Pieces are coming together in the past to help us understand the present.
We got to know some of the other characters better on Promised Land Season 1 Episode 2, and if we thought the last secrets and revelations were a shocker, they gave us another round.
And the drama is delicious.
Carmen is a character we didn’t get to know quite as well during Promised Land Season 1 Episode 1, but we have more background with a bit more screentime.
Carmen is smart, savvy, and slept on, and the rest of the Sandovals will one day rue the day they didn’t put some more respect on her name.
She seems the most laidback out of the bunch, and she likes to have some fun. Her quip to her bedmate about her father using him to fertilize the vineyard if he found him there was as funny as a woman still sneaking partners into the house at her age.
It seems there is a lot about Carmen the others don’t pay attention to or dismiss. It was interesting to learn that she is queer, but unlike Antonio, this doesn’t cost her the family. One can only assume that it’s because they don’t know or never pay attention to her.
Carmen radiates middle child energy, right down to constantly getting overlooked or not taken seriously with the business. And that’s why it was pleasing when she was the one to figure out what was happening with Veronica where her father and brothers fell short.
She’s more observant than anyone gives her credit for, and she knew her sister was acting strangely. She didn’t bat an eye over Veronica’s admission, and instead, she went to work helping Veronica fix the car and cover up what happened. Carmen at the dealership was a work of art.
Carmen: You hit that man.
Veronica: What? Who? Cruz Delgado? I don’t know what to do.
She’s genuinely good with people and a natural charmer. It’s something that, thus far, her other siblings may lack. Perhaps it’s because she doesn’t have anything at stake with Heritage House, so it comes across as authentic and not for ulterior motives when she does things.
As much as she was charming the dealership owner to fix her sister’s car under the table, the familiarity between them and how they communicated let you know that she shows genuine interest in those around her. It pays to have someone with that quality on your side when handling any business.
Veronica saw her sister in a new light, and she extended a hand and gave the impression she would try to help her sister out a bit more pitching her wine label to everyone, but it felt like an empty platitude. It was sweet to see the two hermanas bonding and carrying this big secret.
The hour had a running theme with hermanas from Carmen and Veronica in the present to Lettie and Margaret and Lettie and Rosa in the past. But it’s doubtful Veronica will stop gatekeeping Carmen’s ideas and suggestions about wine labels and the business.
Oh, sweetie. If my father knew you were here, he would chop you up and use you as fertilizer for next year’s Chardonnay.
Carmen
Veronica already has a lot on her plate, but Cruz waking up and recalling everything is a nightmare for her. It’s crazy; on the one hand, it would’ve been concerning if he died because Veronica would face manslaughter charges if the truth got out. Cruz can hang everything over her head or destroy her with one statement to the police.
Delgado is already facing trouble now that the authorities know he’s been falsifying documents and papers for undocumented workers. What’s to stop him from bringing Veronica down, too, after what she did to him?
It’s in his best interest to use this as leverage to enlist the Sandovals’ help and money to get out of any legal trouble he’ll face or any expenses he wracks up. And they’ve established that Veronica isn’t as shrewd as her father, so she’ll allow someone to blackmail her before she does anything else.
Goodness knows what Joe will do when he finds out the truth. He was too preoccupied with covering up his past and trying to screw with Mateo before making a bargain to appease Lettie.
Mateo: You’re scared.
Joe: Of what? Competing against you?
Mateo: Of what I know. Is that right, Carlos?
It’s like all the best parts of Joe are thanks to Lettie, and without him serving as his moral compass, he’d be more unscrupulous than ever. He didn’t value Mateo nearly enough, but only after Mateo made his Carlos threats did Joe start taking him seriously.
All Mateo wants to do is have a vineyard of his own and make wine. His years of experience as a general manager at Heritage House and passion for it would suggest that he’s capable of success, but Joe doesn’t believe in him at all.
I wonder how much of Joe’s not believing in Mateo is due to his feelings about Billy? After all, taking over the vineyard was Billy’s idea, not Joe’s. Joe couldn’t wait to swoop in and throw his money around, purchasing land he didn’t need right from under Mateo just because he could.
Mateo tossed his threats around too much. If you have that type of heat on somebody, don’t talk about it, be about it. As much as you want to side with Mateo, you can’t blame Joe for his reaction to Mateo constantly dangling “Carlos” over his head.
You can play that card, hurt me, maybe even bring me down. Just remember, I’m not the only one who is undocumented. And it’s not just Daniela. Are you willing to blow up your mother’s life, too?
Joe
It took next to no time for Joe to remind Mateo that he’s not the only undocumented person; Lettie is, too. It’s no way Mateo can drop this gauntlet and use it as any leverage without it harming his mother as well.
Nevertheless, I don’t know if it was the best idea for him to rent the vineyard from Joe and agree to give him part of his earnings. As long as Joe owns the land, Mateo is still under Joe’s thumb. It’s annoying. It shifted from Mateo finding a path of his own to once again having to prove his stepfather/uncle wrong.
