Series / Part of Me

Part of Me (En otra piel in Spanish) also know as In Another Skin, is a Spanish-language supernatural Telenovela produced by Telemundo in 2014.

It is a loose remake on the 2005 Telemundo telenovela El cuerpo del deseo, which in turn is based on the 1992 RTI Colombia telenovela En cuerpo ajeno. The story chronicles the lives of two seemingly ordinary women who get wrapped up in a mysterious paranormal phenomenon when death comes knocking on their door.

Mónica Serrano (Laura Flores), a world-renowned pianist with an impressive fortune that lives in Los Angeles with her family, dies after the betrayal of her ambitious niece Elena Serrano (Vanessa Villela) and Gerardo Fonsi (Jorge Luis Pila). But by way of a mysterious talisman, Mónica's soul, which does not accept departing from this world, occupies the body of Adriana Aguilar (María Elisa Camargo), a young and modest waitress in Mexico City that had befriended Mónica and who died at the hands of a dangerous gangster around the same time.

Now inhabiting Adriana's body, Mónica's soul will do the impossible to defend her children and seek justice. But Adriana's fiance Diego Ochoa (David Chocarro), who is confused by Adriana's sudden revival and personality change tries to uncover clues as to what is going on with his beloved. Motivated by his love, Adriana's soul decides to recover her body, but Mónica will resist this until her mission has been completed.

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This work provides examples of:

• Action Survivor: Mónica's an average civilian, but gets into a lot of tough spots where she needs to use her wits to survive, such as fighting off Carlos' when he tries to rape, or outsmarting and avoiding his trained hitmen.
• Amnesiac Lover: Mónica in Adriana's body is mistaken as this at first by Diego. She does have amnesia, but she's also another soul in the body of his fiancée.
• The Atoner:
  • Mónica sees her second chance in life as a chance to make up for the mistakes she made with her daughters.
  • Gerardo becomes regretful of what he did to the Serrano family and starts to manipulate Elena to keep Mónica's daughters safe. And ends up being killed by Elena due to it.
• Back from the Dead: Mónica's soul possesses Adriana's body when she's killed and she used her second chance to take down Elena and Gerardo's plot and protect her daughters. Her soul leaves her body after her mission is complete.
• Becoming the Mask: Gerardo was initially seducing Mónica for her money eventually grew to like her, but his Love Epiphany only comes after Elena kills her.
• Beta Couple: Ricardo / Camila and Gabriel / Jennifer are the secondary couples of the story, with plenty of screentime but not getting as much focus as the main characters.
• Big Bad: The main antagonist of the story is Elena Serrano, Mónica's Evil Niece that plotted her death and wants to steal her life. Mónica's main objective is to protect her daughters from Elena's evil plots.
• Big Fancy House: The Serranos mansion, where most of the main characters live and a considerable part of the plot takes place.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Elena pretended to be Mónica's kind niece while plotting behind her back her whole life. She only shows her true colors to Mónica when she's on her deathbed to taunt her. Unfortunately for Elena, Mónica comes Back from the Dead in Adriana's body.
• The Cartel: Carlos Ricalde's bar is just a front for his criminal cartel, which involves gambling, drug trafficking, and (the most relevant to the story) running a prostitution ring via human trafficking.
• The Casanova: Gerardo used to work as a gigolo and has a talent for seduction, which is why Elena picks him in her plot to marry her aunt and steal her fortune.
• Casanova Wannabe: Gerardo's brother Ernesto tries, but it's nowhere near as good as seducing woman as his brother is, and utterly fails when tasked with seducing Camila, despite getting plenty of help and info from Elena.
• Crash-Into Hello: Adriana and Mónica first meet when Adriana is running from one of Carlos thugs and is almost run over by Mónica's car. Mónica offers her a rider and they quickly become friends.
• Chick Magnet: Diego ends up attracting quite a few women, including Adriana, Maite, and Valeria.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Camila and Ricardo up together in the Serrano's estate where they were friends, despite him being the son of a servant. They became a couple as adults.
