Aahana Swrup
The Polish dramedy show ‘Aniela,’ also known as ‘An!ela,’ presents a chaotic narrative about a woman’s refusal to submit to a downward spiral. After years of enjoying her husband’s wealth, a Warsaw-based upper-class woman finds herself facing a harsh reality. Her marriage with Jan crumbles right before her eyes as the latter develops a mid-life crisis that rains down catastrophe on his partner’s life. Consequently, Aniela, a newfound divorcee, begins a new and unpleasant chapter of her story, from across the river in a significantly less well-to-do neighborhood. Nevertheless, as she tackles the complications of her new and deteriorated life, she continues to stumble into outlandish adventures. The story devolves in unexpected ways, bringing the protagonist and her companions, friends and foes alike, toward a precarious end. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Aniela Recap
Aniela’s story finds a bizarre start. It’s the night of her art gallery’s grand opening, which is panning out to be a big success despite the socialite’s many previous failed endeavors. Soon enough, things eventually take a turn. As her husband, Jan, makes his entrance, after a short spiritual retreat to Africa, he declares that he intends to divorce the woman. In fact, he has even gotten a head start on a rebound relationship, sparking up his connection with his old high school sweetheart, Zofia, once again. After he unceremoniously pitches this groundshaking decision to Aniela, he tries to make the announcement public at the event. As a result, the desperate art gallery owner ends up stabbing him with a broken champagne flute. Inevitably, she gets caught for the crime, coming close to running the risk of doing the time.
However, Jan hits her with a damning offer. He agrees to drop all charges if Aniela agrees to divorce him without any strings attached. As such, in the blink of an eye, she becomes homeless and penniless. Worse yet, she needs to find employment soon or give up custody of her daughter, Lucja. Fortunately for her, Ewa, her attorney friend, whom she keeps around as a feel-good charity case, might just have a job for her. The lawyer’s overeager twin sister, Edyta, a high school headmistress, is looking to turn the public property into a lucrative food court. Therefore, she desperately needs a PR Agent for her yet-unfunded foundation. As a result, Aniela ends up accepting the job, which comes with a ratty apartment in a rundown neighborhood and the cover of a teaching position at the school.
Eventually, Aniela’s path crosses with Viola and Lena, two of her students. The duo is indebted to Maja, another teenage delinquent who took the fall for their weed dealings and went to juvie in their place. Consequently, she now wants them to avenge her by taking revenge on Banan, an up-and-coming young rapper who ratted them out in the first place. As it turns out, their new Polish teacher, dressed in an out-of-place fur coat, just so happens to be a close family friend to the rapper. Meanwhile, some leftover drugs in Aniela’s apartment lead her to Armani, a local lowlife who quickly becomes her new boyfriend.
While all of this is unfolding, Aniela’s relationship with her teen daughter suffers under the weight of the recent bitter divorce. Around the same time, her professional life also takes a dip when she learns that Jan had a hand in getting her this job. As it turns out, his best friend, Marecki, is one of the potential investors in Ewa and Edyta’s foundation. Alternatively, in a fortunate turn of events, Armani coincidentally has the same therapist as Jan, which gives him unethical access to his sessions. Consequently, Aeniely discovers that her ex-husband and Marecki purposefully sank her business endeavors to commit insurance fraud. However, when she tries to gather evidence against the latter through some breaking and entering, he decides to come after her. In order to do so, he threatens her with the potential curtailment of her parental rights over Lucja. Nonetheless, soon enough, Marecki also presents her with a counter-offer: help him pin the insurance fraud on Jan and return to her old luxurious lifestyle.
Aniela Ending: Does Aniela Get Her Old Life Back?
For much of the story, Aniela’s primary objective remains to get back to her old life somehow. The specifics of this plan are ever-changing, but mostly seem to include some variation of getting her money back and exacting some sort of revenge on her ex-husband. However, along the way, she picks up other goals as well. As she begins attempting to commercialize Viola and Lena’s rap careers, her relationship with them as their mentor grows. Therefore, things like helping them put out a song, film a music video for it, and gain social media traction all become part of her list. Similarly, Aniela’s relationship with Armani also unexpectedly blossoms into something real and reliable, adding him to her future plans.
Consequently, even though Marecki’s offer promises to accomplish Aniela’s central objective, it also threatens to undo every bridge she has built in the last few months. Still, for a moment, she entertains the idea of taking Marecki’s deal. She’s eager to get back at Jan for all he has done to her. Furthermore, Viola and Lena’s recent betrayal of signing with a different agent is still fresh. Yet, when it comes down to it, she decides to take a different route. Simply put, she can’t turn her back on her new life and the inadvertent responsibilities that come with it. Joining Marecki would mean displacing the Praga local high school in exchange for soulless residential real estate. Additionally, it would also mean earning the ire of her daughter for ruining her father’s life.
In the end, Aniela employs the help of her new friends. From the grocery store’s cash register, Oliwka, to Layla, the hired help/local casino runner, everyone helps her make her move against Marecki. Ultimately, she’s able to take him down, nullifying all his evil plans. However, even after defeating him and gaining back some of her lost wealth, including her house in Warsaw, a choice remains in front of Aniela. She can either return to her old mansion, full of luxuries but devoid of any real meaning, or stay in her rundown apartment, surrounded by people who consider her a friend and a mentor. Thus, when everything is said and done, she decides to pick the new life she has found for herself, even if it means staying in the unsophisticated Praga neighborhood. After all, she has many loose ends to tie up, including the fate of the local high school.
