'Girls from Ipanema' Season 2: Writers did wrong by Ligia say fans but Adélia's developed plotline wins favor
The shocking news that Ligia (Fernanda Vasconcellos) was dead in the opening moments of Season 2 of 'Girls From Ipanema' showed that the series would not shy away from killing off one of the main characters. One of the four original female leads and the singer of the group, Ligia was also Malu's (Maria Casadevall) childhood friend. Even though Ivone (Larissa Nunes), Adélia's sister, takes up the mantle of 'aspiring singer' this season, Ligia's loss is keenly felt by her friends.
Malu keeps seeing her while she is recuperating in the hospital. Thereza (Mel Lisboa), Ligia's sister-in-law, blames herself, Malu, and Adélia (Pathy Dejesus) for her death. Her logic is that if they had done something when they saw Ligia turn up bruised and battered at the club, she might still be alive.
Fans who saw Ligia struggle while she was beaten and raped were angry that the writers chose to kill her just when she was about to fly free. "Lígia deserved so much better. She was living in an abusive relationship, submissive, was raped by her husband, and only wanted to live her dreams, to be a singer. And when she was finally happy for five seconds she died. GREAT," commented one user sarcastically, while another remarked, "Lígia sweetie, I'm so sorry the writers did you so dirty. You deserved so much better. I'm going to miss you."
Others reserved their anger for Eleanor (Ester Góes), Ligia's evil mother-in-law, and the mother of Augusto (Gustavo Vaz) and Nelson (Alexandre Cioletti). Not only is she a racist and elitist woman who chides Nelson for having a "bastard" child with Adélia, she also supports and encourages Augusto, the murderer. In fact, at one point, she compares Nelson's extramarital affair and having a child out of wedlock as a sin that is equal to Augusto murdering Ligia.
Commenting on her villainous behavior, a user wondered about what was going through her head. "Imagine having your son abusing, raping, and murdering his own wife and you keep defending him. For what??? Eleonora f**king Soares."
One user, live-tweeting while watching, did not appreciate the flashbacks of Ligia being abused by Augusto and said the trial "blaming the victim" was already making her angry. She ended with an all caps comment on the final court judgment. "HE GOT ONLY FOUR YEARS WITH PAROLE FOR 1ST DEGREE MURDER??? FUQK ALL THOSE JUDGES"
However, most fans of the show could not stop discussing Adélia's complex character arc this season. She agrees to Nelson seeing their daughter but decides to go ahead with her marriage with Capitão early in the season. When Duke, her father, shows up (after going missing since their childhood), she accepts him and welcomes him into their home.
Towards mid-season, she is told she has a tumor and assuming the worst, she hides it from everyone except Nelson. She makes him promise that he will take care of their daughter financially even when she is gone. Not long after, she collapses in the club. Fans binge-watching the show thought another one of their fave characters was going to die and tweeted about the writers being heartless. But luckily, the tumor is benign and Adélia survives the emergency surgery.
Right after that life-changing incident, Ivone tells Adélia how it was their mother who had fallen in love with another man, not Duke. But Duke left first so that the children would have their mother and a new dad, even if he wasn't around. However, feeling guilty, their mother raised them on her own and refused to continue her affair.
Adélia, however, doesn't want to be sad like her mother all her life and chooses to leave with her child to go live with Nelson. Capitão is understandably devastated. Fans found Adélia's decision to leave Capitão unfathomable. Nelson has slowly become tiresome while the fan-following of Capitão has only grown. One user commented, "Not mad at it, but Adélia baby girl what are you doing sleeping with Nelson?", while others were more blunt with tweets like, "love Adélia and stuff but Capitaõ deserved better".
The Nelson-Thereza-Adélia love triangle also strained the patience of viewers, with one user commenting, "I low key liked Nelson in season 1 but now, I'm tired of him". However, viewers cheered on the plucky bisexual Thereza, who goes on rebound flings immediately. Not only does she sleep with Wagner, her radio co-host, but she also has a steamy makeout session with a famous Hollywood actress at the club on "Women's Night". Posting screenshots of the scene, a fan tweeted, "OK, I saw this coming. thank you gay god!".
'Girls from Ipanema' Season 2 is available to stream on Netflix from June 19.
