Abhiroop Das
Created by Said Chamie and Claudia Sánchez, Netflix’s ‘Medusa’ returns with a second season to expand on the mysteries surrounding the Hidalgo family. While the first season ended with Barbara Hidalgo teaming up with Danger Carmelo to find out who tried to kill her in the boat explosion, the revelation only leaves the duo with more questions. Gabriel, who turns out to be the one pulling the strings this entire time, is seemingly killed while in prison, with a note left behind that puts the blame on the Hidalgo family. As a new killer emerges on the horizon, Barbara is tasked with both uncovering the truth about her family and keeping the company afloat in dire times. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Medusa Season 2 Plot Recap
‘Medusa’ season 2 begins a few months after the mysterious death of Gabriel, with Barbara and Danger going on a well-deserved vacation to Thailand. With Christian leading the company, the fate of the family seems relatively stable, until an assassination attempt by a man wearing a Medusa mask jolts things back into uncertain territories. While Christian survives with just a mild injury to his hand, this seems to be an intentional move by the hitman, and soon enough, the company begins to crumble from the inside. Meanwhile, Barbara and Danger return to Colombia, with the former rejoining the company, and the latter putting all of his efforts into locating the shooter and who they might report back to. As the company stands at risk of imploding, the board votes Christian out of leadership without warning and instates Barbara as the new president instead.
While the move comes as a shock to Barbara at first, she does have a plan up her sleeve. Guarahi, an indigenous mushroom that Eluney introduced Barbara to, appears to be even more potent than the drugs from season 1. While the conversion of this mushroom into a drug can bring some fame and fortune back to Medusa, Eluney also warns that there may be side effects. That doesn’t stop Barbara from ingesting great quantities of it, however, as there seems to be new trouble creeping into her life. Esteban, who was meant to spend several more months in jail, gets out early after cutting a deal with Adela, a powerful journalist and his former lover. Together, they recruit both Jacobo and Viviana, creating a rival drug company called Beneficence.
Barbara’s frustrations also arise from the fact that Damian, having been removed from the company, is slowly trying to win his way back in. A potential strategy emerges when his ex-wife, Esperanza, discovers that Damian has a son he doesn’t know about, named Dionysus, from a former Medusa worker he sexually abused. While both Esperanza and Damian try to win over Dionysus, the man reveals that he has a plan of his own to take over the leadership. Nothing compares to the threat posed by the assassin, however, as in his spree, he injures Barbara, kills Eluney, and even frames Danger of embezzling money. While Danger is in prison, Barbara ends up breaking up with him, but in the meantime, neither abandons their search for the culprit.
Medusa Season 2 Ending: Who is the Assassin? Why Are They After the Hidalgo Family?
‘Medusa’ season 2 ends by revealing that the person after Barbara’s life is none other than her own aunt, Jackie, who has been conspiring with her lover, Fabian Cuevas, to take control of the company. Though we have known her as one of the victims of the cruel actions of Damian and Camilo, based on the events of season 1, the reality of things turns out to be far more complicated. In reality, she knew about Camilo’s sexuality and abusive actions from the very start, and had seemingly decided to put up with it for the greater good of the family, as well as her own future. This choice, however, can be interpreted as something she was forced to make in the face of a manipulative, patriarchal system that hardly allowed her to express her voice, much like Esperanza.
Interestingly, Jackie describes the arrival of Barbara as where things went downhill for her and her family, as it didn’t take long for Barbara to become Damian’s right hand in the company, matching and perhaps even surpassing his deviousness. Up until this point, Jackie had firmly believed that her years of toil and silent suffering would eventually make way for her assuming power, but that doesn’t quite happen. In the same vein, a part of her also envies Barbara’s ability to defiantly carve out her own space in a world full of men standing in her opposition. This difference is perhaps made most explicit in season 1, when Jackie crumbles under pressure and faints, whereas Barbara continues to resist, ultimately becoming the company’s leader in this season.
Bitter and determined to make a comeback, Jackie decides to turn to the dark, using her lover’s help to scare Christian and Barbara into giving up their powers. What gives Jackie’s seemingly perfect plan away, however, is the fact that she leaves them with a lone clue, the alias Brito. Though Jackie and Fabian intend this to be a threat, Danger eventually figures out that Brito refers to Britney Torrecillas, Jackie’s name before she married Camilo. From there, Barbara recognizes Fabian’s voice from the voice note he sent to one of the prisoners, and thus, the mystery is solved at last. As Jackie goes behind bars, her own son refuses to acknowledge her, leaving her more alone than ever.
