TV Recap: “Promised Land” Episode 4 – “El Regalo (The Gift)”

Another week means more drama for the Sandoval family and everyone in their orbit. This week’s episode of Promised Land is titled “El Regalo (The Gift),” which has multiple meanings as it pertains to the plot. Here is a detailed recap of the fourth episode of the new ABC drama.

Joe (John Ortiz) looks into the eyes of his long-missing brother Billy (Yul Vazquez) and asks him how long he’s been back. Junior (Miguel Angel Garcia) asks how they know each other, but they don’t answer. Lettie (Cecilia Suárez) interjects, saying this is all her fault and that she told Billy not to tell Joe he was back. Billy speaks, telling Joe it’s been a month. Joe punches Billy, knocking him to the ground, commanding Junior to come with him and leaving Lettie behind.

Veronica (Christina Ochoa) stands outside her house holding her daughter as Michael (Andrew J. West) prepares to leave for a business trip in San Francisco. “Have fun, stay safe, make lots of money,” Veronica tells him, which makes Michael defensive about the missing $50 grand from the previous episode. “Don’t worry, try not to spend any unauthorized funds,” he snaps back. As he drives away, Veronica calls Cruz Delgado (Carlos Javier Rivera), the man she hit and then hired to tail her husband. She tells him Michael just left and we see Cruz pull out to follow her husband.

Junior tells Antonio (Tonatiuh) and Carmen (Mariel Molino) about Billy’s return in the kitchen when Lettie comes in. She asks Junior how he’s doing and he insists that he’s fine. Carmen makes a joke about inviting Billy to her upcoming birthday party and it upsets Lettie.

Mateo (Augusto Aguilera) tries some of the wine on his vineyard and spits it out. He tells Daniela (Natalia del Riego) that the previous owner, Haskins, left him some barrels and if he can’t make something from it that can be sold, he won’t have enough money for rent. She asks him if he has any shoelaces for the shoes her mother gave her when she left Mexico, which brings up a conversation about how far away her family is, but how close Mateo’s is. He tells her they feel farther away now as Lettie comes in. “He’s back,” she says. Mateo asks if she’s talking about his father and she nods.

Margaret Honeycroft (Bellamy Young) has taken Carmen horseback riding, apologizing for what happened with the Taste of Sonoma event and blaming Joe for stifling Carmen’s creativity. Carmen gossips about Billy’s return and Margaret tells her that while she doesn’t doubt that Lettie loves Joe, nobody turned Lettie’s attention like Billy. Carmen brings up heer birthday and invites her birth mother, who initially tells her that it wouldn’t be a good idea, but Carmen insists and Margaret agrees to go.

In 1987, Billy (Rolando Chusan) drives the blue truck with Lettie (Katya Martín) and Joe (Andres Velez) beside him on their way to Bakersfield to buy Lettie’s sister’s freedom. On the way, they get pulled over by a cop (Rob Mayes) who tells them that the truck has no registration so he needs to take them in. Joe bribes him with $1,000 when the officer doesn’t believe their story that they work on a vineyard and were sent to Bakersfield to pick up replacement equipment. The officer takes the money, but now they are short on the $5,000 asking price for Rosa.

Veronica calls Cruz to ask why he didn’t call her when they got to San Francisco. He tells her that Michael didn’t go to San Francisco, he’s in Los Angeles at a party. Veronica asks him to go inside and Cruz tells her he’s too brown, but he agrees to send her the address and photos from outside.

Mateo finds Billy at Junior’s school and his father confesses that Lettie gave him Mateo’s number, but he couldn’t bring himself to dial it. They hug as Billy tells his son that he’s been sober for ten years. “There’s so much I wanna ask you,” Mateo says, inviting his dad to dinner, who rejects his invitation. “This is a big change for both of us,” Billy says, adding that his son shouldn’t forgive him so quickly and should let him earn his forgiveness over time. Mateo leaves upset, especially when Billy justifies what Joe did to his busted lip.

