Summary
The ending of Blood Coast is conclusive in some respects and ambiguous in others, but it’s mostly just a predictable bow on a largely by-the-numbers crime series.
The thing about the ending of Blood Coast Season 1 is that it accidentally reveals how needlessly overcomplicated the plot was. See, this is a pretty generic and by-the-numbers crime drama that frontloads all of its major characters and plot elements without adequately explaining who everyone is and why we should care. By the end of Episode 6, we’ve long since figured out who everyone is and realized we don’t care at all.
The basic idea is this: Murillo, a presumed-dead drug lord, and his right-hand man “The Indian”, are taking over the criminal underworld of Marseille in a revenge play against the current kingpin, Ali Saidi. Going up against them is mildly corrupt cop Lyes Benamar and his archetypal team of rebels, which as of the premiere comes to include Interpol agent Alice Vidal, who has personal reasons for wanting to take Murillo down (he’s responsible for the death of her father.)
Blood Coast Season 1 Episode 6 Recap
Heading into the finale, there are a few matters, both personal and professional, still in play. Who killed Murillo’s son? Will Vidal be able to control her lust for vengeance? Is Lyes the father of Fanny’s daughter? All will be revealed.
Who killed Murillo’s son?
Revenge is a crucial thematic motif in Blood Coast, depicted on both sides of the moral aisle. Vidal wants revenge against Murillo for the death of her father, and Murillo wants revenge against Ali for the death of his son. However, one of the key twists is that Ali didn’t have anything to do with Murillo’s son being killed, at least not directly.
Through Abdel, the owner of the bar near where Murillo’s son died, Benamar and Vidal discover that Murillo’s son was killed in a crossfire. Someone was gunning for Ali, missed, and took the wrong life. In the criminal underworld, one imagines that this kind of thing happens all the time.
However, the bigger revelation is that it was the Indian who killed Murillo’s son. He’s scapegoating Ali so that Murillo gets him out of the way and the Indian can take over Ali’s business. Murillo gets his closure, the Indian gets his money and power, and nobody is any the wiser.
Who kills the Indian?
In the end the Indian is killed by his young goons, mostly as retaliation for killing one of them earlier to make a point. When you try to rule by fear, you run the risk of ticking people off.
This is good news in the sense that it rids the world of a rather despicable chap, but it’s bad news in that it takes the Indian off the table as a bargaining chip to draw Murillo out. So, Lyes instructs the killer kids to pass around word that the Indian is still alive.
Is Murillo arrested?
After spending the entire season looking for revenge, Vidal gets her closure another way – by ensuring that she doesn’t give in to her basest impulses and arresting Murillo so he can face legitimate justice.
The team gets a hero’s welcome for this major arrest, and for Vidal, it’s a bit of a personal victory. One gets the sense that she’s now ready and willing to move on, and she begins to do so – with Lyes.
Is Lyes Zoe’s father?
While Lyes gets a DNA test done to determine whether or not he’s the father of Fanny’s daughter, he ultimately decides not to look at the results, and thus the audience is kept out of the loop. It’s probably a safe bet to assume that Lyes is her father, but believes he’d be doing more harm than good in getting involved after being absent for her entire life.
How does Blood Coast Season 1 end?
The first season of Blood Coast ends with Lyes being arrested by Miranda for various illegal activities and instances of outright corruption, which to be fair he’s guilty of. However, since Ali Saidi is forced to go free because of obvious corruption involving the DA, even Miranda doesn’t seem especially thrilled about it all, despite having spent the entire season building a case.
After Miranda resorted to blackmail, he was finally able to acquire a smoking gun and a few facial injuries, which he would have taken as a win if it wasn’t for the compromise he had made regarding Ali. While the DA tries to frame this as a compromise in the best interests of peace in Marseille, it’s very hard to believe.
While we don’t see Miranda arrest Lyes, it’s very much the implication.
What did you think of Blood Coast Season 1 Episode 6 and the ending? Let us know in the comments.
