The challenge of Who Killed Sara? Season 3 was introducing a villain even more evil than Cesar and Mariana Lazcano. That’s what Jean Reno’s sadistic Reinaldo was supposed to be.
Reinaldo was proof that for all the cruel and vicious acts Cesar and his wife committed — including murder, statutory rape and sex trafficking — this wackadoo doctor, with his antiquated aversion therapy methods for “curing” homosexuality, was far worse. That’s because Reinaldo was a puppet master who, as it turns out, was so powerful and prophetic that he orchestrated not only Alex’s friendship with Rodolfo and Chema, but Sara’s kidnapping and subsequent faked death.
Which means not only did Alex not kill his sister, a crime he served 18 years in prison for, but the man’s sister wasn’t even dead. Sara lived at least another year as Reinaldo tortured her with endless rounds of electroshock therapy and medicinal trials to rid her of schizophrenia. Reinaldo even snatched away Sara’s baby, whom she named Lucia after her mother, and raised the child in order to observe if she’d inherited her mother’s mental illness.
Sara tried to escape Reinaldo’s lunacy, but she was recaptured and ultimately took her own life to free herself from his horrific and inhumane methods. Where Sara got that humongous knife from remains a mystery. But the fact that fans had to endure Marifer’s false confession at the end of Season 2, and Sara’s eventual suicide in Season 3, is a fate worse than anything Reinaldo could muster.
To be clear, Who Killed Sara? was always a messy, silly and improbable telenovela where Alex and Cesar could get shot multiple times and never die, and Elisa could set a whole casino on fire and not do a lick of jail time. By inserting Reinaldo as the devil incarnate, the show lost its sense of humor and its sense of self. Perhaps this is why when Alex rightfully and vengefully electroshocked Reinaldo to death, his comeuppance felt empty.
Meanwhile, Rodolfo (remember him?) had nothing better to do than deliver a bag of Alex-designed explosives to a group of Hungarian pimps that Cesar owed money to. Once those guys were dead, Rodolfo lived what little bit of life he had left pouting because his dad wasn’t proud of him, lusting after his half-sister Lucia (because she looked like the love of his life, Sara) and jumping in front of a bullet to protect his family. At least Rodolfo died better than he lived.
The same can’t be said for Chema, a once vibrant and lovable character, who was reduced to a cautionary tale of homophobia, sexual abuse in prison and his unresolved and unrequited love for Alex. The fact that Alex kissed Elisa in front of him, in what was supposed to be a happy ending, just felt cruel. Oh, and did we mention his mom stole his money and checked him into Reinaldo’s gay conversion clinic?
Daniela, meanwhile, is now wandering aimlessly in Mexico’s countryside, Mariana is a nun and Cesar is dying of pancreatic cancer in prison. A better ending would’ve been a makeover montage for Lucia because her Samara wig from The Ring was too absurd — even for a show as wild as this one.
What did you think of the Who Killed Sara? series finale? Are you happy the show ended the way it did, or were you hoping for a better conclusion? Grade the final season in our poll, and drop your thoughts in the comments.
