Daughter From Another Mother (Spanish: Madre sólo hay dos) is a 2021 Mexican Netflix streaming television series starring Ludwika Paleta as Ana Servín and Paulina Goto as Mariana Herrera.
The series tells of two very different women — career woman Ana and free-spirited university student Mariana — who discover four months after giving birth that they took home the other's newborn, and bring their families together to raise under one roof.
Ana's family includes her husband Juan Carlos (Martín Altomaro) and elder children, Ceci (Dalexa Meneses) and Rodrigo (Emilio Beltrán). Mariana's family includes her mother, Tere (Liz Gallardo) and her exes Pablo (Javier Ponce) and Elena (Oka Giner).
Season 1 premiered on January 20, 2021. Season 2 premiered on December 24, 2021. Season 3 premiered on December 25, 2022.
Tropes:
- Above the Influence: A retroactive version, in that it was not yet revealed that Mariana was in love with Ana when Ana kissed Mariana under the influence of drugs. But Mariana didn't take that as any sort of opportunity.
- Accidental Public Confession: For some
"reason", what Ana calls as millennial offices always seem to have someone leaving the PA system on, so when she and Mariana have the talk and Ana confesses her feelings before admitting her participation in certain questionable actions, everyone in the office is hearing until Cynthia finally interrupts them. - Affectionate Nickname:
- Juan Carlos's brother calls him "Juanqui".
- Pablo calls his daughter "Pingüina" which rhymes with Regina.
- Age-Gap Romance: With 17 years between them, Ana and Mariana start their real romance by the end of the third (and last) season.
- Bisexual Love Triangle:
- In season 1 between Mariana and her exes Pablo and Elena, neither of whom are over her and both of whom want her back. But then subverted in that Mariana doesn't really seem that interested in either one. She's still friendly with both of them, wants them both in her life as friends, but she's not really interested in rekindling a relationship with either of them.
- In season 3, Mariana finds herself in an entirely different bisexual love triangle with Ana and Ferrán.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Inverted. Ceci, at 17 is still a teenager but is permanently cheerful and bubbly always eager to help and guilty of being a likeable Spoiled Sweet.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Not usual per Mexican standards, but does happen in particular moments:
- Ana to Romelia when they meet to have a chat as friends and have a talk heart to heart about Ana's father.
- Mariana to Tere, several times when she's annoyed.
- Chekhov's Gun: Mariana's sexuality. At the beginning of season 1, she seems like she's probably bi—she's had both a girlfriend and a boyfriend in the past year. But as the season wears on the situation starts to look more like a straight girl who gave it a try when her lesbian friend asked her out, but it never really took. In the season finale, Mariana's attraction to women comes back with a bang.
- Competition Freak: Ana. Her husband tries couple's cooking and dancing classes as date activities, and she can't even enjoy them because she's not better at it than the couple next to them.
- Convenient Miscarriage: Subverted Trope. Tere has conflicting feelings about her pregnancy and is considering abortion, although isn't decided yet. Then she suddenly starts experiencing severe abdominal pain and is rushed to the hospital… where she receives good medical care and does not miscarry. The near brush with Belated Love Epiphany is catalyst to realizing how realize that she really does want this pregnancy.
- Divorce Assets Conflict: Culminates in Ana and Juan Carlos pettily sticking post-it notes on all the objects in the house they think belong to them.
- Evolving Credits: The intro of the show remains almost identical for the three seasons, except for the moment when the characters that represent Ana and Mariana grow closer when holding hands. In the first season they effectively exchange a Death Glare, and the babies are crying. The title screen shows them walking on different parallel lines. By the second and third seasons, both them and the babies, seem acquainted and comfortable with each other, Ana even winks at Mariana and blushes. In the title screen, now they are walking towards each other and they stop when they reach each other.
- Exact Eavesdropping: The secrets get out because the ones wanting to keep the secret secret, talk about it
- When Mariana listens to Juan Carlos talking to Tere about their affair.
