This recap of Sintonia season 3, episode 6, “The Beginning of the End”, contains spoilers, including for Sintonia Season 3’s ending. You can check out our spoiler-free season review by clicking these words.
“The Beginning of the End” is a fitting title for a finale, and it’s especially relevant since the show doesn’t actually end here, implying with a cliffhanger conclusion that there’s more to see from Rita, Doni, and Nando in the near future. But it also makes sense on a thematic level, which outside of the closing developments is really the basis on which the episode operates on anyway. There isn’t much plot here, but instead a sense of all roads converging as each of the three central characters faces down and ultimately surmounts whatever final obstacle is preventing them from achieving their personal emancipation.
First up, Rita, who probably gets the most screentime here. The finale finds her atop a mountain, looking for divine support that she doesn’t receive. Instead, she realizes on her that she needs to make a choice about her future, particularly running for the city councilwoman position as the representative of a church that, in the manner of all churches, really, doesn’t really have the best interests of the people at heart.
While Rita remains devoted to a still-incarcerated Cleyton, she is less devoted to the church, especially when the locals in the neighbourhood she grew up in begin questioning where her loyalties are. When she tries to officially drop out of the race, though, the pastor goes absolutely berserk, showing a new side that only further shatters Rita’s already cracked religious idealization. She wisely decides to become a figurehead of her community instead.
Doni, meanwhile, finds himself thoroughly alone, having experienced a serious downslide in his music career, and having separated from Tally. It’s his own security who reminds him, eventually, to be humble and not forget where he came from, which prompts him to write Tally a meaningful and personal song – not one to recoup some of his lost success with, though, but one with which to authentically tell her how he feels. And it works! That return to his artistry in his rawest form allows Doni to no longer feel as if he’s leaving a lie, being a puppet for mainstream corporate interests. And his fanbase seems to agree. When Tally posts his recital of the song on social media, it goes viral.
But it’s Nando’s attempts to go legit by making money through his swanky café that unites all the characters just in time for a compelling cliffhanger ending. Just as everyone gets together to fancy coffee, the police raid the joint, and while everyone surrenders, Nando’s armed goons turn up for a standoff, and the season ends with gunfire and screams, though admittedly behind the credits so we can’t see exactly what goes down.
Next season, maybe?
