Caminhos do Coração
Caminhos do Coração () is a Brazilian telenovela aired on Rede Record. Created by Tiago Santiago and directed by Alexandre Avancini, it was replaced by a spin-off called "", airing since June 3, 2008. Plot. The plot develops around Maria Luz who is accused of killing Dr. Socrates Mayer, owner of one of the largest private clinics in the country, Progênese. Dr. Júlia, an affiliated physician of Progênese created genetically modified human beings, mutants with superpowers. Júlia has always maintained a secret laboratory on the fictional island of Arraial, where she performs the experiments that originated the mutants . She is helped by Gór, who has the power of hypnosis, and the superintelligent child Eugênio. Maria Luz has lived in the circus of Don Peppe with her parents Ana Luz and Pepe all of her life. She is the main attraction of the circus where she was raised and met first love interest Fernando. Maria is also the best friend of Juanita, her sister-in-law. Maria falls out of love with Fernando when he gets involved with Esmeralda. After Maria discovers that she is an adopted child, she finds herself in a tight spot: the police find her  lying near Socrates' dead body and accuse her of killing him. Maria then discovers that her real father is the person she is accused of killing. This was set up so that Maria could not inherit Socrates's large wealth. The Mayer family belongs to São Paulo's traditional elite. It is composed of the brothers Sócrates, Aristóteles and Platão Mayer. Ari is widowed and has three mutant children: Toni, who can deviate from bullets and has over human strength, Rodrigo, who has hypnotic powers, and Danilo, who has super agility and marries Lucinha to hide his homosexuality from his  father. Platão is married to Irma and has two daughters: Regina and Cléo, who are discovered to have the powers of survival and astral projection. The Mayer family is one of the shareholders of Progênese, together with Mauro Fontes and Josias Martinelli. Josias is married to Cassandra and is the father of Lucas, who reads thoughts, and Janete, who has the power of clairvoyance. After her arrest, Maria is helped by federal police officer Marcelo Montenegro, with whom she falls in love. Marcelo had recently been widowed by the death of Mabel who was poisoned. The poisoned sweet that killed  his wife was intended to be eaten by his mutant daughter Tatiana. By helping Maria to escape from the prison, Marcelo becomes a fugitive from the law and the couple go through several adventures to escape the unscrupulous commissioner Taveira, who feels an unanswered desire for Maria. Platão and Josias are murdered when they discover who is responsible for Socrates', Dr. Walker's (an American researcher who discovered the truth about the mutants) and Mabel's deaths. Maria and Marcelo are seeking to discover who hired serial killer Eric Fulisy to commit all the crimes. It is revealed in the  last chapter that Júlia hired Fulisy. She also hired attorney César Rubicão to kidnap Maria, when she was still a baby, and leave her anywhere. He chooses to leave her at the circus. Thirty years later, Socrates reveals that he would leave his entire wealth to a foundation, shocking his family. Afraid that it would harm her experiments, Júlia hired Eric to kill him and put Maria on the crime scene because she knew that Socrates would leave Maria his fortune if they ever met each other again. She suspected that if Maria received his wealth, she would close Progênese  and harm her experiences. Júlia then decided to eliminate all those who discovered or suspected that she was responsible for Socrates' death. She also hired Eric to kill Rosana and nurse Ruth among other failed killing attempts. Helga, former wife of Eric, who became a better person after leaving him, also suffered attacks, as did Tatiana, Marcelo and Maria. The season ended with Rubicão revealing in court, via hologram, who was responsible for the crimes. In the following season, "", Júlia drank some of the youth serum that she produced and adopted the pseudonym of Juli Di Trevi. Audience. On February  6, 2008, "Caminhos do Coração" became the first Rede Record telenovela to achieve the first place on the São Paulo TV rank. On that day, it was watched by around 1,2 million households (approximately 5 million people) in the city. A soccer match between Corinthians and Barueri aired by Rede Globo during the same timeslot was watched by 1,1 million households (around 4,4 million people). In its peak, the telenovela was watched by 1,5 million households (near 6 million people). The last chapter of "Caminhos do Coração" achieved an audience of more than 5 million people in São Paulo. It  was the highest audience for a Record telenovela since the last chapter of controversial "Vidas Opostas". This high rate made "A Favorita" achieve the worst telenovela debut in Globo's history.