Deceitful Love Ending, Explained: Do Gabriella and Elia End Up Together?

Netflix’s ‘Deceitful Love’ is a Spanish romance drama show revolving around a relationship between an older woman and a younger man that leads to a world of complications. Gabriella, a divorced mother of three in her 60s, doesn’t plan on falling in love after she crosses paths with Elia, a handsome young stranger. Nevertheless, as the other continues seeking out her company, it isn’t long before the two find themselves hurtling down a passionate romance. Nevertheless, once Gabriella’s family learns about her new beau—and the treasure trove of secrets he’s seemingly hiding—it naturally invokes their disapproval over their relationship.

Consequently, as her oldest son, Stefano, resorts to drastic measures, Gabriella and Elia are forced to fight for their love while the woman contemplates the validity of her partner’s affection for her. The show takes the viewers on a rollercoaster ride as it follows the various ups and downs of Gabriella and Elia’s relationship. Still, in the end, the narrative arrives to an unexpected conclusion! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Deceitful Love Recap

Gabriella lives a comfortable life in the lavish hotel she owns. Yet, her stark loneliness is evident to everyone around her. As her grown-up kids have gone on to live their own lives, her place has slowly but surely faded from their sides. However, a chance encounter with a stranger, Elia, promises to bring unexpected changes to her life. The two meet after Elia’s car breaks down near Gabriella’s hotel, compelling her to invite him in as a break from the rain. Afterward, Elia continues to find excuses for their paths to cross, making his interest in the older woman evidently known. Even though Gabriella is overwhelmed by his attention, she tries to keep some distance between them. Ultimately, her half-hearted attempts fail as the two end up hooking up.

Nonetheless, after Gabriella’s teenage son, Nico, runs into Ellia at the house, things become complicated. Consequently, not wanting to upset her family, she tries to end their fling—only to end up back in Elia’s arms once she realizes she doesn’t wish to let others dictate her life. In fact, she decides to go big and introduces the younger man as her boyfriend to her kids and ex-husband the next morning over a shared meal. While Gabriella’s daughter, Guilia, remains supportive of her mother’s decision, Stefano explicitly expresses his displeasure. In fact, he decides to sleuth into Elia’s past—with the help of his secret lover, Mattia, a police officer.

After uncovering that the other man is blacklisted from a major Spanish bank and has currently fled the country to avoid his debt, Stefano gives Elia an ultimatum to either leave his mother alone or have his secrets spilled. Nonetheless, Elia refuses to back down and explains the situation to Gabriella. Apparently, he was involved in a chartering business with a friend, which went southwards before the latter abandoned him to bank debts and loan sharks. Although Gabriella chooses to believe him, their relationship continues to remain precarious. As a result, the couple fall victim to constant break-ups and make-ups. Nevertheless, their relationship becomes stronger once Elia becomes more transparent about his financial struggles and past.

Consequently, things progress quickly between Elia and Gabriella, and the former ends up moving in at the latter’s hotel. Furthermore, he pitches a new charter business idea to Nico, who is compelled to agree due to his massive crush on the older man. Predictably, the same ends disastrously. Although Elia and Gabriella are able to work through the same together, it indirectly brings a new complication to their life. Nico’s initial freakout brings Marina, his online friend, to the hotel in an attempt to return his lost dog. Inevitably, Gabriella ends up offering the woman an extended stay at the hotel—oblivious to the fact that Elia shares a past with her. As it turns out, Marina is a part of whatever Elia was running away from in Spain. Worse yet, she’s actually his former girlfriend, who is now pregnant with his child.

Although Marina is displeased about his sudden exit from her life, he assures her he’s only conning Gabriella for her fortune and plans on reuniting with her. Afterward, he tries to fast-pace the purchase of the first ship for their charter business, coaxing thousands of euros from Gabriella. Marina’s addition to their orbits leads to several other complications. Still, at the end of it all, Elia comes to the conclusion that he wants to be with Gabriella and proposes to her. Despite the couple’s happiness over the decision, Gabriella’s family, particularly her ex-husband, Mario, and Stefano, don’t agree with her choices. As a result, Stefano sues Elia, claiming the man is exploiting his mother.

