Summary
“And the Winner is…” has a great sense of achievements against all the odds, but the chapter lacks energy in the story; something is missing, and it just does not work.
This recap of Netflix’s Selena: The Series season 1, episode 3, “And the Winner is…” contains significant spoilers.
We recapped every episode — check out the archive.
The opening
“And the Winner is…” opens up in 1987; music awards nominations are coming up. There’s nervousness amongst the family. Selena is nominated for best song of the year, album, and singer. The family is ecstatic. Suzette tells Selena that she’s going to win and that they need to pick her an outfit for the ceremony. Also, Selena and the band are going to perform in a concert hosted by Johnny Canales. Success seems to be coming their way, but Selena still needs to improve her Spanish.
Selena wants to sing an English song
Selena asks her father if she can do an English song but he’s insistent that she can’t. He’s trying to stay on brand with the audience. Selena wants to serve the other half of her and believes her audience would love it and expand into new markets. Abraham agrees that if she gets Singer of the Year, she can sing one English song. But you can tell Abraham has a one-track mind on this. He wants to keep playing to their strengths.
The awards show
Selena and her family arrive at the Tejano Music Awards. At first, Selena has no idea how to react to all the attention with the cameras flashing. She’s nervous and also is a little starstruck by the other stars. One of the singers advises her to do anything possible to be who she is as a person.
They don’t win Song of the Year, and AB is disappointed. Selena wins Singer of the Year. The Netflix series does well to incorporate the archive footage. Selena gives her acceptance speech with her siblings beside her.
Mexico
The family and all band members head to Mexico. Meanwhile, “And the Winner is…” flits to a young girl called Gabriela, who is a big fan of Selena’s songs. She has her posters up in her room. She wants to go to the Johnny Canales concert, but she couldn’t find cover at work; Gabriela begs her mother, but she doesn’t get her way. However, she manages to sweet-talk her father and flees to the concert.
The English song
The concert starts, and Selena takes an interview on stage with Johnny. The first song she is going to sing is the English one. However, the song doesn’t land well with the crowd because it’s in English. Meanwhile, Suzette remembers the time when her father says the crowd is the boss and AB blames it on her for not going fast enough on the drums. Back to the present and Suzette jolts into action to get the Spanish songs into action and the crowd starts enjoying themselves again. Gabriela manages to make the show.
The ending
Afterward, there’s a twist; Gabriela is a big fan of Suzette and tells her she wants to be a drummer like her. She’s never seen a woman play the drums until she saw her. Suzette is a little overwhelmed by this moment but kindly gives Gabriela an autograph and her drumsticks. On the way home, the trailer comes loose off the van.
Selena: The Series season 1, episode 3 has a great sense of achievements against all the odds, but the chapter lacks energy in the story; something is missing, and it just does not work.
Additional points
- Selena tells her sister that without her, she’d have never gotten this far.
- AB asks Suzette if she’s been practicing with the drum machine and wonders if she can switch to cumbia if the English song doesn’t pull off.