• Defiled Forever: Valeria becomes very traumatized after having been violated while in Carlos brothel, and feels that she was forever ruined for love. She eventually gets over it with the help of Mónica, Diego, and Maite.
• Distracted by My Own Sexy: Mónica gets many Lingerie Scenes with her standing in front of a mirror admiring her (Adriana's) new youthful body.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Mónica's is a Proper Lady and a world-renowned pianist.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Mónica's pet dog Pacho can feel Elena's Killing Intent towards Emiliana and tries attacking her.
• False Friend: Elena to both Mónica and Camila, who both considered her a bastion of stability in the Serrano household, unaware she is actually the source of most of their troubles.
• False Rape Accusation: In order to try to expel the Cantú from the estate, Elena seduces Gabriel and lures her into her room. When they're both alone, she starts screaming he's assaulting her, making everyone in the house turn against him.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Gabriel is the foolish sibling to Ricardo's responsible sibling. Ricardo being studious and hard-working while Gabriel prefers spending his time chasing skirts and getting into trouble.
• Frame-Up: Carlos ends up framing Diego for Jacinto's murder and Diego is sent to prison for a while.
• Friend on the Force: Eddie is a Miami cop that befriends Diego, Valeria, and Maite in Miami, helping them in their legal troubles and with Carlos.
• Gender Flip: In both El cuerpo del deseo and En cuerpo ajeno, it was an older man who inhabited the body of a younger man; here, it's an older woman inhabiting the body of a younger woman.
• Girl Friday: Elena worked as Mónica's Number Two, helping her handler both her business and her personal life, which made it very easy for Elena to manipulate and sabotage her.
• Gold Digger: Elena plotted with Gerardo to have him marry Mónica and take her money although Gerardo doesn't intend to kill her and it's content to just hide his affair with Elena. Elena has other plans though.
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Elena is portrayed as a Serial Homewrecker for seducing and sleeping with both of Mónica's husbands behind her back. Meanwhile, the new Mónica's affair with Gerard portrays her as sympathetic since from Mónica's point of view she's simply having a romance with her husband who doesn't know she's inhabiting a new body. Gerardo is portrayed as a scumbag in both affairs, since he only had an affair with Elena for the money and only lusts after the new Mónica because he's attracted to Adriana's body.
• Grand Theft Me: A accidental example, Mónica ends up taking over Adriana's body.
• Gratuitous English: Several characters speak in English on occasion, with Carlos doing it the most, usually to try and seem more cultured than he actually is.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Elena's motive for her plots against Mónica is that she was deeply envious of Mónica's life and felt like she lived on her shadow.
• Hate Sink: Unlike Elena and Gerardo who have a few Pet the Dog and Sympathy for the Devil moments, Carlos has no sympathetic traits.
• Hates Their Parent:
  • Elena hates both her real mother Lorena and her adoptive mother Mónica. Lorena due to her being an awful irresponsible parent that abandoned her and Mónica due to being envious of her.
  • Ricardo deeply resents his father Rodrigo for his failure to support his family and descent into alcoholism, and doesn't believe the story about having his film script being stolen, and just thinks he's a failure. It's not until his career is sabotaged by Elena that he starts sympathizing with his father.
• Human Traffickers: The main business venue of The Cartel that Carlos runs is to trick/kidnap young women and force them into prostitution, which is what happens to Adriana/Mónica, Maite, and Valeria at the start of the story. They manage to escape his clutches in Mexico and end up in Miami, but he follows them there with the intention of getting them back.
• The Illegal:
  • Diego ended up in America after escaping from prison, so he has trouble being both a fugitive and an illegal immigrant.
  • Both Maite and Valeria are illegals in America after running away from Carlos' Human Traffickers ring, which is why she is reluctant to go to the police after they escape Carlos brothel.
• In Love with the Gangster's Girl: Jennifer is the ex girlfriend of a local gang leader, but he still acts like he's Entitled to Have You and gives Gabriel a lot of trouble when he starts dating her.
