Abhiroop Das
Co-created by Luis Cámara and Gabrielle Galanter, Netflix’s ‘Santita’ follows the elusive, talented, but emotionally wrecked Dr. María José “Santita” Cano on her journey to find love again. After a life-altering accident leaves her in a wheelchair, Santita ends up cutting ties with the love of her life, Alejandro, right on the day of their wedding. Fast forward roughly two decades, and it appears that neither character has moved on from the scars of their past. Though Santita is now a successful obstetrician-gynecologist, her personal life is characterized by a severe gambling addiction and, consequently, a constant instability on all fronts.
Dejected at every turn, Santita finds some zest returning to her life when Alejandro reappears. Except this time, he, too, has a family and a closet full of skeletons. By the end of season 1 of this Spanish-language romance drama series, Santita has to make some of the most difficult choices life has to offer, even if it means bidding goodbye to everything she holds dear. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Santita Plot Recap
‘Santita’ begins with a dream sequence, where the eponymous protagonist skates towards her partner, Alejandro, in a wedding dress, only to skid and fall as the dream world crumbles to dust. When she wakes up, we realize that Santita uses a wheelchair and hasn’t interacted with Alejandro in years. At present, she is one of the city’s most famous OB-GYN specialists and has her own clinic that primarily handles pro bono work and is in desperate need of funds. Her luck seems to change when a wealthy patient arrives in search of an off-the-books abortion, and though Santita rejects the demand because it is illegal, she can’t help but weigh the pros and cons of it all.
As we spend more time with Santita, we learn that she has a crippling gambling addiction, which she developed in the hopes of making enough money to pay off her debts. This quickly turns into a toxic cycle, however, where she finds herself demanding money from just about everyone, even her on-and-off sexual partner and co-worker, Mauricio. Turns out, Santita hasn’t had an orgasm ever since she left Alejandro at the wedding altar and had the accident that led to her legs losing their mobility. Even after so many years, she can’t help but obsess over Alejandro, and it is while checking up on his life that she recognizes the wealthy lady from earlier to be none other than his wife, Cecilia.
As it turns out, Cecilia had an affair and got pregnant, and chose Santita specifically because of her complicated past with Alejandro. Armed with this new information, she schedules the abortion in secret, thus inviting Alejandro back into her life. However, the two don’t exactly hit it off after all these years. A collage of dream sequences hints at the near-perfect life they once had. As it turns out, Alejandro has not really moved on either and decides to ditch everything for a trip to the oceanside, where he and Santita once went on vacation. It doesn’t take her long to join him, either, even after beginning a rebound relationship with Mauricio. Once with Alejandro, she begins reminiscing about the good old days, and nearly has sex with him before learning of his real plan.
As it turns out, Alejandro has terminal cancer and wants Santita to euthanize him before things get too difficult. Feeling betrayed, she leaves him right there, but soon has sex with him when love and desire take over. As she battles a mounting debt, an increasing number of hospital conspiracies, and her brothers’ sinister plan to write her out of the family property, Santita decides to come clean to Alejandro. Years ago, on the day of their wedding, Santita broke down and had sex with a stranger, and from that point onward, she couldn’t even look Alejandro in the eye, much less tie the knot. With the truth out at last, she reconciles with her lover and feels confident enough to fulfill his wish and help him breathe his last.
Santita Ending: Will Santita go to Prison For Murder?
‘Santita’ ends with the titular character getting arrested for the alleged murder of Alejandro, leaving it ambiguous whether she is found guilty or not. Though Alejandro’s death becomes a fairly easy case to crack for the police, given the post-mortem reports and Santita’s proximity to him, there still isn’t any actual, hard evidence that can tie her to any crime. To begin with, there are no CCTV cameras in Alejandro’s hospital room, and Santita makes sure that the drug vials that are brought are used and disposed of discreetly. While she might be the prime suspect in Alejandro’s death, it is unlikely that the court will actually find her guilty based on what the police have so far. Santita has no plans to confess to her actions either, as that would mean breaking Alejandro’s trust in her, so this case is bound to be left hanging for a while.
Though Santita might survive the wrath of the court, her social image as a doctor appears to have been tarnished for good. While she was already treading dangerous waters after allowing illegal abortions inside her clinic, now the whole city is convinced that she aided suicide, if not outright killed Alejandro. Given the duo’s long and complicated history, people might even speculate that she acted out of malice. What all of these absurd claims miss, however, is the context behind Alejandro’s housing and the delicacy of his dynamic with Santita in his final moments. While Santita’s actions are indeed deeply emotional, they don’t have the least bit of selfishness in them, which makes things infinitely more complicated from a legal perspective.
