‘Someone Has to Die’ Ending Explained: Limited series is a complete story but begs for more tales from Franco's reign
Spoilers for ‘Alguien tiene que morir’ or ‘Someone Has to Die’
‘Alguien tiene que morir’ or ‘Someone Has to Die’, Netflix’s three-part Spanish limited series, is a tragedy through and through. Set in the 1950s, at the height of Francisco Franco’s authoritarian rule in Spain, the story follows an upper-class regime family, more particularly, the family’s scion. Gabino (Alejandro Speitzer) returns from Mexico to his family in Spain after his father Gregorio (Ernesto Alterio) calls for him. A deputy director of a special prison for gay, lesbian, and transgender folk, Gregorio is not just an authoritative conservative, but overall, a despicable man. But Gregorio is only a product of how he was raised. Amparo (Carmen Maura), the family matriarch, is the real villain in the story.
When Gabino returns, he’s accompanied by a friend, a ballet dancer from Mexico, called Lazaro (Isaac Hernández). Soon, people begin to suspect that the pair were more than friends - they suspect them to be gay. And it is partially true. Gabino is hopelessly in love with Lazaro, who is a straight man. Yet, that’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the show’s tragedies. The woman he’s supposed to marry, Cayetana (Ester Expósito), finds Lazaro attractive and even tries to seduce him. Alonso (Carlos Cuevas), Cayetana’s brother, is also gay, but he’s a closeted man, which makes him act out against Gabino. But what makes it positively a nightmare is that Gabino’s mother Mina (Cecilia Suárez), the only person sensitive enough to understand Gabino’s plight, falls in love with Lazaro.
It is then a tale of endless tragedies, one cascading over the other, all jumbled up in what was possibly the most regressive age in all of Spain's history. The limited series ends with Cayetana catching Mina and Lazaro having sex. Gregorio is caught between the shame of having a gay son and an adulterous wife. But he decides the latter is worse. When he forces Gabino to shoot them, Alonso intervenes and kills Gregorio.
But Alonso, in turn, is killed by Amparo. She then shoots Lazaro in the foot and finally in the chest, blaming all the misfortunes in the family on him. Finally, Gabino is left to confront her. And after a short exchange of words, where Gabino reminds her that she manipulated him as a child to forget that she had killed his grandfather, he shoots her. The show ends with Gabino and Mina both staring at the corpse of the man they loved - Lazaro.
‘Alguien tiene que morir’ or ‘Someone Has to Die’ ends on an obvious but nonetheless heartbreaking note. But the series, on the whole, is hardly predictable. There are many twists and turns that leave you shocked, and which can equally be attributed to the actors who made sure to give nothing away. This limited series, created by Manolo Caro is a full story, leaving no scope for the tale to go further. But the creator of ‘The House of Flowers’ or ‘La Casa de las Flores’ did a fantastic job of examining politics, sexuality, and class in Francoist Spain. This makes one wonder if there are other tales worth telling from that era, especially in a similar self-contained manner.
‘Alguien tiene que morir’ or ‘Someone Has to Die’ is available for viewing on Netflix.
