Rotten Legacy Ending Explained: How Did Bruno Die?

‘Rotten Legacy,’ originally known as ‘Legado,’ is a Spanish show in which truth and the pursuit of journalistic integrity are prioritized above everything, even family. The protagonist, Federico Seligman, had to retire from his own newspaper publication in light of a health scare. However, once he returns after his treatment, he’s horrified to learn how his kids, Andres, Yolanda, and Guadalupe, have progressed in their lives. Under their care, the Seligman name threatens to be muddied with rumors of fraud, embezzlement, and worse conspiracies. As a result, Federico decides to sit down for a no-holds-barred interview, revealing and condemning his family’s misgivings, including the sins of his own past. Thus, when the interview threatens to fall into the hands of the wrong people, trouble knocks on everyone’s doors, even the righteous patriarch. This Netflix show builds gradually and strategically, allowing backstabbing, shifting loyalties, and missteps to guide the narrative to its startling end. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Rotten Legacy Recap

For the past two years, Federico Seligman has been in the States with his second wife, Isabella, and their teenage daughter, Lara, while he underwent cancer treatments. On the day of his fortuitous return to Spain, free of any disease, his kids receive startling news about the beloved newspaper El Baltico that their father once ran. As it turns out, his son, Andres, the new editor, and his daughter, Yolanda, have been embezzling funds from his under-construction conservatory. Somehow, the feds got tipped off about this scheme, leading to plans for an audit raid. Initially, the siblings decide to solve this problem without Federico’s knowledge by contacting their politician sister, Guadalupe. Though reluctant, she manages to help them out by blackmailing the communist Minister who is peddling for the audit.

Unbeknownst to them, Federico has eyes and ears everywhere that make him privy to his children’s corrupt actions. Worse yet, he also discovers the motives that have driven them to such extreme measures. With the stolen money, Andres has been inflating the newspaper’s subscription numbers to maintain its high-profile reputation in the digital world. Even though Yolanda had no direct hand in this, she blindly supported her brother to reap the benefits of his scheme. On the other hand, Guadalupe, who secretly reported the publication to the feds, did so to protect her troublesome husband, Manuel, from the Minister and possibly stake a claim to the latter’s position in her party. Consequently, when his kids refuse to showcase any sign of remorse, Federico decides to give a Legacy interview, in which he would reveal his family’s every secret.

However, Federico puts in the clause that the interview will only be broadcast once he dies. Thus, he gives his children the opportunity to change. According to his terms, Yolanda and Andres must resign from their positions, while Guadalupe must divorce her husband. Although the daughters end up giving in to his demands, his son decides to go against him. Yet, his kids aren’t the only ones who don’t want this interview to air. In it, Federico had revealed even the most well-kept secret of his career: the truth about the death of one of his reporters, Bruno Escudero. As it turns out, even higher-ups from the government want his truth to stay hidden, which is how multiple schemes to steal the tape from the Seligman house are put into motion. While all of this is unfolding, Lara ends up making a new friend, unaware that he is actually Bruno’s younger brother, Leon, who is looking for revenge from her father.

In the weeks that follow, family rivalry, government conspiracies, and shady business dealings slowly but surely put the fate of the Seligmans and their El Baltico in danger. As such, by the end, Federico finds himself aligned with his kids in order to prevent the family from being kicked out by the publications board of directors. Federico’s stolen interview further complicates the matter as it puts the family in a corner where the father’s or his son’s reputation must suffer. Thus, the path that lies ahead of them remains clouded with moral ambiguity, forcing Federico to prove his ability to bend to corruption for his benefit or stay steady in his course of righteous journalism.

Rotten Legacy Ending: How Did Bruno Die? Why Did Federico Bury Andres’ Article?

One of the key elements that plagues Federico’s narrative is his participation in burying the story about Bruno, the El Baltico reporter who died on the job. The publication maintains that the war journalist’s death was an unfortunate but unavoidable outcome of the warzone. However, an underlying belief, powered by a lack of proper investigation and rumors, implies that a greater conspiracy is afoot. Federico’s painfully transparent interview confirms the latter as he reveals the nitty-gritty details of the reality behind Bruno’s death. For the same reason, it attracts the attention of event government officials and corrupt law enforcement who don’t want the interview to leak to the public.

Initially, when Federico gives his Legacy interview, it’s to reveal his kids’ corruption as a punishment for their unethical life decisions. However, in order to do so, he recognizes that he must also bear his own sins. A handful of years back, El Baltico employed Bruno as a part of its war coverage in Afghanistan. As such, the eager reporter travelled with the army to cover crucial news overseas. However, eventually he ended up stumbling upon something he wasn’t supposed to. As it turns out, Afghanistan has been a hub for opium exports long before NATO’s occupation of the area. Yet, even after the occupation, the export rates hadn’t stopped, and had only become more consolidated if anything.

During his time in the foreign country, Bruno uncovered evidence that proved the involvement of Spanish soldiers in similar drug trafficking schemes. For the same reason, the soldiers’ unit that the reporter accompanied executed him to bury his story about the gross military corruption. In the aftermath, a story was created about an altercation with insurgents in which Bruno was the only fatality. While the latter’s family and the public at large bought this story for a while, it began coming apart at the edges when one of the soldiers, Rafael, started talking to clear his guilty conscience.

