YMMV / Cable Girls

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Does Francisco really love Alba/Lidia, or is he just nostalgic for the simpler days they spent together as optimistic teenagers? And does Carlos really love Alba/Lidia, or does he just see her as a means for rebelling against his wealthy, upper-class family?
  • Does Lidia/Alba really love either Carlos or Francisco or is she just seeking some sort of stability for the first time in her life?
  • Does Marisol really love Pablo or is she just desperate to be married to avoid becoming an Old Maid?
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Elisa attempted suicide and has been hospitalized for vaguely explained mental health reasons. Mental illnesses were poorly understood in the '20s.
• Heartwarming Moments: The farewell between the girls right before Ángeles's unsuccessful escape attempt. Ángeles tearfully tells them how glad she is that they were all late for the telephone operator entrance exam, because she got to meet them. Awwwww.
  • Pablo and Marga's obvious, devoted love for each other.
• Jerkass Woobie: Lidia/Alba. She's a manipulative schemer and Consummate Liar, but she's being blackmailed for a crime she didn't commit, and she's had to lie and scheme for years to survive, since all her hopes for a safe, respectable life in Madrid were crushed as soon as she arrived.
• Moment of Awesome: Elisa (in season 2), sick of being treated like a fragile, invalid child by her family, finally plays the same game that everyone else is playing (negotiating with favours for favours/backstabbing) to escape her mother's plan to have her locked up in a sanitarium for the rest of her life.
  • Ángeles and the other girls finally taking down Mario.
  • Pablo, as soon as he finds out that Mario is an abusive husband, jumping right into the girls' escape plan for Ángeles and her daughter (without being asked) by keeping Mario stalled at work for as long as he can. Unfortunately, Mario figures out what's going on and stops his wife, but Pablo really tries, and Marga realizes what a good man she's snagged.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Mario beating up his wife Ángeles so badly that she miscarries what would have been their second child.
  • Doña Carmen arranging for Lidia to be kidnapped and forced to have an abortion. It's Doña Carmen's own grandchild that she wants aborted, to boot, because Lidia's not of the right social class to marry her son Carlos.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Ángeles losing her second baby and the increasing hopelessness of her situation as every attempt she makes to get away from Mario fails. Eventually, she has to kill him, with the help of her friends.
  • Lidia's backstory is also quite sad. She started off as an optimistic, starry-eyed teenager bound for a new life and a new start with her boyfriend in Madrid. But then a misunderstanding led to her arrest, her separation from Francisco, her recruitment by a brothel keeper, and then many years of having to lie, cheat, and seduce men for her survival. Then, at the very beginning of the series, her Only Friend gets murdered, and she gets arrested for it and blackmailed. Yikes.
• The Woobie: Ángeles, an abused wife in season 1 who spends all of season 2 covering up her abusive husband's death and being mentally manipulated to the point of near insanity by the cop she's having an affair with. Elisa as well. While her husband is ignoring her, her family's belittling her and making plans behind her back to have her locked up.