Friday, November 13, 2020

My Review of Someone Has To Die: "Pull the Trigger" / "Apretar el gatillo"

 

Written by Manolo Caro & Monika Revilla & Fernando Pérez
Directed by Manolo Caro

Amparo: "Does it ring any bells? You came back to Spain only for this. Fate sure is capricious, isn't it?"
Gabino: "Don't come any closer or I'll shoot."

The show might have been titled Someone Has To Die but for this final episode, clearly Manolo Caro thought he might as well kill off half the cast and only one of these deaths saddened me. One other I had mixed feelings about and the remaining two were definitely deserved. 

The death I'm of course sad about was Lázaro. I was hoping that he might have made it out of this miniseries alive and while I wasn't exactly rooting for him and Mina as a pairing, it did royally suck that Amparo managed to kill him. Lázaro really had the worst time between captured, having his life threatened and of course, Cayetana taking a sadistic pleasure in orchestrating his downfall. Cayetana really did take spite to the next level here.

The death I was mixed on was Alonso of course. After actively hating the guy's guts in the previous two episodes, this finale decided to take a different turn with Alonso's guilt somewhat getting the better of him here. For a man who was only too happy to have both Gabino and Lázaro kidnapped and beaten up in the last episode, his turnaround seemed a bit too sudden for my liking here. This is where arguably an extra episode might have benefitted this particular character turn.

Alonso did give Gabino a gun to use and he did us all a solid when he shot Gregario in the head. However the one really good thing in this miniseries didn't save him from being killed by Amparo moments later. I think Carlos Cuevas did a great job bringing a rather hateful character to life and giving him some understandable turmoil. The scene in the car with Gabino where he finally seemed to make some way into accepting himself was particularly done well. 

As for Gregorio, he too seemed to suffer from some inner turmoil here. I mean he had no problem with capturing and torturing his son but relented before it got to the extremes that he took pleasure in with the other gay guy from the last episode. He also seemed genuinely devastated when he learned of his mother's own murderous ways but had no problem trying to get Gabino to kill Mina and Lázaro before Alonso took him out. Needless to say, Gregorio had it coming.

As did of course Amparo. Don't get me wrong - as a character she was a bloody fantastic villain. A true nasty piece of work, manipulative to the core and her hold on her family certainly caused a lot of problems. I'm glad that Gabino was the one to take her out and I'm also glad that both Gabino and Mina at least survived this series, even if we're unlikely to find out what happens next with them.

- Rosario's husband died. I wish we had gotten to know her family a bit more in the series but with only three episodes, I guess her story had to be short changed.
- I'm genuinely surprised that Carlos survived the previous episode. I did like the brief scenes he shared with Gabino here.
- The last shot I used as a screencap for this was particularly arty. There was also some of Gabino and Gregorio being tortured together and a rather gory one of Amparo and a beating heart.
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off. 

Well, this was an interesting miniseries. I've seen some people express disappointment with this final episode but personally I really liked it. Much as I would've loved a Gabino/Lázaro pairing, I felt this was a good enough ending with most of the baddies taken out (Cayetana remained unpunished) and two of the strongest characters thankfully surviving the events. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

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