1. The moment your evil wife tells you she was never pregnant with your baby.

Soraya Montenegro from María la del Barrio literally pretended to be pregnant so that her man would marry her. This is not the first time this has happened in a telenovela.

2. When Oriana found out she’s actually not Paloma’s granddaughter.

Mentir Para Vivir, as you can guess by the name, is all about family keeping secrets from family. Not too much is different IRL, except that most of us probably aren’t pulling teeth from family members to find out if our mom is alive.

3. When you find out your school is actually a Nazi experiment.

El Internado is set deep in the woods of Spain, where there are more bad guys than good guys. After all their teachers go missing, these boarding school students decide to investigate further, only to uncover that the school used to be a Nazi orphanage where the kids were separated from their parents and presumed dead.

4. Lola… Érase una vez

Backstory: Lola is the poor girl with evil step mothers hiding her birthright to wealth from her. Using a little bit of bruja magic and digging, Lola finds her way into her Prince Charming’s arms. This moment when she’s singing “Magico” and Aaron surprise visits and joins her on stage was the moment we waited for for an eternity.

5. When someone dies and you miss them so much you clone them.

Telenovelas are always going supernatural, because (obvs) there’s a bruja in each of us, but this decided to take on the story of love and honor, issues of drug trafficking, cloning, and attitudes to Islam. Oh and some scientist in Miami cloned Lucas’ twin, Diego, who died.

6. Plot twist:  Jade falls in love with both of them.

Decades pass after Jade and Lucas are separated, but she’s torn between the man she fell for and his younger clone.

7. When your aunt’s wig always matches her gloves.

OK, so this isn’t savage, but it’s weird. In Carita de Angel, Daniela’s “Tia Pelucas” is always stepping in out in some crazy outfit. This telenovela is actually meant for children so naturally, the craziest thing that happens is that Luciano’s young daughter matchmakes him with the resident nun, breaking up his engagement with Nicole.

8. On the flip, this moment when Carlota’s man left her to become a priest…

….and she becomes a serial killer. F’real, Carlota Espinoza of En nombre del amor, actually went through the trauma of being left for God. If she can get through it, I guess we all can? JK, we can all do better than Carlota.

9. When Aurora goes into a coma and is then frozen in a cryogenic lab…while pregnant.

Talk about a freakin’ cliffhanger. They literally froze the main character of this whole show. These are the kinds of things that can only be tolerated by telenovela fans, because if any other show did this, there would be an uprising.

10. When your step grandmother steals your baby.

Look, evil stepmoms are just too pedestrian at this point in the genre development. Throw in a step abuelita, like in Rosalinda, and now you’re keeping fans on their toes.

11. When you have an evil twin.

I mean, it’s not a telenovela without a twin, especially one that really, really wants to kill you. in La Usurpadora, these twins were separated at birth and each given different moral compasses. A dark side of me finds it the most entertaining thing to watch them collide.

12. When you’re a priest who finds out you have a daughter during a confessional.

So you can’t break the laws of confession by telling her who you are, but you already have a father-like relationship with her and your heart is breaking. Just a normal day in the life of a telenovela, nbd.

13. When you play the damsel in distress to get information from the guy.

It’s a classic in Rebelde, especially when Mia finds out her parents have been lying to her for her whole life. She literally kisses three different guys in one episode when they give her info she’s been looking for. #FemininePersuasion

14. When you’re money hungry and screw people over until you’re shot and killed holding the bear that your one true love gave you.

Hi, this is an actual ending to telenovela series, Teresa. Teresa’s goal is to marry rich and breaks up with her first boyfriend, who is in medical school to be everything she wants him to be, after she meets a rich boy interested in her. He breaks up with her years later when he finds out she’s poor, and long story short, well. That happened. 🐻

15. When you’re framed for murder, and also the First Lady of Mexico.

Nbd, but Kate del Castillo slays at this role while she goes on the lam as the most wanted person in Mexico. #Casual

16. When you’re trying to get your boyfriend back and fall down the stairs trying.

In the 2-hour grand finale of Rubi, Rubi’s arguing with Alejandro when she almost died falling several stories. Girl got her leg amputated to save her life. Love seems dangerous, y’all.

17. When you accidentally pour acid on your face before being sent to an insane asylum.

There’s no other way that Amigas y Rivales could end. Trust, you want to see this happen to Roxana after she tries to hold every character on the show hostage and kill them all.

18. When you try to avoid the DEA by undergoing facial reconstruction surgery.

Foolproof. Yeah, obviously, he ends up dying on the table. Don’t try this at home.

19. When your stepmother is running a facial reconstruction underground operation.

She goes by the name Rose by day and Sin Rostro (get it?) by crime, and she also buried your father in wet cement. Both, very savage moments thanks to Jane the Virgin, which is an adaption of Venezuelan telenovela Juana la Virgen.

20. When Rose comes back with the face of another woman and makes Luisa fall in love with her again.

YUP. She’s savage AF, but she’s learned from the best telenovelas of all time, so who can blame her.