Diksha Sundriyal
HBO’s ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ (originally titled: ‘Como agua para chocolate’) follows the tragic romance of Tita de la Garza and Pedro Muzquiz. They fall in love as children, and when they cross the doorstep of adulthood, they wish to be married and be with each other forever. But Tita’s cruel mother and the general turn of circumstances prevent them from finding their happy ending. The six-episode first season showcases a lot of heartbreak that the couple and their loved ones suffer through the years. However, the finale takes the cake when it comes to throwing the protagonists at their lowest, making the audience wonder how, if ever, they will recover from it. SPOILERS AHEAD
How does Roberto Die?
Of the many heartbreaking things that happen to Tita, one of the major ones is when Pedro marries Rosaura. His reasoning is that he did it to be close to her because her mother wouldn’t allow her youngest daughter to be married. But then, Rosaura becomes pregnant, and Tita’s heart breaks even more. Considering all this, she tells herself she will hate the child born of Pedro and Rosaura’s union, but after birthing Roberto with her own hands, Tita starts to love him more than anyone else in the world. Despite him being Rosaura’s son, Roberto bonds more with Tita, so much so that he breastfeeds from her rather than his own mother.
After Pedro’s connection to the rebels comes to light, Elena sends away Rosaura and Roberto to Texas, hoping that it will keep them safe. Despite Tita begging at her feet, Elena doesn’t allow her to go with them, and this throws Tita into a state of despair. Because no one knew that Tita had been breastfeeding Roberto all this time, they could not estimate the impact this distance would have on the baby. Because Rosaura still cannot produce milk for the baby, a wet nurse is called in to feed Roberto. At first, Roberto takes the milk, but soon after, he finds out that the nurse is not Tita, which is when he starts to reject the milk.
Because Tita was the only one who fed him, the baby didn’t recognize anyone else. He stops eating, and even if he is forced to, he pukes the milk and food, which becomes a cause for great concern. So much so that even Rosaura thinks that Tita should be called upon to take care of Roberto. But before anyone can act on Rosaura’s advice, Roberto dies. On the surface, one could say he dies of hunger because he hasn’t been eating anything since the separation from Tita. But perhaps the heartbreak of not being close to the woman he had attached himself to, considering her his mother, might also be the reason behind it.
It is also known that Tita’s feelings flew into whatever food she made for others. The same goes for her milk, which was a miracle in itself because Tita shouldn’t have been able to have it due to the biological requirements for it. The milk was a result of her immense love for the baby, and Roberto must have felt it when he drank the milk. Now, without Tita, that love is also taken away from her. He cannot get it from the wet nurse nor from his own mother, who is still battling postpartum depression. The only person he’d been attached to was Tita, and being robbed of her love eventually drained the life out of him.
What Deal Did Elena Make With Pedro’s Uncle? What Happens to Gertrudis?
While Tita’s life faces turbulence of all kinds, there is rebellion growing outside the confines of her house. Pedro’s uncle has been leading the charge against the rebels, and he is in no mood to forgive anyone, including his nephew. What’s worse is that Don Felipe Múzquiz has used the excuse of finding rebels to torture the public. It isn’t just about creating a nuisance but actually harming the public, including sexually assaulting women. When one woman tells her harrowing story to the rebels, they decide to find a way to make Felipe pay for his actions.
Felipe knew that the rebels would want an opportunity to get to him, so he set a trap for them. He calls upon Elena to help him with it. She has to send her men to find the rebels and tell them about Felipe’s location, where they will come to attack him. There, Felipe and his forces would ambush and kill them once and for all. Elena agrees to this, but she has a condition. Her daughter, Gertrudis, must be allowed to escape. Once again, this proves her love for her daughter, who is the only one to be born out of the actual love Elena felt for her father. Felipe doesn’t mind, and the plan goes forward.
Once their location is known, a man is sent to plant the idea of attacking Felipe at his mistress’ house. The rebels take the bait, even though Juan proposes that they must plan better. Gertrudis, however, does not want to wait one more day, believing that this might be their only chance to get Felipe once and for all. The plan was to bide their time, case the area, and take the enemy by surprise. But then, Pedro finds out about his son’s death and blames his uncle for being the reason he was sent away to Texas in the first place.
