'Fauda' Season 3 Ending Explained: Here's why Bashar chose Yaara and Captain Gabi in his revenge against Doron
After Abu Mohammed's men fail to capture the escaping boy hostage Elaad alive, "the Sheikh", the religious head, is eager to clip the wings of the fanatical Mohammed, in charge of Hamas' military unit. He says Jihad Hamdani, long respected within "the Movement", will take custody of the remaining girl hostage, Yaara. Jihad takes this chance to extract himself and his son, Bashar, as well, from the hotel room they have been living in as "guests" of Abu Mohammed with a guard stationed at their door at all times. He tells the Sheikh that he is not comfortable with guarding Yaara using Abu Mohammed's men because they are loyal to Mohammed, not him.
The Sheikh acquiesces to his request to shift Yaara into the Samahadana clan's compound run by Jihad's friend, Abu Ibrahim, who acts more like a brother because of their prison life camaraderie. Bashar, already feeling guilty about the hostage situation, is extra kind to Yaara in the beginning, often trying to explain their helpless position. While he thinks Abu Mohammed is ruthless, he sees himself as a benign captor.
Identifying himself with her, an innocent, who has got pulled into the conflict, he also develops a bit of a crush on her. But Yaara, understandably, is terrified of Bashar no matter what he says. She shrinks from him, feeling revulsed when Bashar caresses her cheek in an attempt to comfort her.
By then, Bashar is also fixed in his hatred and rejection of Doron and Abu Mohammed, the two men on opposite sides of the conflict but both equally responsible for the fugitive status of his father and himself, their spur-of-the-moment plan to capture Jewish hostages and their forced exile to Gaza.
Informed by Hila's asset about the change of prisoner status, Captain Gabi, the intelligence head, puts pressure on Jihad indirectly by demolishing the Hamdani home in Dhahiriya, which is then broadcasted on TV.
Jihad, reacts predictably, stepping out of the secure compound to buy a burner phone and call his wife. The Shin Bet tracing every call, quickly pinpoint his location. Doron, in hot pursuit, first tries to follow him discreetly to find out where Yaara is being kept. But when he is spotted by Jihad, it becomes a shoot-to-kill operation when Jihad opens fire.
After Jihad's death, Bashar is no longer the same boy. In his rage and grief, he tries to kill Yaara because the "Jews" had killed his father but is controlled by Abu Ibrahim and his men. After Jihad's death, Bashar is adamant that he will be the one to swap Yaara for Palestinian prisoners just like his father would have wanted.
When Doron and his unit storm their compound, he escapes with Yaara in a car but Yaara attacks him and throws herself out of the car and is rescued by Doron and his men who are in hot pursuit.
On Yaara's safe return, Israel explodes with joy, while thousands gather to mourn for Jihad at his funeral in Gaza. Bashar later sees Yaara on TV giving an interview about how her captors are "not human" but killers.
Her description of him as a killer though she is safe at home, while his uncle, cousin, and father have been killed by IDF soldiers and his mother is in prison for being a collaborator is too much for Bashar to take. You can see him vow internally that since he has been branded a killer, he will become one. He has already, by this point, had his revenge on Abu Mohammed, shooting him point-blank, in his head.
As someone who has lost everything by this point, he is ready to deliver his "knock-out punch" revenge on Israel and Doron. His final choice of victims comes down to access and what will cause Doron and the Israeli establishment the most amount of pain. Doron's family is not an option because while it would cause immense pain to Doron, it would not affect Israel as a whole.
He picks Captain Gabi not only because he was his cousin Abu Fauzi's original kill target of strategic importance, but also because he had gone after the Hamdani family. He tells his sister, Hayfa, that "the captain will no longer bother you" when she tells him how Gabi had been putting pressure on her to reveal Bashar's whereabouts and had kept their mother in prison. He also knows that Gabi is Doron's boss and ally. He gets access to Gabi through his Palestinian physiotherapist, Fayed, who agrees to kill Gabi for them when he is at his most vulnerable.
Yaara, he goes after himself, after his men are killed, because it is personal. In Yaara, the innocent, he sees himself, as mentioned before. In his mind, his mission to kill Yaara stems from making her suffer as he has suffered. Despite being an innocent, if his entire family was either dead, in prison or under surveillance, why should Yaara be happy, safe in the arms of her family? He also knows that killing Yaara will turn Israel's victory, symbolized by her safe return, to ashes.
Bashar realizes that Doron will feel personally tortured to know that the boy he had betrayed as a spy was the one to kill Yaara. As he tells Doron, "you will go to sleep sad tonight" before shooting Yaara in the head. When he is captured, he smirks at Doron's anguish, happy that he is feeling the same kind of pain that he has experienced in the past two weeks.
With that Bashar's transformation from innocent to a terrorist is complete. He swaggers into the jail his father was held in for so many years, ready to become the next "father of prisoners".
'Fauda' is available to stream on Netflix from April 16 onward.