Arka Mukhopadhyay
With Leticia López Margalli at the helm, Spanish-original erotic thriller telenovela ‘Dark Desire’ (original title: ‘Oscuro Deseo’) probes into the bottomless depths of the human unconscious. The series revolves around the forbidden love story of Alma and Dario, which is fated for doom. Professor and lawyer Alma Quintana’s life goes through a reset after the encounter. At the same time, Dario occupies all her thought, while she comes to discover Dario’s ominous past. Is Dario dead or alive at the end of the mind-boggling second season? Let us find out! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Is Dario Dead or Alive?
Dario Guerra is the enigmatic male lead character of the story. In the first season, Alma meets him at the party before Brenda’s death. Dario comes off as a volatile and erratic personality. He also seemingly has this overpowering effect on women twice his age. Alma and Dario spark off an illicit affair, while Alma initially thinks Dario to be the killer of Brenda. While Dario has no hand in Brenda’s death, Esteban stumbles upon some drastic discoveries about Dario.
Esteban threatens Dario with a chainsaw in the first season, almost killing him. While he lets Dario live, for the time being, he finds that Dario is the son of Antonio Guerra, who was falsely convicted for the murder of a five-year-old child, Leslie Delgado. Thanks to Leonardo, Dario’s father went to prison. Antonio shot himself in front of Dario’s eyes, unable to withstand the shame. We later realize that Dario may have played a part in Delgado’s death. On the other hand, a specific scene from childhood haunts him to date.
Dario’s mother, Lucinda, claims to have drowned him. But the flashback reveals that Antonio mediated the situation, giving Dario a second lease of life. However, the humanity in him may have died in that instant, causing trauma that would lead to his psychotic personality in adulthood. The second season chronicles Dario’s past after his father’s death – how Antonio’s brother, Alberto, and Lys, adopted him, and how he survived “sexual abuse” in the hands of his perverse uncle and aunt.
However, the flashback reveals that Dario was more than willing to have sex with Lys, filming her while coming out of the shower. Dario exercises his power over Alma for most parts of the two seasons, overwhelming her with a forbidden passion. He is also a master manipulator and conniver, distorting the story at his will. At one moment, somebody stole his money from the Andorra account. In the next moment, he converted the inheritance money through US-based firm Harris And Lawson to untraceable Bitcoin (which may be a terrible move, considering Bitcoin’s diminishing value in contemporary times).
We realize that Dario only cares about his money, using women as tools to raise the social ladder. In other words, he is a near-perfect example of the Restoration rake, a stock character from Restoration city comedies, concealing traits of alcoholism, debauchery, and womanizing. Thankfully, in the end, Alma gets to see his true face, which is not so loving, after all. The twist ending of the second season entails that Dario is the killer of his to-be groom, Julieta. Dario being the killer should not be surprising, but it is – since Brenda Castillo’s suicide in the first season primes the viewers.
At the end of the second season, Lys is convicted for the murder since all the evidence points at her. But to serve Alma’s doubt, Esteban and Montano devise a killer plan while Alma, Leonardo, and Inigo perform their roles. After a confrontation, Dario attempts to hurt Alma, assessing that she cannot pull the trigger. But Esteban reaches the scene right on time. He shots Dario down, and this time, he has no bulletproof jacket for protection. Dario doesn’t die, however. The final sequence finds Dario cuffed to a hospital bed. He possibly ends up in prison, together with Lys.
Read More: Where Is Dark Desire Filmed?
