'Carizzma' Ending Explained & Series Recap: Is Leo Dead or Alive?

Netflix’s newest attempt at keeping up with modern formats of the fast-entertainment world, by creating shows with significantly short episodes, continues this week with a presentation from Argentina, titled Carizzma. The 10-episode series follows the life of Caro Pardiaco, who is described as a bubbly influencer and entrepreneur, as she falls in love with a man, even though her friends warn her against the evident red flags in him. Carizzma is senseless, boring and borderline problematic, all in the name of being goofy, and there is no reason anyone should give it a watch.

Spoiler Alert

What is the show about?

Carizzma begins with the filming of an episode for a famous gossip talk show in Argentina, appropriately titled ‘Should I Spill the Tea?,’ with the guest being the very protagonist of the Netflix show. Caro Pardiaco is introduced as Argentina’s first global social media influencer, and a top-class personality, a diva, who is friends with all celebrities in the country. Being the only daughter of a wealthy businessman, Caro is also the owner of numerous cafes and salons, and she is proud to call herself a successful entrepreneur. But she is most famous for being a beauty queen, with millions of youngsters following her fashion advice and her lifestyle choices, all of which make her the perfect influencer for many brands to collaborate with. The talk show host also calls her the icon of post-pop and nightlife queen, which clearly establishes that there is no specific reason behind Caro’s popularity but she is just simply a famous celebrity with not much touch with the real world.

But the episode being shot is centered mostly around Caro’s age and her single life, as the host steers the conversation from her successes to the one aspect that she is considered to be a failure, more or less. Even Caro herself cannot keep up her confident self whenever the topic of the absence of a lover comes up, especially since she is about to turn 30 in a few weeks’ time. The host clearly makes a remark at how she is going to turn into an ‘old woman’ very soon, and suggests that she must find a lover and get married before it is too late. She has not had a stable relationship with anyone till now, and deep down, Caro is indeed desperate for love. Therefore, when she comes across a handsome young man named Leo Papandrea at work the next day, she cannot help but feel butterflies in her stomach. 

Leo happens to be a professional photographer who works on a shoot with Caro and another musician, and this is how the two first get acquainted. However, Caro’s personal manager and very good friend, Ana, is not very convinced by this sudden chance encounter, for a different filmmaker, named Licha, had been hired for the job initially. But Leo had simply showed up and stated that Licha had asked him to substitute for him, as the filmmaker had supposedly fallen sick. Despite Caro’s developing feelings for Leo, Ana remains extremely cautious and suspicious, especially since a stalker has been leaving some seriously threatening messages for the protagonist, which makes it seem like she is only heading towards grave danger.

How does Caro fall in love?

Caro is attracted to Leo the moment he walks into the studio, and her feelings only keep growing as the shoot takes place. She immediately invites him to the wrap party being thrown that night, following which she even goes home with Leo. Given her popularity and colorful lifestyle, Caro is actually used to such attention and taking things quick when it comes to matters of romance, but she had never felt so strongly for anyone before. She is the one making the first move, and once again, like never before by her experience, Leo turns down the kiss, as she is drunk and therefore cannot be considered to be fully consenting. This apparent care and concern for her impresses Caro even more, and she tells Ana that she is in love with the charismatic photographer on her way back home, the same day that she has actually met him.

Caro is desperate to find a lover, and so when a DJ tells her of a unique rave party being organized to connect participants with nature, she not only shows up at the place, but also takes Leo along. This is the first activity for them together, and they go through the ridiculous activities that have been planned by the eccentric hosts of the ‘silent rave’ party, or event. Although Caro starts to believe that they are dating, and so she takes Leo along to a podcast interview, mostly to introduce him to the world as her lover, he is actually not of the same opinion. When asked, he nonchalantly claims that he is only very good friends with Caro as of yet. She still takes him for a genuine man, and keeps up with her coy behavior by refusing to tell him about her true feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Leo suggests that being her good friend, he should be responsible for finding a lover for Caro, and he makes her profile on a dating app. Therefore, Caro has to go on dates with random men just to keep up the pretense and not reveal her feelings for Leo, all of which end terribly as she is mostly matched with unsuitable partners. All of this only makes her feelings for Leo grow, and she keeps realizing how rare and desirable a guy he is. With her birthday party coming up, Leo suggests that they spend some time at a unique club, where comedians roast guests. Caro is excited to try just about anything new with her beloved, but the jokes made on her are too cruel and she cannot help but break down and run out of the club. This is finally when Leo also reciprocates her feelings of attraction, and the two decide to get together. 