A Mateo/Antonio/Margaret team-up would’ve been epic if Margaret succeeded in purchasing the land herself. Although, Mateo wants to find a way of his own. Interestingly, Daniela remains by his side. She doesn’t have anywhere to go, but she grounds Mateo and fits him.
You can see history repeat itself and parallels among characters and their relationships, the past and the present.
Daniela has a nurturing, supportive, calming effect on Mateo, similar to Lettie’s with Billy and Joe when they were younger. Lettie was correct to see herself in Daniela in more ways than one.
And Joe at least nodded at the parallel between himself and Mateo when he shared that Mr. Honeycroft didn’t think he’d be a good winemaker either.
Joe knows what it’s like to prove his doubters wrong. But he also knows what it’s like to take over an empire, so it’s probably not that Mateo doesn’t have potential; it’s that Mateo could have the talent and motivation to repeat history with Joe.
It will be poetic justice if how he gained the vineyard is how he lost it and by his brother’s son, no doubt.
Lettie: Our son’s a drug addict. He skipped school today, came home wasted. I lied for him told the principal he sick. Covered for him because I knew how you’d react.
Joe: I’m going to kill that boy.
Lettie: You won’t do anything, Joe. I let you drive away one of my sons. I’ll be damned if I let you drive away another.
Lettie is so put off by Joe that it’s a wonder they managed to stay together this long. She blames him for the tension with Mateo, and she refuses to allow him to do anything to Junior.
You can tell Joe has certain feelings about addiction and his brother. He already doesn’t show much interest in Junior, so it would only get worse if he leads the charge in dealing with Junior’s addiction.
Junior is a troubled kid, and I can’t wait until we dig into why that is. He’s not happy, and he struggles a lot from what we’ve seen so far. He always blindsides his mother with his behavior, too.
Intriguingly, it’s not Billy and Mateo that we see interacting so much right; it’s Billy and Junior. Billy can understand and help Junior as a recovering addict himself. Junior isn’t aware of who Billy is, but at some point, he probably will.
Interestingly, through Junior, we can see Lettie and Billy getting closer, and since she is struggling with Joe right now, that can be a dangerous thing.
We knew her past with the brothers was complicated, and it’s starting to unfold in the flashbacks. Lettie had such a fondness for both guys, and you could see how much she cared about them and took care of them. Based on their time on the vineyard, all they seemed to have was one another.
Joe had feelings for Lettie from his time spent with her before they got to Heritage House, but he held back and never wanted to make it known. He kept trying to wait for the right time to do something about it.
But in the interim, Billy started falling for Lettie, too. They spent so much time together, and she looked after them, so you can see why he developed feelings. He alluded to Joe making a move before someone else did, but Joe must’ve never thought his brother would do that to him.
Joe wasn’t oblivious, though. He saw his brother was falling for Lettie and tried to nip it in the bud, but it’s foolish of him to act as if he had dibs on a person. And Billy was right about Joe’s reaction to Margaret.
A young Margaret thrown into the mix makes for a messy 30-year-old quadrangle.
Joe’s almost antagonistic relationship with Margaret right off the bat isn’t surprising. Even in the present, the way they get on with each other comes across like some twisted foreplay.
Margaret driving up the bid during the present just to get back at Joe followed by their exchange was the equivalent of hair-pulling and bra-strap popping during recess.
Joe viewed Margaret as some spoiled rich girl who only used them for entertainment and hid them from her racist father. But as he loosened up during the teen day by the pool, you could sense the mutual attraction between them both.
Mateo: I thought you didn’t think I was a winemaker.
Joe: I don’t. But old man Honeycroft said the same thing about me, and, well, look how that turned out?
Billy may have wanted to own the vineyard one day, but Joe was the one who was a natural and had a palate, and it impressed Margaret. Joe’s gifted, but did he follow that because it was his passion or something of which he was talented?
Shockingly, it wasn’t the younger versions of Margaret and Joe interacting that was the most interesting; it was Lettie and Margaret! It keeps getting juicier with these revelations from the past.
Who would’ve ever guessed that Margaret and Lettie were close friends and that Margaret went as far as to compare them to sisters? How the hell did these people end up where they were? Maybe this is why Margaret always mentions Lettie when she’s sniping at Joe.
The fast friendship between the women was endearing. Margaret came from a life of privilege, and she was naive and ignorant about things, but her instant interest in Lettie was from a deep respect for Lettie’s ability to teach.
We’re the same size. Like hermanas.
Young Margaret
It speaks volumes that Margaret wanted to learn how to speak Spanish to communicate with her employees better. And she was determined to take over the vineyard and run it someday, even if her father didn’t believe a woman should.
