Taking Out the Trash

A visitor from Carmen's past shows up at Alejandro's house, and Valentina tries keeping her emotions in check after meeting Remi's new "friend". Meanwhile, the strained relationship between Marisol and her son, Eddie, becomes apparent when new information about Flora comes to light. Peri is convinced that Spence is having an affair and tries bribing Rosie for the woman's name, while Evelyn and Adrian celebrate a very important birthday.

Plot[]

Odessa protects Carmen from her evil husband.

Carmen is feeding Alejandro's bird, Evita, when it bites her; Odessa rewards it by giving it a treat, to Carmen's frustration, while Sam goes to answer the door to someone who Carmen seems adamant on avoiding. She hides around the corner while trying to force Sam to get rid of him and, when Sam asks the inevitable question - who is this person? - Carmen reveals that he is her husband. His name is Oscar Valdez, and Carmen married him when she was 17. He wanted a traditional Latin wife who would cook and clean and have babies, but the babies never came. Her only joy in life came from her singing and she wanted to turn it into a career but Oscar said no, and so, one night, while he was sleeping, she left her wedding ring on the pillow and sneaked out of the house, having never looked back. She couldn't get a divorce because Oscar never would have agreed to that - that would have meant he failed - and Carmen begins to wonder what she's going to do now that he's found her. Sam and Odessa both agree that she must face him, and so Carmen finally invites him over to talk. He says how he often sees women come to Los Angeles wanting to be famous, only to wake up and realize they've wasted the best years of their lives. He doesn't want to see that happen to her, but she maintains that it won't, and when he asks her to come home with him, even having gotten her a job as a singer in a bar, she refuses. This makes Oscar very angry, and he ends up attacking his wife. Sam rushes in, trying to protect her, but only ends up getting knock out. As Oscar pins Carmen against the wall, Odessa threatens to call the police, only to be pushed aside. Oscar then tries strangling the life out of his wife, which is when Odessa saves the day by clubbing him around the back of the head... with her prosthetic leg. He ends up leaving in an ambulance stretcher, and seeing how bad this man truly was convinces Odessa to tell Carmen that perhaps should she be nicer to the good men, such as Sam. Right now, Sam is trying to find Evita, who fled the birdcage when Sam fell into it. He gives up on his search when Carmen approaches and says how she always had to fight for everything she got, and she isn't used to having someone on her side. He assures her that she is, which she knows, but she's not looking for a relationship. Instead, Sam simply offers to be her friend, which she is content with.

Eddie remembers something vital.

Marisol walks in on Evelyn crying over a home video of a little boy running through a field. Taylor and Michael are gone for the week, meaning Marisol can work at the Powell mansion the whole time, and, meanwhile, Eddie and his lawyer Ida are meeting with an A.D.A. They try proving that someone who wasn't Eddie had motive to kill Flora via the fact that she was pregnant with another man's baby when she died, but the A.D.A. slaps them with emails they discovered which show that Eddie proposed to Flora after a mere two months of dating and she turned him down. This means that he too had a motive, to the shock and horror of Marisol, who proceeds to visit him and get into a fight about the fact that he never told her about the proposal. He ends up storming out while, back at the Powell house, Adrian reveals that he made plans for Thursday. Evelyn slaps him, reminding him that Thursday is the 18th, and he immediately agrees to cancel, having forgotten something very important. He says that his wife was right to strike him. When Marisol sees that Evelyn has bought a cashmere sweater for her son's 21st birthday, she expresses her surprise that the Powells have a child; Evelyn reveals that they don't anymore, for he was killed 15 years ago. Marisol is shocked and offers her condolences, revealing that she herself has a son with whom she fails to get along, but still she loves him very much. To Evelyn's comfort, Marisol has no doubt that Barrett would have loved her very much too, and Evelyn says that she wouldn't have minded if he hated her... so long as he'd lived. This spurs Marisol to return to Eddie and be honest with him, having decided that, despite all the terrible things she's endured such as parental death, sterility and her husband's infidelity, she's not strong enough to lose him. She proceeds to tell him everything she's learned about Flora, and he proceeds to recall a phone conversation she had with someone from "work", where she notably exclaimed, "Of course he will pay," followed by, "Because it's on video!" Eddie immediately calls his mother to inform her of this.

Allison tempts Remi down a dark path...

