El Libro

* Jack Davis, Kate Krantz, Darren Brandl, Simon Ore, James Fino, Paul Young (executive producers)
* Mike Griffin (co-executive producer)

### Cast

* Diane Guerrero
* Alfonso Herrera
* Jose Ruiz-Gonzales
* Bryan Greenberg
* Hector Santiago, Jr.
* Iliana I. Castillo

## Series Navigation

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Seis Niñas Muertas

***El Libro ("The Book")*** is the first episode of the first season of *Woman in the Book* and the first episode overall. It is developed by Daniel Persitz, written by Eva Gonzalez Szigriszt and Pamela Garcia Rooney, and directed by Jeanette Moreno King. It stars Diane Guerrero, Alfonso Herrera, Jose Ruiz-Gonzales, Bryan Greenberg, Hector Santiago, Jr., and Iliana I. Castillo.

The episode premiered on June 4th, 2021.

## Summary

After being separated due to the mysterious death of their parents, estranged siblings Lily, Ricardo, and Daniel Navarro reunite at their family's grand hacienda in Mexico to receive their inheritance. The siblings resurface the painful memories and the demons from the events that split them apart eighteen years ago.

## Plot

The episode begins on a dark and stormy night in 2003. In a grand library, a woman goes to her baby's crib, holding a ceremonial dagger over the child as a strange, black tar-like substance clings to her arm. She stares at the substance, horrified, as they lead back to a book that is open to a black-and-white picture of a woman. The woman's husband suddenly bursts into the library and is horrified at what he sees, immediately running to stop her and take the knife from her. As they wrestle, the knife suddenly plunges into his stomach, killing him. The woman starts to scream as her husband falls dead onto the floor, and the tar-like substance on her arm begins to manipulate the dagger and forces her to slit her throat. As the couple lie bleeding out, their other two children, Lily and Ricardo, enter the library and see their parents dead on the floor. Lily sees the book on the floor and starts to approach it, seeing that passages on the page are now missing and the tar-like substance has started to swirl. As she reaches down to touch it, the woman in the picture disappears, and a monstrous-looking woman suddenly appears in her place, roaring at Lily. A black arm suddenly appears from the book and Lily kicks it away, causing the book to close and trap the arm inside. Lily then goes to her infant brother, Daniel, who is still in his crib and picks him up, running out of the library and telling Ricardo to follow her.

Eighteen years later, a now-pregnant Lily is riding in a taxi cab back to her family's hacienda. She is waken up by her phone vibrating and sees that she's getting a call from Liam, which she ignores. She then looks out the window and sees her old home growing closer. As the taxi goes up the driveway, Lily locks eyes with an elderly woman tending the landscape. Lily gets dropped off and stares up at the house, almost in a trance, when the gardener woman from before tells her that the doors are open, startling her into dropping her things. The woman picks up her phone just as Liam calls her again, and the gardener remarks in English that Lily's a "busy mama". Lily tells her, once again in English, that she better get inside. Lily goes inside and is startled by a clock chiming. She goes deeper into the house and sees an assortment of family photos, including one of herself, her brothers, and her parents from eighteen years ago. She is brought from her thoughts by a young man coming to greet her -- who she recognizes as her baby brother Daniel, now an adult.

They go out to the courtyard, where Lily remarks that it's just like they left it, and Daniel replies that he wouldn't know, since he didn't remember it. They are then greeted by their brother Ricardo, who hugs Lily and tells her in English that she looks "basically the same", save for her pregnancy. Lily tells him that she's eight months along and that it's a boy, and Ricardo hesitantly congratulates her. Ricardo then greets Daniel, who asks if how long it's been since his siblings have last seen each other. Lily tells him that it's been eighteen years since then, and Daniel is surprised that they were all split up, asking if they've kept in touch over the years. At his siblings' nonverbal responses, Daniel suggests that they all bring their families and move back into the hacienda. Lily disagrees, saying that they have to sell the hacienda, telling her brothers that she just wants to collect her cut of the inheritance and start a new life with her baby, but she would like to get to know Daniel again. Daniel asks if they want to go on a tour of the hacienda, and Lily is once again hesitant.

In another room in the hacienda, the siblings find an assortment of old pictures displaying their previous family members. Lily tells Daniel that their great-grandfather, Antonio Navarro, was a book publisher in the late 1800. Daniel tells her that he grew up in town and heard stories about how Antonio's wife went insane and killed herself. Lily suddenly remembers how her parents died, and says in English that she needs to go get some water and leaves. Outside, Lily sees a strange black shadow on the other side of a door, and follows it, realizing that she's back inside the library. She goes inside and sees the eighteen year-old bloodstains on the carpet, and moves away from them. She then sees something inside the bookcase and pushes the books away to find a book titled "The Proud and Wondrous History of the Navarro Family". when she opens it, the words "proud" and "wondrous" are crossed out and replaced with "true" and "terrible", signed by a woman named Christina Navarro in a faded red substance. She wonders aloud if it is blood, and looks through the book to find the rest of the book has been annotated in the red substance, saying that Antonio Navarro and his family are murderers. She then finds the picture of the woman she saw eighteen years ago and tries to find another page. The next page she turns to has the same picture on it and Lily drops the book. The pages then flip to another picture of the woman, now much closer to the frame. Lily runs out of the library, not noticing the tendrils are following her.

Back with Daniel and Ricardo, Ricardo tells his brother that he hopes that they can put the past behind them. Daniel is rather excited to learn that he's part of the Navarro family, and that his adoptive parents are going to love living in the hacienda. Ricardo tells Daniel that if they could restore the hacienda, they could turn it into an upscale bed and breakfast, but Daniel asks him what Lilly thinks of all this. Elsewhere, Lily goes into her old room and looks at the voicemails from Liam. Each one relays Liam telling her that traveling so far away isn't safe for their baby, that she left all her medication at home and she knows what will happen if she doesn't take it, and that nobody will love her like he does. Lily goes into the bathroom to wash her face, and suddenly starts seeing flashes of the room in red. Upstairs in the library, a monstrous woman comes out of the book, and black tar drips down into the bathroom and lands on Lily's shoulder. The tar suddenly takes control of Lily's body and starts to make her choke herself, lifting her up in the air as if someone else was choking her. Ricardo and Daniel run into Lily's room and the invisible force throws Lily at them. Daniel looks down and notices scars on Lily's neck.

## Deaths

 **Maria Navarro** | Forced to slit her throat by the Woman in the Book.

## Cast

 Licia Alonso
 Unknown
 Patricia de Leon

## Trivia

* "El libro" translates to "the book" in Spanish, referring to the Navarro family's history book which is possessed by The Woman.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Crypt Monsters. "WOMAN IN THE BOOK Episode 1 | El Libro | By Crypt Monsters." Facebook Watch, Crypt Monsters; June 4th, 2021.