'Two Graves' Ending Explained & Finale Recap: Is Rafael Salazar Dead Or Alive?

Two Graves’ ending was all about Isabel preventing Rafael Salazar from killing her granddaughter, Veronica, and her granddaughter’s lover, Jamila Abdallah. What prompted Salazar to get so murderous? Well, two years prior to the events of this Netflix miniseries, Veronica and Salazar’s daughter, Marta, had gone out to party. They were supposed to return home by 3 AM, but neither of them ever came back. An extensive search was undertaken, and the authorities did find Marta’s dead body in the waters around Frigiliana, Spain. But there was no trace of Veronica. Eventually, Miguel Zaera, the judicial police, Veronica’s father, Antonio, and even her sister, Lupe, gave up. Of the two suspects, Jonas Herrera was released due to lack of evidence, and Johannes Witzke, who was a known sex offender but had nothing to do with this case, took his own life. That said, just when it seemed like the case was going cold, Isabel made a breakthrough as she learned that Beltran, the girls’ common friend, had taken them to a sleazy party. When Isabel followed that thread, she found out that celebrity news anchor Carlos Jaen was involved in it. Upon further investigation, Isabel found out that the last person to have seen the girls was Jamila Abdallah. Now, since Isabel kept sharing these details with Salazar, who was a famous gangster, he went on a murderous rampage. But when Isabel learned from Antonio that Veronica and Jamila were alive and living in Almeria, San Jose, Isabel knew that Salazar wouldn’t stop until he avenged Marta by killing both Veronica and Jamila. Did Isabel manage to stop Isabel? What was the meaning of Isabel’s rescue mission? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

How Did Marta Die?

As per Antonio, here’s the factual account of the events that had transpired two years ago in Two Graves. After spending some time at the local carnival, Marta and Veronica requested that Jonas give them a lift to the Los Penones Area Recreativa. Then Marta and Veronica walked all the way to the house that Beltran had invited them to. Both the girls had drinks and, as the kids like to say, dropped acid. While Veronica was relatively seasoned when it came to drugs and booze, Marta wasn’t able to handle herself, and she lost her way in the party. Carlos, who was also present there, cornered Marta and raped her. When Veronica saw that Marta had been out of her field of vision for a long time, she tracked her down with Jamila’s help and found her in that compromising situation. Marta wanted to go to the police, but Veronica and Jamila were of the opinion that that would reflect poorly upon her as well as her friends. All three of them, despite being barely adults, were at that party doing all kinds of illegal things of their own free will. Beltran had invited them, and they’d accepted. 

Yes, it’s true that consent can and should be withdrawn whenever one feels they are uncomfortable. But in Veronica’s opinion, the police won’t tackle this situation in a nuanced fashion, and they’ll portray all three of them as prostitutes, which in turn will paint their respective families in a bad light. Marta didn’t care about all that. She wanted Carlos to pay for what he had done; after that, if Salazar killed her as well as Carlos, that would be up to him. She needed to do what she thought was right. However, that sense of righteousness rapidly turned into anger and self-reproach, and those sentiments soon gave way to suicidal thoughts. When Veronica tried to stop Marta from slitting her wrist, Marta took a swipe at her and nicked Veronica’s throat. In retaliation, Veronica pushed Marta. That caused Marta to trip and hit her head on the cement bench behind her. She died instantly, and instead of calling the ambulance or the police, the girls bolted from the scene.

How Did Antonio Cover Up Veronica’s Crime?

Veronica went to Antonio, and instead of taking her to the police for accidentally murdering the child of a gangster, he took Marta’s body and threw her into the Mediterranean Sea. Then he sent Veronica away to Morocco to stay with his friend, Farhid, until things calmed down, and staged her disappearance in such a way that it seemed like she had died. For the next two years, Antonio lied to everybody about the fact that Veronica was alive whilst staying in contact with her through the work phone at his restaurant. That said, six months after Antonio bid goodbye to Veronica, she left Morocco and settled down with Jamila at the address that Salazar mentioned. Since nobody was looking for them, they enjoyed an extended period of peace and romance. Fortunately or unfortunately, Isabela’s search for her granddaughter exposed her and her girlfriend’s location to Salazar, jeopardizing both of their lives. For a second, it seemed like Isabela had decided to sacrifice Jamila by taking Salazar to the hostel in San Pedro that she had hidden her in. Salazar didn’t know that Veronica was alive. So, after killing Jamila, Salazar would think that he had avenged Marta and then go back to Frigiliana. 

While driving Salazar to San Pedro, Isabela told him the truth about that night, in the hopes that he’d understand the whole thing was an accident and he’d just let Veronica and Jamila live. However, as soon as Isabela understood that Salazar didn’t have it in him to forgive, at the end of Two Graves, she drove both of them off a cliff and into the Mediterranean Sea. Salazar’s head hit the windshield, and he died immediately. Although the impact hadn’t killed Isabela, she chose to die by drowning. Before taking this drastic decision, Isabela had told Antonio to pick up Veronica from the San Jose port and keep her in Tangier for the time being. As for Jamila, she was safe in Isabela’s friend’s hostel in San Pedro. Whether the lovers will be able to meet each other ever again is a big question mark. It’s unclear if Veronica, Antonio, and Lupe will ever get to live a normal life in Sao Paulo, Brazil. But yeah, that’s how this movie disguised as a miniseries chose to bring this to a close. All I can do right now is judge it.

What Caused This Chaos?