- During the baptism, it's now Ana the one who hears Juan Carlos and Tere talking again about their affair.
- Ceci learns that her mother also cheated on her father when Ana is talking to Romelia.
- Fake Relationship: The whole of plot of season 3 is about Mariana and Ana faking being a couple as a ploy for custody of their daughters.
- Feet-First Introduction: One shot in 3.02 shows high heels and red dress. It's Juan Carlos, in drag, tired and exasperated with his costume half off.
- Feuding Families: Parodied as shown by the rivalry between the Aguilar and Toca families when it comes to Golf. Their honor is at stake and winning at golf is important enough for Juan Carlos and his father to forget their own differences and join forces to play against the Tocas.
- First Father Wins: Zigzagged. In the last episode of season 1, Elena tells Pablo he stands more of a shot with Mariana because of this trope. At her urging he makes his move, again citing this trope as a reason they should be together. Mariana turns him down. Later in the same episode, Mariana makes her move on the other co-parent of her child—although she does not explicitly cite the kids as a reason they should be together.
- Gamer Chick:
- Pablo finds Cynthia attractive when she sees her playing and asks him to join.
- Ceci fakes being one to attract the attention of her crush.
- Give the Baby a Father: Anuar is not Mariana's biological father, but he offered to take on the role of her father when Tere was pregnant, because the biological father was so much of a dick.
- Granola Girl: Mariana is intermittently portrayed as such, mostly to contrast her with Ana.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Inverted. When they first meet, and before they get close, Ana is the one that is reserved, ice-cold queen, striving for perfection whose personality contrasts and clashes with light-hearted, idealistic, eco-friendly Mariana.
- Heads or Tails?: Ana loves to try and challenge decisions with others and get way with a coin toss or similar gimmick. That doesn't stop her from calling it silly when someone tries to apply it to her, though.
- Incompatible Orientation: Mariana (bisexual) and Ana (heterosexual… with an If It's You, It's Okay caveat).
- Jacob and Esau: Juan Carlos mentions during counseling that he wants to make things right with Ceci since it always used to be Ceci and him against Ana and Ro.
- Jailbait Taboo: When Ceci (17) develops a crush on Pablo (22) and kisses him.Ceci: What? You don't... you don't like me?Pablo: No. No, that's not it, Ceci. You're a minor.
- Interclass Friendship:
- Ana and Mariana form a strong friendship-bond despite having completely different upbringings.
- Juan Carlos develops a camaraderie with Pablo and Pablo's buddies, like Chava, to the point of going to activities together, partying and actually helping each other.
- Intergenerational Friendship: The series really expands on how people can get close together despite their age, beliefs.
- Ana considers Mariana her best friend. Ana even gets Mariana to overcome her fear of water.
- Ceci confides and trusts Mariana and Elena and they help her in several occasions.
- Juan Carlos essentially becomes one more of the gang (Pablo and his roommates)
- Ro turns a lot to Elena and she helps him out.
- Love Epiphany: Elena realizes Mariana's feelings for Ana during Mariana and Ana's suspiciously wedding-like baptism. She tells Mariana. It's unclear if Mariana herself knew before this, but if she did, she was hiding it quite admirably. Hours after Elena points it out to Mariana, Mariana confesses her feelings to the object of her affections.
- Master of the Mixed Message: Pablo calls Mariana "the queen of mixed signals." Elena might agree. In general she treats her exes like best friends, which is to say, friendly and affectionate. Which is confusing for said exes. Mariana herself views it more like Amicable Exes or Better as Friends.
- Maternity Crisis: Ana is very annoyed to go into labor during a big day at work.
- Metaphorical Marriage: The season 1 finale: it's actually a baptism, but it certainly has some of the trappings of a wedding: Ana and Mariana in white dresses, gathered before their family and friends, clasping hands and talking about how much they love each other.
- Odd Couple: Ana and Mariana. It's the core gimmick of the show.
