A final (and woefully long overdue) farewell to En Nombre Del Amor

I hestitated commenting on the grand finale of En Nombre because I ended up being kinda disappointed by the ending. For me, the pacing and the overuse of slow motion throughout the finale grated on my nerves. However, I slowly began to appreciate En Nombre Del Amor because, at least, during the weeks leading up to the finale, there were a bunch of surprises. For example, Carlota taking a header off of her staircase. Another was Romina doing a 180 about her life and her child after she was nearly killed in a car accident. But the real clincher was watching The Young and the Restless 'resolution' to the baby Faith story - it landed with a great, big plop! It didn't have a tenth of the tension and emotionality of the Colleen death story, and Faith was a baby.

So I reexamined my initial thoughts about En Nombre Del Amor and felt a bit more satisfied, especially when I thought about the emotional highpoint of the finale: Gabriel's death.



I knew that Paloma and Emiliano would wind up together, but I certainly didn't expect Gabriel to do what Paloma should've done: look out for Paloma's happiness. Again, I don't speak Spanish, but it seemed that Gabriel truly loved Paloma, but he was hiding his health condition from her. Still, he trucked on, planning his wedding. But after Paloma and Cristobal's walk down the aisle, out steps Emiliano, via Gabriel's invitation, and Gabriel put it out there - if you're going to marry, Paloma, marry for true love. And he made her decide - and she picked Emiliano. Heartbreaking, right? Except that Gabriel had a look of peace and contentment as Paloma and Emiliano exchanged vows. GABRIEL WAS THA MAN!!!! Too bad Carlota had to c*ck up the day by trying to kill Paloma, yet again. And once again, telenovelas demonstrated their recognition and appreciation of men with pure hearts by having them die tragically. Too bad, because after what Gabriel did for Paloma, I wanted to climb all over him - it would've been a beautiful vacation for me, since the actor who portrayed Gabriel was all kinds of yummy!!



But back to Carlota. Carlota... Carlota... Carlota... certainly had a hand at killing a good time. Speaking of killing, here's a montage of Carlota's best kills. She was a very busy girl and yet, her hair was rarely out of place and her makeup was impeccable.


And finally, the very thing that attracted me to En Nombre Del Amor - the theme song. En Cambio No, as performed by Laura Pausini, is one of the best television theme songs I've heard in a long time. Mind you, I sing Hasta Que El Dinero Nos Separe at the top of my lungs. But En Cambio No is a pretty fantastic song. It reminded me of Lost in Your Eyes by Debbie Gibson... only totally awesome!!!! I am so close to buying Laura Pausini's album for this song, although I suspect that there may be some other gems on it - Pausini has some serious singing chops.



So thanks, to whomever or whatever it was that compelled me to watch En Nombre Del Amor. I regret not watching it sooner, but grateful for what I eventually ended up seeing.