‘The Cleaning Lady’ Boss Teases Thony’s Romantic Side & New Problems in Season 4

Ileane Rudolph March 24, 2025, 11:00 am

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The misadventures of beleaguered immigrant Thony De La Rosa (Elodie Yung) in the U.S. continue for a fourth season of The Cleaning Lady, but the Cambodian-Filipina onetime highly successful surgeon “is no longer a counterpuncher scrambling to survive,” says new showrunner Daniel Cerone.

Needing to stay in the States after her visa expired to save the life of her then sick young son Luca (now played by the scene-stealing Khalen Roman Sanchez) and seemingly with no other options but deportation, after being in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was pressed into being a crime scene cleaner for Sin Cara, a Las Vegas cartel with roots in Mexico. But now, “sick of being exploited by both sides of the law [she was forced to become a snitch by the FBI] and a woman who knows where the bodies are buried, she is taking control of her life,” Cerone reveals. “We consider this as a repiloting of the show for those who have never seen it before. Formerly a character on the run abused and exploited, we reintroduce her in the most dynamic way.”

The season opens optimistically with Thony, Luca, her sister-in-law Fiona (Martha Millan), and her two children finally on the path to citizenship — that is, until their strongest ally toward that goal is blown up in front of her. After trying to flee the country, Thony reconsiders at the last moment and decides to stay and fight. “She throws her lot in with the cartel,” says Cerone, “and it’s a true character transformation.” (Fiona inherits their legit cleaning company.)

Helped by current Sin Cara boss Jorge Sanchez (Santiago Cabrera) — whose life she saved more than once — thanks to his money and clout, she is now both an official cartel surgeon but also a completely legal intern at a local hospital. (Like many foreign nationals in her position, she has to restart her medical career at the bottom.)

“We are also excited about exploring the romantic side of Thony,” Cerone explains. She grows closer to Jorge partially because “he’s a sweet and tender father to his daughter, who is roughly the same age as Luca,” he adds, but at the same time, she also has an attraction to the handsome attending physician who oversees her at the medical center, Dr. Sean Dupont (Daniel Bonjour). Might Thony have to navigate a love triangle possibly made more dangerous since one of that trio is in essence a gangster?

'The Cleaning Lady': Thony's in Charge as Cartel Doctor in Season 4 Sneak Peek (VIDEO)

But even more menace could come from Jorge’s older sister, Ramona (Kate del Castillo), a malevolent force who used to run the gang and is Thony’s biggest antagonist, especially since she helped put Ramona in prison. Though Thony’s connection to the cartel should keep her off bonds for retribution, the jailed Ramona still has devoted followers on the outside eager to do her bidding.

There is also some internal torment coming Thony’s way, when she finds herself becoming morally compromised by her latest choices. When she’s called in to repair the broken body of an enemy of Jorge’s cartel, so they can keep torturing him, she does it. “That decision,” says Cerone, “will have repercussions through to the season finale.”

There’s more criminality on the way, as the show’s setting expands to a Hong Kong triad, which in a form of human trafficking, kidnaps workers from other Asian countries, and forces them into compounds in the Cambodian jungle, where they spend their days and nights in slave conditions bilking the elderly out of their life savings with elaborate cyber scams and no means of escape. Ramona had been involved with the triad’s scheme under cover of her fancy art gallery, and now Jorge, hence Thony, could also get entangled with those crimes.

Also new this season: recurring guest stars Robert Cicchini as disarming ADA Joel Herman and Patricia De Leon as imposing Mexican mafia prison boss Chiquita. Broadway star Lea Salonga appears in the second episode as Rose, an old friend of Fiona’s who married rich and disparages Fiona after she hires her cleaning company. It should be fun to see the irascible Filipina’s reaction to the insult.

As for the reinvented Thony De La Rosi, we can expect lots more challenges ahead as she does anything she can to achieve her goals, attaining the American Dream for those she loves, and “winning her own freedom and independence.”

The Cleaning Lady, Season 4 Premiere, Tuesday, March 25, 8/7c, Fox