- Plot Parallel: In episode 3.06, two different people in newish relationships with a parent struggle to adapt to their partners' kid(s) and what that means for their relationship. Juan Carlos and Fernanda, and Mariana and Ferrán.
- Practically Different Generations: Ana's kids are 17, 12, and 0 respectively. The last one was an accident.
- Race for Your Love: Literally running against time, encouraged by her family, Ana brings a "modern cavalry" to confess her love before Mariana and Regina take a flight to move to another city.
- Relationship Upgrade: After all the ups and downs, by the end of the third season "Maryana" is canon.
- Secretly Dying: Downplayed, but Ana keeps her possible cancer a secret for a few episodes.
- Shipper on Deck: Ceci is very vocal and supportive of Ana and Mariana's romantic relationship.
- Shipper with an Agenda: In season 1, Ceci—knowing that Elena and Pablo would both like to be with Elena—ships Mariana with Elena, hoping to free up Pablo for herself.
- Speak in Unison: Mariana does this mainly with Pablo but also with Ana.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Played straight for both Ana and Mariana with Valentina and Regina. Defied in the case of Cynthia, who has chosen to freeze her eggs to avoid getting pregnant for at least ten years.
- Switched at Birth: The Inciting Incident, when the bracelets are taken off newborns Valentina and Regina—two babies of the same sex, born in the same hospital in the same hour—and put on again incorrectly. The switch is reveled 4 months later. It's early enough that it still makes sense to switch back, but still late enough that the mothers have bonded with the other babies and letting this baby let love go is completely agonizing.
- Tangled Family Tree: Take a string and start to pull to make sense of it in the end.Victor: I know that, but understand my dad. He's super close-minded, ultra-conservative. Plus, it's a lot of information: Your son's girlfriend is gonna be your new grandkid's mom. In addition to that, this girlfriend was your other son's lover. Whose ex-wife is your daughter-in-law daughter-in-law now. It's a mess.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Mariana's biological father was her mothers professor. Also, terrible.
- Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: Ana tends to resort to this from of communication when she is aggravated.
- When directed to Juan Carlos, Ana will use their children or Altagracia, the housekeeper, as means of communication.
- When directed towards Mariana, Elena finds herself being the intermediary of communication.
- That Didn't Happen: 3.04 ends with Ana and Mariana having drunken sex. The next episode begins with them pretending that never happened because they Cannot Spit It Out. The others people who find out about it—a therapist and a close friend—call them out for how dumb they're being about it.
- Those Two Guys: Chava and Conrado have the minor role of being Pablo's close buddies and sometimes roommates. In order to make them distinct, they contrast each other visually: Conrado is slender and neatly groomed, while Chava is heavyset with a scruffy beard.
- Time-Shifted Actor: Present-day Ana is portrayed by Ludwika Paleta while Clarissa Gonzalez portrays her in flashbacks.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: It's not that Juan Carlos is bad looking, but he is kind of dorky and chubby. Compared to stunning Ana, you get the idea, their hotness is on different scales.
- Unfocused During Intimacy:
- Juan Carlos can't get it on with a one-night stand, literally seeing the reflection of Ana in the mirror instead.
- Trying to resolve her confusion, Ana can only think about kissing Mariana when trying with a casual fling.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: In later season 1 and earlier season 2, it was Mariana with unrequited feelings. By early season 3, she's gotten over it just in time for Ana to fall for her.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Víctor finds out his girlfriend is pregnant and gets a demanding surprise promotion at work in rapid succession, creating work-life balance issues. He misses the first sonogram because he's tied up at work. Downplayed Trope in that the baby en utero isn't perturbed by this; the situation can be worked out long before his kid is old enough to remember anything.
- Will They or Won't They?: Mariana and Ana. Ana is ostensibly heterosexual, resulting in Incompatible Orientation—but also they're the main characters and have ongoing Ship Tease. The structure of the show itself points to them ending up together.
- Working with the Ex: Mariana is working on an app with not one but two of her exes.
