Beatriz Vélez

Beatriz Vélez is caught between the life she has tried to leave behind and the love she can no longer deny. After insisting to herself that things with Diego are over, she recognizes that she is still in love with him; that clarity brings hope, but not confidence that he will want her back.

Identity and Presentation

In one brief phone exchange, Beatriz gives her name as Beatriz Vélez to a young man placing a call on her behalf. He waits for an answer for five seconds, then hangs up and reports that nobody responded. The episode offers a concrete, formal self-identification, while leaving the intended recipient and purpose of the call unspecified.

Her more extended self-portrait comes through her own thoughts. She describes herself as poor at lying and at being unfaithful, then immediately qualifies the accusation: by her strict understanding, she has not been unfaithful to Diego, because they were never actually together. In her account, he had ended things before they began, and she had resolved to move on.

Víctor and the Attempt to Move On

Beatriz has slept with Víctor three times. She considers telling Diego that she was entitled to do so: Diego had wanted nothing with her, and Víctor was her former partner. Yet she does not tell him. Her reasoning that the relationship with Diego was over sits uneasily beside her reluctance to disclose what happened, exposing a feeling she cannot neatly explain even to herself.

She had imagined finishing the treehouse and leaving the matter behind as a closed chapter, insisting that she was not someone who returned to reread the past. The metaphor of closing a book does not settle the question, however; her discomfort persists even as she argues that she has done nothing wrong. Diego tells her that she owes him no explanation and that he asked only out of curiosity. His response removes any demand for a confession, but does not resolve the conflict she feels.

Recognition and Uncertainty

After a fight in which Diego got physical with an outsider who had come to his own home, apparently to take the woman from him, Beatriz understands what the confrontation has clarified for her: Diego is the man she loves. She accepts that truth even while acknowledging that it may be too late, and sees admitting it as necessary to being honest with herself and, if needed, grieving and moving on.

The fight also gives her grounds for hope. Diego's reaction makes her wonder whether their story is not yet lost, but she cannot tell whether his actions mean she has a real chance. She wants Víctor and the TV News Presenter to leave the village and her life before she can feel secure about any possibility of repairing things with Diego. The distinction is sharp: she is no longer uncertain about whom she loves, but remains uncertain about whether that love can become a relationship. That night, Chavela calls her; the episode supplies no further detail about their conversation.