Elena of Avalor S3 E24

## Plot

First of all, this is a slice of life episode that takes place on Mother's Day. It was originally supposed to air earlier, but then the pandemic happened. Francisco, Elena, Isabel, and Flo perform a song for Luisa for Mother's Day. Francisco says they all got her a gift, but Isabel, Elena, and Flo thought that the song was the gift. Isabel runs off to figure out what to get Luisa, and Flo follows her. Francisco gives his wife jewelry. Elena says she's giving her the gift of memories, and has her scepter's truth sight show them Luisa's favorite Día de las Madres. On a side note, I really wish that she used her truth sight more than a total of three times over the course of two episodes with *very* different tones. The whole family is in the chocolate shop. Luisa and Francisco are younger and only have grey hair instead of white, Lucia and Raul are alive and well, and Isabel is a cute baby! Elena and Esteban are little kids. Aw! Also, Lucia is supposed to be wearing the amulet in this flashback because Elena isn't fifteen yet, but she's not, probably because her Elena of Avalor character model was never seen wearing it. That only happened *very* briefly in the crossover special with Sofia the First, which was animated by a different studio with different software. That being said, the flashback takes place in La Vida Dulce, so it makes sense that Lucia would take off her jewelry before cooking or playing sports for instance, because that's what you're supposed to do, as well as put your hair up if it's really long. It doesn't explain why she and Luisa were still wearing all of their other jewelry, but whatever. Maybe she treated it like the Carnaval tiara and only wore it during special occasions. Elena wonders why Esteban was there. Luisa reminds her that this was the year he lost his parents and came to live with them in the palace. Francisco says he and Elena did everything together, and Luisa says she looked up to him like a big brother. This hurts so much, because we know what happened to their relationship afterwards. The recap even shows it again. Isabel decides to invent something to help Luisa with her gardening. Raul was a jokester, and he wasn't very good in the kitchen. He accidentally adds salt to a batch of chocolate instead of sugar. Esteban pranks Elena by claiming that it's the best batch they've made, and he saved a spoonful just for her. She retaliates by throwing chocolate at him. They start a food fight, but when Esteban tries to get her, he accidentally hits Luisa with chocolate instead. Elena apologizes, and so does Esteban… for what Elena did, even though his prank led to all of that. Looks like he always had trouble telling the truth and taking responsibility for his actions. They worry that Luisa is mad, but she throws chocolate at them. Baby Isabel makes her first invention to throw chocolate at all of them. In the present, Elena is confused. When Esteban told them why he betrayed them, he said he never felt like part of the family, but the memories clearly show otherwise. Luisa says they treated him like their own son. Francisco asks Elena to show them another happy memory. She shows them her favorite part of that day. The whole family handed out chocolate to children to give to their mothers. Elena tells Esteban that it's a family tradition, and now that he lives with them, it's his tradition too. Seeing the other children with their moms makes him sad though. Luisa decides to show him something special to cheer him up. In the present, she says that he went through so much at such a young age. Elena never understood how tough it was for him back then. Now she understands what it's like to suddenly lose both of your parents too soon. She wishes he had told her how he felt. Francisco tells her that he didn't like to talk about it. He needed a friend, and she was there for him. Isabel has created a machine called the Snip Snap to cut flowers and make bouquets, but something goes wrong, and it ruins the flowers. Elena asks her scepter where Luisa took Esteban. She took him to the grove where they got the cacao beans, also known as cocoa beans, for the chocolate. Luisa planted every tree herself to mark a special occasion in the family, like when Lucia and Margarita, Esteban's mother, were born. We finally know her name! Yes! There are also trees for when Margarita and Lucia got married, and probably many other occasions, like when Esteban, Elena, and Isabel were born. Luisa and Esteban plant a new tree to mark a special occasion: Esteban coming to live with them in the palace. Elena tells Luisa that Esteban was so lucky to have her. They all are. Isabel made some adjustments to her invention, but when she tests it out again, it ruins the whole garden. Elena decides to see what they did when they got back to the palace that day. Lucia says they should all wash up for the royal Día de las Madres portrait, but Elena suggests that they pose with their cooking aprons and chocolate all over them, and Raul agrees. Esteban wasn't there, but they could've sworn that he was in the painting with them. When they check though, he's not there. Luisa thinks he must've felt awful that she forgot him. Elena says he must've felt worse every time he walked past this painting, year after year. Luisa wonders if he was right about how they treated him. She thinks she didn't do her job. She wasn't a good enough mother to him. Francisco and Elena try to tell her that's not true, and then they encourage her to look to the future. They have to hand out chocolate to the children of Avalor soon, but they haven't made any, so they go to La Vida Dulce. Before they head inside, Elena notices some trees by the shop, and says she thought they always got their cacao beans from those trees. Luisa says they get them from their family grove, and she didn't plant those trees. Elena uses her scepter to find out who did. Esteban planted them on that Día de las Madres all those years ago. Luisa sent someone there to get him for the family portrait, but he was okay with missing it, because he knew there would be other portraits. He planted the trees to honor his mother and grandmother. Luisa is relieved that she didn't forget about him after all, and Elena says that he didn't forget her. Before they can make the chocolate, several elderly people enter the shop. It's all of the kids from the flashback that they gave chocolate to. They have gifts for Luisa. She was like a mother to all of them. Isabel and Flo show up. Isabel tells Luisa that she tried to invent a bouquet making machine for her, but instead it ruined the whole garden. She apologizes, but Luisa tells her that she shouldn't be sorry. She tried her best, and that's enough. They can plant a new garden together, but they should do it by hand. When they enter the kitchen, they see everyone with presents. They all thank Luisa for being like a mother to them for years, even Esteban. She says she's still going to make them all chocolate, and the sight of everyone helping and being happy makes her shed a tear. This was very much a filler episode, even more so than usual, since there's no action or adventure, but it gave a lot of insight into Luisa and Esteban as characters, plus it was just really cute seeing baby Isabel, young Elena, and young Esteban. Speaking of which, Hailey Hermosa and Ian Inigo did a great job as little Elena and Esteban. This was such a sweet episode. While it didn't air anywhere near Mother's Day, it just managed to squeeze into being in the same month as my mom's 50th birthday, even if they were still weeks apart. Congrats to the crew on winning *three* Daytime Emmys! I wish we could've seen Esteban in the present day though. Think about all of the things that he's missed out on since joining Ash, who never got to celebrate Mother's Day with her daughter because of her own ambition. It would've been nice to have seen Carla in this episode too, for the same reason, plus Mateo and Rafa, Naomi and Scarlett, Gabe and Blanca, Dulce and her kids, etc.