Gold Rush
We begin episode 8 of Selena: The Series part 1 with Selena getting her hair cut and smiling awkward when asked about her love life by the hairdresser. Eventually she returns home after having quite the dramatic change and worries that her family won’t approve. Abraham eventually convinces her to open up and she apologizes for the doing this on the eve of a photo shoot. However, he likes it – which brings this back to the earlier incident involving Abraham disapproving of her auburn hair. Anyway, he’s more concerned with what the record label will make of this. However, he remains by her side and agrees to support his daughter with her choice. Well, it seems to work, as we cut forward in time and see a grateful Selena signing records. Cut forward to 1991 and Selena marvels at the lot they’re about to film their first music video together. Channeling her emotions toward Chris, she manages to nail the singing and the shoot seems to do well – especially when Selena heads back to the office and finds a framed gold record waiting for her. They’ve sold 50,000 units and their latest record continues to grow. On the back of this, Abraham remains fixed on the task at hand and wants to get started on the all-English album. Selena meanwhile finds herself overwhelmed by how far they’re come and struggles to hold back tears that evening with the whole family during their celebration. She’s grateful that Abraham has helped her shine the Mexican side of her life and they even toast to him too. Afterward, Chris heads in to check up on Selena after her speech. He finally admits that he cares for her and that it’s hard to be away from the girl. She feels the same thing though and the two eventually kiss. Suzette knows what’s up when she bursts in afterward and as the two go their separate ways, she keeps a suspicious eye on Selena. Anyway, she soon becomes infatuated herself when Rod takes her to see a guy called Bill Arriaga. Rod knows that Suzette is feeling butterflies in his presence and teases her over this. With their costumes sorted, thanks in part to Selena’s enthusiastic fabric buying, the band head back out flaunting their sparkly unique outfits for the Johnny Canales Show. She talks to Johnny about their upcoming plans for an English EP and the two reminisce on old times and how far she’s come. Afterward though, she struggles to hold it together in the wake of her secret relationship with Chris. On the bus, Marcella senses something is up with her daughter and sits down to talk to her about love. She asks when Marcella knew Abraham was the one and reminisces on her time back in 1963. Back in the present the money continues to roll in, prompting Selena to go out and buy a new convertible, feeling like the world is her oyster. Only that oyster is firmly shut when Jose reveals they’re not doing the all-English album after all. Selena is obviously not happy and finding out that “Buenos Amigos” hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot Latin Chart does nothing to quell Abraham’s disdain. Instead, he tells Jose that they’ll go platinum on their next record and prove him wrong. Later that day, Abraham feeds back the good news that they’ve paid off the mortgage on all three houses they own. Marcella is overjoyed and eventually breaks down into tears. Meanwhile, Suzette talks to Selena about her love life and admits that she’s meeting someone who makes her feel alive. As she leaves, Selena struggles to break the news about Chris to her family and eventually decides against saying anything. Still, that doesn’t stop her from looking longingly at a picture of Chris as she wonders quite what to do next.
The Episode Review
Mexican or American records seems to be the crux of the issue this episode, with Selena’s secret relationship with Chris working to flesh out her character somewhat. Still, the time jumps haven’t done this show many favours and at times, it’s been difficult to really get behind and warm to Selena given the screen-time given to the whole family. Still, this episode does do well to show Selena’s confliction in the wake of her blossoming feelings for Chris and it does feel like everything is going to blow up in the next episode in a very messy way. We’ll have to wait and see what happens there but for now, this penultimate episode sets everything up for a dramatic finale to this first part.