Deceitful Love Ending: What Happened in Ibiza? Who is Francesco?

Once Stefano and Mario press charges against Elia, the other man badly freaks out. Although the charges are related to their claims that the younger man is exploiting Gabriella, Elia knows the background check an investigation would entail would bring up all the sordid details of his past. In fact, he even allows Marina to momentarily convince him to run away with him to escape from the consequences of the investigation. Nonetheless, his connection with Gabriella ends up bringing him back to her. Still, even though he decides to face the music with Gabriella by his side, he doesn’t divulge the secrets of his past to her yet.

Furthermore, Elia tries his best to keep the truth from Gabriella by attempting to blackmail Stefano when the other man gets close to uncovering his secrets. It all comes back to Ibiza and Francesco Rosseti—Elia’s business partner. Although Elia tells Gabriella that Francesco abandoned him with loads of debt, Stefano discovers that Francesco is actually dead, with authorities discovering his body in the river. Therefore, as the day of the court trial arrives, Stefano holds what could be a smoking gun in terms of Elia’s potential connection to Francesco’s death.

Meanwhile, Gabriella learns that Elia previously robbed her of 150 thousand euros during the boat purchase. The piece of information forces her to re-evaluate her entire relationship with the younger man. Eventually, she concludes that she needs to have the entire truth about Elia before she can really trust him. Even so, she knows it would be difficult to get honesty from the man. For the same reason, she goes to Elia’s mother. The other woman has always been honest about her son’s character—from their first meeting when she told Gabriella that Elia wasn’t a very good man. Likewise, she doesn’t hide the truth this time either.

While it is true that Elia started a charter business with Francesco, the latter man never actually abandoned him. Elia’s decision to start a charter business during the rainy season was already a bad bet. However, he took it one step further by taking out giant loans from banks and shady individuals. Consequently, he, Francisco, and their third partner—Marina—found themselves in trouble after a storm ruined their numerous vessels. Nevertheless, instead of facing the mess, Elia decided to make a run for it and left Fransceco to the proverbial sharks. For the same reason, he’s in deep financial trouble. On the other hand, even though he didn’t directly kill Fransceco, he isn’t entirely innocent in the situation either.

Why is Stefano so Protective of Gabriella?

Despite the secretive complications of Elia’s past, throughout his relationship with Gabriella, her son, Stefano, remains the biggest hurdle in the couple’s path. Stefano is suspicious of Elia from the get-go and becomes hellbent on removing the other man from his mother’s life. Compared to his siblings’ reactions—who are mostly unbothered by the decisions their mother makes for her life—Stefano’s reaction seems out of proportion. After all, he’s a successful lawyer with a fortune of his own. It isn’t as if he’s worried Elia may end up stealing his inheritance.

Nevertheless, Stefano is stubborn in his resolve as he takes Elia to court. In the meantime, Gabriella—who is supposed to attend the trial—finds herself unraveling all the secrets her partner has been keeping from her so far. Still, even after learning about Marina’s pregnancy, Gabriella shows up for the trial and even goes out of her way to protect Elia, lying through her teeth to cover up his indiscretions. Therefore, once it becomes clear that Stefano can’t use their relationship against Elia, who has somehow earned Gabriella’s perpetual protection, the man pulls out his final card.

Towards the trial’s end, Stefano reveals the real reason behind his overprotectiveness of his mother. Years ago, sometime after Guilia’s birth, when Stefano was a young child, Gabriella went into a deep depression that left her apathetic to the world around her—including her kids. Despite her son’s various attempts to earn her attention, the woman remained barely lucid, ignoring Guilia’s cries. Eventually, one day, Gabriella took a few sleeping pills and entered a deep slumber—oblivious to the fact that she had left the gas stove on. Consequently, the mother and her kids barely evaded certain death—thanks to Stefano’s efforts—before Gabriella finally snapped out of her depression.

