Summary
A decent finale provides some closure and thematic payoff but doesn’t quite do complete justice to a needlessly convoluted narrative.
You could always trust Holy Family Season 2 to have a needlessly convoluted ending since the Spanish Netflix original has always been a needlessly convoluted show. Episode 8 of the second season, titled, fittingly, “Holy Family”, is presumably a conclusion to the series overall, so you’d expect it to provide a decent amount of closure. It arguably does that by tying off some key plot threads, but it can’t be said that it does every character and subplot the justice they require.
Nonetheless, we’re here to cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s in unpacking this messy finale and the season overall, so let’s do that as best we can and hope for the best.
Holy Family Season 2 Ending Explained
What happened to Lorenzo?
One of the second season’s most central – and honestly best-written – subplots is the mystery of what happened to Lorenzo, Blanca’s son. When he’s found dead in a lake near the park, the tragedy exposes all the flaws in Blanca’s marriage, sends her mental health spiraling, and creates many potential suspects in his demise.
With relevant CCTV footage stolen, the police get nowhere, and the matter seems intentional. Gloria picked him up that night and returned him home, but when the police began questioning her, she covered her tracks anyway.
Lorenzo had Down Syndrome and was prone to leaving the house in the middle of the night and going wandering. To unburden herself, Blanca confesses to the police that she is at fault for Lorenzo’s death. After Gloria had returned him home, he had wandered off again, Blanca had followed, in a haze from the pills she was taking to cope, and when he fell into the lake she was too overwhelmed with fear and panic to intervene.
Why did Gloria commit suicide?
Holy Family is, at its core, a custody battle. Both Gloria and Natalia believe they have the right to parent Nico, the child whom Gloria was a surrogate for. The first season was kick-started by Gloria kidnapping Nico, faking her own death, and moving to Madrid with him, since he was her only remaining connection to her son Santi.
In Season 2 Natalia pursued Gloria to Madrid, and both women had done many terrible things to preserve their idea of family. Both women loved far too intensely, and it was likely that neither of them could ever have a normal, healthy relationship with a child that wasn’t predicated on obsession. In the end, Gloria kidnaps Natalia and drives her off a cliff, sending both of them to their deaths and leaving the children free without them.
There are a couple of potential reasons for this. One is the classic “If I can’t have him, nobody else can” argument, but that’s unlikely. The more believable justification is that Gloria knew intrinsically that neither woman could love responsibly, and that people would unavoidably continue to be hurt as long as they remained in the picture. The kids could not grow up and live normal, healthy lives if they continued to be involved. Gloria took matters into her own hands to ultimately save her children in an act of self-sacrifice.
How does Holy Family Season 2 end?
After being fought for by his mother and grandmother (technically) for two whole seasons, Nico eventually leaves Spain with Aitana and Eduardo. Aitana is pregnant with Marco’s child, and when she gives birth, Holy Family Season 2 ends with Eduardo telling the doctor that he is the child’s father. He’s not, obviously, but it’s a symbolic gesture that he and Aitana will raise the kid together.
It is to be understood that both kids knew of Gloria’s sacrifice for them to build a life of their own, which is what they finally end up doing without her. It’s just a shame so many people had to die along the way.
What did you think of Holy Family Season 2 Episode 8 and the ending? Let us know in the comments.