Let’s start with the parenting aspect of the narrative. Apparently, when Antonio was just a child, Isabela abandoned him to “live it up” with the hippies and didn’t show up in his life until he was fifteen years old. That undoubtedly left an impact on Antonio. After Lupe and Veronica were born, and Antonio’s wife was diagnosed with cancer, Isabela continued to be an absent mother as well as an absent grandmother. And, in her twilight years, although Isabela tried to be there for all three of them, the damage had been done. Now, although Veronica drew a straight line between Isabela’s behavior, her mother’s death, Antonio’s ever-increasing debts, and her need to earn money by selling her body to rich people, do I buy it? Well, yes and no. Yes, an individual’s urge to take a break from the life she’s living doesn’t happen in a vacuum. But, based on what I saw in the miniseries, can I really say that Veronica had a “tough” life, thereby justifying her need to act erratically? Nope. 

Antonio was pretty accommodating as a father. Lupe was a lovely sister. Regardless of the mistakes that Isabela had made in the past, she was there for Veronica all the time. She had friends like Marta. So, where was this sense of loneliness actually coming from? I can speculate that social media, capitalism, the proliferation of hyper-femininity, and the endless glorification of patriarchy might decrease one’s self-esteem and motivate them to search for validation through sex work. However, since we didn’t get to see any of that, I can’t say for sure that those were the real reasons why Veronica chose to step foot in that realm of debauchery and exploitation.

Was Veronica Innocent?

What about the way Veronica dealt with the consequences of her actions? Did she make the correct choice by preventing Marta from going to the police? Was Marta’s death actually an accident? To be honest, it doesn’t matter what Veronica’s intent was; everything she did after learning that Marta was a victim of rape was insanely wrong. She preemptively judged what the police and society would do and let a rapist earn millions as a news anchor for two years straight. Yes, a patriarchal society does resort to victim blaming, especially when the rapist is a celebrity. That does lead to a decrease in women reporting that they have been raped. However, when you have a supportive family or a family full of gangsters, if you have been harmed in any way, you shouldn’t think about what strangers or the authorities will think of you, and at least report the crime. As for the murder, what the hell was she thinking while retaliating against a woman who had been raped? Where did her empathy go? 

Marta was not thinking straight, and she was about to kill herself. Sure, she wounded Veronica a bit, but that was just a scratch that would have healed in a few days. It would have taken ages for Marta to get over what she had been through, and Veronica couldn’t keep her calm for a few seconds and chose to push the girl who was not stable, physically or psychologically? Yeah, Veronica can claim all she wants that she didn’t want to kill Marta, but for a few seconds, it’s possible that she did. Coming to Antonio’s decision to dispose of Marta’s body and fake Veronica’s death, and Isabel’s decision to die whilst taking Rafael along with her—I understand. I mean, I can sit here all day and judge Antonio for not taking Veronica to the police for killing Marta and chastise Isabela for killing a father who just wanted to do right by his daughter. However, if I had been in their position, I think I would have acted similarly. If it was a family member who I didn’t like who had committed the crime, then maybe I would have been righteous. But if it was my daughter or granddaughter, I don’t think my actions would have been rational, and I would have done everything in my power to protect my family.

Did Salazar Deserve to Die?

Was it all worth it for Antonio and Isabel, though? Did Salazar deserve that tragic end? Isabel died with a smile on her face because she was happy thinking that she had killed the person who was going to kill her granddaughter and her granddaughter’s lover. Despite how she viewed her relationship with Lupe, Veronica, and Antonio, all three of them sort of despised her for one reason or another. So, I guess she was glad that, through her sacrifice, she had managed to do something substantial for her family. However, if Zaera and the police investigate Isabela and Salazar’s disappearance and pressure Antonio enough to reveal why Isabela was talking about Veronica, then both Antonio and Veronica might end up in jail. Since the authorities don’t exactly care about Jamila, I guess she’ll be left alone. That said, she’ll need a lot of mental strength to restart her life once again after losing touch with Veronica. With Antonio and Veronica both in jail, and no Isabela to look after her, Lupe will be thrown into a whirlwind of chaos. All that is undoubtedly sad and unfortunate, but Salazar’s death is probably sadder than all of the other characters’ fates. At least everyone will get some form of closure, while Salazar dies knowing that his daughter’s killer is out there and he couldn’t do anything about it. 

Sure, you can say that that’s what he deserved after building his empire by committing several crimes. Sure, he failed to understand that vengeance was futile and that he had already avenged his daughter by killing Carlos. And sure, in that moment in the car with Isabela, he didn’t understand that the only way forward for him was to forgive Veronica for the accident that killed her daughter, and maybe even accept her as his daughter. But I think that Isabela pulled him into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea a little too soon. Maybe she should have chatted with Salazar a little while longer, and he would have cooled down eventually. Maybe she should have taken him to Veronica, and she would have realized that it’s okay to let her live. The bottom line is that Isabela didn’t give Salazar the chance to see things through her perspective. She gave him an info dump, saw him react aggressively, and killed him. That’s just not done. Anyway, the whole situation was chaotic. If you don’t want to be in a situation that’s similar to the one that all these characters were in, be a good parent to your children. If you are a child growing up in these odd times, try to avoid sex parties. And if you are in the police or if you are a gangster with any kind of power, you should devote your entire lives to jailing or killing pedophiles, instead of extorting the innocent. Those are just my thoughts. If you have any opinions on Two Graves that you want to share with me, the comments section is open for you.

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