Lettie pours herself a glass of wine in the kitchen when Joe enters and she asks him to talk. He barks an order at her to have the pool cleaned before Carmen’s birthday and when she asks to talk again, he tells her there’s nothing to talk about if she and Billy were only talking, but he adds a remark about how her ex-husband who abandoned his family is a better influence on their son Junior than he is and is clearly upset. She asks him to let her apologize and he quickly says “Apology accepted.” He walks away, denying Lettie’s request to talk this out and open up to her.

In 1987, the blue truck pulls up to the house and Joe convinces Billy to leave the gun they brought in the truck to not incite a bigger fight inside. Lettie agrees that it’s a good idea and they go to the door and knock. Several men are inside, including Victor (Rick Mancia) who asks to see the money. When they tell him they’re short, he says that maybe he only gives them part of Rosa. Victor doesn’t accept less than the $5,000 and Lettie offers to swap places with Rosa, but Victor makes a new deal to keep both girls as collateral while Joe and Billy go get the rest of the money. Lettie is then reunited with Rosa (Ariana Guerra) in the darkroom where she’s been kept, who tells Lettie that Victor came to get her from the hospital. Lettie asks if they’ve touched her and she explains that because of her wound, they haven’t yet. But she cautions that Lettie doesn’t have the same excuse when the men get drunk, adding that they will likely kill Billy and Joe when they return and sell them both, splitting them up again.

Margaret has sent a stylist to Heritage House to help Carmen pick a dress for her party, with Antonio and Lettie observing. Veronica arrives and Carmen reveals that she invited Margaret, which makes Veronica so upset that she vows not to attend the party. Lettie tells Carmen that it’s okay that she invited her birth mother, but Veronica goes on about how she was so young that she doesn’t remember when Margaret left, referring to it as creating “An empty space” in their lives, which Lettie takes offense to. Later, the stylist has spread out jewelry for the women and cufflinks for the men for the party and when Lettie comments on the price of it all, the stylist reminds her that Margaret is footing the bill. Lettie insists on paying for half as Margaret enters, asking Lettie how she’s doing now that Billy has returned.

Mateo confronts Joe at work, angry that his stepfather punched his father. Joe asks him why his father hasn’t reached out to see him in the month he’s been back and implies that Billy’s reappearance is dangerous for Mateo. Mateo believes that Joe is worried that Billy will expose his lies, but Joe swears he never lied to him or his mother and has given Mateo many opportunities his father never could. “People don’t change, Mateo,” Joe warns him. “Only their lies do.” Later, Junior comes to Mateo’s house to talk about Billy. “It’s weird, I feel closer to him than I do to dad,” he reveals.

Cruz texts Veronica while she’s in the office. It’s a video of Michael getting into an SUV followed by some beautiful women. She immediately texts Michael, asking how his business dinner went. He immediately texts her back: “Boring, but made some connections.” Joe interrupts, telling Veronica that he heard that she’s not going to Carmen’s party. “I don’t like how Margaret is sticking her nose in it,” she tells her dad and he agrees, but adds that if she doesn’t go, she will regret it. She asks him if he and Lettie are okay after she didn’t tell him that Billy was back. “I want it to be, but when you start to lose trust, what are you left with?”, he asks. Veronica doesn’t respond, but can certainly empathize with those feelings.

Lettie goes through a memento box of items she saved from Carmen’s childhood. In the box, she finds a drawing Carmen made of the Vineyard as a child. She smiles. Shortly after, Lettie and Joe get ready for the party in their luxurious walk-in closet, neither talking to the other.

In 1987, Joe and Billy return to the house and haven’t been able to get the extra money. They instead plan to use the gun to get Lettie and Rose, but find that it’s missing. Inside, Lettie reveals the gun to Rosa and knocks on the door, asking to use the bathroom, when a man opens it, Lettie holds him at gunpoint and orders everyone to stay seated. There’s another girl and she asks her to get the car keys for her and Rosa, but when a man in a corner grabs a fireplace poker, Lettie shoots and takes out a lamp. A skirmish ensues and they run out of the house, with one of the men following them outside and shooting. Billy sees him and charges the truck, hitting the man as Lettie and Rosa get in and they drive off.