Do Barbara and Danger Get Back Together?
Despite their share of romantic ups and downs in this season, Barbara and Danger eventually get back together and go on to get married at the end. Though their disagreements seem to reach the point of no return in the final stretch of the show, there seems to be an easily identifiable reason for that. Having overindulged in the Guarahi drug, Barbara ends up turning into an angrier, more twisted version of herself in bursts. This isn’t necessarily a split personality of hers either, as all the drug appears to be doing is bringing back chunks of her past, pre-amnesia self. Eluney mentions early on that dissociation is one of the common effects of the drug, and in the worst cases, it can even bring a person to turn into their darker side. In Barbara’s case, that is a side of hers buried deep within the subconscious, and ultimately forced to come out.
Barbara only realizes how bad things have gotten when she realizes that everyone she once cared about is no longer with her. This begins a reformative process in her psyche, and the first step in that is identifying that the Guarahi is not a magical cure to all of her woes. Instead, she realizes that the true path towards self-healing is by reigniting her connection to her loved ones, and primarily, Danger. Though Danger knows from the very start that something serious is bothering his partner, he too gets too consumed by his work and his own world of secrets, only to notice things when it’s too late. By the end, however, both get back together with a promise of righting these wrongs, and the ending celebrates their romance to the fullest, complete with a grand wedding ceremony.
Do Damian and Camilo Go to Prison?
Though Damian manages to bend the law to his will for most of the season, he is ultimately brought down by the very people whom he never expected to fight back. After Esperanza declares that she will be bringing Damian’s history of sexual assault to the public, she begins to work with Danger to bring together all the women who were subjected to abuse from Damian in the past. Esperanza even narrowly escapes death in the process, but that doesn’t deter her from taking action wherever it’s necessary. At the end, however, the person whose help tips the entire case in Esperanza’s favor turns out to be none other than Ursula. Throughout the season, we see her being physically, sexually, and psychologically assaulted by Damian, and at last she decides to raise her voice against it.
With enough evidence at hand, the court finds Damian guilty of sexual assault, ensuring that he is put behind bars for good. That’s not the only front he’s defeated in, as Camilo, his brother and right hand, abandons him and leaves the country, narrowly escaping arrest himself. Without any allies left, Damian finds himself with no way out of this fitting end, and with that, the story ends one of its biggest chapters. In a way, every act of evil can be traced back to Damian, as even Barbara, in her worst moments, seems to be emulating what was taught to her by her father. With him and Camilo now out of the picture, the rest of the Hidalgo family can start a fresh chapter in their lives, moving past the sins of the patriarch.
What Happens to Esteban and the Others?
While the story ends on a happy note for Barbara, Dange, and Esperanza, Esteban’s story seems to have reset in a sense. In the final moments of the season, he meets Barbara to declare that he is starting from scratch and completely doing away with the corrupt, toxic ways of the elite. Though he doesn’t explicitly mention it, this conversation also feels like an apology to Barbara for all the ways he has wronged her over the years. His transformation is perhaps best represented by how he refuses to take Barbara’s wealth and settle overseas with Maya. Instead, the pair reunites in Colombia, with Maya giving up on all her luxuries to live a simple life with her father, who is on course to start a business venture of his own.
Ursula, having spoken up against Damian, finds herself on a brand new path as well, one where Esperanza and Barbara are there to watch over her at every turn. The same can also be said about Dionysus, who briefly emerges as a formidable antagonist for the Hidalgo siblings. In the end, however, Barbara cuts a deal with him, where he becomes a transport manager and is promised better communication with Medusa’s labor unions. Meanwhile, Jacobo, too, proves his allegiance to Barbara by cutting all ties with Esteban’s former venture, bringing an end to Medusa’s short-lived competition.
When it comes to Viviana and Christian, however, the story ends on a more ambiguous note. Where Christian decides that the world of business and sacrifices isn’t for him, Viviana is ousted from her own company and forced to start anew. This, however, might be a new opportunity for her as well, as much like Esteban, she can create her own legacy, whether it is alongside her siblings or in opposition to them. As a whole, however, Barbara and her near and dear ones find what they are looking for and face a much brighter future ahead.
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