Blinded by rage, Pedro storms into Felipe’s place, forcing the rest of the rebels to follow suit. The moment they are inside the building, they realize they have been played. The ambush becomes imminently clear, but by that time, it is already too late. Things have gone exactly how Felipe wanted them to be, which means that perhaps, even without Pedro acting out of anger, things would have eventually turned out the same way. In any case, the rebels suffer a heavy loss. As promised, Felipe lets Gertrudis walk away from this carnage. She sustains a bullet wound in her thigh, but it is not enough to claim her life. The bullet is taken out by Juan at their camp, which signals that Gertrudis is alive and her story with the rebels is yet to unfold completely.
What Happens to Tita?
While Pedro and Gertrudis fight Felipe’s forces, Tita wrestles with the grief of losing Roberto. Her rage turns towards her mother, whom Tita blames for the baby’s death. If only Elena had allowed Tita to go with Rosaura, Roberto would still be alive. What irks Tita further is that even the baby’s death doesn’t change Elena. She still expects Tita to go about as if nothing has happened. So, when Elena asks Tita to draw up her bath, Tita lashes out at her. She finally has the courage to tell her mother that she is not going to be under her thumb anymore. This rebellion from Tita is entirely unexpected and shocking, scaring Elena and leading her to take drastic measures, which shows just how much she despises her youngest daughter.
Considering the flashbacks from Episode 5, it is clear that the reason Elena hates Tita so much is because of the way she was conceived. Elena didn’t love her husband, but she started to hate him after he killed the man she loved, who was Gertrudis’ father. Elena was trapped in a loveless marriage, one that she even wanted to begin with. What made it worse was that her husband wasn’t kind to her. He wanted a son, so he forced himself on Elena, and this was how Tita was conceived. Even when her husband died before the child was born, Elena saw Tita as a marker of the rape and trauma she had suffered at the hands of her husband.
In her own twisted way, Elena thought that the only way to get revenge on her husband would be to inflict pain on his child, especially the one he wanted so desperately that he had to rape his wife for it. This is why Elena never allowed Tita the happiness she so desperately craved. She found a strange sense of satisfaction in the girl’s pain. So, when Tita finally decides to break free of her mother’s bondage, Elena takes things a step further. She lies to Tita about going to the hospital to see Pedro, who has been shot, but instead, takes her to the place run by the nuns where wayward women are sent.
Elena’s act shows that she despises Tita so much that she would rather her daughter rot in an asylum-like place than venture out into the world on her own. Tita, too, is shocked by her mother’s decision, wondering yet again why her mother hates her more than anyone else in the world. While her situation seems pretty dire at the moment, one can’t help but hope that things will get better for Tita. What makes things more interesting is that with Tita ending up where she does, the show diverges from its source material, where Tita ends up in the company of Doctor Brown. Considering that the Doctor’s interest in Tita has already been mentioned, there is a chance that he may help her find her freedom in the second season. But what really stirs the pot is that Elena will need her daughter again, which means that she might be the one to bring Tita back home, even if for entirely selfish reasons.
What Happens to Pedro? Does He Die?
Joining a violent rebellion is not an easy thing. Pedro discovers just how difficult it is when he faces death several times over the course of six episodes. He is shot so many times by now that one can’t help but hope that the guy catches a break. However, much like his beloved Tita, Pedro’s life is also full of heartbreaks and disappointments. Hearing the news of his son’s death breaks him so that he has murder on his mind, and it is with the intent of killing his own uncle that he races away from Tita’s house. But then, the ambush happens, and Pedro, along with several other rebels, is captured.
As Gertrudis worries for her brother-in-law, Juan comments that Pedro is Felipe’s nephew and that Felipe will never hurt him. But they underestimate the general’s hatred for rebels, and soon, we find Felipe lining up in front of a firing squad with the rest of the rebels. There is no deus ex machina in his case, and he is shot in the chest and then thrown into a mass grave with the rest of the rebels. However, unlike other rebels, his heart and soul are intertwined with his beloved, such that one cannot live without the other, and neither can they die. The magical realism of the story makes many seemingly unbelievable things plausible, and this is also what happens with Pedro.
He is snatched from the jaws of death by Tita’s love and his love for her. Just when we think he has died, he is brought back to life by an invisible force, and at the same time, Tita has a feeling that something bad has happened to Pedro. It could be this or the simple fact that the bullet missed its mark, and Pedro was saved from a fatal injury. That he’d only fallen unconscious, and his waking up was not from the hold of death but from being unconscious long enough for others to believe he was dead, giving him ample opportunity to escape his murderous uncle, join the rebels again, or go back to Tita. In any case, Pedro lives on, and so does the hope of him and Tita finding a happy ending.
Read More: Like Water for Chocolate: Is The HBO Show a True Story?
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