• Insecure Love Interest: Ricardo cares a lot about the gap of social status between him and Camila and feels very insecure in their relationship, despite her not caring about it.
• Interclass Friendship: Despite their vast difference between their social class, Mónica and Adriana quickly become friends shortly after meeting.
• Just Between You and Me: Elena confesses to the dying Mónica about how much she hates her and what she will to with her daughters after she's gone just to make her death more agonizing. At the end of the story Mónica throws her words back at her, in order to for to realize she's really Mónica.
• Ladykiller in Love: Gerardo liked Mónica's personality, but wasn't that attracted to her. After she dies and starts inhabiting Adriana's body, he falls for her hard.
• Licked by the Dog: Mónica's dog Pancho seems to know it's her soul inside of Adriana's body when she comes back to her house.
• Loving a Shadow: Gerardo is not the man Mónica thinks he is, and she is disgusted by him once she finds out his true character.
• Lust Object: Spicy Latina Adriana is a Head-Turning Beauty who is constantly fawned over by men, which gets her in trouble when she becomes the obsession of local cartel boss Carlos. And when Mónica ends up inhabiting Adriana's body, Gerardo also becomes obsessed with her due to how attracted he is to her, though poor Mónica thinks it's because deep down he "knows" it's her.
• Magical Accessory: Adriana's amulet that she was given by a shaman to bind her soul to her body to cure her sleepwalking problem. When Adriana accidentally leaves it with Mónica in the first episode it causes them to Body Swap when Mónica dies.
• Mama Bear: Mónica's strong desire to protect her daughter is what brought her Back from the Dead and drives the whole plot.
• Manipulative Bitch: Elena manipulated Mónica throughout her entire life, and after she dies, Elena easily convinces Camila and Emiliana that her mother never cared for them at all.
• Miss Kitty: Subverted with Chantal, the madam for Carlo's brothel, who takes delight in humiliating the girls that work for her.
• Modesty Bedsheet: Used frequently whenever a couple is shown in bed post-coital, most frequently Gerardo with either Mónic or Elena. The sheets usually stay up to their shoulders, and notably whenever Gerardo gets up it's shown he's still wearing boxers shorts.
• Mr. Fanservice: Diego is a very handsome man that gets quite a few Shirtless Scenes.
• Ms. Fanservice: Adriana and Elena wear many revealing outfits and get the most Fanservice scenes out of the female characters.
• Naked on Revival: Mónica first awakens in Adriana's body in a morgue like room completely naked, Justified since Adriana had been dead and had all of her clothes removed in order for her to get an autopsy.
• Nice to the Waiter: Mónica and her daughters are very kind to her house staff, and treat them almost like family. In Mónica's will, she leaves a considerable part of her fortune for the pensions for her staff and even money to pay for Ricardo's university. By contrast, Gerardo is indifferent to them while Elena despises them and enjoys humiliating and mistreating them.
• Occult Detective: Selma is a paranormal reporter and hosts a show about paranormal activity.
• Official Couple: Diego/Adriana, both of them having the healthiest and happiest relationship in the story.
• Parental Abandonment: Lorena abandoned Elena was she was young, leaving her sister Mónica to raise her.
• Parental Neglect: Mónica would often focus on her career more than her family, a major source of conflict between her and her oldest daughter Camila.
• Parental Substitute: Mónica treated Elena like her own daughter after her sister Lorena left her when she was six.
• Parent with New Paramour: Camila is enraged with the concept of Mónica marrying Gerardo so soon after Julián's death.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Gerardo constantly butts head with Elena about her Evil Is Petty ways, as she's actually out to hurt and humiliate those she dislikes while Gerardo is just a Gold Digger that wants a quiet and comfortable life.
• Private Tutor: As Adriana, Mónica poses as a private teacher to stay close to her daughters and come back to her house.
• Rape as Drama: Carlos is a Sex Traffickers and many of the girls he gets his eye on end up being raped by him.
