'Vida' Season 3 Finale Review: Bar in jeopardy as Emma and Lyn see Victor’s true colors in show’s open ending
'Vida' Season 3 finale reveals how much of Emma (Mishel Prada) and Lyn's (Melissa Barrera) life is influenced by people around them and if they can manage to be together despite all the differences that have towered up in the recent times. The last episode ended with Emma calling Lyn a liar after Lyn got dropped by their father Victor in front of Vida. Emma feels betrayed because Lyn had promised that she wouldn't bring Victor anywhere near the bar or cause any unnecessary conflicts in the future. However, she ended up doing exactly that. So the consequences of this is what is portrayed in the finale of the episode.
First, Lyn realizes that her boyfriend Rudy is forcing her to fit the mold of a trophy girlfriend while demeaning the work that she is putting into her bar Vida. Initially, she had tried to defend his actions, but she can only go so far. The day that Lyn breaks up with Rudy, the two get into an argument after Rudy begins talking about his mother while Lyn is giving him a blow job. She ends up getting disturbed about this and Rudy makes it worse by telling that as a punishment, Lyn should pee on him. She is shocked and this is her last straw. She walks out on him without a backward glance and yes, it is surprising considering all the work that Lyn had put into this relationship.
She is also aware that Emma is pissed off with her for bringing Victor around, and as an apology, she tries to explain the circumstances the other night, but she ends up lamenting instead about how she had changed again because of men. She tells her sister that all of the faults with her in the past months when she left Emma alone to deal with special events at the bar and left her alone is general, was all because of men. Emma is not convinced by this at all.
Emma is also tired of everything that had happened in Boyle Heights since she moved in to take over her mother's bar. So when she learns that Victor is filing suit to claim the building, first she heads over to his church to call him out for being a selfish prick who eyed the property from the get-go and she also believes that Lyn was in on the plan, but later realizes that she was kept in the dark as well. In fact, it is the confrontation between Victor and Emma that puts Victor's character in perspective for Lyn. For instance, Victor believes that everything was happening in the bar -- the queer people -- was taking Emma on a wrong path.
He even went as far as to hold a group sermon around Emma to curse away the fact that she was lesbian, which was truly disturbing to watch. Emma also realizes that if she got into a legal battle with Victor, it will only drag her through the mud and so she believes that she would rather sell the property to the same company that had tried to encroach on it when she had initially moved back to Boyle Heights. Considering they are being blamed for gentrification anyway, at this point Emma is not ready to care. So what she does instead is to get a deal from the company and tells Lyn that she could buy out the club if she wanted and man it alone.
Lyn realizes that she has really messed her relationship with her sister in a big way and the only person that she knows who can console her is John. So she finds him, ends up sobbing in his lap, and regresses to making out with him despite promising his girlfriend and mother of his child that she wouldn't interfere in their lives. Turns out, however, that Johnny (Carlos Miranda) has called it quits with his girlfriend after constant arguments, and this time, he tells Lyn that he cannot consider a relationship with her because of the way she had used him and discarded him in the past.
Johnny says that he cannot afford to be treated like that again and that is when Lyn apologizes and promises to do it right this time. She mends her relationship with Johnny, but what she needs is something strong to stop Emma from selling the bar. She finds this when her neighbor -- a lawyer and seer -- reveals to her why Emma was sent away as a child. Turns out Victor had gotten violent after seeing Emma with a girl in a compromising position. This is also the reason why Vida had called the cops on Victor as well despite knowing that he was under DACA.
For Emma, who has always felt like she was abandoned by her family, this truth comes across as a shock and is probably the only reason why she even considers giving herself, Lyn and Vida another chance. The finale, however, ends abruptly without telling us if Emma decides to take the break with Nico, or if she will not fight her father in court. Instead, we just see Lyn and Emma walk back to the bar after an argument together.
Considering that this is the end of the show, the ending was disappointing and we only want to see more of Emma and Lyn.