It sounded like Margaret and her brother were more cultured than their racist, uncouth father. She cared about Lettie and their friendship, and she didn’t think twice about the restrictions or petty class divisions. Ironically, fellow Latina and housemaid Marta treated Lettie and the boys as if they were beneath her.
For ages, one could go on about the loaded house/field worker narrative that points to the subtle, poignant commentary the series is digging into without coming across like an after-school special, and I genuinely appreciate that about Promised Land.
Things may have changed for Margaret and Lettie after Mr. Honeycroft’s comment, or perhaps they didn’t. But the flashbacks are among the most enriching aspects of this series. Margaret and Lettie’s friendship and how it blossomed and then fell apart has my interest.
But this context about Margaret’s ambitions makes the vineyard stake in the present more enjoyable than ever.
Margaret always had an uphill battle with her father’s estate. She always wanted Heritage House. As with Veronica, Margaret worked for it and dreamed about it. She hoped to carry on the legacy, and winemaking was her passion.
She’s probably the person who showed Joe the business side of the ropes. It’s no wonder she feels the way she does about Heritage House. The irony of the name is never lost here.
How did Joe push Margaret out of her own legacy and company and make it his own?
It’s fascinating how Joe became everything he disliked, isn’t it? He had issues with Margaret as a privileged, rich girl, yet he became wealthy, and his children are the same.
Honeycroft didn’t believe he could be a winemaker and was sexist enough not to want Margaret to take over. He probably hoped his son would instead. Meanwhile, Joe treated Mateo the same way Honecroft did him, and you can tell that he wanted Antonio to take over the business rather than the more passionate Veronica.
Joe looks down on his staff similarly to Honecroft. The list goes on.
Margaret’s determination to get back her father’s legacy, probably more for her sake than honoring her father, has some merit. We’re still waiting for everything else to unfold, but it’s making her far more sympathetic than Joe right now.
Joe: Do you wake up in the morning thinking of ways to screw me over?
Margaret: Oh, Joe. I go to bed thinking about it, too.
And you can’t help but root for her and Antonio in their endeavors. Antonio didn’t have screentime during this hour, but they used him effectively. As suspected, he relayed the information about Carlos to his mother, and now the two of them are determined to find out who this man is and why Joe got rattled by the name.
Antonio tried his best to get the information out of Mateo, but Mateo clammed up about it. But now Antonio found that drum filled with burnt-up photos and belongings and the old truck with bloodstains in it. He probably thinks his father murdered someone by now.
Little does he know that blood belonged to Rosa. A young Margaret may have considered Lettie akin to a sister, but Lettie’s biological sister, Rosa, was still out there. It was shocking when Lettie missed that phone call, and we saw that she didn’t make it to Mexico, but rather someone was keeping her hostage.
Where exactly was Rosa? And where is she now?!
Más Notas:
- Name a bigger flex than Lettie graciously dealing with Marta treating her, Joe, and Billy like trash when they were teenagers, but now she’s her boss. Marta still works as a housemaid… for them. Imagine the humble pie she had to eat when Joe, then Lettie, took over.
- Marta’s telling Junior that no one likes a narc tracks for a girl who didn’t snitch on Margaret and her friends when Mr. Honeycroft came home. Marta has seen all the things and has all the tea, you know it!
- On a scale of 1-10, how bad is it that I’m shipping Lettie and Billy, the priest? You can feel the hurt and love that’s still there.
- While I’m already headed to hell in a handbasket, Margaret and Joe would have the hottest hate sex. Are we supposed to believe they wouldn’t fall into bed together one good time just to work out some of that pent-up frustration? It’s the freaking chemistry!
- One can only imagine how much it sucks for Junior and how much judgment he deals with being the only one in his family who doesn’t speak Spanish.
- Speaking of Junior, wouldn’t it be a wild twist if Billy is also Junior’s father? It’s just something about how much Joe dislikes his youngest son and treats him poorly, and now Junior is battling addiction too — it feels plausible.
- I don’t know which I’m looking forward to most: Joe seeing his brother again for the first time in years or Lettie and Margaret finally sharing the screen in the present.
Antonio: The other night at the anniversary party, Mateo said a name, Carlos Rincón. Do you have any idea who that is?
Margaret: No.
Antonio: Well, whoever he is, just hearing his name gave Joe a start. He tried to hide it, but I don’t ever think I’ve seen my pops so rattled.
Margaret: Then let’s try to find out who this Carlos Rincón is.
- As for the missing siblings, I need to know where Rosa is in the present if she’s coming back, and what happened to Margaret’s brother?
- Katya Martín has such a commanding presence in the flashback portion of the series and is becoming a standout. Kerri Medders was also quite impressive, and the two played off each other well.
Over to you, Promised Land Fanatics. What are your Rosa theories? Are you surprised that Margaret and Lettie were close? Will Delgado blackmail Veronica? Hit the comments!
If you missed anything, you can watch Promised Land online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.