Valentina goes to wake Remi, only to discover a girl named Allison in his bed, with whom he spent the night. Naturally, she is very jealous, and Remi asks her to make the girl some tea. He mentions that she is off sugar, so Valentina puts extra sugar-cubes in her cup, then running it up to her and getting asked to search for the girl's earring under the bed. While searching, Valentina overhears Allison talking to her friend on the phone, saying how Remi is total marriage material. She is appalled, and even more so when, later, Remi says that he has to go work on his thesis at school, meaning Valentina has to look after Allison. Allison overhears Remi telling his maid that she has to be nice to her, and so she tries her best with getting away with ordering Valentina around. First, she has her quieten the gardeners, and then she has her apply some sunblock. When she asks her to paint her toenails though, Valentina sees it as a step too far and, when Allison threatens to tell Remi that his maid is so obviously obsessed with him, Valentina takes the nail polish and throws it over Allison's top. The two of them end up in a huge cat fight, to the gardeners' joy, and later Remi scolds Valentina because Allison said she tried to kill her. An argument ensues, leading him to ask why it's any of her business who he sleeps with, and she says that that's a stupid thing to ask because he knows how she feels about him. He concedes that he knows that she likes him, but she makes clear that she loves him, to his shock. He wonders how she can love a person she's never even kissed, and she agrees, then planting a giant kiss on his lips and asking if he's clear on how she feels about him now. He is, and then he returns to Allison, refusing to fire Valentina or take her to a club. Saddened by this, Allison decides that Remi owes her, and so she entices him into doing cocaine with her like he used to.

"Dammit, Rosie! Just tell me the slut's name so I can cut her nipples off."

Rosie is waxing the floor when Peri nearly, complaining about the slipperiness before leaving for work. Once she's gone, Spence tries to romance Rosie, clearly interested in starting up a relationship with her, but she refuses to break the rules, even if she wants to be with him too. When he tries kissing her, she hits him with a frying pan, causing Peri to reenter the room; Rosie passes it off by conceding that her employer was right - the floor is indeed very slippery. That night, Spence tells Peri that a couple they're friends with engages in an open relationship, suggesting that they have one too. Peri is immediately in and proceeds to celebrate by having sex with Cody in his trailer, only for him to tell her that she's being stupid for not realizing that the only reason Spence wanted to have an open marriage is because he too is having an affair. Peri thinks that perhaps Rosie will know who her husband is screwing, and so she interrogates the maid, wanting to know the slut's name so that she can cut her nipples off. Rosie wonders why Peri is so mad since she's cheating on Spence anyway, but Peri insists that that's different because Spence is lucky to have her. Rosie is indignant to this, and decides to tell Spence the truth about Cody. Spence wants a divorce, but Rosie won't allow it, reminding him about Tucker and how he could lose custody. Spence argues that he needs a reason to wake up in the morning, and asks how he can possibly raise his son to be a man if he's constantly humiliated. He states that he needs a reason to wake up in the morning, something that makes him happy, and Rosie agrees. Later, when Peri goes to meet with Cody, Spence lets her, and then, with her out of the house, he and Rosie smile to one another...

The Powells celebrate their son's birthday.

On the night of the 18th, Evelyn and Adrian meet to celebrate what would have been the 21st birthday of their son, Barrett Powell. This is the one day out of the whole year that they allow themselves to talk about him, and so they buy him a cake and a present that they think he might have enjoyed, with Evelyn having brought the cashmere sweater from earlier. She frets that he may not have had a sense of style, but Adrian assures that he would have because he would have had them as parents. Evelyn ends up asking her husband if he'd like to make love to her to night, but he refuses, with her defending that, after 15 years, she thought that perhaps the novelty might appeal to him. He reminds her that she let a car plow right into their son, to which she points out that he certainly got back at her with his "disgusting little hobby". Apparently, this was part of an agreement that they made; if Adrian was going to stay with Evelyn, then his needs would have to be met, but Evelyn believes he violated the deal when he crossed the line from voyeur to participant. Once again, they're trapped in an argument about Flora, and so Adrian asks his wife why she's ruining the once-yearly remembrance of their dead son. She thinks he's right, and apologizes... for everything. Adrian announces that, next year, he's buying Barrett and Armani tux because, with his sense of style, he'd accept nothing less. Evelyn smiles and then, to her shock, Adrian offers to take her hand. As the married couple hold hands for the first time in years, the two of them proceed to blow out the candles on their son's birthday cake.

Trivia[]

Although credited, Judy Reyes (Zoila Diaz), Brianna Brown (Taylor Stappord), Brett Cullen (Michael Stappord) and Susan Lucci (Genevieve Delatour) are absent from this episode.
- This episode marks the first time that one of the titular maids (in this case, Zoila) isn't featured.
When Odessa threatens to call the police, even starting to dial 911, it is clear, based on the blank screen, that her cell phone is not in fact switched on.