Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine Ending Explained: Is Cameron Dead?

Helmed by Albert Pintó, David Barrocal, and José Manuel Cravioto, Netflix’s ‘Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine‘ or ‘Berlín y La Dama Del Armiñ,’ continues Berlin’s journey with his crew of expert thieves, this time in Seville. Though their grand plan is to rob Alvaro Hermoso de Medina, the Duke of Málaga, of all of his wealth, the job comes with a catch. To pull off the near-impossible heist, Berlin and company must first win the trust of Alvaro, and the only way to do that is to do his bidding and steal a world-famous artpiece: Leonardo da Vinci’s The Lady with an Ermine. As Berlin prepares to pull off a multilayered job over the course of this Spanish crime drama, which also serves as a loose prequel to ‘Money Heist,’ love, betrayal, and irony come together to play a delicate dance of deception. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine Plot Recap

‘Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine’ begins with Berlin and Damian coming fresh off a world tour, following which the latter proposes robbing the Marbella bank. Berlin, however, has a far more interesting idea, which involves raiding the coffers of a billionaire duke named Alvaro Hermoso de Medina. Following the usual steps, Berlin charms the duke’s wife, Genoveva, but is soon stumped to learn that all of this was a trap. In reality, Alvaro is a huge fan of Berlin and wants him to steal something for him, rather than from him. The object of interest in this case is a legendary painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, known as Lady with an Ermine. Though the painting typically rests in Poland, it is scheduled to land in the city of Seville, which makes the scene ripe for a hunt.

While Berlin accepts the deal, behind closed doors, he seems to have plans of his own. Gathering his team back in, he begins looking for clues regarding Alvaro’s secret painting collection, but runs into a rather unique problem: not one of his teammates is in sync. While Roi and Cameron seem to have separated due to an affair, Keila is secretly in love with someone else. Damian, in the meantime, has second thoughts about wronging a person they have already made a deal with, but that complaint gets sidelined when the team ultimately discovers Alvaro’s hidden vault of some of the most valuable lost or stolen art in history. Berlin uses his knowledge of these as leverage for a hefty deal with Alvaro, all the while planning to rob him for real.

As the team gets to concocting a flawless plan for the painting heist, Berlin meets a local pickpocketing expert named Candela, and soon falls for her. Damian, too, gets distracted from the mission when Alvaro’s wife, Genoveva, expresses her attraction towards him. As all the characters try to navigate these interpersonal webs, a new problem pops up. All of Alvaro’s wealth is concentrated in an underground safe that is secured by two layers. Between the layers lies a ring of fire that lights up whenever someone enters undetected. Despite this, Berlin makes the bold plan not just to steal da Vinci’s painting in broad daylight, but also sweep Alvaro’s wealth clean and teach him a lesson, even if it means risking life, love, and death.

Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine Ending: Does Berlin Pull Off the Two Heists?

‘Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine’ ends with the gang pulling off its greatest run of heists to date, much to Alvaro’s existential anguish. Ironically, it’s not the stealing of the Lady with an Ermine that takes center stage, but rather the two riskier maneuvers Berlin and company pull off. The first is to raid Alvaro’s underground safe, from where they leave with a full 75 million dollars. Next up, they make it to his secret painting collection once again, this time leaving no crumbs on their way out. All of this is possible because of Berlin’s greatest con, which lies in convincing Alvaro about the very idea of the perfect heist, one that needs him to be far away from his precious chambers to ensure a lack of traceability.

Alvaro, an otherwise sharp criminal, is too taken by the idea of possessing the Lady with an Ermine that he doesn’t think twice before agreeing to Berlin’s demands. This, however, is merely the first step to success, as the underground safe is still run automatically and holds the power to incinerate anyone who intrudes. When Roi and Bruce are tasked with the near-impossible task of holding out at the center of the flames till the oxygen supply cuts out, they initially don’t feel too sure about the decision. However, Bruce ends up being the one to endure the surge the longest, allowing Damian and the others to finish the job and escape with every last bit of cash in one piece.

Though Berlin’s plan is to run away with just the 75 million, it is The Professor, AKA Sergio, Berlin’s brother, who cautions him against all that can go wrong with that. We have already seen that Alvaro has his share of competent bodyguards and assassins, one of whom nearly kills Roi at one point. Thus, for Berlin to risk death for the rest of his life doesn’t sound like a bright idea, especially now that he has Candela in his life. Instead, The Professor suggests making use of this proximity by going all in and collecting proof of all of Alvaro’s crimes. The paintings’ heist is partly to that effect, as Berlin can now ensure that if even one of them goes down, Alvaro is all but doomed as well.

Why Does Berlin Return the Paintings? What Happens to the Lady with an Ermine?

While Berlin’s heist of the paintings is genius in and of itself, what’s particularly curious is what he chooses to do with these paintings. As the biggest connoisseur of art in the show, it makes sense for him to take possession of these masterworks, or to sell them to someone he holds in high opinion. However, Berlin chooses neither of those options, and instead, he has the works dispatched silently to the museums they were stolen from. The final moments of the show, as such, form a montage of delighted museum guards and curators, who celebrate the homecoming of art pieces like Caravaggio’s The Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence. Though this marks a surprisingly selfless move on Berlin’s end, that is also what makes it all the more in-character on a deeper level.

To begin with, the theft of the paintings is never a part of his original equation, and is only undertaken to permanently level the scales between Alvaro and Berlin’s gang. That said, there is hardly anything more consistent in this season than Berlin’s hatred for Alvaro’s conduct towards the masterworks, which undoubtedly fuels this heist as well. If he decides to simply steal and forward these artworks, as such, Berlin risks falling to the same level as Alvaro, treating art with such merit as merely pawns in a matchup of inflated egos. Instead, he decides to bring them to a place where their value is almost certain to be appreciated. Even though this decreases Berlin’s leverage against Alvaro by depriving him of the actual physical versions of the work, this still remains an act for the greater good.