  • Shortly after Monica wakes up in Adriana's body, she is kidnapped by Carlos's goons (Assuming she's Adriana) out of the hospital and is brought to his hotel. They have her bathed and dressed up. and is then left chained to bed where Carlos visits her and rapes her. We only see him tear off her clothes before we get a Rape Discretion Shot as she screams.
  • The virgin Valeria was auctioned for one of Carlos' most depraved clients who brutally rapes her, leaving her particularly traumatized even after she escapes the brothel.
• Retargeted Lust: Gerardo frequently retargets his lust for Adriana onto Elena.
• Retirony: Mónica announces she's retiring as a professional pianist to focus more on her family the very same day Elena decides to kill her.
• Revealing Cover-Up: Elena methods of trying to get rid of people that are suspicious of her just end up making her look even more suspicious.
• Romancing the Widow: Elena purposedly hired Gerardo to seduce and marry Mónica after she spent 4 years of widowhood.
• A Scar to Remember: During Carlos Attempted Rape on Adriana, she fends him off and ends up leaving a nasty scar on his cheek. It infuriates him so much he switches from rape to murder, and almost kills her and is partially the reason he follows her to America.
• Secret-Keeper: Selma, Mónica's paranormal specialist friend is the only one who knows she's inhabiting Adriana's body for most of the story. Later Diego also finds out and keeps the secret after Mónica promises to return Adriana's body after her daughters are safe.
• Sex God: Elena and Mónica both fawn over Gerardo's bedroom prowess. Notably, he used to be a gigolo.
• Sex Slave: Carlos kidnaps women and forces them into prostitution by Carlos's men, doing this with Mónica, Valeria and Maite. They eventually escape him, but he pursues them into America.
• Sexual Karma:
  • Elena may be gorgeous, seductive and clearly thinks she's an irresistible Sex Goddess, but Gerardo doesn't seem to think she's any good in bed, and show not to enjoy their sex, especially as the story goes on and she becomes more and more unhinged. Meanwhile, Gerardo's affair with the new Mónica is portrayed as extremely passionate and mutually satisfying (although only after she died and ended up on Adriana's body).
  • Carlos and the clients of his brothel are all despicable perverts and rapists, in contrast to Adriana and Diego, who are deeply in love and have a romantic and satisfying sex life. Of note is also Valeria, who becomes traumatized after being brutally raped, yet eventually gets over it, and ends up having a romantic first time with her Love Interest Eddie.
  • Subverted with Gerardo who is a Sex God due to his past as a gigolo, though of the main villains he's the least evil.
• Sexual Extortion: Carlos lusts after Adriana and gets her brother dept into debt to force him to sleep with him.
• Sexy Discretion Shot:
  • Scenes where Gerardo has sex with Mónica usually begin with them making out, and starting to take their clothes off before it cuts to them in bed under a Modesty Bedsheet.
  • When Gabriel and Jennifer have Their First Time, the scene cuts away as they start kissing. When we next see them, they're cuddling in bed under a Modesty Bedsheet.
• Sexy Silhouette: Elena purposedly undresses in front of her window to cause this effect, as part of her ploy to seduce Gabriel while she knows he's watching.
• Sexy Surfacing Shot: Gerardo happens to catch Adriana Skinny Dipping right as she's climbing out of the pool. Censor Shadow, Shoulders-Up Nudity, and Toplessness from the Back cover her naughty bits, but both Gerardo and the camera leer at her body as she dries herself. The story would often flashback to this scene, for obvious reasons.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Mónica develops this attitude later regarding Adriana's body, starting doing things like Skinny Dipping,sleeping in the nude and start using her body to seduce Gerardo.
• Ship Sinking: Once Monia discovers Gerardo's part in the crimes against her family, she wants nothing to do with him.