What Happens to the School? Is it Turned Into a Food Court?
Ewa and Edyta have a wonderfully complicated scheme planned for the future of their school. The latter, who serves as the establishment’s headmistress, seems uninterested in furthering her students’ education. Instead, she and her sister are plotting to turn the property into a “Prestigious Prospective Project.” Basically, they want to remodel the place into a giant food court to attract local tourism in the otherwise unpleasant area. However, in order to do so, they need investors. As a result, Aniela, the declared PR representative, finds herself pitching the idea to a group of suits, which happens to include Marecki.
Yet, much like everything else about the lawyer, this deal also comes with its own complications. In time, Marecki tells Aniela that he’s actually planning on turning the school into a residential apartment complex once Ewa and Edyta run the education establishment into the ground. Although she tries to warn the twins about his motives, neither seems particularly willing to believe her story. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, as she brings Marecki down, it effectively takes the school off the radar for any interested investors. Therefore, Ewa and Edyta’s plans are foiled. In the end, Aniela applies for the newly vacated headmistress position with actual plans for the place’s future. Earlier, she had joined forces with Marsyia, the school’s nerd/aspiring chef, and the resident lunch man, who also happens to be the teacher’s union leader.
Together, the trio had put together a plan to convert the school into an incredible culinary experience, wherein the students can pitch in as chefs and servers. Since the school is technically a Gastronomy establishment, the idea serves a largely educational purpose. Therefore, even though Aniela remains intriguingly vague about her intentions with the school as its new headmistress, it’s possible she’ll make this plan a reality. Additionally, unlike Edyta, she actually seems to be concerned with the well-being of the students and helping them pursue their passions, as evident in her relationship with Viola and Lena. As such, ultimately, whether or not she turns the school into an extravagant learning experience/food court, or something else, one can rest assured that her actions would be in favor of her students’ futures.
What Happens to Marecki?
Despite her brief moment of hesitation, Aniela remains confident about her decision to turn Marecki’s offer down. The only reason he has extended the olive branch is because he’s scared she may have some harmful dirt on him. Moreover, he wants to get rid of Jan, whose clear conscience makes him a threat to his malpractice-ridden business. Therefore, Marecki is hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Nevertheless, Aniela has no interest in entertaining his webs of deception. Even though he managed to rope Jan into his schemes, the lawyer is notably responsible for the devaluation of her various businesses over the years. The duo would intentionally sabotage each new endeavor to benefit from the secret insurance they had taken out against her companies.
Therefore, Aniela wants revenge against the man. First, she lures Marecki into a false sense of safety over dinner and drinks. As such, she’s able to infiltrate his house and locate his computer, which likely holds the secrets to his shady financial transactions. With the help of Layla, Marecki’s usual maid and the divorcee’s new neighbor, they’re able to access incriminating evidence against the lawyer. Afterwards, all it takes is one email for the information to be leaked to the public. As a result, Marecki gets charged with insurance fraud, a crime that puts him behind bars for a few years. Jan’s close association with him and his involvement in the fraud compel him and Zofia to skip out of town. As such, the mansion fortunately comes back under the ex-wife’s ownership.
Does Armani Propose to Aniela? Does She Accept?
Armani and Aniela’s relationship got off to an unconventional beginning. Initially, the latter only uses the drug dealer for her own advantage and strikes up a romance with him to make Jan jealous. Soon afterward, she employs his help in intimidating her ex-husband’s therapist into manipulating the latter. All throughout this tentative relationship, she keeps a secret bout the crucial fact that she sold him fake drugs. Inevitably, this lands Armani in trouble with his dangerous boss. Although it creates some tension between the couple, the drug dealer remains incapable of letting go of Aniela. He well and truly falls for the woman, accepting even the flawed, selfish parts of her.
For the same reason, Armani decides to stick by Aniela’s side even after she reveals she still has a bag of the real drugs. In fact, he even helps her sell the stuff on the underground market. Ultimately, he knows what he wants, and he’s eager to go after it. Despite the many complications in their relationship, Armani wants to spend his life with his girlfriend, for better or worse. Therefore, he decides to propose to her. After a few moments of hesitancy, he finally decides to pop the question on the day of her big interview. Nonetheless, much like Aniela’s plans with the school, we don’t get to see the outcome of this proposal. The divorcee’s life is chaotic and unpredictable. Thus, only a potential future season can confirm the fate of the lovers’ romance.
Does Aniela Lose Custody of Her Daughter?
After Marecki makes the threat of taking Aniela to court to dissolve her parental rights, she becomes incredibly scared at the prospect of losing Lucja. From day one, she has been concerned about how the divorce and the spiral that follows will affect her relationship with her kid. She’s scared that Zofia will try to replace her in Lucja’s life, or that she would simply push herself out due to her animosity with Jan. Nonetheless, after weeks of trial and error, the mother-daughter duo finally get on a similar frequency. By putting Marecki away, Aniela ensures nothing threatens this special relationship she has with the kid.
By the end, Aniela and Lucja find themselves working together to help Viola and Lena’s rapping career. This mission ends up being a great bonding moment for the duo as they help the newbie rappers crash Banan’s concert by instigating a rap battle with him. As the two win the battle, they’re able to take over his show completely and perform their own songs. The unforgettable night becomes the start of something new for Aniela and Lucja. Since Jan is on the run and in hiding with his new girlfriend, the daughter has decided to stick around with her mom, leaving no doubt about the strength of their relationship.
Read More: Is Aniela Based on a True Story?
