One Hundred Years of Solitude – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Remedios Moscote

Episode 5 of One Hundred Years of Solitude gives us a look into Remedios Mascote. We begin with Remedios having a vivid dream about bleeding in a bathtub, which abruptly ends when she awakens to discover her menstruation has begun. Convinced that this marks her transition to womanhood, she promptly starts her marriage to Aureliano. As a dutiful daughter-in-law, Remedios forms a strong bond with Aureliano’s family, particularly with Jose, and takes on the role of caring for him.

Unlike Aureliano and Remedios, Pietro and Rebeca are unable to wed. Amaranta sneakily sends Pietro a letter informing him of his mother’s death and he leaves immediately on the day before the wedding. It is only when Pietro’s mom shows up for the wedding that the truth is revealed. However, the two don’t give up hope that they will marry in the future.

The presence of the bright and kind Remedios in Buendia’s family home brings a sense of peace to the family. She becomes the light of joy in the family with her youthfulness and love for life. Even Arcadio, who sequestered himself in the lab, found Remedios to be a sweetheart.

However, like a cloud of darkness, Pilar shows up with a son. This time, she brings Aureliano’s child, and he accepts responsibility. Being of a kind nature, Remedios accepts the child as her own and dotes on him. Ursula is pissed at her son and confronts him. Aureliano refuses to back down and claims his son. He warns his mom not to treat his son like she did Arcadio. Aureliano breaks the news to Mascote, and he is surprised that his father-in-law is not angry. Mascote asks for the boy to be baptised and given his parents’ name.

With the presence of Father Nicanor, who tries to rally people to build a church, Rebeca tries to fasten her wedding to Pietro. Unfortunately, Ursula is not going to make it easy, and neither will Amaranta. They insist that Rebeca and Pietro need to get married in a church.  An argument breaks out at the dinner table when Arcadio accuses the family of turning conservative overnight. Mascote uses this strife to convince Arcadio to be the new teacher at the new school in Macondo. In the end, Arcadio leaves the Buendia’s home without a second thought and takes Mascote’s offer. He moves to the school and becomes the new principal.

Remedios pregnancy news brings even more joy to the family and Aureliano gets a premonition that she is carrying twins. The good news even causes Amaranta and Rebeca to call a truce. In the meantime, Rebeca grows more desperate and starts loudly masturbating in the house, making everyone uncomfortable. Unfortunately, Father Nicanor fails to raise funds for the church, and Rebeca worries she will have to wait a decade to get married.  

Father Nicanor tries to use science to prove the divine nature of God, but Jose calls him out on it. Only Father Nicanor could understand Jose as he speaks Latin. The two grow close, but once Jose explains why his family keeps him tied to the chestnut trees, the priests stop visiting. As things get bleak for Ursula, her close friends abandon her since they think she is turning into a conservative.

Simultaneously, as Rebeca continues to have earth-shattering masturbation sessions, Ursula grows desperate. She secretly gives Father Nicanor the funds to build a church and announces Rebeca and Pietro will get married in a month. Amaranta doesn’t take the news well and makes a poison to kill her sister.

At school, Arcadio starts growing feelings for Pilar, not knowing she is his mom. He tries to sleep with her, but she manages to escape by promising him that she will return later that night. Instead of returning, Pilar sends him a different girl, Santa Sofía. Arcadio falls for the girl and forgets all about Pilar. He also starts a friendship with the new doctor in town,

Unfortunately, Remedios wakes up one night screaming in pain and bleeding. She dies before Aureliano can manage to get help. She dies from a blood infection, but Aureliano never saw this in his premonition. After her burial, Rebeca’s wedding is called off, and Ursula declares a year of mourning. She closes all the windows and doors in the house and bans loud talking in the house for a year.

Everyone in the Buendia family grieves in their way. Aureliano returns to the lab, lost in his pain. However, one day, the return of Jose Arcadio brings a gush of wind that opens the doors and windows in the Buendia family home.

The Episode Review

The return of Jose Arcadio gives hope to the Buendia family after the painful loss of Remedios. In a way, he brings in a gush of hope, but we shall wait and see if he will bring more shame to the family.

The death of Remedios sends everyone in the Buendia’s family into solitude. Aureliano loses his will to live and goes back to the alchemy lab. The lab has always been his haven, where he hid when the world got too tough. For his father, the lab was his introduction to a new world. Where possibilities lived, but also his haven when things got tough in his marriage, like when Ursula left.

With Jose’s condition getting worse, the Conservative government is slowly sinking its paws into the town of Macondo. It starts with the priest, and Mascote demands to have the wedding in a church. Slowly but surely, the people of Macondo are being turned.

Lastly, we have Arcadio and Pilar. This is a tricky situation, given that they are mother and son. Unfortunately, Arcadio has no clue that he has fallen for his mom. Once again, Pilar becomes the weakness of another Buendia man. Thankfully, she averted the disaster by sending him a different girl. Still, this would have been the perfect opportunity to come clean.