The Department of Time: Tiempo de lo oculto (Time of the Occult) First Watch

June 12, 2018 12:37 PM - Season 2, Episode 11

When the host of a show about paranormal mysteries and conspiracies reveals the existence of the Ministry on the internet, Salvador tries to convince him that he is mistaken by inviting him on a tour of headquarters, while pretending that it is the dullest government office in Spain.

Notes (contain spoilers)

* Lombardi drastically changes history during this episode. He even gets himself enshrined as the man who discovered the Americas before the timeline is corrected. His face replaces Columbus' on the 5000 pesetas bill.
* Anna Castillo plays Lombardi's daughter Sonia. She is a well-known actress in Spain who played Dorita in the long-running soap opera "Amar en tiempos revueltos (Love in Difficult Times)" which is set during the Spanish Civil War.
* When Lombardi and Sonia travel to 1485, she is convinced they've stepped onto a tv set. She mentions two other tv shows: "Isabel" (whose stars have previously appeared on this show) and "Águila Roja."
* Alonso learns the term “follomigo” during this episode. It translates as "Friends with Benefits" or "fuckbuddies."
* Lombardi, like the actor who plays him (Roberto Drago,) is Argentinian.
* Irene mocks the ratings for José Luis Garci's films in this episode. "There'd never been such high numbers for a Garci movie." Garci and Cayetana Guillén Cuervo used to be a couple.


Quotes

Julián: "What's up with you now?"
Alonso: "Do you have a 'fuckbuddy'?
Julián: "What?"
Alonso: "Forget about it."
--
[Irene, poking fun at Spanish civil servant stereotypes]
Irene: "I want everyone to install Solitaire on their computers. Make sure Lombardi sees them open."
Agent: "Does Minesweeper count too?"
Irene: "Have them both open at the same time, And don't you dare minimize."
--
[Lombardi is gagged.]
Julián: "You will never see an Argentinian this silent."
--
Lombardi: "¡La reconcha de la Lola!"
[Netflix translates this as "Holy Fucking Shit." The epithet is Argentine, and while the idiom may be just as strong, that is not an accurate translation of that phrase.]
--
Lombardi: "I told you to keep filming."
Sonia: “Why should I bother to film these doodles?”
Velázquez: [hissing and rising out of his seat] “What do you mean doodles, Miss?!" [Salvador pushes him back down into his chair.]
--
Salvador: "Velázquez, how are you getting on with the profile?"
Velázquez: "Haste will get us nowhere. Haste is a bad advisor.... Like they say, 'Dress me slow. I'm in haste.' ....We'll always get further step by step"
Salvador: "Velázquez stop with your fucking sayings and get done! Coño! "
Ernesto: "Every minute that he's in the past, Lombardi becomes more dangerous."
Velázquez: "If you watch me, it takes longer."
Alonso [Grabbing the drawing out of Velázquez's hands]: "This will be enough to catch this ruffian."
Velázquez: "I haven't done the shading!"
Julián "It's fine. Do the coloring later."
Velázquez: "Color in a charcoal sketch? Julian, I think highly of you. Don't make me think otherwise."

posted by zarq (5 comments total)

Well, in the situation of Alpha level alarm, which the unusually dull "Office of the Deputy Undersecretary for the Ministry of Public Works" now finds itself, the agent closest to the 1996 Winter Sale at SEPU department store (closed 2002) provides a revised outfit for everybody to go with the solitair and minecraft.

Seeing Ernesto in a grey knitted waistcoat and a shirt with wide stripes and clumsy collar choosing the dullest possible clip-on bow tie, you do appreciate how very sharp his suits normally are. I couldn't work out who the blond woman in a grey suit and scrambled hair was till she sat down to talk to Amelia.

I wasn't much into the Columbus plot but I did love the shenanigans at the office. And Alonso is becoming endearing.
posted by glasseyes at 1:52 PM on June 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

In addition to all the bits quoted above, I loved the exchange:
Salvador: If history has changed, why didn't we receive an alert?
Julián: We are the alert!

And we got the reveal of Amelia's changed photograph. (Which, having not seen in so many episodes, I'm not sure I would have remembered that there used to be a baby in the photo if you hadn't spoiled it in that earlier thread, zarq, so, no harm done.)

I did wince at all the shooting blanks at people close range - I know it was just for laughs, but, a blank killed Jon-Erik Hexum, so I'm not a fan of the whole 'relax, they're just blanks' trope.

Overall though, a fun episode. Lombardi totally won me over by the end.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:12 PM on June 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have family in Argentina, and the Argentine jokes made me laugh out loud. This is also the first time I've really noticed a sharp difference between the Netflix translation and what was being said by the actors, simply because Lombardi's "La concha de la Lola!" epithet is similar to one used very often by a couple of women relatives.

Velázquez has been one of my favorite characters for a while now, and his scenes in this episode were hilarious.
posted by zarq at 6:30 PM on June 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Velasquez has perfected giving a view of his back to the camera that is radiating emotion! (And a view of his front.)

Shooting blanks! I was like really, Salvador, you're going to shoot a guy in front of his child now?!? He didn't know it wouldn't work. Really, what with this and the prison dungeon one should have lost all sympathy for this lot by now. But no. Somehow they're immensely sympathetic.

"La reconcha de la Lola!" Is that along the lines of "Jupiter's Cock!" but a female version?
posted by glasseyes at 11:39 PM on June 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Oops. Sorry. That's a typo on my part. The word is la concha, not la reconcha.

Sort of.

I'm not a native speaker, so take this with a grain of salt, but from what I've been told: The word "concha" means vagina in Argentina and Puerto Rico (and possibly in other Spanish speaking countries, but my understanding is that in Argentina it's actually somewhat more equivalent to the "C" word in English, so a vulgar term for a woman's vulva/vagina. It actually means "shell" (like a conch shell) in Spanish. The crossover may be due to visual similarities.

The word "coño" has a similar meaning in Spain.

My Argentine friends and family may say, "la concha de tu abuela" or "la concha de tu madre" as an epithet. In this case, 'Lola' means whore, I believe. But i don't know the etymology behind why.
posted by zarq at 6:57 AM on June 13, 2018