Over the years, Stefano has constantly wondered if his mother intentionally left the gas on to commit suicide alongside her kids. Even though he likes to believe the same thing isn’t the case, he can’t help but be scared that Gabriella will eventually return to the same condition. For the same reason, he’s worried about Elia barging into their lives like a storm and making a place for himself beside Gabriella. Stefano worries that once the younger man has gotten what he wanted from his mother, he will leave Gabriella, who will enter another period of life-threatening depression.

Who is Chiara? Was Gabriella Suicidal in the Past?

After Stefano’s testimony about Gabriella’s past, the woman decides to face the stand on her own. As it turns out, she has been keeping secrets about a dark past as well. Stefano’s worries about his mother stem from a concern that Gabriella’s mental health is precarious and can crash without any reason. However, the woman reveals that her past experience with depression—which almost cost her and her family their lives—comes from a clear place. When Gabriella was 17, she got pregnant with a baby girl. Even though she didn’t want to have the baby at first, her father convinced her to go through with it, only to then compel her to give the child up for adoption.

Gabriella’s father insisted that he was only doing what was best for both his daughter and granddaughter. Nevertheless, it robbed Gabriella of her own agency. Still, during her pregnancy, she grew attached to her child, Chiara. Therefore, the idea of giving her up became too much for teenage Gabriella, who attempted suicide by jumping into the ocean. Nonetheless, she survived the incident and ended up giving birth to her daughter, who was passed into the foster system. Consequently, Giulia’s birth came as an unfortunate reminder of her teenage years when her child was taken away from her.

Thus, Gabriella entered her depressive condition, scared that she would lose her kids once again. Nonetheless, she was able to move on and find happiness for herself in her family. Yet, she was always missing a part of herself that kept her from truly achieving happiness. Gabriella reveals that after meeting Elia, she found a sense of freedom that allowed her to find true happiness within herself. As such, she doesn’t plan on letting their relationship go, no matter what her family has to say about it. The judge comes to a similar conclusion that Gabriella is responsible enough to look after her own life without falling victim to any exploitation. Thus, in the end, he announces Elia as innocent and frees him of all charges.

Do Gabriella and Elia get Married? Does Elia Really Love Her?

After the court trial, there’s little else stopping Gabriella and Elia from cementing their bond through marriage. Nevertheless, the roads they have taken so far have changed certain things for the pair. For one, Gabriella has learned about Marina’s pregnancy as well as Elia’s initial intentions to con her. Given Elia’s past and their suspiciously coincidental first meeting, it’s evident that the man scouted Gabriella out to seduce her and trick her out of her money. Nonetheless, after getting to know her, Elia genuinely fell in love with the woman. Gabriella realizes the same during her conversation with Marina.

After Stefano and Mario initially sued Elia, Marina tried to convince the other man to escape the town with her. Nevertheless, Elia couldn’t run away from Gabriella. Therefore, despite the complications awaiting him by her side, he decided to return to her. Furthermore, even though Marina is carrying his child, he has asserted his intention to stay with Gabriella while helping the other woman raise the child. Thus, it seems that even though the younger man’s relationship with the older woman may have started out as a con, it has developed into actual love.

Still, Gabriella has reservations, which compels her to spend some days away from Elia after the court trial. Ultimately, she arrives at a final conclusion about their relationship—and it doesn’t involve a wedding dress. When the woman visits Elia at the docks, he assumes she’s here to break things off with him. Nonetheless, she reveals a different truth. She has decided to financially help Marina with her child with the condition that she leaves Gabriella and Elia alone.

Gabriella wants to be with Elia but without the obligation of marriage. She wants the two of them to stay with each other because of the intensity of their love and passion. This way, Elia can have his own freedom and only reunite with Gabriella when both of them choose to. Consequently, she can be sure of the genuineness of the man’s love for her without any anxieties about commitment and responsibilities. In the end, the decision works out well for the couple, who continue to remain by each other’s side—purely because of their love for one another.