Carmen’s party has begun with a live band playing, a neon sign that reads “Happy Birthday Carmen,” and an open bar, with Carmen teaching her drink to the bartender. Margaret arrives and greets Antonio with a cheek kiss, her son whispering that she’s closer to Carmen’s 5% of Heritage House now. They laugh as Veronica arrives and Margaret goes to her, giving her eldest daughter a hug and telling her that she missed her. “I’m only here for my sister,” Veronica says, “You’re still dead to me.”

Mateo works on his vineyard when Daniela pulls up in his red truck, with Junior and Billy getting out. She coordinated Billy’s visit for Mateo, who begins to give his father a tour of the grounds. Mateo waxes nostalgic about a memory of falling out of a tire tree as a child and breaking an arm, being rushed to the hospital. Billy tells his son that he remembers the events incorrectly, that Mateo fell because Billy was drunk and pushed him into the tree. And it wasn’t Billy who took Mateo to the hospital, it was Joe. “He never told me that, he just let me think it was you,” Mateo realizes out loud. Billy tells his son that Joe isn’t a monster and likewise, he’s not the man that Mateo remembers. He encourages Mateo to go to his sister’s birthday party and bring Daniela as his date.

Margaret approaches Joe as “Your Love is King” by Sade begins to play, telling him that the party reminds her of their wedding night. They reminisce about the way O.M. Honeycrofts scowled at them through the ceremony and Margaret extends her hand to invite Joe to dance. He looks over at Lettie and accuses Margaret of trying to start a war with her attempts to buy Heritage House. She insists that he dance with her and he complies, again looking over for Lettie. As Joe and Margaret dance, their kids stand together watching.

After the dance, Margaret clinks her glass to begin a toast, saying how happy she is to have gotten close to Carmen again and  giving her a gift in front of everyone, a pair of very expensive earrings. Lettie brings forward a gift and says “I got you something small, but with much love.” Carmen opens it and is surprised to find a drawing she made of the vineyard as a child that’s been framed. She explains to her guests that art has always been a passion for her and that this drawing was the first one that she was really proud of. She is misty eyed as she thanks Lettie for keeping it all these years, hugging Lettie as Margaret looks on.

In 1987, Rosa has arrived at Heritage House, looking at the stars on a blanket with Lettie in the vineyard. Billy decides to open the bottle of wine that Margaret gave them to celebrate. As Billy pours Rosa a glass, Joe sits with Lettie and tells her how scared he was when he realized she took the gun. She says that she was scared too, but knew that he would come back for her. The four friends give a toast to the United States.

Lettie and Joe get ready for bed and Lettie breaks the silence by telling Joe that his attempt to make her jealous by dancing with Magaret worked. He doesn’t say anything in response. “Joe, I’m sorry,” Lettie says. “I’m sorry I lied to you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Billy was back. You deserve better.” Lettie swears that nothing happened between them and begs Joe to open up to her. “You lied to me, Lettie,” Joe finally speaks, building into a rant about how he has always put Lettie first, even when he was married to Magaret, bringing Lettie to tears. “I trusted you. Everything that we have been through from the day that we came to this country. You put your faith in God, I put my faith in you, in us. And that trust was the one thing I could rely on. You broke it. You broke it and I don’t think we can get it back.” Lettie cries as Joe gets up and walks away.

Billy, aka Father Ramos sits in the confessional when he hears someone enter on the other side. The partition slides open and he hears a woman say “Father, forgive me for I have sinned. I bribed a church official to transfer a priest to Sonoma.” He looks through the screen to see Margaret smiling back at him.

The next episode of Promised Land airs Monday, February 21st at 10/9c on ABC. Here’s a description of the next episode, titled “Los Rivales (Rivals).”

Joe reluctantly accepts Father Ramos’ help. Lettie spends the day with Daniela, while Mateo finds an unexpected business partner in Carmen. Veronica uncovers more about Michael. Young Joe and Billy encounter a visitor from their past.