Warning: This article contains spoilers for La Màquina
Hulu’s first Spanish-language series, La Màquina Ends with a glorious bout between Esteban Osuna (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his title challenger, with the threat of death literally hanging around the edge of the ring. The miniseries, which reunites Garcia Bernal with frequent collaborator Diego Luna (as his flamboyant manager Andy Lujàn), really hits its stride in the final episode, which brings together a number of bold ideas.
While it’s a show about boxing, La Màquina Is about more: it’s about legacy, the balance of expectation, fear of mortality, and above all else, about how loss of control changes people. La Màquina Tells the story of their real corruption, but in an indirect way, focusing more closely on Esteban’s story and his unusual involvement with a shadowy organized crime group that comes calling for repayment on a debt he didn’t even know he had. Here’s what the explosive final episode really means, as well as a breakdown of La Màquinas overriding themes.
Why Esteban loses the final fight but is not killed
Shouldn’t he kill me anyway?
La Màquinas six episodes all build to one moment: Esteban facing “Beautiful” Harry Felix (former boxer Christopher Evangelou) as the champion wrestles with the impact on his legacy of potentially losing. In the end, that battle is taken out of his hands, as Andy uses his savings to pay off the fight judge to ensure that Esteban loses no matter what, for his own good.
Andy finally knew that Esteban could not put aside his fears over his legacy and reputation, correctly predicting that he would refuse to throw the fight. touching, He was clearly also convinced that Esteben would win, despite the fact that he did not prepare for the fight, and took this fact into account in his plan to break away.
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Andy is, unfortunately, killed by the faceless forces of corruption that previously killed Saul (Andrey Delgado) and Esteban’s father before him. He sacrifices himself, making it clear that he orchestrated everything, and Esteban had no part in these things. In the end, despite his grim fate, it’s a bit of a fairy tale ending that doesn’t quite work logically, until you realize that Esteban has always been much more powerful than he ever thought.
Throughout the show, Esteban is hailed as a hero, and has a clear connection with the people of Mexico – he is, to be prepared for a cliché, the people’s champion (and it is no coincidence that he calls himself that in the last episode . While Andy pays the ultimate price for reneging on his Faustian bargain, Esteban is protected both by the fact that Andy ensures that nothing will come out about the corruption behind boxing (and elsewhere), and the fact that his death in the wake of his glorious loss to Felix would have attracted too much attention.
Still, you have to wonder if Esteban will get away completely free of his past: the mysterious cartel promised that Esteban and Andy and their families would die in ways that wouldn’t look like murder (despite the shooting of Esteban’s father). Esteban probably still knows too much, although the cartel is equally protected by Esteban’s own obsession with legacy and tarnishing his own reputation.
unfortunately, Just as Andy used institutional corruption to save Esteban, the champion will also rely on the benefits he received from corruption.. Revealing that his celebrity was ill (at least partially) would destroy everything he built, and ruin the lives of his children, his greatest anxiety throughout the show.
Who killed Saul and was behind the threats to Esteban and Andy?
Why we never find out who the villains of La Màquina are
At the end of La Màquina, We never discover who is pulling the strings behind the scenes of the world of boxing. The killers of Saul and eventually Andy remain off-screen, their identities preserved despite Irasema’s evidence of their influence in the world. The journalist is silenced by the threats to her family and the revelation that her own father was killed for trying to expose corruption, and burns all the evidence that remains on Andy’s proposal.
So who were the mysterious underworld group behind La Màquinas drama? It is determined that they Seemingly have influence right to the top of Mexico’s governmentAble to use the police as part of their organization, and not afraid to kill anyone who threatens to reveal too much. The list also includes Esteban’s father, Gato (Francisco Barreiro), who briefly reunites with his son only to be killed quite spectacularly when he hints at a wider conspiracy.
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The biggest question remains of La Màquinas final episode is what Gato knew and why his son was seemingly marked as a target for the corrupt cartel even before he turned pro. Unfortunately, it seems Gato was embroiled in something dark with the same people coming after his son, and chillingly, Esteban’s fate was settled well before Andy even asked for his first title win to be fixed. And this is the biggest point, and the reason why we never discover who is behind the murders or the corruption: It is so institutionalized that it is fate.
Why Esteban sees Andy at the end of La Maquina
Andy is a ghost that will haunt Esteban forever
In the last moments of la maquinaIn the latest episode, Esteban is shown training his sons in the ring – a major hint that he will continue his legacy by providing Andy’s dream to create La Màquinito to replace him. Then, he looks over and sees Andy standing at the side of the training ring, seemingly unharmed.
Unfortunately, it’s immediately revealed that Andy – like Juan Carlos – is a figment of Esteban’s imagination, as he disappears as the camera pans back around. Like Juan Carlos, the suggestion here is that Andy will remain part of Esteban’s psyche, a ghost. Which is framed quite positively. Strictly speaking though, Andy is a reminder of a very dark time in Esteban’s life, and just as Juan Carlos was created as a trauma response to his father’s abandonment, Esteban will carry Andy around as a reminder of what happened, good and bad.
The thing that isn’t really explored in the finale is the fact that Esteban’s brain trauma is part of the reason he has visions. Even though Sixto (Jorge Perugorría) uses his strange military technique to help unlock Esteban’s memories, we can’t really ignore the fact that the show starts with Irasema investigating CTEs in boxing. She only learns about corruption as a secondary revelation, and then moves on from her initial investigation.
It’s a bit of a frustrating move, because it removes La Màquinas ability to explore the cost of boxing on Esteban in a more tangible way. Finally, as the corruption bubbling under the surface, the idea of brain injuries in boxing was brushed aside to preserve the status quo of the sport. And Esteban’s apparent ignorance of his own issues (and the likelihood that they will come back to destroy his life in the future) makes him an unwitting accomplice. In the system he rails against.
What the end of La Màquina really means
nevertheless, La Màquina is most interested in two issues that come together in a heavyweight bout: control and legacy. Both Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal have made a number of movies (often together) that center on the idea of institutional corruption and rebellion. La Màquina Belongs to the other more overtly political projects, because it subtly explores the idea of agency and control in a very interesting way.
The miniseries is also partly a commentary on fame and the institution of Hollywood. Esteban’s bodily autonomy is taken from him; He is forced to fight (and almost forced to lose), despite what he knows it will cost him. He is part of a machine – hence the hidden meaning of the title – that seeks to exploit himAnd the whole plot about corruption and being chased by unseen, unknown enemies reflects how he is forced to surrender for the entertainment of others.
Finally, corruption in La Màquina is reinforced as a tragic but concrete reality. No fight against it will succeed, because of how insipid the forces behind it are. And while Esteban gains a moral victory that restores his honor and preserves his legacy, he ultimately does so by embracing the system of corruption, not burning it down. This was not a happy ending.