Summary
“Still in the Dark” boldly elects to resolve 42 Days of Darkness by not really resolving anything at all.
This recap of 42 Days of Darkness, “Still in the Dark”, contains spoilers, as well as a discussion of 42 Days of Darkness’ ending. You can check out our spoiler-free season review by clicking these words.
Netflix’s new Chilean crime thriller 42 Days of Darkness revolves around one pretty essential question: What happened to Veronica Montes? Across six episodes, this mystery is explored from several perspectives and through multiple concurrent personal investigations. It isn’t a flashy, sensationalized case, but one rooted in real life, involving believable characters who are affected by the trauma of Veronica’s disappearance in logical and painful ways. Spoilers abound, of course, but read below to find out what happened to Veronica, why, and who was involved.
42 Days of Darkness season 1, episode 6 recap
Veronica’s disappearance kick-starts the plot in the first episode when her daughter, Kari, returns home from school to find her missing and the house tossed. Veronica’s husband, Mario, reports her kidnapping to the police, having received a supposed phone call from the culprits, though admittedly one without any explicit demands or motive. In meantime, the police chief, Toledo, begins working the case, as does Veronica’s sister Cecelia, who is suspicious of Mario, and a disgraced lawyer named Victor Pizarro who assembles his old teammates, Nora and Braulio, in the hopes of restoring his professional reputation.
A lot happens subsequently, much of it not worth recounting in detail, since it’s pretty standard crime-drama twists and turns; Mario’s shaky recounting of events and peculiar behavior, Pizarro discovering that Veronica had just rented a film about a woman faking her own kidnapping to get rid of her husband, that sort of thing. Both Veronica and Mario were having extramarital affairs, and throughout most of the episodes, Mario becomes the prime suspect in Veronica’s murder – especially after her body is discovered.
The story begins to shift to Mario having discovered the body of his wife in the attic, her having either been murdered or taken her own life, and faking the kidnapping story to the police. This doesn’t dispel all the inconsistencies in Mario’s story or behavior, but there simply isn’t enough evidence for the characters or the audience to be able to determine Mario’s involvement one way or the other. Time passes. Kari and Emi begin to be damaged by the local perception of their father, despite his involvement not having been proved, and Pizarro’s obsession with achieving some measure of justice leads him to even more personal ruin and despair, especially at the expense of his son, Joaco. A final ray of hope reveals itself to him when a former client tells him that she recognizes the police sketch of a potential suspect as the psychopathic ex-partner of a friend of hers, and the man, an alcoholic burnout named Jaimi Nunez Jara, claims he killed Veronica after having been hired to do so by Mario.
But nothing comes of it. With no official evidence linking Jaimi and Mario, and Jaimi refusing to testify in front of a jury, Mario ends up being acquitted. The glove doesn’t fit. Justice isn’t done. And everyone has to move on with their lives never quite being sure of the truth. It isn’t a typical crime drama ending, and that’s probably for the best, as 42 Days of Darkness bows out having deliberately refused to provide closure to anyone, least of all the audience.
You can stream 42 Days of Darkness season 1, episode 6 exclusively on Netflix. Do you have any thoughts on 42 Days of Darkness’s ending? Let us know in the comments.