• Sibling Triangle: In her youth, Mónica was Love Triangle with Jorge and Julián Larrea. She ended up marrying Julián and Jorge left the country in despair for many years.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Ricardo is introverted, proud and temperamental while Gabriel is
• Skeptic No Longer: Despite hosting a paranormal show, Selma didn't actually believe it was real until Mónica's soul switch. It actually takes some effort from Mónica to get Selma to believe her, but she eventually does
• Skinny Dipping:
  • After getting all hot and bothered after having an Erotic Dream about Gerardo, Mónica (in Adriana's body) decides to cool off by going Skinny Dipping at the pool at night... only to bump into him Eating the Eye Candy just as she's surfacing out of the pool in her birthday suit causing her to have a Naked Freak-Out, with the incident only ending up fuelling both of their sexual frustrations.
  • Later in the story she purposedly swims nude in the pool in front of him to get a rise out of him and seduce him.
• Sleepwalking: Adriana's prone to sleepwalking which also means her soul likes to "wander". A shaman gave her a amulet to keep her soul from wandering out of her body and it ends up letting Mónica possess her when she takes it.
• Spicy Latina: Adriana is a beautiful Latina girl with an energetic working class sass.
• Supernatural Soap Opera: A Supernatural Telenovela about souls lingering after death and possessing another's body via shamanic magic.
• Surprise Incest: Before the story started, Elena seduced and slept with her uncle, Julián without either of them knowing about it.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Elena favorite trick is to slowly poison people by putting in their food or drink. She has been doing this to Mónica for a long time and later does the same to Emiliana.
• Those Two Girls: Valeria and Maite are almost inseparable after they escape Carlos' brothel and their stories are very interconnected.
• Terrible Ticking: In Adriana's body, Mónica plays the piano at her house to torment Elena, Gerardo and Lorena, as the sound of her music makes them feel guilty for her actions and has Elena feel paranoid that Mónica is tormenting her from the afterlife. It eventually drives Elena mad enough that she starts hearing it on her own head.
• Torture Is Ineffective: Carlos kidnaps and tortures Selma's lover, Esteban but all he manages to get out of him are famous author's names and a Sarcastic Confession that he was helping Monica Serrano. Carlos being Book Dumb, doesn't even realize it and thinks his torture work, which makes him look like a fool when he tells it to Elena and Gerardo.
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: Adriana's younger brother Jacinto uses the money his sister makes for him to go to medical school on gambling, so he can make easy money and have her stop working, but he gets deep into debt instead and gets them into a lot of trouble over it.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: After dying and ending up in Adriana's body, Mónica is unable to remember the last few moments of her life, except for the fact that her daughters are in danger, so she remains unaware it was Elena and Gerardo who killed her for a long time. When her memories do come back, she starts plotting her revenge.
• Two-Person Pool Party: Elena and Gerardo make love in the Serrano's mansion pool not long after Mónica's death.
• Unfinished Business: After dying, Mónica doesn't recall it was Elena who killed her, but does recall someone threatening her daughters. When she comes Back from the Dead in Adriana's body, she makes it her mission to keep them safe, and her soul leaves Adriana's body once they are.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Elena hates Mónica despite having been raised by her like her own daughter, feeling she was pitied by her and living in her shadow.
• Unknown Relative: Jorge and Lorrena are this for Camila and Emiliana since they disappeared from Mónica's life before they were born, and come back after learning of her "death".
• The Vamp: Elena uses her good looks to seduce and manipulate others.
• Victory Sex: Elena often gets all hot and bothered after one of her evil schemes succeeds, and pounces on Gerardo for some celebratory sex.
• Video Wills: Before dying, Gerardo leaves a video will where he confesses all of his and Elena's crimes, while also giving Mónica a posthumous Anguished Declaration of Love.
• Villainous Breakdown: Elena's paranoia causes her to become more and more unstable as the story progresses. She breaks down completely by the end when confronted by Mónica and ends up in jail being haunted by visions of Mónica.
• Working-Class Hero: Both Diego and Adriana are honest and hard-working couple with hearts of gold, which contrasts with most other characters who are richer, but lead much more troubled lives or are of questionable character.
• Yandere: Elena decides to kill Mónica when Gerardo seems to start falling for her for real. And in the past, she killed Mónica's first husband Jorge when she seduced him, but still refused to leave Mónica for her.

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