Fatefully, Rafae ended up talking to Andres, who used to be an idealistic purveyor of the truth. As a result, the journalist worked on an exposé article for his father’s publication and even contacted Bruno’s family to reveal his intentions. Yet, when the time came, Federico pulled the plug on the article and forbade Andres from publishing it. This was done as a result of greed for power, money, and connections that would propel the Seligman name and their newspaper for years to come.

Did Yolanda Call the Hit on Vargas? Who Killed Him?

Even though the story begins with Federico’s rivalry with his children, the entire Seligman clan eventually finds themselves banding together to save El Baltico. During this time, Vargas becomes a key opponent as his possession of the tape could condemn Andres and his career. Yet, putting him behind bars only serves to give him a personal vendetta against the retired journalist. Initially, a prison guard suggests hiring a hitman to solve Federico’s problems. Nonetheless, he remains against such an unethical solution. However, days later, some paid prisoners come after Vargas and kill him in his cell, staging the murder to look like a suicide. Thus, the question arises about who exactly is behind the assassination.

For a while, Yolanda becomes hysterical with the idea that she inadvertently hired a hit on Vargas. During a cocaine-laced party, she had gotten in a conversation with a shady-looking guy, joking about getting the imprisoned police commissioner killed to solve her family’s problems. Consequently, when the news of his death arrives the very next morning, she can’t help but grow paranoid that she is somehow to blame for the affair. Ultimately, this belief is disputed when the shady-looking presumed hitman pays Yolanda a visit to her office to reveal he’s a regular guy who happens to have a threatening look about him. While this solves her problem, it still leaves the mystery of Vargas’ assassination up in the air.

For now, one can only theorize about who could’ve hired the hit on Vargas. Federico is a natural suspect off the bat since he had an active, ongoing rivalry with the commissioner. He may have discarded the guard’s idea at first, but when push came to shove, he could’ve also gone back to arrange an assassination. Even though he maintains the image of a morally superior and righteous journalist who would never resort to unethical means for his benefit. Even so, Bruno’s death and Federico’s attempts to save his newspaper prove otherwise. Therefore, he remains the prime narrative suspect in Vargas’ death.

What Happens to Federico’s Interview? Does it Get Broadcasted?

Federico kept the secret about Bruno’s death for years for the benefit of the military. He built his career and the El Baltico reputation off the back of this secret, exploiting his power and journalistic integrity for personal and professional gain. In the process, he exposes his kids to the convenience of immorality and deceit. It’s only once he witnesses the real-life effects of his lies on his children’s ethics that he decides to bare it all in his Legacy interview. Yet, the retired journalist is not planning on facing the consequences of airing out his dirty laundry. Federico records the interview to leave no secret behind, but only after he dies. He doesn’t actually wish to accept the backlash and torment that will follow the discovery of his conspiracy.

Still, he’s fairly confident that even after Vargas steals the tape, that certain truth won’t come out in the open. After all, the government, which sanctions the theft, is desperate to keep the story buried. Nonetheless, after Federico sends Vargas to jail, he opens up a particularly unpleasant can of worms. Vargas now has a personal feud with him, which compels him to send the portion of the interview revealing Bruno’s story to the latter’s grieving father. In the end, Lara, who has slowly but steadily started empathizing with Leon and his family’s tragedy, comes into possession of this tape. Unlike her father and Andres, the teenager is still a bright-eyed idealist who believes in the power of the truth without any conditions. Therefore, impassioned by her own righteousness, she uploads the interview to the internet, revealing Federico’s sins for all to see.

Do the Seligmans Save El Baltico? How?

Federico and Andres’ aggressive rivalry ends up spelling out an almost certain doom for El Baltico. Despite their numerous attempts to best the Progresa board member, who holds major stocks in the publication, the family inevitably finds itself with an ultimatum. They can either pay an exorbitant amount of money to buy their newspaper back from the company or forfeit their ownership of it. Thus, when it comes down to it, Federico must get his hands on some cash quickly or run the risk of sinking his and his family’s legacy. This brings him to the national bankers, hoping his existing connections would grant him a big loan. However, Federico’s connections are only as good as his usefulness to his allies.

As such, in order to secure the loan, Federico must first convince the President to refrain from implementing adverse financial bills. In turn, the President wants to exploit El Baltico’s influential readership to foil his own party, allowing him a reason to cut ties with them. In the end, it isn’t that difficult to cause a scandal in the party since Federico’s daughter, Guadalupe, is also a part of the organization. Manuel’s recent ill-advised actions offer an incredibly convenient route to tarnish Guadalupe’s reputation. Nonetheless, that isn’t something Federico wants to consider.

Fortunately, Guadalupe comes up with a solution. One of her co-party members, Juanjo, advises her to throw her longtime friend and colleague, Rocio, under the bus. The latter had recently exploited her position to secure a placement in her kid’s elite kindergarten school. Since Guadalupe can easily get her hands on her email to prove the same, it can easily become the scandal that the President is looking for. Still, Federico second-guesses his actions. The recent altercation with Leon and Rafel has compelled him to scrutinize the consequences of his journalism. Publishing stories and spreading news doesn’t come without its responsibilities. By exposing the truth, journalists hold the power to cause a number of inadvertent aftershocks that can ruin lives. Still, for all his ideals, Federico is no stranger to prioritizing his own well-being even at the cost of corruption. Thus, he uses Rocio as a scapegoat to save his publication.