Unlike the rest of the paintings, the Lady with an Ermine has an even more unusual fate, where it briefly becomes the sole masterwork in Alvaro’s stolen collection. However, even that is short-lived, as the next time we hear about the painting, Berlin reveals that it will presumably be sold for a surprisingly low valuation. The show then cuts to real-life information through a flashcard, stating that the real-life Lady with an Ermine was sold in 2016, alongside other artworks, to the Polish Government for €100 million. Though the fictional string of events in ‘Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine’ are not connected to real life, this does make for an ironic closure to the mystery, and by extension, to Alvaro’s arc.

Why Does Samuel Not Tell on Berlin’s Gang?

The most unpredictable turn in the final moments of ‘Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine’ comes with the reveal that Samuel, the bodyguard, simply let Berlin and his gang pull off the heist. Though their plan was to plant a surveillance device in Alvaro’s home early, by hiding it inside one of the fake cash stacks, Samuel is the first to catch on to the act. However, instead of telling on Berlin’s gang and ending their ploy then and there, he keeps quiet and lets the entire orchestration play out, knowing how it will effectively ruin his boss from the inside out. When that ultimately does happen, we learn the real reason why. Samuel is actually in love with Alvaro and feels hurt at how his boss is more taken by his collection of artworks and his wife than by him. Though Alvaro does seem to have a soft spot for Samuel, it doesn’t ever translate to anything outside of a professional relationship, until now.

Maintaining a fair deal on his end, Berlin leaves Alvaro with just one painting to his name, the stolen Lady with an Ermine. However, with Alvaro losing every other painting, not to mention his entire reserve wealth, this can hardly be called a balance. To top it all off, Duchess Genoveva leaves him with a final letter, announcing her decision to end the marriage and go her separate ways, leaving Alvaro more alone than ever. It is in this moment that he looks to Samuel for emotional comfort, inviting him to sleep with him on his bed, in a scene that strongly implies that the pair will get together.

Everything goes exactly as Samuel hoped it would, reconciling the finer moments of the story like the one time he lies about not seeing Berlin with Genoveva in the washroom. It is also implied that he purposefully lets Genoveva become involved in a relationship with Damian, possibly even directing him to the coffers’ keys. Though Samuel and Berlin’s gang have entirely different ambitions, their interests align by pure fate, allowing Berlin to live to tell the tale.

Is Cameron Dead? What Does the Phone Call to Roi Mean?

Although the heists are a resounding success, all of this comes at a cost for Berlin and company. Most devastatingly, they learn from the news that Cameron is dead, and her body has washed up on the shore. Though authorities presume that it was a diving incident gone wrong, they don’t realize that the entire scene was framed by the men on the Yacht, who leave her to die after discussing that she is a thief. Though Cameron is given a chance to save herself at the cost of others, she valiantly chooses otherwise, not just because Roi is one of the teammates, but because everyone in there is like a family to her. As a result, she gets pushed overboard in freezing waters and slowly slips away into the darkness as she breathes her last.

Cameron’s death is not the last we see of her, however, as it is revealed that she leaves a voice message for Roi minutes before that phone is snatched, and her death is set in stone. Through the voice note, she confesses to everything she wished she’d said earlier, including, most importantly, that Roi is the love of her life. On the day of their breakup, though Cameron claimed to have spent time with her ex-partner to realize that she still wanted him, the truth is the exact opposite.

Staying away from Roi made her realize just how much she loves him, but admitting to that also came with an element of guilt. Instead, she chose to double down on her lie that day, and it is only now, moments before her death, that she realizes everything she’s missed out on. Her separation from the group around halfway through the season is ominous, as is her ultimate fate, but still, nothing can quite prepare the crew for her passing, which marks a turning point for their dynamics as a whole.

Do Berlin and Candela Get Married? Where Does Genoveva go?

Though Cameron’s death ushers in a wave of gloom and mourning, the ending of the show soon gives way to a rather happy moment, signifying the cycle of life and death that everyone in Berlin’s gang has made peace with. This time, the occasion is Berlin’s marriage to the love of his life, Candela, and everyone is invited. This also includes Camille, who seems to have come to terms with the premature end of her relationship with Berlin. Also attending are all the remaining members of Berlin’s crew, and though The Professor can hardly be found in the crowd, that is likely by his design as well. As everyone gathers together to put the sorrows of their past behind them, Berlin and Candela walk up to the altar for what is possibly the happiest moment of their lives.

Almost in contrast to Berlin and Candela’s marriage, we see Damian’s love story with Genoveva reach a rather unique conclusion. Though her letter to Alvaro reveals that she is leaving him, it doesn’t specify exactly where she is headed, or if she’s going to be with Damian, or lead her life alone. The ending, however, confirms that it’s the former, as despite their ups and downs, she’s still head over heels when it comes to him. Based on her dress-up, it looks like Genoveva still has to keep a low profile to avoid being caught, but Damian brings up something that can change that.

In a powerful moment for their relationship, he reveals to her his true identity as a quantum physics professor, who just so happens to be a criminal genius on the side. Inviting her on one of his journeys, Damian circles back to the start of the season, where he went on a world tour with Berlin, only to come up dissatisfied. This time, however, with Genoveva by his side, things promise to end up differently, and perhaps in a way that doesn’t depend on the thrill of a heist.

Read More: Where is Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine Filmed?