been his mother.

Thinking that life line could be taken away had to have him scrambling. But he's just a child, and I can't even imagine how he navigated the streets of Las Vegas to get to the aquarium.

Never did I think for a second when Luca went missing that Ramona was behind it, but Thony wasn't wrong to cover all her bases.

She'd just defied a direct order from Ramona, and it's not as if Ramona's above kidnapping or doing whatever is necessary to remind everyone she's in charge.

Just the fact that Jorge even went to her and didn't immediately write off Thony's concerns shows that she would do it if she thought it was the right move.

It took Thony a long time to figure out where Luca may have gone, and that's understandable, considering how scared she had to be for various reasons. It's hard to think straight when you're petrified.

Luca missing was scary enough, but that Amber Alert, and subsequently the arrest of Dante, put her on edge.

JD: Thony, whatever business you still have with these people can't keep coming around our family.
Thony: It won't. My business with these people is almost done.

• Permalink: It won't. My business with these people is almost done.

JD, JD, JD. I completely understand where he's coming from and his need to protect the family he's cultivated.

There's no doubt that he loves Fiona, Jaz, Chris, Luca, and even Thony as an extension of those people, and he wants to keep them safe. He sees what Thony is doing, and he'll only look the way so many times before you crack.

And Luca missing was a reason to crack.

Thony desperately needs to figure out what she's going to do about JD and the continued position she puts her family in over and over again.

By keeping them in the dark, she feels like she's protecting them, and she's not wrong to feel that way, but they also can't move properly when they don't have all the facts.

I'm not sure there's a right or wrong answer here, but things can't stay the way they are because it's not working.

Her involvement with Arman was one thing, but the cartel is another.

Once again, Thony needed assistance with the whole Amber Alert situation, and she went to Jorge, which was the logical choice. Unsurprisingly, he gave in because she made many valid points.

Erasing that alert from existence would be helpful for both of them and any chance Thony gets to play on the few feelings Jorge has regarding being a single parent, she does.

This was the first time we got to see Jorge at work, and the whole lawyer thing looks good on him.

He rolled into that courtroom to do what he had to do and looked good while doing it.

He also got to hear Thony's impassioned plea, which was heartfelt and authentic to who Thony is at her core.

She's a sister. She's an aunt. She's a friend.

But first and foremost, she's a mother. And everything she's done has been to protect Luca.

It's admirable, and that's the basis of the whole series. How far would you go to protect your child? For Thony, there's really no answer to that.

And it's easy to sit here and judge her from the outside looking in, but if you put yourself in her shoes, who's to say you wouldn't also do whatever had to be done to save your child and feel little remorse about it?

Thony doesn't feel bad about her actions because she can look at Luca's face and feel it was all worth it.

But actions have consequences, which she can often forget until it's staring her in the face.

She's slowly let herself believe Jorge's compassion could benefit her, much like Arman's had. But if she doesn't see that this man will ultimately do what's best for his family over hers, than she should prepare herself for more problems.

His warning at the end of the hour wasn't meant to scare her as much as it was to draw the line and set the boundary.

I don't know what kind of hold this woman has on you, but from now on, she better stay the hell away from anything to do with Armando because it could cost us his life.

Ramona {toJorge}

• Permalink: I don't know what kind of hold this woman has on you, but from now on, she better stay the...

She better remember who's running the game. And she better act accordingly.

Extra Clean Notes

• JD asking Fiona to move in and then doing everything in his power to muck up things for Thony pretty much guarantees she won't be saying yes. I like JD, but his morals may be at odds with this family as it's currently constructed.

• Jaz felt abandoned by Chris when he left for the Philippines, and it was relatable. She'd already lost her mother, and then her brother left as well. It had to be very sad and stressful for her, and I'm glad she spoke up.

• Why was Dante the one who was the point of contact with the kidnappers? Who exactly is Dante?

• Ramona calling out Jorge for having some thing about Thony sounded just like Nadia when she would talk to Arman about her.

• This felt like a transitional episode overall, and it was the first hour in a while that felt a little slow. Things were happening, but the narrative wasn't significantly advanced.

We're no closer to finding out what happened to Arman, and if anything, the only thing this episode confirmed was that Thony needs to understand Jorge isn't the man she wants to think he is.

What did you think about this installment?

Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below! 

Whitney Evans is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lover of all things TV. Follow her on X.