Why are Leo’s actions suspicious?

Blinded by her feelings of attraction and love, Caro fails to see the numerous red flags in Leo, even when her friends point them out to her. She completely skips over the fact that a severed hand is stored inside the fridge at Leo’s apartment. He claims it to be just a prosthetic prop, but since Caro does not even keep in touch with the news, she does not realize that it is actually the severed hand of Licha, who had been found murdered. In reality, Leo makes an elaborate setup to make Caro fall uncontrollably in love with her, and he gives the matter quite some time, to make it appear like a natural progression of a relationship. He intentionally pretends to be just friends with the woman at first, mentioning so on the podcast and then also suggesting she go out on dates with random men. These men are also fake actors hired by Leo to make Caro understand how important he is to her. 

The comedians at the roast had also been paid by him to be particularly harsh on Caro, so that he could step in like a knight in shining armor and provide comfort to her. Once they get together, Leo becomes all the more dominating and manipulative, although he does all this in a subtle manner, as to not raise suspicions in Caro’s mind. One of the crucial steps that he takes is to cut Ana out of her life, by replacing her with an AI robot assistant and manager. Despite them dating only for a few days, Leo proposes to Caro and she accepts as well, again out of her desperation to get married by the age of 30. Thus, her upcoming birthday party is to be clubbed with the wedding party, and Leo eventually takes over the planning of the important event. He modifies everything according to his taste, to the extent of choosing the venue, the style of the wedding, and even Caro’s look for the occasion. In fact, he has Caro’s hair forcefully dyed black, and makes her wear a black wedding dress, instead of whatever she had chosen for herself. This is finally when Caro realizes that she is being manipulated and controlled, and tries to escape the situation.

What is Leo’s real intention?

The real intention and plan of Leo Papandrea is eventually revealed, as he only wants to totally ruin Caro’s life and even kill her. Leo is a psychopath who has been murdering people left, right and centre just to achieve his ultimate goal of destroying Caro. There is a traumatic (laughable, even if it is meant to actually be humorous) incident from the past that has made Leo this way, and it obviously involves Caro. Many years back, when the two were teenagers in high school, Caro and her friends had organized a trip to celebrate their graduation, and they had hired a group called the Snow Brothers to shoot videos of the whole vacation. Leo was the one responsible for shooting the videos, and on one particular occasion, Caro saw the shorts that Leo was wearing and mentioned that she was ‘gagged’. She obviously meant to say that Leo was looking very good, and she wanted to praise him, but unfortunately Leo, and almost everyone else at the scene, misheard Caro and thought that he called him ‘egghead’, for she had actually pronounced the word as ‘gag-ged’. 

The incident made Leo feel so humiliated and hurt his ego so much that it took over his life and turned it upside down. Since he was already insecure about his baldness, and the fact that the shape of his head did resemble an egg, he could not get over the incident. Leo obviously held Caro responsible for the whole thing, and he hatched an elaborate plan to take revenge on her. Having feigned love to her and getting Caro involved in a serious relationship, his intention now is to first destroy her reputation and public image, before eventually killing her. He turns out to be the devil incarnate, after having shown genuine signs of being a psychopath, which Caro had ignored all along.

Who has been stalking Caro?