After her actions are discovered, Santita realizes her time as a free person is limited and decides to visit the one person she wishes to see most: her father. As always, he isn’t judgmental of whatever choice she has made and instead advises her to stay strong, as she always has. What follows is a harrowing sequence where police drag her away from the center, even knocking her out of the wheelchair at that point. While on a physical level, Santita is once again stripped of all power and control, her mind remains ironclad as ever, and deep down, she knows she did the right thing by giving the love of her life what he truly wanted all along.
Is the Final Scene Real or Imaginary? Why is Everyone Clapping?
The final scene of the season blends in with Santita’s arrest sequence, as we see her get dragged across a corridor as every major figure from her life appears on both ends and applauds her. Though the scene appears confusing at first, it soon becomes clear that this is but a figment of her imagination, as there are even people like Lia and Armando who are cheering her on. In hallucinating this surreal sequence, Santita essentially creates a coping mechanism to shield herself from the trauma of the moment, with the praise doubling down as positive reinforcement of her decisions. Though the scene may be imaginary, its symbolism extends to Santita’s deepest desire in real life: to be seen and understood by people in the little things she does.
Throughout the show, Santita dreams several vivid sequences that tie back to the accident and her separation from Alejandro. In all of these creations, she eventually gets back on her two feet, either riding skates or running her way towards a reunion with her lover. At the same time, however, each one of these dreamscapes has a tragic ending, and Santita seemingly wakes up a more broken version of herself every time. By the end of the season, her dream world and reality begin to collapse into each other, and all the subconscious desires and fears she has been holding back come gushing out at once. While the last sequence exists largely in her mind, this might just be a sign that Santita’s mind has reached its breaking point and can no longer separate reality from illusion.
Why Did Santita Euthanize Alejandro?
The entirety of the ending rests on Santita’s decision to let Alejandro die on his terms, even if it means breaking the law in the process. Though she is staunchly against it at the start, she eventually comes around and realizes that what Alejandro desires is not an easy or selfish way out of his misery, but one where his life isn’t artificially prolonged to the point of losing its meaning. As an exceptional doctor, Santita spends her entire time furthering the science and saving lives, but from the perspective of a patient like Alejandro, maintaining a quality of life is as important as surviving in the first place. Though modern medicine is good enough to keep him alive with machines and extensive medication, Alejandro fears that he will remember a much grimmer and more challenging version of life when he eventually meets his end.
By wishing to die on his own terms and, more importantly, confiding in Santita for all of this, Alejandro renders himself completely vulnerable in front of her, almost reiterating the dynamic they shared after her accident. At that time, what Santita wanted the most was to be heard by her partner through the toughest of times, and instead, what she found in Alejandro was a partner desperate to move past the difficult stages and uplift Santita’s mood, even if by force. By the end of the season, she realizes that she might be doing something similar by denying Alejandro’s final request purely because of her selfish desire to spend more time with him. As such, she gathers all the courage she can muster to bring him the pills that ensure a quick, painless death, with the person he loves the most by his side.
What Will Happen to the Cano Family’s Land?
As Santita’s final conversation with her father ends abruptly, the future of the Cano family’s vineyard remains open-ended by the time the curtains roll. Though Santita’s brothers were nearly successful in seizing all the property and giving her the bare minimum in exchange, that plan is no longer viable thanks to her timely intervention. However, with that comes a lifelong enmity with Armando, which even makes it possible that he is the one funding the police and legal campaign against her. Nonetheless, given that Santita is most likely headed towards a major legal battle, if not a lifetime sentencing, it is unlikely that she will have the time or means to fight her brothers from now on. The fate of the family land, as such, rests on how nefarious a plot Santita’s family might come up with.
Season 1 of ‘Santita’ proves that the Canos are a dysfunctional family to the core, and wouldn’t think twice before burning their entire legacy to the ground. While the brothers end up as an antagonistic force, the blame also falls partially on Santita herself. In the penultimate episode, she ends up staking her mother’s family heirloom necklace while gambling, only to lose. Her interest in getting her share of money, as such, comes less from a place of familial integrity and more from a personal interest in paying off her enormous debts. In a world where everyone appears to be only interested in themselves, Santita at last breaks free of this toxic cycle and devotes herself to Alejandro in his final moments, knowing that it might set back her medical career, as well as her claim to the family property. However, when it comes to choosing between these things and true love, there is little doubt about Santita’s pick.
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