Medusa Ending, Explained: Who Killed Gabriel? What Does His Code Mean?

Netflix’s ‘Medusa’ follows the story of the Hidalgo family, which is one of the richest people in Colombia, owing to their expansive business enterprise named Medusa Corporation. As a power struggle wages within the family to get control of the family business, newly-appointed CEO Barbara Hidalgo survives an assassination attempt. At first, she is declared dead, but when she miraculously reappears, the dynamics of the family are tested to their limits. The fact that she has amnesia and doesn’t remember a lot of stuff before her boat blew up in the middle of the ocean forces her to reassess every single relationship she has.

In her search for the truth, Barbara is assisted by Detective Danger Carmelo, who is haunted by his past misdeeds and is trying to make up for them. He also seems too invested in Barbara’s case, which reveals a previously unknown connection between them. Meanwhile, each member of the family comes under scrutiny. This involves her father Damian, stepmother Ursula, stepsister Vivi, brother Cristian, uncle Camilo, cousin Jacobo, aunt Jacqueline, and husband Esteban.

The more Barbara digs into the past, the more she realizes that she wasn’t a saint either, and each member of the family had a good reason to want her dead. In the end, it is her crude behavior that turns out to be the reason behind her misfortune. However, her killer is nowhere near one of the people she so doggedly chases after throughout the show. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Who Blew Up the Boat? Who Wanted to Kill Barbara?

‘Medusa’ begins with Barbara Hidalgo having a jolly time on her boat, which suddenly blows up. She is fortunate enough to survive the blast, but it claims her memories and leads her on a path to find the person who tried to kill her. Right at the beginning of her journey, she finds an ally in Gabriel, an employee at Medusa who introduces himself as a person who worked closely with Barbara before her accident. He says that she trusted him completely, and to prove it, he shows her all the stuff that she had collected against her siblings and had entrusted to Gabriel in the event that something bad happened to her.

The audio and videos that Gabriel shows her help her understand the dynamic she shared with her family members, allowing her not just to understand them but also herself. Throughout the investigation, Gabriel shows immense support for Barbara and repeatedly tells her that he will always be there for her. What should come across as a sweet gesture becomes a little suspicious, especially after we discover that every single person around Barbara wants something from her or vice versa. Even Danger, who tries to help her solve the case and keep her safe, turns out to have been obsessed with her since her husband hired him to spy on her.

Because so much of the focus is on Barbara’s family, no one even stops to consider that someone on the outside might be the real culprit. And because Gabriel is so close to the investigation, neither Barbara nor Danger stops to consider his true intent behind wanting to help her. Later, when an already convicted criminal confesses that it was Tatiana, mistress of Barbara’s husband, who had paid him to rig the boat with a bomb, the case is considered closed; however, soon after, it turns out that Gabriel had been the culprit all along.

Gabriel had been in love with Barbara, but when he expressed his feelings for her, she ridiculed him. This hurt his feelings, especially since he had been so blindly loyal to her all this time. Being jilted by her forced him to think of an extreme measure to get revenge, and so he put the bomb inside her boat and tried to kill her. But then, she survived and came back with amnesia. To Gabriel, this felt like a second chance where he could pretend to help Barbara, gain her trust, and get her to love him. But then, Detective Danger came into the picture, and she fell for him, rather than Gabriel, which forced the man to kidnap her in the end.

Who Killed Gabriel? What Does His Message Mean?

The second time Gabriel feels jilted by Barbara, he kidnaps her and confesses his feelings to her all over again. However, whatever he had planned to do with her is disrupted by Danger, who never bought the story of Tatiana being the culprit. Even when a witness comes forward to implicate her, the detective finds the story too convenient, especially with the blame falling on a person who died under mysterious circumstances. There are several other loose ends in the case that bug Danger, and it is one of those things that leads him to realize that the culprit was in front of them all along.

In the end, Danger apprehends Gabriel, and the man is thrown in prison, where he starts to spiral further into insanity. His story would have ended there, but then Danger reveals to Barbara that Gabriel has died in prison. On the surface, it looks like a suicide, as he hanged himself to death. However, there is more to the story. Before dying, he left a cryptic code on the wall of his prison cell, which was decrypted as: “If they kill me here, it’ll be the demon Hidalgo.” This code clearly shows that Gabriel’s death has something to do with one of the Hidalgos, and there is a chance that he didn’t kill himself but was killed in custody. For someone from a powerful family like the Hidalgos, it wouldn’t be difficult to have someone killed in prison. The question now is: who could have killed Gabriel?

Because the entire season is so focused on the Hidalgos, we rarely get to find out more about Gabriel. Despite being an important part of the investigation, he always remains in the background, and no one even bothers to look into his personal and professional history. Though, it is clear that he has been working at Medusa for several years, enough for him to know every nook and cranny of the place. Considering how good he was at digging and keeping secrets, it wouldn’t be a surprise that he found out things about the family and their company, which no one would have wanted to come out. Perhaps, when Gabriel was arrested, someone felt threatened enough to have him killed.

Gabriel’s message clearly implicates a Hidalgo, but the question remains: who could it be? To find that, Barbara and Danger have to find out why someone would want to kill Gabriel. For the most part, the man had remained invisible within the company, especially for the Hidalgo, so for one of them to suddenly want him dead would mean that the victim made a discovery significant enough to disrupt the order within the family and destroy Medusa as we know it. Now that the finger has been pointed at her family again, Barbara will have to look into each and every member all over again and dig out more skeletons in their closet. At the same time, Gabriel’s life away from Medusa would also become a focus of investigation, which would reveal exactly who he was. But all of that is for the second season to unravel.

Why does Barbara Leave the Presidency? Why does She Make Cristian the CEO?

One of the things that defines the Hidalgos is their lust for power. Every single member of the family wants to be in control of the family business, and each of them tries to find dirt on the other to control them. Barbara seems to be the worst of them all as not only does she discover the most secret parts of her family members, but she also actively sabotages their lives, like when she gives cocaine to her stepsister and turns her into an addict. However, all of this was the Barbara before the accident. The one who is saved and brought back to life is a very different person, one who actually cares about her family.

The more Barbara finds out about her past self, the more disgusted she is at the person she used to be. So, she makes conscious efforts not to become that person again. One of the main reasons behind her doing all those bad things was her desire to become the CEO of the company. When she comes back from the accident, she discovers that her younger brother, Cristian, has been made the CEO in her stead. At first, Barbara makes it clear that she will try to get her position back. But then, she goes through an incredible learning curve, where she realizes that letting go of her hunger for power is the only way for her to move on and have a better life.

This is why, in the end, Barbara decides to relinquish any desire for control and supports her brother’s claim as the head of the company. Supporting him means strengthening not just the company but also their personal bond, which has soured over the years, largely due to her own actions. While she still remains an important part of the company and heads major projects that are necessary for Medusa to function, Cristian remains in charge of the whole thing. However, that may change in the future, especially if Barbara discovers that her brother had something to do with Gabriel’s death. For now, however, all is well between the Hidalgo siblings.