The man seen to have been stalking Caro for so long is revealed to be Ramiro, the brother of Leo. Ramiro happens to have a lonely life, as he spends days in his room in front of his computer, like a typical nerd. Towards the beginning of the series, it was he who had left a bold message for Caro, seemingly threatening her to be careful. But it was actually just a warning for the woman, as Ramiro had found out about his brother’s plan and had only tried to protect her. Ramiro realized that Leo had misheard Caro in the video, for he too believed that she had said ‘gag-ged’, and so he wanted to prevent him from doing anything rash. However, Leo was unstoppable, and so he even left a message for Caro inside what looked like a voodoo doll, but his questionable choice of the doll meant that this too was seen as a threat. Ultimately, Ramiro decides to actively stop his brother’s villainous acts and help the poor woman in trouble.

Do Caro’s friends remain loyal to her?

Although all of Caro’s friends stay loyal to her till the end, it is only her personal manager, Ana, who directly helps her out. After being fired from the job and being replaced by an AI robot, Ana had grown confident that Leo was surely up to some evil, for which he had intentionally created a distance between herself and Caro. She started her personal investigation into the matter, and eventually confronted Leo for having taken multiple fake identities just to mess with Caro. Since Ana had genuine evidence to prove her claims, and she had been recording a video of the confrontation on her phone as well, Leo decided to throw her off the roof of his building, snatching her phone away at the last second to delete all evidence. Unfortunately for him, Ana had fallen on the balcony of an apartment just a few storeys down, meaning that she survived the fall instead of dying. Thus, she now decides to expose the evil man and also protect her friend from being married to the criminal, for which she takes the long journey to the wedding venue. Caro’s personal driver, Sabado, who also happens to be a friend, is quite useful as well, as it is he who takes Ana to the place, and then also acts as the getaway driver for the group of friends.

Is Leo still alive?

In Carizzma’s ending, once Ana exposes Leo, and he is cornered by Caro and also Ramiro, who had been pretending to be the marriage officiator this whole time, he finally opens up about his real self. But Leo also goes on a long rant, like a true psychopath, during which he talks about how strong and powerful he is, all while swinging a knife. His intention is clearly to hurt and kill Caro, and anybody else who would get in his way, but he foolishly keeps moving towards the railing atop the high hill where the wedding was supposed to take place. Ultimately, Leo loses his footing and topples over the railing, seemingly falling to death. This allows Caro and her friends to escape from the place, following which they reunite and mend their lives, with Caro becoming a famous influencer and celebrity once again. Ana also remains friends with, and possibly even becomes lovers with, Ramiro as well. While Leo looked to have died, the last scene reveals that he is actually still alive, as he climbs back up on the hill. Just like Ana earlier, he too must have averted danger while falling, and this means that he might as well return to create more problems for Caro in the future.

What does the show actually mean?

Carizzma is actually just a silly and often problematic caricature of rich folks, women and celebrities, who are too bothered with their closed off lives to know anything about the real world. The character of Caro is so foolish and naïve that she sees past every red flag only for the sake of finding love, but is also so self-obsessed, as the makers believe women to be, that she finally realizes that she is being manipulated only when her wedding look and dress are at stake. On the surface, it also supposedly talks about how appearances and social judgments can be misleading and totally false, as Ramiro, who looks like an outcast and a nerd who relies on his mother for everything, is actually a good guy. In contrast, the suave, polished and extroverted brother, Leo, turns out to be a villainous psychopath. But in truth, the series is only bothered about belittling women in the name of humor, and the creator, Julian Kartun, had actually first come up with this caricature only to mock his younger sister and her friends, who, according to him, were as superficial as Caro and her friends. Perhaps I am not smart enough to understand Argentine humor, but the fact that the musician and actor, Kartun, has been portraying this character of his creation, Caro Pardiaco, on YouTube videos, sketch videos, interviews and now a Netflix series is simply bizarre and astounding. This is also why Caro evidently has male features on her body and face, as Kartun has always portrayed her in this manner. Julian Kartun’s work, and especially Carizzma, seems to be targeted at men who find it funny to see other men play women just to show how dumb and obnoxious females can be.

...